Fire at Ford Headquarters

[bdcardinal]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ford-motors-headquarters-in-dearborn-evacuated-due-to-fire/

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/mi...rborn/93053706/

So the webpage we use at work, fmcdealer.com was completely shut down Monday. We would try to go to it and get "the farm is unavailable" instead of the page. It came back midday Tuesday but with some of the applications only partially working. Worst part about the whole thing was we couldn't check parts availability, look up recalls, or order parts on Monday.

On the Discussion Board on the page the webmaster said that the server farm in Dearborn flooded. They do have offsite backup servers however whatever they use to transfer processing off site was underwater in the basement.

Mazda also had a "scheduled maintenance" on their webpage that started midday Monday and apparently is still ongoing. Makes no sense to do it during business hours. So we weren't able to order parts from Mazda on Monday. Wednesday is our next order day so we placed our orders expecting a big shipment today. No freight today, according to Mazda "just because you place an order and receive a confirmation of order does not mean your order was received and confirmed" thanks guys.

 

[eljefino]

Maybe it was a box full of cruise control switches in the trunk of a Pinto?

 

[Run]

Everyone thought it was hard to find parts for vehicles older than 10 years. Good luck finding any parts now.

 

[pbm]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Maybe it was a box full of cruise control switches in the trunk of a Pinto?

Good One.

If there was a flood at GMs headquarters it probably would be from all the leaky intake manifold gaskets they've sold.....

 

[Virtus_Probi]

As long as the Washer and Dryer are OK...

 

[Bgallagher]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Maybe it was a box full of cruise control switches in the trunk of a Pinto?

haha, or they were burning old firestone tires from the early 90s explorers and they caught a gust of wind.

All joking aside I hope everybody is OK.

 

[OneEyeJack]

You'd think that Ford could have their Website co-located somewhere so this kind of thing would not happen. Maybe if they grow a bit bigger and can afford a full time staff for their computer department we won't see these kinds of problems.

 

[supton]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Maybe it was a box full of cruise control switches in the trunk of a Pinto?

Ha!

At work we had a water cooler of all things catch fire.

 

[Danno]

Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
You'd think that Ford could have their Website co-located somewhere so this kind of thing would not happen. Maybe if they grow a bit bigger and can afford a full time staff for their computer department we won't see these kinds of problems.

Hillary's IT team has some experience with off-site storage. I bet their resume would look interesting.

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: Bgallagher
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Maybe it was a box full of cruise control switches in the trunk of a Pinto?

haha, or they were burning old firestone tires from the early 90s explorers and they caught a gust of wind.

All joking aside I hope everybody is OK.


Ya they said everyone was alright. It is the downside of having everything run through a webpage. I am more upset with Mazda. Took 3-4 hours yesterday just to get someone there on the phone for them to say "ya we are down, no we won't do a special run to make up for 2 order days of being down." I will never consider buying or recommend a Mazda product again.

 

[zzyzzx]

They do have offsite backup servers however whatever they use to transfer processing off site was underwater in the basement.

 

[Andrew1972]

Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
You'd think that Ford could have their Website co-located somewhere so this kind of thing would not happen. Maybe if they grow a bit bigger and can afford a full time staff for their computer department we won't see these kinds of problems.


My guess is they took the webpage down because all the systems and services behind it for the complexity were under water. A well designed system would have a colocated webpage and queue that would take orders when the system came up.

Reality is this is Ford is only show in town so if can't order today you'll come back tomorrow....

 

[andyd]

In Boston's Financial district there are sub- basements with row boats moored in them. Nobody in their right mind puts electronics below grade. As with most things this was learned the hard way

 

[simple_gifts]

Unfortunately, sound technical decisions are often superceded by arbitrary financial ones.

Look to the cloud!

 

[Virtus_Probi]

Originally Posted By: andyd
In Boston's Financial district there are sub- basements with row boats moored in them. Nobody in their right mind puts electronics below grade. As with most things this was learned the hard way

Remember when the Loop was shut down when the Chicago River poured into old tunnels due to some poorly planned bridgework and shorted out all kinds of things?
A company some friends worked for also had to rush to move some large and expensive electromechanical elements out of a basement when their local river hit flood stage. They were on the verge of losing millions...

 

[PeterPolyol]

I wonder what kind of incriminating data Ford was able to destroy with this fire.