As part of a brief assignment I'm currently in a position where accidentally wiping out the database can happen daily. I can only do backups locally from the database/web server, its hard drive is very tight for space and there is a strict policy to not move the data to any other machine as they contain sensitive data, so I can't even move the backups to my own computer to swap space. The main production database *is* the development database, and the production web site *is* the development web site. It's so dysfunctional I only wish I was making this up.
I would love to have version control and a separate test database, but the policy prohibits this because it would give me too much power over my own surroundings and we can't have that. It is naturally completely possible technically since it's the way every other company does it. What's important to this company is locking everyone down and playing balance sheet politics, such that acquiring the software necessary, even if it's open source, requires a purchase from an installation service and impacts the bottom line.
I am a contractor on this assignment and it's the worst thing I've ever seen personally, although anecdotes on stack overflow and some The Daily WTF articles informs me that there's still a way to go until the bottom of the barrel. I should have asked five more questions during the interview and told them I wouldn't be taking it because I couldn't guarantee the level and pace of my work in such a constrained environment.
This sure as hell has to do with seeing IT as a cost rather than a valuable resource (this company is probably among the top 500 biggest in all of Europe), but in this case the attitude of the IT department isn't helping. The sad thing is that being such a large company, they're still probably serving 99.9%+ well, and whoever takes over after me will be another one in a relay race of the mysteriously disappointing consultants and the system will never actually improve.