What Would You Recommend for IT Training?

ITPhantom wonders: "It is that time again and my supervisor has been coming around and asking what training and conferences I would like to attend in the upcoming year. I have recently been put in charge of the management and security of a few dozen machines in our department, and our internal network (simple as it may be). While most of the machines that I am responsible for are running Windows, there are a few Linux machines in the mix. I am fairly proficient with Windows, but have not had any real experience managing Linux machines, though I have been a casual user for about a year. With all of the options available, from online training to extensive boot camps and seminars, what would you recommend for training in the areas above?"

Comments

one recommendation

[marybethls]

If you are around San Francisco bay area, then a training outfit that I very much recommend is LinuxCertified (http://www.linuxcertified.com). I attended a "bootcamp" style class (Linux system administration) there few months ago and it was by far the most helpful IT class that I have attended. I found the training to be very practical in nature. It was distro independent (although they used Fedora during the class itself). Also, I would recommend having a shelf full of oreilly books... :)

Re:one recommendation

[Anonymous Coward]

What most programmers would like:

Give each programmer a $500 per annum budget they can spend on tech books, let them keep the books, bring em home, read in their own time.
Total cost: $500 each for any employee who actually bothers.

What most managers do:

Spend $3000 per head on a 3 day seminar, send several employee costing the company 3 days work from each person.
Total cost: $3500+ per employee whether they bother paying attention or not.

Re:one recommendation

[pete6677]

Yup, they sure do. And then they deny a request for a $50 book, claiming they don't "have it in the budget" which they pissed away on the seminar.

Re:one recommendation

[CastrTroy]

This really is a good idea. $500 could buy you quite a few good books, and would give employees an incentive to go and read them. I've never known an organization to do that though. I was a coop student once and they sent me on a week long course, because they still had a bunch of training vouchers left that they hadn't used. It was a nice course, but probably nothing I couldn't have learned from buying a $75 book and spending the week reading and doing my own learning. No matter what level of course you take, from beginner to expert, you'll probably spend about half your time going over stuff you already know.

Duh

[mobby_6kl]

Just RTFM, it's the Linux Way®

Re:Duh

[oyenstikker]

No. The Linux Way is RTFC.

CCNA

[eggoeater]

I've been a general programmer for 10+ years. I didn't think I'd get much out of a CCNA class but I really enjoyed it. Many things that were hazy before (subnet masks, switches vs routers, etc) are now crystal clear.
I'm now using my new knowledge of the UDP protocol to do some cool broadcasting stuff in some of my client-server apps.

Some books first??

[brunokummel]

I don't know about the rest of the slashdotters, but from the experience i got from college i would get some books on the matter before attending any kind of training. I know this is not the quickest way out, but is the thorough way, and believe me sometimes in IT doing it right is much more important than doing it quickly.
There's so much good stuff available for free on the internet that i can't even point out where exactly you can start, that depends on what you want to learn first
But, anyhow, if budget is not a problem in your job, as it is in my, you could still benefit from some by-yourself studying before you face some formal training.

Re:Some books first??

[WuphonsReach]

I don't know about the rest of the slashdotters, but from the experience i got from college i would get some books on the matter before attending any kind of training. I know this is not the quickest way out, but is the thorough way, and believe me sometimes in IT doing it right is much more important than doing it quickly.

That all depends on which mode of learning suits you best. Generally, this is broken down into (1) learning by touch/doing, (2) learning visually i.e. reading, or (3) aural learning where you listen to someone speak. There's some crossover between the 3 types but most people can identify a primary method as optimal for them. It's important to know where you fall in order to pick training that suits you.

Me? I'm kinesthetic, which means I do my best learning by working with the problem at hand or taking what I read on the page and putting it into practice to internalize it. I'm also a strong visual learner and can pickup concepts quickly when they are presented to me in print. But aural learning is difficult and I don't do well in sterile classroom / lecture environments that don't involve immediate hands-on learning.

For the most part, I pickup my knowledge from books and online articles. I try to plow through at least one technical book per month (on average). Otherwise I'm just coasting and generally falling behind those who are more motivated. That, and I like learning new stuff.

how about...

[Connie_Lingus]

...classes in Indian and Chinese. Pretty sure those skills will pay off big in the next 20 years or so.

CEH Training

[DaFork]

A lot of admins in my company seem to like the Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) training (http://www.eccouncil.org/CEH.htm).

Re:CEH Training

[CastrTroy]

How exactly do you certify ethics? I mean, you can learn about ethics and probably pass quite a few tests on ethics without actually being an ethical person. Granted, it's nice to know how to "hack" since knowing the possible security holes that exist in systems is a great way to ensure high security in your own work. Case in point. I knew a "network admin" who didn't think it was possible to change the MAC address. Invalid assumptions such as this can lead to people assuming their system is secure when it really isn't. Knowing the pitfalls of other systems, security related or not, is of great importance when designing new systems.

o'reilly

[p!ssa]

I would sign up for a subscription to the safari bookshelf service from o'reilly being able to search such a large library can be very valuable for things you have little experience with. I come from the dev. side so I dont know of many sys admin specific "classroom" type stuff, but I have always got alot out of SD Expo and the many break out session esp. the birds of a feather after hours "tech chat over beers" meetings (It hasnt been as good since y2k but still valuable).

Good Training

[sampas]

I have gone for training at a few different places. I liked my the Learning Tree in Linux/Unix Security and Solaris (also some Windows) because their instructors were good and had a lot of real-world experience. The difference between RTFM and a classroom is that you can ask questions, and others in the class may even have questions of their own they want answered. Some of my instructors at LT were writing open-source packages you've heard of, others had run Unix security at government agencies you've heard of. Learning Tree has actually refunded money for classes that were insufficient when people complained they didn't get what they needed. They'll work to get you back.

Boot camps are different. They are for people who need to be certified quickly because their work requires it. The hours are longer, the class is geared more to passing the exams, and pressure is mcuh greater. Not everyone handles that kind of pressure. I've done boot camps for my MCSE (!) upgrades at Acrew, which is no more, and a CISSP at The Training Camp. My primary CISSP guy at TTC was awesome with a decade of large-bank systems security experience, but the trainee (who taught one chapter only -- physical security) read straight from the powerpoint slides.

The most important thing is the instructor and his or her experience. Talk to people and see what they've done. That's how I initially found Learning Tree. In my world, training is regular and you need to figure out where to spend your training time and money. (For me, coming up with a free four or five day period to be away from the office is harder than getting the money for it.)

One word of warning: although Learning Tree is accredited and offers college credit, when I applied to grad school they didn't accept the credits because I didn't get a letter grade. It wasn't a big deal but slowed me down one semester. I'm now one semester away from a master's in Information Systems. IS vs. Computer Science is a whole other debate. Grad school and training end up costing about the same per course: $2000-$2500. Grad school covers theory, training covers technique.

uhm...

[ecalkin]

books are important.

    however, two of the things most overlooked about classes are a) the ability of the instructor (hopefully) to help you build the picture that makes you understand something. books have a hard time doing that. b) let you see a different perspective from your classmates. the people around you have different way of looking at things that is very similar to why programmers sometimes find it helpfull to have other people look at their code for the sneaky bug.

eric

For you...

[msauve]

...I don't know, you haven't told us much about yourself. Maybe a *nix class.

For IT in general, a class in interpersonal skills would be beneficial.

Re:sans.... 10 days in florida + disney ;)

[DeRobeHer]

I recently attended a SANS course, and I agree, they did a great job of general security concepts, as well as applied networking, windows, and unix applied security best practices.

I didn't get the disneyworld trip though.

Cover your bases...

[shrapnull]

You leave a lot to the imagination, given that you don't really explain your experience very well. With such a small network, I would start by learning some basics that will pay off as you grow:

1. Directory Structures: LDAP it in such a mixed environment. With the prevalence of Windows on your network you might consider Active Directory, but in the mixed mode, you'll be better off with Open Directory or NDS.

2. Virtualization: VMWare puts on one hell of a show. And in your environment, I would highly recommend consolidating servers to commodity hardware. VMWare ESX with VMotion will save you tons of money and headache down the road.

3. Storage: SAS? iSCSI? Fiber-channel SAN? Storage capacity and proper storage replication/backups are key to an adaptable and reliable network. Get something you can build on.

4. Cisco: You may be in a small network environment now, but the more you know about your Cisco equipment the more performance you can eek out of your topology and provide better overall network security.

I'm assuming you're more then capable in the desktop support arena. The above recommendations are things I've had to relearn over the past 10 years in managing a system that started with 50 and has since grown to 5500 nodes. The more adaptable you build your fledgling network today, the more you'll thank me down the line.

Re:Hindi and Chinese...

[carpeweb]

Seems like English might help some ...

What is your Goal?

[Anonymous Coward]

Where do you want to be in 5, 10, 15 years?
Where does your boss think you should be in 5, 10, 15 years?

If these align, work on a plan that has you trained appropriately with what is useful today, next year, 5 years from now. A wide range of jobs makes your life more fun and you more valuable, IMHO. I've been an IT professional for 20 years now and never would have guessed I'd be an independent enterprise technical architect from where I started as job title "Programmer A" writing Space Shuttle GN&C code all those years ago.

For lack of knowing anything else, here's the path I took:
  - Programmer A (Real-time development in HAL/S)
  - Systems Analyst (added 20+ languages, still GN CMM Level 5)
  - Senior Developer (switched to commercial languages C/C++ and publishing)
  - Senior Developer (Cross platform development UNIX, Windows, Mac)
  - Lead Developer @ a startup (employee #20!) Ran development teams, servers, and did everything for customers
  - Consultant (to publishing company migrating from MVS to UNIX) mostly worried about security and good development practices
  - Consultant (telecom - large scale systems that can never go down; *NIX, Windows and really strange telecom-only protocols) mostly worried about security and good development practices. Basically, if people can be replaced by a computer system and the money works out where computers can do the job better, then replace the people; humans have more interesting work than what a computer system can do anyway. We aren't hiring enough replacement workers for all the thousands that will retire in the next 5-10 years.

The final frontier for me is retirement in a few years. I plan to donate my time and skills to non-profit companies in need of automation.

Formal Training - almost none. I've always had a healthy curiousity and desire to learn. Books and a little data center at the house. Labs at work or production systems at prior jobs. I'm amazed at how real companies with critical software does development and testing when compared to most development shops out there. It is a scary world. I wish I'd stayed current with Java & J2EE training over the years. I wish I'd taken some formal Solaris, HP-UX, and AIX admin classes. Where I work, we have Lunch and Learns constantly - I always go whether it is EMC, HDS, MTI, Sun, IBM, HP, Cisco, Nortel, Lucent, BlueCoat, Microsoft, Bearing Point, Accenture, EY, NCR, Security Training or Oracle doing the training. During my commute, I listen to books on tape. A mix of computer podcosts, novels, and self-improvement (1-minute manager anyone?) At this stage, my position is as CIO. Knowing what each technology can provide, what the pitfalls are and how to integrate them into our overall strategy is important. Oh, and how much next month, next year, and 5 years from now will cost to implement - that's really important. Making all my people feel wanted and challenged. Helping them find a path up for their career and earning their trust over the years has been some of the most important lesson's I've learned. I'm nothing if my team doesn't work with me to solve real problems. We're all in this together and yes, some days, your boss is an idiot with pointy ears.

Look ahead to your ideal job in 10-15 years. What skills will serve you the best when you are there? Make a plan and take the first step in that direction. Learn Chinese, or Java, or Solaris admin, or begin a practical security certification program. The worst that will happen is you learn a lot. But the best that will happen is you get where you want to be, live a fun life, and absolutely love your work! Not too bad for a "Programmer A", huh?

Re:LISA System Administration Conference

[vitroth]

I'll second this recommendation for LISA. The tutorials are a good way to get a base understanding of a specific topic. (The tutorial schedule for LISA'06 is not yet announced.) Check out other USENIX events as well, http://www.usenix.org/events/

While I've never personally paid to attend a USENIX conference, my employer has paid for me to attend several.