The massive data failure at Microsoft's Danger subsidiary threatens to put a dark cloud over the company's broader "software plus services" strategy.
A key tenet of that approach is that businesses and consumers can trust Microsoft to reliably store valuable data on their servers.
T-Mobile Sidekick Slide
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)A week ago, though, Microsoft's Danger unit experienced a huge outage that left many T-Mobile Sidekick users without access to their calendar, address book, and other key data. That's because the Sidekick keeps nearly all its data in the cloud as opposed to keeping the primary copy on the devices themselves.
Things got even worse on Saturday, as Microsoft said in a statement that data not recovered thus far may be permanently lost. It's not immediately clear how many people lost their data. The outage earlier in the week affected a broad swath of Sidekick users, though many had data return during the week.
While outages in the cloud computing world are common (one need only look at recent issues with Twitter or Gmail), data losses are another story. And this one stands as one of the more stunning ones in recent memory.
The Danger outage comes just a month before Microsoft is expected to launch its operating system in the cloud--Windows Azure. That announcement is expected at November's Professional Developer Conference. One of the characteristics of Azure is that programs written for it can be run only via Microsoft's data centers and not on a company's own servers.
It should be pointed out that the Azure setup is entirely different from what Danger uses: the Sidekick uses an architecture Microsoft inherited rather than built (Microsoft bought Danger last year). Still, the failure would seem to be enough to give any CIO pause.
Update, 2 p.m. PT, 10/11/2009: I asked Microsoft for comment Saturday when I was writing this, in particular as to how the rest of its cloud might differ from the Danger set up.
Microsoft said Sunday that its the fabric controller that manages the Azure service is built with redundancy in mind.
"We write multiple replicas of user data to multiple devices so that the data is available in a situation where a single or multiple physical nodes may fail," Windows Azure general manager Doug Hauger said in a statement to CNET News.
That doesn't mean Azure is immune from data loss, though I'm told an entire data center would have to be wiped out, as opposed to just a server or collection of servers. I'd be interested to know whether Microsoft will also offer multiple location options so that users that want to can have their data in more than one physical spot as well.
But that's just one of many questions raised by this spectacular failure. Among the other questions still looming large in my head are:
1. What backup procedures did Danger have?
2. Just how many of T-mobile's Sidekick customers lost their data? (Feel free to let me know, Sidekick users.)
3. What impact will this have on the Pink project, which was largely seen as the evolution of the Sidekick, and some say was already in trouble?
4. Will this hurt Microsoft's efforts to build a brand around the notion of Windows Phone even though that uses a different architecture (with its own challenges, to be sure)?
Microsoft appears poised to officially unveil a Web-based service that will let users store, share, and back up data from their mobile phones.
Provided, that is, that the phones run Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6 phone operating system. And the service will be available as only a limited beta to start with.
Details of Microsoft's impending My Phone service slipped out inadvertently when the Web site went live ahead of its scheduled debut. The site appears to have been spotted first by Engadget Mobile, which also referred to the service as SkyBox.
Microsoft's My Phone service is intended to provide backup and other services for Windows Mobile 6 users.
According to the Microsoft My Phone site, the service will let users back up and restore the phone's data, access contact and scheduling information, and share photos. Users will get 200MB of free storage, but beware--a synchronization attempt that exceeds the limit will cut off any files beyond the 200MB mark.
... Read more
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CherryPal)
Last we reported, the launch of the CherryPal PC was very much up in the air. As Engadget notes, CherryPal has updated its shopping page for this tiny, cloud-computing PC with two important items.
1. The CherryPal PC will ship on election day, November 4. "Guaranteed!!!" it says on the CherryPal Web site, with three exclamation points. To prove it's serious about that 11/4 ship date, the model number has changed from C100 to C114.
2. The capacity of the CherryPal's flash drive has doubled. Once and future orders will get 8GB of storage. The price stays the same: $249.
Elsewhere on the company's Web site, it notes that the CherryPal PC will feature a slimmer casing. The system weighs 10 ounces and measures 5.8 inches deep, 4.2 inches wide, and 1.3 inches high.
The additional space is nice, but the revolutionary idea behind the product stays the same. Instead of storing your apps and docs locally as you do on your PC's hard drive, you'll store them on CherryPal's servers in the cloud that is the Internet. With no moving parts and fewer components, the CherryPal PC promises to be cheaper, greener, and easier to manage than a traditional PC. The PC doesn't include a traditional operating system; instead, the CherryPal PC uses Firefox as its main interface. The company will reportedly offer 50GB of password-protected online storage space with each purchase.
(Credit:
CherryPal, Inc.)
The CherryPal PC is in a holding pattern. The $249, 10-ounce, 2-watt-drawing, cloud-computing PC we first spied in July is still at least a couple weeks away from materializing. The company tells TG Daily that problems with the graphics hardware has pushed back its ship date at least two weeks. This follows on the heels of the company delaying the original August release due to a software conflict with the system's solid-state storage.
The irony here is that hardware and software issues have delayed this tiny PC that has only the bare minimum of hardware and software. The CherryPal C100 desktop has no moving parts--the company claims it "uses 80 percent fewer components than a traditional PC." There's not even an operating system; you're meant to store your data in the cloud, which you access via Firefox--the system's main interface.
On the company's Web site, its shopping page simply states that the CherryPal is "on hold" (from August 6) and offers a refund for those who have pre-ordered the system.
A view of the new CherryPal from the back
(Credit: CherryPal)The CherryPal is a small, black, rectangular box with not much inside.
Besides a processor, some flash memory, and some connecting parts, it's definitely not the kind of computer you'd see heavyweights like Hewlett-Packard and Dell waving around. But Max Seybold, the creator and CEO of CherryPal says this barebones PC is the future.
Yes, we've been hearing for a while now that cloud computing and the browser are the next iteration of the desktop OS, but Seybold is betting big on it.
The CherryPal--so named because one early tester declared the device "sweeter than an Apple"--is a tiny desktop PC. It's about the size of a paperback book and weighs 10 ounces. Because of its lack of moving parts (there's only 256MB of memory and a 4GB flash drive inside; the rest of your data is meant to be kept in the cloud), it should be fairly durable.
The other major benefit of that is it sucks a very low amount of power, 2 watts max, Seybold says. It has a Freescale 5121E processor and integrated graphics, which helps out with lower power consumption.
But even more helpful is the lack of an operating system on the device. There is an embedded form of Debian Linux, but Seybold says the user isn't exposed to it. The main operating system is a Firefox browser window.
It comes with free cloud-based storage and free 24-hour tech support. Hardware-wise, there's not a lot to the CherryPal, but the price reflects that: it will be available starting Monday for $249 on the company's Web site, and in September via Amazon.com.
The Amazon availability reflects the company's ambition. Seybold says he sees his target market as students ages 14 to 25, who he says "are already used to putting their information in the cloud" via Facebook, MySpace, and similar kinds of sites.
Downplaying Linux is another way Seybold hopes to reach the mass market. There's a perception that Linux is hard to use and is somewhat of a drawback, he said. "And to some degree, the market is right."
The closest competition is the Eee Box from Asus, and other low-power Linux-based desktops, which have cleared the way for devices like the CherryPal.
"The great thing is you have Netboxes (and) Netbooks, so there's a lot of awareness in the market, and (it shows) there is a market for computers that aren't Windows or Apple," said Seybold. "The sales numbers for Asus are very, very, encouraging."
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