Boldly into the unknown!

Well here we are just getting into our stride with this project, the first of the applications have been relocated to the European data center and there are more to follow next week. The workload is starting to ramp up now and the targets are starting to loom on the horizon.

Enter the European Security Team, with the “There’s a chance that we can screw this all up for you lot and we’re going to make the best of it” attitude. Now there is a bit of a dilemma over this data center move, on one hand we’re being told to get the systems moved and fix the security problems later, on the other hand we have our European colleagues saying you can’t move that onto our network it’s not secure! However when the pressure is on to get the job done, the NIMBY attitude doesn’t really help much. This is especially true when you actually have little or no choice in the build of the operating system that you use, in fact the build specificetion of the servers is completely under the control of our European colleagues. They determine the build of each and every server, so in reality the issue is not in the UK it’s on the continent. As I said there is a certain enthusiasm for moving the equipment and the applications, this is due to the fairly antiquated UK data centers. And the fact that the new locations in Europe seem to be much more suited to the modern world, is in the longer term likely to be of real benefit.
Ensure it’s Secure

The European team would like us to use the keyboard on the right, this would ensure that there is no way that we can screw up. However it’s not that practical as most SA’s will tell you that they actually look at the keyboard when they type, the problem with this migration is not that difficult to resolve. We all just have to understand each other, we all have a point of view on security and we all have a point of view on best practices.  They don’t always coincide but they are all equally valid, they should all be considered! The end point of this post is that the people that work under these constraints always end up trying to fend off the problems created down the line, this tends to demoralise the people who have to maintain the whole setup. As these projects move forward there are set phases that they go through, these can be quite easily classified as follows.

Phase 1: Uncritical acceptance.
Phase 2: Wild enthusiasm.
Phase 3: Dejected disillusionment.
Phase 4: Total confusion.
Phase 5: Search for the guilty.
Phase 6: Punishment of the innocent.
Phase 7: Promotion of nonparticipants.
And at the moment I’d say that we are comfortably into Phase 4, it will only be a matter of time till we get to the next Phase where things will start to get really interesting. But the phase that I’m really interested in is phase 7, I’m desperate to see who get’s the promotion!