Earlier this week Google encountered a service crash that affected over 150,000 people and left most of them without access to their email accounts. Google reported that the service outage only accounted for roughly .08% of their total user base but with an estimated 193 million users worldwide this still adds up to a shocking amount.

Of those who were hit by the outage most discovered that all of their personal correspondence and any files they had uploaded to Google cloud network had been deleted. Since Google has long promoted near unlimited storage space for its users the loss of information left many feeling violated and betrayed.

Google has made every effort to restore the lost data to its user base with a promise that all lost data would eventually be restored. While admirable this still brings up the concern of what if a more serious system crash occurs in the future that is not so easily recovered. As one of, if not the largest data cloud in the world Google has a heavy responsibility to safeguard its data network.

While Google has made good on this responsibility so far you should never leave the fate of your valued data in someone else’s hands. Preparedness in the case of disaster is the hallmark of a successful operations strategy and whether your data is personal or business related you should have a reliable backup solution. While it’s not recommended that Gmail be used for business operations even personal affects deserve to be protected.

– Richard Keene
IT Computer Support of New York
Design and Optimization Department