Preparing for EVERY contingent may not be sensible

This is a post on the scaling of "Uptime" as it regards to server accessibility and websites. It can also regard how we prepare our business, and our marketing and other things that seem to get in the way of our actually getting work done. Overpreparation is nearly as bad as underpreparation. Both can create havoc, end up being expensive and create barriers to creativity and work.

Don't scale: 99.999% uptime is for Wal-Mart - Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals): "If you’re Wal-Mart and your credit card processing pipeline stops for 30 minutes during prime time, yes, the world does end. Someone might very well be fired. The business loses millions of dollars. Wal-Mart gets in the news and loses millions more on the goodwill account.

Now what if Delicious, Feedster, or Technorati goes down for 30 minutes? How big is the inconvenience of not being able to get to your tagged bookmarks or do yet another ego-search with Feedster or Technorati for 30 minutes? Not that high. The world does not come to an end. Nobody gets fired."