The 1 Billion Dollar Computer loss in the Air Force

I was listening to John McCain talk to an NBC News reporter on the news last night and they were talking about how the Air Force was trying to combine 240 computer systems into one. (Right there I knew this type of thing would be in trouble just with what I know about the complexities of combining so many different systems into one.) So, it wasn't surprising to me at all that there is now 1 billion dollars lost with nothing to show for it.

The reason for this is that what is theoretically possible is not really possible in actuality, simply because most people (maybe 99%) have no concept about how this will actually be done. So, when you have managers making these decisions and then you bring in bureaucratic government situations regulations and employees, you are bound to have a problem exactly like this. Because you can't get enough people on the same page regarding what is actually possible and what isn't. The problem is not really about the technology. The problem is people actually understanding it without a PHD in computer science down that specific specialty. So, literally you would need everyone looking at this with a PHD in Computer Science from MIT or someplace like that to even begin to have a discussion on how to even embark on such a project. So, in the end it is not the technology that is the problem, it is having enough people actually understanding it enough to make useful decisions regarding the technology and how to apply it.

So, in the end, the technology to actually do what they are talking about wouldn't be the problem, it would be designing the software to actually make this happen. So, writing the software, putting in the data etc. might actually cost 100 billion dollars for a project like this. Then if it was online in any way it would be vulnerable to hacking from anywhere on earth. So, in the end it might be more secure to keep your 240 different computer systems the way they are because then they can only be hacked one at a time (if then) and not all of them at once like they would likely be with a single system like this.


Later: Or to take a more humorous look at it check out on Netflix streaming The IT Crowd Series 3 episode 4."The Speech".