Govermental forward thinking
Consider the following:
Police launch new crime mapping website
Site is advertised in all major newspapers and on all major channels
Site crashes under heavy load.
Seriously what did they expect - just a few people to pop on after the announcement. This would be as if Blizzard's servers crashed the day Cataclysm was released due to "unexpectedly heavy traffic".
Not only can't you access the maps, it seems to have taken the entire police.uk site with it; so no server-load balancing there then.[Update - my mistake police.uk is only the mapping part the main site is /www.homeoffice.gov.uk/police/ ]
Not a clue.
Incidentally I note this is my 2011th post.
4 comments:
Consider the alternative:
1. Police anticipate heavy load at launch.
2. Police spec servers and software infrastructure for launch load.
3. A year later, everyone complains that the site is only utilised at 1% of capacity. There are complaints that they're wasting money.
I'm more concerned with the service being run efficiently over the course of years, than whether it can cope with a few novelty-seekers in one or two days.
Has nobody thought about the fact that this map could serve as a rather useful resource for burglars looking for new areas to plunder? A slight oversight perhaps: http://durotrigan.blogspot.com/2011/02/england-and-wales-police-crime-website.html
I understand Dan's thoughts on this, but the amount of times you see this happen. Concert or event tickets and other high profile stuff and the websites crash due to "Unforeseen" heavy traffic! It does make you wonder who does the research on these things. Lets see, we will announce sale of "Take That" tickets on date "X". Now, how many people do we think will be interested. Errrrrr, lets go for about a thousand, that should cover it. Sorted. Its not only websites. Do you remember that free concert in Birmingham a year or so back. JLS, etc. Big crush, concert canceled. What moron did the maths on that! Free concert with top teen bands! What did they think was going to be the interest! Casual shoppers popping over from the Bullring?!!!
I agree with Dan in that to set up something permanently would be a mistake, but I point to my Blizzard remark.
They know they're going to get a heavy load on the day of a big release which will slowly settle down. I can't see them setting up permanent balancing servers and just leaving them in place.
As Steve remarks this happens a lot, which shows either a gap in the market for such short-term solutions; that they don't have the budget to allow for it; or they simply don't think of it.
@Durotrigan - welcome. This has been pointed out by most of the media along with the "Won't someone please think of the house prices". It's a Catch 22. Thanks to the emphasis on such reporting people think there's more crime than there is.
If the police just release general figures the complaint is that these have little relevance to 'my' area or that they're wrong because some crime is not reported.
So break it down into map form and you gain more information. At which point you receive the complaint you point out.
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