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MagyarGoogle Cloud deletes $135,000,000,000 account for Australian UniSuper retirement fund, then takes two weeks to restore
Google Cloud has deleted in error the $135 billion account and data for UniSuper, a retirement fund company that holds the superannuation savings for 647,000 members working at 37 Australian universities. Member funds and accounts were inaccessible for two weeks from May 2 to 15 while Google worked to recover and restore everything.
Cloud providers are a modern alternative to company servers for applications and data. The major providers, including Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, tout lower IT costs as one of the driving reasons to migrate from corporate servers to cloud servers. Whether cloud or local, servers are controlled by humans, so configuration and update errors result in problems.
According to Google Cloud, there was “an inadvertent misconfiguration during provisioning of UniSuper’s Private Cloud services ultimately resulted in the deletion of UniSuper’s Private Cloud subscription” across the two geographies where its Private Cloud was duplicated on. Hundreds of UniSuper applications, databases, and virtual machines in Google Cloud were wiped, forcing UniSuper to fall back on an additional backup held at another service provider. All data, accounts, and money were unavailable for two weeks until the full restoration was confirmed by UniSuper on the 15th. A joint UniSuper and Google Cloud statement noted that “Google Cloud has identified the events that led to this disruption and taken measures to ensure this does not happen again.", however, exactly what caused the deletion remains a conjecture.
Readers should be alarmed that it took two weeks and UniSuper's own backup copy for Google Cloud to fully restore the account and data. Cloud administrators wary about the ability of Google Cloud to handle serious disasters should start reading books on Microsoft Azure administration or Amazon AWS administration. Those itching to back up their Apple iCloud or Google Cloud files should look into a nice, local NAS server.
A joint statement from UniSuper CEO Peter Chun, and Google Cloud CEO, Thomas Kurian
8 May 2024
UniSuper and Google Cloud understand the disruption to services experienced by members has been extremely frustrating and disappointing. We extend our sincere apologies to all members.
While supporting UniSuper to bring its systems back online, Google Cloud has been conducting a root cause analysis.
Google Cloud CEO, Thomas Kurian has confirmed that the disruption arose from an unprecedented sequence of events whereby an inadvertent misconfiguration during provisioning of UniSuper's Private Cloud services ultimately resulted in the deletion of UniSuper's Private Cloud subscription.
This is an isolated, 'one-of-a-kind occurrence' that has never before occurred with any of Google Cloud's clients globally. This should not have happened. Google Cloud has identified the events that led to this disruption and taken measures to ensure this does not happen again.
Why did the outage last so long?
UniSuper had duplication in two geographies as a protection against outages and loss. However, when the deletion of UniSuper's Private Cloud subscription occurred, it caused deletion across both of these geographies.
Restoring UniSuper's Private Cloud instance has called for an incredible amount of focus, effort, and partnership between our teams to enable an extensive recovery of all the core systems. The dedication and collaboration between UniSuper and Google Cloud has led to an extensive recovery of our Private Cloud which includes hundreds of virtual machines, databases and applications.
UniSuper had backups in place with an additional service provider. These backups have minimised data loss, and significantly improved the ability of UniSuper and Google Cloud to complete the restoration.
What's next?
UniSuper and Google Cloud have been working around the clock on a resolution. The completion of the restoration swiftly, safely and securely remains Google Cloud and UniSuper's top priority.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Zach Relouw
PR/Media Lead
UniSuper
T: +61 3 8831 6360
Note to editors
About UniSuper:
UniSuper is one of Australia's largest superannuation funds and is run solely for the benefit of its members. For over forty years, UniSuper has been managing super for people employed in the higher education and research sector, and as of 2021 opened the fund to all Australians. UniSuper currently invests over $135 billion on behalf of more than 647,000 members^.
^As at 31 March 2024.
