New Virginia IT Systems Lack Network Backup 211
1sockchuck writes "Virginia's new state IT system is experiencing downtime in key services because of a mind-boggling oversight: the state apparently neglected to require network backup in a 10-year, $2.3 billion outsourcing deal with Northrop Grumman. The issue is causing serious downtime for state services. This fall the Virginia DMV has suffered 12 system outages spanning a total of more than 100 hours, and downtime hampered the state transportation department when a state of emergency was declared during the Nov. 11 Northeaster."
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:outsourcing (Score:4, Informative)
Hey, it worked. Mark Warner won two-thirds of the vote in his senate run last year based on his stellar performance as governor. This was one of his big initiatives.
(He also *fixed* the revenue sources, so that there'd never be a problem like happened with Jim Gilmore. Yet, now, Virginia is in worse shape than when he got there.)
Network connections, not system backups... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Blame Northrop? (Score:5, Informative)
... as soon as some politician determined where the backup site would be. (Which, of course, hasn't happened yet.)
Actually, it has happened. The CoVA backup site is located in Lebanon, VA (SW part of the state).
What THIS article is discussing is the lack of network backup, not data backup.
This is an important distinction, to say the least.
Re:Funny math or multiple systems? (Score:2, Informative)
My guess is that would be multiple systems. They noted in TFA that they provided IT services to 1000 local governments and 85 state agencies in VA.
"the government exists (Score:5, Informative)
and has involved itself in the market in some way in the past
therefore, any prudent rational criticism of the free market and how it obviously fails can be explained away with creative rationalization that its the government's fault, somehow"
my favorite is how free market fundamentalists wish to blame the market crash of 2008 on government policies. rather than gee, i dunno, the clinton and bush administration deregulation policies? you know, deregulation: having the government less invovled int he market?
"what? my free market bubble and pop? nah, impossible! government's fault! pffft"
please study your banking panics of the 1800s: without regulation, free markets have innate imperfections which always result in catalcysmic failures. all you need is simple human psychology, no government need apply, to cause a market to crash. you either regulate it, leveling the playing field artificially, and therefore making it truly "free", or you leave it alone, letting it bubble and pop like mad, and allow monopolists to take advantage of natural imperfections in the market to leverage unfair behavior
free market fundamentalism is dead. your ideology is dead. fact: you need government involvement in the market for the market to run efficiently. fact: you need government policing and regulation of the marketplace to keep it "free" and egalitarian and equal for all players
if you don't understand these simple truths by now, or refuse to believe that despite the obvious proof, you're an idiot
Re:Blame Northrop? (Score:1, Informative)
And not just backups, it sounds like they had no BCP plan at all. This is a massive oversight, but a fairly common one. I've consulted for a number of years, and it's amazing at how many companies don't have a BCP plan at all, and sometimes it includes simple backups of data.
And by the way, in case some Slashdot readers don't know... "BCP" means "Business Continuity Plan"
you're a free market fundamentalist (Score:3, Informative)
you believe the market left alone takes care of itself, and the government makes it unstable
this is the opposite of reality: a free market is inherently unstable. government involvement stabilizes it
i'm sorry i don't have any books by crackpots to cite to prop up the fucking obvious truth for you
not like you would accept it