The monitoring console for this data center is lit up like a Christmas tree when this IT pilot fish arrives at work one morning.

"We found out there was a power outage," fish reports. "The UPS did kick in, and so did the generator, but something happened. Fortunately, the facilities people were on it right away."

Next step is bringing the servers back up in the correct sequence. But while some of the servers are managed by fish and his team, some have been contracted out — and while the contractor has root credentials necessary to bring those servers back up, fish's team doesn't.

And nothing's happening with those servers. What's going on? fish asks a long-time IT guy. Didn't the alert go out to the contractor as well? Why didn't they jump on it?

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