DownTime

pszilard

[FONT=tahoma,sans-serif]THE FOLLOWING WAS SENT TO THE HELP DESK.

Dear SmugMug,[FONT=tahoma,sans-serif]

[FONT=tahoma,sans-serif]Account: REMEKTEK[/FONT]
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[FONT=tahoma,sans-serif]I pay for a PRO level photo web site service, and normally I am delighted with what services I get for this. HOWEVER yesterday I wanted to show my portfolio to a client and the site was down for many HOURS! This is an unacceptable situation for a PRO site![/FONT]
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[FONT=tahoma,sans-serif]I am told that SmugMug backs up my photos to two different geographic locations (great!), so why don't you have a redundant server system? A business critical service should have a minimum of THREE servers: A and B should be redundant production servers (so if A fails, then B takes over), and C should be a test server.[/FONT]
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[FONT=tahoma,sans-serif]When you want to roll out new enhancements you first test them on C. Then when all is working, assuming that Server A is working, you transfer to production the software from C to B and verify that it works still. THEN you switch production from A to B and transfer to production, the updates to A. When that was successful, you can switch back to A as primary and B as redundant backup. Then you can start working on the next cycle on C.[/FONT]
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[FONT=tahoma,sans-serif]The above scenario is what should be implemented and is WELL within the scope of your IT department! However at the VERY LEAST if all your servers are down, then PLEASE put up a single page to say that the site is temporarily unavailable and what the expected time for return is (preferably in the time zone of the viewer, or else show the server's local time as well as people can figure it out).[/FONT]
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[FONT=tahoma,sans-serif]I sincerely hope that you can implement this in the near future, and continue in your otherwise excellent service![/FONT]
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Andy

Hi Paul, it's unacceptable to us, too. We're sorry that it happened, and we were/are fully transparent about it. Here on Dgrin and also on our status site: http://status.smugmug.com/services/entire-site
that link has explanations from our Ops team (and CEO/Chief Geek) about what happened and what we're doing to make sure it won't happen again.

Thanks for being here, and thanks for your patience and understanding with us.

pszilard

Andy wrote: »

Hi Paul, it's unacceptable to us, too. We're sorry that it happened, and we were/are fully transparent about it. Here on Dgrin and also on our status site: http://status.smugmug.com/services/entire-site
that link has explanations from our Ops team (and CEO/Chief Geek) about what happened and what we're doing to make sure it won't happen again.

Thanks for being here, and thanks for your patience and understanding with us.

Ok. How come that nobody responds to my recommendations? I want SmugMug to prosper, and would like it if my suggestions were implemented, or at least considered.

Andy

Oh I'm very sorry - I neglected to say that I shared your suggestions with our Ops team. Thanks!

pszilard

Andy wrote: »

Oh I'm very sorry - I neglected to say that I shared your suggestions with our Ops team. Thanks!

Thnx.