November 28, 2004

Government IT failure was Windows NT to XP upgrade

by brian_turner

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According to reports at Slashdot, the massive computer crash at the Department of Work and Pensions - which wiped out over 80% of the department’s computers, and is probably the largest departmental crash in UK government history - was apparently caused by trying to upgrade the network from Windows NT to Windows XP.

According to a quick Q&A of the story at the BBC: Q&A: Benefit computer crash, the DWP faces further criticism, because it apparently:

spent ’413m on external management and technical support, including consultants, advisers, accounts and lawyers in 2003/04

It continues the problems that government departments have had running Windows systems - and surely will do nothing to stop the escalating damage to Microsoft as a developer who can deliver on reliability as well as security.

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Story link: Government IT failure was Windows NT to XP upgrade

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