Scary Stories to Tell in the Data Center

The IT staff member on call sits alone at her desk in the wee hours of the night. Suddenly, the IT help desk phone rings. An employee calls in with an urgent matter. He has an error message on his desktop monitor that the printer needs new toner immediately…or else. To troubleshoot the problem, the sleep-deprived IT worker asks the employee to confirm that the message was on his computer when he arrived at work and that the alert remained even when he went through the requisite shut down and restart. The IT staffer remotes into the computer and notices nothing is awry. How strange.

The next morning, the now harried IT staffer escalates the ticket to the on-site team. Magically, the team is able to close the ticket within ten minutes. The culprit? The “error message” was just another employee’s Post-It note requesting that the printer’s toner be changed.

The lesson? Use those small-but-mighty Post-It notes with caution and only contact the IT team if you truly need technology help.

The world of IT can become a land of horrors – and you’ve defended against them all. Something haunting your IT Department, causing your devices to malfunction? You warded that phantom off and kept your end users protected. Something lurking in the system, losing your data? You found a way to retrieve what was lost and build a better defense strategy. At every twisted turn and dark hallway, you’ve found a way to keep your IT Department safe and your systems up-and-running.

But what if your greatest horror isn’t one that’s slithered and crept into your systems, announcing its presence after its arrival? What if your greatest IT horror is one you invited in?

This monster doesn’t appear as an apparition in the dark, or as a creature thumping, but as slick marketing and overpromised features. This IT horror comes with a smile and a slide deck of how their latest software and sleekest hardware can provide your organization with the power to ward off future horrors. Round it out with a fancy dinner, and you might be half tempted to invite this monster into your IT Department yourself.

This is the horror that many have faced, only to realize too late what happened. Missed deadlines and implementations not quite living up to the promises made will suddenly have you look towards the money going out of your company – and into the monster’s pockets. Frustrations and tensions arise as weeks turn into months with little progress, more missed deadlines, and continued struggles. All the while promises are still being made.

And then it will happen: one day, almost like being snapped out of a trance, you’ll realize what you’ve invited in to your company. This monster is hungry, eating away at your time and your finances, and it’s giving almost nothing in return. You must get the monster out – by getting out of your agreements.

This IT horror does not leave empty handed. After the months and money you’ve lost investing in something that won’t work, you then need to get more parties involved (most commonly, legal) to try and recoup what you can while getting out of your agreements. But even if you’re able to recover financially, the time lost will be a scar as you move forward, restarting the search for a vendor that can deliver what you need – and what you were promised the first time around.

How do you protect yourself from this horror ever infesting your organization? Through thorough knowledge and research, finding out what you need and identifying your own pain points. Knowledge will help you look through their glamour and see the past illusion they’re trying to create with slick marketing materials and fancy dinners. Then, and only then, can you prevent this IT horror from creeping into your organization – at your own invitation.