Monday, September 10, 2007
How good is good enough?
Alec Saunders asks "How many nines, RIM" in respect of RIM's network outage on Friday.
Email messages to my Blackberry were off the air for about 3 hours, and it took another 16 hours for the backlog to catch up: first in, last out apparently.
It helps raise the question of "What is a reasonable service to expect from our IP applications?" Alec asks "Should we have the same expectations for reliability from the BlackBerry service as phone service?"
Let me extend that question: should we have the same expectations for reliability for new voice applications as we did for traditional phone service? Didn't early generation cell phone service help condition us for less than pin-drop crystal clear connections? [remember those ads?]
Admit it. Haven't you ever hung up on someone and blamed it on the network? "Sorry, must have been a bad cell hand-off."
Are we being demanding enough or expecting too much?
Technorati Tags:
RIM, Alec Saunders
Email messages to my Blackberry were off the air for about 3 hours, and it took another 16 hours for the backlog to catch up: first in, last out apparently.
It helps raise the question of "What is a reasonable service to expect from our IP applications?" Alec asks "Should we have the same expectations for reliability from the BlackBerry service as phone service?"
Let me extend that question: should we have the same expectations for reliability for new voice applications as we did for traditional phone service? Didn't early generation cell phone service help condition us for less than pin-drop crystal clear connections? [remember those ads?]
Admit it. Haven't you ever hung up on someone and blamed it on the network? "Sorry, must have been a bad cell hand-off."
Are we being demanding enough or expecting too much?
Technorati Tags:
RIM, Alec Saunders
Posted by Mark Goldberg @ 9/10/2007 06:43:00 AM 
Comments:
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I confess that I don't know the answer, either, Mark. Certainly a few nines short of five is fine and perhaps even desirable for the scenario you describe ;) But in a 911 scenario, every one of those nines matters, doesn't it?
And for me, a few hours of email outage is fine. But what if you're a wall street trader?
Food for thought for all of us.
And for me, a few hours of email outage is fine. But what if you're a wall street trader?
Food for thought for all of us.
Posted by 
: 8:35 AM, September 10, 2007
: 8:35 AM, September 10, 2007
Yes cell phones took a long time to be 'close to reliable'. Most of us who have designed our managed our data networks strive to be as reliable as financially possible...but I agree with Mark that for technology dependent businesses like ours, and who depend on blackberries and VoIP...3 hours is too long. Guess it forces us to all have, test and use our disaster plans, disregarding size of business AND hope that the carriers can service us to our required performance levels.
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Posted by : 1:11 AM, September 11, 2007
: 1:11 AM, September 11, 2007 << Home
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