Discussing, or not discussing, major business outages

Sun Feb 7 20:22:14 UTC 1999

George Herbert wrote:

> I agree that this is no reflection on the technical abilities
> of the people involved.  It is, as Dave says, just business,
> and not all businesses succeed.  But there is ethical responsibility
> to operate, and if it comes to that cease operations, in a manner
> that provides for minimal trouble for your customers, suppliers,
> and other related businesses.  There appears to be a tendency for
> the "right time" to talk, as judged by the ISPs which are shutting
> down, to be woefully late.  It is business, but business in a way
> that can significantly affect operational issues and stability.

One scenario is that creditors, perhaps the bank they borrowed from,
came in and just took over (with appropriate legal processes) and
employees were told to not come to work to just locked out.  If the
bank expected to not revive the business and just liquidate assets,
they might have done this.  And they very well could have been totally
ignorant of the value lost in the assets of the customer base they just
destroyed by shutting everything off.  Or maybe it was the electric
company that cut them off for non-payment.  UPSes don't hold up very
long for that, and such a company would not likely have a generator
and a steady supply of fuel.

> >I'm certain that others would like to see the insides of every company
> >exposed at all times.  While it may be important to the customers, or
> >potential customers, it should be a part of the diligence of the customer to
> >inspect the worthiness of their supplier.
> >I'm equally certain that the providers in question will step forward at
> >the appropriate time to establish facts.
> 
> Obviously, most businesses need to operate with careful
> limits on public disclosure, because operational issues are
> often of competitive importance and it's very easy to lose
> significant amounts of money via trivial information leaks.
> But that does have its limits.

OTOH, the business may not even be there anymore in any real sense.

-- 
 --    *-----------------------------*      Phil Howard KA9WGN       *    --
  --   | Inturnet, Inc.              | Director of Internet Services |   --
   --  | Business Internet Solutions |       eng at intur.net        |  --
    -- *-----------------------------*      phil at intur.net        * --