Three weeks stranded in the desert
My one-week jaunt to the Middle East became a three-week stay. My original tasks were to install our software in a clustered database environment, do some testing, then replicate the installation in a disaster-recovery environment. But the customer's systems people weren't ready.
Thursday was the last business day before go-live, and they only provided me with the *hostnames* of the clustered database server that morning. Whee! The hosts could barely ping each other, since DNS still isn't working. For what it's worth, my two little cogs in the giant machine are working.
Modern banking systems are a digital Rube Goldberg machine of software platforms. It's amazing how many best-of-breed enterprise-ready middleware platforms allegedly optimize business process blueprints and dynamically deliver end-to-end customer-focused value while reducing costs, increasing revenue, maintaining regulatory compliance, and seamlessly integrating with legacy systems and next-generation Service Oriented Architectures and Enterprise Service Buses...but don't actually do squat.
For most of my business travel, I rarely stay in the same place for more than a week. So spending three weeks at a single location is strange. The hotel staff is starting to remember me, and I'm getting to know some of them. Doha used to feel like a large modern urban oasis, but now it's starting to feel like a small town.
One of the reasons why I think Doha feels so small, is because of the social caste system. It greatly reduces the number of people you come in contact with.
Thursday was the last business day before go-live, and they only provided me with the *hostnames* of the clustered database server that morning. Whee! The hosts could barely ping each other, since DNS still isn't working. For what it's worth, my two little cogs in the giant machine are working.
Modern banking systems are a digital Rube Goldberg machine of software platforms. It's amazing how many best-of-breed enterprise-ready middleware platforms allegedly optimize business process blueprints and dynamically deliver end-to-end customer-focused value while reducing costs, increasing revenue, maintaining regulatory compliance, and seamlessly integrating with legacy systems and next-generation Service Oriented Architectures and Enterprise Service Buses...but don't actually do squat.
For most of my business travel, I rarely stay in the same place for more than a week. So spending three weeks at a single location is strange. The hotel staff is starting to remember me, and I'm getting to know some of them. Doha used to feel like a large modern urban oasis, but now it's starting to feel like a small town.
One of the reasons why I think Doha feels so small, is because of the social caste system. It greatly reduces the number of people you come in contact with.