24x7 Support Strategies

Thu Jun 14 15:16:04 UTC 2007

People are asking me to port a summary back to the list, but as I'm 
still getting replies coming in I'm going to leave this until tomorrow.

S

Sam Stickland wrote:
>
> All,
>
> Thanks for the replies that have started rolling in. They've made me 
> realise I should have added an additional question for clarity.
>
> Does anyone have any CCIE (or equivalent technical ability) staff on a 
> 24x7 shift? What about CCIE level staff on an on-call rota with a 
> garanteed response time? How about CCNP?
>
> If people could also give an identication of the size of their 
> organisation/network it would be useful.
>
> Sam
>
> Sam Stickland wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'm wondering how different organisations structure their 24x7 
>> network operations? We are undergoing some restructuring here and it 
>> would be interesting for us to know how other large enterprises and 
>> service providers arrange this. We are particulary interested in 
>> service providers. (Currently we have an enterprise that is slowly 
>> morphing into more of a service provider setup). I'll summarise back 
>> to the list, after removing any identifying details.
>>
>> These questions specifically refer to network staff, as opposed to 
>> any general Ops team.
>>
>> Do you have 24x7 staff on site?
>> What level of technical ability do the on-site staff have?
>> What shift patterns do the 24x7 staff use?
>>
>> Do you have a response time for on-call staff, by which time they 
>> must be VPN'ed into the network?
>> What level of techincal ability do the first line on-call staff have?
>> Do you have an official escalation system if the first-line on-call 
>> staff do not have the required techincal ability?
>> Do the staff on on-call escalation have a required response time, by 
>> which time they must be VPN'ed into the network?
>> Do the staff on on-call escalation rota the on-call responsibilities?
>> Do the on-call staff receive additional benefits or compensation for 
>> being on-call?
>