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Update: Virginia's IT outage continues, 3 agencies still affected - Computerworld

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Devilsbane

Can't get a license, but you also don't have to pay taxes. Things could be worse!

earweed

Imagine that, 2 failed devices at once. Kind of makes centralizing everything not as attractive.

erpadmin

This isn't a centralization issue (that will always be a good idea...), this is an outsourcing one. The fact that Virginia pretty much outsourced ALL of their services to Northrop Grumman, but hey has a CIO that's the Governor's b-buddy, says a lot of what Northrop thinks of the state. There were clearly no controls or checks on these systems and had there been, this wouldn't have been news.

We've had similiar issues up here, but we were definitely able to contain the damage much better than a company getting 2.4 billion bucks! And these guys are a defense contractor at that....shameful!

I guess VA is going to have to wonder if there really is a cost savings to outsourcing all of their IT instead of just hiring competent civil servants. Talk all the crap you want state workers...but this type of jazz would never be tolerated. Heads would seriously roll.....

iDShaDoW

I don't know the whole politics behind everything but it does seem fishy if there's any merit to the claims by VITA's former CIO and the whole contract being "criticized by some legislators and state employees as pricey and inefficient".

You would think on a multi-billion dollar contract which services a lot of state agencies that there'd be more than one backup system in place (then again, I have no idea the cost of the kind of hardware they're running so maybe it only allots enough budget for one backup hotsite).

The former CIO was fired for questioning Northrop Grumman's fulfilling of requirements which seems like it was the right thing to do, otherwise this whole incident wouldn't have occurred.

"Lemuel C. Stewart Jr. was ousted Wednesday as director of the Virginia Information Technologies Agency by its oversight panel, the Information Technology Investment Board."

The people on the investment board are probably all buddy buddy with the people at the top over at Northrop Grumman as well similar to how VITA's current CIO is buddies with Tim Kaine. I'm not really a fan of Kaine or some of his state policies that he's implemented/attempted to implement as well but that's a whole different topic.

Outsourcing or turning to temp agencies is usually not a big cost savings I would think for the most part. I did help-desk contract work for a non-profit organization and a fellow co-worker managed to find out what the NPO was being billed by our company at the time, and let's just say that the middle-man (our company) was pocketing a lot of extra cash (half to 3/4ths in my case) compared to what they were charging the NPO and paying out to us. Same goes for a friend who found out what his temp agency was billing for him compared to what he was getting (half or so).

phantasm

Having just moved to VA my wife and I went to the DMV to get drivers licenses and they told us the systems were down until at least Monday (today). Then they recommended we come back after 9/7 for our licenses. lol.

colemic

Can't see the article as the site won't load at work for me, but the comments made me think of an article I read this morning about American Eagle, whose website was down for 8 DAYS (several light-years in e-commerce time) in July... attributed to multiple hardware failures, corrupted data, and the contracted hot-site (IBM) wasn't prepared to spin up.

American Eagle Outfitters learns a painful service provider lesson - CSO Online - Security and Risk

erpadmin

$2.4 billion....seriously, are there even Fortune 500 companies that spend that much on IT?

I can see if it's a globalized company...but the State of Virginia, (pardon me, the Commonwealth of Virginia.....I forget we have 4 of those....), with its roughly 8 million citizens? Someone is definitely getting robbed.

In Texas, the average that state spent on IT spending was $274 Million (from 2008 through 2010). And that state has one of the world's best economies by itself, not to mention has a lot more people! You can look it up for yourself here: Texas Transparency - Check Register Search Tools: Spending by Agency

Just click on "Search Spending By Agency", choose a Fiscal year and then the Department of Information Resources.

And Virginia needs to spend $2.4 billion?! LMAO! WOW.......

earweed

And they got their moneys worth...oops no wait they got this crap!

colemic

erpadmin wrote: »

$2.4 billion....seriously, are there even Fortune 500 companies that spend that much on IT?

I can see if it's a globalized company...but the State of Virginia, (pardon me, the Commonwealth of Virginia.....I forget we have 4 of those....), with its roughly 8 million citizens? Someone is definitely getting robbed.

In Texas, the average that state spent on IT spending was $274 Million (from 2008 through 2010). And that state has one of the world's best economies by itself, not to mention has a lot more people! You can look it up for yourself here: Texas Transparency - Check Register Search Tools: Spending by Agency

Just click on "Search Spending By Agency", choose a Fiscal year and then the Department of Information Resources.

And Virginia needs to spend $2.4 billion?! LMAO! WOW.......

Minor point, but I am looking at TPWD for FY 2009, and they spent ballpark 6 mil on IT-related services and equipment, under 'other expenditures'... outside of payments to DIR. The true amount of IT is probably MUCH higher than what DIR spends directly.

erpadmin

colemic wrote: »

Minor point, but I am looking at TPWD for FY 2009, and they spent ballpark 6 mil on IT-related services and equipment, under 'other expenditures'... outside of payments to DIR. The true amount of IT is probably MUCH higher than what DIR spends directly.

A valid point, minor or not.

But lets say that Texas spent $2.4 billion on IT spending. Let's say it spent $3 billion or $1 billion. It's friggin Texas, which is about a gazillion times larger than Virginia. I can't see Virginia needing to spend $2.4 billion of taxpayer money on IT infrastructure that will be down for days! And we're talking about using EMC DMX SANs which are supposed to be extremely redundant. For that to have failed must have meant gross negligence on someone's part and that poor sap is going to be a scapegoat after all is said and done.

The loser in this story is definitely the Virginia taxpayer.....
The winners...Kaine, Northrop Grumman, those techs who are probably working that insane amount of overtime....

Have a look at this link...$1.5 million in political contributions seems to be a worthwhile investment...better than the lotto or stock market! I like how Gov. Kaine got a decent amount from them as well.

Money Out (Contributions): Northrop Grumman

earweed

Man, a good return on investment. $1.5 Million for $2.4 Billion.

Paul Boz

"We don't know nuthin bout them computers, shoot. Pay Northrop Grumman, they make fighter jets!"

*sigh*

I live in the south, btw. I can go there.