Lightning Wipes Storage Disks At Google Data Center

An anonymous reader writes: Lightning struck a Google data center in Belgium four times in rapid succession last week, permanently erasing a small amount of users' data from the cloud. The affected disks were part of Google Computer Engine (GCE), a utility that lets people run virtual computers in the cloud on Google's servers. Despite the uncontrollable nature of the incident, Google has accepted full responsibility for the blackout and promises to upgrade its data center storage hardware, increasing its resilience against power outages.

Comments

Re:What do you mean permenantly erased...only 1 DC

[bledri]

Thats no excuse. It should be distributed amongst seperate machines in seperate centres instantaniously.

So faster than the speed of light using the infinitely-wide infinite improbability data bus?

Re: lightning strike

[MasterOfGoingFaster]

Bullshit. I used to design high voltage connections, and tested using a 300kV impulse generator. I've seen a lot of crazy stuff analyzing field failures. You can greatly reduce the risk, but you cannot remove all risk in an above ground facility, as a practical matter.

I do see lots of silly stuff done, based on myth and lack of knowledge.