On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 12:45 PM, James Downs <james.downs@egontech.com> wrote:

On Feb 2, 2010, at 9:33 AM, Jared Mauch wrote:

We have solved 98% of this with standard configurations and templates.

To deviate from this requires management approval/exception approval after an evaluation of the business risks.

I would also point Chad to this book: http://bit.ly/cShEIo (Amazon Link to Visual Ops). It's very useful to have your management read it.  You may or may not be able to or want to use a full ITIL process, but understanding how these policies and procedures can/should work, and using the ones that apply makes sense. Change control, tracking, and configuration management are going to be key to avoiding mistakes, and being able to rapidly repair when one is made. Unfortunately, most management that demands No Tolerance, Zero Error from operations won't read the book. Good luck.. I'd bet most of the people on this list have been there one time or another. Cheers, -j

Interesting book, maybe I'll bring that to the next meeting. Thanks for the heads up on that.