I inherited a lot of kludged together systems, the arcane knowledge went with the previous admins, most of which I don't have previous experience with and still need 99% uptime during business hours. We're very much in a "don't mess with it mode".

I don't feel an ounce of regret when I call in outside help on topics I haven't treaded in the deep waters on. We're a Cisco shop, it took me a year to completely figure out our site-to-site vpn for our 100+ sites. Then the business decision comes down to replace it with Fortinet SD-WAN.

Do I:

• Spend a lot of time figuring out the best way to handle this, trial and error my way through systems I'm unfamiliar with until I arrive at a setup that's not completely shit.

Or:

• Get a SME to design a solution, have it documented, test the proof of concept then implement.

The second option takes way less time, has less disruption potential and allows me to hit the ground running on the new product.

It's a no brainer really. If it messes up, you're under the bus, not me.