[8646] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Eating My Collapse Column
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jerry Scharf)
Mon Apr 14 16:00:43 1997
To: bob_metcalfe@infoworld.com
cc: nanog@merit.edu
In-reply-to: Your message of "Mon, 14 Apr 1997 14:35:27 -0000."
<33524095.6446@infoworld.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Apr 1997 12:25:32 -0700
From: Jerry Scharf <scharf@vix.com>
Bob,
I'm probably stating the obvious. The reason that I objected to your comment
and object to your analysis is that we are dealing with an Internet. If the
failure in one network rippled through the network and caused ever larger
outages, then it would meet my criteria for an internet collapse. See the
effects on loaded power grids for the analogy I'm after.
You are certainly right that the dollars lost by outages are large. I will
promise you they will get larger because the dollar flow is getting larger
quickly. Your metric will well come true without your logic being validated.
Using AOL's outage and others to identify local and global systemic management
problems is fair and valid. Predicting collapse based on it is not.
I stand by my opinion that the article was inflammatory.
Jerry
