Roshan Revankar

A devops lesson from Michael Connelly’s Black Echo

Michael Connelly offers up a cautionary devops tale of what can happen when your alerts are too sensitive or generate too much noise:

“The vault’s sensor alarm had repeatedly been going off all week. [The thieves], with their digging and their drills, must have been tripping the alarms. Four straight nights the cops are called out along with the manager. Sometimes three times in one night. They don’t find anything and begin to think it’s the alarm. The sound-and-movement sensor is off balance. So the manager calls the alarm company and they can’t get anybody out until after the holiday weekend, you know, Labor Day. So this guy, the manager—”

“Turns the alarm off.” Bosch finished for her.

“You got it. He decides he isn’t going to get called out each night during the weekend. He’s supposed to go down to the Springs to his time-share condo and play golf. He turns the alarms off. Of course, he no longer works for WestLand National.”

From The Black Echo – the first book in Connelly’s brilliant Harry Bosch series.