Close
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Applications
    • Applications
    • Cybersecurity
    • Development
    • IT Management
    • Networking

    The Knowledge Trek

    By
    Peter Coffee
    -
    August 8, 2005
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      With at least some of his ashes soon to be placed in Earth orbit, the late James Doohan cant even be imagined to be spinning in his grave. Even so, I hate to imagine the reaction to recent events that one might have heard from the character made famous by that veteran actor. In real life, he stormed Juno Beach on D-Day, but hell be best remembered as starship troubleshooter Montgomery Scott from three decades of the “Star Trek” saga.

      Miracle-worker “Scotty,” chief engineer of the Enterprise, would surely have something to say at the sight of NASA engineers agonizing over whether it was safe to trim the toenails of the space shuttle orbiter Discovery. I imagine him asking in exasperation, “If youre afraid to fix the bloody thing, what business do you have flying it?”

      I ask that same question of anyone entrusting vital tasks to an enterprise (pardon the expression) IT system.

      Actually, I ask five questions. How do you know its working? How can it fail to work correctly? What can happen when it fails? How do you limit the damage while youre fixing it? And how do you fix it without breaking something else in the process? System operators ought to be able to answer those questions on a moments notice—preferably by consulting well-indexed, regularly updated plans rather than relying on expert knowledge and their ability to improvise.

      How do you know a system is working? Its tempting to say that if its moving packets or serving up Web pages, its working, but thats like looking at the fuel flow through the space shuttles engines without paying attention to whether the shuttle is going in the right direction. The kind of assurance that you really need comes from products such as RealiTea from TeaLeaf Technology or Vantage from Compuware. Both of these analytic tools measure customer session response and completion rates, as well as business impact of process problems, rather than lower-level measures of hardware function.

      How can it fail to work? Thats a question with many more answers than it used to have, as any nontrivial application now involves loosely coupled processes owned and managed by multiple parties. End-to-end testing with something like Segue Softwares SilkPerformer, Mercury Interactives Business Process Testing or Embarcadero Technologies Extreme Test is the necessary response.

      What are the effects of failure, and what does that imply about the acceptable procedures for recovery? The mantra here is “graceful degradation.” Falling off the edge of the world, even for a few minutes, is not an option—who knows how many people will brand you as an unreliable partner and never give you a second look? Put some effort into building facilities to avoid data loss, offer basic information even if two-way services are interrupted and capture contact information to get back to a customer who finds you temporarily unable to complete a transaction.

      Recovery from failure ought to be viewed not as a crisis management process but rather as the simplest case of a system upgrade—that is, one that doesnt actually add new capability. Why does it help to look at it that way? Because it gets people out of the blame-avoidance game and turns it into an engineering problem instead of a political problem.

      To perform a system upgrade without disrupting operations, you prepare by accurately identifying system dependencies and formally specifying and documenting interfaces; you maintain current information on licenses and their management and other administrative needs. Merely bringing a system back online should then be at least as easy as adding or changing functions of that system.

      With all due respect to the legend of Scotty, I also remember the legendary tale of three Chinese brothers—all of them physicians. The most famous of the three cured illnesses and became personal physician to the emperor—but he honored and deferred to his brothers, although they were much less well known, because they had greater skills of preventing disease.

      Miracle workers like Scotty make for better TV drama, but in the real world, Id rather have the kind of professional who makes disaster handling look routine.

      /zimages/2/28571.gifReaders respond to The Knowledge Trek. Click here to read more.

      Technology Editor Peter Coffee can be reached at peter_coffee@ziffdavis.com.

      /zimages/2/28571.gifCheck out eWEEK.coms for the latest news, reviews and analysis in programming environments and developer tools.

      Peter Coffee
      Peter Coffee is Director of Platform Research at salesforce.com, where he serves as a liaison with the developer community to define the opportunity and clarify developers' technical requirements on the company's evolving Apex Platform. Peter previously spent 18 years with eWEEK (formerly PC Week), the national news magazine of enterprise technology practice, where he reviewed software development tools and methods and wrote regular columns on emerging technologies and professional community issues.Before he began writing full-time in 1989, Peter spent eleven years in technical and management positions at Exxon and The Aerospace Corporation, including management of the latter company's first desktop computing planning team and applied research in applications of artificial intelligence techniques. He holds an engineering degree from MIT and an MBA from Pepperdine University, he has held teaching appointments in computer science, business analytics and information systems management at Pepperdine, UCLA, and Chapman College.
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Latest News

      Zeus Kerravala on Networking: Multicloud, 5G, and...

      James Maguire - December 16, 2022 0
      I spoke with Zeus Kerravala, industry analyst at ZK Research, about the rapid changes in enterprise networking, as tech advances and digital transformation prompt...
      Read more
      Applications

      Datadog President Amit Agarwal on Trends in...

      James Maguire - November 11, 2022 0
      I spoke with Amit Agarwal, President of Datadog, about infrastructure observability, from current trends to key challenges to the future of this rapidly growing...
      Read more
      IT Management

      Intuit’s Nhung Ho on AI for the...

      James Maguire - May 13, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nhung Ho, Vice President of AI at Intuit, about adoption of AI in the small and medium-sized business market, and how...
      Read more
      Applications

      Kyndryl’s Nicolas Sekkaki on Handling AI and...

      James Maguire - November 9, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nicolas Sekkaki, Group Practice Leader for Applications, Data and AI at Kyndryl, about how companies can boost both their AI and...
      Read more
      Cloud

      IGEL CEO Jed Ayres on Edge and...

      James Maguire - June 14, 2022 0
      I spoke with Jed Ayres, CEO of IGEL, about the endpoint sector, and an open source OS for the cloud; we also spoke about...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2022 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×