Google has announced the insignificant data loss for The Google Computer Engine users due to the lightning strike into Google datacenter that is located in Belgium. The data center is designed for storing data and launching the cloud virtual machines.
The lightning stroke into the Google datacenter 4 times on the 13th of August. Actually even 1 strike can be disastrous, and just imagine what could have happened after 4 strikes! That is a real threat to Google App security.
“Although automatic auxiliary systems restored power quickly, and the storage systems are designed with battery backup, some recently written data was located on storage systems which were more susceptible to power failure from extended or repeated battery drain.” – the Google report says.
Some of the Google clients have lost access to their cloud data. As the Google representative says, about 0,000001% of data was lost due to this rare phenomenon. Some part of the data was restored, but not all.
Google claims that they continue to work on their equipment to prevent the data loss in the future.
No matter what Google claims to do it is never excessive to take additional precautions and regularly backup your cloud data. The chances to lose the data due to such disturbances are small, that’s true. But still the chance exists. And if you do not secure your business cloud data you may lose much money for bringing it back to life.
However if you regularly backup Google Apps and backup Gmail with applications like Upsafe you can save both nerves and money as you will always have the reserve copies of your cloud data at hand.