Modern computer room houses the network servers and connections to many pc's.
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Information Technology |
A few words about my work
Bill Kuhl
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Primary goal of Information Technology work is to support a system that enables other workers to work more efficiently. In order to do this, the system must be functioning properly as much of the time as possible. There are many challenges to accomplishing this goal. Sources of possible failure are many and often very hard to predict. |
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Modern computer room houses the network servers and connections to many pc's. |
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| When the productivity of
many workers depends on the success of your project and there is a very
limited time window to complete things, everything possible must be done to
get the project done on time. Through experience you learn to plan for
failure, that is, allow as much time as possible for things to go wrong.
Many times projects are done in phases because there might not be enough
time to complete everything at once. This also gives the opportunity to test
between phases, which is very desirable because isolating problems should be
simpler without the complexity of the entire system.
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Routers, switches, and cable modems found in a typical network computer installation. |
Thinking Ahead
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What could go wrong? If I
did this, what might be the result. What are the advantages, disadvantages
for doing something one way as opposed to another way? How new is the
technology, what is the history of problems, what resources are available
for support? How many factors are out of your control? How many different
entities do you have to depend on? Questions like these go through your head
all the time as an IT worker.
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Servers and tape drive for backups. All servers use RAID technology, server will still function with one hard-drive down. |
Research
One of the most important skills for IT worker is the ability to do research. Has this problem been seen before? What solutions have been used? Answers to questions like these can often be found searching on the Internet. With experience you learn the more direct routes to find what you are looking for.
Working With Detail
One might think, people find watching other people work with small details interesting judging by the popularity of the crime scene investigation shows on television. Yet for most of us, myself included, find working in high detail not something that comes naturally. We often wish to shortcut the minor details that appear on the surface not to make a difference, to save time and effort. Many of the small details might not make a difference but often one small detail can be absolutely critical.
Practice over time is the best way to become comfortable and proficient in working with detail. Working with a mentor that is very detail-oriented can be a big help also.
Testing
Probably one of the most important skills to your primary goal of keeping other people working is testing. In testing you often discover the cruel reality that what should logically work does not function properly in reality. A common example might be that new equipment taken out of the box will operate perfectly, in reality unfortunately this is not true. You can blame any manufacturer for poor quality or a lack of testing on their end, but it appears impossible to purchase equipment that will operate perfectly out of the box at any price.
| If you put the equipment in front of employees and they have trouble, you can blame the manufacturer for poor quality control all you want, but that does not solve the problem. Through experience I have learned to setup every new model of computer, and run it for several days to see if any problems show up. Most likely it will run fine, but often it will not and if that untested computer had gone on someone’s desk, that user’s productivity would have been reduced. |
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The network connections are labeled and tested as a poor connection could be tough to track down. |
