If you're a T-Mobile Sidekick user who put data, contacts and other items in the cloud we have some bad news for you: Your data is gone...probably forever. With cloud computing increasingly reaching the masses the average consumer will soon be enmeshed in the world of poor IT management. Welcome on board the IT failure express.
T-Mobile depended on Microsoft's Danger unit to provide data services. Danger's servers blew and apparently there weren't backups. Oops. T-Mobile's forums reveal (Techmeme):
Regrettably, based on Microsoft/Danger's latest recovery assessment of their systems, we must now inform you that personal information stored on your device - such as contacts, calendar entries, to-do lists or photos - that is no longer on your Sidekick almost certainly has been lost as a result of a server failure at Microsoft/Danger. That said, our teams continue to work around-the-clock in hopes of discovering some way to recover this information. However, the likelihood of a successful outcome is extremely low.
T-Mobile then sends you to an FAQ so you can rebuild your contacts. In a nutshell, Microsoft/Danger can't recover your data. Granted, it's only photos, contacts and the rest of your life, but it could have been worse I suppose. Here are a few observations from this debacle:
IT failures make our little world go around---Michael Krigsman (our IT Mr. Sunshine) even has a blog dedicated to them---and now you're on the IT failure express too. Welcome.