> There is nothing I can learn from accessing a VM in production that I can't learn from my monitoring system.
Other than how to fix gaps and other problems with your monitoring? As you get experience, you’ll learn this is done like a garden — you can heavily reduce your need for interactive sessions but it never goes to zero.
I think you’re making the classic mistake of treating a guideline as more of a religious mandate. Yes, it’s good to have servers be easily replaced but that desire does not magically rewrite all existing software or retrain every IT worker.
Similarly, automation is great but you need to develop and maintain it - which almost always involves interactive work. The taint process you mentioned is a popular way to balance those needs long-term.
Finally, if you are thinking of “server” as only a production-hardened network service you’re missing out on a lot of other things enterprises use cloud services for, such as developer workstations or general virtual desktops. Many places heavily expanded that over the last year because you avoid the security concerns about having your data on easily lost/stolen laptops and can avoid turning your VPN into a massive bottleneck for the entire company.
Other than how to fix gaps and other problems with your monitoring? As you get experience, you’ll learn this is done like a garden — you can heavily reduce your need for interactive sessions but it never goes to zero.
I think you’re making the classic mistake of treating a guideline as more of a religious mandate. Yes, it’s good to have servers be easily replaced but that desire does not magically rewrite all existing software or retrain every IT worker.
Similarly, automation is great but you need to develop and maintain it - which almost always involves interactive work. The taint process you mentioned is a popular way to balance those needs long-term.
Finally, if you are thinking of “server” as only a production-hardened network service you’re missing out on a lot of other things enterprises use cloud services for, such as developer workstations or general virtual desktops. Many places heavily expanded that over the last year because you avoid the security concerns about having your data on easily lost/stolen laptops and can avoid turning your VPN into a massive bottleneck for the entire company.