All Eyes to Be Glued to Computers
Many will welcome the new millennium with champagne, kisses and colorful renditions of “Auld Lang Syne,” but not Steve Clark.
Instead, the 45-year-old data center guru from Washington Mutual Inc. will spend his New Year’s Eve in a nondescript two-story Chatsworth office building with about a dozen technicians and lots of data-crunching hardware.
All eyes will be on the numerous large computers spaced at intervals around a sterile white room at the heart of Washington Mutual’s data center off Corbin Avenue here. Handling 6.5-million accounts, this is the bank’s largest data center--bigger even than the one at its Seattle headquarters, which handles 2.5-million accounts.
Clark and his staff will focus their attention on a gray box about the size of two refrigerators whose only face to the world is two four-digit rows of red LED numbers.
The machine, a Hitachi A9T processor, is one of the most powerful mainframes on the market, capable of performing 1,500 “mips,” or a million instructions per second. It forms the backbone of the Chatsworth data center, which processes about 10 million transactions each day for all Washington Mutual accounts in California, Florida and Texas, says Clark, who is vice president and manager of production services.
Clark and his crew will spend New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day watching over the A9T and a couple dozen other similar-sized machines whose performance is relied upon daily by millions of people--from the San Fernando Valley all the way to Miami.
Clark, an Atlanta native who joined Washington Mutual in 1984 and came to Southern California last year, says he hasn’t gone out for a true New Year’s celebration in about 20 years. He spent the last New Year’s Eve on call, but this year he’ll be on the front lines with a combined staff of 25-30 people in Chatsworth and the data center in Seattle.
“I’ll be in the data center coordinating with my people--not only people 1/8normally 3/8 working but other specialists as well,” Clark said. “We’ll have specialists at both sites. For example, my department will have people monitoring our scheduling system--how jobs are processed, making sure jobs are starting as soon as others are complete. Basically, you’re looking for calculation errors based on the date.”
In general, Washington Mutual and other major financial institutions have been among the most diligent firms in addressing potential Y2K problems, said Massoud Entekhabi, a partner in the global technology group for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
“Their reputation is they’ve clearly focused on the issue because so many parts of our lives are now touched by financial institutions, from purchasing to accessing cash,” Entekhabi said. “I would say they’re certainly considered one of the most proactive groups as a whole.”
Washington Mutual’s Y2K readiness program dates back to the early 1990s, when the company began assessing its systems to see which ones would have date-related issues, according to Liane Wilson, the bank’s information technology chief, who will spend her New Year’s Eve at WaMu’s command center in Seattle. Remediation began in 1995, and all systems deemed “mission critical” were tested and found to be Y2K compliant as of Dec. 31, 1998, she said.
“We do not anticipate problems on those things that we have tested and where we control the amount of change that might have been introduced to systems since tests were done,” Wilson said. “I think it’s really other outside things we need to be prepared for. For example, we may receive data from somewhere in the world that’s not correct, or a small power or telephone company may not be there. So we have some contingency plans.”
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New Year’s Eve for the Chatsworth data center will begin Dec. 31 about 8:30 p.m., when WaMu’s financial centers close for business, according to Clark. The main computer will then run through a normal batch cycle that takes six to seven hours, followed by the generation of some year-end reports.
The jobs--which are expected to straddle the New Year’s line--will be closely monitored by six to eight on-site staff members using computers in a control center measuring about 30 by 30 feet near the main computer room. That center, colored in the same sterile white as the computer room, is lined with tables containing about 20 computer monitors that beep if something is wrong.
“You can monitor all systems from here,” says Clark. “I will probably be in this area most of the time. I’ll probably go back to my desk if all is quiet.”
But even after the new year begins, Washington Mutual and other banks will still face another major test later in the day when, as some have predicted, there may be a run on ATM cash as people flock to banks to see if they can still access their money. Washington Mutual and most other banks have made arrangements to have extra cash available if that happens.
The Chatsworth data center will be staffed by various people throughout the New Year’s weekend regardless of what happens, says Clark, although he hopes his presence won’t be needed the entire time. “I consider it a major accomplishment if I get to watch some of the bowl games on New Year’s Day,” he said.
