“Ronald D. Sugar, who was named to Apple’s board of directors Wednesday, was chairman and CEO of Northrop Grumman in 2005 when the Los Angeles-based aerospace giant beat out IBM (IBM) in a bid to rebuild the state of Virginia’s computer infrastructure from top to bottom,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune.
“The contract — now valued at $2.4 billion, the largest in the state’s history — covered everything: mainframes, servers, desktops, laptops, voice and data networks, operating systems, e-mail, security, help desk and data center facilities,” P.E.D. reports. “For the people of Virginia, it’s been a nightmare, plagued with cost overruns, missed deadlines, security breaches and balky service.”
“The system, according to Marcella Williamson, a spokesperson for the Virginia Information Technologies Agency, is standardized on Hewlett-Packard hardware and Microsoft software. ‘We use the entire Microsoft stack,’ she told Fortune. ‘Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Office, SQL servers and .Net for development,” P.E.D. reports. “The big crash….hit last August, nearly nine months after Sugar’s retirement, when a data storage unit in Richmond warehouse failed and 26 of Virginia’s 89 departments lost computer service for as much as eight days. It was the worst computer disaster in the state’s history.”
P.E.D. reports, “They aren’t Apple computers,’ she says. ‘I can tell you that.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We could have told you they weren’t Apple computers, or even Macs, without having to ask. Virginia’s computer systems would work if they used quality hardware and software.
Hopefully, Sugar is bringing something of value to Apple’s BoD. God knows there’s some dead weight sitting there already – we won’t even get into the case of the finally eradicated mole.
They had a full scale fiasco back in the day with a vendor turnkey Mac system- typical contractor overpromise & under-deliver. Ask the examiners, who are scientists and/or attorneys, how bad it was.
“Northrop Grumman in 2005 when the Los Angeles-based aerospace giant beat out IBM (IBM) in a bid to rebuild the state of Virginia’s computer infrastructure from top to bottom,”
Northrop Grumman builds computer infrastructure from top to bottom? I thought they worked in defense and built carriers and planes. Wow! Interesting to learn something new today.
Oh, and being from Virginia… FIGURES!
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“Northrop Grumman in 2005 when the Los Angeles-based aerospace giant beat out IBM (IBM) in a bid to rebuild the state of Virginia’s computer infrastructure from top to bottom,”
Northrop Grumman builds computer infrastructure from top to bottom? I thought they worked in defense and built carriers and planes. Wow! Interesting to learn something new today.
Oh, and being from Virginia… FIGURES!
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”angry” style=”border:0;” />
@Ask The USPTO – True. The MS software is fully capable (capable = can do, not easy to use) of handling the state’s needs; it’s the implementor that’s the problem. Mac or PC, if you don’t know what you’re doing, you fail.
Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life or… have a shot at sitting idly by an Avon sales lady?
MDN MW: inside.
They should have asked VT students to do it as a project.
After all, they have created Xserve super computer
Yeah, Apple’s BoD is a joke. I’m not sure what value any of them add.
Cheezus Kriste…
Apple appoints a total failure to Apple’s BoD??
Ah well, I guess it’s not the first time it’s happened.
I mean, it was, after all, Steve’s idea to bring John Sculley on board. Just look at how well that turned out…
MaWo: ‘decisions’. As in, ‘Steve’s aren’t always the best re: personnel at Apple.’
Algore.
It doesn’t matter what mistakes we’ve made in our past. What matters is that we’ve learned from them and don’t keep making the same ones over and over.
@fandango – Just because he was CEO of a company that failed on a project doesn’t mean he was involved in the cause of that failure or will make the same decisions that led to that failure. Yes, the CEO is ultimately responsible, but clearly Apple sees value in his experience and leadership ability.
@fandago.
What are you trying to say?
All companies go through hardships. No one is immune!
Its shame that for 30+ years Apple has no solutions for big bussiness. There are Mount Everests of money and plenty of frustrated Windows users. Many people think that all Apple products are overhyped gadgets or fancy computer for excentric and rich artists but not fork everyday work with tons of documents, spreadsheets, etc.
A Director on a Board is not there for his or her project implementation prowess. They are often there for the contacts and connections that they can bring to the table. Sugar can bring some sweet info on government contract business. Northrop Grumman has gobs of experience with that. And the fact that they were able to beat out IBM for a contract says something about their connections.
So this Northrop guy abandons Microsoft’s BSoD for Apple’s BoD? Sound like a wise move indeed.
It was a mess in Virginia. For example, people had to go back to the DMV to get their driver’s licenses again, wasting yet another boring half day. Some checks were late. Etc.
I blame Grumman more than the crappy hardware and software. Grumman is so used to being sloppy with their defense contracts where poor software and long delays are the norm.
Wouldn’t have made any difference, they had to go Microsoft.
First off Apple doesn’t cater to the needs of enterprise, they are a consumer products hardware company. Opting to stamp out a limited product line and not bother with the complex needs of enterprise level customers.
Second, there isn’t the variety of third party solutions like there is on Windows with it’s 90% market share.
Third, even if they did employ OS X server, would have made getting Windows software to work with it cost more than going all Windows.
Fourth, Windows has the option of transferring everything to another hardware vendor, say Dell for instance. OS X has to run on Apple hardware, in the case of Apple discontinuing the X-Server (the X-Raid already gone) last week due to low sales, would have been a major problem for Virginia.
The only solution I could see is running their servers on Linux, Red Hat or BSD and patching the best they can with Windows which everyone is used to using. This is how the NY Stock Exchange is running.
That’s another thing, the costs involved training people to use OS X when they are used to Windows. Not to mention the software they needed likely doesn’t exist on OS X in the first place, especially back in 2005. Apple just came back from the dead basically, OS X wasn’t even hardened yet.
So really, you can’t bash the guy or his decision, he had no other choice.
I bet he’s glad to be at Apple though after going to all that hell.
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Sure are a lot of arm chair quarterbacks that know everything ’bout business and computers ’round these parts…
The system crashed nine months after Sugar retired. That’s about the lifespan of most PCs with Windows on them.
@ Bunches of Munches
I think that if IBM had won the contract, they probably would NOT have gone with a fully top to bottom Microsoft-based solution. They could have left Microsoft on the desktops while implementing something more robust at the higher server levels of the system. That’s where these serious crashes that last for days occur.
The point here is NOT about including Apple’s stuff in the mix. It is about relying entirely on Microsoft’s software.
You can say that again John Gee. Al Gore SUCKS bulls balls.
@ Mary,
And you suck everyone else.
I’m just another Arm Chair QB throwing in my lame duck comments.
Just like when Apple brought Mickey Drexler on the BoD from the Gap to help with Apple’s retail strategy, I think they’ve brought Sugar on to help with their systems integration strategy and especially to help in targeting the government enterprise market.
Yes, I have experience working in both the commercial enterprise and government enterprise markets. The government market follows more closely towards a procurement process. Those who can match or influence (or in some cases maliciously manipulate) the proposal requirements and procurement lifecycle the most, usually has the best chance of winning the bid. There are tactics and counter-tactics and counter-counter-tactics that can involve some very intense lobbying and of course lawsuits by the losers.
And for those looking at this as an excuse at inserting some politcal diatribe toward any given party, please spare me. This has been going on before your grandparents were born.
All the Apple Haters have come out behind the corners and from under the floorboards in an attempt to demean any intelligent post made by any logical non biased poster.
Apple Haters Please Think About the Following:
Save some time and just put a Mirror off to the side of you Monitor if you must surf the net and just look at yourself if you must Post Your Apple Hate Apple Rants, We get it, it doesn’t matter, but we get it.
P.S.
The Mirror is to Remind you of what you look like Just before, and why you are so miserable before you post your hate filled garbage.
Please don’t take my post as a post of concern of recognition, It is Not, just look at it as a public Service announcement from all the Level Headed Apple Supporters that see the good and sometime the not so good in things that Apple has accomplished and can have an honest adult conversation about those issues without throwing around hateful words in the mix.
Have a Nice day.
Oh, Al, the bore, Gore’s been deep sixes?
NG wins the contract in 2005. Mr. Sugar retires from NG at end of 2009. 9 month later the system crashes. That means the MS Windows system run about 3 to 4 years without major outage? Why everyone think NG did a lousy job? I am amazed how they were able to accomplish the impossible mission!