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."