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Oh, sugar! Sysadmin accidently deletes production database while fixing a fault

Firm didn't tell customers for another 9 hours after realising

An unfortunate sysadmin has deleted the production database of diagramming outfit Gliffy, ironically while attempting to fix a problem with backup systems.

An unspecified “issue” was discovered by the company in its backup systems last Thursday. However, on working to resolve the problem, during the scheduled weekend maintenance, “an administrator accidentally deleted the production database.”

The business coughed to the outage on Monday, recognising what had gone wrong in the late morning – though not informing customers for another nine hours.

Despite initially “hoping to have this resolved in the next several hours”, the last word from Gliffy is that the restorative “data transfer is taking longer than expected” and may not be completed until 11am tomorrow, Pacific Standard Time.

“We feel like we have failed you, our customers, and you expected better from us,” a statement form the company said.

Alas, our poor sysadmin seems to be in for a telling-off. The statement continued:

After the restoration is completed, we will be taking a hard look at our processes and procedures to understand how and why this happened in the first place, and if there are other issues to be resolved as well. It is important to us that we meet the needs of our customers and ensure there isn’t a recurrence of this issue or others that could hinder your productivity.

Readers tickled by similar woes are encouraged to read our regular column, On Call. ®

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