[NicoJuicy]

> why does a few hours of downtime ultimately matter?

In our case ( Azure downtime), because none of our customer systems would work.

This includes people on the road, that need to do something every 5 minutes on their PDA ( sometimes 100 people simultaneous in a big city)

So yes, it matters.

[ThalesX]

It doesn't matter though. In the end. What happens if that person doesn't do that very unspecific thing every 5 minutes on their PDA? Can they not complete their job still? Does the parcel not get delivered unless it is logged in the system the second it is delivered? Maybe so, maybe the driver steals it, taking advantage of the chaos of the system. Do they not go higher up the chain? Does the delivery company not have insurance? It can go endlessly but in the end. It doesn't even matter.

I happened to work in designing critical infrastructure for emergency services. We always had a failure in the plan, which is why part of our deliverable was a protocol for paper logging of the calls (ambulance, police, military...) and the subsequent following of the case. It worked amazingly when the system did go down. In part because it was roleplayed, in part because the system went down in a rather convenient time. The data was then added to the digital logs, and all was well in the world, including the people saved by the, and I kid you not, pen, and, paper... and other humans gasp

[NicoJuicy]

Yes it matters. Since we can't do it later ( only when a 3rd party is down, we can do it later)

They can't complete their job and no, it can't be done later since the opportunity to execute it is time-sensitive. It's one of the things we optimize for.

In a country like France, there's a discussion specification for it and it would get a lot of hassle.

We aren't delivering packages....

Eg. One of the reasons it matters, is that it would lose clients business and be taken into account within 4 years ( city tender... )

It's not because "people don't die", that it doesn't matter. A lot of jobs, cities and companies are dependant on what we do.

And jobs matter. So I think your statement is fundamentally flawed.

[UglyToad]

Out of interest, obviously you can't give too much away, what would happen if the users didn't/couldn't do that? The only situation that comes to mind is delivery drivers needing to get next destinations/mark deliveries completed but I'm maybe missing others.

I'm just hoping the people building the ambulance dispatch networks aren't using Azure :laughing:.

[ThalesX]

> I'm just hoping the people building the ambulance dispatch networks aren't using Azure :laughing:.

> I'm just hoping the people building the ambulance dispatch networks aren't using Azure :laughing:.

Hi, just happened to see your reply after I posted mine, and wanted to maybe give just a little bit of insight. Now, this might not be the case where you are from, but in my experience, ultimately, if all systems go down, there are protocols put in place for radio communication.

We always built tools taking into account existing protocols, so they can map 1:1 (you can imagine, you can't exclude any mission protocol because the product owner thinks the screen looks better without it) but also allow for the change of protocols. For all these services, it was the military structures that truly had the functionality core, which was mapped to what they could do without any technology in case of an emergency. Which is a damn lot.

So, I feel like I'm going a bit far here, but rest assured, the people building the ambulance dispatch networks probably build them on top of systems that work with powers off. So Azure going down, or not, it doesn't really matter.

[UglyToad]

Haha, thank you, I'm going to sleep a lot better at night now!

Your post was a really interesting insight into these systems, thank you.

[NicoJuicy]

In this case, the city misses income.

I'm allowed to speak about it. But i rather not in an online audience, just to be sure.