Paris Shut down by Software, way, way, way, beyond Manufacturers Support.
You may have heard about the Paris Airport which was shut down last week after a failure of Window 3.1 software.
It now seems that it wasn’t the software that failed but a hardware issue instead. That part has been replaced and now the DÉCOR system at the airport is up and running again.
Although we were slightly taken aback about the age of the software installed in Paris (to put it in context, 1992 is also the year Teletext came into use at ITV and Apple was in such serious financial trouble that it later needed a loan from Microsoft), we aren’t that surprised that there is older software and hardware in use in critical implementations.
We have had experience of this with similar systems where we were supporting systems employed in 1976 all the way to 2012. We can’t tell you where it was, but you were definitely impacted but its use.
This situation highlighted two interesting events,
- Software doesn’t just die because manufacturer support ends although even we have limitations with Windows 3.1
- Hardware doesn’t just die because manufacturer support ends although it will eventually break and having a plan to resolve is essential.
As Maintenance providers for highly telephony dependant organisations including, the Blue Light Sector, hospitals and Financial Contact Centres, we know all about what’s needed for whom and where and when it’s needed.
With more than 25 years’ experience with larger legacy systems, there are seldom occasions which we haven’t previously faced, regardless of the manufacturer stance on support. With our fantastic spares holding and backup support we haven’t to date, had a situation where we have been unable to facilitate support or where we failed to hit an SLA for hardware replacement for a maintained customer
If you want to find out how we can help you with your hardware and software PABX support, regardless of its age, give us a call 0118 940 9000