Local governments aren't businesses – so why are they force-fed business software? - Oracle's repeated public sector failures prove a different approach is needed
theregister.com
Local governments aren't businesses – so why are they force-fed business software? - Oracle's repeated public sector failures prove a different approach is needed::Oracle's repeated public sector failures prove a different approach is needed
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In my field, the way I've seen Oracle contracts rationalized is the same way IBM contracts are rationalized.... they're stupid expensive, usually under deliver, but they're the biggest names. When the project goes south, the buyer can tell their superiors "well we hired IBM, and they're the best, so what else could I have done?" It's a form of of CYA.
You know what would cover more asses? Having all government software open source.
It'll also assure data security is priority one, which it is embarrasingly not in US federal departments (and probably most states)
I don't disagree, but they still need devs to build and maintain the custom functions required. So then they sign up with Red Hat and still pay huge dollars. Unless they hire in house devs, which they rarely seem to want to do (at the levels needed for these projects).
Considering the DoD hires in-house devs, and the intelligence sector is supposed to (whether or not they do is another matter), this doesn't seem to be a terrible notion. It would also give the NSA incentive to do its real job, that is, standardize the protocols for electronic communication so that they're robustly secure rather than spying on Americans.
And by making everything obligatory open source, it would fill out a public-domain library of data logistics code.