Computerworld - March 26, 2012

TANK SHARK TRUE TALES OF IT LIFE AS TOLD TO SHARKY
my co-worker, who was smiling
and leaning back in his chair,
probably thinking of all
the fun they were
going to have with
this greenhorn. I
was mostly done
with the changes
any way, but it
was nice to have
a little breath-
ing room to get
everything done
correctly. And af-
ter that, I learned
to clarify expecta-
tions a lot better.”

1& 1 Internet . . . . . . . . 11, 17 APC ................... 13 Cisco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 dtSearch ............. 43 Hewlett-Packard . . . . . . . 9 IBM Non-Intel . . . . . . . . . . . 23 IBM Intel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C4 InterSystems . . . . . . . . . . 7 Invest in Ontario . . . . . . 27 ITWatchDogs . . . . . . . . . 43 Microsoft Cloud . . . . . . . . 35 Microsoft O;ce 365 . . . . . . 15 Motorola ............. 4-5 Numara Software NowPartofBMC . . . . . . . . . . 29 Quest Software . . . . . . . 19 SonicWALL . . . . . . . . . . . . C3 Verizon Wireless . . . . . . 25 VMWare . . . . . . . . . . . . . C2-1 ADVERTISERS INDEX This index is provided as an additional service. The publisher does not assume any liability for errors or omissions.

HAL MAYFORTH

Don’t Push That Button!

This credit-card processing company has a major data center outage, and recovery requires half a day and thousands of IT people. The root cause? “It seems that a minimum-wage contract security guard had let a technician into the data center,” reports a pilot fish on the inside. “When the tech left, the security guard found himself stuck in the data center and couldn’t figure out how to get out. Figuring he could set o; some alarms and someone would come get him, he went to a wall with big signs that said ‘Only press in case of an electrical emergency,’ lifted a cover and hit the big red button. No one came to get him, so he did the same thing with another button. That was a scenario our recovery plans hadn’t considered — that someone within the data center would kill the primary and secondary power.”

Fun With the Rookie
It’s the first day at the first job for
this fresh-out-of-college programmer
pilot fish. “I arrived at my desk ex-
pecting to read documentation until
somebody had time to show me what
the team does,” says fish. “Instead,
I got my first assignment from my
boss and was told not to worry — it
wasn’t due until 3: 15. It was already
1 p.m. I started furiously making
my changes and trying to get them
tested. A co-worker asked me what
I was working so hard on, and I ex-
plained the task and that it was due
by 3: 15. He nodded his head know-
ingly and said, ‘Ah, March 15, huh?’
I stopped and turned to fully look at

Ch-ch-changes

This experienced IT pilot fish starts work with a big company, and that requires a few changes for him. “The largest hurdle has been adjusting to the red tape of a full-blown change management system,” fish says. “I had to submit an emergency change one day — a case where I was permitted to take action and submit the paperwork after — so I shut the server down, brought it back up, and filled out the emergency request.

I explained that we had a hung server and performed an emergency reboot. The approval request was quickly denied by one of the top technical authorities at the company. The reason given was that I had not included a back-out plan for a server reboot. For some reason, my college degree and certification paths never made mention of how to ‘un-reboot’ a computer.”

» Reboot the Shark! Send me your true tale of IT life at sharky@ computerworld.com. You’ll snag a snazzy Shark shirt if I use it.

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