Live Labs Launch Photosynth Learns Lesson

klevereblog — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 02:30:13 GMT

Today Microsoft's Live Labs launched Photosynth the really cool online photo compilation service that allows you to string together a set of photos into a 3-D view. They learned really quickly how cool the site really was because before noon eastern time the site was rendered inoperable. One of the guys from the team was actually quoted as saying that they were "nervous" after completing testing of the site. They made every attempt to plan for the amount of traffic they would see after launch. The lesson here is that no matter how much testing you do you may never be able to plan for a huge spike in traffic, especially on day one.

I saw this really often when working in the hosting industry. A customer when create a lot of buzz and the capacity didn't always handle demand. I particularly remember a customer who built custom motorcycles and had a popular reality show based on their business realizing that the shared web server they were on was not enough to handle the load brought on by increased popularity. Then there was the company that wanted run ads during the Superbowl but was not sure if their server farm would be enough.

Bottom line, sometimes its hard to plan for a web site that becomes an overnight sensation. But rest assure these guys have learned a valuable lesson. I am sure that they would have planned for 10 times the capacity if they had it all to do over again. Photosynth is still a really cool site and I can't wait to start creating my own "synths"

Technorati Tags: web 2.0,photosynth,windows Live,live labs

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My Blog Re-Branded

klevereblog — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 07:44:00 GMT

I'm rebranded my blog to reflect my interest in the Web and its underlying technologies. I still spend a lot of time speaking to hosters but my interest spend across a wide range of technologies and industries. I have a new found love for online media and streaming. This week I'm at South by Southwest speaking to developers, designers, film makers and even some musicians about Silverlight. It's really exciting to have conversations with people as passionate about the potential of the Web as I am.

The Web and Microsoft : web 2.0

Live Labs Launch Photosynth Learns Lesson

My Blog Re-Branded