BA IT collapse -- what effect on ttains?
 

In message , at 10:20:08 on
Mon, 29 May 2017, Scott remarked:

Are they not claiming it's a power supply issue? Is the hardware
offshore as well?

according to El Reg

"BA has a very large IT infrastructure; it has over 500 data cabinets spread
across six halls in two different sites near its Heathrow Waterside HQ"

The obvious question then is whether any other part of the Heathrow
area suffered power supply problems.

The power feed into the building is only the beginning of the sequence
of potential points-of-failure.
--
Roland Perry

BA IT collapse -- what effect on ttains?
 

In message , at 10:28:11 on Mon, 29 May
2017, Graeme Wall remarked:

Heathrow Waterside is a separate industrial estate just off the A4 to
the north west of the airport (roughly where they want to put the third
runway! Apart from BA the only other occupants appear to be a branch
of Waitrose

Can you buy lemon-soaked napkins at Waitrose?

and a hair dressers.

But no telephone sanitisers?
--
Roland Perry

BA IT collapse -- what effect on ttains?
 

On Mon, 29 May 2017 10:42:16 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at 10:20:08 on
Mon, 29 May 2017, Scott remarked:

Are they not claiming it's a power supply issue? Is the hardware
offshore as well?

according to El Reg

"BA has a very large IT infrastructure; it has over 500 data cabinets spread
across six halls in two different sites near its Heathrow Waterside HQ"

The obvious question then is whether any other part of the Heathrow
area suffered power supply problems.

The power feed into the building is only the beginning of the sequence
of potential points-of-failure.

True. I thought of this after I posted. The 'power supply' in my
computer here is not the same as the power supply to my house.

BA IT collapse -- what effect on ttains?
 

In message , at 10:54:25 on
Mon, 29 May 2017, Scott remarked:

The power feed into the building is only the beginning of the sequence
of potential points-of-failure.

True. I thought of this after I posted. The 'power supply' in my
computer here is not the same as the power supply to my house.

Yes, I've got a 6hr laptop plugged into a UPS, which if the laptop power
supply was the only[1] sink would last another day. Mifi-style mobile
connectivity through a mast on a different substation, and that's most
of my continuity issues solved.

Doesn't scale to whole datacentres, though.

[1] About one minute's unplugging of other stuff.
--
Roland Perry

BA IT collapse -- what effect on ttains?
 

On 29/05/2017 10:44, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 10:28:11 on Mon, 29 May
2017, Graeme Wall remarked:

Heathrow Waterside is a separate industrial estate just off the A4 to
the north west of the airport (roughly where they want to put the
third runway! Apart from BA the only other occupants appear to be a
branch of Waitrose

Can you buy lemon-soaked napkins at Waitrose?

Eventually, if you wait long enough.


and a hair dressers.

But no telephone sanitisers?

Not listed, they may have died out.

--
Graeme Wall
This account not read.

BA IT collapse -- what effect on ttains?
 

On 2017-05-29 06:40:01 +0000, tim... said:

it seems to be entirely down to insufficient redundancy in their
systems, and any decision to dispense with (whatever is) industry
standard redundancy is going to have come from someone much higher up
than an offshore bod.

There isn't any as such. BA will have signed an uptime contract, the
cost of which will depend on the level of uptime desired. If that is
breached, BA will be entitled to compensation.

You can sign a no-downtime contract, but it is hugely expensive.
Aircraft on-board systems are designed in that manner.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

BA IT collapse -- what effect on ttains?
 

On 2017-05-29 08:43:37 +0000, Roland Perry said:

In message
-septe

mber.org, at 20:10:12 on Sun, 28 May 2017, Recliner
remarked:

That's why it's not wise to make precise accusations at this stage. Of
course, any professional data centre shouldn't collapse for most of a day
if there's a power supply problem. It should have UPS

But unlikely to have hours worth of UPS.

If it's business-critical, generators to power for an indefinite period
(provided fuel is added) should be present.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

BA IT collapse -- what effect on ttains?
 

On Mon, 29 May 2017 15:46:34 +0100
Neil Williams wrote:
On 2017-05-29 08:43:37 +0000, Roland Perry said:

In message
-septe

mber.org, at 20:10:12 on Sun, 28 May 2017, Recliner
remarked:

That's why it's not wise to make precise accusations at this stage. Of
course, any professional data centre shouldn't collapse for most of a day
if there's a power supply problem. It should have UPS

But unlikely to have hours worth of UPS.

If it's business-critical, generators to power for an indefinite period
(provided fuel is added) should be present.

Indeed. Whether it was a UPS failure, a generator failure, a DC bus failure
or a cat ****ed on the routers, there should have been a backup site to
take over in a situation like this. There wasn't, presumably to cut costs
and that decision comes from the top. Well you reep what you sow. I'd be very
surprised if Mr Cruz is still in his job this time next month.

On a related note, why the hell do people travel on a bank holiday anyway?
Is that extra free day off work really worth all the stress and hassle of
the train/air/ship delays or the 10 mile traffic jams?

--
Spud

BA IT collapse -- what effect on ttains?
 

In message , at 15:46:34 on Mon, 29
May 2017, Neil Williams remarked:

That's why it's not wise to make precise accusations at this stage.
Of
course, any professional data centre shouldn't collapse for most of a day
if there's a power supply problem. It should have UPS
But unlikely to have hours worth of UPS.

If it's business-critical, generators to power for an indefinite period
(provided fuel is added) should be present.

Yes, but that's not a UPS.
--
Roland Perry

BA IT collapse -- what effect on ttains?
 

Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 15:46:34 on Mon, 29
May 2017, Neil Williams remarked:

That's why it's not wise to make precise accusations at this stage.
Of
course, any professional data centre shouldn't collapse for most of a day
if there's a power supply problem. It should have UPS
But unlikely to have hours worth of UPS.

If it's business-critical, generators to power for an indefinite period
(provided fuel is added) should be present.

Yes, but that's not a UPS.

You obviously need both, as I said in my post upthread, and as everyone
posting in this thread well understands. There's no need for you to
nit-pick. The UPS takes over the instant mains power is lost, but the
backup diesel and/or gas turbine gennies should be on-line within minutes.
They should be capable of running the whole data centre indefinitely.