The 'I work in I.T' thread

[Donny_Dog]

I don't think there is a thread for us nerds. Wondered if anyone fancied sharing anything they're doing/learning/found useful.
Or just chatting about the I.T challenges they're facing, certifications, roles etc.

I'm in networking. Have been for 20 years or so, cut my cloth in Windows 2000! originally.

-----------------------------

Anyhow, I can share something to kick us off.
Thought some of you might find this useful: called Tailscale.

Stumbled across this about a week or so ago, and it is fckin mega.
Free as well - it basically creates an overlay network for your stuff. PC, Phone, server, container, Mac, virtual machine (on cloud or whatever) etc.
Drops them all in a global Layer 2 network. VPN mesh in seconds, literally.

For me, I help out our lasses business with I.T shiz, also my mate in Portugal has a tonne of macs in his business. Just install the app and they're all in my console. Can even ping them from any device by their name! I use it for instant remote desktop, no teamviewer or any of that shite. They're literally directly routable, as if on my home LAN/WAN.
Also got it on my mums laptop, as she is a proper spoon and can't operate windows, constantly ringing etc.

You can also set 'exit nodes' so any one of my devices can be the egress point - handy when abroad, my phone auto connects to tailscale and all my traffic egresses, from my home PC/Laptop back in the UK. It does other stuff, but I'm still playing at the minute.

There's 'invite' too. For example, my mate runs a jellyfin server with movies and s**t. He sent me an invite and his server appears on my console. Thus now directly routable from any of my devices.
Can get to it by name or I.P in a web browser from any of my devices to stream his stuff. Literally have to do nothing.

Like so... he sent me that invite.... I accepted, now appears in my console..

bosh that IP or name in my browser:

was streaming T2 in 1080 used about 10mb upload of his bandwidth at home like..

This dude explains it better than me.




Anyone else used/heard of it?

 

[.Joe]

from what i remember Tailscale is a pretty overlay for wireguard, it's been popping up a lot more recently and seems to be a handy replacement for clunky ipsec client-server vpns

 

[Advikaz]

I'm a solutions architect. Ex technical.

Went from technical in to Project Management, Programme Management and then Solutions.

Pretty much always worked in the Finance Sector in IT. Currently alternative investment as a consultant. I do literally anything IT related, so don't specialise as such. The only things I don't really do loads of is Dev or DBA stuff. But still do a bit here and there.

A lot of it at the moment is Cloud, Security, Migrations of all kinds and even office build outs and moves. It's really varied though, so one minute I'll be on SIEM solution and the next I'll be speaking to someone in Hong Kong about infra architecture. Then someone who wants to move from on prem or hosted to Azure etc.

I enjoy it, although it's hectic at times.

 

[.Joe]

Currently sitting in a technical directors role for a small startup msp, previously in cloud architect role, spend most the time studying new tech, but currently dreading the vmware renewal come the end of the year, already planning the neccessary changes to potentially have to migrate from the platform

 

[Krarl]

Started out as a grunt working at a Datacentre straight out of uni. Degree in computer forensics and security so the majority of what I did doesn't apply to my day to day role

Slowly worked my way up the ranks and now I run the operations of the site and I'm responsible for 5 direct reports. Has it's challenges and I'm still adjusting to the never ending total b****cks politics that they involve around business. My old boss took a diagonal positional change in September last year but I've been doing my job since 2020, only in the past 6 months they've actually paid me accordingly.

 

[Cub.]

 

[Hixle]

Nerds.

(Tech Sales AE here)

 

[ChrisR]

(21 years in IT, last 10 in security tech pre sales making the likes of @Hixle look good)

 

[Gavin.]

I’ve always been good with computers, started build them at a young age. Work wise after spending 10 years bumming about in nightclubs dj/lj’ing I decided I needed a proper job so started in 1st line IT at the Co-op with no qualifications other than basic GNVQ. These days I work for an international clothing company on an IT team of three, migrated all the systems over to Azure during the start of covid. I’m pretty much jack of all trades, master of non these days.

 

[boultonn]

As much as IT is my job, it’s also a very expensive hobbie.
One never ending cycle of computers and money.

 

[andybond]

tech, but currently dreading the vmware renewal come the end of the year, already planning the neccessary changes to potentially have to migrate from the platform

Interesting times ahead.

Some VARs can still sell you perpetual licensing rather than subscription. Time running out though

 

[.Joe]

Interesting times ahead.

Some VARs can still sell you perpetual licensing rather than subscription. Time running out though

Thankfully the cluster licences we can renew, but the horizon licences they'll only do subscription which may be looking at a 4-500% increase annually, potentially going from 13.5k to 70k annually, normally we'd offload that cost off to the customers but it might be a struggle to justify that to them

 

[Donny_Dog]

Was going to post something about VMware and the acquisition.
We are having issues all over the place. Can't get quotes, support non-existent and account managers absent.
Horizon platform up for sale, NSX dog s**t and this latest licence b****cks.
We need to f**k it all off asap. But it's so ingrained. + What else is there really at their scale.

 

[Gavin.]

Was reading this the other day, absolutely mental

 

[.Joe]

Was going to post something about VMware and the acquisition.
We are having issues all over the place. Can't get quotes, support non-existent and account managers absent.
Horizon platform up for sale, NSX dog s**t and this latest licence b****cks.
We need to f**k it all off asap. But it's so ingrained. + What else is there really at their scale.

I fobbed off the NSX-V appliance just before Christmas and replaced the dirty routers with virtual Mikrotik appliances, even the VMware partnership renewal they wanted just shy of £1k to keep our reseller ability. i can see it heading the same way as messagelabs very quickly

 

[Donny_Dog]

I fobbed off the NSX-V appliance just before Christmas and replaced the dirty routers with virtual Mikrotik appliances, even the VMware partnership renewal they wanted just shy of £1k to keep our reseller ability. i can see it heading the same way as messagelabs very quickly

Microtik, love it. Especially the dude. There's nothing like that in the market for network mapping and monitoring.
God bless the Latvians.

 

[.Joe]

Microtik, love it. Especially the dude. There's nothing like that in the market for network mapping and monitoring.
God bless the Latvians.

Safe mode has saved me more times than i wish to count, thankfully gone are the days of having physical appliances

 

[boultonn]

To be honest procurement is probably the worst part of the job.
Similar story with Atlassian, pricing everyone out of their on-prem/self hosted deployments into their cloud so you’re at their mercy every time they get breached.

 

[Clart]

I did a degree in computing and been an IT manager for a tier 1 automotive supplier for 18 years. Manage all aspects of 24 hour JIT production including projects , budgets compliance and support.

Looking to move into a more project based role but it’s not materialised as yet. Don’t really like support as I hate stupid people who can’t use their brain.

 

[andybond]

Was going to post something about VMware and the acquisition.
We are having issues all over the place. Can't get quotes, support non-existent and account managers absent.
Horizon platform up for sale, NSX dog s**t and this latest licence b****cks.
We need to f**k it all off asap. But it's so ingrained. + What else is there really at their scale.

Horizon was a good idea but AVD is pretty freaking good tbh. I prefer the Citrix offering over both mind

Was reading this the other day, absolutely mental

Edu doesn’t count. It pays buttons per license anyway

 

[Donny_Dog]

AVD was the default for many, as Microsoft scared everyone with the enterprise licencing. Looks like they've been forced to start permitting licence use on other platforms. I think Amazon workspaces was allowed late last year.

what firewall experience we got?
what you using?

 

[KitsonRis]

I’m a software engineer and been doing it for the past 7 a half years, and 4 in my current job. Not sure how I ended up doing this but I’m enjoying it. Did a degree in particle physics then a masters degree in nuclear physics, first job was hydrodynamic radiography where spent a lot of time making computational models. Jumped ship to data science after three years but did no data science and ended up doing front end dev work. Asked if I could move to be recognised as a software engineer, was told no so I left to my current job. Technically I’m a senior engineer and tech lead. It sometimes does show my lack of knowledge as I’m basically self taught on the job. I would love to do more and read around and be clued up on the new tech but I have no time in work and I’m not doing it from home seeing as I leave the house at 6am and back home 12hrs later.

 

[Maccy]

Performance engineer, I spent most of the time breaking stuff and telling devs where to fix.

AI will probably make my job redundant eventually!

 

[andybond]

what firewall experience we got?

Cisco ASA
Forefront
ISA2004 ( remember that )
Palo alto ( some )

All F/W are the same. Permit until deny. Holes like cheese

 

[andybond]

Performance engineer, I spent most of the time breaking stuff and telling devs where to fix.

AI will probably make my job redundant eventually!

I like the AI coding out there but it never returns the same ( or even similar ) result twice. Whilst I appreciate that humans think differently we generally approach the same issue the same way.

Until its consistent in its approach Id be happy if I were you.

 

[Darren S]

I did a degree in computing and been an IT manager for a tier 1 automotive supplier for 18 years. Manage all aspects of 24 hour JIT production including projects , budgets compliance and support.

Looking to move into a more project based role but it’s not materialised as yet. Don’t really like support as I hate stupid people who can’t use their brain.

Was an IT Manager myself for a decade. Now more focused on the project management/BA side of things.

DO NOT miss the pressure of being the No.1 go-to person for anything and everything that seemed to have a plug on it. I've been where I am for 23 years next month and I do enjoy it - and it's nice being 'part of the furniture' that you can obtain requirements and speak to anyone really as they know who you are.

 

[ChrisR]

Performance engineer, I spent most of the time breaking stuff and telling devs where to fix.

AI will probably make my job redundant eventually!

Have you found the role to change in recent years at all with the move to more DevOps ways of working, and the incrased use of APM tooling?

I guess there's still more 'traditional' type development out there that it's probably not going anywhere.

 

[Maccy]

Have you found the role to change in recent years at all with the move to more DevOps ways of working, and the incrased use of APM tooling?

I guess there's still more 'traditional' type development out there that it's probably not going anywhere.

Definitely, we're less silo'd and more involved with the application teams and work collaboratively to find issues rather than the traditional 'we've tested, these are the results, go fix it'

In terms of APM, yes and no. I've been at MoJ for over 5 years now which is 99% Azure so we make use of App Insights but they're also trying to get Dynatrace going as well. Teams just don't seem to be as receptive or as willing to use it though because they don't like change!

 

[Clart]

Was an IT Manager myself for a decade. Now more focused on the project management/BA side of things.

DO NOT miss the pressure of being the No.1 go-to person for anything and everything that seemed to have a plug on it. I've been where I am for 23 years next month and I do enjoy it - and it's nice being 'part of the furniture' that you can obtain requirements and speak to anyone really as they know who you are.

Yeah its annoying when people think things with plugs are IT - shredders, radios, microwaves - f**k off

 

[Sir_Dave]

Some VARs can still sell you perpetual licensing rather than subscription. Time running out though

Aaaaaand if you want to pay for your fixed term/perpetual licenses monthly, i can help ...

20 years in Asset Finance, 99% of it funding software & services for SME's - mostly CAD/PLM for all you engineers out there

 

[Donny_Dog]

Cisco ASA
Forefront
ISA2004 ( remember that )
Palo alto ( some )

All F/W are the same. Permit until deny. Holes like cheese

I see you and raise..

ISA 2000

Got the install disc and key if you need it. Message me. X

 

[Advikaz]

+1 for AVD.

 

[Maccy]

Aaaaaand if you want to pay for your fixed term/perpetual licenses monthly, i can help ...

20 years in Asset Finance, 99% of it funding software & services for SME's - mostly CAD/PLM for all you engineers out there

AutoCad licensing? I pay it annually for the mrs but if you can find a better price

 

[Greeny.]

Anyone use Darktrace out of interest and/or use it in a OT network?

 

[Cub.]

lol.

Look at this place. Thriving!!

 

[Donny_Dog]

Anyone use Darktrace out of interest and/or use it in a OT network?

Always wanted it, never worked for anyone who'd pay for it!

 

[mace¬]

Been in IT for 26 years. All healthcare based whether it be finance, clinical or Analytics.

Started off with coding, Mumps, Cobol and all the green screen crap.

About 2014 stuff really took off when one of the largest American IT healthcare providers decided they wanted to get into the UK market. I was part of the first team who worked on the implementation into their first NHS trust whilst also being the technical lead on the medical device integration side of things. Massive learning curve but first time in 15 years of work I enjoyed what I was doing, and still do.

I'm now a Client System Admin overseeing a few NHS trusts and it looks like the work is only going to expand if things keep going the way they are.

Its quite a niche little market at the moment for our skill set which is nice.

And to top it all off I finally got out of the s**t show that was HP/HPE/DXC when they lost the contract,

I also pickup penguins.

 

[.Joe]

If anyone fancies a little throwback

can't beat ol' reliable

 

[Gavin.]

Yeah its annoying when people think things with plugs are IT - shredders, radios, microwaves - f**k off

Somone once turned up and my desk and just said “Hi, I’d just like to inform you the lights broken in the toilet” and walked off.

Think my top ffs moment was a woman at our warehouse opened a support ticket for the black and white printer that she had been using for years no longer printed colour.

 

[Gavin.]

If anyone fancies a little throwback
View attachment 1678348
can't beat ol' reliable

Oh and as400/iSeries can f**k off as well. Bloody Ceefax looking crap 😂