#ByteIT

The job title “sysadmin” commands respect in certain circles, and symbolises a devotion to duty. XKCD illustrates this beautifully. As a young technician, I was inspired by war stories from the battle-scarred heroes of corporate IT.

Evenings in the pub saw these unassuming yet admired few recite tales that could have us hanging on every word, chuckle at the fate of the unfortunate protagonist, and feel that following their path was surely the one to enlightenment.

Firmly lodged in my mind, and making me smile just recalling them:

• Electrocuted by a device that’s “definitely” switched off
• Holding a server for over an hour while knee deep in water as the server room flood was drained away
• Running the entire corporate infrastructure from one laptop for a week while waiting for replacement parts
• Baking, freezing or dissecting broken hard drives and memory devices with the hope of recovering critical data
• Giving reports that imply services are restored, feeling confident everything will be properly fixed before there’s an inspection
• Retro fitting parts or deploying consumer products as a “temporary” fix
• The time we duct taped [person’s name or valued possession] to [something or somewhere]

What grew from these evenings was a support network, everyone aspired to be the person that others turned to. But in recent years something has changed. Those same people that spent time in the trenches now sit at desks monitoring dashboards and deploying fixes with one click through a web based control panel. Support is an automated email responder; if you’re lucky there’s some research and a fix you can apply yourself manually.

The cloud is here to stay, and don’t be mistaken - I love it. I miss the stories though. In this new world that has an app for everything and your data could be literally anywhere, what ridiculous scenario are you likely to face that will require devotion beyond the call of duty?