Blackberry Outage cause, software upgrade

BlackBerry outage caused by software upgrade

Investors not spooked by shutdown; corporate clients express concern
By Dan Gallagher
Last Update: 3:03 PM ET Apr 20, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Research In Motion has finally explained the systemwide outage that shut down its popular BlackBerry service for hours earlier this week.
In a statement issued Thursday night, the Waterloo, Ont.-based wireless-device maker
said it had ruled out "security and capacity issues" as root causes of the outage, which started late Tuesday and carried over for many users through Wednesday morning.

Rather, the interruption was brought on by the introduction of new software that was designed to improve the system's cache.

"The system routine was expected to be non-impacting with respect to the real-time operation of the BlackBerry infrastructure, but the pre-testing of the system routine proved to be insufficient," the statement read.

The problem was compounded by problems in the company's backup systems, which "did not fully perform to RIM's expectations in this situation" and caused a further delay in restoring service.

Full story...