Google failure: Google doesn’t stage changes????
Like many people we were surprised early Saturday morning when Google decided to display a warning for EVERY search result. My wife called immediately, thinking that our kitchen computer had been infected by some crazy virus.
According to Google’s own blog, the problem was with a file that lists all the “dangerous” web sites on the Internet. Apparently one of the entries in the file was simply “/” which was interpreted as “every site” – so Google flagged every single site on the Internet (including it’s own sites like youtube.com) as containing malware.
Now, what’s crazy about this is the fact that it happened at all. Most web developers we know, and certainly every site InGenius manages for customers goes through a pretty rigorous process before being updated. We maintain:
- Development Systems,
- Staging Systems,
- The Live site.
Developers work on the development systems – making changes, and testing their work. Once they’re happy with it, the changes are uploaded to a Staging server, and the whole site is tested, paying particular attention to the new features. Only then, when everything is perfect, are the changes migrated over to the Live Site. And, everything undergoes an immediate smoke test, and a complete test as quickly as possible.
So, it appears that Google doesn’t follow this sort of simple process – that they don’t stage changes, but instead simply roll them out to their main server!!! Unbelievable!!!!
I’m sure some changes will be made to their processes:
- An automated check of the new malware file to look for entries that can cause a repeat of the problems they experienced,
- A staged process, where the changes are tested before they are rolled out to the live system,
- A search for other “single points of failure” in Google’s systems. Where else could similar issues bring down all of Google??!!!
It sure would be fun to sit in on some of the meetings I’m sure will occur at Google on Monday morning. Hopefully whoever is responsible is not fired – you can be sure they won’t be making a mistake like this again…
InGenius exhibiting Mitel solutions at IT Expo
We’re heading off to IT Expo tomorrow (Booth 501) to show off our new Mitel product line, including:
- Unified Communicator Express
- InGenius Broadcast Alert
- InGenius App Builder
- InGenius simplER
So, what the heck is this stuff?
Mitel Unified Communicator Express
The marketing blurb goes like this:
<blurb> Mitel Unified Communicator® (UC) Express is a lightweight, serverless unified communications client that connects your Mitel business phone with Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Active Directory, Windows Live Messenger, and Windows Desktop Search on your PC. Productivity enhancements like click-to-dial, incoming caller ID pop-up, PC-based missed calls and speed calls list, and personal (Microsoft® Outlook®) directory integration. Available at Mitel. </blurb>
UCX is cool, because it’s a PC telephony client done right. It can optionally run right in your Windows taskbar, and can even be fully utilized from the tray icon. We have spent hundreds of hours trying to make the UI simple, yet extremely functional. You won’t find a huge app popping up every time the phone rings, or when you want to make a call – simply type in a few characters of the name of the person you want to call – and the app will find the number and dial. Nothing pops up or distracts the user.
UCX is the new version of Mitel’s Integrated Office Companion. UCX is an incredible upgrade to IOC, adding many cool features such as:
- Multiple phone profiles: If you have phones at your office, home, and on the road, you can set up phone profiles. UCX will automatically sign onto the phone appropriate for your location,
- Support for Mitel 5330, 5340, and the new 5312 and 5324 phones,
- Excellent support for Vista,
- And, we’re very excited to announce that UCX will soon have a built-in softphone, which you can use when you’re away from your desk.
- UCX is also extendable through TAPI, or our plugin API which we can adapt to your CRM solution, even if web based like salesforce.com. It’s a powerful tool for all employees, not just sales or call center agents.
InGenius Broadcast Alert
Broadcast Alert is a mass notification system that can send alerts to 10′s of thousands of your employees, via alerts that pop up on their PC’s, and their Mitel phones. Features include:
- PC client that’s easy to role out in large installations,
- PC client can display an alert, including an audio alert, and text and graphical instructions, and can even completely lock out the user’s PC – so the user is compelled to leave their office.
- Alerts can be displayed on Mitel’s 5300 series phones – currently supported on the 5340 and 5330 models, and soon on all 53xx phones.
- Alerts can be sent to user specified zones,
- Each Zone can have a custom exit instructions and graphic, allowing you to specify exit instructions for each floor of a building, or each building on campus,
- The system is EXTREMELY easy to maintain – new clients show up in the right zones automatically, without any administrator involvement.
- Users automatically change zones if they are mobile – so a laptop user will automatically join the zone of whatever building they are in as they move about the campus.
InGenius Application Builder
Build HTML applications for your Mitel and Polycom phones using a wizard based online tool.
App Builder is an online tool that makes it easy to create HTML applications for the hospitality industry, with other verticals coming soon.
You simply follow through the wizard, then click on download to obtain a sophisticated HTML application customized for your property.
We’re excited to be demonstrating new support for Polycom phones at IT Expo. Polycom’s phones include colour models which are perfect for use with App Builder. Stop by and check it out!
InGenius simplER
simplER is a great product for users of Mitel’s 3300 series of switches. simplER monitors your 3300 looking for calls to 911 or any other emergency numbers you specify. When it detects an emergency call in progress, simplER looks up the caller in your Active Directory database, determines the caller’s location and name, then alerts approriate first responders for that office area, building floor, or campus building.
As the name implies, simplER is incredibly easy to configure and maintain, and is extremely flexible in it’s notification options. You can customize the notifications that are sent, and easily manage the notification groups by simply creating Active Directory groups following a simple naming convention.
simplER is an essential tool for EVERY Mitel 3300 system installation.
New and Exciting Stuff we can’t talk about here!
We’ll be highlighting some other exciting new stuff at IT Expo – including solutions for Asterisk users, advanced SIP softphone functionality and more. Please stop by at booth 501!
We’ll be posting photos and more blog entries from the show. Keep checking back for more exciting news from the show!
