Promoted!

[Z-man]

Originally Posted by Steve Martin in The Jerk

The new phone book's here! The new phone book's here! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity I need. My name in print. That really makes somebody. Things are going to start happening to me now!

Actually, I did get a promotion -- it has been a long time coming...

For the past 11.5 years, my title has been "Operations Support Analyst." (Started with MBUSA in October, 1998). On day one, I was a mainframe storage and disaster recovery guy - total disk capacity was ~5TB. First DR test was a month after I arrived - and I pulled it off!

Over the years, I have taken on more and more responsibility - back around 2002, the concept of a SAN (Storage Area Network) arrived at our doorstep at work. Since it was 'storage' and there was no one else that 'did storage,' I was slated to manage the SAN - it was quite simple -- about 20TB in an IBM ESS2105 attached to a couple of simple Brocade switches with about 10 Open systems servers (AIX and Wintel) attached to the SAN fabrics.

For about the first 5 years, I had a coworker who basically helped me manage the mainframe part of the of the storage landscape (mostly tape and some disk), while I did both mainframe and the expanding open systems storage.

So from about 2005 on, I was on my own, after my co-worker was let go. I managed to keep my head above the water, managing both mainframe and Open systems SAN storage. By then, I estimate we were up to about 50TB and 80-100 open systems servers as part of the SAN fabric, with 4 McData enterprise class directors (ED6064's) in the SAN fabrics.

Fast forward to 2007, and a significant event occurred in my company -- we 'demerged' from Chrysler!! This was great for the company -- and meant a significant growth in the datacenter -- when we merged with Chrysler in 1998, Chrysler took over all the financial (SAP) systems for Daimler-Chrysler. Well, you can imagine that when we demerged, it was paramount that we take back our financial systems. In three months we converted a set of conference rooms into a full-blown datacenter, our SAN environment grew to 100TB overnight, and our SAN fabric expanded greatly (~50 new servers, 2 new ED6140 direcotrs...etc, an IBM DS8300, and IBM's SVC - SAN Volume controller) to accomodate the extra load. And still, I was the sole "Operations Support Analyst" managing all the SAN and mainframe storage in our shop!

In 2009, another big event occurred -- our Montvale campus was deemed to be the "NAFTA Regional Datacenter" with plans of moving all IT processing in the NAFTA region into our datacenters. We built a second datacenter down the road and setup an "Active-Active" environment. So that meant I built out a SAN infrastructure to accomdate the requirements. This included 4 new Brocade DCX directors, SAN routing, a second DS8300 and SVC...etc.

"Build it and they will come." And they did come -- currently we are managing applications on our datacenter from Oregon (Dailmer Trucks - Freightliner), Michican (Daimler Financial), and even Germany. We are growing 200TB of storage on the floor, with well over 200 servers attached, including many VMWARE servers with hundreds of virtual servers, as well as AIX VIO servers. Mainframe has grown to about 10TB as well. And we have a growing NAS (NetApp) environment that I will be working on more and more, once I have a chance to get some skills transfer from the guy managing that stuff. (CIFS, NFS, Waffle -- fun stuff!)

As all this was evolving, I was getting more and more involved with the designing and planning aspect of SAN storage. I was interfacing more with various vendors, and even project leads from around the world to make sure our infrastructure would mee their requirements. All the while, still doing the technical 'stuff' like allocating LUNs and setting up zoning within the SAN. I've been a busy guy for quite some time...

Back in November of 2009, I started the process of revamping my job description, title, and band level. Reworked the wording, spent many hours with my supervisor to get everything right. His manager was on board as well. And then the waiting game began. Long story short, it took from February until yesterday to get this promotion through -- going up the ranks within the IT department, and then on to HR.

So, as of today, I am officially the "Senior SAN / Storage Architect" for my company. (Personally, I thought "Zoltan, the Sultan of Storage" would have been a more snazzy title...) Pretty much the same (growing) responsibility I had before, but with the new job description, I moved up a band level, and they did give me a small raise. I am at a crossroads now -- caught between doing the technical work for storage management, and planning and managing the SAN infrastructure. They won't hire another body yet to to the technical 'stuff' due to the job freeze in my company - but in a way, that is good since I still need to get my hands dirty with the technical nitty-gritty stuff. (I'll be pulling fiber cables in the datacenter tomorrow, just after I setup a PO in our SAP systems -- take about diverse roles!)

So like Steve Martin to elegantly stated it, "My name in print. That really makes somebody. Things are going to start happening to me now!

Just had to share this -- sorry for the long post!

-Z-man.

[lane912]

good for you congratulations mr z

[A930Rocket]

I have no idea what you just said (I'm computer impaired), but it sounds like congrats are in order!

[Jim Richards]

All hail Zoltan!





Congrats, Z.

[Oh Haha]

WOOHOO!!!

Congrats to you, Zoltan!!

[on2wheels52]

Happy for you Mr. Z.
Sometimes I think it would be nice to be a cog in the wheel, instead of the guy who does everything from sweeping the sidewalk to hiding the money.
Jim

[stomachmonkey]

Congratulations.

Well done.

[Racerbvd]

Congrats!!!!

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Z-man

Actually, I did get a promotion -- it has been a long time coming...

For the past 11.5 years, my title has been "Operations Support Analyst." (Started with MBUSA in October, 1998).

< lots of stuff snipped, blah, blah, blah >

So, as of today, I am officially the "Senior SAN / Storage Architect" for my company. (Personally, I thought "Zoltan, the Sultan of Storage" would have been a more snazzy title...) Pretty much the same (growing) responsibility I had before, but with the new job description, I moved up a band level, and they did give me a small raise.

-Z-man.

Wow, super cool. That sounds like it has been a LONG time coming. I hope you've been getting raises all this time. I'm assuming that the company is a great company to work for with great pay and benefits, otherwise, you've been getting royally screwed and you should leave. You seem too smart to have been in that situation. Congrats!

I can't even imagine. I'm in IT, and started at the bottom in 1998. The longest I've ever been anywhere is 4 years. I'd like to find a "home", but these days in IT, that's hard to do while getting a fair shake. The company that I work for now is a great company to work for. I hope to manage to stay for several years. Your story gives us IT folks hope.

I'll be pulling fiber cables in the datacenter tomorrow

Blech!! I hope you've got fiber tray, and won't be working under a raised floor. I don't mind doing really short runs of copper or fiber, but I'm not big on long runs or even worse, under the floor work. I'm glad we've got "guys" for cable work.

[red-beard]

ZOLTAN!

[imcarthur]

Congrats.

Zoltan, the Sultan of Storage.

That has a nice ring to it . . .

Ian

[syncroid]

"Zoltan, the Sultan of Storage" Good job mister! Now I want your paycheck!

[pete3799]

Congrats.
I have no idea what i just read but it sounds like you must be doing something right.
I just bought a new lap top (first one) and i can't even figure out how to register it.
I punched in the model # about 15 times and sony says they don't recognize it. I'm
ready to pull my hair out. Why can't they put a frigging phone # on the web site?

[71T Targa]

Some days I wish I had no idea what you were talking about!

Congrats to the Sultan of Storage!

[RWebb]

congrats!

now backwards to NTAP

[oldE]

Z-man,

That's great! It can be a long road and it's nice to have your bosses pulling for you.

With all your responsibilities, don't worry about the "Chest" thread.
We'll keep our eyes on it for you.


Les

[GH85Carrera]

Congrats Z-man.

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by Z-man

"Senior SAN / Storage Architect"

Why are people always hijacking the title Architect?

Don't you guys know that we are under paid and overworked? Not overworked these days, 80% of the architects I know are either unemployed, forced to retire due to lack of business, or down to a 3-day work week. If they are calling you an "architect', then expect a pay cut soon.

The AIA (American Institute of Architects) defends and promotes the title of "architect" to be reserved for licensed professionals in the traditional sense. However their declaration of war was not heard by many because they have a tiny voice and tiny little fists to back it up with. I'm no longer an AIA member, and my comment was perhaps meant to get a raise, but in good humor and with some self deprecation tossed in.

This is what they do in Texas, but hey it's another country.
Trust Me, I'm an (Unlicensed) Architect - Legal Issues, Business, Architects - Architect Magazine

The Texas Board of Architectural Examiners...................Early this year, after Backyard Architect came to their attention,................So in July, an administrative law judge advised the board to impose a penalty against Gideo of $200,000

Oh yea, congrats.

[Rot 911]

Congratulations! I should post some porno in your honor!

[Z-man]

Thanks guys for the encouraging words. Almost 12 years seems like a long time here, but there are a lot of folks who have 20-25-even 30 years with the company. That says alot!

Originally Posted by masraum

Blech!! I hope you've got fiber tray, and won't be working under a raised floor. I don't mind doing really short runs of copper or fiber, but I'm not big on long runs or even worse, under the floor work. I'm glad we've got "guys" for cable work.

Actually, I'm just replacing temp fiber that was run overhead from one isle to another since the fiber patch panels weren't yet installed over my equipment when we went live with the SVC. And the perm cables have already been added to the patch panel. (I'm in the computer room now as I type! ) This is far easier to manage than the fiber in the old datacenter - which was run (by me) under the floor. Some of which now needs to be removed. The dark side of SAN storage!

-Z-man.