MEETING MINUTES: SERVER OUTAGE POST-MORTEM
Date: October 21st, 2025 Time: 9:00 AM - 9:47 AM Location: Conference Room B (The one with the broken whiteboard) Attendees: Jennifer Martinez (Boss), David Chen (Systems Architect), StealMyMeeting AI (transcript), Coffee (12 cups)
Agenda Item 1: THIS CAN NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN
J. Martinez opened the meeting by stating this can never happen again.
D. Chen acknowledged that yes, it would be nice if this never happened again.
J. Martinez asked what we can do to make sure this never happens again.
Agenda Item 2: Proposed Solutions
D. Chen presented three (3) possible solutions:
Solution A: Multi-Region Cloud Setup
Implementation Time: 1-2 years
Additional Staff Needed: 3-4 people
Guarantee of Success: Maybe
Annual Cost: $3,950,000 (roughly double current infrastructure)
J. Martinez's Response: Prolonged silence
Solution B: Multi-Cloud Setup
Implementation Time: 2-3 years
Additional Staff Needed: 5-6 people (need experts in multiple cloud platforms)
Guarantee of Success: Probably not, because now TWO clouds can have outages and incompatible solutions
Annual Cost: $4,200,000
J. Martinez's Response: Drinking coffee, no longer making eye contact
Solution C: Our Own Data Center
Implementation Time: 3-4 years
Upfront Cost: $11,850,000 (equipment, cooling, power, physical security, that one guy who knows where the fuse box is)
Additional Staff Needed: 8-12 people
Guarantee of Success: Absolutely not
J. Martinez's Response: Staring at ceiling, questioning career choices
Agenda Item 3: Context and Perspective
J. Martinez asked how long the outage lasted.
D. Chen confirmed six (6) hours.
J. Martinez asked about revenue impact.
D. Chen estimated $60,000 in lost revenue.
J. Martinez performed mental math. Appeared visibly distressed. Asked D. Chen to repeat the cost of Solution A.
D. Chen confirmed $7.9 million annually for the cheaper option.
J. Martinez noted this would take approximately 132 outages to break even.
D. Chen noted that the server company hasn't had 132 outages in its entire existence.
J. Martinez noted that's actually pretty good.
Agenda Item 4: Reasonable Next Steps
J. Martinez suggested D. Chen take the rest of the day to explore alternative improvements.
D. Chen agreed this sounded productive.
ACTION ITEMS:
D. Chen: Investigate cost-effective resilience improvements
J. Martinez: Schedule follow-up meeting (Date: TBD, likely after next server outage)
All Staff: Receive company-branded stress balls (Budget approved: $247)
NEXT MEETING:
After the next server outage (estimated 12-16 months)
Meeting adjourned: 9:47 AM
Let's face it: server outages are a risk every organization using the internet faces. Sure, there are things you can do to lower that risk. You've probably seen hundreds of posts on LinkedIn for non-cloud services. But are those anti-cloud services really going to save you time or money? Or will it just waste more time and money, having your executive leadership spend time debating whether they should go non-cloud or add a secondary cloud?