Louisiana has announced a state of emergency over issues with a government mainframe.
For the last several weeks, Louisiana’s Office of Motor Vehicles (OMV) systems have been experiencing frequent outages due to its 50-year-old COBOL mainframe applications, the department said last week. The Office of Technology Services (OTS) and Unisys are investigating the outages but have not been able to identify the issue.
Gov. Jeff Landry declared a state of emergency on March 20 due to ongoing issues with the OMV.
“Outdated software is causing crippling delays @LouisianaOMV for the public. This is not acceptable!” he said on X (formerly Twitter). “That is why today, I signed an Executive Order declaring a State of Emergency in an effort to efficiently and effectively fix the Office of Motor Vehicles once and for all.”
The order - which will run until April 19 - includes the suspension of fines for expired driver's licenses. The OMV noted in its own announcement, however, that the suspension will not apply to federal agencies such as the TSA.
The executive order notes the OMV has “consistently experienced system outages,” leading to the closure of field offices and preventing public agents from processing driver's licenses, vehicle registrations, and reinstatement transactions.
It notes that the OMV’s application and database are more than 50 years old and operate on more than 400 programs written in a programming language that is over 60 years old.
This legacy infrastructure means support is “limited and costly,” while modern applications aimed at improving are instead “taxing the mainframe and causing crippling delays for the public.”
"The Office of Motor Vehicles continually experiences issues with searches for VIN numbers, driver's license numbers, and license plates,” the order notes. "During periods of high transaction volume, the mainframe frequently enters a suspended state as it struggles to keep up with demand.”
“The current mainframe lacks redundancies, leaving the system vulnerable to disruptions... the current mainframe is out of space for new license plates, new indicators on driver's licenses, and new flags on driver's licenses.”
Despite the fact past administrations attempted to procure a new system for the OMV but failed to implement it, the order notes it is “imperative” for the Office of Motor Vehicles to procure and implement a modernized system to “effectively carry out its responsibilities.”
“We are grateful for Governor Landry’s support in modernizing our system. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience these outages may have caused,” said OMV Commissioner Dan Casey.
Work is reportedly ongoing to acquire and implement a new driver and vehicle system. “We are close to finalizing a solution that will enhance efficiency and service quality. We appreciate your patience and will continue to provide updates as we move forward,” Casey added.
The OMV suffered issues in 2015 after an outage at the Louisiana State Police data center in Baton Rouge caused by a fire.
A 2021 OMV document suggests the department is running on a Unisys mainframe and had previously aimed to migrate to an IBM mainframe by mid-2025. Plans to migrate, however, have been in the works since at least 2018.
West Virginia’s Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has previously suffered several mainframe outages, causing issues around processing licenses and IDs.
