3 ms·

Yeah, I found that argument to be strange as well. Not everything needs to have a super dynamic UI. That said, I do think that companies are running into serio

Yeah, I found that argument to be strange as well. Not everything needs to have a super dynamic UI. That said, I do think that companies are running into serious issues trying to maintain and integrate legacy mainframe systems without fully or properly considering the maintenance costs. Take the US airlines. My understanding is that these airlines are largely running on legacy booking and inventory systems that have been duct-taped together over the course of decades due to mergers and acquisitions, etc. Several large airlines have suffered major outages that were blamed on internal IT failures, sometimes resulting in grounded planes. I’d love to hear more detail around this problem for those who have the context, but my understanding is that these companies have have many old systems that are costing a fortune to maintain and becoming less and less stable. I’d bet that you could find some pretty serious architecture flaws without digging too deeply into those systems, and I’d argue that those would be issues worth addressing above a UI. Problem is that management can see and grasp a new UI far easier than architecture changes.

p_l 6y ago
Major airlines have huge chunks of the IT system outsourced to cloud services for longer than the term grid computing existed. Which isn't that surprising when you consider that Cloud is literally the old mainframe model. The issues you've heard are often related to intersection points between different systems handling different areas, for example the main passenger-handling system is usually outsourced to Amadeus (especially in EU it seems) or Sabre, then you might have onboarding software that can sometimes introduce you to mainframes most people never heard of (I know that at least one airline used Unisys). Some have in-house components that integrate with the rest. There's integration with airport baggage handling. There's plane monitoring and maintenance (which might include "cloud" services from vendors of the plane and separately of the engine), etc. etc. Some of those systems are very new - KLM/AF have recently made a large enough development on z/TPF that they call it actually a new system. I know that I was VERY impressed with how fast a trained clerk worked using it, getting me a new flight after volcano grounded everyone, adding frequent flyer program etc. along the way. You know all those stories about expert ViM users? A typical trained user of one of those systems is at least as fast as them. Quite often, the finger for failures is pointed (often for good reason) at outsourcing companies. Interestingly, it tends to not be Amadeus or Sabre that are pointed at, but well known companies like TCS, Wipro, Infosys...

p_l 6y ago

Major airlines have huge chunks of the IT system outsourced to cloud services for longer than the term grid computing existed. Which isn't that surprising when you consider that Cloud is literally the old mainframe model. The issues you've heard are often related to intersection points between different systems handling different areas, for example the main passenger-handling system is usually outsourced to Amadeus (especially in EU it seems) or Sabre, then you might have onboarding software that can sometimes introduce you to mainframes most people never heard of (I know that at least one airline used Unisys). Some have in-house components that integrate with the rest. There's integration with airport baggage handling. There's plane monitoring and maintenance (which might include "cloud" services from vendors of the plane and separately of the engine), etc. etc. Some of those systems are very new - KLM/AF have recently made a large enough development on z/TPF that they call it actually a new system. I know that I was VERY impressed with how fast a trained clerk worked using it, getting me a new flight after volcano grounded everyone, adding frequent flyer program etc. along the way. You know all those stories about expert ViM users? A typical trained user of one of those systems is at least as fast as them. Quite often, the finger for failures is pointed (often for good reason) at outsourcing companies. Interestingly, it tends to not be Amadeus or Sabre that are pointed at, but well known companies like TCS, Wipro, Infosys...