Server Down?

That’s the sort of email subject line people like me dislike seeing first thing in the morning. After verifying that, in fact, the servers are unreachable, suddenly you have a fire drill. Whatever morning plans you had are shot. Yoga? I don’t think so. Finish that systems diagram from last night? Maybe later today.
Instead, shower, fast breakfast, drive to work behind every slowest car in the region. Have plenty of time to consider that I have been threatening for two years to move these servers out of my office and into a secure managed hosting environment. Decide that this is the year it happens. Traffic slows as I pull into town. I could scream. Navigate the construction scene around my parking lot. Walk down Main Street, turn the corner to my building – still standing, that’s good. Walk a little further – neighbors have lights on, so there’s electricity, that’s good. Approach the outside door, which is locked – good. Get to my interior door, also locked and not broken into, good. Servers on? Yes. Verify server problem – still can’t get to them. Okay, reboot router and firewall, wait for reset. Check again. All set. Send out email notices.
Now, on with the day. What was my day plan again? Whatever it was, it’s probably a good time to verify the data backups.