It’s 2022 and a Korean web giant only now decided to write a DR plan
(2022/12/08)
- Reference: 1670480945
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/12/08/kakao_dr_plan/
- Source link:
South Korean web giant Kakao, a twelve-year-old company that boasts tens of millions of users and enjoys a central place in local life, has decided the time is right to develop operational resilience resources and processes.
If it seems a little odd that a company of that scale lacks those items, cast your mind back to the [1]October datacenter fire that took Kakao offline for days.
That incident saw the Korean Google's e-commerce, voice, transport, gaming and fintech services all suffer significant outages. The most impactful failure was that of the Kakao Talk messaging service, which is widely used by government agencies and has assumed the status of de facto telecommunications infrastructure in South Korea.
[2]
The impact of this particular outfit going dark was therefore so severe that South Korea's government [3]sternly criticized Kakao and its CEO resigned.
[4]
[5]
Yesterday, the chastened org outlined its plans to prevent such messes in future.
At a company presentation, Goh Woo-chan, co-chairman of the subcommittee on recurrence prevention measures, unveiled the strategy to create tech teams, develop a business continuity plan and build disaster recovery facilities.
[6]
Again: it is a little odd, in this day and age, that a company of Kakao's scale doesn't have those items in place already.
[7]Blazing South Korean datacenter operator raided by cops, blames its own batteries
[8]South Korea's Kakao removes external payment method amid Google Play standoff
[9]South Korea sets site reliability engineering standards for Big Tech
[10]Datacenter fire takes out South Korea's top two web giants
Kakao had, at least, started work on its own ₩460 billon ($350 million) datacenter before the fire, because it recognized the need for greater resilience and more capacity.
The blaze that took out the datacenter in which it was a tenant proved both the wisdom and the lateness of the decision to build its own bit barn.
The theme for the event at which the org announced its resilience efforts was "Our Social Mission" – a nod to the fact that its role in Korean life transcends the mere pursuit of profit.
The event therefore also saw Kakao promise to detail its plan to "increase digital responsibility" and outline its approach to "technology ethics" at an undefined future moment. ®
Get our [11]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/17/sk_cc_naver_kaako_fire/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y5HD0IPmE@Hu0hkvQBxbyQAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/19/kakao_ceo_resigns_datacenter_fire/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y5HD0IPmE@Hu0hkvQBxbyQAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y5HD0IPmE@Hu0hkvQBxbyQAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y5HD0IPmE@Hu0hkvQBxbyQAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/24/blazing_south_korean_data_centre/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/11/kakao_removes_external_payment/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/08/south_korea_site_reliability/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/17/sk_cc_naver_kaako_fire/
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
If it seems a little odd that a company of that scale lacks those items, cast your mind back to the [1]October datacenter fire that took Kakao offline for days.
That incident saw the Korean Google's e-commerce, voice, transport, gaming and fintech services all suffer significant outages. The most impactful failure was that of the Kakao Talk messaging service, which is widely used by government agencies and has assumed the status of de facto telecommunications infrastructure in South Korea.
[2]
The impact of this particular outfit going dark was therefore so severe that South Korea's government [3]sternly criticized Kakao and its CEO resigned.
[4]
[5]
Yesterday, the chastened org outlined its plans to prevent such messes in future.
At a company presentation, Goh Woo-chan, co-chairman of the subcommittee on recurrence prevention measures, unveiled the strategy to create tech teams, develop a business continuity plan and build disaster recovery facilities.
[6]
Again: it is a little odd, in this day and age, that a company of Kakao's scale doesn't have those items in place already.
[7]Blazing South Korean datacenter operator raided by cops, blames its own batteries
[8]South Korea's Kakao removes external payment method amid Google Play standoff
[9]South Korea sets site reliability engineering standards for Big Tech
[10]Datacenter fire takes out South Korea's top two web giants
Kakao had, at least, started work on its own ₩460 billon ($350 million) datacenter before the fire, because it recognized the need for greater resilience and more capacity.
The blaze that took out the datacenter in which it was a tenant proved both the wisdom and the lateness of the decision to build its own bit barn.
The theme for the event at which the org announced its resilience efforts was "Our Social Mission" – a nod to the fact that its role in Korean life transcends the mere pursuit of profit.
The event therefore also saw Kakao promise to detail its plan to "increase digital responsibility" and outline its approach to "technology ethics" at an undefined future moment. ®
Get our [11]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/17/sk_cc_naver_kaako_fire/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y5HD0IPmE@Hu0hkvQBxbyQAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/19/kakao_ceo_resigns_datacenter_fire/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y5HD0IPmE@Hu0hkvQBxbyQAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y5HD0IPmE@Hu0hkvQBxbyQAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y5HD0IPmE@Hu0hkvQBxbyQAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/24/blazing_south_korean_data_centre/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/11/kakao_removes_external_payment/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/08/south_korea_site_reliability/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/17/sk_cc_naver_kaako_fire/
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Not surprised...
The Spider
I've been living and working in Korea since 2003, and this simply shows that nothing changes. Nobody ever seems to have a plan, and nobody ever seems to think that stuff might suddenly go down or that there will be a serious problem.
I'm not involved in anything to do with computing here, but the principle applies to everything. This is merely a higher-level example.
Clearly they had realised the issue and had instigated a response, but as the author here suggests, it was a bit too late... again, no surprises there...
They all have a DRP
"Again: it is a little odd, in this day and age, that a company of Kakao's scale doesn't have those items in place already."
Every company has a DRP, of course. But the Devil is in the details.
Literally everyone of our customers has the following as a DRP: https://dilbert.com/strip/2000-08-15
It pleases everyone, before something goes unwell in real life.