I am defeated
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There’s a lot more to doing IT for an SMB than finding technical perfection. Many of you don’t work in the smallest of the small SMB IT. SAM, for example, lives in what I would consider to be the cushy lap of luxury, floating on enormous budgets and working with companies who see value in three year refresh cycles.
SAM would tell me I’m crazy; he’s got plenty of SMB IT experience and I’m just a grouchy old git. John Frappier would tell us both we’re nuts, that he works in SMB IT and that IT for schools is small potatoes compared to “proper” IT.
Up and up and up the stack we go. I have a testlab that is worth the IT infrastructure of 20 of my clients put together. SAM has home IT that would trounce 85% of my clients, I am sure. Most of the people reading this have more up to date home PC towers than my clients have servers…and we all stopped buying PCs years ago.
Now, the above is filled with a bunch of generalisations. I know that. Allow me some artistic license here, I’m venting.
The point I’m trying to get across is that IT is diverse. It’s more diverse as you read this than when I wrote it. It’s more diverse when I wrote it than when I thought of it. And it’s certainly more diverse today than it was when we all started our technological escapades in the first place.
Yet we are all brand tribalists. We get in our heads that something is bad, or that something is good. We crusade for or against something. We champion brands, people, and even entire classes of solutions. I’m guilty of it. You, the reader, are guilty of it. Every single one of us is guilty of it.
What drives me mad is that we always seem unable to stop and remember that diversity thing. That what SAM thinks is “normal” and “small” is positively opulent to me. That what I think is “normal” and “small” would have seemed beyond opulent to 15 year old me.
We don’t all get the chance to do things by the book.
We don’t all get the chance to do things within support.
Hell, we don’t all even get the chance to buy new network cables when they’re needed.
So where do people like that go? Where is the discussion group for people who would consider the kinds of things SAM throws away to be upgrades? Where do the majority of the world’s sysadmins go, when Spiceworks drives these “leeches” out of the ecosystem, and MangoLassi is populated largely by people who have moved up the chain so long ago we don’t remember what it’s like to have your only UPS be 10 years old and running off of salvaged motorcycle batteries?
Where to the people running ESXi free in production and who are happy they managed to get hardware even capable of doing that congregate?
I don’t have answers. I am hoping you do. Because I am broken and I am defeated. I am tired of being told what a failure I am, and how worthless my clients are. I am tired of being told that thousands of people shouldn’t have jobs because we can’t afford to do things in a way that is beneficial to some commercial entity.
I am tired of trying to explain to someone the importance of “ease of use”, because it’s completely different when you have to be master of 200 different applications and all of the infrastructure to run them than it is when you get to be a specialist in just one class of (or even just one) application.
Most of all, I am sick unto death of this attitude that pervades out industry that any one solution is suitable for all people, or that the fact that a product is better in some (frankly irrelevant) technical way means that everyone should buy it, even when they don’t have the money to do so.
I got into IT to help people. Computers were supposed to make our lives better. I still believe that’s what they’re here to do. And I don’t believe “efficiency” means what most of these vendors think it does.
I’ve built an entire career out of making what other people call “impossible” work in the real world. I have built an entire career out of creating solutions that never should have worked work anyways, through sheer force of will.
It’s a young man’s game, but I know for a fact that I am not alone. There are hundreds of thousands of my fellow systems administrators who live that life. Hundreds of thousands of us who string by on the bleeding edge of nothing.
I’m sick of being told we’re worthless and that we should fade away. But I’m far too broken to fight to carve out a niche somewhere else.
So where do we go? Here? A look at the most frequent posters for MangoLassi shows a lot of the people I typically associate with being really down us “junk peddlers”. I don’t think we meet the minimum richness threshold for MangoLassi.
So are there other communities? Do I need to start impovrishednerds.com? I don’t have answers. I rather hope you lot do.
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@cakeis_not_alie said:
There’s a lot more to doing IT for an SMB than finding technical perfection. Many of you don’t work in the smallest of the small SMB IT. SAM, for example, lives in what I would consider to be the cushy lap of luxury, floating on enormous budgets and working with companies who see value in three year refresh cycles.
Keep in mind that while much of my time is spent with ten digit IT budgets, I also spend a ton of time working with five person companies (total size) and single man IT shops and shops so small that they have no IT and can't afford a single server. I work with all sizes, all the time. I just have the luxury of seeing both regularly.
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@cakeis_not_alie I think that you are taking to heart and putting on yourself the budgetary constraints of others and that is an unhealthy way to look at IT. I don't see anyone looking down on IT practitioners who live without a good amount of resources, we are all aware that IT doesn't control that and that we are often forced to make due with very little (or possibly nothing.)
Having a tiny budget, having no resources, having to make to do the extreme are not shortcomings of IT itself but with the business. That's not something that we should take personally unless somehow we are at fault for that (not having fought for proper spending, somehow having lost the firm all of its money, etc.)
Companies need to be able to be small or poor. Although there are still minimum thresholds - thresholds of technology below which is becomes more costly to operate than if they were not met. I've seen companies cripple their employees and bleed money in the name of "careful spending." Huge losses that tiny investments would fix. That, to me, is opulence and extravagance. Throwing money away just to make a point that money is no object and profitability is unimportant to the business. Proper spending in business is never opulence, it is simply good investing.
That said, tons of profitable companies throw ridiculous money away on IT every day. I've seen some of the worst (I hope.) That is just as bad. Buying for the sake of buying without any planning or good thought processes. But proper spending, even if it is large in financial value, isn't opulent if it is the ideal investment for the business to make.
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@scottalanmiller Sir, you say "I don't see anyone looking down on IT practitioners who live without a good amount of resources". Then I submit that you are blind. Spiceworks is chok ablock full of this, and the VMware community is too. There's less of it here on MangoLassi...but the overwhelming majority of our industry not only looks down on these types, they actively persecute them.
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If you look at my postings, for example, both here and on other sites like SW, nearly all of the time I am fighting to get people to reevaluate their needs and spend less, not more. I'm a champion of doing it right, but that "right" is normally far, far less expensive than the expected alternative. There are great use cases for expensive solutions, especially in rich, healthy, established companies.
But there are great use cases for seven year old desktops, Linux Mint OS, no server at all and online backups. Even in my own office, I use a seven year old desktop. It's a quality machine, but we bought them used. Why? Because it was a great business decision. Sure, we beefed them up. So they weren't the $90 that we paid for the base chassis. After upgrades my seven year old PC cost the company $290 ($190 up front, another $100 three years later for a second upgrade.) It was cheap to acquire and has been cheap to maintain. But it was a solid, thoughtful investment in high end (but used) HP commercial gear.
I don't just do this to be frugal, I do it because it is what it cost to get a highly functional, great quality, perfect viable desktop (it's getting long in the tooth now, but only just now, I'm looking to replace it in 2015.) It's what's best for the business. I don't use a high end desktop like many IT people do just because they can convince someone that they need one. I believe in making business decisions based on business needs, not IT wants. I also do it to make sure that no one in the company can point to me and say "look, he gets a super awesome desktop, why don't I?" I want people to point to my equipment and say "oh, even SAM uses properly spec'd, reasonable equipment - it is cost effective while being usable and of good quality."
I don't support over spending, I support right spending. Good spending saves money. Over spending or under spending wastes money in a business.
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@cakeis_not_alie said:
@scottalanmiller Sir, you say "I don't see anyone looking down on IT practitioners who live without a good amount of resources". Then I submit that you are blind. Spiceworks is chok ablock full of this, and the VMware community is too. There's less of it here on MangoLassi...but the overwhelming majority of our industry not only looks down on these types, they actively persecute them.
Sure, I would say that is a correct assumption. Especially since poor SMBs probably pay less than companies that have a decent budget. You could also argue that higher paid IT professionals that work for bigger companies are more skilled and have more experience. As you said in your first post that IT is diverse so that isn't necessarily true in all cases or even most cases.
Another thing to point out is that most IT people with 10+ years of experience have been in those situations. I know I have. My personal opinion is that I would rather work for someone that has a decent budget, if I have a choice.
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@cakeis_not_alie said:
@scottalanmiller Sir, you say "I don't see anyone looking down on IT practitioners who live without a good amount of resources". Then I submit that you are blind. Spiceworks is chok ablock full of this, and the VMware community is too. There's less of it here on MangoLassi...but the overwhelming majority of our industry not only looks down on these types, they actively persecute them.
I spend very little time on the VMware Community, so I cannot comment there. I would not see that behaviour even if it was rampant there. SW has all kinds, I suppose, the community is so large.
I suppose there is a certain condescension to those stuck supporting those situations. Each situation is unique, of course. It's hard to know when to give advice such as "buy this and make do" versus "make this argument to management so that they understand." IT in the SMB is not purely tech like helpdesk at an enterprise is but is just as much a business discipline where IT has to present to management, make financial arguments, give presentations, produce budgets, etc. This makes it difficult for IT folks to make suggestions without being like "have you made a proper presentation to management about how they are wasting money?"
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I wonder if the non-profit world might be a good place to connect with other shoe-string IT folks. I know techsoup has some forums, although I don't know how active they are.
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I have too made my career to date by being able to do not only just the impressive, but the ridiculous with little to no IT budget. Not just running ESXi in production, but multiples, and putting backup images on external Hard Drives that are salvages put into enclosures purchased on new egg so when my 2nd hand hardware failed, I could get business back up and running. As far as others looking down on that, let 'em. So what, at the end of the day business was back up and running, I'm happy, boss is happy, and I have some good resume material for the next job. Shoe string IT stories are just a great excuse for a beer and a laugh, don't let it bring you down. If you think respect from peers, bigger budgets, and nice equipment will bring you happiness in your career, you are mistaken. Happiness comes from honestly doing the best with what you have and a sense of accomplishment in seeing a project come to completion and seeing it work.
TLDR: Haters ganna hate.
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@cakeis_not_alie , I know what you mean. It seems like IT Pros who work in bigger shops often play this game of "look at the toys I have that you should have but don't". They forget that not everyone has huge budgets for IT, or even budgets at all, and if you are choosing to work at a place like that, they look down on you. I agree this attitude needs to change, but it's the "boys club" mentality. No matter what field you work in, I'm sure this is true to a degree. You're a welder? Don't have certain equipment, or a certain brand? Carpenter? Plumber? I've seen this attitude in all these fields, where guys who work small jobs with older equipment and do a great job don't get respected because the truck they drive is 15-years-old and obviously well-used. I, on the other hand, have MORE respect for people who make something from nothing because it's simply all they have.
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@cakeis_not_alie said:
@scottalanmiller Sir, you say "I don't see anyone looking down on IT practitioners who live without a good amount of resources". Then I submit that you are blind. Spiceworks is chok ablock full of this, and the VMware community is too. There's less of it here on MangoLassi...but the overwhelming majority of our industry not only looks down on these types, they actively persecute them.
I know I can be guilty of this at times. Occasionally I see people taking what I consider insane risks; is it wrong to point it out? Clearly not, but I think I will be even more careful how I do it.
Your post struck me right to the core, I remember being there too.
I think if you left any of the communities you mentioned they would be the poorer.
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Someone buy the domain, I'd love to go back and blog some of my old horror stories & tips for budget IT. It'd also be somewhere to vent. I could finally post pics of the 6 usb hdd's I have running backups (ntbackup) and not be heckled
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You ask "what is it that I am looking for"? That's a really fair question, I think.
I guess the reality of it is that I ma hoping there's a place to go with our issues where the default solution isn't "spend money you don't have". Where the people assume that new stuf cannot be bought. That the solutions have to be found with what's to hand. Now, the OP may say "hey, I'm looking to buy a solution"...but I get a lot of people messaging me looking for help with what they have.
Other sysadmins seem to have come to the conclusion that I am all about working with what's to hand. That's cool. But the demand for help is more than I can handle on my own. And hey, sometimes I need help too!
That's the sort of community I'm looking for. One where the default isn't about /selling/. Where it's not about making sure that everyone has the latest, greatest, most whitepapered install.
I do get the natural instinct on behalf of others to say "look, your job is to convince management to spend money". But the problem here is that it presumes that management has money, and are just cheap. Or that just because they are spending money over time they have the ability to make a big up front capital purchase to stem the bleeding. (If that were the case, cloud computing wouldn't exist in it's current form.)
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@Nic said:
I wonder if the non-profit world might be a good place to connect with other shoe-string IT folks. I know techsoup has some forums, although I don't know how active they are.
I think that a natural problem is that a community of "shoe string" IT would have high turnover (most people in there are trying to get out) and very low participation because the same things that make people work in places with no budgets or resources probably also have a high tendency towards lacking regular participation in forums. There would be some, of course, but if you try to isolate that group I think that you would find it to be a not very talkative one.
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@cakeis_not_alie said:
I guess the reality of it is that I ma hoping there's a place to go with our issues where the default solution isn't "spend money you don't have". Where the people assume that new stuf cannot be bought. That the solutions have to be found with what's to hand. Now, the OP may say "hey, I'm looking to buy a solution"...but I get a lot of people messaging me looking for help with what they have.
My guess is that any community will quickly gather a group of people who will always promote buying things. Why? One, because it is an easy answer. But moreso, two, because that's what a lot of people resort to because they didn't know how to make what they had work and they want to promote that mentality because it makes their own decision making look good.
It's a common thread that I see. I did X and can't produce good logic as to why I did it. So I'm going to pressure you to do it too. If everyone does it, my decision must have been a good one, right?
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@scottalanmiller I just spent 11.5 years as the systems administrator for a shoestring company. I run a consultancy that helps companies that need this kind of IT. I pay for my mortgage with tech journalism and commercial content generation.
So what you're saying is that I'm basically it. Alone. Everyone else just "tries to get out". Nobody else loves the thrill of doing the impossible, or feels that the "little guy" needs some expertise too.
So I am a freak. Or broken. Or just plain odd...and the chances of finding a place with people who are like me so that I can just feel like I don't have to walk around with sheilds up all the time is nil.
Lovely. I think I'm going to go do this next briefing and then drunk out of my mind.
HURRAY INTERNETS!
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@cakeis_not_alie said:
Other sysadmins seem to have come to the conclusion that I am all about working with what's to hand. That's cool. But the demand for help is more than I can handle on my own. And hey, sometimes I need help too!
Maybe a trick here, and this is tough, is to coach posters (OPs) that they need to state requirements or constraints up front. And be willing to accept that some people are just always going to suggest buying something, even when they know that you can't. But also be open to maybe there is something to buy that you didn't know about.
For example, a lot of people assume that to do X they need to spend Y and they know that they can't do that because Y is say $1,000. But maybe there is a $20 solution that they didn't know about. It would be good if we didn't avoid that just because they assumed that they couldn't afford to purchase anything.
But leading a discussion with "Given the constraints of working with this existing gear...." or "I have no way to spend over $350 and need to get as close to zero as possibly while meeting goals..." would help a lot, I think. It gives a framework for answering low budget questions.
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It's one thing when you dig deep trying to find a solution to a problem for yourself, it's completely different when you're trying to find a solution for a company which provide income and support for employees - why would a company want to put themselves at such risk? Because they don't know any better? There's a bit of that I'm sure, but I'm guessing more because the owners don't really care about their employees - they only care that the business makes enough to keep them at an acceptable level. With that in mind, why do YOU want to help them continue to make life so hard for those around them when they are not willing to do what it takes to make the business run better?
I know my response doesn't have polish of Scott's, but I'm guessing this is why a lot of IT admins want out of those situations - they want to work for people/companies that care about the business and the employees stability.
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Scott, you've mentioned that posters need to be more responsible with their postings before - though I have no clue how we as a community can help encourage that.
