The life of an IT professional is a hard one. Grueling hours are spent late into the night working out solutions to complex problems.

For these hardworking people Hitachi has come up with a unique solution: “Server Fairies Shin & Shin” who are a pair of magical 20 cm tall girls who dispense valuable network solutions to exhausted IT workers.

Server Fairies Shin & Shin is a web manga released by Hitachi from last March. In the stories, frustrated IT technicians who are expecting to work past midnight yell out the magical words “I hate servers!” Then, suddenly, they are greeted by the moe (cute young girl) stylized Shin and Shin.

Shin is the green haired fairy whose name is based on shinpuru (simple). Her motto is “simple is best” and she advises fast and easy solutions to network systems.

The web comic is also embedded with demonstration videos. Here, Shin explains how utilizing VMware ATS allows for simultaneous user log-ins such as first thing in the morning – then sprinkles the users with stardust.

The other fairy, called Shin meaning shinrai (trust) believes that “reliability is everything” when it comes to network performance.

For example she can show us that setting up an Auto Fall Back array of Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters can help with people experiencing downtime while accessing the server from home workstations. As she explains, it’s like the fluttering wings of a little guardian angel!

When the normally straitlaced company made the announcement on their facebook page, users responded with “you are going mad, Hitachi” and “good, keep it up.”

Seems like a good idea though. If I had to read about host bus adapters I’d prefer it in comic form as well.

Source: Hitachi, facebook via IT Media (Japanese)

▼ With the April issue out now, it looks as if Shin & Shin will be a monthly series.