31 December 2025 – Where Were You 26 Years Ago Tonight?
Twenty-six years ago tonight – 31 December 1999 – I was in a Y2K Command Centre monitoring our company’s systems and our customers as we all rolled into the new millennium.
Ah, Y2K. . . was that a real emergency, or just another fad to spend money on - like AI is today??
Twenty-six years ago tonight – 31 December 1999 – I was in a Y2K Command Centre monitoring our company’s systems and our customers as we all rolled into the new millennium.
Ah, Y2K. . . was that a real emergency, or just another fad to spend money on - like AI is today??
Today, I took time to reflect back on that night and the two-year project that brought us to that night.
In doing so, I had the following thoughts. . .
Y2K forced us to face two distinct risks – the two-digit year codes, and inadequate disaster recovery procedures.
Both were critically important:
Two-Digit Year Codes: Our company’s byline on the Y2K project was “Because Millenniums Happen.” That wasn’t exactly true. This is a century problem, not a millennium problem. If you are still using two-digit year codes in your programming, I have a headline for you. . .
Today, you are one quarter of the way to your next “oh, we’ve gotta fix this NOW!!” emergency.
Disaster Recovery Procedures: To me, this was the biggest win from Y2K. As part of our company’s Y2K project, we:
Documented every process flow and their impacted systems and vendors.
Prioritized each process flow based on how urgently we would need it back up and running in an emergency.
Created contingency plans and backup systems for each high priority process and its impacted systems and vendors.
When 1 January 2000 came, we didn’t need any of them. Everything worked.
A colossal waste of time and energy, right?!!
NO, it wasn’t.
These disaster recovery procedures were our new “Corporate Kevlar” to protect our company and its processes in any emergency.
And 21 short months later, these disaster recovery procedures proved that they were worth every penny spent on them.
I was in a hotel in Calgary, Alberta on 9/11. I was scheduled to work in a client’s computer room that day and then I would fly out to Long Island to participate in our company’s semi-annual disaster recovery exercise.
Suddenly my pager went off:
“PRT* call at 9:30 AM ET. A plane has hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center.”
I remember flipping on the TV in my hotel room and watching the gut-wrenching scene as the second plane hit the South Tower. This was big. This was bad.
We all called into the PRT. All our Y2K Disaster Recovery procedures were still shiny and recently exercised. It only took us 15 minutes to go through the checklist to verify that all disaster recovery plans had activated. All priority systems and processes had switched over to backup. All our partners in Level 1 and Level 2 processes had also enacted their disaster recovery procedures.
Everything was working.
Twenty-six years have elapsed since Y2K:
How is your Corporate Kevlar doing today?
Are your business processes as accurately documented as they were for Y2K?
How quickly and smoothly do your disaster recovery procedures work?
When was the last time you tested them?
As we go into 2026, there are a lot of geopolitical, economic, and technological uncertainties. There are also risks we currently can’t dream of – like before we saw airliners flying into buildings.
If your disaster recovery procedures are out of date, dusty, or non-existent – contact me. I would love to help you get your company’s Corporate Kevlar designed, fitted, and ready for the minute you need it.
*PRT: Problem Resolution Team. This was a team of select people from each of the corporate functions that worked together to triage any potential or actual emergency impacting our company.