Apology for Server Failure

Bob,

Thank you so much for your continued work on Logos. Having been with Logos since the very first product I have been more than pleased with the quality of service and quality of software.

I trust you will soon find all the remedies needed to make this great product fully functional again.

Blessings,

Rick Schaffner

Matt Swank said:

The US has had power blackouts for whole regions for multiple days.

I understand your dissatisfaction but hyperbole does not help your point.     Days??

Super.Tramp said:

Matt Swank said:

The US has had power blackouts for whole regions for multiple days.

I understand your dissatisfaction but hyperbole does not help your point.     Days??

It's not hyperbole. Where my cousins live in Connecticut they've have had blackouts lasting up to a week, in the winter no less, twice in the past couple of years. Parts of Long Island were without power for a week or more after Hurricane Sandy. A major earthquake in the Pacific Northwest (the anticipated "Big One") could cause widespread power outages for days.

On the other hand, Faithlife's response to this data center failure was to redouble their efforts to set up redundancy in more than one geographic location. They were already on a path to do that before this failure happened, and I'm guessing they are working as hard as they can to have it finalized before something like this happens again. It would be nice to hear an update on that.

The blackout I remember in the North-East did not last several days. (Did it?)  And that scale of an outage is extremely rare.

I lived it.  Some had power in a day, some two days but there were still many who didn't have it for up to 4 days, including myself.  This is why true cloud based systems need redundancy in different regions of at the very least the country and probably the world.  I get that Logos isn't a massive company and that the cost of infrastructure is high.  However, if you are going to sell yourself as a cloud based system then you need the appropriate infrastructure.  If the cost is too high then Logos needs to either find solutions other than building their own data centers, or they need to not sell cloud based services around the world.

I vote for the backup servers to be here in AZ.  We never experience power outages, simply because Phoenix would otherwise melt.  Plus Phoenix (or was that phoenix's) are verified by the apostolic fathers to quickly resurrect anyway (a major prooftext for Jesus' own).  So, no problem.

Matt Swank said:

I lived it.

It must have been prior to 2112.  I suffered a bit of memory loss that year. I will take your word on it. My apologies for challenging you.

Matt Swank said:

However, if you are going to sell yourself as a cloud based system then you need the appropriate infrastructure.  If the cost is too high then Logos needs to either find solutions other than building their own data centers, or they need to not sell cloud based services around the world.

True most, if not all, of your books are on your computer.  However, many of us use mobile devices more than the computer.  While we can have our books on our devices, many features will not work unless you are connected to the internet.  It's also my understanding that many features in Logos 6 are also dependent on cloud services.  Then there's proclaim.  It is almost fully dependent on cloud services.  Yes they have introduced a work around but that defeats the primary reason for using Proclaim.  It is sold as a cloud based service.  Without that function you may as well use one of the many other options out there for worship presentation.  The other options that do not have cloud based service do not have a monthly subscription. 

On a side note many people lost access to their books on their mobile devices.

Rosie Perera said:

it hasn't even happened yet.

Reminds me of the Moody Blues'  "Days of Future Passed."

First of all, logos isn't just logos desktop bible software anymore.  When that's all that they were, there was no real issue with a server crash. 

Secondly, I personally rarely use my computer.  I use my ipad.  The reason I invested in Logos is because of what I could do on my ipad with it.  You can't do word search or use other tools like your greek and hebrew tools without internet connection.  And for many people, even though they downloaded their books to their device they were unable to use them. 

As for Proclaim.  That's a big deal.  It's part of the Logos company and it is one of the services that basically quit working.  When that is down it effects your entire worship service.

Merry Christmas Mr. Pritchett...YOU personally may be the reason I retain version 7.0.

Glory to God!

In 2004, we had a series of hurricanes hitting just weeks apart that left us without power for two, two week increments. Lost power for two weeks, it came back up for 6 or 8 days, and then bam, back down again. In 1993, the blizzard of '93 (or where I lived in Florida - the no-name storm, and now called the storm of the century by many) came up almost out of nowhere with little warning, and did considerably more damage than anyone could have expected. Its effects were felt from Canada to South America, and its epicenter was about 3 miles north of where I lived at the time. We had six feet of water in our home, which was itself several feet off the ground. Coast guard boats traveled in our front yard, and over our dock. As we were swimming (!) to safety, we saw dolphins crossing the highway. 

In NC where I live now, if it rains hard people forget how to drive and run over telephone poles, and all sorts of things. If it snows? forget it. Don't even leave the house; and don't plan on having power throughout the entirety of the snow fall either. 1/2 inch of snow and an entire state capital shuts down. 

In Florida we were prepared for that - a couple generators, a couple weeks worth of food, and water. Propane to cook on, and so forth. The worst part was the heat.

There are plenty of examples like this people can point to as reasons for offsite back ups. There are so many eventualities though (giant super-volcano erupts killing millions, causing second ice age, asteroid strikes can cause extinction level event, and on and on and on), that they all can't be accounted for. What about low yield nuclear device being detonated over Colorado, from which the resulting EMP would leave america in the dark ages for quite some time (some estimates fall into the 10-20 year range). I guess my point in all this is that only so much can be done to protect and prepare for the unlikely. Sure logos could have a server farm in the countryside of every major continent on the planet. Wonder how much extra that would make our books cost?

If we listen to the alarmists amoungst us life as we know it totters around the balance point back and forth between extinction for mankind and our relative safety. With threats coming from every vector, and with such scary news selling better than peaceful news; at some point we have to accept that there are some eventualities that just aren't feasible to predict, plan, or prepare for and roll with the punches when they come. 

This minor though annoying event (why is this still one of the top posts?) from two weeks ago now (?) maybe three weeks(?) - probably could have been prevented. Bob apologized, had a new plan in the works (redundant data center), and in light of what they learned, they made some changes to their setup to reflect a better (if not implicitly best) practice. 

If the worst part of our day was that we had to preach from memory, or paper notes - then praise God for His mercies. If you weren't hungry, dying, or watching someone you love go hungry or die then praise God for His mercies. 

Kudos Logos from learning from this. Keep up the good work.