A Few Job Details

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.