So the person who made a split-second mistake while doing his all for the business was pressured into resigning - basically, got fired.

What I want to know is what happened to whoever decided that backups were a dispensable luxury? In 2010?

There's a rule that appears in Jerry Weinberg's writings - the person responsible for a X million dollar mistake (and who should be fired over such a mistake) is whoever has controlling authority over X million dollars' worth of the company's activities.

A company-killing mistake should result in the firing of the CEO, not in that of the low-level employee who committed the mistake. That's what C-level responsibility means.

(I had the same thing happen to me in the late 1990's, got fired over it. Sued my employer, who opted to settle out of court for a good sum of money to me. They knew full well they had no leg to stand on.)