Thread

AWS says it can't restore some data from mideast facilities struck by Iran

530 points · 452 comments · berkeleyjunk

cmiles8 · 1789596948 · focus · HN ↗
This interview with an AWS leader isn’t aging well, from CBS Sunday morning:
Pogue asked, "I don't mean to give anyone ideas, but let's say I figured out that one of these unmarked buildings was an AWS data center, and I blew it up. Are you saying that it's so backed up and redundant that you probably wouldn't notice?" Wood replied, "Yeah, you wouldn't notice. I mean, we might be a bit upset, but you wouldn't notice!"
<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cloud-computing-loudoun-county-virginia/" rel="nofollow">https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cloud-computing-loudoun-county-...
1. krick · 1789598998 · focus · HN ↗
  That is actually surprising to me. Claims like that are pretty common, they make sense and they should be true, so even though I don't really know AWS (/Backblaze/Azure/whatever) redundancy planning in enough detail, I used to trust them. It's really worrying when they outright say it will be ok, and then a week later it turns out to be not ok.
  1. houssc · 1789599866 · focus · HN ↗
    The caveat is always "if you're using the service correctly" which is not necessarily free. Meaning taking advantage of multiple geo zones, building in redundancy to your stack, etc. Like everything he said is possible if your technology stack living in AWS was designed to survive it. Everyone who has ever had the "we lost your data" email from AWS knows at the end of the day the cloud is just someone else's data center with neat provisioning tools and services.
    mitxela · 1789625187 · focus · HN ↗
    Amazon never said you had to mirror your data across multiple regions to prevent Amazon-caused data loss.
    Brigand · 1789627455 · focus · HN ↗
    It’s not really Amazon-caused
    mitxela · 1789630286 · focus · HN ↗
    Yes it is, they didn't have adequate redundancy for this extremely foreseeable event (military site getting hit by missiles).
    expedition32 · 1789634224 · focus · HN ↗
    War?! In my Middle East? Preposterous.
    IAmBroom · 1789665686 · focus · HN ↗
    Negligence is not malicious action.
    Both are bad, but having a missile hit your shop is never going to mean you are causing violence.
    mitxela · 1789782269 · focus · HN ↗
    But you are causing your customers to lose data

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