Y2K Bugged

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Y2K Bugged - What Happened?

Were Y2K remediation efforts a big waste of time and money for corporate America? The answer looks to be a resounding no.
Network professionals have reported a host of benefits they will enjoy in 2000 and beyond because of IT inventories, business analysis and system testing completed under the umbrella of Y2K preparedness.
Overall, the U.S. spent more than $100 billion fixing the Y2K problem since 1995, according to John Koskinen, the federal government's Y2K czar. He estimates that the rest of the world spent an additional $100 billion to repair and replace computer systems and networks in preparation for the millennium date change.
The investments appear to have been wise. While many government agencies and companies experienced minor Y2K-related glitches, no significant system outages occurred over New Year's weekend. And although it is still early to declare absolute victory over Y2K, date-change problems expected during the next few weeks and months will likely be nuisances rather than business-crippling matters.
The lesson we have learned.
As IT executives close up their command centers, they are putting together the lessons they have learned from the Y2K drill. They say one of the biggest advantages is Y2K forced them to thoroughly inventory and document IT systems and networks.
"We were able to conduct a very intensive inventory of all our systems," says Lyn McDermid, chief information officer of Virginia Power in Richmond, Va. "As a result of that, we have eliminated quite a few redundant applications, and we eliminated systems that were obsolete. That should reduce our support costs.
"We were also able to introduce some new technology and jump-start our Web development. We feel that we really did get ancillary benefits from Y2K."
Similarly, Prudential Insurance created strategic inventories of its software, hardware and business partners. Irene Dec, Prudential's Y2K program ma...