Stock exchange down this morning

[Mordac]

Next, mark my words, Network Rail systems will crash. When that happens, the trains will start running on time and not be randomly cancelled at the last minute.

Having spent some time there, I'm frankly amazed they haven't crashed already.

[TwoWolves]

Computer systems are getting more complex, not less. Mostly because they are doing a lot more but business leaders in the UK want everything on the cheap, even with mission-critical systems.

I know the SE uses a lot of contractors but there have been cutbacks in the past and staffing levels (and rates) have not recovered that well. There's supposed to be an IT boom but I'm seeing a lot of budgets being cut and rates are still anaemic on the whole.

[jds 1981]

Computer systems are getting more complex, not less. Mostly because they are doing a lot more but business leaders in the UK want everything on the cheap, even with mission-critical systems.

I know the SE uses a lot of contractors but there have been cutbacks in the past and staffing levels (and rates) have not recovered that well. There's supposed to be an IT boom but I'm seeing a lot of budgets being cut and rates are still anaemic on the whole.

AFAIK stock exchange used to be run on software that Accenture played a large part in, then the LSE bought millenniumIT to use their software for the exchange.
Millennium IT is based in Sri Lanka.

[NickFitz]

And TSB.

Both Visa & TSB claim it was hardware, not software.

That's so vague, though. For example, apply a firmware update to a bunch of routers scattered across your critical infrastructure; they all go down because the manufacturer screwed up (and the victim screwed up by not rolling out the update gradually). It probably gets described as a hardware failure even though it was software that broke the hardware.

[WTFH]

That's so vague, though. For example, apply a firmware update to a bunch of routers scattered across your critical infrastructure; they all go down because the manufacturer screwed up (and the victim screwed up by not rolling out the update gradually). It probably gets described as a hardware failure even though it was software that broke the hardware.

So, the question is: have they all got the same brand of hardware at some point, and have they all applied the same firmware fix over the last few days?

[Jog On]

So, the question is: have they all got the same brand of hardware at some point, and have they all applied the same firmware fix over the last few days?

And do they just roll it out on the live environment with no testing or failover/rollback mechanism?

[WTFH]

And do they just roll it out on the live environment with no testing or failover/rollback mechanism?

They probably ran a test on a dummy server that wasn't actually connected to any meaningful system, ran it up, got to the login screen and signed it off as working.

[Jog On]

They probably ran a test on a dummy server that wasn't actually connected to any meaningful system, ran it up, got to the login screen and signed it off as working.

I hope whoever it was had PI insurance!

[radish2008]

And TSB.

Both Visa & TSB claim it was hardware, not software.

I know a guy who knows a guy etc. and he said TSB was down to a stupid Go/No Go and the fact they fired a lot of contractors working on the migration. So it was people not hardware for TSB.

[WTFH]

Anybody seen Suity recently?