Jetstar CIO: Downtime risk saves money

[oz_mark]

Jetstar CIO: Downtime risk saves money: News - Hardware - ZDNet Australia

Jetstar's "doing it for a dollar less" mentality has meant that the airline has accepted the risk that it might not be up all the time in exchange for cheaper services, CIO Stephen Tame said today.

"If I'm willing to take a 2.5 per cent business risk then I don't necessarily need to have expensive network links," Tame said, speaking at an Accenture CIO round-table today.

"Jetstar is a 97.5 per cent airline. That doesn't mean that we don't have 99.9 per cent systems. We do. What it means though is conceptually that from an IT point of view and a business point of view, we're willing to take a balanced and measured business risk in order to get a better outcome."

 

[docjames]

Probably not the most reassuring statemetnt:

Jetstar is a 97.5 per cent airline.

I hope that only applies to IT and not everything else (dont like the thought of 97.5% safety.........)

 

[oz_mark]

I found the article interesting, as a lot of places I have been always say they want 99.5% + uptime, but then choke when you tell them what hardware they need

 

[harvyk]

"Jetstar is a 97.5 per cent airline. That doesn't mean that we don't have 99.9 per cent systems. We do. What it means though is conceptually that from an IT point of view and a business point of view, we're willing to take a balanced and measured business risk in order to get a better outcome."

Working in IT I have heard this far to many times. The full story goes like this.

1. Some idiot bean counter doesn't understand IT, so they cut back
2. IT guys explain to bean counters what they have cut back, bean counters do not budge.
3. System goes into meltdown, company starts losing money.
4. Company screams at IT explaining it's all their fault. IT explains it's because of budget cut backs, company doesn't want to hear it.
5. IT budget cut even more because company doesn't have money any more
6. Go back to step 1.

I admit, calling yourselfs the 97.5% availability company is an interesting way of saying "we're tightarses"