[Theforum] root access

[Joel Canfield]

>I have never seen any organization (except very small ones)
>where the steering commitee (corp. officers, Dept heads,
>committee chairs) had root access to the systems the corp.
>owned (CIO usually does, monkey run rep/s).  The decision
>making group, steering group, very seldom has access beyond
>applications necessary to do their jobs.  We are unique in
>that most of us are more computer savy than average corporate
>leaders but I think we still need the balance, and seperation
>of powers to keep things on an even keel.
>
>root access is not necessary for most tasks to be done.  We do
>need to define security/access schemes and get them implemented.
>
>Ron D.
>

At Magis, none of the executives have the Windows administrator or Unix root
password or access. None. The folks who make the decisions aren't the ones
who implement them.

Not that it *necessarily* applies here, but one flaw in our department is
that our Director isn't especially good at the wearing two hats, one
technical, one managerial. He gets wrapped up in troubleshooting a firewall
issue or something, and strategic/tactical issues don't get the attention
they need.

Division of labor; checks and balances; both make it more likely that the
steering committee, in whatever form it eventually bubbles to the surface,
would *not* have root access (in the technical meaning.)

joel