August 18, 2011 at 12:15 pm
My company uses software from a cloud based vendor. All data relevant to the application is stored with them. We have read only access to the SQL Server data (replicated and presented as views to us). This is a relatively new feature for us. It has been around for five or six years but in the last two years we have exploded in usage of this data (custom reports, data auditing, etc). As we rely on this access more and more we struggle with the vendor's server downtime and related issues.
The vendor is good about communicating software updates but bad about informing us of changes to the database and relevant tables. Recently a replication job failed, causing us to have about four hours of no access. While it isn't the end of the world for us, we've constantly been asking them to be more transparent and open with us about the failures. We'd rather know right away if we are going to experience interruptions in access. Instead we usually end up having to reach out to them to find out what is going on and why.
Does anybody else have experience with cloud based vendors hosting data? Are they open about issues like this or do you have similar experiences as I do? I'm trying to gauge how pushy we are being. I don't think it is unreasonable to expect our vendor to communicate with us about replication issues, downtime and updates. But perhaps I am wrong!
August 18, 2011 at 12:50 pm
hwells (8/18/2011)
My company uses software from a cloud based vendor. All data relevant to the application is stored with them. We have read only access to the SQL Server data (replicated and presented as views to us). This is a relatively new feature for us. It has been around for five or six years but in the last two years we have exploded in usage of this data (custom reports, data auditing, etc). As we rely on this access more and more we struggle with the vendor's server downtime and related issues.The vendor is good about communicating software updates but bad about informing us of changes to the database and relevant tables. Recently a replication job failed, causing us to have about four hours of no access. While it isn't the end of the world for us, we've constantly been asking them to be more transparent and open with us about the failures. We'd rather know right away if we are going to experience interruptions in access. Instead we usually end up having to reach out to them to find out what is going on and why.
Does anybody else have experience with cloud based vendors hosting data? Are they open about issues like this or do you have similar experiences as I do? I'm trying to gauge how pushy we are being. I don't think it is unreasonable to expect our vendor to communicate with us about replication issues, downtime and updates. But perhaps I am wrong!
You can be as pushy as the SLA written in the contract allows you to be. 🙂
On the other hand, does your company owns the application or are you getting the application under SaS (Software as a Service) model? On what your answer is depends how much flexibility you have in terms of having control of the environment.
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Pablo (Paul) Berzukov
Author of Understanding Database Administration available at Amazon and other bookstores.
Disclaimer: Advice is provided to the best of my knowledge but no implicit or explicit warranties are provided. Since the advisor explicitly encourages testing any and all suggestions on a test non-production environment advisor should not held liable or responsible for any actions taken based on the given advice.August 18, 2011 at 2:08 pm
I'm checking into the SLA. They are a SaaS vendor, but our main liason with the vendor agrees that we should be notified. Unfortunately it's a matter of changing their entire company culture to be mindful of the impact their changes cause.
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