To follow up on Jim and Barry's discussion:

    What would it cost, if anything, to have the Rackspace configuration set to automatically add server capacity when the load exceeds the standard configuration's capacity?

    Jim's observations about the difficulty of undoing a bad reputation have merit. Due to the extent the world wide web has intruded into all aspects of the average American's life, people now often judge organizations - their worth, reliability, trustworthiness and value — based on their experience with the organization's website and particularly its e-commerce section. If the e-commerce section is slow, difficult to navigate, prone to mistakes and incapable of providing verification of the receipt of an order and the shipping of the order, the website/organization is often abandoned in the future.

    We live in a world of speed and we — whether we agree or not — are held up to the standards established by the best on the Net. If we do not measure up, we irrevocably damage our present and our future.

    We are not a rich organization in terms of funds, but we cannot afford to act as if we are poor. If the cost is not staggering, it might behoove the ARRL to spend-up to avoid the capacity issues in the future. The improvement in the perception of the Members' interaction with the ARRL's "face" to the world would, I expect, be out of proportion to the cost.

   


73


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       John Robert Stratton       
                 
                        N5AUS                      



       Office telephone:    512-445-6262
       Cell:                         512-426-2028
                      PO Box 2232
            Austin, Texas 78768-2232


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On 11/27/12 1:52 PM, Shelley, Barry, N1VXY wrote:

Jim:

 

Web site traffic is variable day-to-day. There weren’t that many additional orders, actually fewer than last year’s Cyber Monday, but when combined with all the other traffic, people surfing for deals, etc., it overwhelmed the servers. We now have 10 servers processing web site traffic.

 

Should we have anticipated it? Maybe and I see the need for better internal communication to help avoid the situations.

 

73,

Barry J. Shelley, N1VXY

Chief Financial Officer


 

 

From: Jim Weaver K8JE [mailto:K8JE@ARRL.org]
Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2012 2:40 PM
To: Shelley, Barry, N1VXY; arrl-odv
Subject: RE: [arrl-odv:21260] Re: Company Store Site

 

Barry,

 

Should "we" not have expected a very heavy response to our Cyber Monday promotion and anticipated the temporary need for added capacity . . . and at least monitored the situation closely?  If one was to walk through a swamp known to be filled with water moccasins wouldn't they put on protective high-waders to avoid the possibility of being bitten before entering the water rather than to wait until seeing a bunch of snakes?

 

Jim Weaver, K8JE

Director, Great Lakes Division


 

From: arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org [mailto:arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org] On Behalf Of Shelley, Barry, N1VXY
Sent: 27 November, 2012 2:14 PM
To: arrl-odv
Subject: [arrl-odv:21260] Re: Company Store Site

To follow up on David’s note, the increase in traffic was seemingly the result of our own Cyber Monday sales promotion. We’re still looking into it. One of the design features with the Rackspace configuration was the ability to add server capacity relatively quickly, once identified, but not automatically. This was part of the reason that Jon Bloom created the configuration after the initial performance issues with the new web site several years ago.

 

Might we have responded more quickly, possibly, and we will look into how best to do this short of running a 24/7 IT operation.

 

73,

 

Barry J. Shelley, N1VXY

Chief Financial Officer