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It's 2017, not 1997. None of these issues should be any surprise to a large organisation's IT department. It's professional negligence to allow the situation to

It's 2017, not 1997. None of these issues should be any surprise to a large organisation's IT department. It's professional negligence to allow the situation to devolve to the point that such huge, expensive projects are required to upgrade everything, or the business is relying on a single outside software vendor for an important function. IT departments should have complete visibility of all their hardware and software assets. They should have rolling programmes of upgrades for both hardware and software, and they should understand exactly how long these will take, so that they do not overrun an OS end-of-life. They should have contingency plans for deprecating or replacing software if a vendor goes out of business. Failure to do the above is equivalent to a facilities department not doing essential maintenance, or forgoing safety checks, or a compliance department ignoring legal requirements. That fact that something costs money, or involves IT, does not magically excuse incompetence, shortsightedness or ignorance.

walshemj 9y ago
The uk police have faced massive cuts year on year so probably don't have the budget and have lost a lot of in house knowledge
- Nexxxeh 9y ago
  Absolutely this. Our Prime Minister (by default), Theresa May, used to be our home secretary. She seems technically illiterate. Unfortunately the base she appeals to is also relatively... Ignorant... Of tech issues and of the real world. If it won't play well in The Daily Mail, it's not a priority. According to people in the know, there aren't enough police in the community, and there aren't enough armed police, and there's not enough money going into the police force. This has all been brought into sharp focus by the recent terror attacks. Her actions read like a bad conspiracy theory.
  - dx034 9y ago
    Even if you have a tech literate home secretary that won't help you much. Telling the public that police presence has to be reduced because the police needs to upgrade to Windows 10/Linux can cost you the next election. Especially in times when people are very concerned about the security situation.
- rlpb 9y ago
  Even more reason to say "we can't deliver X because it'll cost Y and our budget won't allow for that" rather than "we'll pretend X actually costs Y/10 and defer the inevitable problem". Then politicians in the first year will consider that you have delivered X for a fraction of its actual cost, and thus setting the entire service up for failure in the future.
  - walshemj 9y ago
    But virtually all MP's and all senior ones have zero idea about the blinky light boxes work.
grecy 9y ago
> It's 2017, not 1997. It's professional negligence to allow the situation to devolve .... incompetence, shortsightedness or ignorance. I could not agree more with your comment on all counts. You just have to remember that a big corporation is interested in making profit, and always more profit. IT is just another cost center that must be reduced, year after year. They are actively cutting budgets and "downsizing". Yes, they are cutting corners and doing an atrocious job. That's the real world.
- dx034 9y ago
  And this is not a corporation. We're talking about public services that faced huge budget cuts. A business can be convinced to upgrade if this increases profits in the long run. Public services have yearly budgets, investments in infrastructure are hard to justify and next to impossible in times of austerity.

walshemj 9y ago

The uk police have faced massive cuts year on year so probably don't have the budget and have lost a lot of in house knowledge

Nexxxeh 9y ago
Absolutely this. Our Prime Minister (by default), Theresa May, used to be our home secretary. She seems technically illiterate. Unfortunately the base she appeals to is also relatively... Ignorant... Of tech issues and of the real world. If it won't play well in The Daily Mail, it's not a priority. According to people in the know, there aren't enough police in the community, and there aren't enough armed police, and there's not enough money going into the police force. This has all been brought into sharp focus by the recent terror attacks. Her actions read like a bad conspiracy theory.
- dx034 9y ago
  Even if you have a tech literate home secretary that won't help you much. Telling the public that police presence has to be reduced because the police needs to upgrade to Windows 10/Linux can cost you the next election. Especially in times when people are very concerned about the security situation.
rlpb 9y ago
Even more reason to say "we can't deliver X because it'll cost Y and our budget won't allow for that" rather than "we'll pretend X actually costs Y/10 and defer the inevitable problem". Then politicians in the first year will consider that you have delivered X for a fraction of its actual cost, and thus setting the entire service up for failure in the future.
- walshemj 9y ago
  But virtually all MP's and all senior ones have zero idea about the blinky light boxes work.

grecy 9y ago

> It's 2017, not 1997. It's professional negligence to allow the situation to devolve .... incompetence, shortsightedness or ignorance. I could not agree more with your comment on all counts. You just have to remember that a big corporation is interested in making profit, and always more profit. IT is just another cost center that must be reduced, year after year. They are actively cutting budgets and "downsizing". Yes, they are cutting corners and doing an atrocious job. That's the real world.

dx034 9y ago
And this is not a corporation. We're talking about public services that faced huge budget cuts. A business can be convinced to upgrade if this increases profits in the long run. Public services have yearly budgets, investments in infrastructure are hard to justify and next to impossible in times of austerity.