When we looked back over the decade, several themes became impossible to ignore:

• Modernizing IT Systems Is Difficult and Expensive
• Digitizing Health Records Is Difficult and Expensive
• Banks Rely on Unreliable Technology
• Even Brief Stock-Exchange Glitches Are Costly
• Even Brief Air-Travel Glitches Are Costly

Modernizing IT Systems Is Difficult and Expensive

Governments in many parts of the world have embarked on IT modernization efforts, either replacing a legacy IT system or combining a large number of systems into one. In the United States, several states have tried and failed to improve their various social welfare and unemployment systems. Similarly, the U.S. Department of Defense has been trying to modernize its payroll and logistical systems, which has led to billions of dollars in project cancellations and cost overruns. The United Kingdom has also seen a number of costly governmental IT infrastructure modernization projects go off the rails as well, like the National Identity Register project, which was scrapped in 2010 at a cost of £257 million (about US $394 million).

Digitizing Health Records Is Difficult and Expensive

The governmental push for the increased use of health information technology has also led to a number of major IT project fiascoes in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The U.K.’s attempt to create a national electronic health record system, for instance, was canceled in 2012 after more than £11 billion (about US $17 billion) was spent, whereas the plan to combine the electronic health record systems of the U.S. Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration came to naught after spending $1.3 billion. The Affordable Care Act of 2009 also led to some spectacular health IT project failures in Hawaii, Oregon, Maryland, and Massachusetts, not to mention major problems at the federal level.

Banks Rely on Unreliable Technology

Banks in both Australia and the United Kingdom have repeatedly experienced major IT outages due to underinvestment in their IT infrastructures. For example, in 2010, 8 million customers of the National Australia Bank found they had no access to their accounts for days, while 6 million customers of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group in the U.K. and Ireland experienced the same problem in 2012. Some RBS Group customers had no access to their accounts for weeks.

Even Brief Stock-Exchange Glitches Are Costly

Stock exchanges around the world—including Tokyo, Singapore, London, Mumbai, Toronto, Chicago, and New York—have seen their share of operational difficulties. The New York Stock Exchange experienced a “flash crash” in 2010 that saw the market drop almost 1,000 points and then rebound within minutes, while a rogue algorithm led the Knight Capital Group to lose US $440 million in errant trades in about 45 minutes in 2012.

Even Brief Air-Travel Glitches Are Costly

Airlines experienced their share of problems as they modernized their reservation systems, especially after mergers. The merger of the reservation systems of US Airways and America West led to a major mishap in 2007. United Airlines suffered a major reservation system meltdown when it merged with Continental in 2012. The new reservation system of Australia’s Virgin Blue also had a rocky debut in 2010. British Airways’ automated baggage-handling system at Heathrow Airport melted down when it debuted in 2008.