Following up: Quite a few readers wrote to suggest that my advice to "Wanting to do something" - the former systems manager who had transferred to a different department and recently learned her old department had stopped backing up its servers - was wrong. The criticisms center on just a couple of issues: * Data loss is a very serious problem, and in fact can put her company out of business. * She should base h Following up:Quite a few readers wrote to suggest that my advice to “Wanting to do something” – the former systems manager who had transferred to a different department and recently learned her old department had stopped backing up its servers – was wrong. The criticisms center on just a couple of issues:* Data loss is a very serious problem, and in fact can put her company out of business. * She should base her actions on what’s best for the whole organization so long as she works there.* It’s also in her best interests to intervene, because if the company fails she’s out of a job too.* There are good technical solutions for the problem. All of which are good and valid points. None of them changes my advice at all.Data loss is pretty serious, although I don’t recall ever hearing of a business failure resulting from a server crash, other than in the white papers of companies in the data protection business. In my experience, there’s always a way to recover, although without a decent backup it gets a whole lot uglier and more labor intensive. Still, I trust nobody thinks I’m in favor of turning off the daily backup. It’s a dumb thing to do.Here’s the problem: “Wanting” wants to fight an unwinnable battle. Doing so might be noble, in some existential sense, but it’s not a wise course of action. There’s little sense in fighting when you’re sure to lose, and reduce your ability to win the next one. Better to keep your powder dry for battles you can win. The only situation in which I’d modify this is if there’s a pretext for intervening that adheres to the organizational logic of the business. If, for example, data her part of the business personally relies on is in jeopardy then she’s in a position to ask a relevant question. Even here, challenging the stupidity is a bad choice.Instead, “Wanting” should schedule a business recovery test for her area. When the test fails because there are no backup tapes, it will be easy to get everything fixed.– Bob ——– Technology Industry