Breathe easy, Y2K is over?

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Breathe easy, Y2K is over?

Tuesday, 7th March 2000

It seems that the Y2K is almost officially over. Having begun as far back as the early 70's, 80's, or very late 90's, depending on who you believe, three months past the date change and everything is still going relatively swimmingly. Certainly there were plenty of glitches, but nothing remarkable, no armageddon stuff and certainly nothing like what the papers were wishing for.

It's a shame really. The Y2K had such promise, such excitement and a plot that could have only been beaten by intervention from God itself, but it's left us with very little to look back-on. Even the leap year date failed to impress. Certainly there were a few glitches in the Asia Pacific but nothing particularly major, no nuclear weapons unexpectedly firing on long forgotten cold war targets, and no planes falling out of the sky. Another let down.

So what now. There are still those who are predicting disaster although the estimated damage and confusion expected is getting more and more conservative by the day. And there are still those wary few that left for the hills with a pallet full of beans and an oil drum full of water, but even they are starting to come down from their isolated safety points.

None of this is quite enough to make the business world breath a sigh of relief however. If there are still rumours of potential failures, or systems that still haven't hit a cycle that matters, then IT departments across the globe will hang on, in bitter anticipation of the bug.

For the UK, the end of the tax year in April could be a critical turning point and indeed one that may show a number of problems that went unnoticed. So it is unlikely that UK precautions will slow before then. In the US however the level of confidence is rising steadily as the bug stays at bay and no major problems are reported. As a result of this the Government has taken steps towards closing its long established Y2K centre.

The would-be Y2K operational command post, which cost around $50 million, basically saw out its final day last month as the calendar flipped from February 28th to February 29th. Now that that is over the perceived threat of the bug is no more and the centre, with its $9 million of equipment, is to be deactivated.

Quite whether or not this is the right time to be binning your Y2K operations however is another question, it may well be a bit premature but presumably the US Government has done its homework.

http://www.it-analysis.com/w2k.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), March 07, 2000


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