Friday 1 February 2008

HMRC ONLINE SYSTEM CRASH

OK, so this is no big surprise - especially given the Government's record for (in)competence over IT systems. And at least they have had the wit to extend the deadline for filing - no doubt thinking about the horrendous publicity they would receive on the back of the double standard revealed a few days ago.

In advance of any announcement as to what has caused the problem, current speculation (and conventional wisdom) is arguing in favour of a failure to build in to the system adequate capacity/scalability to cope with (inevitable) traffic peaks as the deadline approaches. No doubt this has been a contributory factor - it is a not uncommon problem with the Government's IT systems. But - call me an old softie or maybe I'm just being too optimistic - I'd like to believe it also has something to do with data security improvements to the site/system on the back of the HMRC fiasco. This may be just too incredible - and probably wouldn't be admitted to by Treasury spokjesmen in any event - but, if such an analysis is correct, it would imply that ad hoc attempts to retrieve an irretrievably 'broke' system are likely to cause more problems than they solve. In effect what may be necessary is a root-and-branch re-design/re-build of IT systems to guarantee that proper data security and capacity is built in from the get-go.

I don't doubt that this is an especially scary thought - in policy/financial/&c terms - for the Great Bottler and his team!!!

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