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Technology Stocks : Newbridge Networks -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Techplayer who wrote (12762)	8/15/1999 11:14:00 PM
From: Tunica Albuginea	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18016

briand, how many NN related major network-outages can you name? None. Thank you, I rest my case. LU/WCOM will not be able to smooth talk irate customers out of this one I am afraid. Insurance will only pay for damages. These people are moving elsewhere; all IMHO, cheers, TA

To: Techplayer who wrote (12762)	8/15/1999 11:47:00 PM
From: Tunica Albuginea	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18016

briand,is this true? :-) WSJ,8/15:A "faulty new LU software version?" Back to the drawing board, TA -------------------------------- August 16, 1999 MCI WorldCom Shut Down Key Network Over Weekend By NICOLE HARRIS Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL interactive.wsj.com NEW YORK -- MCI WorldCom Inc. shut down a key data network over the weekend to "restore stability" to the beleaguered system, a move that affected some 3,000 business customers including America Online Inc. The network outage, which lasted from about noon on Saturday until Sunday afternoon, gave MCI WorldCom engineers time to remove a new version of software from Lucent Technologies Inc. that is believed to have contributed to problems in its frame-relay network, which transmits data between computers at very high speeds. MCI WorldCom has experienced problems with the network since Aug. 5. "MCI WorldCom successfully completed recovery of its frame-relay network platform and we've restored service to the customers using this network," the company said in a statement. Buoyed by the Internet, telephone companies increasingly are betting on data networks to fuel growth. But MCI WorldCom's experience shows that these networks also lack the reliability of voice networks -- even as corporate customers become increasingly dependent on data networks for day-to-day operations. "People expect perfection and they're just not going to get it," said Ken McGee, an analyst with the Gartner Group Inc. in Stamford, Conn. "This outage was unusual in its size and scope." While many of the largest companies have backup systems in the event of such network problems, the MCI WorldCom shutdown nonetheless caused a smattering of problems throughout the weekend. America Online, which uses the data network to transmit some of its Internet traffic, said about 10% of its customers had to use alternate access numbers used to dial up Internet connections. For customers in some small towns, such as Marysville, Ca., AOL said it set up toll-free access numbers for members to receive Internet connections. The ongoing network problems, however, have riled some big customers such as the Chicago Board of Trade. The network problems have shut down CBOT's electronic-trading system for more than 60% of its usual operating hours since Aug. 5. In a letter to MCI WorldCom, Thomas R. Donovan, president and chief executive officer of the exchange, deemed the outages "unacceptable." "CBOT members and market users demand and deserve world-class technology and service, and we are receiving neither from MCI WorldCom," he wrote. The CBOT network's latest failures began just days after Mr. Donovan met with MCI WorldCom officials to discuss previous stoppages lasting only a few minutes or hours. CBOT lawyers are considering, among other options, severing the exchange's ties with MCI WorldCom, said CBOT spokesman Bret Gallaway. An MCI WorldCom spokesman said engineers are continuing to investigate "performance issues" associated with the software the company removed over the weekend. The disruptions first occurred while the company was in the process of conducting a software upgrade on Aug. 5. The problem is reminiscent of a similar outage in AT&T Corp.'s frame-relay network last April. That breakdown affected thousands of corporate customers nationwide. AT&T blamed the outage on software flaws that occurred when the carrier attempted to upgrade one of its switches. But, the AT&T meltdown was over in about a day, while some MCI WorldCom customers endured a roller-coaster experience of on-again, off-again service for more than a week. AT&T won kudos from observers for its quick handling of the breakdown as its chief executive, C. Michael Armstrong, made personal calls to some of its biggest customers. MCI WorldCom's President and CEO Bernard J. Ebbers took the personal approach too, making calls to customers late into Friday evening. Sunday afternoon, he released a public statement apologizing for the outage. "MCI is very committed to the highest levels of network reliability on all of its services to all of its customers," he said. -- Peter McKay contributed to this article.

To: Techplayer who wrote (12762)	8/16/1999 12:58:00 AM
From: Tunica Albuginea	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18016

briand: ABC.com:" A Disturbance in the Wires ": Commentary. A Disturbance in the Wires Commentary abcnews.go.com Summary:The outages at eBay are only the leading edge of an era of ?network storms? that will shift the way online companies do business. By Mark Anderson Special to ABCNEWS.com LIGHTS OUT I wouldn?t make any jokes about power supplies or home generators with your favorite eBay employee; it?s not funny anymore. The company had its nth major outage starting Friday, and every little thing that could go wrong did. Altogether, counting various bits and pieces, the site went down for ?scheduled maintenance? between midnight and 3 a.m. on Aug. 6, and relapsed into oblivion at 4.20 a.m., stayed down 14 hours then continued with various intermittent versions of Not Working throughout the weekend. Last week, Maynard Webb (past Gateway CIO) was hired as president of ?eBay Technologies.? Recent hires Mark Ryan, now CTO, and Bob Quinn, now CIO, presumably are burning both ends of the candle. The company took a sextuple hit this time: 1) for payments and adjustments to users, as usual; 2) for lost revenues during downtime; 3) for any future lawsuits; 4) for the stock price hit, which was typically immediate and large; 5) for the degradation of the brand, which is fast becoming a joke; and 6) for sending customers of all kinds to its competitors, most likely benefiting Amazon.com. Ouch. In case you thought grown-up companies don?t have cataclysmic hardware and network failures, MCI Worldcom experienced anomalous problems the same week with its frame relay service; the problems wreaked widespread havoc and continued for days. Some reports had the system failing three days consecutively. Newsbytes noted that the Chicago Board of Trade?s electronic trading system was one of the early casualties, forcing traders in the world?s largest commodities market to settle trades manually. What is most interesting about these events is they involved network problems, and, even days later, it was not clear to the system operators what was going wrong. The term ?network storm? comes to mind. Get ready for a lot more of the same as our net tools lag further and further behind our net complexity. And welcome to a whole new level of risk arbitrage as technical reliability becomes a key aspect of company valuation, companies hire multiple CIOs and give them open budgets, and technology as a competitive weapon moves from the operational to the financial.