Google’s Unprecedented Week: Cloud Outages and Team Disbandments
The Impact of Google Cloud’s UniSuper Account Erasure and the Python Team Layoff on Tech Community
✨ Note: Non-members can read the full story in this link.
In the tech industry, several major events within a week all pointed to the same company — Google.
- First, more than half a million UniSuper fund members went a week with no access to their superannuation accounts due to a “one-of-a-kind” Google Cloud “misconfiguration”.
- At the same time, Google laid off the Python team and there were changes to the Flutter and Dart teams.
What’s going on with Google lately?
These incidents garnered widespread attention in the industry and raised questions about Google’s technological strategy and future direction.
Google Cloud’s Mishap
On May 9th, a piece of news shocked the global fintech community:
due to a misoperation by Google Cloud engineers during routine maintenance, a hidden software vulnerability was triggered, leading to the deletion of UniSuper’s private cloud account and the erasure of hundreds of thousands of user data and asset records.
“This was an isolated and ‘unprecedented event,’ something that has never happened to any Google Cloud customer worldwide before. Of course, it should never have happened. Google Cloud has identified the root cause of this disruption and has taken measures to ensure that the same situation will never occur again.”
Ironically, UniSuper was ultimately able to restore service because the fund had backups with another cloud service provider.
It is particularly noteworthy that UniSuper invited bids from AWS, Microsoft, and Google when selecting a cloud provider, and ultimately chose Google as the best match.
UniSuper had been with Google for less than a year when it encountered an “unprecedented” major outage.
The service interruption lasted for over a week, severely affecting UniSuper and casting doubt on the reliability of cloud services.
Technical Team Changes
At the same time, internal changes at Google also caused a stir in the tech community.
Reports suggest that Google laid off the team responsible for Python, and the news of adjustments to the Flutter and Dart teams also attracted attention from the developer community.
For more details, you can refer to the following article published by Meng Li
Challenges Faced by Tech Giants
These incidents highlight the challenges that even the top tech companies may encounter.
The misstep by Google Cloud serves as a reminder that, despite the unprecedented convenience offered by cloud services, they are not infallible.
This incident also underscores the importance of data backup; UniSuper’s swift recovery was facilitated by backups held with another cloud service provider.
Not just Google, but some other major global cloud vendors, including AWS and Microsoft Azure, have also experienced similar outages last year, leading to business disruptions and data loss for customers.
As a result, many people are increasingly inclined to adopt multi-cloud deployments to reduce risks.
The changes to the Python, Flutter, and Dart teams may reflect Google’s adjustments in resource allocation and strategic planning.
Google has always been a strong supporter of the Python language, and the dismissal of this team may signal that Google is evaluating the returns on its technology investments or considering the use of other programming languages.
Conclusion
These two incidents serve as a wake-up call for Google, reminding it to ensure the stability and reliability of its services while pursuing technological advancement.
At the same time, for users of Google Cloud and other companies that rely on cloud services, this is a reminder to be aware of the need for multi-cloud deployments or, at the very least, data backup.
Do not rely solely on the 100% commitment from any single cloud provider, or else we may end up being the ones who suffer.
