Sidekick falls through the Cloud

In what is being described as the largest failing of "cloud computing" to date, about 1 million US owners of the T-Mobile Sidekick lost data stored on their mobile phones due to a back-up failure. A Microsoft subsidiary, Danger, operates the Sidekick data service.

T-Mobile and Microsoft announced that customers whose data could not be recovered will receive a $100 gift card in addition to one month data service credit. T-Mobile also temporarily halted sales of the Sidekick.

Microsoft later announced that all data will be restored, beginning with personal contacts. According to the company, the utage was caused by a system failure that created data loss in the core database and the back up. Microsoft says it has installed a "more resilient back-up process" to safeguard against a repeat incident.

See, "Phone sales hit by Sidekick loss," BBC News, October 12, 2009, at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8303952.stm; "T-Mobile to Update Sidekick Users on Data Loss," San Francisco Chronicle, October 12, 2009, at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/10/12/urnidgns852573C4006938800025764D004CF9BC.DTL; "T-Mobile, Microsoft Promise $100 Gift Card For Lost Data," Information Week, October 13, 2009, at http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/smartphones/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=220600430; "Microsoft recovers Sidekick data ," BBC News, October 15, 2009, at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8309218.stm; "Danger Debacle Highlights Microsoft's Dilemma With Mobile ," Wall St. Journal, October 15, 2009, at http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20091015-713811.html.