Why Are Big Companies Like Myspace Losing Data?
Why didn’t Myspace have a backup?
Myspace has joined a growing list of companies making an embarrassing announcement: they’ve lost over a decade’s worth of music uploaded to their cloud service. An estimated 53 million tracks of music have been irrevocably corrupted. For affected subscribers, their only hope of recovering their music is that they have a second backup independent of Myspace!
The real tragedy behind this announcement, though, is that Myspace didn’t have a backup.
- Losing data can happen to anyone!
- If you don’t have a working backup, once your data is lost it’s gone!
- Hindsight won’t help: how many times do you think Myspace technicians have wished they’d tested their backup?
- Safety nets don’t self-assemble!
Some reports suggest the current loss may date back to 2016, but hasn’t been fully acknowledged until now. No engineer wants to take ownership of lost data! And which company would be happy to go on record they’ve lost data they were entrusted to keep and protect?
But how does such a large online company get caught without a backup?
‘Backup’ is as exciting as putting your rubbish out for collection
Writing or talking about data backup is as exciting as remembering to put your rubbish bins out the night before collection. There’s nothing dynamic or fun about data backup. Just like rubbish collection, unless you slip up you don’t realise how important such a menial job is. And unlike bins, a good backup is something that needs to be done daily – not weekly!
Maybe someone at Myspace had been begging for a backup solution, and just didn’t get heard. Or, like so many other companies, maybe backup was relegated to being ‘important, but not urgent…’ Something to do, someday.
Safety nets don’t self-assemble
The thing is, safety nets don’t self-assemble! As Manager or Owner, you need to make sure your IT team – internal or outsourced – have been given the approval to have a backup solution implemented and tested.
Just like rubbish bins don’t magically get themselves out for collection, unless you decide you want a dynamic storage solution you are exposing your data and business to avoidable risk!
The thing is, approving a proper backup solution isn’t going to give you a buzz. It will have no obvious impact on your working day, and it’s not the kind of topic that promotes bragging rights across your team or business. You may even get resistance from your IT guy or team.. BUT… you do immediately get piece of mind and, should the worst-case scenario happen, that’s when you’ll get serious bragging rights!
Backup your backup
At itro we always recommend our clients save their data to at least two separate locations
Having data stored in two separate locations gives your business maximum protection and 24-hour access regardless of unforeseen events such as blackout, technical failure or disaster.
Cloud storage solutions, such as Azure, are good options to investigate. We use and recommend Azure, as do many storage services. However, it’s worth qualifying the physical location of your secondary backup.
Some online storage solutions marketed under different product names operate from Azure Data Centres. If your business already subscribes to Azure your secondary backup solution needs to be located elsewhere.
The explosion in data theft in Australia is another solid reason to have your data stored in multiple locations.
Need short-term backup help?
If you would like to get independent help testing your backup, or fact-finding, but not necessarily looking for a new IT Provider, please call the team at itro now. Everything identified onsite with you will be documented and emailed to you as a written report within 2 working business days.
How Do I Implement a Backup System?
Call itro on 1800 10 3000 or email [email protected] to chat with one of our experts about implementing a secure backup system and to receive your free IT assessment.