Re: Tornados in Ashburn (Equinix affected)

[Sean Donelan <sean () donelan com>]

On Sat, 18 Sep 2004, Robert E.Seastrom wrote:
> The reason that I bring this up is that I believe a report which
> is posted two hours after the event and glosses over potentially
> serious operational anomalies by stating that everything is cool (in
> the present tense) does not serve anyone's best interests.  I
> understand and accept the two hour delay from the start of the
> incident, but I expect scrupulous honesty in after-action assessments,
> not a marketing-driven assertion that everything is Just Fine.

I have no inside information, I haven't worked for Equinix in over three
year.

Regardless of the company, these things are always written by the
marketing/legal departments in the end.  In a sole proprietorship, one
person may do it all.  You have to learn how to read the reports.  The
fact they sent out a report is a good indication there were problems.
The fact they mentioned cooling is a good indication there were cooling
problems.  The fact they didn't mention other things (i.e. no earthquakes,
no tsunami, no volcano) is a good indication those other things weren't
an issue.  Its just how marketing/legal departments think.

Despite marketing departments, engineers know there will be failures.
A N+1 design means two faults will result in an interruption.  A N+2
design means three faults wil result in an interruption.  And so on.

I agree its frustrating when companies won't tell their paying customers
what's happening.  I'm not sure its always dishonesty, a lot of the time
the company doesn't know what's happening either.  Most companies are
honest in their reporting, as far as what they say.  But there is a lot
of "spin."