so why didnt the wonderfully paid paul reid sign off on the upgrades?
Upgrading systems in factories, hospitals and banks is far more complex than doing so in an office. There is so many interlinked systems and machines that rely on older software to run. Often it makes much more economic sense to keep running the older systems than to try and figure out an upgrade path for systems that might no longer be maintained by their manufacturers.
3 Likes
i get that but given its critical infrastructure in a critical department, surely its a no brainer to throw money at it to get it done ASAP
They’re terrified to touch older systems because the guy who wrote the z/os or cobol is either dead or never shared information and the one time they tried they lost 2 months worth of records
3 Likes
IT lads, I’ve a computer question.
Looking to buy a laptop in work. Normally we use DELL but their lead times seem outrageous (i.e. saying if we order today the laptop arrives in July)
Any other recommended alternative suppliers?
US states were unable to process stimulus cheques because they were still running on COBOL and they had to frantically hire a load of lads in their 60s to make sense of it. Not just Bridie and Noreen in the HSE who are behind the times. As Tony H said himself, it’s an old system but we like it.
There’s a chip shortage at the moment that’s fucked up lead time on a lot of electronics.
I like Lenovo.
Go to a reseller. They will usually carry stock, but you may have less options around customisation.
I’ll PM you a link to a company I know that will have loads of options for you.
Thanks!
70% of the worlds data is on mainframes still 
Learn z/os and you’ve the power to name your price
all these billions being spent on stack and rack for private clouds to host emails and websites
have you tried the dell outlet?
usually a quick turnaround because its physically in stock
Dell Outlet Refurbished Computers and Laptops - Free Shipping | Dell Ireland
1 Like
Chaos.
HSE insists it won’t pay any ransom, says it has backups “for all the big stuff”
Translation they won’t know for weeks what they have or don’t have
Have they tried turning it off and back on again?
2 Likes
I’d say its an absolute nightmare. Hard to know what systems have been put offline due to be encrypted and what is due to caution.
All these gangs generally exfilterate data too so it will interesting to see what they threaten to release if a ransom isn’t paid.
I haven’t seen any mention of what exactly the ransom demand is?
1 Like
