16 Dec
2010
16 Dec
'10
8:30 a.m.
On Thursday 16 December 2010 01:13:24 Dan Kegel wrote:
On Wed, Dec 15, 2010 at 10:48 PM, gene heskett
<gheskett(a)wdtv.com> wrote:
I don't think google uses magnet-tapes or similar for any backups except the
vital core data of its business. Given the number and size of their data-
centers around the world, they just sync the data to a different part of the
world an be done with it. Of course the deletion has to be synced to all
remote-copies and probably also forwarded to older backups but once such a
mechanism is implemented it should do the actual delete within a day...
There are even universities that decided against a new tape-library and in
favor of a big stack of disks for long-term backup because these where
cheaper, similar reliable and much faster for restore. And they don't need a
special tape-library-managing app to access the data, a file-browser or the
command-line is enough...
Have fun,
Arnold
Now, if we can just get a law that when I have
... issued the delete to
the server, it truly was deleted
For what it's worth, Google's caution in promising deletion
is probably because it's not quite sure how to do that
quickly. Users would be Very Very Angry if a disk outage
or a fire in a datacenter resulted in the loss of their stored
email, so Google probably has some sort of offsite backup
arrangement, and that might complicate prompt deletion.
... yup,
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=7401
says
"residual copies of deleted messages and accounts may take up
to 60 days to be deleted from our active servers and may remain in our
backup systems."
So, if you were google, would you use tape backup? If so,
how would you do that permanent deletion thing? If not,
how would you make darn sure you didn't anger users by
losing messages during a disaster?