Google says that Google Mail should be working again. Yesterday, Gmail went down for the majority of its 150 million users at around 1553 EDT, and was restored about two hours later.
The difficulties started on Monday when a small number of Gmail users had problems. Yesterday morning around 1120 EST, Google said that this problem was fixed for everyone but an even smaller group.
Then the lights went out for Gmail.
According to this story at The Register, yesterday's problem was due to an "upgrade" to enhance Gmail performance and implied Monday's was as well.
Google has been suffering from a spate of operational performance issues this past year, leading some to start calling Gmail "Gfail."
Like it has in the past, Google said that it was "going to ensure this kind of event does not happen again."
Robert N. Charette is a Contributing Editor to IEEE Spectrum and an acknowledged international authority on information technology and systems risk management. A self-described “risk ecologist,” he is interested in the intersections of business, political, technological, and societal risks. Charette is an award-winning author of multiple books and numerous articles on the subjects of risk management, project and program management, innovation, and entrepreneurship. A Life Senior Member of the IEEE, Charette was a recipient of the IEEE Computer Society’s Golden Core Award in 2008.
