IT Horror Stories

When a corrupted virus definition file was distributed by a centralized management server, it was up to Jay Abbott to find a fix for the company-wide blue screen of death. Jay describes how the emergency escalated, how he mobilized an all-hands-on-deck response, and how he diagnosed the issue.

Tune in for a masterclass in incident response and disaster recovery as Jay, Director of Corporate IT at NinjaOne, tells his story to our host, Jonathan Crowe. 

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Key Quotes:

“It highlighted that nobody plans for this scale of a problem.”

“We tried to make it as fun as it could be. You have to be able to laugh at it.”

“Communicate with users. They're a lot nicer than you want to give them credit for as long as they understand what the solution is.”

“Don't let inaction paralyze you.”

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Time stamps:

00:34 - About Jay

04:04 - The incident

12:24 - Finding a solution

13:30 - Nailing prioritization

20:24 - Keeping morale up in a crisis

27:40 - Lessons learned

30:16 - Jay’s survival kit

32:45 - Advice for future leaders

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Links:

Find Jay on LinkedIn

Find Jonathan on LinkedIn

Learn more about NinjaOne

Nick Colisto, CIO of Avery-Dennison, describes the IT disaster he faced during Hurricane Sandy. When the storm caused a major power outage and a fuel shortage, his company’s primary data center had to rely on generator power. Tune in to hear how Nick prepared, adapted, and fought through the emergency.

Avery-Dennison is a global materials science and digital identification solutions company with locations in over 50 countries. They provide a wide range of branding and information solutions that optimize labor and supply chain efficiency, reduce waste, advance sustainability, circularity and transparency, and better connect brands and consumers.

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Key Quotes:

"Cloud based systems can reduce dependencies, of course, on physical data centers.”

“The event taught us that IT  resilience isn't just about technology, it's about people, about process, and it's also about partnerships and relationships that you had. You know, if we hadn't treated that fuel company well or We didn't have preparation for having our secondary site in place.”

“Solve problems that you  probably didn't anticipate, you're always going to learn something new from these events.”

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Time stamps:

01:03 - About Nick

02:21 - Setting the scene

03:46 - Nick’s career

18:25 - IT horror story survival pack

22:34 - Nick’s advice

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Links:

Find Nick on LinkedIn

Find Jonathan on LinkedIn

Learn more about NinjaOne

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IT problems are a nightmare. And you’re not alone in losing sleep over them.

If you’ve worked in IT, you’ve probably got a few ghost stories. This show is dedicated to those stories and the IT heroes who survived to tell the tale. 

Join your host Jonathan Crowe, and some of the world’s top IT leaders, as they recount the most harrowing experiences of their careers. They’ll share how they found themselves in hot water, managed to escape disaster, and their best advice for making sure you don’t end up in the sequel. 

This is IT Horror Stories, where the call is coming from inside the office. 

Brought to you by NinjaOne, the leader in automated endpoint management.