The real reason on why White House email system crash

Have you been following the strange and yet funny dramas on how White House lost their email archives? If you never heard this before, then it’s understandable. Because this kind of news are just too silly to make it into the headline for the mainstream press, and it’s not like we ever use White House email service right? But for gadgets geeks & technology addicts, especially IT admins & those who take care of the email system; you should hear these out.

As I’ve been digging deeper for more information from the past, it seemed Exchange Server was once offering viruses bundled with its email system solution! I gasp with breaths of awe, maybe those viruses meant to be a surprise presents for hackers who got into your Exchange Server or just a bonus from Microsoft; either way it’s definitely what is written on the promotional banner (on picture - words in red rectangular). Could be this is the hidden culprit that eats away those missing emails from White House?

Actually, I’m just pulling your legs there ;-D I don’t dislike Microsoft or have too much fondness with their products as well, but that promotional banner was real. And according to Mark’s (a.k.a. meyerweb) page, who took the screenshot, Microsoft changed it into “Anti-virus” later. It’s very hilarious, you don’t have to wait for bad people to send viruses to you anymore. Oh sorry, you still want to know the real reason?

It’s because Bush’s administrations have changed the email system, from IBM Lotus (which installed and used by Bill Clinton’s administrations) into Microsoft’s Exchange Server. So technically, it’s impossible to store all of those emails systematically according to the previous categories & settings; there are simply some compatibility issues that needed to be taken care first before they made the transition. As fast as they promised to fix it, and not even with a federal magistrate judge’s order & two lawsuits; they wouldn’t finish it until the next presidential election. Right now they must do it just like back in the old days at the post office: manual collecting or in the White House lingo called “journaling”.

But really, I’m wondering where those smart IT guys in Bush’s administrations have got their diploma; every IT admins know it’s important to test things out first before make an overhaul changes. And at least they should’ve a backup plan when everything went wrong, which obviously they don’t.

So it comes down to human resources again, just like Lao Tse’s saying: “No matter how smart & easy you’ve made a device, there will always fools who can’t use it…” (Okay I know. Lao Tse didn’t exactly mentioned “device”, but more like “plan” or something like that ;-p)

Sources are from Ars Technica via ValleyWag, the Exchange Server screenshot is courtesy of Mark (meyerweb).

[blogged with my Treo 750v]