It’s the early 2000s, and this pilot fish is busy supporting networks and PCs on the shop floor of a manufacturing plant — including the computers used with product-testing equipment.

“Whenever a product was tested, the system would write a database record to a server, with the product’s unique ID number and all the tests it had undergone,” says fish.

“Unfortunately, the production lines were run by engineers who were allowed to set up their own network and database servers. It never seemed fair to me that these guys seemed to be able to order top-of-the-line servers on a whim, while I had to jump through hoops to order any equipment to keep my own servers going.”

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