Great advise
There is some great advise in most of these posts. I consult fo many firms and worked corporate also. Several law firms I deal with cannot afford to be down at all. That is AT ALL. If they were to be down for 30 minutes that is OK. A total loss of services for 4 hours could cost thme upwards of 500K. Staffing is important and CHEAP when you look at what it will cost if systems are down. Staffing is very important but properly designed and implemented systems are sometimes more important. Unfortunately you can only get there with staff.
Another common issue is that companies way to often get back logged and turn into "reactive" IT departments as opposed to being "proactive". In other words they tend to always be busy looking after problems rather than making sure there are no problems. You need to be ahead.
How many readers companies here have time to proactively test out Updaes, Upgrades, Patches for Servers, Workstations and such in a timely maner and implement them all!! Most don't. Eventually this catches up till dissaster strikes. That is usually when I get called in to help. Usually to late.
Ask you execs if that dissaster is allowed to happen. Can you company deal with being down for a day or two every couple of years with lots of little problems along the way??
