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Software down time.

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by old guy

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I would like to find out some different amount of down times due to software problems. In other words, on the average, how often does a main network wide software crash and what is the average down time for that software?

8 replies

by jamesrl

or a roullette wheel....

Because its not that simple.

I've seen simple systems that went years without crashing -exceeding my time with the company.

I have seen complex systems that crashed due to external problems - viruses or configuration issues - but not due to the inherent stability or lack thereof.

James

by tonythetiger

whether it be hardware or software, and uptimes are in excess of 99.7% (99.5 is our lowest acceptable number. It's usually 99.8 or higher)

by old guy

Ok. The reason I'm asking is that we do have a particular software that, due to an Integration process, gets "locked up" and causes the program to not respond for the users. Once I restart the integration it usually comes back up and perks along. Probably in the two years we have had this program it's done this maybe 4 or 5 times. Usually, it only takes about 10 - 15 minutes to get it back up. However, on two occasions due to having to rebuild the database it has taken about two hours.
Whenever it does happen, though, I get this "It never works right" from several users. I was just wondering if we are about in line with most companies or if this is a "never works right" scene.

by jamesrl

If we say that the software must be available 9-5 5 days a week, we get 40 hours of availability a week x 104 weeks =4160 hours. If you lost a total of 4.5 hours(2x 2 hours, 2 x .25 hours), lets calculate the percentage of downtime. My calculation says that your system is down .11% of the time. Thats pretty close to a realistic goal of 99.9 uptime. Many large corporations who sell their services to others go for 5 nines - 99.999. Thats difficult to achieve.

On the other hand, where I work the mail system goes down about once a year for an hour.....

You have a perception issue.

James

by guruofdos

And as an IT professional involved in troubleshooting and technical support, it's this 'downtime' - both software and hardware that keeps me gainfully employed.

Downtime can be a good thing - it makes us techies look needed!

by jaqui

it's a perception issue.
and this is actually pandemic.
not just in one shop.

the manager for my residence was offline for 15 minutes the other day.
his comment:
I couldn't get online all night.

it's the "appliance" mindset that creates this perception. as long as computers are appliances, any downtime, for any reason will be seen as huge.

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