Atlanta Will Not Fix Its 3,000 PC's in Time Link: http://www.accessatlanta.com/news/1999/05/16/y2k_atlant... Comment: The city of Atlanta will not bother to try to get its 3,000 PC's compliant by January. The city will fix them after that date.

We keep getting told that fixing PC's is cheap and easy. "Just buy a new one; they're all compliant this year." Then why doesn't Atlanta spend a few million extra and buy upgrades?

The problem is not just hardware. It's software and the date stored in the software.

This is from the Atlanta JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION (May 16).

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Atlanta computer engineers will be working down to the wire to assure that on New Year's Day, city residents can flush their toilets, call police or firefighters in need and count on traffic lights to work.

But to protect public safety and other essential functions, they are writing off technology that oils the routine business of City Hall.

City officials have all but abandoned attempts to get many of their 3,000 personal computers ready to handle the rollover from 1999 to 2000--the "Y2K bug" that is threatening computer operations worldwide. Faced with setbacks that have put the city months behind its original deadline for Y2K compliance, computer experts are concentrating on essential systems, including public safety, traffic, payroll and waste water treatment. "We have made conscious choices that there are some things that are more important than other things," said Herb McCall, Atlanta's administrative services commissioner, who is spearheading the city's Y2K compliance effort.

Although Chick Vossen, an information services manager, said leaving those PCs until after the first of the year "won't make any difference," some outside experts on Y2K computer problems predict there will be fallout.

Failure to bring all of the city's PCs into compliance is likely to have a "cascading" impact throughout the system, said Michael Flores, chief executive of Bretton Woods Inc., a consulting firm that advises public and private organizations on Y2K programs.

"You've got to take a holistic approach to this thing," Flores said. Even though the primary functions of the non-compliant systems aren't essential, failure to fix those systems would have some impact on critical processes, Flores said. . . .

City memos indicate that the day ISN removed its 140 employees from City Hall, hope of avoiding all potential Y2K pitfalls in the city's technology left the building with them. . . .

Reams of paper records on the city's Y2K compliance effort show city officials are painfully aware how little time is left.

McCall termed the city's Y2K mission an "emergency" in a late April appearance before the City Council's Finance/Executive Committee, and told council members that work on one of the "mission critical" systems will continue well into November. Many others, including the city's Criminal Justice Information System and its wide area network, two of its most extensive and complex systems, are not scheduled to be compliant until the end of October, four months after Mayor Bill Campbell's original deadline for citywide compliance, June 30. Two critical systems, including a payroll program, aren't scheduled for completion until Jan. 1. . . .

Dolinsky and Flores both said the city needs to have a lengthy and detailed contingency plan for functioning without computers.

"They are so far behind the curve right now, they've got to focus almost entirely on contingency planning," Flores said.

Administrative director McCall said that a citywide contingency plan, which is required by the state, is being compiled from plans prepared by each department according to guidelines the city distributed earlier this year.

Link: http://www.accessatlanta.com/news/1999/05/16/y2k_atlant...

-- zoobie (zoobiezoob@yahoo.com), May 17, 1999

Answers

Failure to bring all of the city's PCs into compliance is likely to have a "cascading" impact throughout the system, said Michael Flores, chief executive of Bretton Woods Inc., a consulting firm that advises public and private organizations on Y2K programs.

"You've got to take a holistic approach to this thing," Flores said. Even though the primary functions of the non-compliant systems aren't essential, failure to fix those systems would have some impact on critical processes, Flores said.

And the Polly response is...? Nah, don't bother, we know what it is...

-- regular (zzz@z.z), May 17, 1999.

The SuperBowl is scheduled next year - downtown, right in the middle of this city, just 3 weeks after "everything" fails - what are odd's it will be a rousing success?

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), May 17, 1999.

Link: C ity misses mark on computer bug

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), May 17, 1999.

Atlanta doesn't do much of anything right, why should y2k remediation be any different? And if the States standings are anywhere on the mark, the state of Georgia is third from the bottom (as usual) in remediation, with one of the largest budgets. And people wonder why I am preparing?

Dian - who is resigned to Georgia's ways

-- Dian (bdp@accessunited.com), May 17, 1999.