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Amazon's Cloud Crash Disaster Permanently Destroyed Many Customers' Data
Business Insider ^ | 04/28/2011 | Henry Blodget

Posted on 04/28/2011 7:21:13 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

In addition to taking down the sites of dozens of high-profile companies for hours (and, in some cases, days), Amazon's huge EC2 cloud services crash permanently destroyed some data.

The data loss was apparently small relative to the total data stored, but anyone who runs a web site can immediately understand how terrifying a prospect any data loss is.

(And a small loss on a percentage basis for Amazon, obviously, could be catastrophic for some companies).

Amazon has yet to fully explain what happened when its mission-critical and supposedly bomb-proof systems crashed, but the explanation will be important. As will the explanation for how the company could have permanently destroyed some of its customers data.

In our experience, the "back-up" systems of most web-services providers leave a lot to be desired. The back-ups sound reassuring in theory--you are assured that your data is always "backed-up" on a system that is completely separate from the main one and that you'll be able to access it whenever you need it. But then, when you dig, you often discover that that means the data is simply copied to another file on the same box or another box in the same data room.

A stronger "backup," obviously, would be housed in a separate location, so that a power-failure or flood or earthquake or other disruption at the main site would not disrupt the backup. Or, better yet, the back-up would be automatically replicated at multiple sites, all independent of one another, in near real-time.

And, of course, this is the sort of reliability that Amazon has been selling with its cloud services--including 99.9% uptime. Both promises seem to have been broken here.

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet; Society
KEYWORDS: amazon; cloudcomputer; disasterrecovery
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1 posted on 04/28/2011 7:21:20 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

As predicted in the Movie “Terminator” SKYNET took control of the computers.


2 posted on 04/28/2011 7:23:35 AM PDT by JBR34
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To: SeekAndFind

The “cloud” has its place, but I would never ever rely on it for mission-critical services.


3 posted on 04/28/2011 7:24:56 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: SeekAndFind

I guess Amazon and Sony can commiserate with each other about down systems. Cloud computing sounds good, but I suspect the marketing department came up with it. I can’t believe an IT person would’ve come up with it.


4 posted on 04/28/2011 7:29:28 AM PDT by The Sons of Liberty (Psalm 109:8 Let his days be few and let another take his office. - Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin)
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To: dfwgator

I am not that convinced I want to be so dependent on any thing or any one else- course what do I know.


5 posted on 04/28/2011 7:30:47 AM PDT by handmade
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To: SeekAndFind

They probably had architectural software bugs. Replicating data across data centers is a poor strategy if data corruption is also replicated.


6 posted on 04/28/2011 7:33:08 AM PDT by proxy_user
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To: The Sons of Liberty
Cloud computing sounds good, but I suspect the marketing department came up with it. I can’t believe an IT person would’ve come up with it.

Cloud computing is just another repackaged way to say: Application Service Provider, Outsourced Infrastructure, Capacity on Demand, etc...

There is nothing inherently intelligent about the cloud. It's just outsourcing version 11.0
7 posted on 04/28/2011 7:34:20 AM PDT by TSgt (Colonel Allen West & Michele Bachman - 2012 POTUS Dream Team Ticket!)
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To: TSgt
Cloud computing is just another repackaged way to say: Application Service Provider, Outsourced Infrastructure, Capacity on Demand, etc...

The return of "Dumb Terminals."

8 posted on 04/28/2011 7:35:44 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: dfwgator

Could this spell the end of this experientment called “cloud computering”.


9 posted on 04/28/2011 7:36:25 AM PDT by Biggirl ("Jesus talked to us as individuals"-Jim Vicevich/Thanks JimV!)
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To: Biggirl

As I said, there’s a place for it. But I think more people are coming around to the fact that it’s no place to put your mission-critical data.


10 posted on 04/28/2011 7:39:53 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: SeekAndFind

I don’t know exactly what happened behind the scenes, but someone needs to have “I failed Distributed Systems 101” branded on their forehead for this one.


11 posted on 04/28/2011 7:40:39 AM PDT by kevkrom ("Winning The Future" = WTF = What The F*** / "Kinetic Military Action" = KMA = Kiss My A**)
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To: SeekAndFind

Any Company that did not have their data backed up or mirrored in some way gets no sympathy from me. Never put all your eggs in one basket, and never trust another to protect your data.


12 posted on 04/28/2011 7:46:19 AM PDT by commish (Freedom tastes sweetest to those who have fought to preserve it.)
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To: Biggirl

Nah, just smack some common sense into people. How could you trust your entire company to another?

Always have daily backups to a different hard drive AND possibly to your PC, over FTP. Most sites are small enough for that


13 posted on 04/28/2011 7:53:38 AM PDT by mewykwistmas (“An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought.”)
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To: ShadowAce

ping


14 posted on 04/28/2011 8:01:13 AM PDT by LearnsFromMistakes
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To: SeekAndFind; rdb3; Calvinist_Dark_Lord; GodGunsandGuts; CyberCowboy777; Salo; Bobsat; JosephW; ...

15 posted on 04/28/2011 8:13:16 AM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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Comment #16 Removed by Moderator

To: The Sons of Liberty
Cloud computing sounds good

It does? Sounds like a disaster to me. All drawbacks, both risks and inevitable, for no conceivable advantage (to me).

17 posted on 04/28/2011 8:32:11 AM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: commish

Exactly. A catastrophic event then becomes another expected occurrence that was planned for.


18 posted on 04/28/2011 8:49:33 AM PDT by B4Ranch (Allowing Islam into America is akin to injecting yourself with AIDS to prove how tolerant you are .)
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To: SeekAndFind

THIS is what I have against “cloud computing.”


19 posted on 04/28/2011 9:16:56 AM PDT by Jeff Winston
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20 posted on 04/28/2011 9:34:16 AM PDT by TheOldLady
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