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Topic: Social Enterprise

Skype failure and the Enterprise 2.0 mess

Summary: Skype is down today, which sucks for those of us who rely upon it on a daily basis. From the Skype support site:Some of you may be having problems logging into Skype.

Michael Krigsman

By for Beyond IT Failure |

Skype is down today, which sucks for those of us who rely upon it on a daily basis. From the Skype support site:

Some of you may be having problems logging into Skype. Our engineering team has determined that it’s a software issue. We expect this to be resolved within 12 to 24 hours.

Large-scale business adoption of Enterprise 2.0 infrastructure applications, such as Skype, will only occur when these new technologies can survive comparison with established utilities. Society has demanded that basic services -- water, phone, electricity, roads, and so on -- must adhere to certain levels of reliability and availability. Likewise, business users expect their software infrastructure to provide high reliability, especially in mission-critical domains.

Recently, VOIP supplier SunRocket discontinued operations with little notice, leaving thousands of customers in the lurch. And just this week, Google announced they are suddenly leaving the video rental/sale business, leaving their paid customers high and dry.

Such high-profile failures make consumers and businesses wary of adopting Enterprise 2.0 tools.

Update: For more Enterprise 2.0 failure, see this post about Google Grand Central.

Update 2: For a broader perspective on the impact and benefits of Enterprise 2.0 tools, see this post.

Topics: Social Enterprise, Collaboration

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13 comments
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  • Check for sabotage

    If I were a Skype technician, I would be looking for some kind of sabotage from the telecoms who receive income from the competeing and much more expensive versions of VOIP.
    rjoycestar
    Reply Vote

  • This not Enterprise 2.0

    Well not really anyway. Enterprises do need more reliable solutions. That being said, using Skype in a business context, relying on a consumer product infrastructure would be both foolish and not very Enterprise 2.0 but more like your bread and butter WEB 2.0

    businesses needs to adapt to the new reality but it is my belief that they should house everything remotely WEB 2ish in house where it can be made more reliable. In house wiki, blogs, RSS, IM you name it.. so long as it's on your servers, managed under your disaster recovery policy. ( you do have one don't you boss?) ;)
    MisterGilles
    Reply Vote

  • But Michael, it's FREE. How is that E2.0?

    You can't lump free-of-charge services in with paid-for applications and tar them all with the same brush. Enterprise-class reliability has to be paid for, it doesn't come for free. I'm sorry, but if you rely on Skype without a fallback then you're the one who's not adhering to enterprise standards. And if you've built your business model on the assumption that Skype's free service will be reliably available, then there's a flaw in your business planning.
    phil wainewright
    Reply Vote

    • It's NOT free and it IS E2.0

      I pay for a number of Skype services that I pay for on a daily basis. Enterprise 2.0 involves smaller, consumer-friendly applications that can serve as substitutes for big, expensive, centrally-deployed IT applications. On that basis, Skype certainly does qualify as Enterprise 2.0.
      mkrigsman@...
      Reply Vote

    • It's not free

      SkypeOut is a paid for service. That implies it is fit for business purpose. The whole kit and kaboodle failed. To suggest a fallback doesn't make a lot of sense in this context. Would you have a fallback for when/if the landline goes down? In this case, the outage itself has not been my gripe - it's the length of time it was out. Some 30+ hours is pretty extreme.
      dahowlett@...
      Reply Vote

      • >Would you have a fallback for when/if the landline goes down?

        Yes, I sure would...

        The power blackout that affected huge portions of the northeastern US in 2003 was caused by a faulty algorithm.
        bmerc
        Reply Vote

  • Please

    I cant believe all the bad press because Skype was down one time albeit, a lengthy time. However, I have has my internet down 24 hours before and my phone switch, and even my telephone service have had problems. What should happen, is that we should see how they handle fixing this. I commend them for not coming up with a quick fix, and would rather see them, take a while longer, and make it work.

    If they go down again, and often, then we can criticize. If this is a one time thing, or occurs very rarely, don't worry about it, and move on. Also, that is why having a mobile phone, comes in handy. :)
    dclinks@...
    Reply Vote

  • Reliable systems

    Mainframes were (are) very reliable because they were designed to be a utility. PCs (pc servers) have taken over the role of mainframes in many apps even though they were never designed to be a utility. PC server based systems are approaching mainframe reliability by employing massive redundancy. The internet was not designed to give six sigma reliability and applications based solely on the internet will not deliver six sigma reliability. There is a way to get that level of reliability and that is by utilizing a number of different technologies redundantly. ie Skype, POTS, Intranets, VPNs etc. With the importance of communications to the efficient functioning in today's world I wonder how anyone could rely solely on something like Skype. It is going to go down. That much we know for sure.
    fhskier
    Reply Vote

  • Skype is FABULOUS, and 1 incident can't change this

    I'm using SKYPE since years and years, never had a problem, GREAT service for FREE. And even though lately I'm a paying customer, I have total understanding that there has been this 1 little incident in all these years! No problem, you go Skype! You are my favorite!
    By the way, Comcast and others have MUCH more outages and I've never heard so mean articles about it. If Skype has damage to its reputation then it is thanks to articles like this one!
    Sincerely, Angela
    fobianke@...
    Reply Vote

  • Down 1 day out of 1000? Sounds OK to me.

    My Verizon phone service goes down occasionally for over a day and no one writes that <i>the damage is done to their reputation.></i> Service outages are a fact of life and frankly over the past several years Skype has been up and working for more days than my plain old telephone service.
    CortnyCox
    Reply Vote

    • Verizon doesn't need to prove reliability

      The POTS doesn't need to prove it's reliability after so many years in business. Unfortunately, Skype still has to prove itself. Also, users have many choices for VOIP alternatives; if you want a phone line, you have to call Verizon. These are big differences.
      mkrigsman@...
      Reply Vote

  • Total Agree

    Even 5 days down, God Forbid still the other 360 days up and runinng is fine with me.
    idkeidek@...
    Reply Vote

  • Have a backup line!

    Skype is great, but it makes sense to have a backup VOIP line from one of the other established VOIP providers. I

    personally went with <a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?

    id=Wv7rUblo*Jc&amp;offerid=122417.10000010&amp;type=1&amp;subid=0">Packet8</a>, but there are a bunch of other reliable

    companies on the market, such as <a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?

    id=Wv7rUblo*Jc&offerid=116116.10000019&type=3&subid=0">Lingo</a>, <a href="http://www.dpbolvw.net/k8101mw3s-

    2HJKNQIMKHJIMJIQOP">ViaTalk</a> and <a href="http://www.kqzyfj.com/4381sjrfnq467AD5974659BBA87">JoiPhone</a>.
    cjackson@...
    Reply Vote
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