As we've said before, the cycles of the business environment differ from those we see in the general consumer market. Vendors hate that, but as long as a specific hardware and software combination remains stable, robust, and easy to maintain, it's not going anywhere. That's what happened with the Stratus server used by Great Lakes Works EGL. It was first powered on in 1993, and it has never had an unscheduled interruption.
Hardware breaks; there's no other explanation. Some components are more resistant than others, but as they age, you must always consider the possibility of failure. Our first line of defense is classic redundancy. A series of frequent backups plus a secondary computer can take us far and save several headaches. In the particular world of data centers, redundancy is not optional. Power supplies, hard drives, and even entire servers obey that rule. But many companies adopt with certain intensity the concepts of “if it ain't broke, don't fix it” and “it's not obsolete if I still use it”. If you don't believe me, there is a server that has been running since 1993.
The server belongs to Great Lakes Works EGL and is in charge of engineer Phil Hogan. In its 24 years of activity, the server has left behind its share of disks, power supplies, and other secondary components, but its redundant nature kept it online whenever needed. According to Hogan, the server has never had an interruption that wasn't scheduled, and he estimates that 80 percent of the hardware is original. Hogan also indicated that it wasn't difficult to find compatible parts through a third party; however, Stratus calculates that they should still have their own stock.
The operating system is proprietary (Stratus VOS), and its last update was at the beginning of the last decade. It's hard to imagine that with all the cyberattacks and security incidents happening, an operating system without frequent updates remains intact, but Hogan said it is “extremely stable”, and most importantly: Users haven't complained. The server is supposed to be retired in April. 24 years. For hardware, that's a millennium.
