It would seem that “Pride cometh before a fall” is something that is lost on most people who work in IT.

 

As someone who has been working with computers from about the time Bill Gates was buying an operating system from some poor guy in Washington State, and Steve Jobs was phone phreaking; There is just not much that escapes me.

 

I was doing some consulting for a company that was simply put together with bailing wire and scotch tape.  They had a huge pipe to the internet and were getting a dribble through by the time it hit the desktop.

 

Loading WireShark (a free protocol analyzer) examining the broadcast packets it was easy to see why.  The OS was literally working with NetBIOS to route packets.

 

A quick examination of the “server room” found the switches all tied together with Fiber and, patch cords going from one switch to another causing untold amount of routing loops etc. While the picture above is a stock photo the room in question looked very much like this.

 

My job however was not to fix their networking issues as this was the task of the guy I was “helping.”  He was the System Administrator.  I sent e-mails to him alerting him to my findings so he could take the appropriate steps, which for some reason he discounted and did not do.

 

The weeks went on and the problems persisted several times a day where people were kicked off of the network or files were corrupt or lost etc.  His response/fix was to release and renew the IP address.  Putting one band aid on the problem day after day I guess gave him a sense of accomplishment but the problems were looming and like the 500 pound gorilla in the closet, soon to get out.

 

One of the things that I learned many years ago is to work with VARS.  Value added resellers have years of experience to draw upon.  They know which products are buggy and to stay away from and which are tried and true.  If you are a business don’t try and save money via internet stores as you will get what others can’t sell for one reason or another.  They are on sale for a reason…

 

When I asked him for his vendor contact list to include in his DR plan, there were no VARS on the list.  Everything was from internet companies or local retail locations.  He in fact had no fallback plan if the $hit hit the fan.

 

The hardware purchased looked as much.  There were no standards anywhere.  There were high end SANS tied to cheap switches.  The workstation of choice was whatever he got a good deal on making mass deployment of anything just about impossible.  Hardware was way past its lifecycle and the list just went on.  Because of his pride; he was not willing to listen to anyone regarding anything IT.  If he does not change it will be his undoing.

 

This is not my first rodeo and certainly not my first encounter with arrogance.  As a manager I can deal with it, as a consultant one must work around it and if it becomes too big of an impediment, bow out.  There is no reason to sully your name with a situation like this when the outcome will likely somehow be your fault.  

 

Always hire people smarter than you are and have the humility to acknowledge that you are not the end all be all.  There is simply too much information out there to know it all.  Wisdom is; knowing that you need help and to leverage VARS and consultants is simply smart.

 

-Best to you and those that you care about!