Infinite Exposure by Roland Hughes Read Free Book Online Page A

allowed to tell
     the customer “please try again later” like you can some Internet user. You cannot get large amounts of FDIC coverage without
     either a fully hardened data center or multiple data centers split across different power grids in different regions of the
     country. The short description, in terms of the common man, is “you have to be able to completely lose one data center and
     still handle all of your daily transactions, or you have to build a data center which can survive a nuclear strike.” Given
     the last option is pretty expensive, most financial firms opted for multiple data centers.
    When you greedily consume nine other financial institutions, you end up with nine other sets of data centers, some of which
     are on the same physical block with each other. Your first order of business, not only to eventually “cut costs,” but simply
     to maintain sanity, is to start consolidating data centers. Sounds simple when you say it out loud, but it requires a lot
     of outside contractors and a lot of rented/newly purchased equipment ... assuming you don't have to build a shiny new location
     with enough room to hold everything from all of the other locations. It was this set of realities which caused a tripling
     of the IT budget under Kent's predecessor.
    In a year's time, Kent's predecessor went from 10 sets of data centers to 4 sets. He had cut the number of data center staff
     needed by a third. He had even put together the plans for consolidating the last 3 sets into the primary set of data centers.
     Given everything else his predecessor had successfully completed, Kent assumed the plan was a good one. There was no indication
     if the plan was actually complete though, and given Kent's IT skill level, he had no way to know.
    The cost savings which would be realized this year from his predecessor's work allowed Kent to bring in Big Four Consulting
     to put together a beautiful looking PowerPoint presentation on how they recommended completing the consolidation and still
     have a lower budget than his predecessor. Kent assumed they would just verify his predecessor's plan and he would have to
     find price whores to do the work.
    Assumptions can kill you. Someone should have told Kent that.

A Cold Calculation of Winter
    Nedim's alarm went off around lunchtime. The rest of the week he was allowed to work a late afternoon shift that ran into
     the evening. He had just enough time to clean up and head for afternoon prayer. He didn't even mind when his “friend from
     university” tagged along. At least the man stayed behind him and didn't pray right beside him. After prayers he went with
     the cleric and a group of others for his private discussions on the Quran. He could sense the obvious displeasure coming from
     the back of the mosque and didn't care. When you have already decided you are dead, you no longer care who will be the one
     to kill you.
    Promptly at 3:00 he excused himself to go to work. Ramesh (the name given his “friend from university”) was waiting for him
     outside of the mosque. When they were out of earshot of others, he began berating him.
    “Do you want I should kill you now?”
    “It does not matter. If you do it now it will save me the trouble of waiting for it to come.”
    “Your only chance at life is to cooperate with us fully.”
    “I have,” Nedim lied.
    “And you call disappearing with a cleric for hours cooperating?”
    “If you wish to join the discussion, say something to the cleric that impresses him and he may invite you. I cannot invite
     you directly without giving up all of your background and I have no idea what that is. I participate in those discussions
     at least three days per week.”
    “If I start missing them I know two things for certain. The first is that the email I'm relaying will stop. The second is
     that very soon after I will be dead. You might say I know three things. The third is that if I manage to survive doing this
     until I'm no