Hey oldguy. A lot of the brilliant, hard working old guys who have been maintaining systems like these for decades, have been retiring the last few years. Or in worse cases, dying off.
They’re not easily replaced. Especially by this new crop of talent, which is thin.
Also, not a lot of those guys were that interested in upgrading their systems before hitting the door. The systems were reliable, so they just rode them to the finish line, and left technology in place that is due for refresh.
The obvious result is instability. We shouldn’t be surprised if issues like this grow, as more boomers retire, either. I’m dealing with this same problem where I work right now. The only upside is, age discrimination isn’t as big as it was a few years ago.
Desperation in incompetent management can do that.
Oh I am very aware of that aspect believe me. I used to be one of those guys that kept stuff going...:) About 6months after I switched jobs my old dept. got hammered by ransomware. It affected an entire division. And they tried to keep it quite and told the folks who were fixing stuff to keep their mouths shut. I had pointed out our weaknesses in firewalls, user security, or lack of training on user security,etc. but the powers that be just ignored it. They were too busy purchasing the latest Iphones...:)
“Hey oldguy. A lot of the brilliant, hard working old guys who have been maintaining systems like these for decades, have been retiring the last few years. Or in worse cases, dying off.”
I worked at a DR site and we kept a bank of old IBM reel tape drives for the Feds to use. One department would come in with 10 people and they would all stand around watching one guy work. :)
. . . and we can expect our infrastructure to continue its decay as the complexion of the country darkens. It’s terribly unfashionable to say such things, but it was those horrible white men who built this into a First World powerhouse. Our new population is simply incapable of maintaining it.