Late starters are simply not going to finish the race. But several other studies and estimates suggest that the Middle East is generally ill-prepared for possible disruptions on January 1, 2000. All computers, of course, use the Gregorian calendar for their internal clocks, and it is the computers which are going to fail. One problem in judging the degree of threat is that no one really knows, precisely, what is going to happen. Businesses and governments may certify that their computing systems, hardware and software both, are compliant, but be sabotaged by a lack of compliance among their suppliers, their overseas clients, or in the communication and transportation nets on which they depend.
Global interdependence brings with it a certain global vulnerability.
The other problem, one of the most insidious ones in the whole Y2K equation, is the question of embedded chips. No one knows how many of these embedded chips may fail. If the elevators in every tall building in a major city stop altogether on January 1, there will be considerable chaos. One need not be a believer in an imminent apocalypse to recognize that there will be many disruptions, even in the most prepared of countries. One set of respected assessments by the Gartner Group broke down countries according to the percentage of mission-critical failures which might be expected in companies in those states.