From: Esther Schindler <[email protected]>
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2015 1:10 PM
Subject: [lopsa-discuss] What’s the oldest third-party software your company
uses? Why is it still in use?
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[snip]
I’m not looking for answers about custom applications orin-house software. The
reasons to hold onto old custom code are relativelywell-known, and a different
discussion. But software you acquired from a vendor…?
But… what’s the oldest software your shop still uses? Why is it still in place?
I think you won't be surprised if a commonality is embedded software that
powers expensive capital equipment or software meant for a *long* lifetime (ie
decades).
We had many pieces of specialized equipment where the original purchase
emphasized functionality far more more than upgrade-ability, if the latter was
even part of the requirements. Radar calibration stations, spectrum analyzers,
etc., are examples. Go to any clean room and you will find equipment that still
has software literally from the previous millenium, possibly including 16 bit
treasures.
Many shops have learned how to segregate and isolate (to some degree) older
production software that can't be upgraded. The most recent mass repeat of this
exercise was the Windows XP EOL. For a lot of shops, ~7% of the production
fleet could not be replaced or retired, and had to be mitigated via some
isolation techniques. We created a separate EOL network (colloquially called
the trash network) where old machines go to live out their useful life but
cross contamination is mitigated. Wiser shops will have documented well so that
the next EOL event (eg, Windows 7 or 2012) is less of a shock.
Another class of uses is software that is meant to be in the field for a *long*
lifetime. All of our space based software is designed to be on mission for
decades. Closer to home, there are plenty of installations that are not
interconnected but still must last for a decade or more and still have a
warranty/maintenance facility that tests and mitigates bug reports from the
field. I can tell you my last employer still has VAX/VMS software
*development*, and I doubt we are unique.
Finally, I'll submit my first hand contender of software still in mission
critical production for 40 (forty) years. The software I first developed for a
radar installation and sold off to the customer in 1985 is still in use on a
mountain top overseas. I wrote part of the OS (what was then called the
Executive) and the Electronic Beam Forming software. I know it's still in use
because to my surprise in December of 2013, I received a phone call asking me
about any documentation I might still have from that time, and did I happen to
remember some of the parameters (like the Inter Pulse Period) off the top of
my head. Apparently, the customer was issuing an RFP to upgrade it in 2014. OK,
technically it's not *my* shop that still uses it but you get the point.
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