Feb 11, 2010

Backup And Redundancy

Social Security has built a new backup computer center near Durham, NC. Has it been used to help out since the snowfall must be keeping almost all employees at home preventing proper operation of Social Security's main data processing center in Baltimore?

Also, the Department of the Treasury prints and mails all those Social Security checks. Much of this work is done at a Treasury center in Philadelphia. The weather in Philly has received little national attention but it has to be bad there. I have not heard or read of delays in issuing Social Security and VA checks so I hope that Treasury has been able to shift printing and mailing of these checks to other centers. I have to imagine that Treasury has plenty of backup and redundancy because of the threat of terrorist attack.

Apart from the backup computer center in Durham, I wonder whether Social Security has adequate backup and redundancy for contingencies. This snowstorm is bad but terrorist attacks, fires and floods could be worse. Budgets have been terribly tight for decades at Social Security. I hope that the agency suffers nothing worse than this snowstorm.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Has it been used to help out since the snowfall must be keeping almost all employees at home preventing proper operation of Social Security's main data processing center in Baltimore?


Good question. This snow storm should be a wake up call for the government.

Anonymous said...

Another good reason for direct deposit.

Anonymous said...

Operations at the NCC have historically run 24/7 with volunteers who come no matter what the weather.

I mean come on, we've been doing data processing for 50 years, we have some idea how to handle contingencies. Sheesh.

LegalBystander said...

The snowstorm has caused so much delay in giving the much needed service especially in issuing checks or filing claims.

Anonymous said...

The snow impacted the HQ folks and what ever field offices that are in the same geographical area.

There have been folks tasked with running the NCC rain, hurricane, snow or whatever for decades. They are those "elite" emergency workers who report during these weather calamities. Besides staff there are generators and other facilities to make sure that the NCC doesn't go down. Access to the files was not disrupted to the rest of the agency.

Field and RO and ODAR offices not affected by snow or flood or mud were open and doing business and taking claims and issuing checks because those systems were up.

Not sure just how to measure "so much delay" except in the areas where safety required office closure.