A good article on the importance of Dev Ops: Server Density Blog
At IGN & vudu, a dev team member for each stack was on call for a week at a time. He was free to enlist a substitute for short periods such as a commute, dining out, or a medical appointment. A notebook PC was supplied.
Let's be realistic: It is unlikely that the on-call engr will be familiar with the code which breaks. The company should pay cell phone bills to guilt engrs to keep their phones charged & nearby. For a newly deployed app which has the highest chance of failure, the original author must be on call. If there's an upcoming busy period, all authors of code under stress must be on call.
