Show Me the Uptime
‘Five 9s’ or 99.999% uptime means that a service is available for its intended use except for 5 minutes and 15 seconds a year. Some have captured this uptime in written service level agreements (SLA) with penalties if not achieved; others just convey it as a lofty goal. High availability, redundancy, scheduled downtime, and disaster recovery are related terms that apply to various industries: from energy to telecommunications to healthcare. Achieving this uptime from a software perspective requires balancing three elements: the Applications people use on the Devices of their choice running on the preferred Network.
Image: Mobile ecosystem transformation with some clear winners, faded players
I have been at software companies that fueled the transformation of telecommunications networks, a world filled with acronyms, that include: mobile task automation using WAP over GPRS networks, SIP for VoIP, SDP overlaying Class-5 switches, and application developer APIs. I still remember four unrelenting days at the 2008 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona trying to convince global telecom carriers to open up their networks to third party application developers. Mobile devices were exponentially growing on their G’s of networks (3G at the time). Application developer demand for telecom carrier connectivity access, user profile information, and billing was equally growing. Software was isolated before the 2007 iPhone launch.
By the 2010 Mobile World Congress (example presentation), it became evident that software had eaten the telecommunications world. Then Google CEO Eric Schmidt called Mobile World Congress “the place to be for the computer industry”: a place previously dominated by telcos. Sharing-intensive applications were driving the need for infrastructure networks to transform with software. Cloud computing was superseding SIM cards. The Data collected from Applications, Devices, and Networks was becoming a foundation for future AI enablement.
Image: Sample Breakout Presentation, Mobile World Congress 2010
A similar triangle of applications, devices, and networks with data in the middle is happening in the energy world. But, the scale and expectations are formidable for Networks powered primarily by renewable energy. The tsunami of devices come in small to large sizes: sensors to thermostats to cars to solar systems. Providing 99.999% uptime given force majeure, demand and supply variability for energy will require software at an even more elevated level than seen in telecommunications. Software platforms are also gaining momentum in various areas: energy (e.g. Arcadia), grid management (e.g. Camus), and financial impact (e.g. Patch)
Getting ‘nine 5s (55.5555555%)’ uptime for pilots was a common joke in early telecom software deployment that needed ‘five 9s’. Energy systems need transformational software. I dream of a time when my annual energy downtime is less than 315 seconds. Software, make sure you ready: show me the uptime.