US Secret Service IT is 1980s mainframes, only up 60% of the time

abcnews.go.com

28 points·seldo··11 comments

I don't know what's more worrying--the state of the Secret Service's IT, or the prospect of the government attempting to replace all of it with an ambitious new IT development project.

If you haven't worked in government contracting you don't know just how spot on this comment is.

If you haven't worked in government contracting read this:

http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/who-killed-the-v...

"...poorly defined and slowly evolving design requirements; overly ambitious schedules; and the lack of a plan to guide hardware purchases, network deployments, and software development for the bureau."

Yup, that's about how it goes.

I work in government contracting. Working on one of those projects right now. Let's just say the words 'value enginering,' are a very hated expression where I come from.

There's part of me that actually feels relieved at this news. If these are the same people enforcing the Patriot Act, I feel like I have a fighting chance now.

Wow, that's old! Just by looking at Moore's law: 30/1.5 = 20, a machine of the same size would have aproximatively 2^20 times more power!

Just goes to show you what red tape does. It's sad that servers that even the smallest startup uses are more advanced and modern than those of the United States government.

There is no need to throw out something that works well, however old it is. New startups will end up using the more modern stuff, just like older ones will end up with slightly older equipment. That's not a problem unless if affects reliability.

That, of course, assumes the government solution works fine, something the article says it doesn't.

I'd buy a couple 327xs if they come up in an auction!

sad (and terrifying)

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