Making Constant Uptime a Reality

Lately I’ve had the good fortune of talking with industry experts on how to implement open source security monitoring techniques on mobile phone networks, as well as how to secure the Internet of Things (IoT). It’s been fun, because I’ve been seeing how these folks use today’s networking technologies to provide the services that we take for granted.

This past Friday morning, around 5:00 a.m. my time, I spent a pleasurable hour or so talking with Dwight Thomas, a senior network architect, talking about how he develops, manages and creates IoT solutions and industrial networks at his company Enbridge Energy. He lives in the Midwest, but happened to be calling in from British Columbia, where he was working on optimizing the network infrastructure for a natural gas distribution plant. He travels quite a bit and has pretty crazy hours.

You see, Dwight designs network systems that actually do physical things. By that, I mean he works on networks that are attached to robots, or to tank valves and generators that report information about pressure, number of hours in service, and sudden losses of pressure or current. Over the years, he has created dozens, if not hundreds, of networks that allow his company to generate power.

So, if you’ve ever used a gas appliance to warm up water for your morning coffee or cook your dinner, it’s possible that you have Dwight to thank. Why? Because power is completely dependent upon the networking technologies that Dwight puts in place every day. So, the next time you turn on your lights, you can thank people such as Dwight and his co-workers.

The other day, I was kayaking by a hydro-electric power plant near Hoodsport, Washington. I’d show you the picture I took as I paddled right up to the generator water output doors, but I don’t want to get in trouble – I had to paddle past quite a few signs that said “don’t go beyond this point.” But I digress. As I was padding by there, I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of networks that Dwight would implement inside there to help monitor and control the network.

On Wednesday, September 21, I’ll be interviewing Dwight about what he does in a CompTIA webinar. We’ll be talking about the essential skills related to his job role as a network architect. We’ll also be talking about the types of skills that he expects his employees to have when they start working for him.

Click here to register or learn more about the webinar. We’ll be discussing topics such as typical issues that affect uptime and best practices for failover in today’s networks; IoT and how he implements it today; overview of industrial networks; implementation measures that bring about the “five nines” of uptime; negotiating cost and needs when providing uptime; how the business application drives network design; security issues and the things he does to minimize them; and war stories concerning uptime, security and those 3:00 a.m. phone calls

I’m looking forward to having you join in. While Dwight and I have a good agenda cooked up, I always make sure that we watch for your comments carefully. In these ITPro Webinars, we often “go offroad” and take questions directly from the audience. So, we’re looking forward to hearing from you as we all learn from Dwight about how he uses network technologies to power our daily lives.