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View Full Version : Sidekick User Data? Microsoft Servers Ate It.


Ed Hansberry
10-12-2009, 08:30 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/10/t-mobile-sidekick-disaster-microsofts-servers-crashed-and-they-dont-have-a-backup/' target='_blank'>http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/1...-have-a-backup/</a><br /><br /></div><p>This is nothing short of a complete and utter disaster. The only way this could have been worse for users is if after losing all of your data, Microsoft servers issued a self destruct code on the Sidekick causing it to blow up and burn down your house.</p><p><em>"T-Mobile and Danger, the Microsoft-owned subsidiary that makes the Sidekick, has just announced that they've likely lost all user data that was being stored on Microsoft&rsquo;s servers due to a server failure."</em></p><p>How in the world could Microsoft allow this to happen? They have owned Danger now for 18 months. I have been involved in over a dozen acquisitions in my career and one of the things we always ask the IT department is "Do you perform regular backups of all company infrastructure and data?" You'd think that would be a key question Microsoft would have asked given Danger stores all of the Sidekick users data on their servers. Unlike Windows Mobile, there is no PC side sync possibility nor programs to back your data up to a storage card.</p><p>Makes me wonder about the reliability of things like Live Mesh (still in beta) and My Phone. What is more disturbing is the deafening silence from Microsoft and Danger on this. When Google has a cloud computing fail, usually centered around GMail, they are very quick to update the public on the status and once resolved, the cause. Microsoft has instead chose to let T-Mobile be the <a href="http://forums.t-mobile.com/tmbl/?category.id=Sidekick" target="_blank">primary point of defense </a>even though T-Mo doesn't do much but sell the devices. When RIM has an outage, the carriers don't get involved. RIM steps up to the plate by acknowledging the problem and gives a status update.</p><p>And yes, this is <a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2009/10/12/how-the-sidekick-fiasco-is-microsofts-fault/" target="_blank">Microsoft's fault</a>.</p><p>When are companies going to learn? Silence is not golden in these cases. Evernote had a server meltdown for a chunk of its users a few weeks ago when the 3.5 Windows update came out. Total silence from Evernote. Affected users were left to figure out what was going on in the user forums. No data was lost, but it was being held hostage on their servers for nearly three days. Evernote lost a lot of respect from me when&nbsp;that happened. Not the service issue, the lack of any communication. Microsoft - is your PR person on vacation?</p>

benjimen
10-12-2009, 10:06 PM
Who cares? What's a Sidekick? Do you actually have one? Did this even effect you?

Slow news day? :D

Russ Smith
10-13-2009, 12:01 AM
Who cares???!!! Anyone who had their data eaten, I'd say.
This is one of the reasons I waited as long as I did to get a converged device. I can't have my data mysteriously vanish like this. (I triple-back-up my data and software anyway, just in case a double failure does occur.) Seems like this sort of thing should have occurred to someone at Microsoft.

It seems to me that neither MS nor the phone manufacturers get it. As an example, Sony-Ericcson (manufacturers of my current device) suggest that you periodically reinstall the ROM image to make sure you have the latest bug fixes. Nice idea, but that also completely wipes all of your installed programs.

Twain
10-13-2009, 02:17 AM
I am cynical enough to believe that this was intentionally done. It just seems so preposterous that a big company like Microsoft, about to increase marketing efforts of its new cloud computing offering would not be vigilant of user data on their servers.

With the inevitable disgust that will cause many Danger users to simply start shopping for new phones, Microsoft will finally come on the air and announce that they are providing entry level phones with automatic backup to their Azure servers to any user who suffered the great Danger data loss. In one fell swoop, Microsoft will have eliminated any effort needed to figure out how to migrate users to Windows Phone -- not needed since the users will have to start over from scratch!

Do you want to bet your data on this??

kdarling
10-13-2009, 04:29 AM
Never look for a complicated plot, when simple goofups will explain it.

Most likely they had some new kids doing server maintenance, or they farmed it out to India.

MadSci
10-13-2009, 04:47 AM
I had my preview several years ago when my Gainstracker account data disappeared one day. Several years of trading data, including the 'basis' for all my long stock positions just gone.
Calls to Gainstracker - no one can help me. Yes they back up the data but they have 'no way' to find the data for a single account they have trashed.

Lesson learned. I am the only data bank I have direct access to and the only one I can trust.

Just wait 'till Apple or Google looses a few thousand accounts one day. The bloom will be off the rose in a big hurry.

Back up frequently, using multiple storage vehicles! Easy with WinMo and one good reason to stay with the Grown Up mobile OS :p

Darius Wey
10-13-2009, 04:52 AM
Who cares? What's a Sidekick? Do you actually have one? Did this even effect you?

Slow news day? :D

Actually, I'd say this is pretty big news, even if it doesn't affect Windows Mobile. :)

It is nothing short of a complete failure. There have been a lot of possible explanations bandied about, but the one that everyone's pointing to highlights complete negligence by the parties involved in ensuring the integrity of users' data. I honestly feel for anyone with a Sidekick, and I'd hate to see something similar affect Live Mesh or My Phone.

benjimen
10-13-2009, 08:24 AM
...It is nothing short of a complete failure... [blah blah blah]...I'd hate to see something similar affect Live Mesh or My Phone.

Do you really think that's possible? Seems to me it's more something to type on about more so than anything that's in the realm of reality.

Given what's known about this, I'd say it's pretty clear that Live Mesh and My Phone operations are very much >not< a part of Danger/Sidekick, regardless of both being Microsoft.

The sky isn't falling...

Russ Smith
10-13-2009, 01:24 PM
The sky isn't falling...
Not right now, but this points out the very thin wires from which the sky is currently suspended.

I'm with kdarling here. "Never attribute to malice what can easily be explained by incompetence."

I'm also with MadSci. I'm glad I'm using a mature OS which makes backup easy (and not predicated on Internet connectivity).

Ed Hansberry
10-13-2009, 01:59 PM
Do you really think that's possible? blah blah blah

there are two ways to answer that.

1) Yes, I think that is possible.
2) No, I do not think that is possible. Or said another way, it is impossible to lose any data that way.

i would not want to bet on the "impossible" horse. In fact, one would have to be pretty foolish to say that potential data loss in a cloud is an impossibility.

But hey, we are just "typing on stuff" here. What do we know? http://www.ehansberry.com/ppct/rolleyes.gif

David Tucker
10-13-2009, 02:46 PM
The sky isn't falling...

Microsoft just irretrievably lost the data for thousands of people. And have not said a word as to why. I'd say that's pretty scary for anyone depending on other Microsoft services for their data. Why you are defending Microsoft here is a little baffling.

Ed Hansberry
10-13-2009, 04:21 PM
Microsoft just irretrievably lost the data for thousands of people.

Actually, there is news coming out this morning that might change that.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/smartphones/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=220600430

"Recent efforts indicate the prospects of recovering some lost content may now be possible," the two companies said. "We will continue to keep you updated on this front; we know how important this is to you."

The problem is now though that for 3-4 days they have been saying otherwise, and my understanding is T-Mo is letting sidekick users out of their contracts to get other devices. If this had happened to me, I'd already be on a new device. That means even if MS recovered my data, I'd only be able to access it on the web site. Better than nothing I guess, but still, lots of data to rekey on a new phone.

I hope MS does recover all of the data.

Jason Dunn
10-13-2009, 05:10 PM
Who cares? What's a Sidekick? Do you actually have one? Did this even effect you?

This matters because it shows Microsoft's incompetence when it comes to protecting user data. Are you using the MyPhone service? What if it went belly up and you lost all your data, not only on the back-end but also on your phone because it did a sync? Microsoft seems to be trying to hide from this, and no one should let them.

Jason Dunn
10-13-2009, 05:14 PM
What stuns me about this isn't that they borked the server and lost user data - what stuns me is that they don't have an earlier set of backups to rely on. It's one thing to say "Wow, we screwed up, you've lost everything you've done in the past 72 hours, sorry..." versus "It's all gone". That's what really blows me away...

David Tucker
10-13-2009, 05:49 PM
I hope MS does recover all of the data.

As do I...but like you'd I'd already be on another device.

doogald
10-13-2009, 06:45 PM
What stuns me about this isn't that they borked the server and lost user data - what stuns me is that they don't have an earlier set of backups to rely on. It's one thing to say "Wow, we screwed up, you've lost everything you've done in the past 72 hours, sorry..." versus "It's all gone". That's what really blows me away...

I'm wondering if they had been doing backups but found out, after the disaster, that there was something wrong with the backups all along that they did not discover until they tried to restore. Of course, every IT pro knows that a backup procedure must be tested occasionally, but that may explain what happened in this case.

It could also be that they discovered that the restore process takes much longer than they expected. Though why they cannot say what actually happened is beyond me . . . well, mot really. It's not easy to take your lumps when you make a tragic mistake. Still, it's never good not to explain what's going on.

winddomino
12-04-2009, 04:28 AM
Most likely they had some new kids doing server maintenance, or they farmed it out to India.