Two departments, one Matt, no hot standby.
His name was Matt.
Some of us called him Mattman.
And, eventually, Matt the Rat.
Now before anybody gets the wrong idea, that nickname had absolutely nothing to do with informing on anybody.
It was a joke about rats leaving a sinking ship.
And as our little internet business gradually discovered the difference between technological ambition and available money, the metaphor became increasingly appropriate.
Matt worked around the printing plant and the ISP operation.
Which meant one minute he could be dealing with the enormous machinery required to produce newspapers, and the next he'd be dealing with networking equipment upstairs.
The printing press had its own demands.
The internet had its own demands.
Neither department particularly cared what the other one was doing.
And both seemed to believe Matt belonged exclusively to them.
Somehow, he kept answering the calls.
If we had documented our operational architecture accurately, there would have been a box between the printing plant and network operations labelled:
MATT — SHARED CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE.
Eventually, when the financial outlook stopped being particularly encouraging, Matt moved on.
I couldn't blame him.
Poor Mattman.
I miss that fucker.