Danger - Sidekick data gone...

Microsoft stresses that it wasn't its own technology to blame in the Sidekick data loss, but rather Danger's technology, which the Redmond company inherited when it acquired Danger in 2008 for $500 million.

However, the embarrassment for Microsoft comes as there is no apparent backup of Sidekick users' data, according to a report from HipTop3. It is also unclear whether Microsoft will be able to recover any of the lost customers' data.

Bu the unfortunate coincidence is Microsoft's launch of Windows Mobile 6.5 devices last week, which in association with this weekend's Sidekick data loss could translate into reduced customer trust from potential Windows Phone buyers.

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This event got me thinking - Is the Cloud only as strong as its weakest link?

In this day and age of Cloud computing, value of data, who owns it, what we give up as users, back ups, failover, etc. etc. It blows my mind that this stuff happens. It kind of reminds me of a time several years ago when data breaches were making headlines, and the rush was on for DR solutions. And security solutions. And privacy solutions. And the list goes on. And here we are. Again.

Whether or not the Sidekick user data was in a cloud or not, if it moves to the cloud 100% then does this issue go away? What do we gain? What do we lose?

Even with the promise of cloud computing and the movement of (and one could assume) copying of data in multiple places, what happens when something fails? Do We fail like we are falling down an escaltor or an elevator shaft? (Jim Heaton quote)

Is it data? Is it process? Where is the root cause? Sounds like in this case it was 'technology'. Not sure what that means, but I will bet that the corrective action is now a funded project that was once an afterthought and maybe an outright gamble.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I am a T-Mobile customer (and have been for 6 years) and I use a Blackberry. I keep some data backed up in multiple places, some data not at all. Makes me wonder if I have calibrated the value of my data correctly. Have we all? Hmmmm.