It has always been obvious to me that the best way to learn (or
perfect) something is by doing. There was no better testimony to this
assertion than my experience in the last two weeks when I was faced with
a situation that required my close (and direct) supervision of a data
center. Look at a data center as a room full of servers, networking/communication devices, ACs, etc. I was not directly doing the dirty work, but I was initially
watching and listening a lot (and researching on the web) - and
eventually advising and directing with authority. So much in just two
weeks!
My experience in those two weeks was nothing to
do with database management or programming, or even GIS - things which
are more or less part of my life. This time round, it was about building
servers (both physical and virtual using hyper-V), networking, MS
Exchange, data backup and restoration from tape using Backup Exec but
with corrupted catalog, router and switch configuration, and so on and
so forth.
This experience was a result of some system
mal-function. Bad as it was, I always tend to look at the good side of
things - just like they say "every cloud has a silver lining". And I can
now agree that one cannot be an army general without going to the
battlefield. I tasted (not tested) the battlefield in the two weeks, but
I emerged a great winner.
I am now a much better
person than I was two weeks ago, and I hope to become better and better.
And I also realized that running a data center which outsources some of
its services is not rocket science, but requires determination, good
planning skills, attention to detail, and fair knowledge of broad
technologies among others. A lot (not all) of the work done in the data
center (at least the one I am referring to) involves using computer
programs written by other people. I argue that you cannot claim to be
doing rocket science if you are simply using a program written by others
- where your job is sometimes just to click Next, Ok, Cancel, etc.
I
also confirmed that data center technical staff who work in a very
stable environment may not learn much on the job, unless they are very
creative and innovative. This is obvious and applies to any technical
field. To achieve simple IT tasks, even though they may sound very
simple, you will only be able to prove your worth at doing them if
indeed you do them practically. Unfortunately (sarcastically), if none
of your systems fail, you will not have the opportunity to prove your
worth, and yet you may remain so contented that things are okay; if so,
you are the real loser. This sounds really sarcastic, but it is the bitter truth .
Theory matters, but not as much as practice.
Even if you are a supervisor or manager, get down from the "ivory tower"
and at least witness how the foot-soldier is configuring the router, or
even merely backing up data on tape. If you don't, you may even never
know what a backup tape looks like. If you hear the techies talking
their language - such as LUN, SAN, DMZ, you may feel
out of place until you realize that these complex terminologies
represent very trivial and obvious things. Demilitarized Zone? What a
name! Although I knew quite a lot about DMZ long before, it was only in
theory; I only got to understand it better in the last two weeks due to
curiosity and unavoidable circumstances.
Occasionally,
no matter who you are, get to the building rooftop to check what
exactly an ODU is, and make a mental trip from the ODU to the IDU then
to the router, or from the ODU to the base station via a line of sight.
You will be on your way to becoming a general.