Every now and then, a controversial issue triggers a flood of online discourse. For our Noise Filter feature, the WHIR pans the raging rivers of opinion for shining nuggets of useful commentary.
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — In what could prove to be one of the biggest cloud computing failures since the coining of the term, customers of Wireless carrier T-Mobile USA using the Sidekick handset were hit starting in early October by a major outage for several days leaving many without access to either the web or their address books.
To make matters worse, a server failure at Microsoft’s mobile software and services subsidiary Danger, where T-Mobile stored Sidekick data on the cloud, caused any data not stored on the phone itself to disappear. The often-angry reactions to the news were aimed not only at Microsoft and T-Mobile, but also to the concept of the cloud itself – of which many cloud providers have worked considerably hard over the past years to gain consumer trust.
As today’s Noise Filter shows, expert commentators are careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. In their analysis, they largely finger Microsoft for not providing a redundant cloud storage platform.
ZDNet’s Adrian Kingsley-Hughes wrote a blog noting that the T-Mobile brand (in the eyes of consumers) may be taking the fall for Microsoft’s mistakes.
“Sidekick users are, understandably, furious with T-Mobile, but let’s put the blame squarely where it belongs – at Microsoft’s door. . . Sidekick handsets are all emblazoned with the T-Mobile logo. But it’s important for all concerned to be aware of the fact that the data was lost on Microsoft’s watch.”
The official statement from Microsoft released Thursday, October 15, apologized for the problems with the Sidekick service, noting that it was a system failure that created a data loss in the core database and the back-up, and it is working to carefully rebuild the system component by component.
“We are pleased to report that we have recovered most, if not all, customer data for those Sidekick customers whose data was affected by the recent outage. We plan to begin restoring users’ personal data as soon as possible, starting with personal contacts, after we have validated the data and our restoration plan. . . Specifically, we have made changes to improve the overall stability of the Sidekick service and initiated a more resilient backup process to ensure that the integrity of our database backups is maintained.”
A Monday statement from T-Mobile on the T-Mobile Forum explains that some user data is lost for good and it is planning to offer customers compensation.
“Regarding those of you who have lost personal content, T-Mobile and Microsoft/Danger continue to do all we can to recover and return any lost information. Recent efforts indicate the prospects of recovering some lost content may now be possible. We will continue to keep you updated on this front; we know how important this is to you.
“In the event certain customers have experienced a significant and permanent loss of personal content, T-Mobile will be sending these customers a $100 customer appreciation card. This will be in addition to the free month of data service that already went to Sidekick data customers. This card can be used towards T-Mobile products and services, or a customer’s T-Mobile bill.”
SmartPlanet’s Dana Blankenhorn keenly notes that a “cloud” service that isn’t redundant is atypical of clouds – or perhaps shouldn’t fit into any definition of cloud computing.
“[Clouds] really are different. They separate the application from its operating system. They abstract the complexity of computing from operators (who are fallible) to banks of identical servers (which are less so), so you really start to get the stability benefits of Moore’s Law…The egg is on the face of Microsoft, and should be on no one else’s. Certainly not the cloud’s.”
