[OPLINTECH] Selecting a backup solution for my position

[Chad Neeper]

Even if you were to find an affordable 3rd party tech support company to
work with you, the staff wouldn't necessarily be able to call the support
company up out of the blue, say "Fred's skinny dipping off the coast of
Alaska, but the Internet seems slow today, patron print jobs are strangely
printing to the staff printer all of a sudden, and my Word document will no
longer open." and expect the 3rd party support company to be able to
quickly get things working again. They would likely either need access to
you and/or your (very detailed and organized) configuration notes or you
would need to plan ahead and start working with the company often enough
for them to have a passing familiarity with your network and hopefully
build up their own detailed notes.

Frankly, nobody is going to be able to handle your network as well as you,
if you're the sole network admin. If there are no plans to hire a junior
you (or even if there are), then you might consider a multi-faceted
approach using a combination of options:

*) If you can, find that 3rd party support company you can build an ongoing
(if occasional) relationship with and work them into a position where they
could help out on serious emergencies. Unfortunately, that may mean you'd
have to spend money to bring them in to assist (even if not entirely
necessary) with some things while you're around and in a non-emergency
status. You might save them for the hard-core stuff like server and network
infrastructure issues. I suppose you could consider this an investment in
your network's continued health.

*) Identify your other likely stress points that aren't so
devastating...printer problems, routine network backups, etc. ...and train
a staff member that has a technical bent to handle those very specific and
limited-scope tasks. You could perhaps even offload those routine tasks
more permanently.

*) Set up and test a remote access scheme that you can use in a pinch if
your sick-ish at home or if you happen to have Internet access wherever
you're vacationing (if you're so inclined to briefly help out while on
vacation!) This is nice too for taking care of that occasional thing that
happens as soon as you get home from the day's work and get a panicked call
from a staffer that can't find his/her important document on bunnies.


>From my own perspective, these are just some things that I've seen used
with success at some libraries. I'm curious to see what others do too!


For my own libraries, *I'm* the 3rd party company they call for help when
the local tech is away or the problem is beyond their skillset. In some
cases, I'm the regular IT guy too, so I guess it's a good thing I rarely
get sick and never take a vacation!

2 cents, FWIW.
Chad

______________________________
*Chad Neeper*
Senior Systems Engineer

*Level 9 Networks*
740-548-8070 (voice)
866-214-6607 (fax)

*Full LAN/WAN consulting services -- Specialized in libraries and schools*


On Fri, Sep 5, 2014 at 3:10 PM, Fred Miller Jr. <millerfr at oplin.org> wrote:

> I wanted to know what most of my fellow IT members at their library system
> are using for backup personal. I want to be able to have a backup here at
> the library in case I’m out for an extended period of time on vacation or
> sick leave. I tried checking into an outside company, but found their rates
> extremely high.
>
>
>
> Many Thanks,
>
>
>
> *Fred Miller Jr*
>
> IT Service Manager
>
> Auglaize County Public District Library System
>
> p: 419-738-2921 ext. 1011
>
> f:  419-738-5168
>
> w: www.auglaize.oplin.org
>
>
>
> *Visit our Library Website! <http://auglaize.oplin.org/>*
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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