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I had someone visit one of my classes at PSU and describe the backend system as it is being implemented in Pennsylvania. The system that was described acts as o

I had someone visit one of my classes at PSU and describe the backend system as it is being implemented in Pennsylvania. The system that was described acts as one big middle man and interops multiple legacy systems mostly written in COBOL. I was told they have the time constraint of 7 seconds to process approvals, which to me seems like a lot, but I'm sure the older systems are probably the real constraint. If these legacy systems supported modern APIs and data transfer formats, this could probably all fit cleanly into any web framework and you wouldn't need a backend dedicated to doing tricky data cleansing. I hope the plan is to use this system as a shim while they improve the legacy systems.

XorNot 13y ago
Those systems are legacy systems for a reason. They're never being upgraded. Also, before anyone gets all "hurr durr government!" on this - this is the exact same situation at any major bank or company founded before about 1990.
- bsullivan01 13y ago
  Good point, before judging the price or quality we have to know what the Government asked them to do and the legacy systems they had to deal with.
- triton 13y ago
  Spot on this is normal. I work in the financial services sector and stuff still arrives on dialup and ftp from mainframes regularly in all sorts of odd formats. SOAP is what is in the executive bathrooms and JSON is the cleaner's name and that is it :)
  - mkr-hn 13y ago
    I ordered a part at the local franchise of a major auto parts place (I forget which one). The guy acted a little embarrassed as we stood there listening to the dial-up modem connect to place the order with the corporate system. That was in 2012 when even the small corner bookstore down the road had free wifi.
- bryogenic 13y ago
  Here is a great Planet Money podcast about just that: > Why does it take so long to send money from one bank account to another? http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/10/04/229224964/episode-489-the-invisible-plumbing-of-our-economy http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/10/04/229224964/episode-...
gigq 13y ago
From what I can tell it's not just legacy systems that are the problem. I just tried the system for the first time today and there are multiple form issues (errors like "Error: id" with no further explanation) and broken links (a link to https://www.healthcare.gov/help/how-do-i-choose-marketplace-insurance/ https://www.healthcare.gov/help/how-do-i-choose-marketplace-... for more info results in a 404).
deleted 13y ago
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XorNot 13y ago

Those systems are legacy systems for a reason. They're never being upgraded. Also, before anyone gets all "hurr durr government!" on this - this is the exact same situation at any major bank or company founded before about 1990.

bsullivan01 13y ago
Good point, before judging the price or quality we have to know what the Government asked them to do and the legacy systems they had to deal with.
triton 13y ago
Spot on this is normal. I work in the financial services sector and stuff still arrives on dialup and ftp from mainframes regularly in all sorts of odd formats. SOAP is what is in the executive bathrooms and JSON is the cleaner's name and that is it :)
- mkr-hn 13y ago
  I ordered a part at the local franchise of a major auto parts place (I forget which one). The guy acted a little embarrassed as we stood there listening to the dial-up modem connect to place the order with the corporate system. That was in 2012 when even the small corner bookstore down the road had free wifi.
bryogenic 13y ago
Here is a great Planet Money podcast about just that: > Why does it take so long to send money from one bank account to another? http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/10/04/229224964/episode-489-the-invisible-plumbing-of-our-economy http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/10/04/229224964/episode-...

gigq 13y ago

From what I can tell it's not just legacy systems that are the problem. I just tried the system for the first time today and there are multiple form issues (errors like "Error: id" with no further explanation) and broken links (a link to https://www.healthcare.gov/help/how-do-i-choose-marketplace-insurance/ https://www.healthcare.gov/help/how-do-i-choose-marketplace-... for more info results in a 404).

deleted 13y ago

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