On Friday the world was reeling from the CrowdStrike crash. Computer systems were down in organizations of all kinds, causing disruptions of many services, including airlines. And I was flying.
I was set to leave on Friday and return on Monday, and things weren’t looking good. When I arrived at Pensacola airport, I found every parking lot full. Once through security, I found the dreaded Blue Screen Of Death on the big screen over the very first gate. Not to worry, though, I was flying Southwest, and they were unaffected… right? I started feeling skeptical when our intended craft arrived at the gate only moments before I was scheduled to board. My skepticism grew a few minutes later when they announced that the airplane was empty and ready, but they couldn’t locate the crew for our flight; we would begin boarding just as soon as we had someone to fly the plane. This felt like an inauspicious beginning, to say the least, and I was not confident that any part of my trip would go according to plan, but I didn’t need to worry about work; I’m part of a great team and knew I could count on them, but I also carried with me the tools I needed to do much of my work from any internet connection in the world.
We all wear several hats at Local IT and our greatest successes come from a small-team approach to problem solving. Thanks to our experience and tools, we accomplish more work for more customers with fewer men than anyone could have expected just a few years ago. Much of our work is physical; we deliver, install and troubleshoot equipment and provide hands-on service. Most of what we do, however, happens from our desks, and thanks to a few critical technologies, that desk can be nearly anywhere. I don’t know if it was the military childhood or Louis L’Amour, but “nearly anywhere” is exactly where I like to go.
For this adventure, I joined my brother Charlie and his wife Haley to visit Rocky Mountain National Park, where I caught the world's smallest brook trout, learned the meaning of the term “saddle sore” and experienced the special relief that comes from escaping the summer humidity of home. I loved escaping the screen for those few hours without cell service, confident that as soon as I left the wilderness I could reach everything - our hosted servers in Google Cloud Platform (GCP), our network equipment using a VPN (I’m really loving WireGuard these days), and my team and documentation using Google Workspace. I could even share Windows desktop apps with my team, because we host them on GCP with Cameyo to publish them like any SaaS cloud app.
I got lucky this time - I wanted to see mountains again and Southwest got me there and back again almost on time - but I wouldn’t have made this trip without the tech to keep me connected. One customer’s network equipment was destroyed in a lightning storm Sunday night and I was able to remotely configure replacements in our Alabama office through a VPN before leaving for the airport. Later, I caught up on less urgent tasks in our ticketing software before boarding.
If you have questions about how to enable your own wanderlust, or you want to work more effectively from home, or for tips on fly fishing, please reach out. We can help; at least with some of those things.
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