> *whew* having said all that, I could go into greater depth > on the mix of user support skills involved, but I suspect that > I've said enough for the minute. If anyone wants to go into the user > support side, speak up with your views, and I'll find time to > pontificate on it later today. 8-) Gee- isn't the user support side dropping everything you're doing (say, restoring that critical TNS file the DBA accidently deleted), and assisting to do whatever the aforementioned omnipotent PI requests? :-) :-) :-) Seriously- I agree with Andy's extended post- very well put. And yes, the system support staff need to know "enough" about the sciences and tools to be able to be certain that a simply security patch update didn't just hose the heck out of the cluster's ability to create accurate results.... That is actually one of the things that makes our respective areas quite exciting, educational, and most certainly NOT boring like a "standard" IT shop can get sometimes....