Category: Words

Benefits of networking – and Panzura

Jeff Miles 2 Comments

The concept of networking is very often mentioned within IT, but examples of it do not come up nearly as often in my experience.
However recently I do have such an example. A colleague attended Autodesk University in late 2014, and attended a session regarding file collaboration for products like Autodesk Revit and AutoCAD.
This is an area which I have been struggling with for many years. How does one give LAN-like speed to a single set of data across many geographical locations? I’ve tried many solutions as posted about previously: DFSR, PeerLock, PeerSync, GlobalScape WAFS, Citrix XenApp and others.

And yet all of these have not proven effective enough to permanently rely upon.

But at Autodesk University the session was talking about Panzura. A representative of a company almost exactly like mine was talking about the benefits, and how it has solved the file collaboration problem for them.

When this news was returned I became very excited, and eventually came across this testimonial video: this video is even more evidence that this might be the right path to travel down.

I was put in direct contact with this representative and can now communicate without sales over-exaggerating the benefits of the product.

 

There is still a large amount of research and testing ahead before Panzura can be seriously considered in my environment, however it is something I would not have seriously considered without the networking.

Status in 2015

Jeff Miles Leave a comment

I feel like adding to my blog. I haven’t felt this way in a long time, and when I look at my not-so-recent posts it is evident; I only made 7 posts in all of 2014.

Part of this is because 2014 was incredibly busy at work, and exhausting at home. Continued responsibilities with my company being acquired, many new projects to juggle and a large amount of overtime all contributed to a lack of desire to write.

The other part is that I have been spending a large amount of time ‘managing’. Project managing, department managing, and managing IT within a global company. Since I don’t have as much technical to write about, I’m left with the learnings and challenges of management. However I’m not particularly good at writing, not like my wife, and have found it difficult to share experiences or thoughts on this matter.

 

Things are finally slowing down at work though; perhaps not slowing but I’m planning better, setting deliverables that are much more achievable. And because of this I again feel the desire to share and to document.

 

I’m hopeful that in 2015 I can be more consistent in this, and continue to organize my work in such a way as to not be overwhelmed.

Microsoft TechEd 2014 recorded sessions

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Image from http://channel9.msdn.com
Image from http://channel9.msdn.com

I have never attended Microsoft TechEd, but I REALLY want to, especially after seeing the sheer number of sessions that are relevant to me in 2013.

I’ve been keeping an eye on the TechEd website for some time after the event closed, watching for the posting of the recorded sessions, and now they are up, all 60 something pages of them.

http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2014#fbid=

 

I’ve gone through the list of every session, and collected a link list of 59 of them I want to watch, with some standouts like:

  • Windows PowerShell unplugged
  • How many coffee’s can you drink while your PC starts
  • DFSR 2012 R2 enhancements
  • Storage Efficiency with Dell and Storage Spaces
  • Mark Russinovich on Cloud Computing
  • Upgrade your IT skills and Infrastructure: Cloud Computing
  • Performance Optimize your ASP.NET
  • O365 Identity Management
  • What’s new in Windows 8.1 Deployment
  • Hyper-V Recovery Manager
  • Backup Strategy for Private Cloud

And so much more…

 

Technology is awesome (and how I can’t afford it all)

Jeff Miles 1 Comment

Lately I have been doing some planning for budget season, and thinking about the medium-term future and where I’d like to take my infrastructure

A big part of this is storage, and my company is in a bit of an odd place in that we’re growing so fast we need to add to our MD3220i SAN, but the MD3220i itself has an expiring warranty in December 2015. I feel like it would be a waste of money to add a disk shelf in 2014 to just have it go unused by 2015.

To address this I began with my Dell team, and had a product specialist in the office today to go over their mid size and enterprise storage products: Equallogic and Compellent. He did an excellent job in making it clear the advantages of a ‘frameless’ storage infrastructure over a ‘framed’ one like we’re in now.

Since then (only a few hours ago really) my mind has just been buzzing at all the possibilities and Projects that this meeting has kickstarted.

In the form of one long run-on sentence:

If we upgrade our storage next year to an Equallogic we can utilize the storage tiering to reduce rack space and power use while maintaining performance and increasing capacity, while at the same time decommissioning old hardware (our MD3000) and re-using our slightly old hardware (MD3220i) for purposes such as backup and disaster recovery, which we’re looking at something like AppAssure or Veeam of Unitrends to handle as long as we have the appropriate disk space, which needs to be shared with Hyper-V Replica for DR purposes, because I’m severlely lacking in that area right now which is dangerous but can be solved with a multi-tier backup and DR plan of having storage on the LAN AND offsite with replication of the backup database and Hyper-V Replica but this requires a cluster upgrade to Server 2012 R2, which would be nice anyways because then I can do live VHDX expansion to avoid having to disrupt my file server because the less off-hours maintenance I have to do the better so that I can use my time doing things like analyzing performance benefits and presenting to the Executive why we need to do all this stuff RIGHT NOW.

 

Web development is a lot like building LEGO

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IMG_9831I am by no means a “web developer“, however I have spent a significant amount of my time this year building web applications for my company.

I am by no means a “lego designer“, however I have spent a significant amount of my time this year building whatever my son asked me to build.

Through these two experiences I have learned that they are both very similar.

 

It starts with an idea; something that catches my attention, something useful or productive, or just fun.

From there I begin building, but rarely is the building linear. A piece here, a piece there, a section at a time, the building begins.

Building takes time, and during that time I always come up with enhancements and ways to make it better. The scope changes and grows but it is usually for the better.

Of course, even when the project is incomplete, I start thinking about how it looks. I smooth out the rough edges, inspect the symmetry, and makes sure it moves the way I want it to.

Eventually I begin looking at security; making sure the project won’t break, or be broken into. I test it again and again, and I get other people to look at it.

 

I take a lot of joy knowing that I’m creating something. That’s a little different than a typical System Administrator responsibility, and it is something I’m thankful I have the opportunity for. Whether it’s a line-of-business application that will be used by my entire company, or a 2 foot robot my 5 year old will play with for 30 minutes before destroying; it is a lot of fun.