Important Change Regarding System Maintenance

Based on customer feedback, (mt) Media Temple will no longer send email notifications regarding scheduled maintenance or emergency maintenance actions. Instead, we will use our System Status Blog and Twitter to share important maintenance-related information with you. This change will go into effect on August 14th, 2010.

System Status Blog
(mt) on Twitter
(mt) Monitor on Twitter

Also, we have chosen Monday and Thursday [9 PM to 1 AM PDT] as an established time window to perform our maintenance actions and system improvements. If a critical situation arises, we may need to conduct “emergency maintenance” outside of the established time window; however we intend for these situations to be rare and infrequent.

Reasons for the change:

• Customers complained of receiving too many emails from our company. Several customers cited that they began to ignore the content.
• Our email opt-in/opt-out controls need to be improved to provide a greater level of preference and control.
• Our Status Blog contains rich formatting and is easier to read.
• Twitter provides more preferences for how information is consumed – including SMS.

Additional details about the change:

1.) There will be two standing maintenance windows and we will perform all “scheduled maintenance” during those time frames.  We will also attempt to handle any “emergency maintenance” during those windows as well.  We have chosen Monday and Thursday evenings from 9 PM to 1 AM (Pacific Time) for the standing maintenance windows.  We believe that this is in the best interest for both customers and our engineers. Please note that it is fairly rare that a maintenance action will take more than an hour, and as you can imagine, it is even more rare for a single maintenance to take more than four hours.  The four hour window is simply there in case we need it.  We will include specifics regarding each maintenance action in the forthcoming blog posts and aim to provide accurate estimates on how long each maintenance task will take.

2.) We will do our best to publish all upcoming maintenance information via the System Status Blog and Twitter at least 72 hours prior to the maintenance.  However, if any changes or additions need to be made, they will be added to the blog at least one hour before maintenance is to commence.  We will also update the blog as soon as we have concluded maintenance for the evening. You will know if the maintenance was completed successfully or if additional work is required.

3.) Any “emergency maintenance” that cannot fit into those windows will be handled like a System Incident, as we have generally done in the past.  Again, the System Status Blog is going to be the definitive source of information regarding all maintenance.  You are also welcome to call us or open a support request at any time if you ever have any questions.

Once we have improved our opt-in/out-out preferences, customers and “specific contacts” may elect to receive maintenance notifications via email.

Thank you for your feedback on this matter. We hope this change improves your experience with our company and reduces the amount of unwanted email in your inbox. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to give us a call at (877) 578-4000, or open a support request inside the (mt) AccountCenter.