Comprehensive Anticipatory Systems Administration

LinuxForce announced some exciting new news this morning about our Expanded Partnership with The Franklin Institute.

Several people have asked me about LinuxForce's signature approach to the maintenance and monitoring of computer systems as mentioned in the news release which we call Comprehensive Anticipatory Systems Administration.

To put it simply: the world is continually changing. Best practices are continually changing. Software is continually changing. As Buckminster Fuller said "change is normal". Change frequently comes from unexpected directions. So to be proactive (the old buzzword for managed services which is just a glorified name for systems administration of software systems) one must comprehensively anticipate the changes and develop software infrastructures that are maintainable, secure, and effective on an on-going basis.

To put it another way: omitting any relevant detail in security, configuration, boundary case catching, etc., can result in system failure. The way to avoid system failures is to anticipate everything. That inherently requires a comprehensive approach to identify all salient factors and administering to them in support of the design requirements for the system.

A complex, ecological approach is required. That's what my talk on Comprehensive Anticipatory Systems Administration at the September 2008 PLUG meeting was about. My slides on systems administration from that talk are available on-line.

Let me know of ways in which you see that software administration can become both more comprehensively anticipatory in its attentiveness to change.