Well we're 34 days from our soft opening on June 24th 2009. I'm getting things ready for it as we go. I just got done having Marty from Metro Sales Solutions tip the rest of our fiber optic cable runs for the new Worship Center area using Panduit Opticam connectors that are too slick to describe. Let's just say that he tipped 12 strands of fiber on both ends in about 2 hours. That's 24 connections in total, and tested. He had been here back in September and did 12 strands on both ends back then (24 tips in total) for the run from ou Main Network / Electrical room to Distribution Room #1 in the KidZone, and now he just finished the other run from our Main Network / Electrical room to Distribution Room #2 under the New Worship Center, and he did it all for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, and didn't charge us either. He wouldn't even let me take him for lunch. But I told him he needs to come back when the new area is up and running, and I'll give hime another tour and we will do lunch for sure, it's the least I can do.
Now the guys for our fob system are able to come in and connect up the 2nd ACU in the new area to the system so we can make the doors hot and locked via electronic lock system.
And in IT it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas but without snow :-)
Our new SonicWall NSA-3500, along with 8 SonicPoint a/b/g/n radios have arrived as well as our new Intel MFSYS35 Blade server which will run VMWare ESXi and MS SBS 2008 Premium server, as well as a virtual MS Windows 2008 std server with SQL server, and a Windows 2003 std server and more.
I got boxes everywhere, and no where to put them (more on that later).
All of this is due to going to CITRT back in April and meeting Mark Moreno, a great vendor, an even greater man of Christ, and a new friend too.
I was going to install a new Cisco 4402 WLAN Controller along with Cisco WCS and 4 new APs (I have 3 Cisco APs now) to start off our campus wide wifi.
Well after talking to Mark, and checking him out with some other people at CITRT, I decided to go with a more unified solution that he put together that included not purchasing he Cisco gear, removing our Juniper Firewall, removing our Barracuda Spam Filter 300, as well as our Bluecoat 200SG Content Management device, and our old HP server running Windows SBS 2003 Premium, and replacing it with a SonicWall NSA-3500 to take care of our firewall, and wireless Access Point controller, as well as 8 new SonicPoint a/b/g/n APs, and a new Intel MFSYS35 Blade server running VMWare with a VM of Windows SBS 2008 Premium server running Email security for Windows SBS to handle Spam etc.
At this same time I'm trying to get ready to move my office from one of four cubical's in a room shared with 3 other people to my own office (woo hoo). The carpet layer is supposed to have the carpet down this Wednesday (Mark comes in Wednesday late afternoon), and I already have 6 Gigabit Ethernet connections in there, as well as 2 20amp power circuits, so I'm ready to move in and set up to get things rockin and rollin when Mark comes in (I pray).
More to follow.....
Friday, May 22, 2009
What's happening in GT Church's Tech Ops
Taking a title from 24 and some of the guys & gals on CITRT (Church IT RoundTable) I'm calling the IT Department Tech Ops here.
I've been with GT since January 2008 as part time staff holding the position of IT / Web Administrator working 3 days / week (approx 20hrs). I started as an outside contractor back in September of 2006 when our Lead Pastor, Bryan Koch asked me to help them get a website going. The rest is history.
We went from using an outside firm to handle IT with our Director of Operations and our Multimedia Director handling day to day issues, to having me on staff along with a handful of volunteers for doing things from servicing PCs, loading software, etc., to working on a revamp of our website.
We are in the final stages of our Forward By Faith building program, in which we have built a 16000+ sq ft KidZone for ages B-5yrs old (which is open and being used), and our 1500 seat Worship Center that also has a large atrium with the new Sacred Grounds Cafe Grill along with Scrolls Bookstore, and more. This new building encompasses approximately 45000 sq ft of space. You can see the plans at http://www.gtaog.org/220930.ihtml.
I've been with GT since January 2008 as part time staff holding the position of IT / Web Administrator working 3 days / week (approx 20hrs). I started as an outside contractor back in September of 2006 when our Lead Pastor, Bryan Koch asked me to help them get a website going. The rest is history.
We went from using an outside firm to handle IT with our Director of Operations and our Multimedia Director handling day to day issues, to having me on staff along with a handful of volunteers for doing things from servicing PCs, loading software, etc., to working on a revamp of our website.
We are in the final stages of our Forward By Faith building program, in which we have built a 16000+ sq ft KidZone for ages B-5yrs old (which is open and being used), and our 1500 seat Worship Center that also has a large atrium with the new Sacred Grounds Cafe Grill along with Scrolls Bookstore, and more. This new building encompasses approximately 45000 sq ft of space. You can see the plans at http://www.gtaog.org/220930.ihtml.
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