Data Loss - a concern for small and large businesses

The news that Myspace lost 12 years of user-generated content during a botched server migration has prompted a lot of debate this week, which Caroline Donnelly picks over here.

When details of Myspace’s server migration snafu broke free from Reddit , where the incident has been discussed and known about for the best part of a year, the overriding reaction on Twitter was one of disbelief.

In no particular order, there was the shock at the size of the data loss, which equates to 12 years of lost uploads (or 50 million missing songs) , and the fact these all disappeared because Myspace didn’t back the files up before embarking on its “server migration”. Or its backup procedures failed.

There was also a fair amount of surprise expressed that Myspace is still a thing that exists online, which might explain why it took so long for the rest of the internet to realise what had gone down there.

And now they have, the response online has been (predictably) snarky. Myspace, for its part, issued a brief statement apologising for any inconvenience caused by its large-scale data deletion, but that’s been the extent of its public response to the whole thing.

That in itself is quite interesting. The fact a company can lose 12 years of user data, and shrug it off so nonchalantly. Obviously it would be a completely different state of affairs if it was medical records or financial data the company had accidentally scrubbed from its servers.

Caroline Donnely - Senior Editor for Computer Weekly

Without best practise, a back up process and a detailed Method of Procedure in place, data loss can happen whether we run a small or large business. As well as the companies reputation that will suffer from such a thing, this can also affect our clients in many ways, and will undoubtably result in client loss.

I.T. ME Resolve can help with your I.T. needs, we service small or large businesses, so have the experience to put process' in place that are inline with ITIL best practise.

Goto our contact page and leave your contact details, and an I.T. ME Resolve representative we be in contact with you.

Simon Corbin - Managing Director for I.T. ME Resolve