The Night Shift

There's a great write-up by Brian Crescimanno called Why Are You Still Deploying Overnight? which I really enjoyed.  There's a lot of good logic there, but I think there's one missing element, and that's hardware (my favorite).  If you're going to flip a switch and watch your new software take over from your old software, you're going to need adequate hardware (or hardware + virtual machines) to allow yourself to switch back.  If you're not allowing yourself to switch back, you're betting on very fast problem resolution, presumably done by very clever engineers.  This is a better plan at, say, 9:00 AM than 3:00 AM, but it's still more dependent on heroics than software/hardware quality assurance.

Why This?

Hey there.  I've been working in networks, servers, and technical operations for about 12 years now and there are some things I'd like to write about.  Generally, I'm thinking about the principles and philosophy involved in building and operating networks.  While there's a place for some of that in my day-job, there are more conversations I'd like to have, with more people, and this seems like an interesting medium.

Probably the best thing I've ever read about network operations is How Many Admins, originally written in 1991.  At my last two jobs, I passed this on to my new boss(es) to introduce some useful principles.

More on this later.  For right now, thanks for visiting.