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Familiarizing Your Admins with New Hardware?
HCIGuy asks: "I'm the technical communications manager for a company that sells and implements infrastructure for data centers. We often put in equipment and software that substantially change the environment, such as high availability clusters and enterprise data management. We've known for a long time that the critical post-engagement time for admins was one to six months, after which, even without help, admins are usually comfortable with the new stuff. We're concerned with those first few months, and asking both ourselves and the universe of admins what would help during that time. We already provide system configuration manuals, and of course there are manuals and training classes provided by manufacturers. But what else would help an admin during the "break-in" period? What's been of the greatest help in the past? What would be on your wish list?"
Seriously.
Half the value in sending people out for training on new hardware/software is that they have an environment in which they can beat the crap out of it and learn from their mistakes.
And whatever it is, if it's not too expensive, it's also well worth keeping a spare in-house for the same reason. Not to mention you then have an emergency replacement available and a functional test bed for new software/scripts/ideas.
Seriously. Manuals are great--you can't do without them. And training classes are wonderful, too. But most everyone has come across a problem he/she hasn't a clue where to even begin. That's where friends come in.
Actually, I really mean "friend" as in "that guy who knows a bunch about this particular thingy and he might be able to help me out". Sometimes that's customer support (though rare). Most times it's a guy I've met at a conference or whatnot and I find myself covered in sweat and worried about my job as I go digging around my files for his business card. Then, almost histerically, I call, e-mail, fax, and drive around to catch this person. Okay, maybe not to that extent--but it sure is great to know someone (on a first name basis, whom you've really met and gone out to dinner with) who is much more knowledgable that yourself in some areas.
Personally, for me to be comfortable, I need to have these kinds of people available. They could be co-workers, bosses, past co-workers, customer support, mistresses, disgruntled housewives. A manual or training session can't ever come close to those types of relationships.
Long, cute, or funny Sigs are just another form of over compensation, used by geeks, nerdz, etc.
Google.com I have yet to not find what I was looking for. From getting unix systems to work with active directory, to fixing profiles. A knowledge of search engine syntax is a must if you seek this route to avoid all the junk. (ie clever use of + or - or "".)
"On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero."
until they've been in place for at least a month and EVERYONE'S comfortable with using them. That way you can still tinker with things and learn how to use it without bringing the entire company's operations to a screaming halt.
It's a standard training thing -
get someone to show them how it's done
give people a lot of hands on experience
give people time to think of questions
Introducing new technology in any department encounters these hurdles. this is no different from teachers learning a new class management system, or bringing in a new version of MS Office. the barriers are still the same.