Chip On Jan 27, 2018, at 9:42 AM, [email protected] wrote:
> if you have ever had to recover a broken computer - > Imaging the hell this would be: > 4,000 servers, 45,000 PCs and 2,500 apps all rebuilt, while other staff > went manual. “All” is a seriously disingenuous description. Perhaps “all” x86 boxes. But that is NOT Maresk’s entire compute footprint. For a 114 year old company with 88,000 employees there’s absolutely no way they were running their entire business on x86 boxes. They had old, old, old paper based clerical procedures in place that grew up from EAM punch card machines to someone’s mainframes & midrange. A company that size & age… you name the computing technology they likely have it & are still using it. Somewhere in a company like that there’s likely a 4D application or two. During Y2K an IBMer friend said IBM sent the company he supported (just for storage) a list of 2,000 products the company had bought from IBM over the decades. IBM, of course, had no control over what obsolete, long-off-maintenace products the company was still using. By a show of hands… who has clients—perhaps ex-clients?—who’re running long dropped 4D applications that you’re tried & tried & tried to get the client to upgrade. Clients are “funny”… they typically are not as enamored of shiny new toys as software vendors or consultants. “It’s bought & paid for & works… why change?” Again during Y2K… a friend was with a 60,000 person financial services company… 7 IBM mainframes, 20,000 x86 servers & 20 VAXes in a warehouse for emergencies. ____________________________ David Eddy Babson Park, MA ********************************************************************** 4D Internet Users Group (4D iNUG) FAQ: http://lists.4d.com/faqnug.html Archive: http://lists.4d.com/archives.html Options: http://lists.4d.com/mailman/options/4d_tech Unsub: mailto:[email protected] **********************************************************************
