Reply #30: Unless they create and enforce ... [View All]

... a viable, open, non-proprietary "Network Architecture" (an architectural strategy definition) that ensures longevity, adaptability, and maximal immunity from proprietary obsolescence, their repeated huge-systems investments are doomed to be a mega-money-pit.

This is, of course, the major failing of government bureaucracies - not taking firm control of their long-term information management strategies. Enterprises of such scale and criticality cannot expect to plug-and-play some ad hoc hodgepodge of proprietary crap as the basis of their information systems. For such enterprises, I'm a big advocate of roll-your-own and non-OCO (source access obligatory) approaches, based on a living, long-term, detailed technical strategy.