What Aren’t You Monitoring?

monitoring trends from James Turnbull - image from the great folks at SlideRabbit.com

The three pillars of IT security are confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Most of the press coverage is all about confidentiality – at least until we have an airline or two or three have trouble with availability ;-). Of course, availability is also a key dimension of server management with significant operational dimensions. Those of you who know me, know I have a deep expertise in availability. Unsurprisingly, in this post, I’m going to concentrate on availability – and the necessity of monitoring everything, and knowing that you’re monitoring everything.

The IT Zombie Apocalypse is Here!

Zombie outbreak sign (for an article about Zombie servers)

Although this article and title are a bit tongue-in-cheek, the reality behind the title is serious. In the average data center, 30% of their servers are mainly space heaters [they had their brains eaten ;-)]. Given that many data centers are strictly limited on power, cooling and floor space, and that power and maintenance are significant costs, this is a big deal. This happens primarily because the staff managing those servers have don’t have a clear idea of what all their servers are doing.

The Incredible Power Of The Right Questions

The Incredible Power of Good Questions

There is incredible power in asking the right questions, and following the answers where they lead – especially when they lead to uncomfortable places.

As you probably remember, in March, 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake hit Japan resulting in a massive tsunami which damaged the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Some of the most serious damage occurred because there was no power to cool the reactor.