1:15pm PST
We have been informed by our hosting provider that the downtime was a result of a failure in the load balancer. The load balancer is a small machine that manages all of the servers that we operate and decides where to send traffic, ie which server is the least busy. With it down no traffic could go anywhere. The load balancer has now been rebooted and is operating as normal. The load balancer has been diligently doing its job for the past 9 years without fail but we will be evaluating moving forward if there is a need to replace it to ensure this does not happen again.
We are extremely sorry for the downtime and we know that your businesses count on our business to be successfull and we take that responsibility very seriously. We appreciate everyones patience and understanding during this unexpected downtime.
12:55pm PST
The sites and management area are now once again available. We do not have information yet from our hosting company regarding what happened. We are now in the process of researching what caused the issue.
12:26pm PST
All store sites and the store management area are currently unreachable. Please note that we are aware of the problem and are currently working with our hosting provider to determine the issue and to correct it as soon as possible.
Any further information will be added to this blog entry.