This month we've had McDonald's, Sainsbury's and now Greggs forced to shut temporarily because their payment systems have gone down.<p>Surely these can't be unconnected? Can anyone shed any light on what's happening here behind the scenes?
Politicisation of technology.<p>It's a layer 8 problem. Human political expectations of technology are
outpacing the engineering reality. Over the past two decades
overselling of "utopias" mixed with professional management arrogance
and ignoring engineers, experts and what people actually want.<p>That, plus a mixture of crony contracts and bad project management.<p>We've ended up with over-complex systems that we don't have the human
capacity or money to maintain and secure.<p>A telling remark by a Labour politician to the question "What is the
greatest concern about a 'cashless economy' was "Making sure people
are not left behind".<p>In other words, we're forcing this on people whether they want it or
not, and whether it works or not. The idea that there might be "risks"
or necessary safeguards was simply not conceivable.<p>That's what happened with the Post Office Horizon system and it's
what's happening with other new systems pushed out "for our own good"<p>That's not a remark against technology or modernisation, it's a
criticism of bloody-minded recklessness and anti-democratic hubris.<p>Good technology requires care. We talk about it a lot here [0].<p>[0] <a href="https://cybershow.uk" rel="nofollow">https://cybershow.uk</a>
All of these enterprises are examples where IT is a "cost center", not a "value center". So you have this conundrum where everything goes smooth and the higher ups ask "why do we spend so much money on this without anything in return?". And when something does go wrong they are likely to repeat said question.
Sainsburys said it was due to an error with "an overnight software update". Perhaps they all use the same software but updated at different times?<p><a href="https://twitter.com/sainsburys/status/1768972295622553900" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/sainsburys/status/1768972295622553900</a>
Do you have sources about the "outages" ? (did not make the headlines internationally..)<p>It they all shut down because of "a payment system", then a simple explanation would be a failure of... the same payment system that they all happen to use ?<p>(It's not like Greggs is going to fully develop a payment system in house without relying on any infra, I suppose ?)