The Aircraft that still take Critical updates from floppy discs
It’s been recently reported that the iconic Boeing 747-400 aircraft first introduced in 1988 still receives critical software updates through 3.5″ floppy discs.
Due to the ongoing pandemic, many of these aircraft were laid up and retired. Recently during some routine penetration testing, a team discovered the drive that was being used to load important navigation databases. It’s a database that has to be updated every 28 days, so an engineer visits every month with any updates that are required. In the photograph above you can even see the convenient disekette stowage unit for storing these disks.
Because the size of the navigation files have grown bigger and bigger, many airlines have switched to compact disc. A number still use the age old floppy disc method though with upto eight diskettes!
It’s unclear exactly how many planes still get their updates this way in terms of clear numbers.
Does your organisation still have elderly legacy systems in place?
Suprisingly, it’s not that unusual for organisations and businesses to still have such legacy technology in place. It’s usually for a variety of reasons. It could be an old access database or legacy system that only runs on legacy operating systems.
What to you do when that aged technology inevitably fails? Surely it’s better to prepare for this prior to the hardware failing?
We can help you with a migration to the cloud or a migration from a physical old machine to a cloud based resource.
Get in touch with us today – 0330 321 6284 – sales@sysflex.co.uk
James Zalewski – CEO / Owner – Sysflex Ltd
E-Mail: james@sysflex.co.uk
Telephone: 0330 321 6284
