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Throw more money at computer system; don't fix it |
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Friday, 27 August 2010 06:55 |
Another iteration of the phrase “multiple redundancies” is an emergency “paper trail” path to conducting business as close to “normal” as possible until the network is stable again. Data entry is cheap when OCR and document “scrape-ing” softwares are used. {Paper now … digital later. It’s not that tough folks!}
The fact that they probably use (Microsoft) ‘Winderz’ servers and desktops to run this network is not a comforting thought. (This is another indication that the aforementioned critical data on the computer display is missing.)
What would comfort me is a full investigation of this agency and an immediate assessment of the networks by a competent, independent company. It is inexcusable to have this sort of disruption of the public’s business due to either poor planning and bad engineering, or incompetence. One, or both, of these factors is at the heart of the matter here.
The state's chief information officer, Sam Nixon was quoted as saying,”This is supposed to be the best system you can buy, and it's never supposed to fail, but this one did.”
Is this just Northrop Grumman’s way of saying “Ooops ... My Bad”? This probably wouldn’t be such a big deal, if this was the first and only problem with VITA. The problem is that the General Assembly's investigative arm, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, has already investigated Northrop Grumman, for cost overruns, service outages, slow service and delays that have paralyzed state agencies numerous times since the agency was established in 2003.
See … those numbers on the screen DO matter! And speaking of numbers, VITA's 10-year, $2.4 billion, (yes … that’s billions …. with a “b”), contract with the government contractor Northrop Grumman is the largest in Virginia history with a single vendor.
Anyone ever heard the old saw, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”? Well it looks like VITA did, and now they have egg on their faces.
Elwood P. Dowd - Norfolk
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Letters To The Editor 