IT in the D

IT in the D: 2015

Configuration Management DevOps Tools are plentiful.  So we will start this primer off with what I look for in a tool and why.  Then we will talk about my current top paid and open source choices.  

When I am evaluating new tools in this class look at the following things:
* Is it OS restricted?
    If I need to manage Windows Machines and it only supports Linux then the solution obviously won't work.
* Does it support the application platform we need to support?
    This is generally more of an Enterprise problem where you are deploying Application Servers.
* Can I write custom scripts?
    If we have a team that can or is willing to learn how to script we can fill in any minor missing pieces.
* How much OS needs to be in place before I can start using it?
    Will the solution allow me to go from Bare Metal(i.e. no Windows or Linux) to fully installed?  Or does it require that we have some basic level of an operating system.
* Is it Agent Based, Agentless, or a Hybrid?
    I tend to lean towards Agentless or Hybrid solutions because it removes the requirement to monitor or restart the agent when they fail.
* Does the tool have a DSL or Domain Specific Language or does it use a standard method for describing work to be done?
    This will tell you how steep an adoption curve you are going to have.  DSL products generally require more training than ones based on YAML or XML.  

This list narrows the field for me.  The how much OS needs to be in place is one most people miss in their lists.  But if you need to roll out machines for something like a Disaster Recovery Drill it can be critical to your timing and person power requirements.  A tool that will go from bare metal to fully functional would be better for that solution.

No solution will be a 100% fit for your environment.  So you need to make trade offs.  If I have a team that can script then customization may not be a problem.  If I don't or if they are all new to it I may want to choose a tool that limits what we can do but does more out of the box.

How the tool works for me is also important.  How do I scale this tool as we grow. Can I set up more than one master server for failover/load balancing?  There is nothing worse than a fully deployed management tool with not management server.

What happens when the Configuration Management tool and server cannot talk for an extended amount of time.  Can the tool maintain the configuration the last known good state?  Does the server alert/log that the server cannot connect to the remote machine?

Once I have figured out a spreadsheet with the names of DevOps tools down one side and my critical items listed across the top.  Below is an example one I filled out for WagsWorld.com(one of my other sites)  If the item isn't a simple yes/no answer I have often used a numeric grading system.  This let's me further refine my rankings of the tools.

If you are a small company working with Linux based systems any of the open sourced tools should be more than enough.   Small companies with Windows systems will have a slightly harder time because that will reduce your Open Source options and may require a small investment in a paid for solution. The larger the organization the more people that have to see how it all works out and the more likely you will choose to pay for a tool.  The good news is that most of them are pretty cheap at this point. 

The bottom line:
* Take your time do your research 
* Make sure it will do at least your list of must haves
* Make sure you understand what it will take to extend it's operations.
* Test it out in a lab before agreeing to spend any money for a tool
* Invest in training if it's available for two or more people to get familiar on the tool

Devops Mastery - Episode 14 Configuration Management - DevOps Tools

IT in the D, Episode 73

Holy wow, what a great way to kick off the year.

Huge thanks to our guests Tom Nardone and Ian Sterrett who joined us tonight to talk about everything from the continually evolving Sony hack to bulletproof hats to geeks and conventions around the area.

Yes, it was that random...and it was that much fun...

In our opening segment, we talked about the college football fan who drunkenly took a $900 Uber ride, the continuing Sony hack debacle, whether or not apps are dying, the new advent of individual tv stations launching their own apps, and more.

Then we dove in with Tom Nardone, President of Priveco and a number of other businesses.  Priveco (Prive like "private" and Co) specializes in allowing you to...well, here's how they describe what they do: PriveCo Inc. is the world's most private company. Our strict privacy policy allows you to shop at any of our web stores with the utmost privacy. Every aspect of your visit including the shopping, purchasing, delivery and after-sale experience is kept completely confidential. Our dedication to private service has caused PriveCo to become one of the Internet's most unusual and fastest growing companies.  Check them out at http://www.priveco.com/

In our third segment, we talked about one of his other companies - BulletSafe.  BulletSafe makes a great bulletproof vest at an unbelievable price. It offers NIJ Level IIIA protection for just $299. It's a great vest too, with a large coverage area, plate pockets for ballistic plates, 6 sizes to fit almost everyone, and high-quality materials. Bulletsafe bulletproof vests are the first great, affordable bulletproof vests.  

Check them out at http://www.bulletsafe.com/

They've also got a kickstarter running right now to help develop their line of bulletproof hats.

Yes...hats.

A very cool concept, and there's a whole bunch of science, math, and reasoning as to why this makes sense.  Go check it out at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/CalmTom/the-bulletsafe-bulletproof-baseball-cap

To wrap things up, we chatted with long-time member of our networking group, Ian Sterrett, about his take on our group, what conventions in the area he's looking forward to or has hit recently, and just some good general conversations.  He's a great guy, and we couldn't be happier to have him around tonight or at our events.

That's all for this time, don't forget to tune in next week!

PriveCo can be found at http://www.priveco.com/

BulletSafe can be found at http://www.bulletsafe.com/

Their kickstarter can be found at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/CalmTom/the-bulletsafe-bulletproof-baseball-cap

Ian can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ianformed

As always, we can be found:
On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com
On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/ 
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/IT-in-D-Read-Meet-91763 
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD 
On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD 
On Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/itinthed/ 



Episode 73: BulletSafe, Priveco, Ian Sterrett

Episode 74, and wow was this a packed one.

Lots of great topics, tons of good conversation, a whole slew of new drops to be isolated for our opening...

...but I digress.  Thanks to our guests Kinsay Mantay and Nicole Johnson for coming out to talk about a cool program that gets you paid while earning your Associate's Degree as well as getting you a job once you're done, a $10,000 Internet of Things contest for young girls, a new group that's starting up that we're looking forward to doing more with in the future, and much, much more.

So let's get to some details...

As we typically do, we dove into the news, stories, events and topics that caught our attention over the past week.

We ranted about the Punch Bowl Social dust-up via social media that we believe got all too ridiculous all too quickly.  We talked about our event coming up this Thursday night (the 15th! Blackfinn! Royal Oak! 5pm! Be there!) for folks in and around the metro Detroit information technology community.  We got into some of the feedback that's been coming in and the original thoughts behind my blog entry recapping my trip to a comic book shop with my kids...and the surprise I got from my daughter while there.

In our second segment, we talked with Kinsay Mantay about the MAT2 program.

Now people...look.  We cannot make this any more clear for you.  This program:

1. Is wide open.

2. Gets you an associates degree.  That you don't pay for.

3. Partners you up with a company that you work at while getting that degree.  That you don't pay for.

4. You have a job at that company that you're partnered up with.  While getting that degree.  That you don't pay for.

5. So you're earning money. From that job with that company you're partnered up with.  While still getting that degree.  That you still don't pay for.

6. When the program's over, you move into a full time job.  Probably earning more money than you were earning before from that job with that company that you're partnered up with.  While getting that degree.  That you still aren't paying for.

Did you finish high school?  Do you want a decent job?  Would you like a degree without having to pay for it?  Would you like a more decent job after getting that degree?  CLICK HERE: http://www.mitalent.org/mat2/

I really don't know how much more simple than that we can make it, people.

Our third segment had us chatting with our other in-studio guest, Nicole Johnson.  Nicole's got a lot going on at the moment:  

- She's a systems engineer at Cisco.  

- She's one of the women launching Diva Tech Talk.  From CFOs of corporations to scrappy entrepreneurs, women are making a huge impact in technology today. Yet the numbers of women in tech are still small. We interview these leaders and highlight issues and trends in technology.  If other women can see IT, they can be IT.

- She's working to get the word out about Cisco's Internet of Things competition for girls aged 13-18 where the winner walks away with $20,000 and there are multiple other prizes ranging from $5,000 to $10,000.

In our fourth segment, we doubled back a bit on some earlier topics, dove into a few others, and then called it quits for the night with Bob vowing revenge for my musical selections during our breaks.  Which you can't hear here in syndication, so ha ha, you missed it, you totally need to start listening live.

The MAT2 program can be found at http://www.mitalent.org/mat2/

Diva Tech Talk can be found at http://www.divatechtalk.com/

Cisco's Internet of Things contest can be found at http://iotchallenge-cisco.younoodle.com/

As always, we can be found:
On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com
On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/ 
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/IT-in-D-Read-Meet-91763 
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD 
On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD 
On Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/itinthed/ 


Episode 74: MAT2, Diva Tech Talk, a $10k IoT Contest, Women in Tech, Our Event Thursday and More

Our 75th episode, and this one's full of rants, raves, laughter and great conversations.

Lots of rants.  Lots...and lots...of rants...

Thanks to our guests local entrepreneur Bradley Hoos, as well as Jimi Plouffe and Nick Daniels from Momentum for hanging out, hopping in on the rants, hanging for the laughs, and providing a lot of great information in between the outbursts, and we even had a voice from the past call in...

Our first segment was pretty much wholly occupied by our discussion of what happened when the internet went nuts over one of our posts.

Over the span of three days last week, our blog entry about taking my kids to a comic book shop took just under 250,000 unique page views.  To put that into perspective, we normally get about 100,000 per month...and we had a single day that did more than that.

If you haven't read it yet, you should, just to have the proper context for listening to our first segment if nothing else.  You can find that over at http://www.itinthed.com/16328/what-taking-my-daughter-to-a-comic-book-store-taught-me/

The internet is full of fascinating things and people, the vast majority of whom were outstanding and some really good conversations evolved...

...but then there are...the others.  The people who love to get offended about anything. The ones just looking to pick a fight.  The geniuses who don't have kids but think they know everything about being a parent.  The keyboard courage commandos who think being behind a screen means that they can say whatever they want.

We talked about them all, so enjoy the conversation and venting.

That took up the entire first segment, and so we didn't get a chance to talk about other events or items that caught our eye this past week, so if you're interested, you can catch the topics we were going to get to down at the bottom.

In our second segment, we started things off with a surprise phone call, prior guest Russ Dotson (he was on our first episode, as well as others) back stateside after a tour of duty overseas.

Then we dove in with Brad Hoos, also a repeat offender guest, to talk about the various things he has going on these days. We discussed Hacker Fellows, a program recruiting recent Michigan and national college graduates to participate in a one-year program. The Hacker Fellows lasts one year and you'll get to work at an amazing Michigan tech start-up. You'll start with 6 weeks of training with your cohorts and dive into the start-up world by getting matched with a Michigan start-up. In short, you'll learn with the best and brightest in Michigan as you start your career.   Pretty decent concept, and you can learn more at http://www.hackerfellows.com/

You can also learn more about Brad and his endeavors at http://disciplinedentrepreneur.com/

Our third segment was supposed to be a dive in with our other guests...but turned into a collection of rants about people trying to tell business owners what they can and cannot do with their own companies, and a few other fun topics.

Episode 75: The Good, Bad and Ugly of the Internet, Entrepreneurs in Detroit and More

Episode 76, and yet another episode that's full of a lot of laughter and great conversations.

Thanks to our in-studio guests Anthony Tocco, Kyle Nelson, Andrew Mortemore, and Wade Kean, all from one of our sponsors - Quantum - for joining us...

From the Skymall bankruptcy to the measles outbreak at Disney, our first segment was all about the stories that caught our eye this past week.  How the FBI's trying to say that using a TOR or even a VPN connection constitutes probable cause.  A drone showing up on the White House lawn.  Disney rejecting Lucas' drafts for future Star Wars flicks and more.

After that, we dove right in with Quantum.

Quantum is one of our core sponsors, and so we're obviously more than happy to have them in-studio, but it wasn't a dry, boring commercial as one might expect.  Nope, we had a great and lively series of conversations about what they're doing in the industry with the NHL, GoPro, and several other seriously interesting applications of their technologies.

If you're not familiar with them, Quantum is a leading expert in scale-out storage, archive and data protection, providing intelligent solutions for capturing, sharing and preserving digital assets over the entire data lifecycle. We help customers maximize the value of these assets to achieve their goals, whether it’s top movie studios looking to create the next blockbuster, researchers working to accelerate scientific discovery, or small businesses trying to streamline their operations. With a comprehensive portfolio of best-in-class disk, tape and software solutions for physical, virtual and cloud environments, we enable customers to address their most demanding workflow challenges and opportunities.

In our final segment, we doubled back on a few earlier topics and wrapped things up for the week.

Tune in next week as we're joined by the folks from Caliber Comics talking about their Nain Rouge comic with a Detroit flavor, our friends from Detroit Beer Press discussing their new issue, and Monica Wheat giving us some information about a new program in the city helping women develop and strengthen their skills.

Quantum can be found at http://www.quantum.com/

As always, we can be found:
On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com
On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/ 
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/IT-in-D-Read-Meet-91763 
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD 
On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD 
On Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/itinthed/ 

IT In The D - Episode 76: Quantum Storage Solutions

Episode 77: Detroit Beer Press, Pipeline Fellowship Detroit, Daily Detroit

Episode 107 of our weekly live broadcast was an awesome combination of repeat guests and first-timers as we talked DevOps, career transition, an upcoming iOS developer bootcamp, the politics of networking groups and more...

Episode 107: Detroit Labs, Grand Circus, Right Brain Networks, DevOps, Career Transition and More

All done with Comic Con...at least for now, as we dove back into tech topics with the A2 Healthcare Hackathon coming up in the near future, as well as discussing what TEALS is and how it's getting computer science into schools around the country...

The Healthcare Hackathon is at https://www.a2healthhacks.org/

TEALS is at https://www.tealsk12.org/

Hostgator's offer can be found at http://www.HostGator.com/ITintheD/

JAMF is at http://www.JAMF.com/D

Dollar Shave Club's offer is at http://www.DollarShaveClub.com/ITintheD



IT in the D
On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com
On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/IT-in-D-91763
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD
On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD

Podcast Detroit is at:

On the web: http://www.podcastdetroit.com/
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PodcastDetroit
On Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodcastDetroit
On Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/podcastdetroit

ITintheD ep198 - A2 Healthcare Hackathon, Microsoft Philanthropy, TEALS

As we get ready for our 200th episode, the 4 year anniversary episode wasn't too shabby at all.  We were joined by Jill Ford, who heads up the city of Detroit's innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives, as well as Logols, a new coding boot camp that offers a pay as you can model, and the team behind the Detroit.Code conference coming up that we've got two tickets to give away for next week at our event in Royal Oak...

Jill Ford can be found at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/msjillford/

Logols is at: http://www.logols.io/

Detroit.Code is at: https://detroitcode.amegala.com/

Dolby's awesome new conference tools are at  http://www.dolby.com/itinthed

Hello Fresh is at http://www.HelloFresh.com with coupon code ITINTHED30

Norton's sweet new router is at http://www.Norton.com/ITINTHED

IT in the D
On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com
On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/IT-in-D-91763
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD
On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD

Podcast Detroit is at:

On the web: http://www.podcastdetroit.com/
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PodcastDetroit
On Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodcastDetroit
On Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/podcastdetroit

ITintheD Ep199 - Detroit Innovation, Logols Coding Boot Camp, DetroitCode Conference

Really don't know how to sum this one up...it was way too much fun.  With Jeff Mackey coming back in to join us, Jer and Sven from Daily Detroit in the house, Billy Strawter, Tom Lawrence, Jeff Haase, Randy from The Twitters, and even an infamous segment five...this was a lot of laughs, a lot of reminiscing, and a lot of fun.

We can only hope you have as fun listening as we did recording it.  Enjoy.

IT in the D
On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com
On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/IT-in-D-91763
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD
On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD



Podcast Detroit is at:
On the web: http://www.podcastdetroit.com/
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PodcastDetroit
On Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodcastDetroit
On Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/podcastdetroit

ITintheD ep200 - The Return of the Mack, Ming Chen, Daily Detroit, Godfather Rants, Wayback Machine

Fun episode as Nuri's back in town and we were joined by Valiant Films and Fanworld to talk about making movies, running a con in Niagara Falls, and so, so much more...

Fan World is at http://www.fanworld.us/ or http://www.fanworld.ca

Valiant Films is at: https://www.facebook.com/wearevaliantfilms/

Their film Solomon is at http://www.solomonfilmdetroit.com/

IT in the D
On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com
On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/IT-in-D-91763
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD
On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD

Podcast Detroit is at:
On the web: http://www.podcastdetroit.com/
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PodcastDetroit
On Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodcastDetroit
On Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/podcastdetroit

ITintheD ep201 - Valiant Films, Fan World Niagara Falls

Social Media is one of those topics that always confuses the hell out of us, and so it was great to have Sola in as a guest to talk about not just Social Media Day Detroit this coming Friday, but also the evolution of social media - how things are changing, how to keep up with things, and more...

SMAMI is at: http://www.smami.org/

Social Media Day Detroit is this Friday, and is at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/social-media-day-detroit-2017-smdaydet-tickets-35420865763 (use code ITINTHED for a sweet discount)

...we'll see you there!



IT in the D
On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com
On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/IT-in-D-91763
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD
On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD

Podcast Detroit is at:
On the web: http://www.podcastdetroit.com/
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PodcastDetroit
On Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodcastDetroit
On Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/podcastdetroit

ITintheD ep202 - Social Media Day Detroit, Social Media Changes and Evolution

The IT in the D Show

So what do a couple of IT guys from Detroit talk about when they go to the bar?
Welcome to the IT in the D show, brought to you by long-time Detroit IT veterans Bob Waltenspiel (The Sales Guy), and Dave Phillips (The Geek).
The duo has been putting on free networking events for the metro Detroit information technology community for over 10 years, helped more than 1,200 people find new jobs, and been featured in local and national news stories and publications for their efforts.  After taking on speaking engagements starting in 2011 that helped refine their message, in 2013 they took their ramblings to a broadcast format that has proven to be far more popular than anyone expected.
The IT in the D show is more conversational and less instructional – it is far more geared toward entertainment and local goings-on in the metro Detroit area than a deep-dive about specific technical issues.  It’s a bar chat, not technical seminar.  You’ll hear more movie quotes than MySQL queries and more Depeche Mode than development methodologies.  Not that the guys don’t roll up their sleeves and deep dive from time to time, but with guests ranging from local CIOs and CEOs to roller derby girls and pop culture icons from the 80s, don’t let the “IT” in “IT in the D” scare you.
Each weekly two-hour show typically includes current events and stories, guests ranging from local entrepreneurs to local IT rock stars to people with great local stories to tell, rants, raves and everything you’d expect from a couple of guys who have known each other and been drinking together for nearly two decades.

The show has been listened to over five million times to date and has been heard in all 50 states and 41 countries. We appreciate the time spent with us and welcome all feedback.

More information can be found online at http://www.ITintheD.com