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United Airlines nationwide computer outage
Here we go again, according to Los Angeles flight crew United's system is down nationwide. No eta. All flights held on ground until it is resolved (i.imgur.com) और अधिक...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Several years ago, I was in a grocery store when the barcode computer went down. The clerks at the registers would suggest a price for each item, which the customer could accept or make a counter proposal. The store probably lost money that day, but they didn't lose customers.
I think what many do not realize is that when companies start cost cutting, the last thing on the minds of the CFO is the cost of IT. They will spend a ton of dollars on advertising and marketing, but won't pay top dollar for IT personnel and equipment....which ignorantly, is the backbone of their whole system. Everything in corporates mind is about getting their e-mail and that the customer website is working. They give little thought to the underlying operation and maintnence of the underlying backbone. They think once you buy it, that's the end of it. When the IT folks ask for training to keep up with the latest trends, its not in the budget. ....a poor way to run a railroad. When you double the size of operations without taking into consideration the infrastructure to support it, this is what happens. IT, in my opinion, was not and is not scaled for their growth at United.
What is kinda curious to me is why United would maintain a server bank for such an important program so far away from from a corporate office. While serving CLT, neither Continental nor United had that big a presence before or after the merger. It is not uncommon for some functions to be off site, especially as a backup center but not a primary such as this.
Unfortunately, over the years companies have spent millions of dollars on technology, and as little as possible on improving real back office operations. Ouch! It really comes back to haunt them when they do this merger stuff! Most of these legacy IT systems are pieced together with rubber bands and paperclips! Over the years key IT folks got big raises based on "cost savings" to the company so roll-outs were never fully implemented, program applications were never upgraded, trillions of data bytes of backed-up data (which they told every body was "electronic records") just sat in tapes and silos and collectively rotted away one byte at a time. No one has the old encryption keys. Layer upon layer. No one wrote anything down. Can of worms - big time! Tip of the iceberg as they say!
To continue your point, only SOME IT folks got big raises. To offset those raises, SOME IT folks were let go or disenfranchised due to the shortcuts. What if one of those "insiders" did this to get some attention to the issue? Or going even further, did this so that they may become the hero and THEN get the big raise by fixing the so-called problem? An Arsenio Hall moment here....things to make you go hmmmmmmm.
Yes, and it is those at the top, who also justify the outrageous expense by showing they are sensitive to the need to reduce costs. Their answer - outsourcing sensitive and secure IT operational functions to people who then live by pay check to paycheck and have no vested interest in the company! Makes matters worse in my opinion.
That is why IT people sometimes get the "GOD" syndrome. It is a known disease. We had it at my company once.
Been there, Done that. Bad habit of making fun at those that don't know what he does. Not good
We wound up firing everybody and hiring an outside source who had no interest in control at our company.
Ours bit the dust by attrition (Well he left when we would no longer defend his smart aleck attitude), but it took us 2 weeks to get by the thank you's we had from the employees.lol