@Guido Esperanto
"I think this and the other (if they are similar) articles highlight issues all around the world in companies that want maximum return on absolute minimal investment., and sometimes it does mean cutting corners."
Really? That doesn't exactly go along with the following from Trevor's own comment:
"Thirdly, the CTO is big on “using the newest software simply because it’s the newest software.” The pressure was on to upgrade all the software to Microsoft’s latest and greatest."
The reality of the matter is that, if you look carefully, many of these extreme feats are wholly avoidable by looking sideways at a project, planning differently, and being realistic about what is truly required and when. Sounds more like a combination of business ego from the CTO who naturally has little understanding of IT systems, coupled with a failure of his/hers IT people to firmly educate him/her on the merits, needs and downsides of a full upgrade.
I do know the thrill of getting the jobs done on the edge. The feeling that you are out there, at the limits of the possible. Feeling that breeze - the breeze of the frontier, the great thrill of pushing your personal limits as far as they will go. And it is great stuff never the less. I also can see that Trevor, like others, has enthusiasm for his work. And that is absolutely great. Every industry, not only IT, has benefited from enthusiasm. We all need it - that's how great work gets accomplished.
But may I suggest stepping out of those IT contractor/sysadmin/technical guy shoes for a moment, and slipping yourself into the shoes of a well-heeled business person. The fact of the matter is that we are in an industry where, according to some statistics, 50% of large projects fail. Can you imagine this happening in any other, more mature industry? What if 50% of buildings the construction industry puts out never make it to the delivery day, or collapse after? And this high failure rate is caused in large part by poor management and planning for those projects that failed.
The fact is that running projects on high risk/low contingency ratios will work few times, you will be the hero for a while. But then the inevitable will happen, reality and statistics will catch up with you and bite you hard in the backside. All those screw-ups you hear and read about, where contractos/sys admins/dba admins loose entire email databases at ISP's, entire business databases being purged by mistake, the wrong plug being pulled, the wrong storage device being emptied. All those disasters causing thousands, tens of thousands or hundred of thousands of dollars/pounds/euros - it's just stuff that happens to others? You will be surprised if you look closely at those stories how many of them were contractors/systems administrators/programmers filled with enthusiasm for their work pulling extremely long shifts (like they did many times before), running through a poorly planned, no/low contingency procedure (like they did many times before). They have been heros plenty of times before - but it eventually caught up with them. And everybody will rate them as incompetents - when the high stakes gamble didn't pay off.
Professional drivers are only allowed to work a limited number of hours before they are required to rest. Indeed, they push around tons of metal which, out of control, would endanger lives. But they operate by comparison a far, far simpler set of controls, then a server administrator. Speaking as a hypothetical hard-nosed business person, I wouldn't let employees/contractors in the work place I am in charge of operate a coffee machine after 80 hours of work - never mind a business critical server. I have to admit that, as an IT guy - I'd get a kick out of the feat - but one and the other are two different matters. The potential for human errors in such an advanced state of exhaustion is astonishingly high. Never mind lack of backup/contingency planning. Just having anybody working so tired on IT systems constituted on its own taking business risks way beyond any sense.