[olug] Computer Room Fire Suppression

[Sam Tetherow]

If a public entity is closed due to a disaster and there is no loss of 
'product' then why not close the public entity permanently and save 
everyone some money?

Public sector jobs are just like any other job, they get paid to produce 
a product or service, there is just less accountability in a public 
sector job apparently.  But any manager/director that has this type of 
attitude is guilty of negligence at best and theft from the tax payers 
at worst.

This is not a rant against any one person (unless they actually believe 
Bill's non-cynical answer).

Every business should have a business continuity plan.  That doesn't 
mean that every business can implement that continuity plan, but it 
should be in writing, these are the risks, these are the steps that need 
to be taken when this happens and these are the things we could do 
better if we had the time and the money to implement them.  There are 
always places where you make compromises in your disaster plans because 
the cost outweighs the risk.  But they should still be documented and 
justified.

On 6/1/11 11:46 AM, Bill Brush wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 11:22 AM, Sam Tetherow<tetherow at shwisp.net>  wrote:
>> As a tax payer, I feel the pain.  The only way this would make sense is if
>> it can be proven that the 'insurance' cost exceeds the replacement cost both
>> in $$ and man hours.  Otherwise the public sector is doing a great
>> disservice to it's constituents.
>>
>
> And this would be different from normal how?  (cynical answer)
>
> Now to be perfectly fair, most of the I.T. guys, realize that a
> comprehensive DR plan will make life easier in the event of a
> disaster.  But consider the fact that most public entities don't
> produce a product as such.  So if a public entity is closed due to a
> disaster, how can you measure the loss of product?  The man hours paid
> won't be markedly different than normal operations because all the
> higher level I.T. workers are on salary.  If overtime is required for
> hourly they'll be encouraged to take it as comp time instead of pay.
> Compare the price of just buying replacements in the event of a
> disaster versus buying redundant systems, maintaining them, and
> keeping them upgraded and current for years just in case there might
> be a disaster.  A private sector entity can't do that because the
> downtime would kill their revenue stream.  Public entities do not have
> their revenue tied to their productivity and no matter how
> conscientious the individual worker is, they realize this fact.  If
> you ask a public sector director which he would be more afraid of, a
> disaster like LPS or a 35% dip in tax revenues, it will be the latter
> every time (if they're honest).  The former is inconvenient, and
> painful, the latter is terrifying.
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