You've just proven why some vendors actually are the enemy and don't deserve the trust nor the business. It's definitely not a logical fear. It's a time proven observation. Even with your best intentions at heart, it's not your box and you're not ultimately responsible for it or the data it contains. Yet you saw fit to break into the box as "SA" instead of working with the person who actually is responsible for the box. You could have even cost that person their job for doing their job.

Such actions on you and your team's part not only break the policies of nearly every company I've ever worked for or ever hope to work for, they break SOX, SEC, and ISO policies/regulations, as well. Had you been an outside vendor, your actions would have broken many State and Federal laws.

The logical way to have done this would have been to take the proper steps where the people you went around could have been alerted to properly sanctioned company actions. You and your upgrade team could have been granted "SA" privs without knowing the "SA" password instead of taking matters into your own hands.

I do, however, thank you tons for proving my point that no one other than the DBA's should ever be granted "SA" privs. 😉