"It transpired that the network system didn't need to see much more than a glorified heartbeat to confirm the customer service system was active."
Have something similar at work. There's a system that absolutely insists that a tape drive be connected before it'll boot. But it's incredibly rare to actually need to USE the tape drive. So there's a tape drive with busted mechanical bits, but fully functional circuit boards, attached to it. (With a note, so nobody will actually put a tape in.) If ever needed, we can borrow a drive from another system for a few minutes.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
