Whenever a communications technology outage is reported and the cause is attributed to some problem with a software load or other maintenance work performed *in the middle of a workday* I always ask myself, "What were they thinking, performing this type of work during a busy period?!?" I do not know what the peak hours for Vonage are, but even with a customer base that is currently more residential in nature, and, acknowledging that a global environment complicates what a carrier's busy-hours are (it may be 4:00 AM CST in the U.S., but it's primetime for those in the U.S. calling Europe, etc.), one would have to believe a Thursday afternoon would not be the wisest time to perform non-emergency, but potentially intrusive work on the network!
Vonage, or even the VOIP environment are not unique here; for several years some of the largest carriers have experienced outages during some of their busiest periods due to scheduling non-emergency software loads and upgrades during peak periods ... what idiocy!
Is common sense a thing of the past for some people, or is the belief in performing quality work a thing of the past for some people..or both?
Randy Hayes University of Northern Iowa snipped-for-privacy@uni.edu