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Is it so hard though? Do Facebook, Google etc. have this problem too? I doubt it. Systems need to be designed to be patched regularly from the outset. Yes, def

by rythie 9y ago

Is it so hard though? Do Facebook, Google etc. have this problem too? I doubt it. Systems need to be designed to be patched regularly from the outset. Yes, defense in depth can help, but it's not defense in depth if you one of the layers is pretty much always broken. If they are relying on legacy systems that can't be proactively and regularly be patched, they shouldn't be holding that data. I think part of the problem here, is that we can't see the risks companies are running with our data and goverment doesn't regulate it. P.S. I do manage systems, though not on this scale.

hn_throwaway_99 9y ago
> Is it so hard though? Do Facebook, Google etc. have this problem too? I doubt it. Companies with monopolistic pricing power like Facebook and Google are a poor comparison for almost any other company. Many problems become very easy when you have a near infinite supply of money. Other businesses need to work with much more difficult constraints.
- genmud 9y ago
  Average IT spend runs between 2 and 5% of revenue for fortune 500s. For reference... GM makes 166 billion/year in revenue, and on the low end their IT spend is probably more than 2 billion/year. In 2004 they were making the news because they went from 4B/year in 1998 to 3B/year. In 2006 they were making 190B/year, so I doubt their IT budget has changed significantly and is on the low end compared to other companies in the fortune 500 list. Facebook and other technology companies might spend a lot more on IT, but that's part of them doing business. Don't confuse the fact that technology companies do technology better with the fact that any company in the fortune 500 list have HUGE IT budgets. At a large company that I used to work for we had an IT budget of more than 1 billion USD and they didn't patch very well either. Our budget was actually smaller than many of our peers. If you have a IT infrastructure/application budget of 1B or more and you can't patch, your doing it wrong and there is no excuse. For a full baked/managed solution, you can find folks to do an entire program for less than 12m/year for a 200k node network.

by rythie 9y ago

hn_throwaway_99 9y ago

> Is it so hard though? Do Facebook, Google etc. have this problem too? I doubt it. Companies with monopolistic pricing power like Facebook and Google are a poor comparison for almost any other company. Many problems become very easy when you have a near infinite supply of money. Other businesses need to work with much more difficult constraints.

genmud 9y ago
Average IT spend runs between 2 and 5% of revenue for fortune 500s. For reference... GM makes 166 billion/year in revenue, and on the low end their IT spend is probably more than 2 billion/year. In 2004 they were making the news because they went from 4B/year in 1998 to 3B/year. In 2006 they were making 190B/year, so I doubt their IT budget has changed significantly and is on the low end compared to other companies in the fortune 500 list. Facebook and other technology companies might spend a lot more on IT, but that's part of them doing business. Don't confuse the fact that technology companies do technology better with the fact that any company in the fortune 500 list have HUGE IT budgets. At a large company that I used to work for we had an IT budget of more than 1 billion USD and they didn't patch very well either. Our budget was actually smaller than many of our peers. If you have a IT infrastructure/application budget of 1B or more and you can't patch, your doing it wrong and there is no excuse. For a full baked/managed solution, you can find folks to do an entire program for less than 12m/year for a 200k node network.