We’re back with the fifth installment of PulseCheck, a new way for us to check in regularly with you and the broader THWACK community. Every two weeks, we’ll post a question on a topic that matters to IT pros. Sometimes serious, sometimes light, but always focused on capturing your perspective. We’ve slightly adjusted our schedule as we planned for downtime, which is now resolved.
If you’re new to PulseCheck, here’s how it works. Each poll is open for just under two weeks. Once it wraps, we’ll post the results, share some of the themes from the discussion, and introduce the next question. You’ll earn 150 THWACK points just for voting, and if you leave a comment that sparks conversation, you could be awarded an additional 300 points. If you participate in eight or more PulseChecks, you’ll unlock a limited-edition achievement badge.
Notifications are the backbone of IT monitoring. They tell you when something is wrong, when it’s fixed, or when it’s about to go sideways. For decades, email has been the default way to get these alerts, but the landscape is changing. Between ticketing systems, SMS, chat apps, and logging dashboards, IT pros now have more ways than ever to get notified.
"Email alerts have been the default alert mechanism for many years, but now we have so many other options. If a notification is required, you might send it to a ticketing system, SMS service, log file, or something else. Do you still primarily rely on email alerts for notification? Let us know in the comments what other things you’re using with your alerts."
ChrystalT
Last time, we asked, “What’s the weirdest nickname your team has given a server or system?” And you did not disappoint. The top categories were Mythical Creatures (44%), Random Objects (41%), Celebrities (12%), Food & Drink (3%), proving that IT pros have both imagination and a wonderfully twisted sense of humor.
Some highlights that made us laugh include servers named after ex-girlfriends, someone asking, “Can somebody reboot Dumbo?”, and a series of servers named after local restaurants, with at least one server outliving its real-world namesake after the restaurant burned down. And let’s not forget what wasn’t covered: Planets, Films, Disney characters, Geographical locations, and Stars. Clearly, if you thought your server names were weird, you’re in good company.
