Some organizations walk a tightrope without the benefit of a safety net.
They rely on individuals that are the only sources of key information, they don't do backups of their online information, or they don't have a configuration management system in place. While they may successfully walk this tightrope for years, there's a good chance that a disaster can strike them - and there is never a good time for this to happen. If you religiously perform daily backups and store them offsite, and if you have a CM system that allows you to reproduce previous snapshots of reality, you're much better off. It is much easier to confirm the integrity of your safety nets now, in a planned, controlled manner, than when your company is plummeting into the ground. Editor Going back over the editorial calendar of E-ssentials, I note that this is the first time we address the area of Configuration Management.