[windows2000] Re: Proactivity (now long winded)
- From: "Andrew Shriner" <aShriner@xxxxxxxx>
- To: <windows2000@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 10:08:38 -0500
.. And now, a couple of weeks later, I'll respond.
We're already very proactive in regards to software. We use a common
Anti-Virus package across the entire WAN, that does a good job of taking
care of viruses. We check patches, and either let SUS deploy them, or
manually deploy them. There's not much more we can do to improve, in
regards to software proactivity. There's always *something* you can do
to improve, but we're pretty well taken care of in that respect.
What my boss was talking about is hardware proactivity - he wants us to
know when hardware will fail... and a list of other stuff. In effect, "I
want a list of all unplanned outages for the next six months!!!"
He also wants us to be regularly reviewing new hardware and software
(of all kinds), so that we can determine what is best for the
district... it's not as though we have TONS of time on our hands or
anything. :rolleyes:
This past summer, we had virtually nothing to do all summer... and then
about a week before school resumed, we have about 500 things happen all
at once (ok, maybe it wasn't 500...). We're just now catching up.
Another thing is our budget (much like the below response from
jstockard)... except our budget appears... and then disappears. We've
put together lists of things we need - take, for example, server,
switch, and router replacements across the entire WAN. The equipment was
aging, and we knew that it wasn't too far from failure. We gave
administration nearly a year's warning. They never would approve the
money for replacement routers / switches. It was only one night when we
had a power failure, and a Core Builder never powered back up, that they
realized - hey! - we need new equipment! So they gave us the money for
replacement equipment. The switches failed very near the beginning of
the school year... the new switches came in yesterday. They're still
sitting down in the loading dock. We've been begging & borrowing
switches from everyone we can think of to get us through until these
switches came in. Now our servers are still getting old, and are used
quite heavily... something needs to be done about that, but we don't
have the budget... (even though we're supposed to be proactive, and
should point out pending failures)
At least in this district, I don't think that this department will ever
be proactive in much beyond software preparation. Then again, I really
don't care - I don't plan on being around to find out.
On that note, does anyone know of any job openings in the Central Ohio
area?
Andrew
>>> jstockard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 12/02/04 11:36AM >>>
I work in a K-12 public school (charter schools) environment. At the
beginning of the summer we were given a list of things that would be
nice to accomplish and a list of must accomplish. We also received an
admonition that we have been too slow to react in the past and we need
to take a more proactive approach. We left that meeting and I
immediately scheduled a meeting with the entire IT staff. We went
over
both lists and came up with an action plan, a timeline and a list of
needed equipment (for both the nice and must accomplish list).
We took this to the next meeting and were given a pat on the head and
told nice job. Then we were promptly ignored for the rest of the
summer. As our items became due on the timeline, we went to the
budget
and finance people who told us we needed to wait until we had a fall
head count.
When we told them we needed the funds if the must accomplish list
could
be accomplished, we were told the head count was not high enough.
They
gave us a different list of must accomplish. We did the same
preparation. We came back and were told to wait.
Needless to say the school year is well under way. We have parts on
order and people asking us why we insist on being reactive instead of
proactive. At least now we have our list to point to as we walk away.
All of my no cost proactive list still happens. Most of that involves
staying on the people who do the head counts and attendance.
At least you have company!
Jeff
Jesus Loves You
-----Original Message-----
From: windows2000-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:windows2000-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Andrew Shriner
Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2004 11:14 AM
To: windows2000@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [windows2000] Proactivity
Does anyone here (besides me) work in an educational/K-12 setting?
Namely, public education...
My boss just sent an agenda out for a meeting, and the biggest part of
it is determining how to be proactive about a lot of things around the
district... while that's not a bad idea, I'm wondering how he's
planning
on pulling that off, when every knowledgeable person in my department
has enough of a workload for three people. Going beyond that, I've
worked with most of the other school districts in our area, and none
of
them appear to be proactive at all... and employees that I've spoken
to
in other districts agree.
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