How NOT to prevent future blackouts

["Eli Stephens" <elishastephens@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Whatever the cause of the blackout (aside from the ultimate cause,
capitalism), one definite problem that emerged was the inability of the
systems run by one company to communicate instantly with systems of another
company to prevent a local event from becoming a regional one. From
Information Week magazine this week, comes evidence of how First Energy
plans to deal with this problem - layoff IT workers:
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FirstEnergy just finished deploying SAP's business-intelligence software to
give employees access to more than 1,500 standard reports via the portal.
The company may eventually extend FirstPlace access to line workers, who
could input data about downed lines into the portal using mobile computers
so that supervisors could gauge the potential for trouble.

Despite FirstEnergy's efforts, it's unclear how committed it is to improving
its computing infrastructure. The company is set to lay off as many as 230
IT workers--about 20% of its IT staff--in the coming weeks. It has already
laid off some IT personnel who had been discussing plans to extend the
portal to partners and customers, says a source familiar with the operation.
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URL:
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=13101054&pgno=1

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