The Tool Desk
Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →After a May 2009 storage failure disrupted sites on its Grid-Service Cluster.02, Media Temple offered a one-year service credit to customers it considered meaningfully affected. The credit was not reported as a universal cash refund: the contemporary account estimated $240 only by applying the service’s $20 starting monthly price for 12 months.
What Media Temple offered
Media Temple CEO Demian Sellfors said, “We’re offering a one-year service credit to any customer on Cluster.02 who has been meaningfully affected by the outage.” The offer applied to affected Grid-Service customers on that cluster; the report did not give a precise eligibility test or an application process. Data Center Knowledge reported the statement on May 7, 2009.
The report said Grid-Service accounts started at $20 per month. At that entry price, 12 months of service would amount to $240 in hosting fees. That is conditional arithmetic, not a confirmed cash payout or a stated value for every customer’s credit. The story did not establish how many accounts were linked to the affected sites or how many customers would claim the offer.
Why the outage happened and how recovery unfolded
Media Temple attributed the May incident to file corruption in its storage system. The affected sites were on Cluster.02, which had also been involved in an outage in early March. The May failure began Monday afternoon at about 4:15 p.m., according to the contemporary report. Recovery was staged rather than completed for everyone at once.
Recommended Free Tools
- Nearly 16,000 sites on Cluster.02 were affected, the report said.
- About 14,000 sites returned early Tuesday after roughly 10 hours.
- Around 2,000 sites remained on Storage Section 01. A vendor file check could take up to 48 hours, but BlueArc had not started it by Thursday morning, apparently because a required firmware upgrade remained incomplete.
These figures count sites, not confirmed customer accounts. Media Temple restored sites from a recent disaster-recovery backup, so some initially lacked their latest content. The report said missing content would be restored after the file-system check.
Media Temple CTO Josh Barratt said, “We are still in the process of moving onto the newer (storage) devices.” Sellfors said, “The failure we’re dealing with now would be resolved in 10 minutes on Generation Two.” That was Sellfors’s comparison of recovery on the newer generation, not an independently established performance benchmark.
How the May offer differed from the March credits
The May report referred back to a separate Cluster.02 outage in early March. The compensation reported for that earlier event should not be confused with the one-year offer made after the May incident.
| Incident | Reported impact | Reported compensation |
|---|---|---|
| Early March 2009 | Some customers were offline for as long as 38 hours, according to a March 3 report. | $100,000 in service credits for 3,000 affected customers, as reported on March 3. Read the March report. |
| May 2009 | Nearly 16,000 Cluster.02 sites were affected, with recovery occurring in stages. | A one-year service credit for meaningfully affected Cluster.02 customers; the report did not state a total cost or uniform dollar amount. |
The May account described the earlier March event as lasting nearly two days. The March report’s maximum of 38 hours refers to some customers, not a confirmed duration for every affected customer. The reports do not provide consistent account-level figures for a per-customer compensation comparison.
What customers said at the time
The May article gave examples of mixed reactions, not the results of a survey. One web developer called the offer generous and saw it as a sign of customer care. Other criticism cited in the report was that one year of credit did not make up for roughly 50 hours without web or email service. Those comments illustrate individual reactions; they do not establish how customers generally felt.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the reporting does—and does not—establish
The contemporaneous reports document Media Temple’s stated cause, approximate site counts, staged restoration, executive comments, and the announced credit. They do not provide a full independent forensic account, exact downtime for each customer, or the number of customer accounts represented by the site count. The figures are historical reporting about the 2009 incidents, not a current Media Temple service notice.
Quick Recap
Best Value
Rank #4
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
