The Crowdstrike Crash Is Why You Should Always Have Tech Alternatives

First, ironies out of the way. What triggered a wave of Microsoft computer crashes was an update from Crowdstrike, a popular software security firm, which was supposed to protect software and put a temporary stake through its heart.

The result disrupted flights, affected banks, and took many companies offline, including some popular commercial real estate sites.

Crowdstrike chief executive officer George Kurtz in part wrote on a social media post on Friday, “We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption. We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can deliver the services their customers are counting on.”

Apologies are wise. Getting companies back running again is a must. However, companies that use such technology also have a big responsibility — to have alternative plans to keep operating.

For decades, the tech industry has promoted its ability to help businesses work more efficiently. Going back to antiquity, however, there’s been a recognition that people offering professional help to others also need to get paid for their work. The two goals can come into conflict.

In the early 2000s, many software companies had gone through years of working hard to make money and trying to entice customers to continuously purchase the next versions of products. They finally took note of something done by mainframe hardware and software companies in the past, which was to require annual license payments.

The intent was to keep customers on the hook and spending every month. Over time, this has developed into a strategy where vendors centralize their services and deliver them over the Internet. Customers typically pay by the month or year.

But there are risk implications. All the software is in one place, allowing the vendor to make modifications as it wishes. That can mean sudden changes in user interfaces that leave workers scratching their heads over how to do their jobs. An internal disruption could eliminate access to many or all customers. Changing vendors might result in difficulty getting your own data back. A security problem could leak out to thousands or millions. A single software download could crash so many critical computers.

This isn’t the only occasion where a centralized or hosted system showed that it could take down many business operations. Can you afford to be completely caught out? Do you have digital alternatives? Even older paper-based ways of working if necessary? Preplanned workarounds of whatever sort so that perhaps tenants can pay the rent?

There’s nothing wrong with modern technology, so long as you are running it, and it isn’t running you.