We’re learning the wrong lessons from airline IT outages
This summer, multiple high-profile organizations have experienced embarrassing and financially costly business disruptions.
The explanations and excuses for these service interruptions—delivered by company executives and Monday Morning Quarterbacks alike—fail to address the underlying cause of these issues: lack of rigorous senior management oversight.
Southwest Airlines and Delta both experienced widespread consumer dissatisfaction and business outages over the last month due to what executives have blamed on equipment failures. Pundits blame the meltdowns on cobbled-together legacy infrastructure.
Both miss the point.
On July 20, 2016, Southwest Airlines IT systems went haywire due to a malfunctioning router, cancelling 700 flights and stranding thousands of passengers. Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly characterized the outage as a “once-in-a-thousand-year flood.”
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