Re: Failed Win XP Upgrade Wipes Out UK Government Agency
From: M (spamtrap_at_spambouncer.org)
Date: 11/28/04
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Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 01:14:52 -0000
If someone really upgraded 80,000 computers without testing the upgrade
first then they have only themselves to blame!
"hermes" <hermes@messenger.com> wrote in message
news:euDnK3M1EHA.3416@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> "Most of the desktop computers in the UK's Department for Work and
> Pensions were paralyzed for four days on Monday, when a failed upgrade
> took them off line. The outage, covering 75-80 per cent of the DWP's
> 80,000 PCs, is one of the largest in the UK Government's not entirely
> impressive IT history."
> http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,11026,1360163,00.html
>
> "Pension and benefit payments face disruption after what is being
> described as the biggest computer crash in government history left as many
> as 80,000 civil servants staring at blank screens and reverting to writing
> out giro cheques by hand in the latest blow to a hi-tech Whitehall
> revolution.
> A week-long crisis in the giant Department for Work and Pensions created a
> backlog of unprocessed claims with up to 80% of the ministry's 100,000
> desk machines disrupted or knocked out by a blunder during maintenance.
> Engineers battling to fix the problem last night claimed 95% were
> functioning fully again as they prepared to reboot the entire network
> after offices closed to the public.
> Alan Johnson, the work and pensions secretary, has ordered an internal
> inquiry into the role of Microsoft and the American contractors EDS, who
> run the ministry's network as part of a £2bn information technology deal.
> The disruption is the latest in a line of government technology failures
> and follows last week's resignation of the head of the Child Support
> Agency, part of Mr Johnson's empire, after the disastrous introduction of
> an EDS system contributed to only one in eight parents receiving the
> correct amount.
> The DWP said some new and amended benefit claims this week would be
> delayed but it sought to play down the impact of the technology problems,
> pointing out that the department's mainframe computers were not affected.
> But internal DWP correspondence seen by the Guardian, backed up by
> interviews with staff, appears to contradict public assertions that the
> disruption was minimal and most of the system continued operating
> normally.
> A "major incident report" distributed on Monday warned of "major
> problems", with hourly updates issued to senior managers by fax or
> telephone because email on the department's intranet was blocked.
> The DWP established a "crisis management centre" to resolve the problems,
> with Microsoft troubleshooters flown in from mainland Europe to join a
> high-level team including EDS technicians.
> A memo circulated yesterday within jobcentres said 30% of problems could
> be eased by today with "a full solution potentially taking another 24-48
> hours", and the difficulties running into the weekend.
> "At this point there is no known solution or ETA," said the memo. "We are
> hopeful that some interim measures that are being considered may release
> some users from their current deadlock."
> A routine software upgrade on a small number of PCs last weekend is
> believed to have gone disastrously wrong when an incompatible system was
> downloaded on to the whole network.
> The DWP said last night that progress had been swifter than expected,
> insisting contingency plans had worked.
> "Pens came back out and in many cases hot desking was used," said a senior
> official. "The problem was quite random so you could potentially be
> sitting down at one desk and your mate next door couldn't access the
> system."
> Trade union leaders called on ministers to drop plans to cut 40,000 jobs
> in the DWP and a total of 104,000 civil servants across the government
> following the computer crisis.
> Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services
> Union, said: "Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse after the
> experiences of the CSA we have what can only described as near-meltdown
> with IT across the whole of the DWP.
> "Yet again we are seeing thousands of hardworking staff, many of whom face
> the axe, trying to deliver essential services with one hand tied behind
> their back.
> "The department and the government are hellbent on axing thousands of
> civil and public servants, saying IT will enable them to do so, but yet
> again we are seeing IT systems come to a grinding halt and fail.
> "For the government and the department to contemplate axing thousands of
> jobs when the IT clearly isn't delivering is not only irresponsible and
> foolhardy, but some would argue pure madness."
> Texas-based EDS has already seen £12.1m withheld by the government from an
> ill-fated £450m CSA project. Mr Johnson is said to be considering
> scrapping the contract.
> Labour has spent some £1.5bn on over-budget or scrapped computer projects,
> many inherited from the Conservatives, prompting National Audit Office
> reports.
> The Swanwick air traffic control centre, due to open in 1996 at a cost of
> £475m, started six years late and £180m over-budget, while £300m was spent
> on a scheme, later scrapped, to use plastic cards to pay benefits via post
> offices.
> EDS failed to get an Inland Revenue contract renewed after complaints
> about its work.
> Keith Wylie, a PCS national officer, said: "I cannot remember a crash this
> big."
> He added: "It's a massive failure and unless it's fixed quickly it's going
> to result in significant delays in benefits being paid out. If it was two
> years down the line and those 40,000 staff had been lost, there would have
> been no one to write out the giros."
> http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,11026,1360163,00.html
>
> I wonder if the UK National Health Service is regretting awarding
> Microsoft a £500 million contract now?
>
> --
> hermes
> DRM sux! Treacherous Computing kills our virtual civil liberties!
> http://protectfreedom.tripod.com/index.html
> http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html
> http://anti-dmca.org/
> http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/unintended_consequences.php
>
> Windows XP crashed.
> I am the Blue Screen of Death.
> No one hears your screams
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