Eleven Differences Between The Good And The Great IT Engineer

Even the pros have bad habits that undermine the image of the area. See how to identify them.

In the daily operations of any organization, typically the end users are responsible for a wide range of actions that compromise the safety and / or network performance.

However, even the pros have their bad habits: ignore users, do backups, not having defined procedures and other sins that undermine the image of the area.

To remind them that even the gurus are human, see below the 11 differences between a GOOD and an EXCELLENT IT engineer:

1. Acquisition Of Resources

When you want additional features, the network professional need to justify the request. A good engineer sends emails to the boss asking for more budget. A great engineer uses its monitoring systems to create a complete list of the use of each device and show how additional investment in hardware or bandwidth will improve the use of resources and increase business efficiency.

2. Identification Of Critical Alerts

Too many alerts means that network administrators will not be able to see the most critical alarms. A great engineer creates schedules and alerts that warn of more serious problems and ensure that the right person with the right skills, receive an alert.

3. Monitoring

A good engineer monitors the network. A great engineer develops panels that are able to submit all the necessary data to find problems before they cause real problems for users, such as problems related to storage or overloaded access points (wireless). Never wait for the phone to ring with news of an outage on the network – one great engineer must make sure that he will be the first to become aware of a problem.

4. Sharing Knowledge

How IT is an essential part of any business, one great engineer must use their understanding of the system to management and key users informed about the performance of its features and what it can do to help improve a difficult situation.

5. “I will document later”

A good engineer can add, remove or distribute assets, or assign or change IP addresses, but when lunchtime arrives, he leave the document to update later … and often forgets! A great engineer records the changes immediately. Even a basic change in management system that facilitates the registration of change is better than none. An incomplete or outdated documentation is source of problems.

6. Troubleshooting

IT is such an essential business to ask if there is a crash or hardware failure – on an individual computer or a major systems – A great engineer will set deadlines for responses and notifications to the team. The help desk should confirm receipt of a ticket at the time he arrives, with clear feedback about response times, and routing options if they are not satisfactory.

7. Don’t Leave The Updates To Check Tomorrow

Such as virtualization, cloud or BYOD – – When new technologies emerge one great engineer does not leave them for the next day or expect someone else to try to learn about them. New technologies are inevitable and always worth learning something new.

8. Formula For Disaster

Do not let huge flaw trigger and create a disaster recovery plan: Develop and test the plan in advance. A great engineer ensures the implementation of a contingency plan, data backup and proof of successful restorations. Review the plan and schedule regular simulations of disasters, even if only once a year or when new administrators assume functions related to recovery.

9. Password – Approve or Reject

Many network administrators tend to use the same password on multiple servers, applications and network devices. If a user does not get approved access to a less critical one system is extremely easy to compromise the core of critical systems using the master password.

10. Police Administrators

You have access policies and auditing deployed to users, but you also police the administrators? We often think that procedures add workload to the administrators and overload, preventing to resolve an emergency situation. However, the excuse of “doing things faster” should not mean no supervision, even the older managers. A great engineer implements a simple mechanism for auditing and reviewing occasional access. For larger teams with different levels, implement role-based, appropriate to the responsibilities of each controls.

11. Ignore The Capacity Planning

Many IT administrators expect the shortage of assets (network equipment, PCs, servers, mobile devices, wireless networking, storage etc.) to request additional equipment. A great engineer is ready for unexpected situations such as a high volume or simultaneous failures, especially when the supplier takes time to provide the equipment.