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Microsoft Server Cloud FAIL, T-Mobile sidekick users data loss "almost certain"

Consultant said:
Microsoft's MyPhone service for windows mobile is similar. No local storage, everything saved on MS cloud.

http://www.appleinsider.com/article..._data_loss_casts_dark_on_cloud_computing.html
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Oh, you mean that the local storage on a WM phone syncs with "the cloud", but there's no way to sync "the cloud" back to a local PC.

The big differences here are that (a) WM phones can easily sync directly to a local PC (which wasn't easily done with a Sidekick), and (b) WM phones don't automatically refresh from the cloud when they're restarted (like the SideKick does) so if all data in the cloud is lost, that doesn't mean your phone is going to get wiped automatically.

One cool thing about the My Phone service is that the contact sync/backup piece is free. I wish Apple allowed that!
 
raggedjimmi said:
This is why I don't like or trust Cloud computing in general.
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I love cloud computing -- access my data, no matter where I'm at (work PC, home Mac, random computer/phone, etc). 😀

I don't trust it (or "any one thing") to be the sole resting place for my data, though. 😕

If I have stuff up the cloud, I have it backed up locally too.
If I have local stuff that's not up in the cloud, I have additional local backups of it.

It just seems like common sense to not leave all of your eggs in one basket!!!
 
xbuddycorex said:
That's not good math. You do know we're in 2009 ... right?
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Consultant said:
Well you have not seen him sweat profusely, or the
Steve Ballmer Developers Dance Remix
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmja_g5h4Fg

=p



Let's see. Today is October 2009.

Take October 2009 and deduct February 2008. Difference is 1 year and 8 months...



Sound like you made a great choice. =)
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D'oh...I owe all of you an apology. Clearly shouldn't post on days I'm recovering from a nasty cold and running around a lot.

Never mind my terrible bastardization of the calendar...nothing to see here, move along....
 
Even though this is a small part of Microsoft's operations it's still hugely embarrassing and heads will quite rightly roll for this. That said, running a phone with no local back up is pretty stupid.

I guess Ballmer better get the chequebook ready. 😀

Still, look on the bright side. At least their operating system doesn't nuke all of your data if you log in as a guest. I mean that would be really bad! 😉

Nobody's perfect I suppose.
 
For what I have read, Microsoft, in an effort to cut costs, outsourced the upgrade to Hitachi (as had been said) and decided not to make a back up. But regardless of who made the error, Microsoft still should be held responsible for making such a huge mistake.

On Danger's part that was not a very smart move to store all the data on the cloud, but you would think that Microsoft, realizing this, would have at least kept a backup.

At least I'm not a Sidekick user... sounds like a massive FAIL on their part.
 
There is also advertising fail on the bottom of the page

Yeah it's automatic google ad based on keywords
but looks like someone didn't get the memo yet.
 

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aristobrat said:
I love cloud computing -- access my data, no matter where I'm at (work PC, home Mac, random computer/phone, etc). 😀

I don't trust it (or "any one thing") to be the sole resting place for my data, though. 😕

If I have stuff up the cloud, I have it backed up locally too.
If I have local stuff that's not up in the cloud, I have additional local backups of it.

It just seems like common sense to not leave all of your eggs in one basket!!!
Click to expand...

There's a difference between love and trust. Just because you love something doesn't mean you can trust it. Case in point: what happened to the T-mobile users. They may love the service, but from now on they will never be able to trust it. You may have an old sports car that performs awesome but has loose parts and is shaky and breaks down once a month. You love the way it smokes the competition every time it but you can't trust that it wont break down.
 
iphones4evry1 said:
This is REALLY screwed up !!!!!!!!!!!
I feel sorry for the poor people whose entire contacts list got deleted, along with all of their data. This is really screwed up! 😡
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As screwed up as those that had all their email deleted by Apple during the .mac->mobile me shift.
 
Sidekicks are awful anyway. I got rid of mine about two months ago, before I got my iphone. Although I'm Australian, so never had any experience with T-Mobile, the phones had a lot of problems - whenever the battery died, you could say goodbye to any sms not saved to the sim, and all your contacts and emails for an hour or so before they loaded again. Rubbish.
 
djellison said:
As screwed up as those that had all their email deleted by Apple during the .mac->mobile me shift.
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I lost quite a bit of mail before that too. And my Address Book is still a mess after syncing corrupted a lot of contacts (some entries have no details other than name, other entries have another person's phone number, some details have no name etc..)

I'm a loooong way from trusting these services enough that I wouldn't need to keep my own backups.
 
There is a few parts of this mess that I cannot fathom;

1. Why was there no possible way for the users to access their data from somewhere other than their devices ? I cannot understand why users could not "pull" their data to some other computer. I know that this was supposed to be a "cloud computing" implementation but I would have thought that there would be some means of backing it all up.
2. Why on earth was there no clear redundant backups and backups of that? I know MSFT was dumping the blame on T-Mobile and while that may be justified, but MSFT bought out Danger who makes the SideKick; shouldn't they be somewhat responsible for?

Just my two cents
 
cuestakid said:
1. Why was there no possible way for the users to access their data from somewhere other than their devices ? I cannot understand why users could not "pull" their data to some other computer. I know that this was supposed to be a "cloud computing" implementation but I would have thought that there would be some means of backing it all up.
Click to expand...

Danger used to offer a service like that, however it was discontinued a while back. The sidekick was touted as having all of your data on a route server so that you could easily get a new sidekick and have everything sync over. It was done that way by design.

cuestakid said:
2. Why on earth was there no clear redundant backups and backups of that? I know MSFT was dumping the blame on T-Mobile and while that may be justified, but MSFT bought out Danger who makes the SideKick; shouldn't they be somewhat responsible for?
Click to expand...

Because Danger servers were not Microsoft. After MS acquired Danger, word was that MS gutted damger employees (the ones who stuck around) to work on Pink for microsoft. MS simply gept the Danger servers going under contraction obligation to T-Mobile so it anything involving that was on the back burner as far as priorities.

Number 2 is just a guess though.
 
Microsoft is saying today that it's recovered most of the lost (and previously thought possibly unrecoverable) data, tempering some of the long-term damage if not the embarassment...

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20091015-707820.html

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) said early Thursday that it has been able to recover the personal data lost on many of T-Mobile USA's Sidekick users.

The Redmond, Wash., software giant said that most, if not all, customer data was recovered, and that the company would begin restoring data as soon as it has validated it. The company said it will start with personal contacts, and move on to the lost calendar, notes, tasks, and pictures as quickly as possible.

The fix comes as Microsoft suffers through a public backlash after mishandling the information found on the Sidekick line of messaging phones, which are popular with teenagers. T-Mobile has already offered affected subscribers a free month of data services and a $100 gift card. At least one customer has filed a lawsuit against both companies.

Microsoft said the problem affected a minority of Sidekick users.

Microsoft blamed a system failure for the data loss in the core database and back-up system. The company said it had taken steps to strengthen the stability of the Sidekick service and started a more resilient back-up process.
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They also seem to be taking a little bit more responsibility for Danger rather than just saying, "Oh, it wasn't a Microsoft-developed product."

T-Mobile meantime seems to be sending lots of goodies the way of their affected customers and also trying to woo them with their $50/mo unlimited voice/sms plan ($85 for unlimited trifecta).
 
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