Customer Self-Service Portal

Streamline internal communication with status pages



Outages are unexpected events that can suddenly stop an organization's operations. Whether it's a network issue, a key application going down, or a system crash, these problems can cause confusion and disrupt work. Teams scramble to identify the problem, while employees are left in the dark, uncertain about the impact or duration of the issue. A lack of real-time communication can lead to frustrated employees, delayed responses, and prolonged recovery times.

In such dire situations, a status page becomes an essential tool, serving as a central hub. It offers a single source of truth for everyone involved. With real-time updates and transparency, all teams stay informed, resulting in reduced confusion and faster responses. Status pages not only streamline communication but also accelerate recovery, effectively minimizing downtime and its impact. 

How status pages enhance internal communication

Let us look at a use case of how Zylker Corporation, a fictional midsize tech company with a global workforce, leveraged an internal status page to manage communication during a significant system outage.

Zylker faced a critical outage when its internal collaboration platform, built on a hybrid cloud infrastructure using Kubernetes, experienced a significant outage. This platform enabled Zylker's teams to communicate, share files, and manage projects in real time. The outage occurred during peak hours, risking disruptions to key projects and jeopardizing client commitments.

Additionally, end users were affected, leading to potential delays in meeting customer expectations. To mitigate confusion and manage expectations, Zylker effectively communicated real-time updates through its status page, keeping both internal teams and customers informed throughout the recovery process.

Challenges

  • The outage was triggered by a cascading failure within the Kubernetes cluster that managed the deployment of microservices essential to the collaboration platform. 
  • A misconfiguration in the load balancer caused excessive traffic to be directed to a single node, leading it to overload and eventually crash.
As a result, the platform became inaccessible, and communication across the organization came to a halt. The immediate concern was how to effectively manage communication during this technical crisis to minimize the operational impact. Employees were left in the dark, unsure of how long the outage would last or how to proceed with their work, highlighting the need for better communication tools during such incidents.

Step 1: Acknowledgement

As soon as the outage was detected, the IT team triggered an immediate incident notification through the internal status page. This notification was critical to alerting all the employees that the issue was acknowledged and that the IT team was actively working to diagnose and resolve it:

Acknowledged | A major outage | The collaboration platform is unavailable

"Our internal collaboration platform is currently unavailable due to technical issues. This has affected all real-time communication, file sharing, and project management functions."

Step 2: Identification

Within the first 30 minutes, the IT team found the root cause of the issue: a misconfiguration in the load balancer that led to a cascading failure within the Kubernetes cluster. This diagnosis was promptly communicated through the status page via real-time updates that helped employees manage their work without wasting precious time sitting and refreshing the status page again and again. They focused on work-arounds or other items to finish because of effective communication.

Identified | The root cause of the incident

"Our investigation has revealed a misconfiguration in the load balancer, which directed excessive traffic to a single node in the Kubernetes cluster. This resulted in the node overloading and crashing, causing the platform outage.
Actions taken: The misconfigured load balancer is being corrected, and the affected node is being restored. We are also reviewing other nodes to prevent similar issues.

The estimated time to resolution: Our team is working on this as our top priority, and we expect to restore service within the next two hours."

Step 3: Investigation

As the IT team continued to investigate the root cause of the outage, a broader strategic message was communicated to reassure employees and guide them on interim actions with the update below:

Investigating | Alternative tools to keep the work going
"We understand that this outage is causing significant disruptions, especially during this critical period. Please know that our IT team is diligently investigating the issue to restore full service as quickly as possible. 

In the meantime, please use the following alternative tools for communication and file sharing: Zoho Connect, Zoho Cliq, and Zoho WorkDrive. These are hosted on different servers and remain unaffected. This ensures that you can continue your work without interruption. Instructions on how to access these tools have been posted on the status page.
Client communication: For teams working on client projects, please coordinate with your project leads to ensure that clients are kept informed of any potential delays."

Step 4: Observation

Finally, the IT team was able to fix the misconfigured load balancer that caused the outage. The team then redistributed traffic evenly across all nodes in the Kubernetes cluster and implemented automatic traffic distribution to handle fluctuations in demand.

Following this initial fix, the IT team began observing the system stability. As posted on the status page, they used Site24x7, a robust monitoring tool, to track key metrics like node performance and traffic distribution. Controlled traffic simulations were also conducted to ensure the load balancer was functioning correctly and evenly distributing traffic.

Observing | A progress update
"The load balancer: Traffic is now evenly distributed across all nodes, with no signs of overloading or imbalance.
Node performance: All nodes are stable, with no errors or unexpected behavior detected.
Traffic simulations: The platform successfully handled simulated peak traffic without any issues."

With stability confirmed, the team proceeded to system testing before fully restoring the platform.

Step 5: Resolution

Once the platform was restored, the IT and leadership teams conducted a thorough post-incident review to identify the lessons learned to prevent future occurrences. This review was communicated transparently with the entire organization:

Resolved | Services are operational
"Service restoration: We are pleased to report that our collaboration platform has been fully restored and is now operational. All services are back online.
Postmortem analysis: We will conduct detailed postmortem analysis to understand the root cause and strengthen our systems against similar incidents in the future. We will share key findings with you soon.
Preventative steps: As an immediate measure, we are implementing additional monitoring and automated failover mechanisms within our Kubernetes infrastructure to detect and mitigate load balancing issues more effectively."

Step 6: Postmortem analysis

Root cause analysis | A detailed report

"A major outage occurred at Zylker Corporation, disrupting real-time communication and project management on the internal collaboration platform due to a misconfiguration in the load balancer within the Kubernetes cluster. Comprehensive analysis revealed deeper insights into the root cause:


Q. Why was the misconfiguration done in the first place? 
A. There was a lack of clarity in the configuration process.


Q. Why did the standard operating procedure (SOP) not cover this step? 
A. The SOP missed outlining this critical configuration step.


Q. Why were adequate check mechanisms not in place? 
A. Proper validation protocols were overlooked during setup.


Q. Why was there no training given to the person who wrote the SOP? 
A. The individual responsible for drafting the SOP lacked sufficient training in load balancer configurations.


Q. Why was this not reviewed by the designated responsible individual (DRI)? 
A. The SOP was not reviewed by the DRI, leading to unchecked gaps in the process.


Through this analysis, it became clear that insufficient training, inadequate SOP coverage, and missing validation mechanisms contributed to the misconfiguration and the subsequent outage.


Incident overview: A misconfiguration in the load balancer within the Kubernetes cluster caused a major outage of Zylker’s internal collaboration platform, disrupting real-time communication and project management.


The root cause: Excessive traffic was directed to a single node due to the load balancer misconfiguration, leading to the node's crash.
Steps taken to resolve the outage.


The fix: The load balancer was corrected, and the affected node was restored.


Monitoring: The system was monitored for stability, with successful traffic simulations confirming the fix.


Configuration management: The load balancer configurations were reviewed and enhanced.
Enhanced monitoring: Additional monitoring and automated failover mechanisms were implemented."

Takeaways

Status pages aren't just for external updates; they're essential for keeping everyone in the company informed during a crisis. The Zylker example shows how a well-managed internal status page can help a company stay in control, even when systems go down. With real-time updates and clear instructions, businesses can avoid chaos, keep productivity up, and build trust with their teams.


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