Y2K – How Catastrophe Was Avoided

It's been fifteen years since the Y2K incident had the world embroiled in panic. It was said that at the turn of the century, on New Year's Eve, all computers in the world would reset their dates to 1900 rather than 2000, as the way data was stored would only allow for two-decimal digits. Therefore, 1970 would be stored as "70". Many programs weren't able to recognize the difference between 1900 and 2000, and some would try to represent the year 2000 as 19100, which could have led to complete failure of data and incorrect results, as well as the collapse of a crucial technological infrastructure. Obviously, none of this happened, and New Year's Eve passed without the collapse of human society as we know it, but do you know why it didn't happen?

IT Professionals Saved the World
That's right; it was the work of IT companies that saved the day. In 1999, when the popular media of the day had everyone sure that the end was imminent, these workers were putting in ridiculous amounts of overtime to fix the software of critical systems all over the world. Since newer technologies were designed with this oversight corrected, these workers only had to patch up key older systems, but it was still a daunting task. Technology was spreading at a rapid rate, and even a slight mistake could spell doom for the technology of our time.

At the turn of the millennium, the receipts were gathered from around the world. It turned out that the Y2K bug had cost organizations of the world over $300 billion to fix. These services included: programming services to fix the mainframe, minicomputers, PC and UNIX application codes, and patches to PC software and OS upgrades. All in all, $300 billion is a small price to pay for a secure technological and economic future. After all, can you imagine what the past decade would have been like if all technology had failed at the end of the year 2000? Selfies wouldn't exist. Gasp!

This disaster could never have been averted without the efforts of the IT professionals, and very few systems were affected on January 1st, 2000. Nowadays, Y2K is only thought of as another apocalyptic theory that didn't happen, along with predictions of the rapture, Ragnarök of Norse mythology, and the Mayan apocalypse prediction of 2012. The endeavors of the IT professionals have long since been forgotten, but this danger was very real and, without the work of these unsung heroes, who knows what would have happened when the clock struck midnight?

False Threat, or an Eye Opener?
The lesson learned from this incident is that, when IT functions properly the world and your business carry on like normal. It's our job to make sure that disasters like these never happen, and we're not honored with medals or glory. We're okay with that. We don't need busts of our faces displayed in every museum on Earth. We'll be happy if you just recommend our services to your friends and family.

Y2K was prevented because of a proactive approach to IT services, and that is what k_Street Consulting, LLC can do for your business. We'll be your knight in shining armor, remotely taking care of any problems you might have with your technology. No apocalyptic events will happen on our watch. Just as so many people have forgotten the dangers of Y2K, you may forget we are doing our job, and that's okay with us. For k_Street Consulting, LLC, so long as we keep your data safe, we couldn't ask for a greater reward.