Kevin Clarence
23115691
2KB01
Complexity makes airline
computer systems vulnerable
Dallas,
United States | Tue, August 9, 2016 | 09:36 am
airline was paralyzed
by a computer outage that prevented passengers
from checking in and flights from taking off.
Last month,
it took Southwest days to recover from a breakdown it blamed
on a faulty router. On Monday, it was Delta's turn, as a power outage crippled the airline's information technology systems
and forced it to cancel or delay hundreds of
flights. Delta employees had to write out boarding passes by hand, and at one
airport they resurrected a dot-matrix printer
from the graveyard of 1980s technology.
Why do these
kinds of meltdowns keep happening?
The answer
is that airlines depend on huge, overlapping and complex IT systems to do just
about everything, from operating flights to handling ticketing, boarding,
websites and mobile-phone apps. And after years of rapid consolidation in the
airline business, these computer systems may be a hodgepodge of parts of
varying ages and from different merger partners.
These
systems are also being worked harder,
with new fees and options for passengers, and more transactions — 1Delta's
traffic has nearly doubled in the past decade.
"These
old legacy systems are operating much larger airlines that are being accessed in many, many more ways," said Daniel
Baker, CEO of tracking service FlightAware.com. "2It has really
been taxing."
The result:
IT failures that can inconvenience tens of thousands of passengers and create
long-lasting ill will.
It is
unclear exactly what went wrong at Delta. The airline said it suffered a power outage at an Atlanta installation
around 2:30 a.m. EDT that caused many of its computer
systems to fail. But the local electric company, Georgia Power, said
that it was not to blame and that the equipment failure was on Delta's end.
IT experts questioned whether Delta's network was adequately prepared for the inevitable breakdown.
"One
piece of equipment going out shouldn't cause this," said Bill Curtis,
chief scientist at software-analysis firm Cast. "It's a bit
shocking."
Curtis said
IT systems should be designed so that when a
part fails, its functions automatically switch over to a backup, preferably in
a different location. "And if I had a multibillion-dollar business running
on this, 9I would certainly want to have some kind of backup
power," he added.
Delta
officials declined to say what kind of backup procedures they
have.
Most other
airlines rely on one of a handful of specialty travel-technology companies to help with IT.
Delta's
system, called Deltamatic, started as a joint venture with Northwest and TWA in
the 1990s. It was later spun off into a separate company called Travelport, but Delta bought
back its portion two years ago.
"3Delta
has been so confident that it is as good at this as anybody that it took
everything back in-house," said Seth Kaplan, co-author of a book about
Delta's rise from bankruptcy to prominence in the industry.
4Kaplan said all airlines have some
old components in their IT systems, including Delta. "But the front end is
all very modern, and Delta is rather well-regarded"
in the industry.
IT problems
are not unique to airlines. 5There have been high-profile breaches
and breakdowns at banks and retailers, among others. 6Airlines have
particular challenges because their systems are constantly undergoing changes
and additions, including automation to handle the large volume of transactions
with customers. When was the last time you called
an airline on the phone?
That degree
of automation hindered Delta's ability to inform passengers, many of whom
didn't know about the outage until they got to the airport. In the first
several hours after the outage, when planes were grounded,
Delta's website and other systems showed flights
as being on time.
Computer
network outages have affected nearly all the
major carriers in recent years. After it combined
IT systems with merger partner Continental, United suffered
shutdowns on several days, most recently in 2015. American also experienced breakdowns in 2015, including technology
problems that briefly stopped flights at its big
hub airports in Dallas, Chicago and Miami.
Recovering
from an outage can take several days, as Southwest proved
last month. Southwest said it canceled 2,300
flights between July 20 and 24, about 12 percent of its schedule, and
FlightStats Inc. said more than 8,000 flights were delayed.
Until
Monday, Delta had been considered among the
leaders in operations and was thought to be
immune to big IT problems.
Mergers
create many chances for things to go wrong, 7as airlines that may have incompatible
software combine their systems. From an IT standpoint, the United-Continental
merger was seen as particularly awful, while
Delta's 2008 acquisition of Northwest was seen
as so smooth that American copied it when it combined with US Airways in 2013. 8I hope Indonesia could
do too
Sumber:
Analisanya:
Kata
berwarna merah adalah Regular verb(+ed)
suffered
caused
questioned
prepared
designed
added
Kata
berwarna biru adalah irregular verb (ought/N/Same)
Seen
Thought
bought
Kata yang di beri garis bawah
adalah Infinitive
(to+verb1)
Mergers create many chances for things to go wrong
I would certainly want to have some kind of backup
power
Delta officials declined to say what kind of backup
procedures they have.
companies to help with IT.
said that it was not to blame
EDT that caused many
of its computer systems to fail.
- Simple tense ( S + V1 (+es/s) )
I hope Indonesia could do too
-Past tense( S + Tobe + V2)
when planes were grounded
Delta
officials declined to say
-Future
tense (S + Will + V1 + O)
IT failures that can inconvenience
tens of thousands of passengers and create long-lasting ill will.
Gerund:
passengers
from checking in and flights from taking off
Recovering from an outage can take several days
