Greetings from the MMA CMO & CEO Summit in Napa. I can't believe I made it in time for my keynote. Thanks to Crowdstrike, yesterday was one of the most insane travel days I've ever experienced – and I was one of the lucky ones. It only took me an Uber, a Lyft, two taxis, and a train to Washington, D.C. to get a plane to San Francisco. Total travel time from Manhattan to Napa: 19 hours, 30 minutes.
This outage is legendary. Not only did Delta cancel my flight (after I was already at the airport), their system canceled the ticket (making it impossible to rebook); this, I've never seen. According to the service desk, there won't be an empty seat on a Delta flight in the Tri-State Area until Tuesday. At least that's what the system was showing – but the service agent had no way to be sure.
None of this is Delta's fault, and Crowdstrike has taken full technical responsibility for the mistake, but who will pay for everyone's canceled events and travel plans? Will Crowdstrike take financial responsibility? When asked, their spokesperson changed the subject.
As I left JFK to head to D.C., there were literally hundreds of people waiting on the service desk line hoping to find some way to get where they were going – all due to a bad Windows security patch. Is there anything you can do to prepare for the next time this happens? .
As always your thoughts and comments are both welcome and encouraged. Just reply to this email. -s
ABOUT SHELLY PALMER
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with technology, media and marketing. Named he covers tech and business for , is a regular commentator on CNN and writes a popular . He's a , and the creator of the popular, free online course, . Follow or visit .
