No Data = No Beer

Last week I mentioned that I always learn something interesting when I ask CIO’s, "What bad thing happens if you can’t access your data?" One of our German salesmen (I was in Germany last week) gave me this example:

Hi Dave,

I have an example which is more specific to Germany (and it fits well because of Oktoberfest season). We just had a well-known German brewery in our demolab this week. And their IT-Manager said: "If we cannot access our data, 10 minutes later we have to stop filling bottles." The reason behind this is: they have to be able to identify every bottle of beer (when produced, which charge, etc) for legal reasons.

Bottom line: no data -- no beer. Biiiiiig issue in Germany!

Best regards from Stuttgart,

Gregor

Never mind airplanes and drugs, THIS is serious.