In the caste system that is our world, the backup guy is often the one who wasn't in the day the good jobs were handed out. And sometimes the backup guy is a few sandwiches short of a picnic, if you know what I mean. These are the folks who diligently perform a backup and then take the tape and leave it on the car dashboard when it's 135 degrees outside in Las Vegas as they wait in line for the Hall & Oates/A Flock of Seagulls reunion tour. And they're the same people who "uncheck" the database box on the backup server because it takes too long and then scream at the vendor when they can't recover data.
The saving money theory
This is where someone within IT not only has a superior genetic makeup, but above average intelligence, isn't tainted by past failure to the point of being a fatalist and realizes the conspiracy theory is true. Yet when they find a way to protect and deliver the most valued of all company assets--information--they're routinely shot down by some cost-cutting buffoon in management whose goals and objectives are completely counter to anything even remotely intelligent. The corporate world loves to put "controls" in place to stop unnecessary spending, ensuring we don't waste money hiring people who are skilled and, gasp, don't act creatively or strategically. They'd much rather approve an annual expense for something that has never worked vs. a new expense that might actually solve the problem, lend value and allow people to use their brains strategically instead of deteriorating into a catatonic state of being.
None of my theories are good, but all of them are probably correct. It's incomprehensible to me and most of you to know that we can solve age-old issues with such enormous negative implications and even bigger cost implications--and yet one silly thing or another gets in our way and the problem grows instead of shrinks. Reality bytes.
TechTarget provides enterprise IT professionals with the information they need to perform their jobs - from developing strategy, to making cost-effective IT purchase decisions and managing their organizations' IT projects - with its network of technology-specific Web sites, events and magazines.