back to article Cloud data fiasco forces bosses to break out the whiteboards

Workers relying on Atlassian's cloudy team-tracking software have reverted to whiteboards and spreadsheets after a service outage made key project data vanish. A Reg reader contacted us to say firms using Atlassian’s JIRA service had lost their all data, and said Atlassian had been unable to recover it despite a week of trying …

COMMENTS

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  1. Roger Stenning
    WTF?

    Hang on a sec...

    Were there no system backups or data backups? Not even taped ones?

    NOT a service that should be recommended, then. The idea is that cloud storage should be backed up on a parallel server, in case of outages, surely?

    1. Lee Dowling Silver badge

      Re: Hang on a sec...

      Agreed, multiple storage failures, your cloud provider exploding because of the Large Hadron Collider or anything else are not an excuse for LOSING data.

      Possibly making that data temporarily unavailable but the words "data recovery specialists" really translate as "whoops, we have no backup".

      Even if the whole rack exploded - where's your backup from last week, last month, last year?

      High availability and redundancy are no substitute for backups. I hope all the listed companies just cancel their contract and ask for a complete refund.

    2. Craig 19
      Paris Hilton

      Re: Hang on a sec...

      Because its much easier (and cheaper!) to say you are ISO27001 & BS25999 compliant and have no-one ever bother to check it than to pay to make sure you are ISO27001 & BS25999 compliant and have no-one ever bother to check it.

      Paris, because she's always compliant.

  2. Christoph

    Cloud, noun: Somewhere it's all blurred and you can't find your data.

    1. Wensleydale Cheese

      Cloud, noun: Somewhere it's all blurred and you can't find your data.

      Fog, noun: A cloud that hasn't got off the ground.

  3. al 3
    FAIL

    AND..... ?

    now where IS that 'told you so' card ?

    Blamed "its cloud storage provider ", outsourced no doubt, abdicate responsibility et al,

    the poor user is the one who suffers whilst the bun fight of accountability rolls on.....

    1. DavCrav

      Re: AND..... ?

      "now where IS that 'told you so' card ?"

      I'd suggest you try Clinton, but...

  4. Mage Silver badge
    Facepalm

    ha ha

    Clouds ...

    For copies of your info, a Publishing method. Like Newspapers, TV, Websites.

    For actual work be in control of your own data^H^H^Hestiny

  5. Sammy Smalls
    Unhappy

    Data exists in three places or it doesnt exist at all......

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    Reliable computing in a cloud - the ultimate in modern vapourware.

    I'm afraid I'm with Vishwa Bandhu Gupta on that one.

    1. Tom 13

      Re: Reliable computing in a cloud - the ultimate in modern vapourware.

      Actually, it's not vapourware and it's not modern, the marketing drones just have a "modern" word for it. Bottom line is it is still outsourced storage technology. Maybe it makes sense, maybe it doesn't. That will depend on your contract (does it require disaster recovery abilities from the vendor), its precise details (does the vendor do a yearly disaster recovery test), and the how well the outsourcing contract is monitored (are you allowed onsite during the disaster recovery test). For it to work, that's all a heck of a lot of work, and the cost savings over do it yourself are likely to be marginal, not huge. If there is a huge price savings, somebody probably left out an important component.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Interesting

    I love the one where the cloud provider is on stage telling the story of the history of his 6 month old cloud business and about how they started the business in a garage. Oh wait, did they tell customers their apps and data were in a garage? Or, a secure, N+1 redundant data center facility?

    Here come the regulators ...

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cloud Storage Provider

    "An Atlassian spokesperson contacted by The Reg blamed the loss on the failure of “multiple” storage disks at its cloud storage provider on 28 April."

    Based on personal experience - was that provider Amazon, perchance?

  9. Woodgie
    FAIL

    Again I'm amazed

    That disk failure can cause such a problem. Do you not make sure that your data is replicated across multiple storage devices/sites/tapes/whatever? You might call it backup, archiving or simply 'making a copy' but don't these people think in terms of full redundancy of complete datasets?

    Yes, I know the bean counters don't like it, but isn't being laughed out of the business worse than spending the money to ensure you have a stable platform on which to offer your services?

    I often think in cases like this it must be much more than a failed disk or 3.

    1. Lou 2
      Alert

      Re: Again I'm amazed

      Basically - and this will burn cloud users more and more - a chain of clouds (you heard it used here first) is going to cause this to happen more and more. The SaaS is only as reliable as the weakest cloud in the chain ;) - and as the end-user you have no idea where or control over that weakspot.

      Welcome to XaaS - and you yhought your internal IT was bad ...

  10. AlexH
    WTF?

    Where printed 'cloud' read...

    ... 'complicated server farm that cost a lot of money and we hope is pretty good'.

    I know there isn't a standard definition of 'cloud', but at the very least it should mean that someone can start yanking cables without risk of significant data loss. (Ideally, this should extend to availability.)

    Doesn't sound like they have a 'cloud', more like a 'crappy SAN and a load of servers'.

  11. Just a geek
    FAIL

    I'd be curious to know what monitoring they had in place. Is this a case of them not replacing failed disks or of losing a rack of disks. Either way, it's something that should have been known about and listed as a risk long ago.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    it's outsourcing, all the way down

    So the user outsources to the cloud operator who outsources to the data center operator who outsources to the data center owner who outsources to the hardware vendor who outsources to the disk manufacturer who outsources to ....

  13. Paul Hovnanian Silver badge
    Mushroom

    Not to worry

    Our IT guys assure us that they've got backups of everything over on Megaupload.com.

    There are clouds and then there are clouds.

  14. No. Really!?

    DSLReports

    Look what happened to dslreports. Bad luck can strike anyone.

    1. Drummer Boy
      FAIL

      Re: DSLReports

      Agreed, but bad planning strikes more often than bad luck!! The more planning you do the luckier you get (to paraphrase a sports motto!)

  15. PeterM42
    FAIL

    The Clue is in the name

    A cloud is vapour - water vapour. Not really a good place to store your vital data and have it blown away by some money-grabbing outsourcer who is only interested in HIS profits.

    TOLD YER SO!

  16. Joe 19

    Should have had onsite backups?

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    TBH I'd be very surprised if Contegix didn't have this data backed up and the loss we are looking at is the difference between the nightly backups and the daily usage.

  18. ZenCoder

    I love clouds ...

    I love cloud .. but only when its used as a backup and syncing mechanism for data that resides on my own computer, data that I can chose to back up locally.

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