Adventures in IT

Keeping up with new technology

noreply@blogger.com (Phil James) — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 22:39:00 +0000

Do you ever feel like there's too much technology? Or struggle with learning all the new stuff? There is just so many different technologies that impact our daily lives. And I know it's just going to continue to accelerate the change in businesses.
It's real challenge for IT managers to understand the constant changes, the good and bad, and the impact. Sometimes, you wish you could put the brakes on "change" so you can pause and digest the technology. We just need to "hang on" and do the best job we can.

Learning from my son about life

noreply@blogger.com (Phil James) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 23:48:00 +0000

My son has played in his last football game. He will be graduating from High School this year. The Valley Christian Trojans won the 2A State Championship...what a year! I have learned alot watching him play, expecially about team dynamics and growing through struggles. I have seen God work in our lives this year. I learned that we can learn many "life" lessons from football, and probably any team sport. I will always charish this time in my son's life.

Lessons learned from a football addict

noreply@blogger.com (Phil James) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:45:00 +0000

This is high school football season and I am addicted to watching #70 play, my son, on the Trojan offensive line for Valley Christian. The team is 6-1 and playing well. I am consumed this year on learning all the stats about 2A football. I am also re-learning the basics like "it takes a team to win". It's odd how injuries, penalties and luck play into a championship team.

How is your IT Team? Are you all working from the same playbook? Are odd things keeping you team from being a championship IT team for your church?

Learning from our IT projects

noreply@blogger.com (Phil James) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:33:00 +0000

We have just finished writing our children's checkin module for Arena CHMS. This was a big project and took a lot of work by our entire IT team. I think it's is easy for us to just move on to the next project. But I think there are lots of important things to learn after a projects completed. I think teams should discuss "lessons learned" from projects in order to grow as a group. For example, we learned that our new ONTIME Agile software programming tool was invalueable to our team. It is now a "best practice" for our team to stop and write down what we have learned from our completed projects.

Fiber optic Testing

noreply@blogger.com (Phil James) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:16:00 +0000

Now that our PTP 200mb circuit is installed, its time to test our new bandwidth. We started by simply coping files from our Mesa Campus to our Gilbert Campus which is 10 miles away. These transfers were better than our old T1 circuit but left some questions. I discovered that file tranfers don't maximize the bandwidth.
I have discovered several companies, like Asperasoft.com, that specialize in high-speed file transfer software. We are currently testing their software. Thier software uses UDP to communciate between both sites.
The software reveiled 45% packet lose with our connection. So, is the problem with QWEST or on our network? We now have something else to troubleshoot. We have installed I-PERF to test our connection. The I-PERF teats reveal we are only getting 40 mbits from our fiber ciruit. Now I need to document everything and speak with Qwest.

Optical fiber circuit complete

noreply@blogger.com (Phil James) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:01:00 +0000

Qwest just finished installing a 200 MB circuit from our Mesa Campus to our Gilbert Campus. The Gilbert staff is very happy. This circuit replaces our intial T1 circuit. We will now start testing the circuit by copying SD and HD video files (40-50 GB's) each week between campuses. The big question is how long before I get a request to increase this new circuit?

Ever thought about strategic value?

noreply@blogger.com (Phil James) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:24:00 +0000

Do all of your IT projects have strategic value? If so, how much? Do we waste time? I think sometimes we work on too many projects that may not have much strategic value. I think we need to develop our thinking, at times, for the long-term. I think this is very hard for us but very important for the church. We need to make sure everything we do directly aligns with the churchs strategic goals. It's easier for us to fix problems and move on.

I challenge you to make a list of all your current projects and rank them by strategic value, its an eye opener.

Qwest Metro Optical Ethernet coming soon

noreply@blogger.com (Phil James) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:45:00 +0000

We have signed up for a 200 MB circuit between our Gilbert and Mesa sites. The build out will take Qwest about four months. We are very excited to move beyond our current T1 circuit.

http://www.qwest.com/largebusiness/enterprisesolutions/products/ethernet/moe.html

Postini - ROI on SPAM protection

noreply@blogger.com (Phil James) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 03:01:00 +0000

We converted from Symantec(Brightmail) SPAM filtering about three months ago with expectations to improve our 70% filtering ratio. I'm am extremly pleased with thier filtering service. We are now filtering over 92% of all our email as SPAM. Unbelieveable! Here is something to think about for calculating ROI. We had a total of 354,078 spam emails deleted over the last 30 days. If a staff person would take about five seconds to view and delete each of the SPAM emails, then we have saved about 492 staff hours or $9,835 in staff productivity. (Using an arbituary $20 per hour per staff) Now that's ROI.

Arena CHMS update

noreply@blogger.com (Phil James) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 01:49:00 +0000

We have been working over the last year or so on migrating from Shelby Version 5 and all our custom .NET applications over to Shelby ARENA. We are making steady progress. ARENA is both elagant and powerful. No software program is perfect but we are very happy with our ARENA decision.

New technology to watch

noreply@blogger.com (Phil James) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:40:00 +0000

Microsoft is acquiring Kidaro to enhance thier ability for desktop virtualization. This is exciting technology and could radically change the way desktops are used and managed. Microsoft will be including this new technology in the Desktop Optimization Pack or MDOP. https://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/enterprise/default.mspx

This technology allows a master image to boot clean every time . This technology could dramaticaly change our ServiceDesk operations.

Cisco Wireless controller....awesome

noreply@blogger.com (Phil James) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:26:00 +0000

We have the Cisco 4400 Series wireless LAN controller at our Gilbert Campus. We have been amazed at the broadcast range of the light-weight access points.

We are now adding more access points at our Mesa Campus that will be controlled from the wireless contoller at our Gilbert Campus. We are gradually replacing all the standalone Linksys AP's in Mesa that are not centrally managed or monitored. One of our best technology investments was getting a centrally managed wireless infrastructure.

Blog update!

noreply@blogger.com (Phil James) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 23:38:00 +0000

Here is my new feedburner address: http://feeds.feedburner.com/adventuresinit

A new era...64bit technology

noreply@blogger.com (Phil James) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 22:59:00 +0000

We just ordered our first 64bit Dell 2950 server. We will be using Windows Server 2008 Data Center edition as a virtual host server using HyperVisor. We are very excited about this new technology. We hope to eventually move all our virtual servers to this new platform over the next year. We currently have three virtual host servers running Windows 2003 Server Data Center with about 15 virtual servers in production. We have been very satisfied with Microsoft Virtual technology especially Virtual Machine Manager. I'll keep you posted on our progress. These are exciting times.

Microsoft Groove....killer ap?

noreply@blogger.com (Phil James) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 23:56:00 +0000

Sometimes we need to step away from a problem in order to find a better solution to the problem.

We are setting up a Groove Server to improve file collaboration among the staff. We have many laptops that depend on offline syncing of server-based files. The Groove sofware solves this problem by sending just the file changes to all Groove Workspace members automatically wheneverthe document is saved. the transmition of the changes is encrpted to all Workspace members. This is not sent by email. So everyone can see the latest changes...very cool. The Groove client software comes with Office 2007 Enterprise Edition.

Could this be a killer ap?

Research Project: Application Virtualization

noreply@blogger.com (Phil James) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 04:21:00 +0000

I have just started to look at Microsoft's SoftGrid program for application virtualization. The prospect of saving tech time and improving our software management are too compelling to over look. We already have about 15 virtual servers running on two Dell servers. So why not try this with applications? I'll keep you posted as we venture out and test this product.

Managing your environment

noreply@blogger.com (Phil James) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 04:05:00 +0000

We are now dependent on WUG (as we call it) for monitoring our network. Its like having another IT staff person monitoring our network while we do other projects. The old days are gone. We really like WUG and have only begun to tap into all the features. Now that we have a tool like this, we will never go back to the old ways. I believe managing your network environment is part of being a good steward of God's I.T. resources.

New SAN is working well

noreply@blogger.com (Phil James) — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 01:35:00 +0000

We purchased a Dell MD3000 iSCSI SAN with ten 400 SAS drives for tier1 storage to replace our old Dell DAS server. We also added the MD1000 SAS storage chassis for tier2 storage using 750 GB SATA drives. We have really liked the features, performance and quality of these products. Each chassis can hold 15 drives. We are using one dedicated hot spare drive in our tier1 storage with 2 TB RAID5 volumes.

We will be using Micosoft DPM to store snapshots of our tier1 storage on the MD1000 chassis. We can also add another MD1000 chassis to this solution when we run out of space.

Virtual servers are here to stay

noreply@blogger.com (Phil James) — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 01:19:00 +0000

We have made some significant changes to our server infrastructure, over the past few months, by hosting about 13 servers on two physical Dell 860 PowerEdge servers. And we are not done yet. We have about 15 more servers that will be vitualized over the next. We ae using Windows DataCenter Edition to host unlimited VM's per server. It's sweet! All of our storage is stored on our SAN (details in another post). We are already planning for 64bit Hyper-V later this year.

Anticipation?

noreply@blogger.com (Phil James) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 03:17:00 +0000

Do you ever long for big complicated projects?

Neither do I. But there are many new technologies on our horizon that will forever shape our IT environment.

Our IT team is traveling next week to attend the Winconnections event to learn about .NET, Exchange 2007, Sharepoint, and Windows 2008. I'm excited about hearing about the new features, but not about all the implications in upgrading. We are at the threshold of converting over to a 64bit environment and we need to dramaticly improve collaboration on documents and projects. The next few years should be exciting, to say the least.

Remember the Team

noreply@blogger.com (Phil James) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 02:57:00 +0000

I have been in many executive planning sessions lately which got me thinking about how valuable the IT team is to charting the course for a mega church. I am so thankful for our IT team of professionals (Nick , Derek, David, and Robert) that sacrifice working at the church. God has called them, at this time, to tackle some amazing technology projects.

My son plays on a good high school football team; each player using their talents to move the team down the field. That's what I'm experiencing now; our IT team is working together, marching down the field as God calls the plays. It's awesome!

Experimenting with Cisco VPN

noreply@blogger.com (Phil James) — Tue, 01 May 2007 03:53:00 +0000

We just implemented the VPN functionality on our Cisco 5510 firewall. We have been using the firewall for about six months and love it! We are now testing some of the features. I'll have more feedback after our team tests it.

The Devil is in the details

noreply@blogger.com (Phil James) — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 04:08:00 +0000

We have been using, or I should say struggling, with Trackit helpdesk and asset management software. I can not depend on accurate reports so it's time to find a new product.
As I looked at all the products on the market for this segment, I started thinking about the idea about minimizing the number of vendors that we use. We have standardized on (1) Dell for PC's, servers, laptops and PDA's (Well, they just killed thier PDA line.) and switches (2) Cisco for firewalls and VOIP and (3) Symantec for AV and SPAM protection. I want to maximize or leverage my relationaships with a limited set of vendors. This idea brought me to Altirls since they were just purchased by Symantec.
My service tech's are in the process of testing the demo version of the software to see if it fits for our network environment which is about 130 PC's, 16 servers, and 25 laptops and MAC's (more MAC's every month). I want a product that I can depend on and not have to "work" to get accurate information. I want the details...now.

Mission accomplished..........this year.

noreply@blogger.com (Phil James) — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 03:45:00 +0000

We recently added the last 500 GB SATA drives into our Promise Technology chassis called "DataWarehouse". I feel like this is a milestone acomplishment but in the back of my mind I know it wouldn't last long.
We now have 15 500gb drives as one dynamic volume on a W2K3 server. It's about 6 TB's of storage. One drive is a hot spare, the other drives are one RAID5 volume. It is working well now but it was a challenge to get it working properly. We primarly use the server for disk backups and worship video storage. I'm already looking for more storage for next year; 10 to 15TB's minimum.

A passion for excellence

noreply@blogger.com (Phil James) — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 20:08:00 +0000

One of my passions is providing THE best IT service to our staff. I think, at times, we can be dulled into thinking that our service is "good enough" and move on to other important projects. I'm finding that improving your service requires drastically improving communications within my team. I mean an order of magnitude of improvement. I need to be deliberate in pushing for the ultimate goal...striving for excellence in IT Service.