The High Side of Backups by Guy Smith Steven King should work as a systems administrator for a week. Only after a raging mob of angry end users have stormed your office can you appreciate the true nature of terror. Let me tell you how you can greatly increase your chances of survival in the modern corporation. The approaches are simple and do not require that you return fire. According to an Ontrack study, system administrators are responsible for 32 percent of all downtime.
Users have a point.
Downtime is very expensive. And none of these estimates include the long-term costs of damage to public image or loss of customer goodwill. Well, after pondering the 32 percent a bit, I concluded that this inflated figure included planned as well as unplanned downtime, so perhaps we should be spared from end user assaults. The answer is twofold. First, we create most planned downtime, mainly to execute backups.