Government's 'Kakao Outage' Repeats…Cloud Redundancy Gaps Exposed

National Information Resources Management Center Fire Highlights Weak System with Only Server Redundancy

"Government IT Systems Paralyzed Due to Insufficient Backups"…Debate Over Private Sector Transfer Reignited

The paralysis of government IT systems due to the fire at the National Information Resources Management Center in Daejeon is pointed out to have escalated because the redundancy of the cloud environment, where data is stored, was not properly implemented.

This incident is a repeat of the large-scale failure that occurred three years ago during the Kakao outage, when the operational management tools of the Pangyo data center were not redundant.

According to a comprehensive report by Yonhap News on the 27th, the data center where the fire occurred the previous day is part of the 'G-Cloud Zone,' a private cloud environment operated by the National Information Resources Management Center.

This zone's disaster recovery (DR) system requires both server DR and cloud DR.

It has been identified that while the National Information Resources Management Center had a server disaster recovery environment in place, the cloud disaster recovery environment was not yet fully established.

Given the large-scale cloud operating system, it means that a service redundancy (backup) system is needed, where a 'twin' cloud system with an identical environment is set up in a geographically separate location to take over the same functions in case of disasters like fires.

It is analyzed that the government systems went down due to the fire because the disaster recovery system was only half-equipped with server DR, leading to a helpless situation.

Kakao, after its outage, announced plans to enhance its disaster recovery system to triple redundancy or more, with three data centers interconnected.

National Information Resources Management Center on fire (Daejeon=Yonhap News) Reporter Park Ju-young = A lithium battery fire broke out at the National Information Resources Management Center in Hwaam-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, around 8:20 PM on the 26th, and firefighters are engaged in extinguishing operations. 2025.9.27 jyoung@yna.co.kr

It is reported by the cloud industry that the redundancy work with the Gongju Center for the Daejeon headquarters of the National Information Resources Management Center was planned but delayed due to budget issues.

Furthermore, the Daejeon headquarters, established in 2005, was also reportedly experiencing issues with aging infrastructure, with the building over 20 years old.

In response, the National Information Resources Management Center had apparently developed detailed plans for building a cloud disaster recovery system early this year, along with a five-year phased transfer plan, and had planned to begin detailed consulting work next year.

However, during this process, dissenting opinions arose regarding the appropriateness of transferring government cloud services to the private sector.

An official from the cloud industry stated, "It appears that the fire accident occurred while plans were being made for the construction of cloud disaster recovery systems and phased transfers to private clouds," adding, "It is true that the environment was poor, considering it is the heart of South Korea's government data."

He further suggested, "As we move into the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the operation of data centers is becoming like the vascular system of information flow, and a comprehensive review of emergency preparedness seems necessary." Yonhap News