Kyle LeBoeuf

Imagine this scenario:

You are part of a multi-billion software company, with your software being used on anywhere from 90-95% of all computers in the world. Now, imagine that you are working on the next highly-anticipated iteration of your flagship product. You announce that you will be distributing a free beta of this new product to the public, to folks who offer good feedback on your product for free, on top of allowing consumers to get used to the product and getting to see it in action.

Now, imagine that after building up anticipation for the release of this beta, you launch this product using servers designed to handle a small fraction of this expected demanded. Your servers crash, leaving millions of customers (and writers) frustrated, for something you should’ve been prepared for in the first place.

Yes folks, this actually happened. That company’s name is none other than Microsoft! They announced that 2.5 million downloads of the Windows 7 Beta 1 would be available to the public, and the story was picked up by tons of different blogs and publications. The publicity surrounding this beta was extremely high, especially following the Microsoft Keynote at CES and the flurry of coverage surrounding the operating system at that time.

So, you’re Microsoft, and you see that everyone knows about the download you will be posting, and what do you do? In this case, Microsoft decided not to prepare for the surge in traffic. Their reward? Server crashes and lot of upset folks. They were forced to pull down their servers while they upgrade the infrastructure and prepare for the traffic (WHICH SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!!!!).

Here’s an image, for effect (click to make larger):

From the Windows 7 beta download page:

“Thanks for your interest in the Windows 7 Beta. The volume has been phenomenal — we’re in the process of adding more servers to handle the demand. We’re sorry for the delay and we’ll re-post the Beta as soon as we can ensure a quality download experience.”

Gina Trapani, top editor for the blog Lifehacker, shares my sentiments.

Come on Microsoft. We all know that you’ve got a ton of cash laying around. Invest in the hardware, spend the money, and don’t disappoint your market.

Kyle