Marcus D. Hall

Here are the things that I do to help my team steer through a stressful situation: - Focus the team on mitigation & recovery - Ensure the right people and resources are engaged - Do not let a good crisis go to waste (train, document, coach) - Ensure the customer is engaged with the appropriate information along with my Senior Leadership. It is important to not panic and keep a calm & cool demeanor. A visibly panicked leader will cascade down to the team. This is a learning opportunity that can be used to validate recovery SOPs. Avoid the blame phase by focusing the team on recovery and documentation. Use the right amount of engagement to lead but enable the team to resolve the defect and own the recovery.

When managing a network infrastructure, I would prioritize focus based on performance KPIs, needs of the customer, and system lifecycle. You need to ensure you have the right amount of OPEX and CAPEX built into the budget that will enable you to address defects, new requirements and perform system lifecycle. If you do not have the right amount programmed into the budget then you have to make certain trade-offs to keep the network running at an optimal level while you expand or upgrade the network. Monitoring and auditing is critical so you can be situationally aware of the status of the network. Network availability is important to the internal and external customers.

Organizational priorities should help guide IT procurement priorities. Having solidified hardware requirements which meet short term plans and scale to bridge to long term plans is key. The vendor’s supply chain health and contractual SLA’s should be data points for the decision algorithm. The level of effort to onboard the equipment is normally my tie breaker. Onboarding effort is often overlooked and can delay deployment if not properly evaluated & planned.

Having the right system along with using encryption & compression, file structure plan, dynamic compute resources are very critical to having an efficient and highly available storage system. Let’s not forget the inclusion of robust records management process with an auditable data retention governance. Without it, you might be maintaining obsolete records that provide no value to the organization. A Records Management Policy is key to aligning with Local, State and Federal compliance law.

My experience began before we had the automation tools we have today. From the early days of .bat script files to full spectrum auto detection and trigger based workflows. Automation will simplify workflows and remove the element of human error. These workflows can also work after hours to onboard or off board talent; on demand permission elevations, monitor file changes, truncate log files, and perform system maintenance. You can use native o/s tools to create and schedule tasks or a third party system. This can reduce FTE hours, maintained critical scheduled tasks, reduce defects and decrease OPEX.

Ensuring the diaries or resolution actions are of high quality can also affect FCR and handling times. Technicians can quickly research those or a KB to quickly locate the appropriate fix action.