Frankenplumbing

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: GIBBS & BRADNER
07/12/05

Dear networking.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* Backspin columnist Mark Gibbs' plumbing problems gets him
  thinking about his network Frankenplumbing
* Links related to Gibbs & Bradner
* Featured reader resource
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specialized set of terms and acronyms that define Grid
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_______________________________________________________________

Today's focus: Frankenplumbing

By Mark Gibbs

My house dates from the 1920s, with additions from before and
after World War II. I tell you this because it explains why my
plumbing is a nightmare. In fact, last week one of the ball-cock
valves in a toilet expired despite my best efforts to repair it
over the previous five years.

The valve, manufactured in the 1940s by American Standard, I
believe, is made of solid brass and is designed upside down -
instead of connecting to a water supply pipe that enters the
tank from the bottom, the valve is fed from a pipe that enters
the tank from the top.

This valve is not easily replaced, but I came up with a
solution: Using a variety of piping and elbows along with a
ball-cock valve from an air conditioner, I created a workable
replacement that I immediately classified as a fine example of
Frankenplumbing.

My house is full of Frankenplumbing. There's a maze of copper,
galvanized, brass and plastic pipe-work lurking under the house,
and some of it is sound though much of it is decaying. And it is
draped from one beam to the next and winds around and through
joists. It has been cut off, capped off, welded, brazed,
extended and joined.

This got me thinking. My house and office networks are also full
of Frankenplumbing. I have wiring that has grown organically
over a much shorter period than my plumbing but has become even
more labyrinthine. On top of that I have network services and
tools that have become hard to reorganize without a complete
strip down and rebuild - the prospect of which makes me shudder.

Now my network hardware and software is obviously smaller than
yours, which leads me to wonder how much more Frankenplumbing we
would find in your IT infrastructure? How intricate is your
collection of services and connections? Do you even believe you
know the full horror of your system?

The problem is if you do anything that disturbs the status quo
of your Frankenplumbing your life will become much harder. Any
minor change will usually break something, and major changes are
guaranteed to cause chaos.

Part of the reason things break is that your network is really
just an extension of your business processes and those processes
are just as much a part of the organization's Frankenplumbing as
the core IT systems are.

So what are you to do with your part of the mess? Nothing. There
really isn't anything major you can do, because if you were to
clean it up you would find that within a couple of years at most
and weeks at least, whatever bright, shiny, highly organized and
logical system you created would degenerate into a different but
fundamentally similar mess as the one you just cleaned up!

This then is the real foundation of IT, particularly at the
enterprise level: The IT group is there to fix, add to and
sometimes replace the Frankenplumbing for as little cost as, and
with the least disturbance to the system, as possible.

That tells you something important about the kind of people you
need in an IT operation. Among all the groups, the analysts, the
programmers, the support techs and so on, you want to have a
fair number of MacGyvers who are happy to grapple with the
Frankenplumbing and capable of using some digital bailing wire
and virtual chewing gum to create a workable fix.

This quality of creativity and problem solving is much
underrated in IT and separates the outstanding IT shops from the
rest.

For my house, I need to find a creative and problemsolving
plumber to start refurbishing the Frankenplumbing even though I
know that in another 10 or 20 years the house will have to be
refurbished all over again. Once my house plumbing starts
getting fixed, I will be able to start refurbishing my network
Frankenplumbing. Unfortunately I know that my network won't stay
pristine for anything like as long as my real plumbing.

MacGyverisms to <mailto:backspin@gibbs.com> and see Gearblog
<http://www.networkworld.com/weblogs/gearblog> for the sheer
pleasure of it.
_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Mark Gibbs

Mark Gibbs is a consultant, author, journalist, and columnist
and he writes the weekly Backspin
<http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/gibbs.html> and Gearhead
<http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/gearhead.html> columns
in Network World, as well as the Gearblog blog
<http://www.networkworld.com/weblogs/gearblog/> . We'll spare
you the rest of the bio but if you want to know more, go to
<http://www.gibbs.com/mgbio>. Contact him at
<mailto:webapps@gibbs.com>
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by Oracle
Grid Glossary

Grid computing is a vehicle to extend the life of existing
assets, not to end the life of existing infrastructure assets.
The Oracle Grid runs applications faster than the fastest
mainframe. You can adopt Oracle Grid technologies with minimal
investment, zero disruption, and fast ROI. Learn more about the
specialized set of terms and acronyms that define Grid
technologies with this comprehensive glossary. Download the
Oracle Grid Glossary now!
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=108314
_______________________________________________________________
ARCHIVE LINKS

Gibbs archive:
http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/gibbs.html

Bradner archive:
http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/bradner.html
_______________________________________________________________
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Here's a ten step guide you can follow to curb the spyware
problem:
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlgibrad3207>
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