in South Korea already and he would make some inquiries
there as well. Finally it was determined that they would quietly investigate building operations in all three of the countries
Kathryn had mentioned. Even if they didn't lose their entire IT staff every few years in India, the resulting talent drain
would push salaries up to the point it was cheaper to do the work in the U.S.
The morning meeting ran long, but ended in time for her to check email and round up the troops for their lunch presentation.
She wasn't sure why, but she decided to use the guys who had been to India in this meeting. It made sense given that they
had just gotten back from there, but she doubted Margret was dumb enough to get turned on once she found out that horny bunch
had been to a country with legal brothels and little in the way of health care or prevention.
Margret arrived right on time. Lunch was just being set out in the conference room and they all stuffed themselves while chit-chatting
about quasi-work-related things. The guys had strategically placed themselves around Margret as they had been trained to do
and the girls fawned over getting lunch allowing glimpses and brushes. Kathryn still wasn't sure which way Margret's door
swung, or if she even had a door. It was difficult to tell.
One thing which she made mental note of was Margret's prodding to find out who had ventured outside of the campus in Bangalore.
Those who admitted to having gone out at all she suddenly had little interest in. The woman wasn't stupid, thought Kathryn. Lunch allowed for the team to provide glowing reports about how the backups had been installed and how well
Margret's people worked with them during the process. No real details, but few were needed. Margret had already talked with
the systems managers who had done the testing. This was just a little time for mutual appreciation and bonding.
With lunch over, the team began showing off the PowerPoint presentation they had put together with a timeline for the migration
of the first two data centers. It was going to happen on the following weekend. They kept pointing out the massive bandwidth
connection which was set up just to do the final data migration. Margret's own people had written the software that would
do the extract of final data changes, then copy it across the network and load it onto the new system. The same software could
be run in reverse if a back out was needed. All in the room assured her it would not be necessary, but that it didn't hurt
to have a Plan B.
It was obvious to Margret she was being coddled to keep this golden cow putting out golden milk. She was outright pissed that
the only guys provided her had been to an AIDS-infested area and she was certain none of them were smart enough to avoid catching
it. Her summation of the girls in the room told her three of the five were too stupid to care. In short, this team would soon
be moving on in one way or another.
Since Kathryn had chosen to treat her this way, like a napkin at McDonald's instead of the full-table setting at a nice place,
she decided to drop a bomb on them and ruin their week. “This migration to off-shore is all well and good, but you seem to
have overlooked a serious recovery issue,” she said. All of the younglings leapt to inform her that the data centers were
designed to split load and fail over just like the existing centers. They also professed to having witnessed the fail over
testing themselves.
Kathryn finally chimed in saying she assured her they had tried to think of everything, but wanted to hear her concern so
it could be addressed.
“Well,” started Margret, “Every night we do incremental backups and every morning, the prior night's backups are sent to Iron
Mountain for storage. The media return in such a manner that we have two full weeks of incremental backups. We also perform
weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual backups. Each of those backups
there as well. Finally it was determined that they would quietly investigate building operations in all three of the countries
Kathryn had mentioned. Even if they didn't lose their entire IT staff every few years in India, the resulting talent drain
would push salaries up to the point it was cheaper to do the work in the U.S.
The morning meeting ran long, but ended in time for her to check email and round up the troops for their lunch presentation.
She wasn't sure why, but she decided to use the guys who had been to India in this meeting. It made sense given that they
had just gotten back from there, but she doubted Margret was dumb enough to get turned on once she found out that horny bunch
had been to a country with legal brothels and little in the way of health care or prevention.
Margret arrived right on time. Lunch was just being set out in the conference room and they all stuffed themselves while chit-chatting
about quasi-work-related things. The guys had strategically placed themselves around Margret as they had been trained to do
and the girls fawned over getting lunch allowing glimpses and brushes. Kathryn still wasn't sure which way Margret's door
swung, or if she even had a door. It was difficult to tell.
One thing which she made mental note of was Margret's prodding to find out who had ventured outside of the campus in Bangalore.
Those who admitted to having gone out at all she suddenly had little interest in. The woman wasn't stupid, thought Kathryn. Lunch allowed for the team to provide glowing reports about how the backups had been installed and how well
Margret's people worked with them during the process. No real details, but few were needed. Margret had already talked with
the systems managers who had done the testing. This was just a little time for mutual appreciation and bonding.
With lunch over, the team began showing off the PowerPoint presentation they had put together with a timeline for the migration
of the first two data centers. It was going to happen on the following weekend. They kept pointing out the massive bandwidth
connection which was set up just to do the final data migration. Margret's own people had written the software that would
do the extract of final data changes, then copy it across the network and load it onto the new system. The same software could
be run in reverse if a back out was needed. All in the room assured her it would not be necessary, but that it didn't hurt
to have a Plan B.
It was obvious to Margret she was being coddled to keep this golden cow putting out golden milk. She was outright pissed that
the only guys provided her had been to an AIDS-infested area and she was certain none of them were smart enough to avoid catching
it. Her summation of the girls in the room told her three of the five were too stupid to care. In short, this team would soon
be moving on in one way or another.
Since Kathryn had chosen to treat her this way, like a napkin at McDonald's instead of the full-table setting at a nice place,
she decided to drop a bomb on them and ruin their week. “This migration to off-shore is all well and good, but you seem to
have overlooked a serious recovery issue,” she said. All of the younglings leapt to inform her that the data centers were
designed to split load and fail over just like the existing centers. They also professed to having witnessed the fail over
testing themselves.
Kathryn finally chimed in saying she assured her they had tried to think of everything, but wanted to hear her concern so
it could be addressed.
“Well,” started Margret, “Every night we do incremental backups and every morning, the prior night's backups are sent to Iron
Mountain for storage. The media return in such a manner that we have two full weeks of incremental backups. We also perform
weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual backups. Each of those backups
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