David--Your wrote: But my point is that for some types of systems there is no possibility of a manual backup... the volumes are simply too large & complex. I wholeheartedly agree. But ya gotta love the optimism displayed by the poster responding to this Dow Jones Newswire article on the Bank of Japan posted to csy2k.
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<snip>
> April 6, 1999
> Dow Jones Newswires
> BOJ To Set Aside Y40 Trln For Y2K Problems - Kyodo
>
> TOKYO -- The Bank of Japan (BOJ) said Tuesday it will set aside Y40 trillion
> in cash at its head office and branches to cope with emergency situations in
> case problems hit computers when the calendar changes to 2000 next year,
> Kyodo News reported Tuesday.
<snip part of response, continue w/ DJN>
> Although the BOJ has reprogrammed its own computer system to prevent the
> millennium bug from striking, it has prepared a package of countermeasures
> just in case. It is the first central bank among industrial nations to
> announce such countermeasures.
> According to the package, the BOJ will complete tests by December on
> transfer of computer operations to its backup center in Osaka. On Dec. 30,
> the central bank will print out data that may be needed if manual processing
> of transactions becomes necessary.
(responding poster) I believe it; I've seen BOJ documents that say MANUAL PROCESSING. You can make manual contingency plans for a modern financial institution, if you know what you're doing.
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Yeah sure, you can make manual processing plans for a modern financial institution. Whether or not they'll work is an entirely different matter even if you DO know what you're doing.
I had a conversation not that long ago with someone who insisted that manual processing could be done in a situation similar to what you described in your last post. She asserted that if you simply hire enough people to handle the crushing volume it could be done. When I asked where these people would come from, where they would park, find adequate office space, use the restroom, get a drink of water, yaddah, yaddah, yaddah...not to mention if this effort would in fact be more "cost effective" than perhaps a temporary, indefinite shutdown I got the classic RCA dog look and silence.
--One a similar note and to continue our airline theme for the day, sometime ago I picked up a reference to a conversation between two guys in the UK who were charged with trying to find "parking space" for the numerous aircraft that might be grounded at rollover. This was about the time the International Air Traffic Association made noises re: reducing the number of flights if necessary. Apparently at anyone time during a 24 hr. period about 50% of all aircraft are actually airborne? (I think I need help on this factoid.) Anyway, these guys had no idea where they might put these planes and still allow airports to operate at reduced capacity. They started joking about the open fields in Scotland... |
