briley

amusing indeed.

Hey Joel. . . Having not used Xen before, what's the frequency with which they roll patches? Just curious.

Excellent points. If one is fortunate enough to have modern applications that lend themselves to clustering and load balancing, then it's a much easier job. 

Joel: Do you find that your Ops staff is capable enough of thorough post-patch testing? That's one of the main issues I run into, and why I wanted to see how others were handling it. Thanks!

Thanks for the heads-up on that Jennifer. I guess that's proof that this is a topic that's on the minds of many, as we scramble to keep up with server sprawl and more frequent release schedules. In some ways, our jobs have gotten easier as a result of recent technology advances. This seems to be one area where things are…

Interesting replies, all. So am I incorrect in my assumption about users demanding access to what we would deem non mission critical apps 24/7? Or are people moving that stuff to the cloud? I am in financial services as well, and public cloud just isn't a step most fiservs are willing to take yet. I just find it…