They can go to Starbucks for Wi-Fi. Or use their 3G cards. Or tether to their BlackBerry devices. Seriously, there's little excuse for keeping an SMB's stuff on-premise, least of all is the threat of some mythical backhoe.
The cloud makes sense when a small or medium sized business CAN'T afford the investment in top-notch reliability, availability, and security for their own in-house infrastructure. With the cloud, that RAS investment is spread across thousands of customers. The likelihood of a backhoe breaking a fiber optic line is lower than some malware or hardware failure deep sixing an in-house server in a typical SMB.
+1 for sure. If you're in a 20 person shop, there's no reason to invest anything beyond the bare minimum into IT, particularly if you're a 501(c)(3)!
Google Apps is free for non-profits. http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/nonprofit/index.html
You can even use Microsoft Outlook (via Google Apps Sync for MS Outlook) and BlackBerry devices (via Google Connector for BES) if so inclined.
Google Video, part of the Google Apps suite, will take care of your video archives. Get a decent Active Directory or OpenLDAP server set up for authentication. Laptops are the way to go, especially if your folks need to be out in the field meeting with clients or donors. Desktops are irrelevant today except for hardware geeks and fixed function workstations. Don't run your own web server -- you can't scale anywhere as quickly as any hosting company can.
Conclusion: building your own infrastructure makes no sense for your particular operation.
This sounds lousy (and it really can be after more than a couple of months), but I would suggest looking for a technical support or some technical + customer-facing role. Nothing breeds crappy code more than working in a black box oblivious to real customer requirements and usage scenarios. I actually think all big-company developers should have a short rotation through support so that they can understand how customers are using/misusing the product as well as writing clean & well-documented code that bug patchers can easily work on.
The FOSS development model works similar to this since you, Mr. Open Source Developer, are actually using your own code (be it Firefox, Linux, GNOME, etc) and can more easily understand what end-users are actually seeing.
I'm a little surprised that the original poster didn't inquire about engineering school. I hold a BS/MS EE, and the ability to switch back and forth between sysadmin work, application development, and hardware design is incredibly refreshing. And, I think I'm all the better for it -- a microprocessor architect who understands how operating systems work and what type of user applications would run on that OS would be able to design a better chip than a pure "chippie". And by corollary, if you want to write fast, tight code, having a computer architect's understanding of hardware would be a great help.
CS and IT are too narrowly-focused, IMHO. CE/EE is where you want to go.
No, you probably don't use any IBM software on your *PeeCee*. However, your company's accounting department probably uses an IBM mainframe running CICS. That airline ticket you booked on Orbitz went through IBM WebSphere to an IBM MQSeries server to IBM DB2, etc. If you drive a Honda/Acura automobile with voice-activated navigation, that's IBM ViaVoice. If you use Linux, a good chunk of the recent kernel patches were developed by folks on IBM's payroll. IBM is like Tyco or 3M -- they're involved in EVERYTHING you touch even if you don't see their branding front and center. Anyone who thinks IBM isn't a software company clearly does not have a big picture view of the IT world.
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You must keep all your assets in cash and gold bullion under your mattress or in a safe in your basement?
They can go to Starbucks for Wi-Fi. Or use their 3G cards. Or tether to their BlackBerry devices. Seriously, there's little excuse for keeping an SMB's stuff on-premise, least of all is the threat of some mythical backhoe.
The cloud makes sense when a small or medium sized business CAN'T afford the investment in top-notch reliability, availability, and security for their own in-house infrastructure. With the cloud, that RAS investment is spread across thousands of customers. The likelihood of a backhoe breaking a fiber optic line is lower than some malware or hardware failure deep sixing an in-house server in a typical SMB.
+1 for sure. If you're in a 20 person shop, there's no reason to invest anything beyond the bare minimum into IT, particularly if you're a 501(c)(3)! Google Apps is free for non-profits. http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/nonprofit/index.html You can even use Microsoft Outlook (via Google Apps Sync for MS Outlook) and BlackBerry devices (via Google Connector for BES) if so inclined. Google Video, part of the Google Apps suite, will take care of your video archives. Get a decent Active Directory or OpenLDAP server set up for authentication. Laptops are the way to go, especially if your folks need to be out in the field meeting with clients or donors. Desktops are irrelevant today except for hardware geeks and fixed function workstations. Don't run your own web server -- you can't scale anywhere as quickly as any hosting company can. Conclusion: building your own infrastructure makes no sense for your particular operation.
Or, you can watch Weezer's Pork & Beans music video to get the Cliffs Notes version of all the Internet memes!
This sounds lousy (and it really can be after more than a couple of months), but I would suggest looking for a technical support or some technical + customer-facing role. Nothing breeds crappy code more than working in a black box oblivious to real customer requirements and usage scenarios. I actually think all big-company developers should have a short rotation through support so that they can understand how customers are using/misusing the product as well as writing clean & well-documented code that bug patchers can easily work on. The FOSS development model works similar to this since you, Mr. Open Source Developer, are actually using your own code (be it Firefox, Linux, GNOME, etc) and can more easily understand what end-users are actually seeing.
I'm a little surprised that the original poster didn't inquire about engineering school. I hold a BS/MS EE, and the ability to switch back and forth between sysadmin work, application development, and hardware design is incredibly refreshing. And, I think I'm all the better for it -- a microprocessor architect who understands how operating systems work and what type of user applications would run on that OS would be able to design a better chip than a pure "chippie". And by corollary, if you want to write fast, tight code, having a computer architect's understanding of hardware would be a great help.
CS and IT are too narrowly-focused, IMHO. CE/EE is where you want to go.
No, you probably don't use any IBM software on your *PeeCee*. However, your company's accounting department probably uses an IBM mainframe running CICS. That airline ticket you booked on Orbitz went through IBM WebSphere to an IBM MQSeries server to IBM DB2, etc. If you drive a Honda/Acura automobile with voice-activated navigation, that's IBM ViaVoice. If you use Linux, a good chunk of the recent kernel patches were developed by folks on IBM's payroll. IBM is like Tyco or 3M -- they're involved in EVERYTHING you touch even if you don't see their branding front and center. Anyone who thinks IBM isn't a software company clearly does not have a big picture view of the IT world.