Our IT infrastructure is rubbish, I want to fix it!
Discussion
Gently 
Talk to the guys that have done things, over coffee or a ciggie (best gossip place evah). Offer a small assist for something obvious. Get it RIGHT, first time and on time. Move up the ladder from there, fixing things as you go.
Focus on the business, not the technology. It might be they want to go from where they are to a snapshot backup to a NAS, so one VM per host makes sense, as then they can swap out the abstracted hardware (granted, not a lot of sense, but some) and they are having to argue babysteps on the way there. You won't know unless you have a chat to them.
You're right, in that going in like Billy Bigbloox will simply mean you don't get to play at all, and are consigned to a life in Business Development. Boohiss.
Talk to the guys that have done things, over coffee or a ciggie (best gossip place evah). Offer a small assist for something obvious. Get it RIGHT, first time and on time. Move up the ladder from there, fixing things as you go.
Focus on the business, not the technology. It might be they want to go from where they are to a snapshot backup to a NAS, so one VM per host makes sense, as then they can swap out the abstracted hardware (granted, not a lot of sense, but some) and they are having to argue babysteps on the way there. You won't know unless you have a chat to them.
You're right, in that going in like Billy Bigbloox will simply mean you don't get to play at all, and are consigned to a life in Business Development. Boohiss.
k do film directors and producers not know how to design cinemas!!!volvo20 said:
I have an IT support background, but ive recently started a job in software development in a small 30 man company.
Do you really want to end up back where you started, in IT support? 'Cos that's what'll happen.Probably most of the 30 people have got a bit of an idea. Same in our company of 35 people, so it makes it very difficult to get anything agreed, some people think IT should be more or less free and others would cheerfully spend huge amounts. We've been told that at about 50 people there really ought to be a dedicated IT bod looking after everything.
Deva Link said:
Do you really want to end up back where you started, in IT support? 'Cos that's what'll happen.
This, unfortunately. The first place i worked when i graduated had about 8 software devs, but no decent IT infrastructure, and no-one managing it, except the technical manager when he could be arsed and one of the senior devs when something broke. I got involved in alot of the infrastructure stuff pretty soon ater i started (it needed it), and suffered for it.My learning of software skills suffered hugely, and people started asking me for help on stupid little things "because Simbu doesn't mind helping with that stuff". By silly things i mean constant printer issues through to "how do i do x in Excel?".
I was gone after 5 months.
If you're relatively new to the software development game, i'd say spend as much time doing that and not IT support stuff as you can, for your own sake.
Once you've established yourself as a good dev, consider getting involved in the other stuff.
It depends on what your goals are. If you're looking to get good software development experience then i'd avoid the other stuff and concentrate on that, if you're looking to build a career with this particular business then helping out on the IT things will reap its rewards. In that case just start getting involved whenever feels appropriate to you.
Deva Link said:
Do you really want to end up back where you started, in IT support? 'Cos that's what'll happen.
Probably most of the 30 people have got a bit of an idea. Same in our company of 35 people, so it makes it very difficult to get anything agreed, some people think IT should be more or less free and others would cheerfully spend huge amounts. We've been told that at about 50 people there really ought to be a dedicated IT bod looking after everything.
It really depends on what you do... and what you acually need... benchmarking can be so hard. It really comes down to what you spend now on IT support (staff hours or external people) and where the break even point isProbably most of the 30 people have got a bit of an idea. Same in our company of 35 people, so it makes it very difficult to get anything agreed, some people think IT should be more or less free and others would cheerfully spend huge amounts. We've been told that at about 50 people there really ought to be a dedicated IT bod looking after everything.
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