The Dark Side Of The Cloud
Feb 1st, 2011 | By James Lewin | Category: GeneralZurich-based photographer Micro Wilhelm discovered the dark side of the cloud today when he tried to log into his Flickr account and found that his account, and 5 years of his photos, no longer existed:
He contacted Flickr about the issue, and their response added little to the “Oops!” message above:
Unfortunately, I have mixed up the accounts and accidentally deleted yours. I am terribly sorry for this grave error and hope that this mistake can be reconciled. Here is what I can do from here:
I can restore your account, although we will not be able to retrieve your photos. I know that there is a lot of history on your account-again, please accept my apology for my negligence. Once I restore your account, I will add four years of free Pro to make up for my error.
Please let me know if there’s anything else I can do.
Again, I am deeply sorry for this mistake.
With all types of new media, it’s tempting to rely on cloud-based services to store your audio, video, photos and blog posts. Most of the services are free and help you avoid the technical hassles of building your own site.
Wilhelm’s experience is a reminder that your cloud-based media is an “Oops!” away from getting nuked.
This is why I should consider making my own podcast blog rather than depending on podomatic.
Anybody who relies on the cloud as their sole backup method is an idiot.
I use the cloud as the last ditch backup (after everything else has failed, like a fire at my condo, the cloud as a transfer mechanism to an off site back up chron job hack, my safe deposit box.at the bank.)
Never trust that your data is safe.
I’ve been saying for ages that we shouldnt rely on cloud computing as websites can either go down, delete stuff, get hacked, or completely cease to exists.
@Mathew Milam: Find a places to host your large audio files and keep your xml file on your own websites server. Keep a back up copy of your audio files just in case. At least if this ever happens to you, your feed won’t change you will just have to upload the files to another server.