LOPSA board member Trey Harris has posted an excellent message outlining his thoughts on effective organization and scheduling for groups of sysadmins in a high-interrupt, high-profile, high-availability environment (Amazon, Google, etc.).

Trey's message was part of a very interesting discussion taking place on the LOPSA "discuss" mailing list regarding "interruptions coverage" for sysadmins. The basic question under discussion is, given that much of system administration work is by nature interrupt-driven, how can an organization best shield some of its sysadmins' time from these interrupts, so that the sysadmins can get long-term work done (and maintain their own sanity!)? To read the whole thread, search for "Interruptions coverage" in the list's archive.

I think that this discussion (and Trey's contribution in particular) is an excellent example of the sort of thoughtful discussions from experienced professionals which you can expect from LOPSA, which is why I'm encouraging everyone involved with system administration to join and support this important new organization.