Skype Outage and Implications, Lessons

August 19, 2007

Well, if you are a Skype user, you are probably now well aware that they experienced a widespread service outage on Thursday of last week. I was not trying to use Skype during the outage, but reports are that people were having problems logging into the network as well as consistent notifications of IMs not being delivered. Also, the Skype client was reported to be crashing alot. Yikes. Well, what caused it?

According to the Wired Magazine blog:
In a statement issued yesterday afternoon, the eBay subsidiary attributed the problem to a “deficiency in an algorithm within Skype networking software.” According to Skype, “this [algorithm] controls the interaction between the user’s…client and the rest of the Skype network.”

That’s really vague. Yesterday, Skype’s Villu Arak posted to the Skype Heartbeat page that they will be posting a more detailed explanation of the problem on Monday (tomorrow as of this writing). Monitor the Heartbeat page for updates on the situation and, more importantly, their explanation as to why this happened. Did they install an update to the network that crashed it? That is my current speculation.

So, what does this mean?

Well, first off, it really does prove the point of VOIP skeptics that internet enabled phone is not ready for prime time. One of the major selling points of Skype has been reliability, and here they just experienced a several day outage. Anybody who depended on Skype would have been screwed. But, the issue puts a shadow over all of internet-enabled phone. We’re still at a point where it is not as reliable as the phone system.

Of course, most VOIP users know this, which does limit the long term damage to the reputation of Skype. I am a Skype user, but I would never use Skype as a replacement to phone. I also use Vonage in the office. It’s almost as dependable as my home phone.

Another interesting thought out of all of this is the importance of the blog as a medium of communication. When the Skype outage began, the blogoshere erupted with posts about it. At first, Skype was rather quiet about the situation (a mistake), but they quickly began posting regularly to their Heartbeat blog on what was going on. His posts were not very informative. Just “we’re working on it and the situation is improving” kind of posts. However, I think the machine-gun style posts to the blog was part of an effective PR strategy to limit the damage to their reputation. After all, where there is a vacuum of knowledge, the community will make crap up to fill it.
Aside from what this says about internet phone, there is a lesson here for companies on how to use a blog for the purposes of PR.

As for long term damage to Skype, I doubt that will prove to be the case. After all, most Skype users do not depend on it. they use it to chat with friends, and most of us have alternative means of communication. Besides, if somebody is using a Windows-based chat client (Skype) as their primary method of communication, they have their own problems to deal with. I’m just saying.

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