Learn From Mistakes

DevOps: Don’t Forget The Ops

DevOps - Don't forget the ops

I want to commend the team at GitLab.com – they had an issue that took down a key database and everything else with it effectively and when they came back, there was data not coming back. This happens. This happens in “Traditional” 1.0 IT companies (ask my usual airline, Delta, they’ll tell you two stories … Read more

Hey DBA Managers, Don’t Be Like the Secret Service!

Continuing from yesterday’s advice to DBAs…  Three Four (hey it’s for managers, brownie points…) lessons for management from the Secret Service “issues”.   Trust But Verify At the White House “upper management” at Secret Service didn’t realize how bad things were with recent lapses. At least I hope they didn’t and I’m going to assume they … Read more

Hey DBAs, Don’t Be Like the Secret Service!

Last week, I ripped a story from the headlines to draw lessons for Technologists from – it was about the Secret Service lapses that allowed a fence jumper to get into the threshold of the White House residence. That was bad. This week, though, we’ve learned of some additions to the story that makes it … Read more

DBA Reminders from an FAA Fire

Last Friday a long time employee set fire to the FAA’s Chicago Control Center. You can read about the fire and the 2,000+ flight cancellations that resulted  here and here. Keeping with the spirit of ripping lessons from headlines like I did in last week’s learning communication skills lesson from a police shooting, I think there are some lessons us … Read more

Hey Techies.. Try Simple Solutions First!

Last week a man jumped the fence at the home of the President of the United States. This is a fairly routine occurrence. Except he made it to the door to the “residence” portion of the White House – where the first family lives. And made it through the unlocked front door – where he … Read more

How Do You Prevent a SAN Failure?

… Well, prevent a SAN failure from ruining your week anyway. Because you can never fully prevent a failure 100% – even in a SAN, even when your SAN vendor says it’ll never happen (hint: anytime a vendor tells you never – be afraid.. Be very afraid). So that’s what this whole post series is … Read more