What about the data server reliability

Hello,

I had read a lot of messages talking about the poor quality of the MCFX data stream.

I had read that MC has planned to improve the data servers to made them more reliables.

Could you give us an update about that ?

What is the current status of the MCFX data stream quality (% availability) ?
What is the roadmap for MCFX improvments ?


Another question : is it possible to set up the time zone in MCFX (Paris Local Time, GMT, ...) ?

Hello Daniel,

We hope to launch the new server within the next couple of weeks.
The new server is practically ready to be launched into the production environment. Our software engineers are working on some minor fixes.

Regarding your second question: It is only possible to change between the exchange and the local time. And the local time will be the time set on your computer.

Best regards.

We hope to launch the new server within the next couple of weeks.
The new server is practically ready to be launched into the production environment. Our software engineers are working on some minor fixes.

Could you please provide regular (weekly or better) updates on this situation?

When I asked for a firm start date for the new server well over a month ago, I was told two to three weeks, but probably sooner.

Many of your customers, having paid for a service that claims to be reliable, have been waiting for months for this description to be fulfilled. There always seems to be some new excuse (daylight saving, for example) or some new delay.

I feel that a formal statement on this matter from a senior member of TS Support management would be appropriate. And you should certainly publish records of your data outages. Your customers need to know what you mean by "reliable", and what you are doing to ensure that your service is as you describe.

M Klein

Could you please provide regular (weekly or better) updates on this situation?

When I asked for a firm start date for the new server well over a month ago, I was told two to three weeks, but probably sooner.

Many of your customers, having paid for a service that claims to be reliable, have been waiting for months for this description to be fulfilled. There always seems to be some new excuse (daylight saving, for example) or some new delay.

I feel that a formal statement on this matter from a senior member of TS Support management would be appropriate. And you should certainly publish records of your data outages. Your customers need to know what you mean by "reliable", and what you are doing to ensure that your service is as you describe.

M Klein

Dear M Klein,

The truth is that, when developing software, it is very hard to make estimates as to when the product will be completed. We have worked on the new server for quite a long time now. Several times, when we thought that the server could be soon launched new problems were discovered which made us postpone the release of the new server version. We have underestimated the complexity of the task.

At the moment, we are testing the alpha-version of the server. It has been completed, it works, it doesn't crash, there are no data outages. However, there are a number of problems with data that must be fixed before a beta-version for the customers can be released. We are determined to make such a release by the end of this month. We will first launch one server. Later additional servers will be launched - to form a cluster.

Regarding the current outages: publishing information about those would not help much. We believe that our efforts should be concentrated (and they are concentrated) on reducing outages to 2-3 times a year or eliminating them completely.

We apologize for the delays and appreciate your patience.

Thank you.

The truth is that, when developing software, it is very hard to make estimates as to when the product will be completed.

I understand that. That's why I feel it's important that you should provide regular updates, particularly if a previous estimate of delivery time is found to be unrealistic. This is standard practice.

At the moment, we are testing the alpha-version of the server. It has been completed, it works, it doesn't crash, there are no data outages. However, there are a number of problems with data that must be fixed before a beta-version for the customers can be released. We are determined to make such a release by the end of this month. We will first launch one server. Later additional servers will be launched - to form a cluster.

Thanks for the update. It's appreciated. Can you give a somewhat quantitative estimate of "later"? I know it's hard, but would you say weeks, months, or years?

Regarding the current outages: publishing information about those would not help much. We believe that our efforts should be concentrated (and they are concentrated) on reducing outages to 2-3 times a year or eliminating them completely.

That's a fair point, but it would be a step towards keeping your customers - present and future - objectively informed about your server performance and its future improvements.

We apologize for the delays and appreciate your patience.

It's appreciated.