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Understanding network security is not only centered around architecture, there are a number of groups involved as well.

Effective network security begins, succeeds and yes can fail if you have the wrong team responsible for it.  Establishing the IT Support staff is a challenge for many reasons, but the most obvious is that non technical people can speak the IT language.  Yes, there are those who can speak a little bit (these are the same people who are smart enough to be dangerous), similar to speaking a foreign language they pick up bits and pieces and claim to be experts.

Once you have the right team, trusting them to bring in the right architecture is the next step.  This will be based on the team’s preferences and current security state of the organization.  Now, once the architecture is in place doesn’t mean you are done.  Just as network threats continue to evolve, network security must also evolve forward to prevent attacks.  Be it internet filters solutions, email and spam filters, anti-malware or changes in business side applications, network security should be a priority and should be evaluated constantly.  Your architecture should have a reporting scheme that provides you effective information that you can make adjustments and see the value of your network security decisions both in architecture and support personnel.

As part of the review of your organization’s, the end-users should be considered.    It is important to remember they are part of the reason the IT support team is there.  Not only because they can be responsible for some of the network security threats, but more because their productivity is a key function of the organization’s success.  your network security design should include a role based permission design.  We are long passed the days of an all or nothing netowrk resource availability.  Knowing the roles of the organization and it’s team members can be very useful to the IT Support team.  Following that flow, permissions can be established that provide the necessary resources to specific end-users, while limiting their access to other resources which have no impact on their productivity.

What we are building up to is the one aspect everyone forgets or takes for granted… Philosophy and Effective Education on the dangers of the lack of online network security and how it impacts you and those around you.  Knowing your environment is very important.  Being proactive about how to secure the environment and educating your users on the dangers of online resources is key to making your organization’s network resources available, your personnel productive, and customers satisfied.

It really hit me in the gut.  I never thought becoming essential brought down your effectiveness.  I seemed to believe that being effective made you essential, but when I read this I realized there was so much more to my belief and I didn’t look farther than just becoming essential.  So we have to think… which one are we or which do we want to be?

Essential, by definition means indispensible and necessary.  I think to a degree we all want to feel necessary, but to what end.  IT folks (myself included ) usually fall into this trap.  Having knowledge and experience to be the “go-to guy” gives us a feeling of power and accomplishment, but this is where the trap is set.  Being the essential team member or leader becomes not only essential but expected – this is where our effectiveness is affected.

When the essential becomes expected can turn our passion into just another chore.  The weight of our chores (whether at home or in our career) become so heavy that we tend to push them aside to recoupe from carrying them for so long.  This can be acceptable to others for atime because they understand how important you are, and we recognize it so we take liberties and push the chores out further.  So how effective are we?  How do we keep from falling into the trap?  Is being essential more important that being effective?

Actually, our status as essential is a product of our effectiveness.  We earned it, but once we recognize it, we now have to work harder to maintain it.  This is where we have to recognize that we are not really alone.  This is the key to balancing your status of being essential and maintaining your effectiveness – but this doesn’t meandumping your chores on others.

Pass on your experience.  Challenging for some, gratifying for most, passing on your experiences to others gives you the opportunity to multiply your effectiveness and introduce a new aspect of your importance.  Be careful though, to the wrong people, your good deed could appear as though you are threatening to rebuild the establishment in your own image – especially when you have followers.  Build a following that is willing to learn and contribute.  Don’t press on those who are unwilling to listen. The goal is to keep them coming back for more.  Like narcotics, knowledge is an addictive drug, but there are those that think any addiction is bad and are unwilling to taste it.

#1 Be true to who you are.  Sounds simple right?  It is proabably the hardest thing to do.  People influence everything we do.  It is not a bad thing to look up to your heros and we forget sometimes that we look up to our heros because we like parts of who they are or the persona they portray; but as we have learned from some of our sports heros and others in the entertainment business, looks can be deceiving. Your identity evolves everyday, but your core doesn’t.  Imitation of those you look up to is healthy, but being unique is equally as important.  So who are you?

#2 Find your passion.  We can sometimes spend our whole  life in search of the thing that drives us.  No matter what it may be, there is always something that drives us.  Many look at this as a career builder, but I learned over the past few years, that our passion is a life builder and not just reserved for where we work.

#3 Follow your passion.  Once you find it… FOLLOW IT.  Now this is obviously easier said than done.  This does require something most of us don’t have… patience, and we need a confidence to press on.  The other thing we require is something we all claim not to have but seems to be in abundance… stubbornness.  I recently was a part of a wonderful discussion on taking a path less traveled.  Knowing the longer path is riddled with criticism and other obstacles, it can be challenge many don’t want to face, even when you know the path is the right one.  Having the confidence to believe in the decision is important, but being stubborn enough to blind yourself from the obstacles and press forward usually results in a great learning experience and in many cases a successful one as well.

#4 Share your passion.  This sounds like a way of getting attention… IT IS.  Remember, your words and actions promote the words and actions of those around you,  about you.  The old saying about the word ASSUME is true even today.  Assume nothing.  Share your passion through your words and actions.  If you are passionate about your career, let it be heard.  If your passion is centered around an ability you have, let it show.  Don’t limit yourself at work or at home because it is not your “job”.  This can be challenging at times because what you know as a passionate ability becomes a responsibility to others.  It becomes much more apparent when those who expect you to do it can no longer expect it because you are not there to do it anymore.

#5 Embrace effective criticism.  Yes, I said effective criticism.  Not liking  a decision doesn’t make it effective and usually is described another way… as an ignorant opinion.  Now, negative criticism can be effective if we learn something from it.  I learned a lot about criticism in my passed two positions.  As a result, I moved on in my career and have never looked back.  Sometimes it takes a change to realize how you are affected – and we are affected, but it is important to refer back to #3 when faced with a negative affect from criticism… not by negative criticism.

#6 Don’t confuse your patience with giving up.  Being patient is continuing to follow your passion in light of challenges that take a higher priority.  Giving up is putting your passion aside in favor of the challenges you face.  Always remember you are happiest when you follow you passion.  Stay Happy.  Fight for your happiness. Share it with the world.

I have to admit, this was a bit new for me.   I can still relate to the frustration of teachers, administrators, and IT support teams when it relates to technology that doesn’t perform to their perceived standards. 

Perhaps it is due to the side of the fence I sit on.  The “dark side” (as it has been described to me) of the private sector that is now the present path of my career is a very different perspective.  The focus on results is somewhat measured differently from that of the public sector.  The role you play is built on your talents, but also – in the right organization – opportunities to grow in both status and salary are more genuine and bring a sense of accomplishment to you as a team member.  I seem to look at my time in the public sector as a breeding ground for content and can sometimes lead to mediocre performance. 

Don’t misunderstand… it didn’t start that way and I am truly grateful to those I worked with.  I learned a great deal about not only the people, processes and organization, but about myself as well.  While things continually changed, however, one thing did not and that lead to my decision to pursue a change. 

Walking around the exhibit hall and running into folks I have met during my days in K-12 education, gave me a good feeling, but also reminded me on how frustrating the business is (and YES, contrary to what you may think, K-12 education is a business).  The economic situation – which varies from state to state – obviously impacted the turnout and certainly played a part of the attitudes of the attendees.  What I did notice though is how technology usage continues to grow.  Listening to other manufacturers and having the opportunity to meet with a few board members, I learned that the economic situation is driving the technology usage… and to a degree being used as a potential replacement for a teacher position.  This put me in a difficult emotional position. 

I always looked at technology as the tool teachers use to teach students, not as the teacher of students.  Coupled with the new role I have in technology has me wondering if they truly can teach without guidance – especially at the K-8 level.  We see the advancements made in high schools, where the campus is operated like a college campus and there is an emphasis on independent study, but to consider a technology – any technology can replace the role of a good teacher is ridiculous.

My booth presentation was centered around how technology impacts instruction.  We all know that is does have an impact (both positively and negatively), but how can you look at technology as a replacement for good people?  Did I miss this over the years of visiting both ISTE and TCEA?  Was it the role I was in that blinded me to the fact?  Or, was it environment that blinded me?

Growing up it was the quality… Black and White vs. Color Televisions as an example.  Having a color television in the house gave a sense of status… now they are in every room of the house.  Having the wood grain cabinet console television was better than the small black and white you had on top of it   It progressed larger and larger throughout the 80′s and 90′s, projection to LCD and plasma, but is it still the norm?  With the need of being more mobile, we are seeing television shows and movies being watched on our computer and even our cell phones with great quality and in many cases commercial free.

Let’s not just pick on the television industry… the music industry has also been affected greatly thanks to digital audio.  That turn table changed to the 8 Track, which changed to the Cassette player, but when we thought it would continue to get smaller, the 80′s BOOM BOX moved how we listen to music (which also had to include a back brace). Now we find ourselves listening to great quality music from a small MP3 player and ear buds.

So was it better technology?  Perhaps the requirement that large electronics were needed to capture the quality and over time compact technology components provided high quality in a smaller footprint.  Maybe we are missing another point of emphasis… We did it then and still do it today… we put a large emphasis on the brand name.  The “big” name was the status symbol because if you had the hot brand devices, it was perceived to be the best.  Now this has deminished a bit over the last 10 years because we have seen that many of the components used in the hot technologies is also being used in the lower priced technologies, but the brand was still the best.

Determining the quality of products is of course based on your own perception.  Be it brand name, size, or cost, your opinion is the key.  However there is another aspect on determining the quality of a technology product and that would be your knowledge of the product.  The old saying that knowledge is power is never more true than when we talk about technology.  Knowing more about the technology and how it is best maintained actually plays a part in determining the best quality.  Basing purchases on brand is not always best.  If they are maintained properly, the “best” products are subject to breakage, poor performance and eventual frustration and replacement.

At the end of the day, choosing the best product is based on one aspect… YOU.

A number of things have changed for me over the course of the last 8 weeks.  The opportunity to venture out and take on a new position in the technology world has revitalized my enthusiasm about the industry.  It has also given me the opportunity to look back at a “legacy” I left at my previous “home”.

I have to admit, being a part of the “family” for as long as I was, can be somewhat nerve racking when I considered leaving.  I was very lucky though.  First, my “teammates” were happy for me.  I’d like to think their support of my decision was very genuine, but I am also realistic.  When you work in a leadership/ management role, you are bound to encounter obstacles… sometimes in procedures and decisions, but sometimes the obstacles can be with members of your own team and further still… within your own mind.

My luck extended to my new “home”.  It has been a long time since I had to go through an interview process and transition into a new role in a new environment, but this great group of folks welcomed me with open arms.  It took some getting used to.  When expectations are high and so are the bureacratic challenges, we sometimes put pressure on ourselves to meet those expectations.  Moving into this new role, I found a great sense of patience in everyone I talked with.  While the eagerness to succeed  still exists, it is not the ONLY focus.  Teamwork, inclusion, and a true organizational outlook and how I fit into the puzzle, gave me a new found sense of excitment, enthusiasm and patience (although, my patience has never been in great abundance).

Now, I find myself faced with new challenges, but challenges I look forward to.  It starts with my education of the organization.  Then comes the art of finding the go to people and developing relationships with those who will play a pivotal role in the success of the organization – and equally in my success.  As I learned early on, the technical aspect of my role was very comfortable and was not only well received, but much appreciated… instead of just expected.

As we celebrate Black History Month, it is a shame that we have to single out ONLY one month to celebrate a people whose involvement in history was – and still is – an influential part of our country’s success and growth.  Once again, we recognize those who helped build this country – in some cases with their lives, but that recognition is encompassed in one month and not celebrated all year… Why can’t we celebrate the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (which was enacted on July 2nd)?  Oh wait it interferes with our Independence Day… can’t have two holidays in the same month.

To borrow the phrase of the ESPN NFL Countdown Crew… COME ON MAN!!!

How are you able to take care of people’s needs in the face of potentially negative situation?  Bob spoke about a restaurant owner who had a line of customers waiting to be served and was then hit with a large phone in order.  Rather than choosing between the customers in line and the customer on the phone, she chose the only real option… both. Checkout Bob’s post.

In response to Bob’s post…

The acknowledgement is the only real key.  Your acknowledgement of how important the individual is to you speaks volumes, but it comes with a catch.  Your acknowledgement must be sincere.  An acknowledgement that has no feeling is no acknowledgement at all.  It comes across as condescending and sarcastic, which only breeds a negative attitude by all and a desire to make things difficult for everyone.  Your true sincerity towards others especially in front of others breeds selflessness and presents the opportunity to pass on that which you display, a pleasant and caring attitude that is almost always immediately reciprocated, as it was by the customers in line.

The challenge is applying this to difficult people.  People who have no desire to be cooperative or understanding no matter what you do to remedy the situation.  These are the people you still attempt to embrace, and your approach is to embrace them directly as to not agitate the situation and maybe even move them up in line so they remain calm since everyone else has shown patience and cooperation.  In doing so you remedy a potentially difficult situation and show your customers how much you care about them… even the difficult ones.

Of course Dondi is right, knowing where you are and where you are going are as important as where you are not and many assume that where you are is equal to where you are NOT.  This is just not the case for most of us.

I like to think where we are is not equal to where we are not, but the culmination of where we have been. Assessing our passed experiences in the here and now acts as a guide in our future choices. Where we are NOT is equal to the things we cannot control and therefore should not consume us. This is one of the most difficult challenges we face in our career and in life.

We all live in different worlds and yes while there are those who live there life in the structure of another, many cannot live in someone else’s house and find a new path that is distinctly there own.  Career paths tend to make this challenging because there is always someone to answer to; be it your supervisor, upper management and YES… your customers.  What can make this fun is when your path influences others positively.  The body language and dialogue play a big part… and yes it is true… Women are better at it than men.

Think of how you live your life.  Do you live it based on a set of rules you set or someone set for you?  If the answer is the latter, picture yourself in jail and ask yourself if you really want to be there.