Gary Rolland, a network administrator in the United Kingdom, wrote to the NetBSD advocacy mailing list describing his company's use of NetBSD on 29 mission‑critical servers. The servers run NetBSD 2.0.2 and host MySQL databases, Apache web services, Postfix email, and Samba file services for about 4,800 users. On average the systems transfer more than 870 GB of data and handle roughly 1,200 emails per day.

Previously the company ran Windows servers on older hardware, which experienced frequent outages that disrupted work and personal life. Rolland recounted an incident in which a server failure the night before a planned trip to Alton Towers forced him to leave his daughter and her friend disappointed. After the failure, he requested additional staff or a server change, and his manager approved a trial of two NetBSD servers, one for MySQL and one for Apache.

He installed the systems at home, configured the required software through pkgsrc, and integrated them into the network. When Windows MySQL instances later rebooted repeatedly due to performance problems, the NetBSD servers remained operational, leading the manager to approve a broader rollout. The team, initially unfamiliar with NetBSD, received training and eventually migrated the entire network to NetBSD. The change reduced downtime, eliminated weekend on‑call duties, and allowed the staff to work remotely via SSH.

The improved stability gave Rolland more time with his family, and he took his daughter and her friend to Alton Towers without further interruptions. He concluded by thanking the NetBSD developers for their work.