Smartphone Owners Now Outnumber Basic Phone Users [STUDY]

 

Here is another study which says smartphone owners outnumber basic phone users.

Though I am using basic phone, I feel the growth of smartphone has increased at the alarming speed and I definitely agree that smartphone might have surpassed the basic phones at least in USA if not in countries like India.

All  companies dealing with one or other smartphone accessories should  be having a interesting days.

Capgemini-Tesco deal a boost for sustainability outsourcing

 

Here is another example as why you should care of sustainability in case if you are looking to serve the fortune 500 companies or fortune 2000 companies. In fact I would say even smaller companies can show some commitment towards going green and save a lot.

City website crashed due to swimming lessons

Here is another example as why proper load testing saves some discomfort during peak demands and helps to serve many causes and results in substantial saving to the people your site serves.Again Load testing customer facing sites always means that your requirements to some extent are always incorrect no matter who delivers those requirements to you and no matter how hard you test with those requirements. It always makes sense to have breaking point of your site so that you can keep some back up plan ready.
Below content is from press release
The City of Ottawa website crashed Monday night after an influx of prospective registrations from parents of young children who want to learn how to swim.
Ottawa mother Nicole Duguay says she could not register her young son and daughter because the page would not open.
The reason, according to the city, was more than one child was being registered per second at that time. That is a record for the highest number of users on the site at one time.
Duguay was able, though, to register her children for swimming lessons online Tuesday morning. The problem, she said, was that the best time slots were already gone.
"There's only so much time that's open on a weekend, so it's a little frustrating when those that stay up get rewarded, I guess," Duguay said.
Swimming lesson registrations jump in 2012
Coun. Mark Taylor, who represents the Bay Ward and chairs the community and protective services committee, said the city registered 1,500 more people for aquatic lessons this year compared to last.
He said the city's new website still needs some work due to the overwhelming interest in lessons.
"One of the things we're going to do is go away between this registration and the next registration to see if there's a way that we can space [registration] out a little more," Taylor said.
"But at the same time, build it in such a fashion so that everybody has equal opportunity."
University course registration is one example where there is a set plan for smaller groups to register for classes at different times.

Latest Info:

EMC news - Improvements are coming to the online aquatics program registration following another year that saw the system overloaded far too often.

Registration for city swimming programs opened on March 5 and the city's website promptly crashed when too many people tried to register at once.

A record number of people signed up for swimming classes on the day registration opened. A total of 8,512 registrations were logged overnight in the first nine hours registration was open - almost 1,000 more than last year, which saw 7,575 registrations in the same timeframe.

It's a good problem to have, said Bay Coun. Mark Taylor, chairman of the community and protective services committee. But he agreed that some changes were in order to reduce the number of people who face a crashed ottawa.ca website when the try to register.

"Every year, we have the same problem," Taylor said. "I obviously don't want it to happen again next year ... but there is a cost point there. The solution is going to be coming up with a new process."

The city tried to tackle the issue this year by adding more servers to handle the influx of website traffic, but it wasn't enough.

For next year, Taylor said the city is looking at re-jigging the system. Instead of trying to add more servers at a large cost, Taylor said the city will be looking at a different process, such as spreading out registrations for certain programs over a period of time.

Aquatic program registration is already split from the rest of the recreation program sign-ups for that reason. Last year, total land program registrations only amounted to 6,980 - less than pool programs for that year.

The software that powers the online registration system will also be upgraded by next year, said Beacon Hill-Cyrville Coun. Tim Tierney, chairman of the city's information technology subcommittee.
Last Updated: March 15 2012, 5:56 PM

Has CSC breathed new life into its troubled $3.7B UK health contract?

 

3.7$ billions dollars IT Contract ,don’t believe me, then you got to probably read this. and its 9 years contract, something which was a norm some 5 years back.

UPM signs 5 year outsourcing agreement with HCL Technologies

 

UPM and HCL Technologies Limited (HCL), a leading global IT Service Provider, have signed a five year outsourcing frame agreement of IT infrastructure services.

From last 5 years or so, there were very few outsourcing engagements that had a contract period of 5 years or so. I believe 3 or 2 years is a norm now with many performance clauses.

CSC's AppLabs Recognized as One of World's Top Outsourcing Providers for the Second Time by IAOP

 

Applabs recognized by the International association of Outsourcing Provider as one of the best outsourcing provider.I have been following IAOP for quite some time now and feels they do have some good materials to refer in case if you are outsourcing industry.

Comedy fans crash website

 

Here is another example as why Performance testing is absolutely necessary in retail domain or for customer facing sites.No matter how small or big your retail website is, it is always profitable to know as what is ultimate limit your site can withstand in case if you choose to sale a product or service which is appreciated and liked by masses.

                        Below is copied press release

Tuesday, 6 March, 2012 - 11:35

Oh you guys? the NZ International Comedy Festival team woke up this morning super excited to announce the full line-up and open pre-sale tickets. Turns out a very, very large amount of you were excited too. Perhaps not wanting to risk the same fate many had with Radiohead tickets last week?

The number of people visiting the official NZ International Comedy Festival website (<a href="http://www.comedyfestival.co.nz/presales/">www.comedyfestival.co.nz/presales/</a>) to purchase tickets for the 2012 season exceeded all expectations. Unfortunately, it exceeded bandwidth limits also!

Have no fear though! Engineers at the Comedy Festival offices have doubled the amount of hamsters on treadmills to make sure the website doesn't become overloaded a second time!

Thank you for your patience, if you head to the site now the hamsters are running super fast so it should all be tickety-boo to buy your pre-sale tickety's, before they go on sale to the public on Thursday at 9am.

2012 NZ INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL:

The 2012 NZ International Comedy Festival takes place

- Auckland: 27 April - 20 May

- Wellington: 29 April - 20 May

- Comedy Convoy (nationwide): 14 - 26 May

To sign up for the pre-sale, a full line-up of performances, booking and details & more information, visit www.comedyfestival.co.nz.

 

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