The Boston Globe and other outlets reported this weekend that Carbonite lost data for 7,500 customers. Many of these customers were able to make fresh backups before they suffered any real losses. Some, however, were not. Those who were not recieved apologies and credits. All 7,500 most likely lost any prior versions (if Carbonite even keeps prior versions).
In a nutshell, the fundamental difference between Carbonite and Global Data Vault is we are a business class solution built on an enterprise class platform. Carbonite has filed a lawsuit seeking damages from Promise Technology. Promise Technology is a manufacturer or RAID based storage systems. We do not consider RAID based systems to be true enterprise class technology.
The technology we use at Global Data Vault provides greater reliability through redundant data paths and redundant controllers. Our key systems are monitored 24x7x365. If a component fails, the redundant component takes over, we’re notified, the failed part is replaced, and our service continues without interruption. RAID systems claim to have the same capabilities, but a true Storage Array Network (SAN), is a more sophisticated system. That is why you see SANs, not RAID, in place for mission critical data in enterprise organizations.
One thing I’d worry about with Carbonite, is why would the failure of that device cause loss of data. We keep 2 copies (sometimes more) of everything stored with us. Do they have only one copy of their customers’ data?
We’ll have more to report as we learn more about this interesting incident.
It amazes me that a company in the data backup industry can lose someone’s data. I know that the backups need backups, but isn’t it their job and expertise to make sure that stuff like this doesn’t happen?
It is very very interesting that in this blog post the part about it happening in 2007 wasn’t mentioned.
“The Globe article’s lead would appear to be borne out by the quotation. But Friend says little data was actually lost in the episodes, which took place in 2007, because the company had other copies of most of the lost data on other servers. The equipment that allegedly proved unreliable had been supplied to Carbonite by Milpitas, CA-based Promise Technology via Norwell, MA-based system integrator Interactive Digital Systems. It was later replaced with hardware from a different vendor. “Since switching to Dell RAID servers a couple of years ago, there have been no further problems,” Friend says.”
The only reason it ever came to light was the lawsuit Carbonite filed for damages. So we don’t really know if they have since lost more data. Again, I’d ask, did they have only one copy?
I can’t pinpoint it now, but I remember when doing some research on Carbonite someone asked them do they store multiple copies of data. The response was something like, “Yes, there is a copy on your PC and on our servers, therefore data is stored in multiple locations.”
Carbonite (website and backup service) has now been down for almost 6 hours.