[asterisk-biz] Anyone try to call VoIP Supply?

[Matthew Rubenstein]

	As I said, I'm not singling out VoIPSupply, they're just an
illustration of a basic value of Asterisk that's not being utilized in
this case. As I said, their website isn't down, because it (apparently)
doesn't depend on a server in their office, therefore on their office
power and WAN connection. It's probably in a datacenter (or maybe
someone else's small office, outside of Buffalo, in which case I hope
they learn from this outage and move it somewhere reliable). Which is
now the conventional wisdom for websites.

	After over 10 years of businesses learning they're better off with
continuing telecom presence, even when their offices are closed,
websites have uptime assurance, like "harder" servers and redundant
failover. Telephones are even more critical. Not just to running the
business, but perhaps to surviving whatever shut the office, perhaps
even saving lives. Asterisk has even better failover facilities than
most webservers, so it's got the tech. I'd expect VoIPSupply still have
phones, because they sell VoIP gear, which can survive a disaster like
the one in Buffalo. Their neighbors probably don't have that advantage.

	But, as I said, 'this is not a reflection on VoIPSupply compared to
competitors or anyone else in particular. I think it's more a reflection
on the newness of the industry, and the general tendency of "Internet"
suppliers not to "eat their own dogfood'.

	I think this snowstorm is an object lesson to the Asterisk business
community in the value of Asterisk's support for redundancy and
transparent call routing for failover. Or the wisdom of network
topologies that include tougher datacenters for uptime. Or both, or
something similar. VoIPSupply is a good example, because they're in the
business, their town does get these disasters fairly regularly (though
not quite so much so soon, but still inevitably). They might be the
early example that upgrades the community's disaster preparedness
baseline. Most places have an equivalent, and the general trend is for
increasing necessity of disaster preparedness everywhere. VoIPSupply now
has the advantage of having lived through it, so they could be be one of
the best disaster-prepared companies the next time around.

	If VoIPSupply, or any of their neighbors, were prepared this time
around, we wouldn't be having this discussion. They'd be explaining how
their phones were the only ones in Buffalo to stay up, still doing
business while everyone else was shut down. Next time around, we will
have a chance to learn from them how to do it. That next time is
inevitable, and in Buffalo, probably pretty soon.


On Sat, 2006-10-14 at 09:16 -0400, Matt wrote:
> I've always liked voipsupply and their customer service... just keep
> in mind this outage has nothing to prove about VoIP... regardless if
> they are running VoIP or a NorHell phone system, it would be down.  I
> tried calling several others companies at random that are on the same
> road as them, and they all ring fast busy or just ring and ring.
> 
> On 10/13/06, Matthew Rubenstein <email at mattruby.com> wrote:
> >         Snowstorms and power outages are understandable reasons for business
> > closures. But Asterisk offers flexible call routing and voicemail to
> > address disaster preparedness. VoIPSupply sells packaged HW/SW, and
> > isn't an Asterisk developer, so this doesn't strike as close to home.
> > But keeping phone connectivity up despite network/office problems is one
> > of the major selling points of VoIP. If they sold network gear (they do)
> > or servers and their website were down because it depended on a machine
> > in their vulnerable office, that would reflect on their use of the
> > technology they sell. This snowstorm is unusually severe for so early,
> > but in Buffalo they expect these kinds of problems. I'd expect their
> > phone access, even just to a status message, to stay up in expectation
> > of these kinds of problems.
> >
> >         This is not a reflection on VoIPSupply compared to competitors or
> > anyone else in particular. I think it's more a reflection on the newness
> > of the industry, and the general tendency of "Internet" suppliers not to
> > "eat their own dogfood".
> >
> >
> > On Fri, 2006-10-13 at 15:33 -0400, Matt wrote:
> > > Well maybe it is a power outage.. I tried calling a few other places
> > > on sonwil drive and they also are coming up busy or ring-no-answer.
> > >
> > > On 10/13/06, Matt <mhoppes at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > Yeah.. I just posted a question about this to the regular list.
> > > >
> > > > Our sales guy has been offline for 2+ days.  Their 800, and direct
> > > > lines are FAST busy (not busy).. canadian store and blogs are offline.
> > > >  Did they have a fire or something?  I just ordered from them on
> > > > Friday of last week... and got my item on Tuesday.
> > > >
> > > > On 10/13/06, Andrew Joakimsen <joakimsen at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > > All their phones are busy.... I guess they just totally gave up on
> > > > > customer service....
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> > (C) Matthew Rubenstein
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(C) Matthew Rubenstein