Microsoft and T-Mobile's Sidekick data loss
Oct 18, 2009 2:48:36 GMT
Post by CharlieChomper on Oct 18, 2009 2:48:36 GMT
For those who had heard this information yet, sometime earlier this week, users of T-Mobile's "Sidekick" found themselves experiencing the loss of their data (which was stored remotely on a server which is actually owned and operated by a company, which was is actually owned by Microsoft).
The apparent cause of the problems appear to be tied in to a possible series of upgrades to the server by Microsoft (who also apparently failed to actually back up the server before attempting the upgrades) and some problems arising during the upgrade process.
Microsoft has claimed that they have restored most of the users' lost data--but not all of it (the number of those still affected by it remains unknown, but are said to be "in the minority".
Between the two companies, T-Mobile has been the most publicly affected by this and the target of much of the ire amongst those who were affected by the problem (and they've likewise been the hardest hit financially by this). Whereas Microsoft has remained largely unscathed by it. However, it remains unclear of how many people out there are even aware of what really happened or not.
Regardless, it has also raised some definite questions and concerns over the trend of moving more and more applications in particular as well as devices toward what's known as "cloud computing" where everything would be stored remotely--and the risk potential, rather than be in the hands of the user, would be more at the hands of the company running or operating the server.
In Microsoft's case (as they're amongst the biggest backers of the idea of this trend and in trying to push forward with it), in light of how much they're attempting to press forward with their own apps running on their servers, in light of this incident, it has led to quite a number of loudly expressed concerns and worries in what it says about them and whether the very same might happen with say Office (which is amongst the biggest known applications they're attempting to press into "cloud computing").
The apparent cause of the problems appear to be tied in to a possible series of upgrades to the server by Microsoft (who also apparently failed to actually back up the server before attempting the upgrades) and some problems arising during the upgrade process.
Microsoft has claimed that they have restored most of the users' lost data--but not all of it (the number of those still affected by it remains unknown, but are said to be "in the minority".
Between the two companies, T-Mobile has been the most publicly affected by this and the target of much of the ire amongst those who were affected by the problem (and they've likewise been the hardest hit financially by this). Whereas Microsoft has remained largely unscathed by it. However, it remains unclear of how many people out there are even aware of what really happened or not.
Regardless, it has also raised some definite questions and concerns over the trend of moving more and more applications in particular as well as devices toward what's known as "cloud computing" where everything would be stored remotely--and the risk potential, rather than be in the hands of the user, would be more at the hands of the company running or operating the server.
In Microsoft's case (as they're amongst the biggest backers of the idea of this trend and in trying to push forward with it), in light of how much they're attempting to press forward with their own apps running on their servers, in light of this incident, it has led to quite a number of loudly expressed concerns and worries in what it says about them and whether the very same might happen with say Office (which is amongst the biggest known applications they're attempting to press into "cloud computing").
