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onlooker
28 May 17 20:24
Joined:
Date Joined: 18 Feb 03
| Topic/replies: 40,672 | Blogger: onlooker's blog
Strange one this - f it actually was a, "power outage."

Was it in the UK? - If so - then has it been verified by the local Power supply company, or  National Grid, even.

- or was it in India? - to where the BA IT responsibilities have been outsourced.

Usually, when companies make a statement along these lines - they add ... "at our Head Offices," - or, "at our Distribution  centre" - or similar.

BUT, not a mention, as far as I can see, in this instance.

- and why are the BBC, SKY, and the newspapers not asking this question?

- and have BA not got a Back-Up Batteries system - or a generator, even?

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Replies: 25
By:
moisok
When: 28 May 17 20:27
someone not peddling fast enough on the generator
By:
The Leopard
When: 28 May 17 20:33
It's secret.
By:
moisok
When: 28 May 17 20:37
NO ITS NOT
By:
Ibrahima Sonko
When: 28 May 17 21:43
.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4549262/British-Airways-faces-record-150m-compensation-payout.html

Funny how companies think they can save money but dont care about the service or the reputation they have built up over time.
By:
mokegibboni
When: 28 May 17 23:19
I wonder in fact if it was a computer virus/malware attack, but BA are too embarrassed to admit it, especially after the worldwide attack a few weeks ago which encrypted data from the NHS computers.
By:
onlooker
When: 29 May 17 01:32
Doubt it -

Denial of Service, and similar Malware/Ransomware attacks usually tareget more than just the one target ....

'All eggs in one basket' scenario is not their tactic.
By:
kincsem
When: 29 May 17 05:48
Did BA not pay the invoice?
By:
Ramruma
When: 29 May 17 07:38
According to BA the problem was caused by a power failure.

Which raises some questions:

1) why did the power fail?
   a) did they only take grid power from one feed?
   b) why did no emergency generator take over?

2) why was there no failover to a different datacentre?
   a) do they not even have a DR (disaster recovery) site?
   b) do they have one but have never tested or practised failover?

3) were redundancies and outsourcing to India a factor?
   a) had BA got rid of the staff who knew how to failover?
   b) did getting rid of the UK datacentre teams mean there was no-one walking around to see warning lights?

That's off the top of my head from someone who used to work at a datacentre but not for British Airways.
By:
wit-ham
When: 29 May 17 07:47
Does no-one know how to use pen and paper imo
By:
The Leopard
When: 29 May 17 11:01
^ Are you from the 19th Century ?
By:
The Leopard
When: 29 May 17 11:02
Confused
By:
Petraco
When: 29 May 17 11:10
If someone wants to make a book on this market, can I have my two-penneth on 3a please?

Classic example of decision makers not understanding what they are making decisions about.
By:
TrainStopper
When: 29 May 17 11:12
The main BA datacentre will be in Erding Germany this is where the Amadeus Passenger Service System that they use is hosted, its mainframe technology and will have redundant power supplies, jthere will be a backup data centre but with this technology it would be a few days work to restore the system with all the middleware connections that provide the lipstick on the pig that makes the mainframe usable by people used to using graphical interfaces, websites etc.


My experience of these situations is that the root cause is always laughable with one component not failing over or with an operater not following a scriprt properly. Getting the mainframe back up is generally easy but if the error has affected the integration with the distributed systems that will explain why they are in such a pickle.

The main issue with recovery is that there will be no-one that understands the whole picture in depth, in the past there would have been experience mainframe gurus who progressed into middlware/network but these tasks have now been siloed with responsibilities outsourced to india and the recovery effort will resemble a circus with everybdy claiming their bit is working fine.

Unfortunately there isnt really an option to go manual these days as of couse the tickets are all electronic and there will be a bunch of background passport type checks for security purposes
By:
wit-ham
When: 29 May 17 11:17
What's wrong with that planes and people would have got away on hols

Not everything is better today/sometimes the old way is better

my 8 team acca just came up in Laddies but due to a power cut
i can't have my money as the lass/lad behind counter cant settle it by hand

No not against progress but sometimes you need other options.
By:
TrainStopper
When: 29 May 17 11:21
Heres details on their datacentre

http://www.amadeus.com/msite/investors/quarterly_financial_info/annual_reports/2012/en/04-Amadeus-technology/04-02-amadeus-technology-01.html
By:
The Leopard
When: 29 May 17 12:59
Cruz got to go.
.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Álex_Cruz_(businessman)
By:
moisok
When: 30 May 17 11:19
Whilst the forum tab disappears off my screen again - what is that all about - fiddlers with the system? BA have similar problems of incompetence, produced by people not knowing what they are doing or the consequences of their actions.
All Data centers worth anything have TVSS (basically regulates power to ensure its always at right voltage) have have backups of these systems just in case. The sort of outage you see is most like due to cost cutting and not ensuring proper DR and Business continuity testing which happens when you out source to any company where engineers are paid minimum wage. Out sourcing only works if you have skilled staff in your company who can manage the out sourcing company and know who know they systems and requirements. By getting rid of skilled staff who knew BA's systems and how to maintain them, when an issue occurred no one knew how to sort it out. They would have to bring in people which takes time as we saw.
By:
moisok
When: 30 May 17 11:34
The moment I mention the forum tab - 10 minutes later it is back.  IT people stalking me now?? ho ho!!!
By:
moisok
When: 30 May 17 11:37
someone even blames the outage on cables burning out!!!????
But I understand other airlines have separate complete back up systems in other locations.
Does sound rather like BA have not spent as they should have. But where have we heard that before.
Some companies think they can get away with not investing in good IT and security, but more into collecting
profit for shareholders.
By:
johnizere
When: 30 May 17 13:32


BA IT service centre, Mumbai.
By:
mokegibboni
When: 30 May 17 22:39
All they had to do was press 'CTRL/ALT/DEL' - that solves everything!
By:
kincsem
When: 31 May 17 01:14
We will never get an answer.
If I was a guesser I'd guess that someone was running around BA a while back saying they had cut numbers and made savings.
By:
moisok
When: 31 May 17 14:56
pouring water/hosing down roof of building where the servers were to keep them cool?????
By:
Petraco
When: 02 Jun 17 22:48
Well who would have thought...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/02/ba-chaos-blamed-worker-switched-power/
By:
Ibrahima Sonko
When: 03 Jun 17 12:16
walofs
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