Update on Garmin Connect Migration

UPDATE: Garmin Connect will open it's doors to all Garmin fitness devices on May 26, 2009. Read more...

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With 2008 coming to a close, it’s time for an update.  Unfortunately, we must report that we won’t be hitting our December target for migration.

We have been working hard to complete this migration before the end of the year while improving the overall feature set of Garmin Connect.  To do this, the teams in San Francisco and Olathe, Kansas have been focused on bringing in the right hardware and database software to ensure the migration of activities from MotionBased to Garmin Connect runs smoothly while maintaining data integrity. 

As of December 18, we have accomplished the following tasks for migration:

• Installed new hard drive to store all activities at Garmin Connect
• Optimized hard drive to ensure data integrity
• Migrated all MotionBased activities to a test server to begin testing

What’s left to do before migration:

• Identify bugs and make changes to Garmin Connect code (4 weeks remaining)
• Migrate all MotionBased activities to the production server (4 weeks of transfer time)

The reason the transfer will take 4 weeks is because MotionBased has approximately 5+ million activities on 2+ terabytes of disk space.  Each activity must be exported from the test server and imported into the live system.

Based on this 4 week transfer time and the 4 weeks of testing/code fixes, our revised migration date is late February 2009.

We hesitated to update you on this delay until we could be very confident with the new date.  This was predicated on the success of installing and partitioning our new storage drive which successfully passed our tests today.

A few reminders…

Once the migration is complete, Garmin Connect will accept data from all current MotionBased customers and MotionBased-compatible USB devices.

MotionBased will be available for upload until the final transition day.  After that, it will be available as a read-only site for fitness devices and read-write-upload site for devices not supported on Garmin Connect.

Mac Support - Mac support for the ANT Agent -- used for the Forerunner 50 and 405 -- is now projected for the first quarter of 2009.  We are currently testing the beta software with solid results.  However, it still needs more rigorous testing before it goes live.

Thank you once again for your patience during this involved procedure.  We are excited to be at this stage of development and will keep you posted on further progress.

The MotionBased/Garmin Connect Team

Comments

[Egon]

Plus 4 weeks scratching your heads, makes it all up an other 3 months. I hope you fired your project manager already!

[Elvis]

You have to do what you have to do, but I can assure you that you are the only ones who are "very confident with the new date".

[Bill Hathaway]

Thanks for providing feedback about the latest delay.

Actions like selecting proper storage based off budget, size and performance needs, and connecting it to servers and tuning the system are extremely common tasks for system administrators. If activites like this are a big challenge to your (largely developer based I assume) group, I strongly suggest trying to contract with someone who has the proper skills to come in and help plan/execute the systems/storage activities on an as-needed basis. This would allow your projects to move much faster.

When the migration is complete in Feb, will we be able to use URLs like
connect.garmin.com/billhathaway to be able to view all of a user's activities?

[Clark]

Bill,

You will be able to view user's activities by username. However, it will be using a different URL scheme.

[Rich]

I ordinarily try to think through my posts, and aim to write with sincerity, purpose, and logic. I've done that on each of the last posts. It hasn't caused any change. So, let me try a different tactic:

You guys are a f@cking joke. I will never buy any Garmin product again and will tell everyone I know just how much of a fraud you are. I've just drafted messages to my running and cycling clubs, and plan to write letters to the editor at industry magazines.

The only way that's going to change? Sincere apologies, free products, and firings. But it won't happen, and you won't meet your new date, and you'll remain a f#cking joke.

[Chris]

I have a 305, I really would like to use it here. I would also considering buying a 405, but with all the delays you guys have had here it seriously makes me consider every buying another G product.

[Rich]

You guys should move out of IT and into marketing. You're clearly much more skilled in the art of blowing smoke up our arses than that of installing hard drive(s). Seriously - Garmin should fire you guys. It's reflecting very poorly on the brand, and the presumption that we, as users would still buy the line "it's sooooo hard to make this migration" is ridiculous.

[Anders Chan-Tidemann]

I hate to say this but I must now agree with the sentiment of the above people. Every time you guys set a deadline, it is always broken. It's very amateurish, frankly. On top of that my Garmin Forerunner 305 takes so damn long to log on to the satellite's, causing me to have to sometimes wait 15 minutes before I can start the running I intended if I want to use the functions that the watch proclaim. Do you know what waiting 15 minutes feels like on a cold New York City day when you've dressed not to overheat when you finally do run?

The idea of the Forerunner 305 is good, so is the idea of Motionbased. The execution.....arrrrggghhhh

[Tom]

There was a firmware update for the 305 that greatly improves satellite locating times.

[mdotbb]

I'm fine using Motiobased until the migration to Connect is done. I'd rather delays than a premature migration that hoses both sites and the data.

[d]

Quotes and my comments following:

Plus 4 weeks scratching your heads, makes it all up an other 3 months. I hope you fired your project manager already!
Posted by: Egon | December 18, 2008 at 07:52 PM

There ought to be.. hmm, let me think.. how many project managers already fired up? I cannot even count.

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Posted by: Elvis | December 19, 2008 at 01:13 PM
You have to do what you have to do, but I can assure you that you are the only ones who are "very confident with the new date".

And only you, yes, Garmin.

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Posted by: Bill Hathaway | December 19, 2008 at 02:31 PM
I strongly suggest trying to contract with someone who has the proper skills to come in and help plan/execute the systems/storage activities on an as-needed basis.

What a hell are you (Garmin) waiting for... Christmas? (D. Nukem)

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Posted by: Rich | December 24, 2008 at 03:49 PM
I've just drafted messages to my running and cycling clubs, and plan to write letters to the editor at industry magazines.

Posted by: Chris | December 26, 2008 at 08:46 AM
...but with all the delays you guys have had here it seriously makes me consider every buying another G product.

Posted by: Rich | December 27, 2008 at 10:19 PM
You guys should move out of IT and into marketing. You're clearly much more skilled in the art of blowing smoke up our arses than that of installing hard drive(s).

See what happens when you have lots of unsatisfied customers. And I believe there is many, many of them! And even more of those, who read these lines and may be potentional new customers.

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Posted by: Anders Chan-Tidemann | December 28, 2008 at 09:12 PM
Do you know what waiting 15 minutes feels like on a cold New York City day when you've dressed not to overheat when you finally do run?

And let me add about how stupid user looks standing next to bike, while he goggles in the G. unit, waiting for it to sync. :)

I suggest you not to set any time frames from now on and just say: It's going to be done, when it will be done :)
Or maybe: We assume that we don't know when it will be done, but we think it may not be really soon.
Or something like that: Let's say it will be done within next few years.
Or: It will be done when Polar will be ready to fly to the moon.

I guess you've got my sarcastic point already. I'm sorry to say, but - shame on you.

Best IT regards; I wish you good luck in 2009! I think you will need it.

[Eric]

Personally, I don't mind waiting for the product to be done right (you never get a second chance to make a first impression and all that), however I would appreciate more accurate and precise time estimates than Garmin has given (and having the software work better than it does would be appreciated as well). I make my living writing driver software on a set of VERY tight deadlines, and a large part of the job is getting the time estimates correct up front (we would lose massive business if we messed this up). If Garmin's engineers and managers do not yet understand this, it would be in Garmin's best interests to see that they do going forward. I know how hard their jobs are, and I'm not saying anything terrible like firing them, but... changes in operating methods are in order.

Although I won't threaten to never buy Garmin stuff again (overall I'm very happy w/ the HW, and can manage w/ the SW), the website snafus and more specifically the Mac SW support WILL make me pause when it comes time in a few years to replace my 305. More importantly for Garmin, I'm an early adopter, and I recommend gear to all of my family, friends and co-workers (many whom run or bike seriously). Without the software problems, I would have recommended Garmin as a slam-dunk choice for exercise GPS (and info gathering). After so many software problems, people will get a much more nuanced recommendation from me, and Garmin's competitors may benefit. I probably WILL buy Garmin again, but I'm going to be doing a LOT more comparison shopping next time (rather than just buying Garmin by default as I would if I were totally happy).

[Old Garmin lover. Now]

Stupid excuses. Since the speed of Motion Based has been going rapidly down for the last year (and even then, it wasn't good), I can almost imagine that the servers that has been setup for GC are ones that has been removed from MBs farm. Oh well, I stopped using MB a few months ago. Just tried to login today, but I soon found it more interesting to watch the paint on the wall dry.

Fire the project manager or the developers. Somebody in your organization is lying to you about this project. 4 weeks to transfer less than 3TB of data? Hilarious. Hire somebody with a minimum amount of clue regarding software development and database management.

Anyway, does anyone know of an alternative to MB? The Garmin software for Mac is a joke, so that's really not an alternative.

There's Ascent and TrailRunnerX that looks quite amuzing. I would prefer an online solution though, so any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

[Robert]

Judging from the comments posted here, there is an overwhelmingly negative reaction to your blog entry. It might help if you posted more often instead of less often. The big periods of time between blog posts only presents the impression that you are not actively concerned with your user base. Its one thing to blow release dates, its another entirely to ignore your users. It can't help Garmin's sales to have so much hyperbole left in your forums. Keep us up to date with what you are doing and I think the hate will be reduced.

Thanks!

[Tracy Clark]

Wow, is this still going on? Motion Based STILL hasn't converted over to Garmin Connect and the 305 is still not compatible with the Garmin Connect site. I just went back and looked and it looks like I have training logs I tried to export/import back in April, May and July of last year and back then we were being told this transition would be done soon. Soon, is weeks.. maybe months.. not a year.

I must say that I own a 305 and while it is a great product it is not mind blowing and having no online software to fully compliment it is pretty weak. Yes, there is Motion Based but it seems more fit for those who really enjoy playing around in Excel spreadsheets all day. Has anyone working on this looked at the Nike+ site lately? That is polish not charts and graphs.

Back on the Garmin products, I bought my wife the 405 as she runs marathons and I thought she would love it (as did she) and she has all but tossed it in a kitchen drawer due to it's total lack of reliability. She needs a device to work and work CONSISTENTLY. I may only run 2-6 miles at a time while she runs 6 - 20 depending on training and the 405 has failed her just about every time she has tried to use it. Funny thing is today I was in a running store in Atlanta and the girl at the register was saying her 405 failed her often as well.

Like the person mentioned earlier, I will use my 305 for now but future purchases are unlikely to go to Garmin without SERIOUS consideration of ALL OTHER options.. especially with the botching of this site conversion. In my opinion, to compete in this realm today some serious online software has to be a part of the package.

I don't mean to sound rude but the blog update on what was "accomplished" and the ETA on remaining items is hilarious. Seriously, I haven't been here since April and you just now have the MB data on another "hard drive" and have "optimized" the drive. There is nothing optimized about this process. It has been a joke of a process. I guess I was rude but this just laughable except you have customer who don't think it's funny.

Bad form all around.

[Gergey Pasztor]

I'm the proud owner of a Forerunner 305. I am considering upgrading in a few months when I move to a new job. Given what i've seen over the past months, I'm thinking Suunto X10.

[d]

Egon: You are the man! You made me fall off my chair laughing :):):):)

[Kathryn Krieger]

I deleted Egon's post. We are happy to have the feedback and have not deleted one comment until now. It crossed the line and was uncalled for.

kk

[PJ]

Feedback?????? How come this sounds like a one way communication? The only time you guys are communicating are those time when you achieved big project milestones (eg. optmized harddisk) or censor when your customers make fun of you.

[Kathryn Krieger]

Hi PJ,

When I said feedback I meant feedback from you, the users. The note that was left by Egon was inappropriate and contained language that some may have found offensive. If you didn't think it was offensive then that's fine.

We have not deleted any negative comments from this posting. Nor do we pre-approve comments. We understand the frustration you all feel and are doing everything to get Garmin Connect launched.

kk

[Chris-k]

Uuuhhh - one month until next delay! :P

[Eric]

After my previous post, I was mildly curious about what the other options ARE. I knew Polar obviously, but I was curious what else. After some looking it looks like the competition is either Suunto or Polar (at least if you want something that uses GPS, and can record HR data and cadence data). Both have a range of nice offerings that are a bit more expensive than the similar Garmin offerings. The problem w/ both of the competition offerings (at least for me) is the complete lack of Mac support. Even though I'm not ideally happy w/ Garmin's Mac support, at least they DO support the Mac somewhat. Both Polar and Suunto basically say: use emulation software if you own a Mac.

While I DO own and use emulation SW, I'd much rather use my Mac natively, which means that even w/ the various hiccups, Garmin is still coming out ahead for me. Now... would I have liked Garmin Connect to have worked w/ my Edge 305 last August? Sure. But at least for now I can continue to use Motion Based (even though it's of somewhat limited use w/o a subscription). Maybe in 2-3 years when I'm ready for a new gadget things will be different, but all griping aside, Garmin is doing a much better job than their competitors.

One question for Garmin: have you ever considered open sourcing your software (obviously not the firmware (although why not?))? Maybe the client software that you release? Since you make your money off the HW sales, it doesn't seem like you have much to lose open sourcing the software, and you clearly have a passionate and talented user base (see the post in the Mac ANT+ thread about the guy who hacked in ANT+ support in a weekend). I'd bet if your users could have access to the source, you would be pleasantly surprised about the fixes and additions they might make (and all the non-hacker customers could benefit as well).

[Kathryn Krieger]

Hi all,

The Mac ANT Agent is very close to being released. We've been testing it thoroughly and plan to make it available to the public on February 9 2009.

Thank you for your patience.

kk

[Michael Cook]

You guys have done a great job with the site and services. Looking forward to upcoming year. It's a mammoth job to be constantly searching 5+ million activities plus handling the uploads, etc. Performance can be slow at times but it is a pretty incredible user experience to track all the elements of our activities.

[Andreas]

Kathryn, that would be awesome!