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Selecting the right cloud partners is critical. Recently, Google Cloud accidentally deleted a customer account, causing two weeks of downtime ⚠️. This highlights the importance of thoroughly vetting cloud providers and having strong contingency plans. Key points: Data Protection: Ensure your cloud partner has robust data protection measures 🛡️. Recovery Protocols: Verify they have reliable data recovery protocols 🔄. Contingency Plans: Develop and maintain comprehensive contingency plans 🚨. Understanding these risks is essential to protect your business. Choose wisely and stay prepared! https://lnkd.in/exbg3GVF #CloudComputing #RiskManagement #BusinessContinuity

CLOUDS ARE RISKS TOO At one time clients believed they had beaten the security risk by deploying a firewall. Nowadays they say "oh we are in the cloud" and go back to that happy feeling. Let us not forget that the cloudy planets are man made and man managed. Whether the planet is named Google or Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure or any other we have to take care of our data without reposing any trust in the promises and certifications they display. Check this case with Google and Unisuper - the lesson is simple. Backup and up and up.. use alternate providers and air gap each. While you are doing this maybe you should also look at your cost and calculate whether cloud did really save you money (as the planet owners claim). What happens is that you are handcuffed and chaines to the service. One guys email system does not talk to the other.One guys data store is different from the other and you will ask for a rebirth when you want to change ships. Oh there is a lot more.. but for the weekend please focus on the eff-up in the clouds in your IT infrastructure. #cloud #risks #backup #CloudFail https://lnkd.in/dfFiU3SG

Imagine you woke up one morning to find all your online accounts inaccessible, financial information vanished, and important documents nowhere to be found. This nightmare scenario became a reality for half a million UniSuper members when a Google Cloud failure wiped out their data for an entire week. This isn't just a minor inconvenience – it's a major disruption to livelihoods and peace of mind. The lesson is clear: don't put all your faith in one cloud provider, no matter how big or reputable they seem. Protect yourself by diversifying your backups. Utilise a reliable 3rd-party service that operates independently of major players like Google or Microsoft. It's a small price to pay for ensuring your data remains safe and accessible, no matter what happens in the cloud. Need help setting up a robust backup strategy? Our IT experts can assess your needs and implement a solution tailored to your business. Don't wait for disaster to strike. Contact us today and safeguard your data. #DataResilience #BackupStrategy #CloudOutage #UniSuper #ITSupport

Can you trust your cloud provider not to lose your data? Almost always, except when you can't. In May 2024, UniSuper, an Australian superannuation fund, faced a major crisis when Google Cloud mistakenly deleted their entire account, including all backups. Thankfully, UniSuper had a third-party backup in place, which saved the day. 🔗 Read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/dq-MMME9 Lessons learned: This incident underscores the critical importance of a robust, multi-layered backup strategy. Relying solely on a single cloud provider, even one as reputable as Google Cloud, can pose significant risks. Implementing a third-party, independent cloud backup solution is essential for ensuring business continuity and data protection. Data protection best practices: -Follow the 3-2-1 backup principle.  -Avoid storing all data and backups in the same logical infrastructure.  -Utilize multi-cloud data protection solutions. #DataProtection #BackupStrategy #GoogleCloud #BusinessContinuity #SaaS

Imagine you woke up one morning to find all your online accounts inaccessible, financial information vanished, and important documents nowhere to be found. This nightmare scenario became a reality for half a million UniSuper members when a Google Cloud failure wiped out their data for an entire week. This isn't just a minor inconvenience – it's a major disruption to livelihoods and peace of mind. The lesson is clear: don't put all your faith in one cloud provider, no matter how big or reputable they seem. Protect yourself by diversifying your backups. Utilise a reliable 3rd-party service that operates independently of major players like Google or Microsoft. It's a small price to pay for ensuring your data remains safe and accessible, no matter what happens in the cloud. Need help setting up a robust backup strategy? Our IT experts can assess your needs and implement a solution tailored to your business. Don't wait for disaster to strike. Contact us today and safeguard your data. #DataResilience #BackupStrategy #CloudOutage #UniSuper #ITSupport

🌐 Lessons from a Cloud Catastrophe: The Importance of Backup Strategies 🌐   The recent disruption at UniSuper, caused by a misconfiguration during the setup process by Google Cloud, starkly illustrates that even global leaders in technology like Google are not immune to errors that can have extensive repercussions. This error led to the accidental deletion of a significant cloud account, impacting over half a million members and highlighting the potential severity of cloud-based incidents.  🛡 **Best Practices for Cloud Backup:** 🛡 • Use Immutable Storage and Air-Gapped Media: It is crucial to employ immutable storage solutions within disks and clouds, complemented by air-gapped media. These technologies ensure that backup data remains unalterable once written, safeguarding against potential threats or accidental modifications. • Implement Staged Restorations: To avoid the risk of re-infection or re-introduction of errors during the recovery process, staged restorations are essential. This method allows for controlled, step-by-step recovery of data, ensuring the integrity of restored systems before they go back online. • Adopt Hybrid IT Architectures: Utilizing hybrid IT architectures facilitates the recovery of servers to alternative platforms. This approach is part of a broader business continuity/disaster recovery (BC/DR) strategy that enhances flexibility and resilience by allowing for the rapid activation of backup systems on different infrastructures. • Maintain Regular Verification of Backups: Regularly testing backups to confirm their effectiveness is essential. This practice not only ensures that backups are functional and reliable but also that they can be activated swiftly and efficiently in response to a failure. • Develop a Comprehensive Communication Plan: Having a well-structured communication plan ensures that all stakeholders are informed throughout the recovery process, fostering transparency and coordination. This incident serves as a compelling reminder of the need for comprehensive, tested backup strategies as a critical element of organizational resilience. By implementing these best practices, organizations can better protect themselves against the potential catastrophes that come with cloud computing complexities. For a detailed analysis of this event, read the full article here. #DataProtection #CyberResilience #CloudComputing #GRC #TechLeadership #BestPractices

I've always thought that the only reason the public cloud will falter in growth is due to a massive ransomware attack that exposes all customer data (and potentially loses a lot of it). However, so far, we've not seen that, but we have seen a cloud platform itself do something similar. Google Cloud (as we reported a few weeks ago) managed to delete the entire account for UniSuper, an Australian pension fund with 647,000 members and $135 billion under management. The issue was so impactful, even the replicated data copies in a second region were deleted. The recovery (which took 2 weeks) was achieved by using backups outside of Google Cloud. If this incident doesn't scare you into not using the public cloud, I don't know what will. This may be a "once in a lifetime event", but I doubt it is the last we will see. I expect this scenario has happened with smaller customers and could hit another large customer (not just Google Cloud, but any cloud). Similarly, we should remember the OVH fire, which also massively impacted those customers with their backups in the same data centre. So, what surprises me most is how little this incident seems to have affected the industry. Other than the obvious reporting (linked below), there doesn't appear to have been much followup. None of the major on-premises infrastructure vendors have suggested themselves as alternatives. So do IT folks just not care? If you're confident of your backup situation, then I guess you're less concerned. In the case of UniSuper, the incident wasn't great but it appears the copy of last resort in a secondary location saved the day. What does this say about the future of on-premises versus cloud? To me it suggests that there are almost no incidents that will divert businesses from further public cloud adoption. This must be a massive red flag to on-premises infrastructure vendors that they're not winning hearts and minds. Ultimately, their businesses are destined to be a shadow of their former selves, with consolidation and acquisition a major theme for on-premises infrastructure companies. https://lnkd.in/eg6mFrRc

Google Cloud provisioning misconfiguration leads to UniSuper's business disruption for a week Google Cloud mistakenly deletes UniSuper's private cloud account, causing a week-long outage for over half a million members. UniSuper CEO reassures members that the outage wasn't a cyber-attack and no personal data was compromised, placing the blame squarely on Google's cloud service. UniSuper and Google Cloud CEOs issue a joint apology, acknowledging the frustration and disappointment caused by the incident. The deletion stemmed from an unprecedented misconfiguration during provisioning, a scenario never encountered by Google Cloud before. Despite the setback, UniSuper's collaboration with Google Cloud and backup measures with another provider lead to an extensive recovery of core systems, ensuring minimal data loss and service restoration. Business continuity management? https://nis2.management #misconfiguration #google #cloud #unavailability #businesscontinuity

🚨 Google Cloud Incident Highlights Importance of Diversified IT Solutions Recently, a significant incident involving Google Cloud resulted in the accidental deletion of a customer's account, causing two weeks of downtime. This event underscores the critical risk of putting all your eggs in one basket when it comes to cloud services. At Concept Technology, we prioritize the security and stability of our clients' systems to prevent such disruptions. Our managed IT services are designed to provide peace of mind, with comprehensive backup and disaster recovery plans that ensure your operations remain resilient and uninterrupted. 🔗 Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/ehFe4ehN

Here's a summary Google Cloud experienced a major glitch when it accidentally deleted UniSuper's online account due to an unprecedented misconfiguration. This outage affected over 620,000 UniSuper fund members, leaving them unable to access their superannuation accounts for over a week. In a joint statement, UniSuper CEO Peter Chun and Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian apologized for the "extremely frustrating and disappointing" incident. They explained that the misconfiguration resulted in UniSuper's cloud account being deleted, a mistake that had never happened to Google Cloud before. Although UniSuper had backup systems in place, the deletion affected both geographies, causing a complete loss of data. Fortunately, UniSuper had additional backups with another provider, which helped minimize data loss and sped up the restoration process. The incident highlights concerns about the reliability of Google Cloud's services and the potential consequences of such errors. Regardless, you think it's a mistake? 👀