The server MUST have a status page easily accessible by U1 users

Use case:

Sunday, evening:
 <tchernobog> hello, is the server experiencing some problems? I've got some important documents stored in Ubuntu One, but they don't get synced locally
 <tchernobog> additionally, i'm getting a 503 error if I try to retrieve them via web interface
 <tchernobog> please help, this may turn into a disaster :-)
 <tchernobog> i've to edit my thesis work before submitting it
 <rtgz> CardinalFang, ping
 <homeasvs> hm, I think I'm seeing the same as tchernobog
 <rtgz> homeasvs, the file sync seems to work fine atm, just updated a file via the client, but the web interface is working until one tries to download the files
 <homeasvs> rtgz, I'm having 503's when replicating couchdb stuff
 <rtgz> homeasvs, just tested the server-client replication - works fine here.
 <tchernobog> still getting a 503 error, and sync not working... anyone knows what's happening to Ubuntu servers?

Nobody knows what is happening to the servers, what is up, what is down or what is in between.

I think that the service of such scale MUST have some separate error-free/power-outage-proofed/lightning-protected page listing the status of all U1 components, such as:

Storage backend: OK
Storage frontend proxy: BROKEN (admins notified)
U1 CouchDB: OK
OAuth service: OK

These labels should reflect real-time (or nearly real-time) condition. So that the casual users might stop treating the Cloud as a Black-Box cloud where nobody knows what is happening.

By providing the means to inform users about potential or real difficulties they will feel that they are important. The users might not visit the page often when the service is working smoothly but they will feel better informed on any service outages and resolution times.

See http://status.livejournal.org/ for example, this page is hosted on a completely different server therefore it is unlikely that it goes down with the rest of the service.

For those who are interested in IRC chat posted above:
(an hour later)
 <kjoller> tchernobog: Sorry to interrupt, but the web interface does not 503 for me anymore (it did some minutes ago)
 <tchernobog> thanks kjoller, that could be my last hope :-D
 <kjoller> You should still get the local couch fixed at some point.
 <tchernobog> kjoller: of course
 <tchernobog> but for now my priority falls towards getting my BhD
 <rtgz_> kjoller, yes, thank you, 'cause I am too couchdb-fix-it-right-now at the moment :)
 <tchernobog> yay! got the file from the web

The reason for filesync unable to work was some problem with CouchDB/desktopcouch interaction that prevented applet from starting up, this still needs to be reproduced.