Friday 13th, began with an unpleasant surprise for all Google Blogger service users – it was not possible to update the webpage as well as recently entered information was lost. Some of the webpages could not be opened at all.
At night from 12th to 13th May on Blogger Twitter account a twit, informing about a routine maintenance works, was posted, and clients were warned that the service would run in read-only mode. After a short time Blogger admitted that something has gone wrong and asked to be patient, because a service recovery was in progress. Later it was announced that a read-only copy is available of the May 11, up to 7:37 am, local time, but later published information and readers' comments are not currently available.
Blogger is not the only free service that is widely used not only by privet customers but also by Latvian companies and organizations. "I do understand the ambition to save money on colocating the webpage using data center resources, but this also raises another problem - how secure and useful these free services are to your business.
Some users that we know said that they’ve learned about the problem, only while long searching the internet, whereas a customer of paid server services would be informed about planned maintenance works as well as about any interruptions and the recovery processes. And of course, with a paid service, the customer can always call or e-mail the technical support, whereas a free service customer usually can not find the phone or e-mail address”, said DEAC CEO Andris Gailitis.
"We always underline that the data is to be stored as close as possible. It is only natural that technical works are performed at night. However, when in USA it is night time, then we have the hottest hours of work, and as it happens, the data, including e-mail and Internet files are not available, due to maintenance works on USA servers at that time," said A. Gailitis.
As one of the key features of paid service, A. Gailitis mentions technical support availability 24x7 via phone or e-mail. "While the customer has no problem, he does not think about that, but as soon as the problems appears, he starts thinking of how and whom to call to complaint," points out A. Gailitis.
The board member of National e-service "Inbox.lv” Evgeny Kuznetsov advises to choose service providers, whose technical support is available via phone or e-mail, and are located in the same or close time zone. "We also do regular maintenance works, that is an IT business nature. And these activities are usually done at night, from 2a.m. to 3a.m., because that’s the time with the lowest visit rate. Same thing is done in USA, the problem is that the USA night time coincides with the time here when the visit rate is most largest, and therefore at this time access to e-mail or your files is required mostly and clients are outraged by even a 30 minutes hold up," says E. Kuznetsov. "This case also shows, how wrong can be those people, who claim that global service providers are much better than the Latvian ones. Errors and problems may occur in a small server, as well as in such corporation as Google," says E. Kuznetsov.
A. Gailitis and E. Kuznetsov also admit that the closer the service provider is, the easier it is to get the required information or to solve the problem if needed. The language issue is also quite important, as even if the client knows their service provider e-mail, he does not necessarily know the language good enough to describe the issue in the letter, or to understand the reply of the service provider.
At night from 12th to 13th May on Blogger Twitter account a twit, informing about a routine maintenance works, was posted, and clients were warned that the service would run in read-only mode. After a short time Blogger admitted that something has gone wrong and asked to be patient, because a service recovery was in progress. Later it was announced that a read-only copy is available of the May 11, up to 7:37 am, local time, but later published information and readers' comments are not currently available.
Blogger is not the only free service that is widely used not only by privet customers but also by Latvian companies and organizations. "I do understand the ambition to save money on colocating the webpage using data center resources, but this also raises another problem - how secure and useful these free services are to your business.
Some users that we know said that they’ve learned about the problem, only while long searching the internet, whereas a customer of paid server services would be informed about planned maintenance works as well as about any interruptions and the recovery processes. And of course, with a paid service, the customer can always call or e-mail the technical support, whereas a free service customer usually can not find the phone or e-mail address”, said DEAC CEO Andris Gailitis.
"We always underline that the data is to be stored as close as possible. It is only natural that technical works are performed at night. However, when in USA it is night time, then we have the hottest hours of work, and as it happens, the data, including e-mail and Internet files are not available, due to maintenance works on USA servers at that time," said A. Gailitis.
As one of the key features of paid service, A. Gailitis mentions technical support availability 24x7 via phone or e-mail. "While the customer has no problem, he does not think about that, but as soon as the problems appears, he starts thinking of how and whom to call to complaint," points out A. Gailitis.
The board member of National e-service "Inbox.lv” Evgeny Kuznetsov advises to choose service providers, whose technical support is available via phone or e-mail, and are located in the same or close time zone. "We also do regular maintenance works, that is an IT business nature. And these activities are usually done at night, from 2a.m. to 3a.m., because that’s the time with the lowest visit rate. Same thing is done in USA, the problem is that the USA night time coincides with the time here when the visit rate is most largest, and therefore at this time access to e-mail or your files is required mostly and clients are outraged by even a 30 minutes hold up," says E. Kuznetsov. "This case also shows, how wrong can be those people, who claim that global service providers are much better than the Latvian ones. Errors and problems may occur in a small server, as well as in such corporation as Google," says E. Kuznetsov.
A. Gailitis and E. Kuznetsov also admit that the closer the service provider is, the easier it is to get the required information or to solve the problem if needed. The language issue is also quite important, as even if the client knows their service provider e-mail, he does not necessarily know the language good enough to describe the issue in the letter, or to understand the reply of the service provider.
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