I can't speak for the other commenters, but my view is that not even Goldman has really any success to show for it. The whole Slang/SecDB thing is a colossal failure even inside of Goldman. That they nonetheless ratchet pay upwards to entice overqualified engineers to babysit a clearly defunct and ineffectual system is no surprise though, because keeping the lid on its badness is paramount to their marketing efforts, which in turn drives GSAM's ability to get high AUM, and more recently has driven the ability to sell this nonsense to others.
The software is junk software. There's no other secret thing going on -- no misdirection or duplicitous motives. A certain class of high-paying customers responds more to the Goldman brand name -- or at least believes it buys them cache with regulators or investors. For that class of customers, vetting the reliability and quality of the tech stack is at best an afterthought. Since that pile of money exists as a thing for Goldman to target, they do target it.
I advocate that more people should prioritize vetting the technology. If so, they would see it is not of sufficient quality to justify its use, let alone paying to perpetuate it elsewhere. But I'm not naive -- the political approach will always matter more to a wide range of people than will a more objective assessment.
The software is junk software. There's no other secret thing going on -- no misdirection or duplicitous motives. A certain class of high-paying customers responds more to the Goldman brand name -- or at least believes it buys them cache with regulators or investors. For that class of customers, vetting the reliability and quality of the tech stack is at best an afterthought. Since that pile of money exists as a thing for Goldman to target, they do target it.
I advocate that more people should prioritize vetting the technology. If so, they would see it is not of sufficient quality to justify its use, let alone paying to perpetuate it elsewhere. But I'm not naive -- the political approach will always matter more to a wide range of people than will a more objective assessment.