Curious - does anyone know: Was the code (Obamaware) based on an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) package, like SAP or Oracle, or did they actually try to try to re-invent the wheel and write this thing from scratch. If they actually tried to write it from scratch, it was one of the dumbest decisions in the history of government. Either that, or the more likely scenario is that they actually wanted it to fail. Did they bring in the heavyweight management consulting firms like KPMG, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, and Ernst & Young, like any large corporation would do? If so, what did those guys recommend (and has the press interviewed them)? We need some answers.
Pretty sure I saw Oracle or someone defending their database which was involved in it at some level, but they insisted their portion was working properly. Which I don’t doubt is true.
ERP probably wouldn't be directly applicable here since this project hinged on creating two big databases from scratch(users, insurers) and the intersection of the two. The only user interface (as opposed to loads of ERP modules) is the much-maligned web site as opposed to a variety of modules.
It's possible, but not probable, that an Oracle database was used but the more likely scenario is a Linux/Unix platform and an open-source database.
A quick Google yields this: http://goo.gl/CS8pv2
They weren't trying to reinvent the wheel since the tools they used are, in most cases, common to this type of project, contractor, etc.
In one of those delicious ironies, ego and ideology prevented Obama's regime from seeking help from the experts you cite. The Big Five firms and their many smaller competitors are viewed as evil for-profit corporations. In addition, Obama probably refused to share the credit with anyone so they went for an obscure foreign firm that already had socialist credentials via their past projects for the Canadian government.
As for the actual end product, it's been documented that the developers/designers/programmers took a 'Lego' approach by snapping a bunch of near-random blocks together, creating huge, redundant, and/or slow combinations of processes, procedures, etc. This wasn't reusable code so much as it was reused code.
In short, they applied one Band-Aid after another. When the site launched they already had a mile-high stack of Band-Aids....the so-called fixes they are touting are just more of the same.