IT Outage, Human Angels, Point of No Return

I was surprised to read this news about the global IT outage of Microsoft, first reported on Friday morning from Australia. Though remedial action has been taken swiftly, its impact has remained at this moment. While IT outage is nothing unusual, I was surprised because we didn't experience the same here. In a world that is so interconnected today, this is something that I'm happy to be disconnected with. 

As the anchor well said to start her interview question in 'Today" ("I don't pretend to understand it but can you tell me..."), I have no idea why some countries are affected so badly, while others have remained literally unaffected (Taiwan), given that Microsoft's Windows are used globally.

However, this short interview with CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz explains, and it's all that I need to know: it's not caused by cyber attack of any sort, but simply by a bug that was inherent in its software update that was launched by CrowdStrike, whose cybersecurity software was used by 298 Fortune 500 companies, including Microsoft. 

This incident showcases how closely connected we are to one another in this digital age - though my country is exceptionally disconnected this time.

It also reminds me of  my old days - the 7 year stint of my career with the department responsible for customs clearance, the function uniquely interfacing with our external customers and the customs authority, in addition to our internal customers and other functions within the company.  As it had evolved, we relied heavily on IT systems to perform our tasks up to the satisfaction of our customers. Our IT systems, once the most advanced of its kind, had however become what they called legacy systems. Company wide renewal had been under way, but our legacy systems were massive and the whole process took longer than the expectation from our customers. 

Among others, the frequent IT outages had troubled us the most because our commitment to customers was much disrupted. Luckily, when IT was done, our well trained, experienced and committed colleagues would always come forward and execute calmly our contingency plan - doing the work manually to meet the deadline of the day. In retrospect, I feel blessed to have learned my invaluable lessons from colleagues there.

The other thing that came to my mind after reading the news is the term "point of no return": our reliance on digital technology per se, AI included, has gone beyond the point of no return. 

I love this term - point of no return, as it may be interpreted in many ways. Even during my career time, we had the concept of "point of no return" built in our training of driving safety, as it is part of a pilot's training for aircraft landing. 

Elsewhere, the namesake song of "Phantom of the Opera", my favorite musical that I first watched 20 years ago, still echoes in my mind these days. 

Just last week, as the bonus history learning of my studying Shakespeare’s "Julius Caesar", I knew for the first time the term is related to Julius Caesar: against the decrees then set by the Roman Republic, Julius Caesar famously led his army crossed the forbidden line, the Rubicon River, and marched towards Rome.  The Rubicon River was later coined as "point of no return", and the rest is history.😊

https://time.com/7000373/microsoft-it-outage-disrupts-flights-banks-media-companies-worldwide/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHGH07iPASw