ACA website and servers using outdated technology

[Oldgamer]

So just watched some network and programming experts say that the programming code for the website looked like amatuers put it together. Then they said the techology used for the servers and site are all using outdated technology. Looks like they may have to do a complete overhaul of the site and servers.

They used contractors to put this together. Wonder if they were cutting corners to save money? Sounds like they messed up whoever put this whole thing together. What a headache!

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/17/health-exchange-week-three-start-over/2995989/

 

[techs]

Yeah, I read that too. Apparently its a problem throughout the Federal government. The refusal to adequately fund IT is a disgrace. Although, tbh, I know a few fortune 500 companies that cheap out on IT.

I guess its especially difficult for the Federal government since one party refuses to spend money on anything, even if its needed.

 

[Jaepheth]

You know we're sitting on four million pounds of fuel, one nuclear weapon and a thing that has 270,000 moving parts built by the lowest bidder. Makes you feel good, doesn't it? [/steve buscemi]

 

[Oldgamer]

Yeah, I read that too. Apparently its a problem throughout the Federal government. The refusal to adequately fund IT is a disgrace. Although, tbh, I know a few fortune 500 companies that cheap out on IT.

I guess its especially difficult for the Federal government since one party refuses to spend money on anything, even if its needed.

Well considering the Republicans were refusing to fund this whole thing, it wouldn't surprise me if this is exactly what happened.

Sounds like they are going to have to completely re-architecture the whole damn thing. In the meantime most people who are trying to access it aren't computer savvy enough to know how to clear their cache to avoid the errors when they get back on the site, like the article explained.

They are going to have to make this a priority and get this up to snuff. I will never understand why big companies who have the money cut corners when it comes to IT. It's like shooting themselves in the foot! LOL

 

[poofyhairguy]

Should have made an iPad app instead.

 

[sixone]

Yeah, I read that too. Apparently its a problem throughout the Federal government. The refusal to adequately fund IT is a disgrace. Although, tbh, I know a few fortune 500 companies that cheap out on IT.

I guess its especially difficult for the Federal government since one party refuses to spend money on anything, even if its needed.

They spent $600 MILLION on it. How much do you think it should have cost?

 

[Jimzz]

Yeah, I read that too. Apparently its a problem throughout the Federal government. The refusal to adequately fund IT is a disgrace. Although, tbh, I know a few fortune 500 companies that cheap out on IT.

I guess its especially difficult for the Federal government since one party refuses to spend money on anything, even if its needed.

I work for a branch in DHS, but do not speak for DHS, and we have a good amount of money in our IT systems. Its just that we outsource so much due to the vendors promising the sky and giving "donations" to people in congress so when their POS is delivered we can't do much other than try and fix it in house. And anybody in IT can tell you if you start with crap the best you will end up with is crap that smells just a little less worse than when you started.

They spent $600 MILLION on it. How much do you think it should have cost?

Many times its not a money issue but control and leadership issue.

 

[lxskllr]

They spent $600 MILLION on it. How much do you think it should have cost?

Some things shouldn't be put up for bid, or should at least have severe restrictions on who can take part. Google, Amazon, and facebook are full of talent that can keep a huge machine working. This would have been a walk in the park for them.

 

[TerryMathews]

Why did we spend $1 on this "site" since its a portal to insurance vendors?

They should have funded and developed the site.

 

[sixone]

Many times its not a money issue but control and leadership issue.

That's exactly the problem with this site. There will be people who have access to it who have absolutely no business in there.

 

[rudeguy]

Why did we spend $1 on this "site" since its a portal to insurance vendors?

They should have funded and developed the site.

Shit like this just reinforces my view that the government is corrupt.

Do you know who the government hired to run this? ACORN employees. Planned Parenthood employees. Crooked ass government.

Link for those in denial: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/15/planned-parenthood-obamacare_n_3764562.html

 

[techs]

Shit like this just reinforces my view that the government is corrupt.

Do you know who the government hired to run this? ACORN employees. Planned Parenthood employees. Crooked ass government.

Link for those in denial: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/15/planned-parenthood-obamacare_n_3764562.html

404 Proof Not Found

Acorn doesn't exist and the article says nothing about them getting funds.
Planned Parenthood got no money to design or run the website. They got money to help people navigate the system. Other groups like the Epilepsy Foundation of America also got navigator funds. The total spent on Navigator funds was 67 million dollars. The navigator funds are the best thing they spent money on. Because of all the anti Obamacare propaganda the system is being flooded with people who are so ignorant of the system millions of people on Medicare have tried to sign up when, of course, it doesn't appy to them.

 

[rudeguy]

404 Proof Not Found

Acorn doesn't exist and the article says nothing about them getting funds.
Planned Parenthood got no money to design or run the website. They got money to help people navigate the system. Other groups like the Epilepsy Foundation of America also got navigator funds. The total spent on Navigator funds was 67 million dollars. The navigator funds are the best thing they spent money on. Because of all the anti Obamacare propaganda the system is being flooded with people who are so ignorant of the system millions of people on Medicare have tried to sign up when, of course, it doesn't appy to them.

We really needed to give the funds to 150 different companies instead of just one? That doesn't make sense to me...but then again I'm just a working guy. What do I know.

And ACORN does not exist. But it did how many name changes into how many different companies?

Is there one right leaning group that got money? (I don't know, I'm asking)

 

[Oldgamer]

That's exactly the problem with this site. There will be people who have access to it who have absolutely no business in there.

I think this has more to do with people not being educated on the ACA and whether or not they qualify. There has been so much misinformation placed out there in the media (on purpose I might add) to confuse people. So if you have some elderly folks on medicare they may not even know that they don't have to apply.

 

[SheHateMe]

I refuse to believe the notion that the Government isn't funding IT that much when IT Government jobs are all over the place in the DMV area.

There are so many openings all the time. And its for advanced shit that requires years of experience. Maybe, they are having a problem filling these sluts.

 

[Oldgamer]

I refuse to believe the notion that the Government isn't funding IT that much when IT Government jobs are all over the place in the DMV area.

There are so many openings all the time. And its for advanced shit that requires years of experience. Maybe, they are having a problem filling these sluts.

LOL Sluts..

 

[rudeguy]

I refuse to believe the notion that the Government isn't funding IT that much when IT Government jobs are all over the place in the DMV area.

There are so many openings all the time. And its for advanced shit that requires years of experience. Maybe, they are having a problem filling these sluts.

I have a problem filling sluts too.

But I'm white...so you know.......

 

[Markbnj]

I guess its especially difficult for the Federal government since one party refuses to spend money on anything, even if its needed.

If I recall the article I read last week, they spent $600+ million to build that website and the infrastructure behind it, almost all of it paid to a Canadian company nobody had ever heard of before. CGI Global or something like that.

So yeah, absolutely, the whole problem is that they didn't spend enough money. In fact, everything the federal government does would magically become excellent with just some more cash.

 

[Red Squirrel]

This is an issue with LOT of companies/industries. Heck, we're using lot of systems at work that rely on specific versions of IE and Java. IE6, and some version of Java from that era. You upgrade one of those and it breaks everything.

LOL I see CGI was mentioned. Guess what, they're the ones who code our systems too. HAHAHAHAHA. They overcharge for everything too, a simple change in a program is 10's of thousands of dollars. I don't understand why companies outsource programming, it would be much better to make it an IT function, or for a bigger company have a few dedicated programmers.

 

[CPA]

They spent $600 MILLION on it. How much do you think it should have cost?

Exactly. It's not a matter of how much was spent, but how it was spent. Has the government EVER gotten a decent bang for their buck? No. Yet, here we want to put 16%, or is it 18% now, of the economy in their hands. Un-fucking-believable that people still buy into this bullshit idea that government does things better.

 

[CPA]

404 Proof Not Found

Acorn doesn't exist and the article says nothing about them getting funds.
Planned Parenthood got no money to design or run the website. They got money to help people navigate the system. Other groups like the Epilepsy Foundation of America also got navigator funds. The total spent on Navigator funds was 67 million dollars. The navigator funds are the best thing they spent money on. Because of all the anti Obamacare propaganda the system is being flooded with people who are so ignorant of the system millions of people on Medicare have tried to sign up when, of course, it doesn't appy to them.

I'm seeing your recent bucket list item is in full-force today.

 

[Doppel]

This is an issue with LOT of companies/industries. Heck, we're using lot of systems at work that rely on specific versions of IE and Java. IE6, and some version of Java from that era. You upgrade one of those and it breaks everything.

LOL I see CGI was mentioned. Guess what, they're the ones who code our systems too. HAHAHAHAHA. They overcharge for everything too, a simple change in a program is 10's of thousands of dollars. I don't understand why companies outsource programming, it would be much better to make it an IT function, or for a bigger company have a few dedicated programmers.

I don't think outsourcing is the problem because internal IT can do a terrible job as well. CGI federal sure isn't going to have as easy a time in the future selling contracts, though.

On foxnews website now there is some inquiry that is winding up about this and one quote within the article was that people were assured from IT that everything was ready to go. I firmly do not believe this. Now, maybe a stupid suit at CGI federal said that, but I absolutely do not believe that the bulk of IT working on this project thought it was ready to go.

 

[Hugo Drax]

The problem is they are using Banyan Vines servers for the backend.

 

[TXHokie]

I would hate to know the security of those site. Probably won't be long before we hear the site got hacked and millions of identities stolen.

 

[Hugo Drax]

I would hate to know the security of those site. Probably won't be long before we hear the site got hacked and millions of identities stolen.

I doubt it because the user date resides on banyan vines servers and the Webservers talk to them via a ip to vines gateway with token ring on the back, and Ethernet on the front. Which would be difficult for the script kiddies used to pure ip modern servers running a bog standard tcp/ip stack. Just trying to do the canonical to non-canonical conversions will stump them.