Computer nerd question: The healthcare exchanges on Oct. 1st, how prone to crashes ?

[steve2470]

My prediction is that on October 1st, the exchanges will crash and malfunction a lot, unless the respective IT departments have done their homework. Even then, my impression is only a very large IT corporation like Google could withstand that first day load.

Before I get jumped on, I do NOT want the exchanges to freeze, hang, or crash. I WANT them to work correctly 100% of the time.

Anyone ? I know this is not an easy question.

[Loudly]

1. Doesn't each state have its own? Some will be unstable and some will work well.

I have heard rumors, though, of a planned deliberate cyber attack by certain mischief makers to try and cripple the computer platforms which host and process exchange data.

[steve2470]

2. I think 16 states have their own....I could easily be wrong, had not heard those rumors but...

I can easily believe them.

[Downwinder]

3. It took over a year to work the bugs out of Medicare Part D.

[steve2470]

4. out of the servers for it ? I'm a tad confused nt

[Downwinder]

5. No, the servers worked fine.

The software models the implementation. It will take a while to adjust the model to reality.

[steve2470]

6. oh ok, yes I'm sure the law will need to be tweaked a lot until we get Medicare for all one day nt

[Downwinder]

10. Not just the law.

i.e. paraphrased from Part D.

"The enrollment date is wrong.

We can't change it. Have to delete it all and start over."

Three months later, "We show you on this plan.

No, that was changed before it started. OK we will correct it."

Six months later it popped up again.

[steve2470]

13. ah....somebody goofed nt

[CoffeeCat]

7. My friend is working on implementing Obamacare in our state...

If I understand correctly, each state works independently, setting up their system.

One of my best friends is a change-managment expert and she is working for our state government. It's her job to look at the Obamacare processes, web-site design; and then run the website processes through the paces. She then makes recommendations to the tech/graphics/design/software people who then implement her changes. She takes her job very seriously. She's a consummate professional with a Master's Degree in change management.

She's so proud to be working on implementing and managing the systems that will help our state implement Obamacare. She told me two months ago, that they've all been working very hard. This is serious business to them.

I haven't talked with her in a while. I will give her a call today to get more deets. However, please know that everyone working on this project knows the stakes. They're working extremely hard, and there are incredibly talented, diligent professionals working together on this. They want it to succeed.

There are always glitches and problems with systems this large. I imagine processes and other details will be tweaked. But please know that my friend has been tasked with ensuring that the processes are easy-to-understand, user-friendly and cogent. I assume that they have change-management professionals working in all states, and that my state is not unique.

I will update you shortly!

[steve2470]

8. thank you, I wish her much success, I know the next few days will be trying to say the least nt

[jmowreader]

9. I'm more worried about teabagger hacking, not crashes from overwork

We know how to build a website that will withstand very heavy load. (We also know how to build a website that blows over in the slightest gust of increased traffic - see freerepublic.com, which crashes every time there's a dogcatcher election. But we try not to build them like that anymore.) I can only assume the exchanges, most of which are new, will be made of the best technology and able to withstand a significant onslaught.

But what's more likely to happen, is teabaggers will attempt to hack the exchanges, run DDOS attacks on them and otherwise sabotage them so they'll be able to claim the exchanges don't work so We Have To Repeal Obamacare Right Now.

[steve2470]

11. I think you're right

Sadly, I can see the teabagger opponents organizing DDOS attacks for weeks to try to convince people "it's a waste of time and money".

I do hope I'm wrong.

[HipChick]

12. Cloud computing and security have come a long way

Let's hope this is what their architect is trending to..

[Ohio Joe]

14. 20+ years in IT... My guess is you will not see any of that

The web pages that will collect the users input data will do only that... Collect data. Processing will occur on a mainframe in a batch environment.

[steve2470]

15. so even if millions try to login, they can withstand that load ?

I honestly don't know. Not trying to be argumentative.

[Ohio Joe]

16. I would expect so...

Perhaps if millions hit the 'submit' button all at the exact same instant it would be a problem but that would be for pretty much any web site. Load balancing is not that hard or time consuming, so I expect it was done and tested... Using JMeter or Charles (or one of many other tools), they can simulate as many users going at the same time as they want and this is standard procedure for any website expecting lots of people when it opens. The last one I did was for a school registration that was expecting 5-10k people on day one and we simulated 50k per hour to be sure.

From what I've heard the big issue they are worried about is that it is only available in english right now and that the spanish site will be up in... one week... two weeks... I forget but soon.

[steve2470]

17. ok thanks for that info, that's reassuring ! Hopefully it's one week for the Spanish site nt