According to a recent survey carried out by Fluke Networks, 29% of IT managers say they have been alerted to business critical problems by screams. Doesn’t sound like they have pro-active monitoring then? 
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Screams as systems administration alert method
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Only once in my life have I ever encountered a problem that would have generated a scream, and no one (thankfully) was there at the time.
Back when I worked for an ISP in West Virginia, one of our UPSes had a car battery in it. Something happened and the car battery exploded. We came in the next morning (proactive monitoring? what’s that?) and there was acid all over the floor and the desk in front of the UPS. If someone would have been sitting at the desk, they would still have the scars to show for it.
@Matt – proactive monitoring = getting your monitoring system to tell you when something has failed rather than letting your customers tell you. In the case of a UPS they usually have at least one dry contact that indicates whether it is operational or not. You can then hook the dry contact up to something that will monitor the status of the dry contact to alarm you in some way when it indicates a problem. It wouldn’t stop the battery exploding but it would alert you when it happens not when you happen to go into the data centre to check on things ie usually on a Monday morning when the last thing you want to deal with is a major disaster.
@Jack Hughes
My parenthetical comment was sardonic, but thanks!
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