For the week of 26 – 30 June, I began learning each of the systems in depth that monitors the different networks, sensors and outside systems that ReedSmith deals with. First, I found out that they use a company called Lexis Nexis (LN) to deal with their information traffic needs. LN has a facility in another state that uses both Verizon and L3 communications to truncate their Citrix traffic, Internet, VOIP, Teleconferencing, and specialized systems for Law that is used by Law Firms around the world.

The majority of the company is given iPhones and there is an alert system used to give the employees up to date information for disasters to the local environments. This is an alert system that also gives messaging to laptops and desktops at the same time.

Learning the Solarwinds systems to monitor the different VM servers, along with knowing how to log into each server to either update or reboot the server is needed for this job. They are able to actually reach and do their work over the network without having to physically be there. There is a physical site monitor though at each office, whether it be a person assigned in an office to deal with the blades or some have to physically travel to another location. The NOC monitors when someone enters the rooms though through cameras. Other sensors include temperature and humidity for each rack of servers, which is very helpful in keeping a healthy network.

What I’m also learning is that we don’t deal with outside customers, but network and app analysts and engineers. This higher level of help-desk operations is new to me and a lot more interesting because knowing how these systems work and how they work together is one of the reasons I am working in Information Technology.