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Comments: 31 | Views: 1229
#Oct 11th @ 10:04 PM
xgamer
xgamer
Two Sides to Everything

One of the major reasons for one to believe about trusting big players with your data is that the adherence to procedures and practices.

 

But its hard to believe such a critical error can happen with a player like MS. I still can't believe MS does not have any backups for their servers ( I am not sure few days old backups would make sense .. in this scenario).

 

I feel this incident does not send a good signal to MS customers from MS which is trying to host everything online with sharepoint online,exchange online and azure etc ...

 

#Oct 11th @ 10:32 PM
Sabot
Sabot
My name is Dave Oliver. I'm a Technical Architect.

Do you have a link to the story?

#Oct 11th @ 10:34 PM
contextfree
contextfree

I suspect this has more to do with MSFT's mishandling of its Danger acquisition than anything else, but yeah, not the best news for Azure's reception ...

#Oct 12th @ 1:05 AM
xgamer
xgamer
Two Sides to Everything

Sorry forgot to add the link  ..  http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/10/t-mobile-we-probably-lost-all-your-sidekick-data/

 

Thanks Herbie for the Probable cause link ..

 

@contextfree - Yes I also think the same .. but i think its not the first time that MS acquires a fantastic tech and then messes with it ...

 

#Oct 12th @ 3:53 AM
intelman
intelman

This whole situation is just WOW. Failure is normal, but loss of data with no backups....

#Oct 12th @ 4:37 AM
figuerres
figuerres
???

Un freaking real......   and microsoft wants to get back into the phone biz?  no way.

they had lost a huge amount of the market to the blackberry and the iPhone and now they have all these folks who will not want any microsoft stuff...and no love from T-Mobile HQ for this...

 

step away from the phones, ... now.  get your cr@p sorted out inside and give this a hard re-think MSFT.

#Oct 12th @ 5:10 AM
stevo_
stevo_
Human after all

Major failure reporting for duty!

#Oct 12th @ 6:45 AM
Maddus Mattus
Maddus Mattus
Do, or do not. There is no try. - Yoda

Well, at least they didnt explode or catch fire.

#Oct 12th @ 6:56 AM
The_Saint
The_Saint

Perception is always reduced to the lowest common denominator. This is bad on so many levels, it really beggars belief.

 

As we move forward to the 'three screens and a cloud' computing paradigm, recent and tested backups must be available to technicians prior to maintenance work commencing. Saying 'it will just be ok' or 'taking a flyer' is just not acceptable to any business these days.

 

The IT industry as a whole has a responsibility to individuals, business and organisations to operate in a professional manner, this incident, at first glance seems foolish at worst, and amateurish at best.

 

How in the future are you going to explain away the fact that you've just lost someones 'online life'?

#Oct 12th @ 9:18 AM
exoteric
exoteric
I : Next<I>

Stand down Major Failure!  Mad

 

So Sidekick is/was using Azure as a platform?

#Oct 12th @ 9:25 AM
contextfree
contextfree

No, they're not related at all.  But I think people will make a connection regardless.  

#Oct 12th @ 10:00 AM
exoteric
exoteric
I : Next<I>

Reputation by association perhaps. On the other hand, this should be exactly the kind of situation Azure should help against.

 

I wonder what kind of guarantees Azure provides and what kind of security measures, both physical and virtual these data centers implement. Wikipedia describes Tier-4 as the most secure kind of data center as per the TIA-942 standard.

 

Now damnit, this is how you build a data center!

 

 

The data center 

 

Facts about the data center
  • Originally a nuclear bunker: The data center is housed in what was originally a military bunker and nuclear shelter during the Cold War era. The facility still has the code name from its military days: Pionen White Mountains.
  • Located in central Stockholm below 30 meters (almost 100 ft) of bedrock: The facility has 1110 sqm (11950 sq ft) of space and is located below 30 meters of solid bedrock (granite) right inside the city.
  • Fully redesigned in 2007-2008: Pionen was completely redesigned in 2007-2008 to become the data center that it is today. More than 4,000 cubic meters (141,300 cubic ft) of solid rock was blasted away to make more room.
  • Can withstand a hydrogen bomb: The bunker was designed to be able to withstand a near hit by a hydrogen bomb.
  • Houses the Network Operations Center for one of Sweden’s largest ISPs: The bunker houses the NOC for all of Bahnhof’s operations. They have five data centers in Sweden, Pionen being the largest. The facility also acts as a co-location hosting center, so you can actually put your own servers here.
  • German submarine engines for backup power: Backup power is handled by two Maybach MTU diesel engines producing 1.5 Megawatt of power. The engines were originally designed for submarines, and just for fun the people at Pionen have also installed the warning system (sound horns) from the original German submarine.
  • 1.5 megawatt of cooling for the servers: Cooling is handled by Baltimore Aircoil fans producing a cooling effect of 1.5 megawatt, enough for several hundred rack-mounted units.
  • Triple redundancy Internet backbone access: The network has full redundancy with both fiber optics and extra copper lines with three different physical ways into the mountain. Pionen is one the best-connected places in northern Europe.
  • Work environment with simulated daylight and greenhouses: For a pleasant working environment the data center has simulated daylight, greenhouses, waterfalls and a huge 2600-liter salt water fish tank.
  • Staff: 15 employees, only senior technical staff, work full time in Pionen.

#Oct 12th @ 11:02 PM
Ray7
Ray7

And they would be right to make the connection. This wasn't actually a failure in the technology; it was a failure in procedure, and no matter how good Azure is, nothing can protect its users from Microsoft's ineptitude.

 

 

#Oct 12th @ 11:41 PM
Dodo
Dodo
I'm your creativity creator™ :)

WOW, how do I get my hands on one of those submarine engines? I thought about batteries once, but I'm kinda worried as to how many of them I'd need to keep a 20000W HPC system up and running on those for more than a week (17 minutes won't do).

#Oct 13th @ 1:13 AM
Sven Groot
Sven Groot
My name has 9 letters. Coincidence? I think not...

You mean you're running such a large HPC system without a backup generator? Every self-respecting data center has a backup generator, even though they're usually not submarine engines. Smiley

 

The batteries just need to last long enough for the backup generators to start after power fails. And of course, this mechanism needs to be tested regularly (which still won't prevent it failing when really needed, but you can at least minimize the probability Smiley ).

#Oct 13th @ 1:50 AM
CreamFilling512
CreamFilling512

It was Danger's operation though, it's not like it ran on Azure or something.

 

I never paid attention to Sidekicks, but since the story broke, their data syncing setup appears so ridiculous.  There's no persistent copy of data stored on the phone at all?  Okay, even without a service outage, why would you use a device that depends on data access to get basic things like your contacts?  What if data access is unavailable, maybe you're out of the country and don't want to pay massive roaming charges, you can't access any of your personal information? 

#Oct 13th @ 2:44 AM
LeoDavidson
LeoDavidson

I read that there is a persistent copy on the handsets for offline access. Problem is that it's synched with the network data so when the network is available it wipes the local copies of the data.

 

#Oct 13th @ 4:24 AM
Dodo
Dodo
I'm your creativity creator™ :)

I currently don't, but I'm kinda planning on doing so. Also, it's 20000W in 2-3 42U racks. Right now I'm more worried about the power lines in my design, even though electric power is very reliable in Germany, personal (e.g. I turn off the mains) maintenance or blowing a fuse is very common. I also have to take into account, that some people might not like what the system would be doing, so I would have to account for intentional foreign power outages as well. That's hard. But hey, I'm a crazy person in that regard, overkill is not enough and needs to be further improved like there's no tomorrow, making it worthwhile for me.

#Oct 13th @ 5:05 AM
exoteric
exoteric
I : Next<I>

If you have two failures you're done. Backup everything. Twice. Including the hardware Wink

#Oct 13th @ 5:06 AM
xgamer
xgamer
Two Sides to Everything

I hope MS / Danger team disabled the Sync service as soon as they come to know the problem... otherwise it will really wipe out all local data thinking that the user wanted them to deleted ... 

 

Its a good lesson for MS .. though unfortunately  this incident affects a small but very techie/vocal user group .... 

 

Hope the lesson learnt from this are applied in larger rollouts of Azure, Office Online etc ..

#Oct 13th @ 5:46 AM
Simo
Simo
With me it's a full-time job.

http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/WM_IN/Roz-Ho-Reflections-On-Leadership-and-Believing-in-Yourself/

 

Am really looking forward to reading Roz's book/journal now....

#Oct 13th @ 7:48 AM
giovanni
giovanni
...

I think the Sidekik runs on Java, which would suggest the server use some sort of SUN OS and Apache, but that is not excuse for loosing data from Microsoft...

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