GREED

Totally agree, has to be put into perspective. There are some items that I would say put lives at risk, not knowing where a vulnerable child is, are they in school and what not. But generally in the industry the levels of catastrophe are one of learning impact... still a vital consideration.

When you consider the worst case scenario of ultimately how many kids would in some way suffer as a result, I very very much wish this not to happen. It is also worrying just how much influence one organisation actually has.

I think take a closer look at what happens at regular companies when administrators come in. Staff are not sacked but stop working, all sales and support stops, shops close. All of this has to be taken into account. Just because you can access the data still, would you have the capability in the few days you have to get it out, check it, validaite it is all there and get moved to another host, all 18000 schools?

Sound like good starting points to me Phil. The second separated setup is vital I think, and still believe a protected financial arrangement to pay for that for a period of time (along with the contract). As has been said above, when the administrators come in they will first look to seal the leaky gaps where money is escaping. Matt, the flaw in your point about they will want 'some' money coming in is void because administrators come in when money isn't coming in quickly enough, otherwise the 'some' money if it were good enough would mean the administrators were less likely to come in. It would be great to get an administrator on the line to find out what would happen in given circumstances... Phil you must be able to get hold of one?

Any solution needs to be beyond the grasp of administrators

Not really... because if all they have is the hosting ability would you go with them? Or stay with them? I also wouldn't see it on its own as a revenue stream, we pay capita for their service and support not hosting. Yet that it the biggest loss should this happen.

Advanced Learning (Progresso) response received, thanks to @ProgressoGeek This will go live on the site tomorrow (Thursday 26 June) at 9am.

@PhilNeal I sent you some stuff from the latest discussion from the SIF Data Privacy group as discussed. I want to add some of my observations for discussion, lets use Capita (sorry Phil) as the example. I feel the biggest concern is not the access to the source code in escrow, because lets face it in the days, week or even months after an event, what schools or LAs have the technical ability or resource to be able to make legitimate use of that (picture Capita going under 2 weeks prior to Exams Download Day, or before the Autumn Census update is released). The concern is the sudden inability to access the data or control where the data goes. So: Capita goes into administration. Administrators switch off all services that are leaking finances (servers!) until a buyer is found. Schools have no access and cannot get access to their data. Same would be true of an LA or a third party hosting service. Capita is liquidated, still no access to data... possibly permanently... Capita is bought by another organisation... so without choice your data now sits with, say RM, or AL. This scenario is very common and very controversial over in the US at the moment (CIA aside!) I fundamentally believe this is a big issue across all sectors; that the rights of the data owners (don't get me started on the nuances of that term) are ignored. it is like your rented flat being sold to another landlord without your knowledge, and you cannot get your possessions back. I believe too that the Government needs to address this issue and step in to protect the rights of the data owners. For now, contracts stipulating mitigation, timescales to remove data, adequate communication over possible takeovers etc to customers. More demanding options I presented was to have funds in escrow (the common reason for using escrow!) to provide source of funding for redundant, external servers/services for a limited period of time to allow customers to remove their information. Funds in escrow and using external services would protect it from administration and sale. It would be good to think the suppliers could work together on a project to jointly protect customers, I cannot see it happening though. Better still would be an easy access facility to allow all the competitors easy access to migrate schools away in such an eventuality (but then again, any access is better than no access!). Above all, awareness of this possible event should be make plainly clear to the market to allow schools and LAs to identify and assess risk of using one supplier of hosting, and ultimately the decision and responsibility must rest with them. What we all need to do is highlight the risk and make clear the consequences, the options and the mitigations so they can make informed and educated choices... Like everything else!

Mine should arrive tomorrow... now to choose the drink to have it in!

10 seconds longer than I took!

GIANT 3D STAR WARS ICE CUBE SPHERE BALL SILICONE DEATH STAR MOULD LARGE TRAY | eBay Such an apt thing for a geek site Want!

I laughed so hard I fell off the sofa into the leftovers from my pizza... Torres what a waste of time!

Robben what a player!

We talk about these laws like they are government laws, and how to evade (or avoid) them. According to Albert, it just cannot be done rather than we need to cheat them. I'm not saying all of this isn't possible still!

Pahahaha... forget phasers... just hit the brake peddle!

'Could' is right. It will take 50 years to perfect the system, given it is only a concept so far, then need to build the thing. It is taking us 25 years to build HS2 for blasphemy sake!

Yer I get that according to Mr Albert, that is impossible... I'll wait for the day it is proved wrong but that aside for a moment... So what you are saying is that every atom in the universe would move around the ship while that stays in position? So a collision is just not possible?

Put it this way, if you went in and taught their class, and opinions aside, probably worse than they do... how would they approach you with that? In a very real personal experience, it was blatant, verging on rude, very much making me feel stupid yet still within the rules. Turn it around

I loved reading this yesterday myself. @CAM the ship will physically move, no power source in the known universe will move THE UNIVERSE around it. Dampeners maybe, but it will need some form of deflection field to knock debris out of the way, even if the ship does not move the debris will towards it. Plus lets not forget phasers to ward off those pesky Klingons I'm still hazy on the propulsion bit myself...

Ha well played!

And which side of that fence are you? Just so I know what degree of disgust to throw at you from now until the end of time?

Saying that on an international forum is dangerous! Ha!

I'd agree with the above. Back in the day I used to build and move SIMS left right and centre. Very much agree take the opportunity to upgrade on the current box as far as you can, then move to a fresh clean install on your new box. Really, the move is: Install SIMS on new box Backup SIMS db Move to new location Restore SIMS db Make sure your Connect.ini files are pointing to the new server (or as many do, have a redirected .ini to a central location) Make sure you remember to copy over the DocuStore folders too, and other folders I forget. Been about 5 years since I last did it! End of the day, you can do all of this before you finally switch off the current setup so you can be sure it is working ok!

Ok the Capita contract thing aside, you want to move the SIMS server/database to a new machine? Plenty on here can help you there.