{"id":2826,"date":"2018-05-01T00:23:41","date_gmt":"2018-05-01T06:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.interestingauthors.com\/blog\/?p=2826"},"modified":"2021-02-09T15:04:22","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T21:04:22","slug":"infinite-exposure-pt-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/experience\/infinite-exposure-pt-18\/","title":{"rendered":"Infinite Exposure – Pt. 18"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kent Braxton was sitting in his big leather desk chair gazing out his fourteen<\/span><\/span>th floor office window. Kent was only twenty-five<\/span><\/span>, held a Harvard MBA, and came from old money. To everyone who worked for him, this meant Kent was nothing more than a nice suit smiling and schmoozing away money that could be better spent on real employees. Kent knew what they thought of him and didn’t care. He was getting a golden parachute from this firm even if they fired him on his first day. Of course he wasn’t going to get fired because his people get paid to leave.<\/p>\n

Stored on a file in his BlackBerry was a cheat sheet he had been using since enrolling in business school. That cheat sheet contained all of the knee-jerk things an MBA was supposed to say whenever the topic turned to cutting costs. All new MBA hires were always asked to cut costs, so he needed all of the schmoozing phrases at his fingertips. In particular, he needed the phrases relevant to IT. Like all MBAs, Kent had taken the one-day course on how to construct a contact manager using Microsoft Access, and now held a certificate in IT project management. Every MBA had to do at least one IT project before being given a vice president title, and Kent was planning on sailing through his. The less time he spent with these money-grubbing geeks the better. They weren\u2019t MBAs, so why should they get paid so much?<\/p>\n

First Global Bank, Inc. Came into being as a result of the Asian financial crisis. A good many investment firms and banks had gotten too greedy playing options and derivatives nobody could understand. Corporate carcasses quickly littered the landscape once the bubble burst. A few firms hadn\u2019t dipped quite so heavily into the never-ending ocean of greed surrounding the financial community. It\u2019s not that they did well, just that they had more cash on hand when a competitor\u2019s stock prices plunged below five dollars per <\/span><\/span>share, and then well below a dollar per share. They were able to snatch up assets at fire-sale prices when the companies went under, and those close to avoiding going under were victims of hostile takeover tactics. Kent\u2019s brother had gotten him this job, but he had to impress the gray hairs with his ability to cut IT costs.<\/p>\n

The simple truth is that Kent could barely find the power switch on his company-issued notebook. He couldn\u2019t understand why there were any other computer platforms or software packages because his only exposure to computers had been surfing the Web and sending email. He had no idea how the VPN (Virtual Private Network) worked when he connected in from home, nor did he understand why the company needed it. In short, most three<\/span><\/span>-year-olds knew more about IT than Kent. On the bright side, not having a clue about what was and wasn\u2019t needed allowed him to cut everything without any emotion.<\/p>\n

Nine different corporations had been consumed in one way or another during the creation of First Global Bank. Every one of them had a completely different computer system handling all of their transactions. The only bright spot of the entire ordeal was that the automatic teller machines all went through third-party service firms which had actually created communications standards. No matter what ATM you were at in the world, you could check your balance and withdraw cash.<\/p>\n

Kent\u2019s predecessor had actually known something about IT. Kent\u2019s predecessor wasn\u2019t an MBA, so the new board had to replace him. This necessity became especially apparent to them when IT costs tripled during the first year of all the mergers. Not one single member of the board knew anything about IT, they just wanted it to work and be free. Such is the lot in life of<\/span><\/span> those who understand IT. Someone who doesn\u2019t understand a thing you do will be the first one to fire you to cover their ass.<\/p>\n

There was a good reason IT costs had tripled during that first year. The board wanted to be able to see all information from all units. Every unit had a different computer system with a different set of applications located at different places throughout the world. In short, the lemmings walked off a cliff with their eyes firmly fixed on the other side of the gorge.<\/p>\n

One thing the board of directors had failed to consider was<\/span><\/span> that every data center is required to have one backup center. When you handle the clearing for stock exchanges, and just about every other financial transaction, you aren\u2019t allowed to tell the customer \u201cplease try again later\u201d as<\/span><\/span> you can some Internet user. You cannot get large amounts of FDIC coverage without either a fully hardened data center or multiple data centers split across different power grids in different regions of the country. The short description, in terms of the common man, is \u201cyou have to be able to completely lose one data center and still handle all of your daily transactions, or you have to build a data center which can survive a nuclear strike.\u201d Given the last option is pretty expensive, most financial firms opted for multiple data centers.<\/p>\n

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You are reading a special promotional version of \u201cInfinite Exposure\u201d containing only the first 18 chapters. This is the first book of the “Earth That Was” trilogy. You can obtain the entire trilogy in EPUB form from here:<\/p>\n