Of course, you could swap IBM and Oracle and Oracle/UNIX and mainframe and
get the same story going the other way which is so common it's untrue.
Nuno Souto <nsouto_at_optushome.com.au.nospam> wrote in message
news:3c777e1d.2143042_at_news-vip.optusnet.com.au...
> A year or so ago, a very large insurance company went down the gurgler
> here in Australia.
>
> Having been involved with their conversions of data from ancient,
> dinossaur mainframes to an Oracle/UNIX based system, I got quite
> pissed-off when the company that picked up the bits and pieces decided
> to re-convert everything back to a mainframe-based, Polisy system.
>
>
> Their claim, well-publicised in the industry back then: the Oracle
> system was so "piddly" and "trivial" that it would literally take
> their "IT experts" absolute tops a couple of months to convert
> everything back to a "serious" system. And the extra load would
> barely register in their "real grunty hardware": an IBM mainframe.
>
> After all, all those Oracle people had just been "bleeding dry" the IT
> department of this company.
>
>
>
> NOW, the reality check.
>
>
> 13 months later:
>
>
> - 20% of the original data and a very small subset of the
> functionality MIGHT be ready for loading into the live mainframe
> system next month.
>
>
> - The existing live system mainframe is grinding to a halt everytime
> said 20% of the "piddly and trivial" amount of data is loaded and
> tried on-line.
>
>
> - The "IT experts" are at a loss to explain in terms of "lack of
> tuning" and "bad capacity planning" what EXACTLY went wrong with the
> rosy picture painted last year. Oh, they blame a lot of other things.
> The usual scenario: bad design, bad developers, inefficient coding,
> yadda yadda.
>
>
> - The people who knew exactly what would happen are now laughing their
> brains at the predicament of the new management, who put their balls
> on the table for delivery of the "new" system.
>
>
>
>
> Hope they all get the sack, like they so well deserve...
> But knowing full well how these things work, this is what will happen:
>
>
> IBM will step in, sell them an absolutely obscenely expensive upgrade
> and some immorally high-priced consultancy.
> Then when the thing is barely up, it will be proposed for some weird,
> wonderful and completely anonymous international IBM award.
>
> As an example of another successful move away from the "dreadful"
> UNIX/Oracle combination. Never mind at what cost, that won't even be
> mentioned...
>
>
> Another example of the "magic" of "scalability" a-la IBM mainframes.
> And some want them back? Yeah, right! Good luck.
>
>
> Sorry for the venting. But this is one IBM will NOT get away with,
> without the truth coming out in the open at least once.
>
>
> Details consisting of names, times, places and prices gladly available
> on request.
>
>
> Cheers
> Nuno Souto
> nsouto_at_optushome.com.au.nospam
Received on Sat Feb 23 2002 - 06:20:54 CST
