In early June 2025, KiranaPro, a rising grocery-tech startup, faced a catastrophic event: their EC2 servers were wiped out. Initially assumed to be a cyberattack, it was later discovered that the source was an internal threat — a disgruntled ex-employee. This shocking incident is more than a headline — it's a wake-up call for anyone working in the cloud or DevOps space.

But what does a "data wipe" really mean, and how can you protect yourself from it?

⚠️ What Is a Data Wipe?

A data wipe is the complete and often irreversible deletion of data from servers, disks, or databases. In KiranaPro's case, critical production EC2 instances were deleted, which may have included configuration, customer data, and operational logic — essentially bringing down core systems.

🔍 The Real Lesson: Monitoring Isn’t Optional

If you're a beginner in DevOps or cloud architecture, you might think “Monitoring is just optional.”
But trust me — it’s a game-changer.

Let me share my story.

🧾 My Story: The $15 Mistake

Last year, I spun up an EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service) cluster for a project and enabled Prometheus monitoring. After my work, I forgot to tear it down.

Guess what happened next?

📩 I received an AWS bill for $15 for unused resources still running in the background. It may not seem like a big amount, but it was a painful lesson.

If I had set up CloudWatch alarms or basic monitoring alerts, I could’ve shut it down in time — saving money and peace of mind.

🧰 Tools KiranaPro Could’ve Used (And So Can You)

If KiranaPro was using Kubernetes or modern cloud architecture, they could’ve benefited from:

Prometheus + Grafana – For deep resource monitoring and metrics visualization
CloudWatch – For real-time AWS resource alerts and logs
ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) – To track and analyze logs
Security tools like AWS GuardDuty or IAM anomaly detection – To catch unauthorized or risky activity before it’s too late

Monitoring tools don’t prevent disasters, but they tell you where your infrastructure is weak and help you respond before it's too late.

🧯 Don’t Just Monitor — Plan for Disaster Recovery

Monitoring helps detect issues, but you should also build for recovery.

Here are two real-world projects I built for backup and disaster recovery:

📦 Kubernetes Dynamic Storage + MySQL Backup
A plug-and-play setup to dynamically provision storage volumes in Kubernetes clusters, keeping persistent data safe.
🛡️ Postgres DB Backup with AWS + Terraform + Jenkins
A robust, production-grade solution for automatically backing up Postgres databases using CI/CD pipelines.

💡 Final Takeaway

The story of KiranaPro is not just about a data breach — it’s about the importance of foresight.

Whether you’re a solo developer, a startup founder, or a DevOps engineer:

Monitoring isn’t a feature. It’s a survival mechanism.

Start small, monitor everything, automate backups, and plan for failure.

Because one small oversight could cost you more than just money — it could wipe out your entire business.

🧨 What is a Data Wipe? KiranaPro's Story & Why Monitoring is Your Silent Guardian