I know… I’ve neglected to use this space for anything meaningful for multiple months. Again.

Sorry folks, but this new job has me all wrapped up in learning new things and managing some of the same-ole-same-ole that I’ve fallen out of the loop of the online world almost entirely. (Barely hitting up Facebook, not following any of the blogs I used to religiously keep up with, etc…)

Anyhow, I’m now 4 months into my new job and I’m still loving it! I don’t necessarily love getting woke up in the middle of the night for support issues, but it keeps me on my toes.

A little more detail about the job…

I’m the Network Administrator for a small company that supports Travel Agency Businesses. We’ve got a 24/7 Call Center to take after-hours calls for travel agencies, web services for travel agents to book hotels, and advertising plans for hotels to advertise to the travel agents.  Nothing is available to the public, it’s all only available to licensed travel agents.

I’ll try to come up with some more interesting facts/details & maybe a few pictures of the space. Anyhow, drool on my geek friends! (& scratch your heads in confusion my non-geek friends).

The environment that I support consists of:

• 3 VMware ESX Servers running 17 Virtual machines.
• 3 Server, Load Balanced, Citrix Metaframe Presentation Server Farm (2 Production, 1 test)
• 8 Web Servers (IIS & Apache)
• 4 SQL Servers (MS SQL)
• 1 Domain Controller/File/DNS/DHCP Server
• 1 Backup Domain Controller/Application Server
• 2 Data Processing machines
• 1 VMware Management Server (Virtual Center)
• 1 Asterisk PBX
• 1 Asterisk ACD (Call Center Queue Management)
• 1 Asterisk Call Recording Server
• 1 Test Asterisk PBX
• 1 5TB Dell NAS
• 1 Exchange Email Server
• 1 NetApp Shared Storage Appliance w/ 2 Controllers (3TB)
• 6 2U UPS Systems
• 1 Backup Generator (VERY manual system, as in roll it out of storage, fill the tank, plug it in, pull the cord, but it works)
• 1 Cisco Router
• 1 Cisco Firewall
• Lots of Network Switches (100Mb & Gig)
• Lots of Printers
• Polycom VOIP Phones
• eyeBeam Softphone w/ Headsets
• 5 On-site Office Employees (2 more relocating here next month & 3-4 to be hired)
• 100+ Work At Home Employees primarily accessing the systems through the Citrix Presentation Servers or via VPN

Now to figure out if I like being the man that supports everything, or if I want to start digging in to one specific area to become an expert on.  It’s hard to chose because I enjoy being & have always been the “Jack of All”, but with that also means I’m the “Master of None”.  It’s a great person to be for small companies like this one, but if I want to really step up to play with the big boys (& get paid with the big boys), then I’ve got to narrow down my focus & become an expert in a specific field.  Decisions, decisions…

So… What do you think?

Where is the real value/demand if I were to specialize in any of these specific technologies that I’m managing today? Citrix, VMware/Virtualization, Asterisk/VOIP, NetApp/Shared Storage, Cisco, DBA, Webmaster…

I’m thinking VMware/vitrualization because it’s where so many companies are headed… Hmmmm.

Well, it’s more like a warehouse or a pole barn, but…

We’re moving our office from Agoura Hills, CA (an hour outside of LA) out to Haltom City, TX. So our new space is still barren & awaiting many new faces.

Why? Well, our parent company owns this building here in Haltom City & there’s no good reason to be paying rent on an office space when you own ample space to run your business from.

Anyhow, here’s a little tour of the office before we even started to move in.

This has been a crazy week. It’s my last week working with my current employer, but they are still in the middle of a major ERP implementation project I was leading. So this week has been all about working with a consultant to do everything we could to define the state of the project, and hand everything off to the department heads and a temporary “point person”.

They are also trying to hire a new Project Manager to replace me on this. I have HIGH hopes that this project soars from here on out with a proper project manager because I know I failed in that aspect.  I could easily handle the IT side of things…  Reports, Programming, Customization, even training…  But I’m not an organized, meticulous, process seeking/defining project manager and that is exactly what is needed.

Aside from feeling a bit worthless, it’s been a little hard to get all the grief from everyone about leaving (much less leaving things in the state that they are… Unfinished.) Most of it has been said in jest, but I can’t help but feel a bit down. Like I failed them & I’m running away. I suppose I did. And I am. [sigh] I don’t like admitting defeat.

Even though it’s the night before my last day, I’ve been logged in remotely customizing screens, documenting procedures, and doing everything I can to get as much as possible done. I REALLY don’t want to leave them hanging. I want to leave with some sense of accomplishment, but at what point am I just bailing water from a sunken ship.

I find my self seriously hoping they contact me to help them train my replacement (on an hourly contract basis of course) only because I am a terrible project manager and there is so much stuff left undocumented and straggling in my head that I wouldn’t know where to begin to put it all on paper. The good news is that I know the current candidate for my replacement and she knows me well enough to know that (in the business world) I’m a geek first, and anything else second. I hope she gets the job. At least then I can feel comfortable keeping in touch & working with her if that’s how they decide to move forward (making use of my off-time).

On another note….

I’ve been emailing back & forth with my new employer a bit and it’s good to know I’m walking in to a place where I fit in. I’m going to be walking into the middle of a major office move (including production servers) and I’ve been able to put in my 2 cents about how we could/should go about some of it & it’s been received well. I’m feeling mildly useful.

I’m tired.

I’m sad.

Good night.

I’m hired!

For those of you that know me well enough, you know my current job slowly morphed from something that I was absolutely excited about into something that I ended up dreading on a daily basis. This was not due to a dastardly boss, or horrible work conditions, but due to the ever changing needs of the business for which I’ve been working. As the business grew & changed, what they needed from me grew & changed as well. Unfortunately the resulting needs ended up being something that I don’t particularly like doing and something that I constantly felt a failure at.

In case you don’t know the history, here’s the short of it.  I was hired to wear multiple hats.  Network Admin, Manufacturing Equipment Technology Planning, ERP Implementation Lead, etc… Those first 2 were the ones that got me excited. The last one was expected to be a mostly plug-n-plan experience where my job would mostly be technical in getting things to work. As time went on the ERP Implementation did not go as planned & hick-ups abounded, so the manufacturing technology stuff was pulled out of my grasp to allow more time for the ERP stuff. Then another gentleman was hired for the Network Admin duties so I could free up ALL of my time for the ERP Implementation. I was good with the technical side of things here, but I was in a position to manage this project without any authority to do so. I felt like I was in a lose-lose situation. I never could “rally the troops” so I ended up being the guy trying to do it all, and that will never work (and never did).

Anyhow, that’s where I’ve been for the last 3 years. Yesterday I received a job offer (after 2 AWESOME interviews!). I put in my notice and accepted the job offer.

The short:

• More money
• Even closer to home (Walking distance! Crazy, I know!!!)
• Doing what I LONG to do
• Bleeding edge technology (not bleeding to death as I’ve been used to)

The job:
http://ccra.com/
Network Administrator for a fast growing company that provides services to the travel industry. It’s a pretty small company (just under 100 employees) with an even smaller main office (about 12 employees in the office, the rest telecommute from home). The majority of the telecommuters are part of the company’s call-center.

They have 3 divisions serving the travel industry. Call Center Solutions so travel agents don’t have to personally provide 24/7 call centers, they just outsource it to us. Supplier Solutions that offer marketing solutions to the travel industry. And a Reservation Solutions Portal that is where a large part of the new technology & fun stuff is going to be.  They are developing some new products in the avenue that have not been done before and will make them a force to be reckoned with in this market.

My duties will be to take care of everything with a cord or antenna attached. This includes the server room with a couple dozen production servers, the Asterisk phone system for the call center, and all duties revolving around keeping the systems alive, expandable, backed-up, and disaster recoverable.

I’ll be getting to play with some new technologies   (Virtual Machines, Open Source Phone Systems, etc..) as well as learning some of the things that have eluded me to-date (Cisco routers, Exchange Server, etc…).

I’m excited!

I start February 15th.

Yippee!!!