Grab the Air Freshener for These 2 Stinky IT Brain Fart Stories!

We all experience temporary mental lapses (also known as "brain farts"). The worst kind of brain flatulence is when the consequences stink up the workplace, causing downtime and loss of revenue. One of the worst places to let a brain fart rip is in the IT department.

One of the biggest contributing factors to IT problems is human error. An oversight in judgement is almost impossible to prepare a business for. One would assume that a hired employee would be smart enough to not make a basic blunder, but alas, even IT professionals are prone to the occasional brain fart. We've come across two such true stories of IT forgetfulness that were told to InfoWorld. These stories were too good not to share.

Pants are Optional in the Server Room
The first story has to do with something we've all experienced; accidentally shutting down a system and then, after we've clicked the button, realizing that it's the wrong one. Only, this IT tech was quick-thinking enough to recover from his mistake.

A junior techie goes to the server room to turn off a noncritical machine. The techie finds it and pushes the button -- then realizes he had the wrong server, one housing the files in use by 600-plus employees. Letting go of the button would mean chaos.

With no cell service and nobody within earshot, his only hope is a phone standing 10 feet away. A desperate search yields an unusual solution: The techie removes his pants, throws them around the phone, and finally pulls the phone in. Help eventually arrives -- along with several other gawkers who don't forget the sight soon.

Truly, a shining example of what it means to be resourceful.

He Chose ...Poorly
Then there are lapses in judgment that lasts much longer than a few seconds. Sometimes, a brain fart will lead a person to start a new project that they shouldn't, and they'll see the project through to completion. In a situation like this, the consequences can be dire, as experienced by this poor IT technician.

The tech pro should know better when tasked with determining which servers are to be decommissioned in a large, bustling data center. Be it a brain fart, bad judgement, or simple ignorance, he hones in on a critical management server -- then unplugs it, takes it to his desk, and reformats the hard drive.

This major mistake unleashes a tidal wave of problems related to the firewalls, backups, and that database. Unsurprisingly, the techie is transferred before he could strike again.

There's really nothing you can do to ensure that human error never disrupts your business. One helpful tip we've heard about is to eat more blueberries. They're supposed to improve memory. Therefore, giving your employees blueberry muffins every day could potentially prevent a data loss scenario like in our previous examples.

You've got imperfect people in your company handling your technology, and data backup is NOT optional. You may not be able to prevent brain farts, but you can be proactive about human error by backing up your data. Macro Systems can backup all the files on your company's network with our Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) solution. If your business has secured its data with BDR, then after your database is hit with a massive brain fart, we'll clear the room and restore your data.

Need a reset button to counteract the effects of an IT brain fart? Call Macro Systems at (703) 359-9211 to equip your business with BDR. It's better to call us now, before you forget!