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Google Cloud Disaster: How UniSuper Narrowly Avoided Catastrophe

In this video, we explore the harrowing tale of Australian pension provider UniSuper's brush with disaster when Google accidentally deleted their entire cloud environment. With over $125 billion and 600,000 members' accounts at stake, this incident highlights the importance of robust backup strategies and disaster recovery planning for organizations relying on cloud services.
Hosts Curtis Preston and Prasanna Malaiyandi delve into the details of the incident, which left UniSuper's customer portal inaccessible for nearly a week. They discuss how UniSuper's adherence to the 3-2-1 backup rule, with isolated copies in separate failure domains, ultimately saved the day and allowed them to recover from this potentially catastrophic event.

Throughout the video, Preston and Malaiyandi share valuable insights and lessons learned from UniSuper's experience, emphasizing the critical role of third-party backups, clear communication during outages, and the benefits of choosing flexible technologies when designing cloud architectures.

This real-world case study serves as a stark reminder that even tech giants like Google are not immune to making errors that can have severe consequences for their customers. It underscores the importance of having a solid cloud disaster recovery plan in place and not relying solely on the cloud provider for data protection.

Whether you're an IT professional responsible for cloud infrastructure or a business leader considering moving critical systems to the cloud, this video is a must-watch. It offers practical advice and cautionary tales to help you better prepare for and mitigate the risks associated with cloud disasters.