Behind the facade

[codash1099]

Interesting article in "The Age" online.

Virgin Blue check-in problems | Behind the scenes

Poll when I saw it had 64% preferring full service airlines, but that may reflect that newspaper's demographic.

 

[harvyk]

It's interesting, but not restricted to DJ \ the LCC market, or even the airline market full stop.

 

[samh004]

In the article they said other airlines around the world also had problems when Navitaire went down, but I haven’t heard anything. I know JQ had a glitch for about 15 minutes before their backup started running perfectly. Was every other airline on the same system just better prepared than Virgin Blue?

 

[docjames]

It's interesting, but not restricted to DJ \ the LCC market, or even the airline market full stop.

The poll result is not surprising either, but when it comes time to actually pay, people "vote" differently.

 

[harvyk]

Was every other airline on the same system just better prepared than Virgin Blue?

In a word, NO.

That's the problem with disaster management and disaster recovery. I know from my past life writing disaster recovery plans that you can plan to the nth degree, but it's theoretical. Until a disaster truely hits, you don't know how good your plan is, and unfortuantly if the plan is not upto scratch it's too late to work with a new stratagy for DM \ DR.

So in a nutshell, the other airlines DM \ DR plans where better suited to this particular disaster than DJ's. That's not to say DJ didn't try and plan well. It's just in this instance their DM \ DR plans couldn't handle it.

 

[medhead]

Did other airlines even need their disaster plans? As I understand the DJ backup server failed whereas it seems the backup servers kicked in ok for JQ and possibly other airlines?

 

[harvyk]

Sort of,

When I used to write DM \ DR plans I would include any forseeable thing which could prevent the business from operating, and then plan ways to overcome said thing.

Disaster management isn't just about fire \ flood and distruction (although those are important things to consider), it should also include mission critical system outages and the appropriate handling of such.

So in the case of other airlines (and DJ) their DM \ DR plans involved switching to alternate backup systems. There was probably a very set amount of time attached to those plans. Unfortuantly for DJ when they went to enact their DM \ DR plan something went wrong. (Not sure if it was the backup system failed or if it was a personal issue) either way it will need to be something they review.

 

[oz_mark]

So in the case of other airlines (and DJ) their DM \ DR plans involved switching to alternate backup systems. There was probably a very set amount of time attached to those plans. Unfortuantly for DJ when they went to enact their DM \ DR plan something went wrong. (Not sure if it was the backup system failed or if it was a personal issue) either way it will need to be something they review.

A 21 hour outage suggests severe shortcomings in either the DM/DR plans or the implementation of the plan. What is not clear is when they attempted to move to the back-up system. What we do know is that

an initial decision to seek to repair the device proved less than fruitful and also contributed to the delay in initiating a cutover to a contingency hardware platform.

Virgin Blue > News and Press Releases

I think Navitaire and Accenture have a lot of explaining to do, and I expect that they will incur some pretty significant penalties.

 

[farstar]

I think Navitaire and Accenture have a lot of explaining to do, and I expect that they will incur some pretty significant penalties.

Maybe they should pay but the fact that Jetstar had almost no problem seems to put the blame it both camps. I hope Jetstar also gets the same compensation as Virgin otherwise why should they bother with backup they can just sue someone else.

 

[medhead]

Maybe they should pay but the fact that Jetstar had almost no problem seems to put the blame it both camps. I hope Jetstar also gets the same compensation as Virgin otherwise why should they bother with backup they can just sue someone else.

Isn't the point that Virgin's paid for backup and the backup failed. That is the basis of the compensation. That Jetstar's backup didn't fail doesn't seem relevant to me. Also that someone else is being compensated because their backup system did fail doesn't seem like a good reason to stop using any backup. I'm not sure how Jetstar would be able to sue someone if they didn't contract them to provide a backup.

 

[Flashback]

Virgin to chase $20m in outage losses - Strategy - Business - News - iTnews.com.au

Legal action against suppliers on the cards?

​

Budget airline Virgin Blue has told investors today it is “actively pursuing all avenues” to recover an estimated $15-$20 million of losses caused by an eleven day period of IT outages.


The airline today confirmed that problems with its Navitaire check-in system, hosted by Accenture, caused some 11 days of service interruptions and downtime since late September.

 

[samh004]

Poll when I saw it had 64% preferring full service airlines, but that may reflect that newspaper's demographic.

And the poll finished on 67% preferring full service airlines