New position takes 120% of my bandwidth

So, I started a new position as a Linux Admin back in August of last year. The company is a fortune 100 and the job is fantastic. The only down side is it literally consumes more time than I have available. By this I mean we are currently working on such a wide spectrum of technologies that it's hard to give attention to anything else.

That spectrum I mentioned spans from  Openstack / vSphere Admin'ing to international remote site infrastructure installations. There's a lot to do. Which keeps me busy and happy. The single caveat is that my available attention to things like certs has been greatly diminished. I had to drop last terms Sec+ and VCP classes as I just couldn't keep up with the ramp up from the new job and class work.

Needless to say the blog was set to the side and only lately have I begun to surface. However my current focus is spread a bit thin. I'm looking over widely distributed directory deployments, working on the Python Scripting Expert class, and reading Pro Puppet.

Things seem to move very fast in the company and if I'm not involved and actively working on the technology of interest the project moves on without me. Puppet is a good example of this. We are in a slow migration from CF Engine to Puppet, but if I don't jump in on configs, then the task will get picked up by another Admin. I loose out on the experience and knowledge. On the other side, I've got a full plate with Perl scripts, vSphere work, PM work for a Nagios deployment, Nagios reporting research, puppet manifests to write, plus more. Never a dull moment!

So, for the next while I'll be doing my best to drop my usual random notes and articles, but please bare with me. The timing may be more elongated between posts as I'm running fairly short on that these days.

Be well, grab your towel, and don't panic!

Switching Gears.

I finished a one term class today, 12 weeks early. I planned it that way and with the leap year, I actually finished 1 day early. Ha. The LAMP / Eucalyptus class is still moving along, although we're covering Open Stack and not Eucalyptus anymore.

It seems the professor (A Sr. Systems Engineer at The Aerospace Corp.) was a part of a group who had deployed Eucalyptus and found that when the resources were maxed out, VMs would just get dropped (disappear). Openstack by contrast does not allow new VMs to be deployed once all available resources are spoken for by other VMs. So, we are moving forward with Openstack.

With my (short term) class completed (Linux Administration), it marks a shift in focus to my next certification. Originally, I was thinking that would be the Comptia Security+, but that will be put off till I receive the exam voucher, later this year (no reason to waste money!). Then, I was thinking the ITIL V3 would be good, but now I'm thinking I will move the ITIL to April and work on the Redhat RHCSA in March. I'm pretty enthralled with Linux right now. I'm also reading Classic Shell Scripting: Hidden Commands that Unlock the Power of Unix.

Links to Amazon's site.

 So, tonight we (me and the mouse in my pocket) start reading Mich Jang's Red Hat Linux Certification Study Guide, I've laid out the month long schedule for the exam and scheduled it for April 6th. Here's the month's calendar.

I'm looking forward to the next few months with the exams, classes and what not. This is the reason I got into IT in the first place!

Cisco Career Certification Path

I was snooping about on one of Cisco's pages entitled "Benefits of Hiring Cisco Certified Professionals." I've seen the question of how companys can benifit from hiring Cisco certified individuals before, but have never really come across a definitive "Yes, CCNA / CCNP get discounts on gear" page. That is still the case,

I did however, come across this nice document laying out Cisco Certification Paths (pdf). It's not new news by any means, but it's laid out nicely and is a good at a glance resource.

© 2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.link to PDF.

Attacks on websites spark demand for cyber-security experts

Today I was having a conversation with a guy I know in the infosec industry who pointed me to this article in the LA Times. It paints a booming year for the Information Security industry, but how long will the bubble last?

We as humans have a tenancy to forget past aliments and our foresight can be even worse. Consider that infosec is a non-tangible industry. If (and when) attacks go quiet will the call for infosec profession go quiet as well? This is a big concern of mine and one I suspect is valid. Still IT canges with the decades and so do its inhabitants.

Here's the article and a brief snippet:

The business of protecting computers and servers from intruders has been growing nearly 10% a year since 2006, but security industry officials say 2011 may be the busiest year yet.

Comptia Certification Roadmap

Comptia has put out a interactive roadmap for career paths and certifications. Its interesting to see Comptia's perspective on the IT world and where they places themselves. As of late Ive come under the impression that Comptia has a great marketing team and from what I've read they are DoD required for certian positions.Check it out: Comptia cert roadmap