Whatever the effect the dawn of the new millennium may have on the world's millions of personal computers, it is the large databases and huge computer systems that must continue to work.
One of the biggest software companies in the world, Oracle, says its main products are already Year 2000 (Y2K) compliant, but that system administrators must look carefully at all other aspects of their systems.
Large companies that employ an Oracle database rarely have only Oracle software on their systems. There is a great deal of interaction with other applications and often with a code created in-house.
Oracle's alliance and marketing manager for Greater China, Bob Carlston, said all products, particularly internally developed ones, would have to be examined carefully.
'All Oracle products are Y2K compliant,' he said. 'The problem is, if you use an Oracle database but you write software with VisualBasic, and someone else's Web front end, some of what you do may be compliant, but how you develop your code may not be.' Oracle has programs and services to help take care of this problem.
One important aspect of Oracle's approach is that it is reminding customers that time is really running out.