Is your backup system a unicorn, or is it a horse?<\/p>\n
If you’re thinking I’m off my rocker asking such an odd question, don’t worry, I haven’t temporarily taken leave of my senses. To assure you that I haven’t taken an odd turn, this is a continuation of a previous post \u2013 How Complex is your Backup Environment?<\/a><\/p>\n The question of horses and unicorns covers the introduction of artificial design requirements or operational procedures that see something that should be as simple as a horse turned into something as unique, fragile and irreplaceable as a unicorn.<\/p>\n You see, there’s lots of horse handlers out there. Even people who aren’t necessarily trained to look after horses have a good idea of what to do for them. I once had a horse as a kid, and she was relatively easy to look after, particularly since I had a big field to let her roam about in. She practically looked after herself. So if someone turned up tomorrow and asked me to look after their horse for a week, I’d have a fairly good idea of how to look after it, even if I’d never dealt with that sort of horse before.<\/p>\n Give me a unicorn and I’d be in another boat. Literature tells us they’re fragile things. Heck, they’ll only let<\/em> certain people go anywhere near them, which seriously reduces the scope of the adult population who can care to their needs.<\/p>\n Not only that, it’s easy to find practical advise about handling horses on the internet … of unicorns though it’s a different story: it’s all theoretical stuff. It’s all supposition and old wives tales mixed in with a liberal dosage of imagination. That doesn’t beget practical tips on handling!<\/p>\n If you’re an IT manager, you have to accept that staff will periodically move on. Some companies employ more contractors than permanent staff with the expectation<\/em> that staff will regularly move on. You want systems to be straight forward so that:<\/p>\n