IT plumbing is not sexy...which is a problem

Anyone who has worked in IT knows about some shady practices here and there...and when it comes to databases many companies don't engage in much oversight. I suspect part of the problem is that the higher managers are distanced from the technological day-to-day and just assume that the nerds on the ground are taking care of things. I bring this up because today I had to resolve a problem with my cell phone provider. Apparently all my online administrative information was deleted when Sprint merged its databases with Nextel. This is a rather large corporation; you can imagine the sort of f*ck ups which occur lower down the food chain in smaller shops.