Does anyone know if this halt is related to the recent switch over to the new Linux based platform? ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=686116 )
it is a new platform, hard to tell but I wouldnt go so far as to say linux is to blame, its more likely to be exchange software, they've gone from native to fix 5, so its using a new protocol, new os, new software stack and most likely new hardware stack
It's a large system with extra-ordinarily tight performance requirements, and a lot of integration with external systems, and by nature hard to phase in gradually. That kind of system is very hard to get right first time regardless of your toolset. I'd be interested to hear more about thier methods to deal with these requirements and risks, less about thier platform choice. IIRC, both this and the previous failed system were outsourced, which doesn't exactly fill me with confidence.