Business,  iPhone

Danger Will Robinson: SideKick + Microsoft

Occasionally Blackberries go down. Not one or two, but all of them. Sometimes (albeit rarely), Google Apps are unavailable. The Mac community got so frustrated with MobileMe during the .Mac transition that Apple released an official apology of sorts. But nothing that is as dangerous as the recent SideKick data loss. In a move that is characteristic of the battle that has been brewing between the makers of mobile devices and the carriers that provide access to those devices, T-Mobile released the following statement:

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.

Basically, T-Mobile is saying that they have no culpability. After all, it’s not their job to do due diligence and make sure their parters are practicing the same backup strategies that are often practiced in 5 to 10 user environments. Microsoft on the other hand is going to point the finger at Danger, the organization they purchased in order to take over the customer base and the market of the SideKick. And Danger on the other hand is likely to simply um, well, not update their press release site for about the 16th consecutive month.

Many are quick to point this colossal fail at something being wrong with the cloud computing model. Microsoft might be apt to say, but our cloud is a private cloud, likely a popular response from vendors that sell private clouds (or in Microsoft’s case Software + Services). I’m still on the fence about that one myself…