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Oracle engineers caused five days software outage at U.S. hospitals

cnbc.com

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Re: Oracle engineers caused five days software outage at U.S. hospitals

#4

Post by selivanovp »

buyucu wrote: post #2

I don't understand why anyone buys Oracle. Every Oracle product I used over the last 15 years has been awful.

Because Oracle comes to any country/industry with trucks of money to corrupt officials and lobby their adoption.

And after a few years you find yourself in a situation when you already paid for Oracle so much, integrated it so deeply, so switching to any alternative is a massive pain and in most cases it’s safer and easier to keep paying Oracle.

Re: Oracle engineers caused five days software outage at U.S. hospitals

#5

Post by gonzo41 »

buyucu wrote: post #2

I don't understand why anyone buys Oracle. Every Oracle product I used over the last 15 years has been awful.

It's legacy lock in. You can't just switch stuff. it's incredibly hard to move logic out of store procedures from on DB to another. Its the same reason why the US government runs on Cobol. People don't think about the strategic implication of the tech they choose and how it may come back to limit them in the future.

Re: Oracle engineers caused five days software outage at U.S. hospitals

#7

Post by 8fingerlouie »

gonzo41 wrote: post #5
buyucu wrote: post #2

I don't understand why anyone buys Oracle. Every Oracle product I used over the last 15 years has been awful.

It's legacy lock in. You can't just switch stuff. it's incredibly hard to move logic out of store procedures from on DB to another. Its the same reason why the US government runs on Cobol. People don't think about the strategic implication of the tech they choose and how it may come back to limit them in the future.

Most Oracle "shops" i know have used it for decades. When they started using it, there weren't many options, so Oracle was what was used.

COBOL is in the same category. When invented, it was the absolute easiest programming language to learn and use, so of course it gained popularity.

It then turned out to be rather good at what it did, along with running on hardware that "never fails", so most places didn't even think about replacing it until sometime in the 90s.

Also keep in mind that the reason companies are migrating away from COBOL is not due to the language as much as due to young people not taking an interest in COBOL and Mainframes, making it hard to recruit new talent.

Even then, a migration away from a typical mainframe is a huge task. In most cases you're talking 50-60 years of "legacy" (still running, still working, still updated) code, and replacing a system that has evolved for half a century is not an easy undertaking, at least not if you plan on getting it 100% right the first time.

Re: Oracle engineers caused five days software outage at U.S. hospitals

#8

Post by chickenzzzzu »

jackvalentine wrote: post #3
buyucu wrote: post #2

I don't understand why anyone buys Oracle. Every Oracle product I used over the last 15 years has been awful.

Nobody bought Oracle here - they bought Cerner which was gobbled up in 2022.

Disclaimer: I am not inciting violence. This is polemic humor for entertainment purposes only. Void where prohibited.

Theory: A society collectivey buys Oracle when they no longer view armed revolution as acceptable.

Re: Oracle engineers caused five days software outage at U.S. hospitals

#9

Post by pastage »

8fingerlouie wrote: post #7
gonzo41 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's legacy lock in. You can't just switch stuff. it's incredibly hard to move logic out of store procedures from on DB to another. Its the same reason why the US government runs on Cobol. People don't think about the strategic implication of the tech they choose and how it may come back to limit them in the future.

Most Oracle "shops" i know have used it for decades. When they started using it, there weren't many options, so Oracle was what was used. COBOL is in the same category. When invented, it was the absolute easiest programming language to learn and use, so of course it gained popularity. It then turned out to be rather good at what it did, along with running on hardware that "never fails", so most places didn't even thi…

> due to young people not taking an interest in COBOL and Mainframes

Having only fleeting professional experience with COBOL during a summer my view of it is that it is a mix of dataanalyst job and programming. Where the programming is horrible and the report making is ok though archaic. As long as you modify processes already available it is not so bad, but the developer experience was horrible.

With all that said I actually liked ideas in COBOL but it is an extremely niche language that does not serve you at all in the real world.

Re: Oracle engineers caused five days software outage at U.S. hospitals

#10

Post by devoutsalsa »

wiseowise wrote: post #6

“Engineers” Must be engineers who write requirements and unrealistic deadlines that lead to such issues.

I just watched a YC video about vibe coding. He says he used Claude Sonnet 3.7 to configure his DNS servers & Heroku hosting. What could possibly go wrong?!

"How To Get The Most Out Of Vibe Coding | Startup School " => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJjsfNO5JTo&t=494s

I like his advice on downloading relevant documentation and putting it in the code base. That makes sense to me for targeted use cases.

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