Many resellers won't admit to Y2K problems

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January 13, 2000

The Truth Isn't Out There

Many resellers won't admit to Y2K problems. By Mary Jo Foley, Sm@rt Reseller

As software, hardware and services companies rushed to distance themselves from the Y2K "hoax," many quietly labored last week to patch date-change bugs to which few administrators will admit.

"If all goes well, I'll talk to you. But if anything goes wrong, I won't be able to tell you," says one Y2K trouble shooter, who spoke under the condition of anonymity.

Another consultant, who spent last week patching an old version of a non-Y2K-compliant operating system for a bank, also was sworn to secrecy.

Most integrators agree that few, if any, serious problems plagued their customers in the first business week of the new year. But a number of them spent a good part of the week applying patches and fixes to users' systems that should have been applied months ago.

Companies that had IT staff and integrator personnel on call throughout New Year's weekend were reticent to talk about any problems they experienced. Some claimed they did not want to be known as a company that was not prepared for the date change.

Still, the bulk of integrators seem to be waiting and watching. As analysts at The Gartner Group note, "The year 2000 problem is not about only the boundary period and therefore must be monitored throughout the year."

Was it all a hoax? In Gartner's opinion, the dearth of reported problems is easily explainable: Companies spent big bucks to fix the Y2K bug last year.

Source: ZDNet News http://www.zdnet.com/sr/stories/news/0,4538,2421183,00.html

-- Lee Maloney (leemaloney@hotmail.com), January 19, 2000


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