September 2024
Working Backward to Define the Value of a Major Core Engineering Program
Imagine taking over a major infrastructure project that is 1 year overdue with no end in sight. What do you do?
Well, first you need to figure out if you should kill the thing! Once you've figured out the answer to that, it's about effective execution.
During this talk, I'll talk through how i worked backwards to define outcome milestones for a major core engineering program and helped reorganized the team structure to better align to the outcomes we were driving. I'll also explain the various skillsets of Technical Program Management I leveraged to ensure effective program definition and delivery.
About the speaker
Alex Herweyer, Atlassian Technical Program Manager
Alex helps clarify and execute org-level BHAGs. He’s a positive, action-oriented leader who helps technology departments tie process and tech to business impacts. He believes empowering ground-level teams to execute and refine strategic objectives is THE problem to solve once a viable strategy is in place.
Imagine taking over a major infrastructure project that is 1 year overdue with no end in sight. What do you do?
Well, first you need to figure out if you should kill the thing! Once you've figured out the answer to that, it's about effective execution.
During this talk, I'll talk through how i worked backwards to define outcome milestones for a major core engineering program and helped reorganized the team structure to better align to the outcomes we were driving. I'll also explain the various skillsets of Technical Program Management I leveraged to ensure effective program definition and delivery.
About the speaker
Alex Herweyer, Atlassian Technical Program Manager
Alex helps clarify and execute org-level BHAGs. He’s a positive, action-oriented leader who helps technology departments tie process and tech to business impacts. He believes empowering ground-level teams to execute and refine strategic objectives is THE problem to solve once a viable strategy is in place.
August 2024
iFunc'd Up! Or, Why you should stop blaming xz-utils for CVE-2024-3094
CVE-2024-3094, more commonly known as "The xz-utils backdoor", was a near miss for global cybersecurity. Had this attack not been discovered in the nick of time by Andres Freund, most of our planet's SSH servers would have begun granting root access to the party behind this attack.Unfortunately, too much analysis has focused on how malicious code made its way into the xz-utils repo. Instead, I'd like to argue that two longstanding design decisions in critical open source software are what made this attack possible: linking OpenSSH against SystemD, and the existence of GNU IFUNC.
About the speaker
Robert French is the Grinch of computing. He hates it when your systems are up, and loves it when unplanned outages cause you to miss your kids' soccer games. His ideal morning involves waking up to news of major cyberattacks, outages, or general panic across the internet. He thinks Y2K was a disappointment, but is very excited about the Year 2038 Problem.
CVE-2024-3094, more commonly known as "The xz-utils backdoor", was a near miss for global cybersecurity. Had this attack not been discovered in the nick of time by Andres Freund, most of our planet's SSH servers would have begun granting root access to the party behind this attack.Unfortunately, too much analysis has focused on how malicious code made its way into the xz-utils repo. Instead, I'd like to argue that two longstanding design decisions in critical open source software are what made this attack possible: linking OpenSSH against SystemD, and the existence of GNU IFUNC.
About the speaker
Robert French is the Grinch of computing. He hates it when your systems are up, and loves it when unplanned outages cause you to miss your kids' soccer games. His ideal morning involves waking up to news of major cyberattacks, outages, or general panic across the internet. He thinks Y2K was a disappointment, but is very excited about the Year 2038 Problem.
June 2024
Topic: SARAH (Self Actuated Residential Automated Habitat) - With Home Assistant
In this talk we'll explore Home Assistant and how it is the gold standard for home automation, and how it aligns with our day jobs. We will explore it's event driven architecture, it's local and cloud based integrations, and everything you can do with it.
About the Speaker
Wesley Kirkland is a DevOps/Cloud Engineer currently seeking his next opportunity. He is passionate about various tech fields, including Home Automation, Email, Internet Presence, AWS, and DevOps. Wesley is also a dedicated cat dad to his two adorable tuxedo kitties. Outside of tech, he enjoys baking and cooking, finding that food fuels the soul and provides a delightful break from the desk.
In this talk we'll explore Home Assistant and how it is the gold standard for home automation, and how it aligns with our day jobs. We will explore it's event driven architecture, it's local and cloud based integrations, and everything you can do with it.
About the Speaker
Wesley Kirkland is a DevOps/Cloud Engineer currently seeking his next opportunity. He is passionate about various tech fields, including Home Automation, Email, Internet Presence, AWS, and DevOps. Wesley is also a dedicated cat dad to his two adorable tuxedo kitties. Outside of tech, he enjoys baking and cooking, finding that food fuels the soul and provides a delightful break from the desk.
May 2024
Topic: Staying in the AWS Free Tier
Cost optimization and control in the cloud are important skills. And as you start to use AWS, you can accomplish a lot and learn quite a bit while staying in the Free Tier of services. In this talk, you will learn the scope of the AWS Free Tier, and how to monitor your costs as you use it, so that you are confident you are not met with any cost surprises.
About the Speaker
Andy Cowell has over twenty five years of system administration and development experience in a variety of environments. Currently, he works for Amazon Web Services as a Senior Solution Architect working with East Tennessee enterprises.
Andy has been responsible for some of the top destinations on the Internet, such as HGTV.com, Dilbert.com, and Metallica.com. In the past, he has worn many hats, from networking admin to full-time developer, and cut his teeth as a “Wizard” with the UTK Computer Science department. Locally, he helps organize ETSA (LOPSA East Tennessee) and KnoxDevs.
When not wrangling systems, he solders microcontrollers, plucks strings, paints toy soldiers, drinks bourbon, smokes pipes, and rolls 20s.
Cost optimization and control in the cloud are important skills. And as you start to use AWS, you can accomplish a lot and learn quite a bit while staying in the Free Tier of services. In this talk, you will learn the scope of the AWS Free Tier, and how to monitor your costs as you use it, so that you are confident you are not met with any cost surprises.
About the Speaker
Andy Cowell has over twenty five years of system administration and development experience in a variety of environments. Currently, he works for Amazon Web Services as a Senior Solution Architect working with East Tennessee enterprises.
Andy has been responsible for some of the top destinations on the Internet, such as HGTV.com, Dilbert.com, and Metallica.com. In the past, he has worn many hats, from networking admin to full-time developer, and cut his teeth as a “Wizard” with the UTK Computer Science department. Locally, he helps organize ETSA (LOPSA East Tennessee) and KnoxDevs.
When not wrangling systems, he solders microcontrollers, plucks strings, paints toy soldiers, drinks bourbon, smokes pipes, and rolls 20s.
April 2024
Topic: Preparing for IPv6
During the mid 1990’s, Internet wasn’t essential. Fast forward to today, and the Internet involves every aspect of our lives at work and at home and all around us.
Everything evolves, changes. When we think about music media changes from 8-track tape, to cassettes, to CD’s to MP3s those were drastic changes. The Internet has changed greatly in speeds, and various applications over the past 40 years, but has kept the same address system for most of us.
This presentation will compare IPv4 and IPv6, the history in how we got to IPv6, and how to prepare for IPv6.
These preparations will include how to understand the addressing, considering application use, and considering security.
This will conclude with many recommendations on best practices and things to consider.
About the Speaker
Daniel Pelfrey is a Principal Network Engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the Supercomputing Division. Daniel’s Information Technology career began at an Internet startup company in 1995. He was there from customer number 0, and all the way up to 75,000, and from location #1 to over 35+ locations in three states. This eventually led to a nationwide ISP, and ultimately to ORNL where he is on the network team that takes care of the supercomputing network.
Daniel’s first round of formal educational experience was in electrical and computing engineering, and he has a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems at Strayer University.
His hobbies include PC gaming-especially the game Factorio, retro gaming, electronics, science, anything space related and programming.
During the mid 1990’s, Internet wasn’t essential. Fast forward to today, and the Internet involves every aspect of our lives at work and at home and all around us.
Everything evolves, changes. When we think about music media changes from 8-track tape, to cassettes, to CD’s to MP3s those were drastic changes. The Internet has changed greatly in speeds, and various applications over the past 40 years, but has kept the same address system for most of us.
This presentation will compare IPv4 and IPv6, the history in how we got to IPv6, and how to prepare for IPv6.
These preparations will include how to understand the addressing, considering application use, and considering security.
This will conclude with many recommendations on best practices and things to consider.
About the Speaker
Daniel Pelfrey is a Principal Network Engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the Supercomputing Division. Daniel’s Information Technology career began at an Internet startup company in 1995. He was there from customer number 0, and all the way up to 75,000, and from location #1 to over 35+ locations in three states. This eventually led to a nationwide ISP, and ultimately to ORNL where he is on the network team that takes care of the supercomputing network.
Daniel’s first round of formal educational experience was in electrical and computing engineering, and he has a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems at Strayer University.
His hobbies include PC gaming-especially the game Factorio, retro gaming, electronics, science, anything space related and programming.
March 2024
Topic: PowerShell Security and Best Practices: Strengthening Your Scripting Environment
PowerShell has revolutionized automation and scripting capabilities for system administrators, enabling them to manage and administer complex environments efficiently. However, with great power comes great responsibility, and it is crucial to understand the fundamentals of PowerShell security to safeguard your scripting environment. This session aims to provide an overview of PowerShell security best practices, empowering attendees to secure their PowerShell infrastructure effectively.
In this session, we will begin by discussing the inherent security features of PowerShell, exploring the execution policies that govern script execution and mitigate potential risks. Next, we will dive into PowerShell remoting security, emphasizing the importance of secure communication channels when managing remote systems. The session will also cover PowerShell module security, highlighting best practices for managing and securing PowerShell modules within your environment. By the end of this session, attendees will have a solid understanding of PowerShell security fundamentals and best practices.
About the Speaker
James Petty is currently the Director of Information Technology at Text Request. He is a 4x Recipient of the Microsoft MVP award in Cloud and Datacenter Management. Currently, he serves as the CEO of DevOps Collective INC, a nonprofit working in the technology education space. The nonprofit is focused on PowerShell, automation, and DevOps, and runs numerous free online resources, including PowerShell.org.
James is also the lead author for Learn PowerShell in a Month of Lunches 4th edition and Learn PowerShell Scripting in a Month of Lunches 2nd edition; Manning publishes both. James’ passion lies with automation using PowerShell, Azure, and all things Windows Server-related, and with over a decade of experience as an infrastructure admin for companies of all sizes.
PowerShell has revolutionized automation and scripting capabilities for system administrators, enabling them to manage and administer complex environments efficiently. However, with great power comes great responsibility, and it is crucial to understand the fundamentals of PowerShell security to safeguard your scripting environment. This session aims to provide an overview of PowerShell security best practices, empowering attendees to secure their PowerShell infrastructure effectively.
In this session, we will begin by discussing the inherent security features of PowerShell, exploring the execution policies that govern script execution and mitigate potential risks. Next, we will dive into PowerShell remoting security, emphasizing the importance of secure communication channels when managing remote systems. The session will also cover PowerShell module security, highlighting best practices for managing and securing PowerShell modules within your environment. By the end of this session, attendees will have a solid understanding of PowerShell security fundamentals and best practices.
About the Speaker
James Petty is currently the Director of Information Technology at Text Request. He is a 4x Recipient of the Microsoft MVP award in Cloud and Datacenter Management. Currently, he serves as the CEO of DevOps Collective INC, a nonprofit working in the technology education space. The nonprofit is focused on PowerShell, automation, and DevOps, and runs numerous free online resources, including PowerShell.org.
James is also the lead author for Learn PowerShell in a Month of Lunches 4th edition and Learn PowerShell Scripting in a Month of Lunches 2nd edition; Manning publishes both. James’ passion lies with automation using PowerShell, Azure, and all things Windows Server-related, and with over a decade of experience as an infrastructure admin for companies of all sizes.
February 2024
Topic: Aiding and A-Bait-ing: Keep Your Users Off the Hook with Gophish
Phishing is the most common form of cyber crime, with an estimated 3.4 billion spam emails sent every day. Google blocks around 100 million phishing emails daily. Over 48% of emails sent in 2022 were spam. Over a fifth of phishing emails originate from Russia. (statistics shamelessly stolen from another company online) Aegis IT helps clients recognize and detect these phishing emails to help prevent clients from becoming yet another statistic. We have a Gophish ecosystem setup, and have learned quite a bit to get our system running as smoothly as we do. We will be going over our setup and discussing a variety of problems we encountered when setting up the system. We offer this as a paid service, but you too can set this up and run this as a red team exercise for your own company!
About the Speaker
Jonathan Evenden is the President and founder of Aegis IT, located in Kingsport, TN. He gave his first computerized presentation in 1994, and has never looked back since. He has been full time in the IT industry since 2004, and has owned Aegis IT since 2012. In the rare moments he is not in front of a computer, he loves playing board games and video games with his son.
Phishing is the most common form of cyber crime, with an estimated 3.4 billion spam emails sent every day. Google blocks around 100 million phishing emails daily. Over 48% of emails sent in 2022 were spam. Over a fifth of phishing emails originate from Russia. (statistics shamelessly stolen from another company online) Aegis IT helps clients recognize and detect these phishing emails to help prevent clients from becoming yet another statistic. We have a Gophish ecosystem setup, and have learned quite a bit to get our system running as smoothly as we do. We will be going over our setup and discussing a variety of problems we encountered when setting up the system. We offer this as a paid service, but you too can set this up and run this as a red team exercise for your own company!
About the Speaker
Jonathan Evenden is the President and founder of Aegis IT, located in Kingsport, TN. He gave his first computerized presentation in 1994, and has never looked back since. He has been full time in the IT industry since 2004, and has owned Aegis IT since 2012. In the rare moments he is not in front of a computer, he loves playing board games and video games with his son.
December 2023
Topic: Chocolatey: Windows "Sweetest" Secret Weapon
Chocolatey is a package manager for windows allowing you to quickly and easily install and manage software on your Windows workstation(s). But it's built on PowerShell, so it's WAY more than just software. The talk will focus mainly on Chocolatey CLI and its use, but we'll briefly look at the Chocolatey For Business features for awareness.
About the Speaker
I'm Stephen Valdinger, or "Steviecoaster" as some might know me in the PowerShell world. I've been a technologist for 2 decades (cries a little inside), and an automation aficionado with PowerShell for a number of them. I love meeting people where they are and helping to make them better. I also play music, and have a slight Lego addiction and a killer bourbon collection. here to edit.
Chocolatey is a package manager for windows allowing you to quickly and easily install and manage software on your Windows workstation(s). But it's built on PowerShell, so it's WAY more than just software. The talk will focus mainly on Chocolatey CLI and its use, but we'll briefly look at the Chocolatey For Business features for awareness.
About the Speaker
I'm Stephen Valdinger, or "Steviecoaster" as some might know me in the PowerShell world. I've been a technologist for 2 decades (cries a little inside), and an automation aficionado with PowerShell for a number of them. I love meeting people where they are and helping to make them better. I also play music, and have a slight Lego addiction and a killer bourbon collection. here to edit.
November 2023
Topic: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Run Linux as My Desktop
Memphis, TN, 1990's. A precocious young DIY enthusiast immerses himself in this new OS called Linux. After several support calls to his local ISP, in which he found himself actually guiding them through their troubleshooting, they offer him a job on their staff. It's a revelatory moment: "You can make a living at this?" This Meet-Cute moment turns into a pssionate love story and an exciting journey of discovery. Linux is more than just another computing tool, it's also a journey companion, and a realm unto itself with unlimited opportunities for life adventures. Our protagonist in this story is Chris Layton, and this talk is his Linux origin story. For both the seasoned veteran, and those just beginning their computing journey, this back-to-roots talk is a must-not-miss.
With over two decades of IT experience behind him, Chris is always looking for new challenges and opportunities to grow, especially if they involve Linux. He currently serves on Research Cloud Team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory where he helps support the technical needs of the lab's many scientific research projects. His prior experience includes working as part of a two man engineering team at a Tier 1 ISP, a year long stint as a Senior Systems Engineer at Peak Hosting, and also supporting ORNL's supercomputing effort as a member of the HPC Operations Infrastructure team.
When not chasing packets or bending Linux systems to do his bidding, his time is spent trying to keep pace with his daughter, exploring the local hiking haunts, playing with embedded Linux systems, and driving mountain roads in small two seater automobiles.
Memphis, TN, 1990's. A precocious young DIY enthusiast immerses himself in this new OS called Linux. After several support calls to his local ISP, in which he found himself actually guiding them through their troubleshooting, they offer him a job on their staff. It's a revelatory moment: "You can make a living at this?" This Meet-Cute moment turns into a pssionate love story and an exciting journey of discovery. Linux is more than just another computing tool, it's also a journey companion, and a realm unto itself with unlimited opportunities for life adventures. Our protagonist in this story is Chris Layton, and this talk is his Linux origin story. For both the seasoned veteran, and those just beginning their computing journey, this back-to-roots talk is a must-not-miss.
With over two decades of IT experience behind him, Chris is always looking for new challenges and opportunities to grow, especially if they involve Linux. He currently serves on Research Cloud Team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory where he helps support the technical needs of the lab's many scientific research projects. His prior experience includes working as part of a two man engineering team at a Tier 1 ISP, a year long stint as a Senior Systems Engineer at Peak Hosting, and also supporting ORNL's supercomputing effort as a member of the HPC Operations Infrastructure team.
When not chasing packets or bending Linux systems to do his bidding, his time is spent trying to keep pace with his daughter, exploring the local hiking haunts, playing with embedded Linux systems, and driving mountain roads in small two seater automobiles.
October 2023
Topic: The Unique Approach to Cybersecurity in HPC
The Department of Energy fields some of the world's fastest supercomputers. Unlike private industry, HPC security has a different set of challenges, often prioritizing performance. Because of this, we must come up with innovate solutions to meet supercomputing needs. To support the open-science mission of the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), the OLCF security team designs and deploys state-of-the-art cybersecurity tools and best practices. In this seminar, we will lightly cover some of the common tools and techniques used by the OLCF security team, and will also talk about the types of security career paths that exist for technical professionals within the STEM field. Finally, the speaker's personal career path will be shared, along with some general advice for navigating life, growing technology, and finding great places to work.
About the Speaker
Tori Robinson attended a summer camp at Mississippi State University in the 11th grade with no prior knowledge of computer science and left certain that computer science was the field for her. She obtained her B.S. and M.S. degrees from Mississippi State University, with her main focus being Cyber Security combined with Engineering Education. She never forgot the lasting impact that one summer camp had on her career, so she decided to give back to the community that changed her life. She dedicated most of her time at MSU to teaching and hosting summer classes and robotics camps aimed at increasing computer science/cyber security engagement for young minority students and women.
After graduation, Tori came to ORNL as a Post Master’s student and is now a full time HPC Cybersecurity Engineer for the HPC Cybersecurity & Information Engineering Group.
The Department of Energy fields some of the world's fastest supercomputers. Unlike private industry, HPC security has a different set of challenges, often prioritizing performance. Because of this, we must come up with innovate solutions to meet supercomputing needs. To support the open-science mission of the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), the OLCF security team designs and deploys state-of-the-art cybersecurity tools and best practices. In this seminar, we will lightly cover some of the common tools and techniques used by the OLCF security team, and will also talk about the types of security career paths that exist for technical professionals within the STEM field. Finally, the speaker's personal career path will be shared, along with some general advice for navigating life, growing technology, and finding great places to work.
About the Speaker
Tori Robinson attended a summer camp at Mississippi State University in the 11th grade with no prior knowledge of computer science and left certain that computer science was the field for her. She obtained her B.S. and M.S. degrees from Mississippi State University, with her main focus being Cyber Security combined with Engineering Education. She never forgot the lasting impact that one summer camp had on her career, so she decided to give back to the community that changed her life. She dedicated most of her time at MSU to teaching and hosting summer classes and robotics camps aimed at increasing computer science/cyber security engagement for young minority students and women.
After graduation, Tori came to ORNL as a Post Master’s student and is now a full time HPC Cybersecurity Engineer for the HPC Cybersecurity & Information Engineering Group.
September 2023
Topic: Do You Have a Diagnostic Routine? What We Can Learn from the Automotive Field
How do you currently diagnose an issue? Do you jump directly into the code or some other aspect to only discover that it’s a networking issue? I have spent hundreds of hours across my career troubleshooting to only discover that I was chasing my tail. It was only after I started watching automotive shops on YouTube that I noticed the one thing the channels I watch have in common. It is their uncanny ability to diagnose problems that have stumped other shops. The common trait is having a diagnostic routine and always following it. This presentation will look at a few case studies and share experiences of how developing a routine will save you countless hours bug hunting.
About the Speakers
Jamie Phillips is a Site Reliability Engineer for the National Basketball Association, who works remotely from East Tennessee. He has been programming professionally since 2007 after discovering software development in graduate school. His Geology degree has given him an appreciation for large systems and processes which has created keen interest in Solutions Architecture, DevOps, and the Cloud. During the day he works on Windows, but at night he's all about Linux.
How do you currently diagnose an issue? Do you jump directly into the code or some other aspect to only discover that it’s a networking issue? I have spent hundreds of hours across my career troubleshooting to only discover that I was chasing my tail. It was only after I started watching automotive shops on YouTube that I noticed the one thing the channels I watch have in common. It is their uncanny ability to diagnose problems that have stumped other shops. The common trait is having a diagnostic routine and always following it. This presentation will look at a few case studies and share experiences of how developing a routine will save you countless hours bug hunting.
About the Speakers
Jamie Phillips is a Site Reliability Engineer for the National Basketball Association, who works remotely from East Tennessee. He has been programming professionally since 2007 after discovering software development in graduate school. His Geology degree has given him an appreciation for large systems and processes which has created keen interest in Solutions Architecture, DevOps, and the Cloud. During the day he works on Windows, but at night he's all about Linux.
August 2023
Topic: ChatGPT & Large Language Models
Speaker: World Wide Technology (panel)
About the Speakers
Earl Dodd - HPC & ESG Architect at WWT
Earl Dodd is World Wide Technology's Global HPC Business Practice Leader. He provides HPC/HPDA/Supercomputing strategy, technology enablement, business development, and ESG/Sustainability support to WWT's global enterprise and government customers. Earl helps an enterprise achieve its desired ROI/ROC by leveraging HPC+AI+Data technology, extreme data in motion, data center sustainability, and the cloud for secure ultra-scale architectures and collaboration environments. This effort drives the next generation of computationally steered workflows in decision support environments for real-time situational awareness, institutional learning, and ESG compliance.
Greg Heier - Technical Solutions Architect
Greg is a Technical Solutions Architect at World Wide Technology. He has over 20 years experience in the technology field and 15 years experience with cloud technology. His background includes both infrastructure and data applications and he has helped enterprises deploy a wide array of solutions to the cloud. He has also been involved with artificial intelligence projects that include cloud APIs for computer vision, text classification, and large language models. In his free time, Greg is a hobbyist game programmer on Unreal Engine and also enjoys playing keyboard and guitar.
Bobby Baker - AI/ML Business Development Manager at WWT
Based in Parker, CO (South Denver), Bobby Baker joined WWT March 2023. Prior to that, he was at VMware (2+ yrs) and 23 yrs at Compaq/HP/HPE. During his career, he's held Presales, Product Management, and Solutions Develop roles in a number of industries and organizations, including Sprint, AT&T, IBM, as well as NASA Space Shuttle Flight Controller for Hubble Telescope Deployment and select DoD missions.
In his free time, he enjoys Guitar (Classic Rock), Golf (Classic Hack), and Home Projects (Classic DIY). He's also physically active, spending time at the gym, walking, and biking. He was formerly Captain of University of Texas
Water Polo Team.
Speaker: World Wide Technology (panel)
- What (cool and unique) business use-cases are we seeing customers deploy LLM's or Deep Learning for?
- Things specific you should consider if your company is looking at an LLM project?
- Are there any vendors who are "doing it right" (Microsoft, Google, etc)
- What does it take to build out an LLM or Deep Learning environment?
- The Microsoft roadmap for ChatGPT
- Who are the competitors and who seems to be winning in that game?
- LLM's and company policies
About the Speakers
Earl Dodd - HPC & ESG Architect at WWT
Earl Dodd is World Wide Technology's Global HPC Business Practice Leader. He provides HPC/HPDA/Supercomputing strategy, technology enablement, business development, and ESG/Sustainability support to WWT's global enterprise and government customers. Earl helps an enterprise achieve its desired ROI/ROC by leveraging HPC+AI+Data technology, extreme data in motion, data center sustainability, and the cloud for secure ultra-scale architectures and collaboration environments. This effort drives the next generation of computationally steered workflows in decision support environments for real-time situational awareness, institutional learning, and ESG compliance.
Greg Heier - Technical Solutions Architect
Greg is a Technical Solutions Architect at World Wide Technology. He has over 20 years experience in the technology field and 15 years experience with cloud technology. His background includes both infrastructure and data applications and he has helped enterprises deploy a wide array of solutions to the cloud. He has also been involved with artificial intelligence projects that include cloud APIs for computer vision, text classification, and large language models. In his free time, Greg is a hobbyist game programmer on Unreal Engine and also enjoys playing keyboard and guitar.
Bobby Baker - AI/ML Business Development Manager at WWT
Based in Parker, CO (South Denver), Bobby Baker joined WWT March 2023. Prior to that, he was at VMware (2+ yrs) and 23 yrs at Compaq/HP/HPE. During his career, he's held Presales, Product Management, and Solutions Develop roles in a number of industries and organizations, including Sprint, AT&T, IBM, as well as NASA Space Shuttle Flight Controller for Hubble Telescope Deployment and select DoD missions.
In his free time, he enjoys Guitar (Classic Rock), Golf (Classic Hack), and Home Projects (Classic DIY). He's also physically active, spending time at the gym, walking, and biking. He was formerly Captain of University of Texas
Water Polo Team.
June 2023
Topic: What is the AWS Cloud Development Kit?
Speaker: Andy Cowell, AWS
The AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK) is an open source project that allows you to create your infrastructure in a major programming language of your choice, such as Python, Java, Javascript, or C#/.Net. This allows you to build and use high level constructs of infrastructure with sensible defaults, package it in reusable modules, and track versions of your architecture as it changes. A single line of code can deploy extremely complex infrastructure changes that have already been reviewed and approved. Come learn the basics of AWS CDK!
About the Speaker
Andy Cowell has over twenty five years of system administration and development experience in a variety of environments. Currently, he works for Amazon Web Services as a Senior Solution Architect working with East Tennessee enterprises.
Andy has been responsible for some of the top destinations on the Internet, such as HGTV.com, Dilbert.com, and Metallica.com. In the past, he has worn many hats, from networking admin to full-time developer, and cut his teeth as a “Wizard” with the UTK Computer Science department. Locally, he helps organize ETSA (LOPSA East Tennessee) and KnoxDevs.
When not wrangling systems, he solders microcontrollers, plucks strings, paints toy soldiers, drinks bourbon, smokes pipes, and rolls 20s.
Speaker: Andy Cowell, AWS
The AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK) is an open source project that allows you to create your infrastructure in a major programming language of your choice, such as Python, Java, Javascript, or C#/.Net. This allows you to build and use high level constructs of infrastructure with sensible defaults, package it in reusable modules, and track versions of your architecture as it changes. A single line of code can deploy extremely complex infrastructure changes that have already been reviewed and approved. Come learn the basics of AWS CDK!
About the Speaker
Andy Cowell has over twenty five years of system administration and development experience in a variety of environments. Currently, he works for Amazon Web Services as a Senior Solution Architect working with East Tennessee enterprises.
Andy has been responsible for some of the top destinations on the Internet, such as HGTV.com, Dilbert.com, and Metallica.com. In the past, he has worn many hats, from networking admin to full-time developer, and cut his teeth as a “Wizard” with the UTK Computer Science department. Locally, he helps organize ETSA (LOPSA East Tennessee) and KnoxDevs.
When not wrangling systems, he solders microcontrollers, plucks strings, paints toy soldiers, drinks bourbon, smokes pipes, and rolls 20s.
May 2023
Topic: Kubernetes: An Introduction
Speaker: Seth McCombs, AcuityMD
Despite being less than a decade old, Kubernetes is a buzzword for many in and around the cloud infrastructure space. The word "Kubernetes" is Greek for "Helmsman", but what does Kubernetes actually do? Are Kubernetes and Docker the same thing? What is and is not so great about it? And does your organization need it?
This talk is both an introduction to Kubernetes, as well as a discussion on what Kubernetes can bring to your platform -- the good, the bad, and the complex!
About the Speaker
Seth McCombs is a software engineer in the Cloud/Containers space, with experience working with data intensive cloud infrastructure across multiple companies. In the past, he has been a part of the teams responsible for the Infrastructure/Platforms at Sysdig, Workday, and Crunchyroll. Currently he is an Infrastructure Engineer at AcuityMD, a medical device targeting platform, where he focuses on Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD, and containerized workloads. A part-time Kubernetes contributor, as well as a member of other open source communities, he spends his free time drumming in a cover band, playing entirely too many video games, and hanging with his cat.
Speaker: Seth McCombs, AcuityMD
Despite being less than a decade old, Kubernetes is a buzzword for many in and around the cloud infrastructure space. The word "Kubernetes" is Greek for "Helmsman", but what does Kubernetes actually do? Are Kubernetes and Docker the same thing? What is and is not so great about it? And does your organization need it?
This talk is both an introduction to Kubernetes, as well as a discussion on what Kubernetes can bring to your platform -- the good, the bad, and the complex!
About the Speaker
Seth McCombs is a software engineer in the Cloud/Containers space, with experience working with data intensive cloud infrastructure across multiple companies. In the past, he has been a part of the teams responsible for the Infrastructure/Platforms at Sysdig, Workday, and Crunchyroll. Currently he is an Infrastructure Engineer at AcuityMD, a medical device targeting platform, where he focuses on Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD, and containerized workloads. A part-time Kubernetes contributor, as well as a member of other open source communities, he spends his free time drumming in a cover band, playing entirely too many video games, and hanging with his cat.
April 2023
Topic: Dealing with Layoffs
Speaker: Daniel Pelfrey, ORNL
We hear about layoffs almost daily in the news feeds. This presentation is tips and tricks on how to avoid them, how to be better prepared in dealing with survivors guilt, and being prepared when you forced to change jobs. Murphy's law- if you have a plan, you won't need it.
About the Speaker
Daniel Pelfrey is a Senior Network Engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the Supercomputing Division. Daniel’s Information Technology career began at an Internet startup company in 1995. He was there from customer number 0, and all the way up to 75,000, and from location #1 to over 35+ locations in three states. This eventually led to a nationwide ISP, and ultimately to ORNL where he is on the network team that takes care of the supercomputing network.
Daniel’s first round of formal educational experience was in electrical and computing engineering, and he has a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems at Strayer University.
His hobbies include PC gaming-especially the game Factorio, retro gaming, electronics, science, anything space related and programming.
Speaker: Daniel Pelfrey, ORNL
We hear about layoffs almost daily in the news feeds. This presentation is tips and tricks on how to avoid them, how to be better prepared in dealing with survivors guilt, and being prepared when you forced to change jobs. Murphy's law- if you have a plan, you won't need it.
About the Speaker
Daniel Pelfrey is a Senior Network Engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the Supercomputing Division. Daniel’s Information Technology career began at an Internet startup company in 1995. He was there from customer number 0, and all the way up to 75,000, and from location #1 to over 35+ locations in three states. This eventually led to a nationwide ISP, and ultimately to ORNL where he is on the network team that takes care of the supercomputing network.
Daniel’s first round of formal educational experience was in electrical and computing engineering, and he has a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems at Strayer University.
His hobbies include PC gaming-especially the game Factorio, retro gaming, electronics, science, anything space related and programming.
March 2023
Topic: Resume Realization Resolution
Speaker: Jonathan Evenden, Aegis IT
What makes a good resume? In the most IT answer possible, it depends. Resumes are a powerful tool in multiple ways - both to quickly eliminate someone from consideration or have a candidate get a closer look. First impressions are key, and frequently the resume is your first impression. I will go over important talking points like, what makes a good resume, what makes a bad resume, matching your resume to a specific job listing, and other important considerations.
About the Speaker
Jonathan Evenden is the President and founder of Aegis IT, located in Kingsport, TN. He gave his first computerized presentation in 1994, and has never looked back since. He has been full time in the IT industry since 2004, and has owned Aegis IT since 2012. In the rare moments he is not in front of a computer, he loves playing board games and video games with his son.
Speaker: Jonathan Evenden, Aegis IT
What makes a good resume? In the most IT answer possible, it depends. Resumes are a powerful tool in multiple ways - both to quickly eliminate someone from consideration or have a candidate get a closer look. First impressions are key, and frequently the resume is your first impression. I will go over important talking points like, what makes a good resume, what makes a bad resume, matching your resume to a specific job listing, and other important considerations.
About the Speaker
Jonathan Evenden is the President and founder of Aegis IT, located in Kingsport, TN. He gave his first computerized presentation in 1994, and has never looked back since. He has been full time in the IT industry since 2004, and has owned Aegis IT since 2012. In the rare moments he is not in front of a computer, he loves playing board games and video games with his son.
February 2023
Topic: ActivityPub, Mastodon, and the Fediverse
Speaker: Andy Cowell, AWS
The great #twittermigration is underway, as people leave Twitter for Mastodon. But, really, what’s interesting about that!? Well, underpinning Mastodon is a networking protocol— ActivityPub. And that can make some pictures of other people’s lunches more interesting. ActivityPub does more than enable Mastodon. ActivityPub interconnects the entire social media Fediverse, slightly but fundamentally changing how social media networks operate. Come find out how you can run your own little corner of the Fediverse on ActivityPub.
About the Speaker
Andy Cowell has over twenty five years of system administration and development experience in a variety of environments. Currently, he works for Amazon Web Services as a Senior Solution Architect working with East Tennessee enterprises.
Andy has been responsible for some of the top destinations on the Internet, such as HGTV.com, Dilbert.com, and Metallica.com. In the past, he has worn many hats, from networking admin to full-time developer, and cut his teeth as a “Wizard” with the UTK Computer Science department. Locally, he helps organize ETSA (LOPSA East Tennessee) and KnoxDevs.
When not wrangling systems, he solders microcontrollers, plucks strings, paints toy soldiers, drinks bourbon, smokes pipes, and rolls 20s.
Speaker: Andy Cowell, AWS
The great #twittermigration is underway, as people leave Twitter for Mastodon. But, really, what’s interesting about that!? Well, underpinning Mastodon is a networking protocol— ActivityPub. And that can make some pictures of other people’s lunches more interesting. ActivityPub does more than enable Mastodon. ActivityPub interconnects the entire social media Fediverse, slightly but fundamentally changing how social media networks operate. Come find out how you can run your own little corner of the Fediverse on ActivityPub.
About the Speaker
Andy Cowell has over twenty five years of system administration and development experience in a variety of environments. Currently, he works for Amazon Web Services as a Senior Solution Architect working with East Tennessee enterprises.
Andy has been responsible for some of the top destinations on the Internet, such as HGTV.com, Dilbert.com, and Metallica.com. In the past, he has worn many hats, from networking admin to full-time developer, and cut his teeth as a “Wizard” with the UTK Computer Science department. Locally, he helps organize ETSA (LOPSA East Tennessee) and KnoxDevs.
When not wrangling systems, he solders microcontrollers, plucks strings, paints toy soldiers, drinks bourbon, smokes pipes, and rolls 20s.
January 2023
Topic: Networking for Supercomputing
Speaker: Daniel Pelfrey, ORNL
Not to be confused with the Supercomputing conference, this presentation is an overview of a high performance computing center network for a leadership class computing facility. This presentation will cover network requirements and challenges of designing, implementing, operating, and monitoring a high performance computing network and will compare and contrast different network environments.
How well do you know the limit of every piece of network gear in your network? Where are the bottlenecks in your topology with respect to these limits? How do you monitor for these limits? What are your interoperability challenges in a heterogeneous network environment? What are some of the design challenges to ensure the network meets performance and scalability? This presentation will cover these and many more questions. Supercomputing networks is very much building airplanes in the sky.
About the Speaker
Daniel Pelfrey is a Senior Network Engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the Supercomputing Division. Daniel’s Information Technology career began at an Internet startup company in 1995. He was there from customer number 0, and all the way up to 75,000, and from location #1 to over 35+ locations in three states. This eventually led to a nationwide ISP, and ultimately to ORNL where he is on the network team that takes care of the supercomputing network.
Daniel’s first round of formal educational experience was in electrical and computing engineering, and he has a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems at Strayer University.
His hobbies include PC gaming-especially the game Factorio, retro gaming, electronics, science, anything space related and programming.
Speaker: Daniel Pelfrey, ORNL
Not to be confused with the Supercomputing conference, this presentation is an overview of a high performance computing center network for a leadership class computing facility. This presentation will cover network requirements and challenges of designing, implementing, operating, and monitoring a high performance computing network and will compare and contrast different network environments.
How well do you know the limit of every piece of network gear in your network? Where are the bottlenecks in your topology with respect to these limits? How do you monitor for these limits? What are your interoperability challenges in a heterogeneous network environment? What are some of the design challenges to ensure the network meets performance and scalability? This presentation will cover these and many more questions. Supercomputing networks is very much building airplanes in the sky.
About the Speaker
Daniel Pelfrey is a Senior Network Engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the Supercomputing Division. Daniel’s Information Technology career began at an Internet startup company in 1995. He was there from customer number 0, and all the way up to 75,000, and from location #1 to over 35+ locations in three states. This eventually led to a nationwide ISP, and ultimately to ORNL where he is on the network team that takes care of the supercomputing network.
Daniel’s first round of formal educational experience was in electrical and computing engineering, and he has a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems at Strayer University.
His hobbies include PC gaming-especially the game Factorio, retro gaming, electronics, science, anything space related and programming.
December 2022
Topic: "I'm pretty sure you could have done this better": The Wacky Ways Mystery Guest Deploys Software
Speaker: Mystery Guest
In IT there are plenty of best practices, guiding you on what tools to pick and what implementations to use. However, when tonight's mystery guest sees a problem, he takes a different approach. Come learn of the misadventures and hundreds of hours spent setting up a deployment pipeline for a complex web application The Mystery Guest Way™. This talk will be exactly 47 minutes long. All time spent is final. No refunds or exchanges.
About the Speaker
Mystery Guest, a.k.a. ████████ ███████, is a ███████ at ████████ where ███ has worked for █████ ██████. In ███ spare time ███ likes to ███████,███████, and ██████.
Speaker: Mystery Guest
In IT there are plenty of best practices, guiding you on what tools to pick and what implementations to use. However, when tonight's mystery guest sees a problem, he takes a different approach. Come learn of the misadventures and hundreds of hours spent setting up a deployment pipeline for a complex web application The Mystery Guest Way™. This talk will be exactly 47 minutes long. All time spent is final. No refunds or exchanges.
About the Speaker
Mystery Guest, a.k.a. ████████ ███████, is a ███████ at ████████ where ███ has worked for █████ ██████. In ███ spare time ███ likes to ███████,███████, and ██████.
November 2022
Topic: How Technologists & Business-focused Teammates Find Synergy
Speaker: Evan Bissonette, StratusGrid
Technical roles and business roles are usually doing very different work day-to-day. But they have to find ways to work towards the same goals of maintaining customer focus, driving towards revenue goals together, communicating effectively, and more. This discussion intends to focus on a few things that work, a few things that don't, and other ideas for ensuring the business is heading in the right direction regardless of team differences.
About the speaker
Evan Bissonette
Director, Growth Team at StratusGrid
Evan Bissonette joined StratusGrid in November 2020. He has been in Chattanooga since 1988. He lives and breathes sales and marketing (or as we call it at StratusGrid, “Growth”). He has been working in technology since 2014, and in sales or marketing roles since 2010. He is passionate about learning something new every day, volunteering, and mentoring students in high school and college. Outside of work, Evan is the Director at Large, Ethics & Diversity for the PRSA Lookout Chapter, professional advisor for the UT Chattanooga PRSSA Chapter, serves on the Chattanooga Technology Council’s marketing and membership committee, and sits on the IT Advisory Board at Chattanooga State Technical Community College. In his free time, he travels, stays active, and spends time with his family.
Speaker: Evan Bissonette, StratusGrid
Technical roles and business roles are usually doing very different work day-to-day. But they have to find ways to work towards the same goals of maintaining customer focus, driving towards revenue goals together, communicating effectively, and more. This discussion intends to focus on a few things that work, a few things that don't, and other ideas for ensuring the business is heading in the right direction regardless of team differences.
About the speaker
Evan Bissonette
Director, Growth Team at StratusGrid
Evan Bissonette joined StratusGrid in November 2020. He has been in Chattanooga since 1988. He lives and breathes sales and marketing (or as we call it at StratusGrid, “Growth”). He has been working in technology since 2014, and in sales or marketing roles since 2010. He is passionate about learning something new every day, volunteering, and mentoring students in high school and college. Outside of work, Evan is the Director at Large, Ethics & Diversity for the PRSA Lookout Chapter, professional advisor for the UT Chattanooga PRSSA Chapter, serves on the Chattanooga Technology Council’s marketing and membership committee, and sits on the IT Advisory Board at Chattanooga State Technical Community College. In his free time, he travels, stays active, and spends time with his family.
October 2022
Topic: Stormy Skies Ahead: Batten Down the Hatches with On-Prem
Speaker: Michael Campfield, Leidos
"We are moving everything to the cloud!"
"Why?"
"Uh, the vendor told us cloud made everything super awesome and saved us money."
"Is this the same vendor who sold us our $950K VMware stack 3 years ago?"
"But they gave me a koozie AND a t-shirt this time."
The cloud is a game changer, but beyond that statement, when
is it better for you and your customers to just keep a half-rack of
systems in your office broom closet and the DevOps platform on a PC
under your developers' desks?
Is hybrid cloud an in-between stage or a permanent fixture?
We are going to have a presentation and dialog - you heard that right -
a dialog!
About the speaker
Michael Campfield is a Linux systems administrator with Leidos whose
listed office is at a CDC facility in Atlanta skulking around the
bioinformatics HPC group.
As with most systems administrators he has worn many hats, frequently
all at once. Something something Puppet and Ansible, something
something, cloud, automation...
Most importantly, Michael is seeking an academic librarianship MLIS
degree from IUPUI (Go Jags!). He isn’t seeking for a career change -
just wants to say he is a computer scientist and a librarian. Verified
by Guinness as the weirdest midlife crisis activity ever.
Though a resident of East Tennessee for over twenty years, Michael's
origins in Upstate New York means he eats only sweet cornbread but never
drinks sweet tea.
Speaker: Michael Campfield, Leidos
"We are moving everything to the cloud!"
"Why?"
"Uh, the vendor told us cloud made everything super awesome and saved us money."
"Is this the same vendor who sold us our $950K VMware stack 3 years ago?"
"But they gave me a koozie AND a t-shirt this time."
The cloud is a game changer, but beyond that statement, when
is it better for you and your customers to just keep a half-rack of
systems in your office broom closet and the DevOps platform on a PC
under your developers' desks?
Is hybrid cloud an in-between stage or a permanent fixture?
We are going to have a presentation and dialog - you heard that right -
a dialog!
About the speaker
Michael Campfield is a Linux systems administrator with Leidos whose
listed office is at a CDC facility in Atlanta skulking around the
bioinformatics HPC group.
As with most systems administrators he has worn many hats, frequently
all at once. Something something Puppet and Ansible, something
something, cloud, automation...
Most importantly, Michael is seeking an academic librarianship MLIS
degree from IUPUI (Go Jags!). He isn’t seeking for a career change -
just wants to say he is a computer scientist and a librarian. Verified
by Guinness as the weirdest midlife crisis activity ever.
Though a resident of East Tennessee for over twenty years, Michael's
origins in Upstate New York means he eats only sweet cornbread but never
drinks sweet tea.
September 2022
Topic: Cloud Data is Not Backed Up, Contrary to Popular Belief
Speaker: Wesley Kirkland, StratusGrid
What happens when the cloud service you rely on becomes unreliable? This is what happened to some 500 Atlassian cloud customers this past April when a script intended to deactivate an obsolete service actually deactivated live services, and even permanently deleted customer data.
In this month’s talk, we will be taking a closer look at Atlassian’s Post-Incident Review, with particular focus improving upon Atlassian’s post-incident response for both business and technical operations, and what we can learn from Atlassian’s own Root Cause Analysis to strengthen our own infrastructure management. Regardless of the extent to which your organization’s infrastructure is on-prem or in the cloud, there are lessons here each of us can take with us as we strive to provide reliable and resilient services to our stakeholders.
About the speaker
Wesley Kirkland is a Senior Infrastructure Engineer @ StratusGrid. StratusGrid assists customers on a daily basis with their cloud journey and maturity. Wesley enjoys baking and cooking as hobbies to get him away from his desk. Food is what powers the soul right?
Speaker: Wesley Kirkland, StratusGrid
What happens when the cloud service you rely on becomes unreliable? This is what happened to some 500 Atlassian cloud customers this past April when a script intended to deactivate an obsolete service actually deactivated live services, and even permanently deleted customer data.
In this month’s talk, we will be taking a closer look at Atlassian’s Post-Incident Review, with particular focus improving upon Atlassian’s post-incident response for both business and technical operations, and what we can learn from Atlassian’s own Root Cause Analysis to strengthen our own infrastructure management. Regardless of the extent to which your organization’s infrastructure is on-prem or in the cloud, there are lessons here each of us can take with us as we strive to provide reliable and resilient services to our stakeholders.
About the speaker
Wesley Kirkland is a Senior Infrastructure Engineer @ StratusGrid. StratusGrid assists customers on a daily basis with their cloud journey and maturity. Wesley enjoys baking and cooking as hobbies to get him away from his desk. Food is what powers the soul right?
August 2022
Topic: From Git to Lambda, how to track your serverless code to production using the commit SHA
Speaker: Ivan Casco, StratusGrid
If you’ve ever worked with Lambda functions, you probably have experienced how difficult it is to track the exact version of code that’s currently running. In this talk, you will learn how to use the git commit SHA to track code through production and include this functionality in your software release workflow.
About the speaker
Ivan Casco is currently Chief Technology Officer at StratusGrid. His background is in Cloud Architecture and DevOps methodologies, especially in implementing new services and improving existing platforms, helping to achieve the best results with few resources and limited time. He is constantly evolving and investigating new technologies and trends in every single aspect of information technology, whether it is with Cloud, Software Development, or DevOps. Ivan enjoys guiding people and driving change in every team he works with, understanding their needs, and empowering them with the knowledge and tools to thrive in their own projects. In his spare time, Ivan loves to travel, eat good food from different cultures and regions, and spend lots of time with technology outside of work.
Speaker: Ivan Casco, StratusGrid
If you’ve ever worked with Lambda functions, you probably have experienced how difficult it is to track the exact version of code that’s currently running. In this talk, you will learn how to use the git commit SHA to track code through production and include this functionality in your software release workflow.
About the speaker
Ivan Casco is currently Chief Technology Officer at StratusGrid. His background is in Cloud Architecture and DevOps methodologies, especially in implementing new services and improving existing platforms, helping to achieve the best results with few resources and limited time. He is constantly evolving and investigating new technologies and trends in every single aspect of information technology, whether it is with Cloud, Software Development, or DevOps. Ivan enjoys guiding people and driving change in every team he works with, understanding their needs, and empowering them with the knowledge and tools to thrive in their own projects. In his spare time, Ivan loves to travel, eat good food from different cultures and regions, and spend lots of time with technology outside of work.
July 2022
Topic: Terraform for Dummies
Speaker: Wesley Kirkland, StratusGrid
Have you ever sat there and wondered, how the heck did I get this far without knowing IaC? Or have you been curious about how you can do remote state and dynamic git pre-commit to validate your code for you? Well Wesley did both of those. Somehow he found his way in a rut and finally got out of it with Terraform, and he has been able to build upon that. At this meetup, you will learn Terraform from the ground up and see live demos from resource blocks to modules, to dynamic commits.
About the speaker
Wesley Kirkland is a Senior Infrastructure Engineer @ StratusGrid. StratusGrid assists customers on a daily basis with their cloud journey and maturity. Wesley enjoys baking and cooking as hobbies to get him away from his desk. Food is what powers the soul right?
Speaker: Wesley Kirkland, StratusGrid
Have you ever sat there and wondered, how the heck did I get this far without knowing IaC? Or have you been curious about how you can do remote state and dynamic git pre-commit to validate your code for you? Well Wesley did both of those. Somehow he found his way in a rut and finally got out of it with Terraform, and he has been able to build upon that. At this meetup, you will learn Terraform from the ground up and see live demos from resource blocks to modules, to dynamic commits.
About the speaker
Wesley Kirkland is a Senior Infrastructure Engineer @ StratusGrid. StratusGrid assists customers on a daily basis with their cloud journey and maturity. Wesley enjoys baking and cooking as hobbies to get him away from his desk. Food is what powers the soul right?
June 2022
Topic: Creating Automated Bits or: How My Current Position Found Me
Speaker: Daniel Dewey, ORNL
There are many ways you find yourself in your current professional position. A contact in your social circle, looking through Dice.com, or even being approached by a recruiter through LinkedIn. But one I never expected was sharing my side hobby/project, and how it caught someone's attention, and turned into my current job.
About the speaker
Daniel Dewey is a Linux Engineer supporting the on-premises Research Cloud at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Daniel got a degree in Game and Simulation Programming at DeVry University, but has been tinkering with Linux ever since Middle School , when his father brought Red Hat 4 home from work.
Speaker: Daniel Dewey, ORNL
There are many ways you find yourself in your current professional position. A contact in your social circle, looking through Dice.com, or even being approached by a recruiter through LinkedIn. But one I never expected was sharing my side hobby/project, and how it caught someone's attention, and turned into my current job.
About the speaker
Daniel Dewey is a Linux Engineer supporting the on-premises Research Cloud at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Daniel got a degree in Game and Simulation Programming at DeVry University, but has been tinkering with Linux ever since Middle School , when his father brought Red Hat 4 home from work.
May 2022
Topic: Cyber Security in the Age of Ransomware
Speaker: Matt Lindsey, ORNL
Although a periodic nuisance for many years, Ransomware has recently come of age as a substantial geo-political and economic threat to the world economy. This talk will look at the unique tactics, incentives, and threat actors associated with this increasingly pernicious malware and arm attendees with strategies to protect their companies assets against attack.
About the speaker
Matt Lindsey is the Defensive Cyber Operations Lead and chief Threat Intelligence analyst for Oak Ridge National Laboratory and a long time Cyber education enthusiast in and out of work. A fifteen year veteran of the security industrial complex, he spends much of his time doing incident handling and tracking emerging threats throughout the IT world. When he’s not manning the thin blue line between federal networks and the Internet, he enjoys the traditional nerdy pastimes of podcasts, Firefly and Pokemon.
Speaker: Matt Lindsey, ORNL
Although a periodic nuisance for many years, Ransomware has recently come of age as a substantial geo-political and economic threat to the world economy. This talk will look at the unique tactics, incentives, and threat actors associated with this increasingly pernicious malware and arm attendees with strategies to protect their companies assets against attack.
About the speaker
Matt Lindsey is the Defensive Cyber Operations Lead and chief Threat Intelligence analyst for Oak Ridge National Laboratory and a long time Cyber education enthusiast in and out of work. A fifteen year veteran of the security industrial complex, he spends much of his time doing incident handling and tracking emerging threats throughout the IT world. When he’s not manning the thin blue line between federal networks and the Internet, he enjoys the traditional nerdy pastimes of podcasts, Firefly and Pokemon.
April 2022
Topic: AMD Public Roadmap and Current Processor Topics
Speaker: Adam Sachitano, AMD
This presentation will use an overview of the public AMD CPU and GPU roadmaps as a framework to discuss current topics in the datacenter CPU and GPU markets. Topics include: current CPU and GPU offerings, modern workload comparisons, parts "binning," multichip CPUs and GPUs, and open source tools & community. participation.
About the speaker
Adam Sachitano is a pre-sales engineer specializing in HPC sales for AMD. Prior to that he spent 14 years as a site engineer in the field customer service organization at Cray, Inc. for multiple government and commercial customers worldwide. Having most recently worked on-site at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Adam lives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and enjoys the beautiful Smoky and Cumberland mountains with his wife and 2 children.
Speaker: Adam Sachitano, AMD
This presentation will use an overview of the public AMD CPU and GPU roadmaps as a framework to discuss current topics in the datacenter CPU and GPU markets. Topics include: current CPU and GPU offerings, modern workload comparisons, parts "binning," multichip CPUs and GPUs, and open source tools & community. participation.
About the speaker
Adam Sachitano is a pre-sales engineer specializing in HPC sales for AMD. Prior to that he spent 14 years as a site engineer in the field customer service organization at Cray, Inc. for multiple government and commercial customers worldwide. Having most recently worked on-site at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Adam lives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and enjoys the beautiful Smoky and Cumberland mountains with his wife and 2 children.
March 2022
Lightning Talks!
Topic: Cloudy with a chance of IaaS - A lighting talk to spark discussion of what clouds really are and how we really feel about them.
Speaker: Chris Layton, ORNL
About the speaker
With two decades of IT experience behind him, Chris is always looking for new challenges and opportunities to grow, especially if they involve Linux. He currently serves on Research Cloud Team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory where he helps support the technical needs of the lab's many scientific research projects. His prior experience includes working as part of a two man engineering team at a Tier 1 ISP, a year long stint as a Senior Systems Engineer at Peak Hosting, and also supporting ORNL's supercomputing effort as a member of the HPC Operations Infrastructure team.
When not chasing packets or bending Linux systems to do his bidding, his time is spent trying to keep pace with his daughter, exploring the local hiking haunts, playing with embedded Linux systems, and driving mountain roads in small two seater automobiles.
Topic: My career is like a needle. It leads me and I follow like thread. A discussion about being nimble minded and how to discover your calling.
Speaker: Bo Carbonell, GitLab
About the speaker
Bo Carbonell is a DevOps engineer who works as Support Engineer at GitLab, a DevOps platform that supports the entire life cycle of code. Bo has previously worked for almost 5 years as a Systems Engineer at Maryville College, prior to that, at Creekside Technologies, a managed service provider. Bo proudly graduated from Pellissippi State community college where he obtained an internship at ORNL for the Cyber Warfare and Research team.
Bo has many hobbies but mostly enjoys learning and being with his family. An interesting fact about Bo - he used to play drums in a punk band.
Topic: Jump starting an IT career, how to get into IT as a career or transition to an upgrade once you have been in.
Speaker: Jonathan Evenden, Aegis IT
About the speaker
Jonathan Evenden is the President and founder of Aegis IT, located in Kingsport, TN. He has been full time in the IT industry since 2004, and has owned Aegis IT for over seven years. In the rare moments he is not in front of a computer, he loves playing board games and watching Netflix with his wife and son.
Topic: Cloudy with a chance of IaaS - A lighting talk to spark discussion of what clouds really are and how we really feel about them.
Speaker: Chris Layton, ORNL
About the speaker
With two decades of IT experience behind him, Chris is always looking for new challenges and opportunities to grow, especially if they involve Linux. He currently serves on Research Cloud Team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory where he helps support the technical needs of the lab's many scientific research projects. His prior experience includes working as part of a two man engineering team at a Tier 1 ISP, a year long stint as a Senior Systems Engineer at Peak Hosting, and also supporting ORNL's supercomputing effort as a member of the HPC Operations Infrastructure team.
When not chasing packets or bending Linux systems to do his bidding, his time is spent trying to keep pace with his daughter, exploring the local hiking haunts, playing with embedded Linux systems, and driving mountain roads in small two seater automobiles.
Topic: My career is like a needle. It leads me and I follow like thread. A discussion about being nimble minded and how to discover your calling.
Speaker: Bo Carbonell, GitLab
About the speaker
Bo Carbonell is a DevOps engineer who works as Support Engineer at GitLab, a DevOps platform that supports the entire life cycle of code. Bo has previously worked for almost 5 years as a Systems Engineer at Maryville College, prior to that, at Creekside Technologies, a managed service provider. Bo proudly graduated from Pellissippi State community college where he obtained an internship at ORNL for the Cyber Warfare and Research team.
Bo has many hobbies but mostly enjoys learning and being with his family. An interesting fact about Bo - he used to play drums in a punk band.
Topic: Jump starting an IT career, how to get into IT as a career or transition to an upgrade once you have been in.
Speaker: Jonathan Evenden, Aegis IT
About the speaker
Jonathan Evenden is the President and founder of Aegis IT, located in Kingsport, TN. He has been full time in the IT industry since 2004, and has owned Aegis IT for over seven years. In the rare moments he is not in front of a computer, he loves playing board games and watching Netflix with his wife and son.
February 2022
Topic: How to Get a Job You're Unqualified For
Speaker: Brad Hillis, ORNL
While job hunting, ever felt that little thrill when you come across what seems like that perfect job, only to feel intimidated when you read the full description? They want more time, more education, more skills, someone younger (or older), smarter, quicker, prettier. . . and before you finish reading, you've thought yourself out and away from another opportunity. "I'm not qualified!”
Of course there are jobs out there that we’re not qualified for – we’re not brain surgeons or rocket scientists, but that description you just read was for neither one of those. And even if your experience and their description don’t match, that doesn’t mean you’re not a good fit. What’s more, that initial spark you felt for the job was probably more relevant than its description.
In this talk, we’ll re-think what “qualified” means – how your future promises more than the summary of your past, how there is more to you than the sum of your experience, and despite what your imposter syndrome may tell you, the job you want is in fact the job you deserve!
About the speaker
Brad Hillis is a Systems Engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He has been in the IT industry since 2000. In his off time, he loves collecting and playing guitars, and spending time with his wife and son. He's currently working on becoming an Steak Cookoff Association Certified Steak Judge.
Speaker: Brad Hillis, ORNL
While job hunting, ever felt that little thrill when you come across what seems like that perfect job, only to feel intimidated when you read the full description? They want more time, more education, more skills, someone younger (or older), smarter, quicker, prettier. . . and before you finish reading, you've thought yourself out and away from another opportunity. "I'm not qualified!”
Of course there are jobs out there that we’re not qualified for – we’re not brain surgeons or rocket scientists, but that description you just read was for neither one of those. And even if your experience and their description don’t match, that doesn’t mean you’re not a good fit. What’s more, that initial spark you felt for the job was probably more relevant than its description.
In this talk, we’ll re-think what “qualified” means – how your future promises more than the summary of your past, how there is more to you than the sum of your experience, and despite what your imposter syndrome may tell you, the job you want is in fact the job you deserve!
About the speaker
Brad Hillis is a Systems Engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He has been in the IT industry since 2000. In his off time, he loves collecting and playing guitars, and spending time with his wife and son. He's currently working on becoming an Steak Cookoff Association Certified Steak Judge.
January 2022
Topic: The Power of PowerShell
Speaker: Jon Knight, Ministry Brands
PowerShell is an incredibly versatile language that enables users to automate virtually any task. You may be familiar with the more typical uses for PowerShell such as, interacting with Exchange or completing mundane Windows administration tasks, but the language is capable of so much more. For instance, did you know that you can rapidly interact with practically any web API using PowerShell? How about interacting with services that don’t offer public APIs? With a bit of third-party help, PowerShell can interact with most any website directly, thus automating your manual clicks. You can even create a beautiful web-based front-end for your PowerShell scripts, through the use of PowerShell Universal Dashboard. All of this is offered in a .NET-centric environment that will make developers and scripters alike feel at home in the language.
About the speaker
Despite my job title, I still consider myself a developer first, and I relish any opportunity to grow my programming skills. I’m proficient in several programming languages including C#, Java, JavaScript, and of course, PowerShell. I love automation and using technology to make life easier.
I began my journey as a development student at Pellissippi State back in 2016. After graduating Summa Cum Laude with an A.A.S. in Computer Programming, I happened into a System Engineering Internship at Ministry Brands. Having a development background allowed me to approach problems from a different angle and create solutions others hadn’t considered. While continuing my internship, I also completed my B.S. in Software Development from WGU. After witnessing my work ethic as an intern for just over a year, I was offered a full-time position which I accepted, and the rest is history.
Speaker: Jon Knight, Ministry Brands
PowerShell is an incredibly versatile language that enables users to automate virtually any task. You may be familiar with the more typical uses for PowerShell such as, interacting with Exchange or completing mundane Windows administration tasks, but the language is capable of so much more. For instance, did you know that you can rapidly interact with practically any web API using PowerShell? How about interacting with services that don’t offer public APIs? With a bit of third-party help, PowerShell can interact with most any website directly, thus automating your manual clicks. You can even create a beautiful web-based front-end for your PowerShell scripts, through the use of PowerShell Universal Dashboard. All of this is offered in a .NET-centric environment that will make developers and scripters alike feel at home in the language.
About the speaker
Despite my job title, I still consider myself a developer first, and I relish any opportunity to grow my programming skills. I’m proficient in several programming languages including C#, Java, JavaScript, and of course, PowerShell. I love automation and using technology to make life easier.
I began my journey as a development student at Pellissippi State back in 2016. After graduating Summa Cum Laude with an A.A.S. in Computer Programming, I happened into a System Engineering Internship at Ministry Brands. Having a development background allowed me to approach problems from a different angle and create solutions others hadn’t considered. While continuing my internship, I also completed my B.S. in Software Development from WGU. After witnessing my work ethic as an intern for just over a year, I was offered a full-time position which I accepted, and the rest is history.
December 2021
Topic: A Peek Inside a Global Security Breach Report - the 2021 VZ DBIR
Speaker: Jesse Trucks, Splunk
Jesse will introduce and provide highlights and insights from the 2021 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR). The DBIR is the world’s most comprehensive analysis of security threats and breaches across industries. Be prepared for lots of fun charts and anecdotes.
About the speaker
Jesse Trucks has over 24 years of experience in ITops and SecOps. He has worked in non-profit group and organizational management since 2005, beginning with helping draft the LOPSA Code of Ethics and being a founding member of LOPSA. He later served as a LOPSA board member for several years. Trucks has founded and managed two LOPSA chapters - including our own LOPSA East Tennessee. He is a co-founder and President of ETSA, the non-profit formed by members of ETENN to support and grow our community, and he is the co-founder, President, and Principal of Knoxville School of Progressive Education, a non-profit, K-5 school. Trucks routinely consults with other non-profits on their bylaws and other organizational forming and management matters. He is the author and host of the Meanwhile in Security newsletter and podcast and the Minister of Magic at Splunk. He lives in Knoxville with his wife and son and their poodles and chickens building an oasis in the suburbs of West Knox, and he is an amateur radio operator with the callsign N9MOM.
Speaker: Jesse Trucks, Splunk
Jesse will introduce and provide highlights and insights from the 2021 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR). The DBIR is the world’s most comprehensive analysis of security threats and breaches across industries. Be prepared for lots of fun charts and anecdotes.
About the speaker
Jesse Trucks has over 24 years of experience in ITops and SecOps. He has worked in non-profit group and organizational management since 2005, beginning with helping draft the LOPSA Code of Ethics and being a founding member of LOPSA. He later served as a LOPSA board member for several years. Trucks has founded and managed two LOPSA chapters - including our own LOPSA East Tennessee. He is a co-founder and President of ETSA, the non-profit formed by members of ETENN to support and grow our community, and he is the co-founder, President, and Principal of Knoxville School of Progressive Education, a non-profit, K-5 school. Trucks routinely consults with other non-profits on their bylaws and other organizational forming and management matters. He is the author and host of the Meanwhile in Security newsletter and podcast and the Minister of Magic at Splunk. He lives in Knoxville with his wife and son and their poodles and chickens building an oasis in the suburbs of West Knox, and he is an amateur radio operator with the callsign N9MOM.
November 2021
Topic: Creating Culture to Support DevOps
Speaker: Warner Moore, Gamma Force Ltd
Has your strategic consulting vendor brought introduced DevOps Engineers and DevOps teams? Or maybe you’re just hiring DevOps Engineers because more people apply? Over the past ~8 years, we’ve learned a lot about working together collaboratively with DevOps culture and practices.
In this presentation, we’ll explore DevOps anti-patterns that keep your organization from attracting the best engineers and true DevOps organizational structures that can help your engineering teams work together collaboratively without silos.
About the speaker
Warner Moore is a strategic executive leader and manager with a background in technology and information security. He has focused his career in working with entrepreneurial growth organizations where technology is their business and product. Within these organizations, Warner has an accomplished record of building successful cybersecurity programs and high performing teams who embrace DevOps culture and practices.
As an international speaker, Warner has been invited to present to university students, technology professionals, and business leaders in a classroom setting as well as at conferences such as Startup Week, CloudDevelop, Path to Agility, InfoSec Summit, CodeMash, Security BSides, DevOpsDays, and Abstractions.
Warner is passionate about culture, innovation, and community. His commitment to these values is demonstrated through his work leading organizations such as OLF Conference, LOPSA, and Toastmasters. The culmination of this work is the founding of Tech Community Coalition in 2016, a non-profit organization whose mission is to enable the greater tech community.
After building security and privacy capabilities for numerous organizations across industries at companies such as CoverMyMeds and Bold Penguin, Warner founded the cybersecurity strategy firm Gamma Force. Through Gamma Force, Warner serves as a virtual CISO for clients that include Deep Lens and Smart Columbus, and advises startups to scale them through concept and growth phases.
Speaker: Warner Moore, Gamma Force Ltd
Has your strategic consulting vendor brought introduced DevOps Engineers and DevOps teams? Or maybe you’re just hiring DevOps Engineers because more people apply? Over the past ~8 years, we’ve learned a lot about working together collaboratively with DevOps culture and practices.
In this presentation, we’ll explore DevOps anti-patterns that keep your organization from attracting the best engineers and true DevOps organizational structures that can help your engineering teams work together collaboratively without silos.
About the speaker
Warner Moore is a strategic executive leader and manager with a background in technology and information security. He has focused his career in working with entrepreneurial growth organizations where technology is their business and product. Within these organizations, Warner has an accomplished record of building successful cybersecurity programs and high performing teams who embrace DevOps culture and practices.
As an international speaker, Warner has been invited to present to university students, technology professionals, and business leaders in a classroom setting as well as at conferences such as Startup Week, CloudDevelop, Path to Agility, InfoSec Summit, CodeMash, Security BSides, DevOpsDays, and Abstractions.
Warner is passionate about culture, innovation, and community. His commitment to these values is demonstrated through his work leading organizations such as OLF Conference, LOPSA, and Toastmasters. The culmination of this work is the founding of Tech Community Coalition in 2016, a non-profit organization whose mission is to enable the greater tech community.
After building security and privacy capabilities for numerous organizations across industries at companies such as CoverMyMeds and Bold Penguin, Warner founded the cybersecurity strategy firm Gamma Force. Through Gamma Force, Warner serves as a virtual CISO for clients that include Deep Lens and Smart Columbus, and advises startups to scale them through concept and growth phases.
October 2021
Topic: You Might Experience Some Discomfort: Your New AWS Account & You
Speaker: Corey Quinn, The Duckbill Group
Corey is the Chief Cloud Economist at The Duckbill Group, where he specializes in helping companies improve their AWS bills by making them smaller and less horrifying. He also hosts the “Screaming in the Cloud” and “AWS Morning Brief” podcasts; and curates “Last Week in AWS,” a weekly newsletter summarizing the latest in AWS news, blogs, and tools, sprinkled with snark and thoughtful analysis in roughly equal measure.
Speaker: Corey Quinn, The Duckbill Group
Corey is the Chief Cloud Economist at The Duckbill Group, where he specializes in helping companies improve their AWS bills by making them smaller and less horrifying. He also hosts the “Screaming in the Cloud” and “AWS Morning Brief” podcasts; and curates “Last Week in AWS,” a weekly newsletter summarizing the latest in AWS news, blogs, and tools, sprinkled with snark and thoughtful analysis in roughly equal measure.
September 2021
Topic: The Security Practitioner: An Uncertain Future
Speaker: Adrian Sanabria, Security Weekly Labs
Link to video
In the early days, folks weren't too sure about this new security department that started popping up. Most "hacks" were defacements of websites done by activists and kids - nothing too worrisome. Then, in the mid-2000s the first major breaches started getting reported.
Thrilled that the mainstream was starting to take security more seriously, the security community started to take itself a bit too seriously. Security became the department of "no". In many organizations, security folks became patronizing and adversarial. It wasn't a great look and we're still trying to fix our public image.
Fast forward to today and security has been relatively humbled. Breaches happen every day, but they rarely cause lasting damage and almost never kill businesses. DevOps, agile, cloud, and the ever-growing VC/startup culture have transformed technology. This transformation has led to a hard split in the security community that's starting to look a bit like the split between sysadmins when Linux came on the scene in the 90's.
How does this "new" security practitioner differ from the "old"?
This talk will explore the differences between them, including analysis of actual job postings, and some fun anecdotes.
About the Speaker:
Adrian is the founder of Security Weekly Labs at CyberRisk Alliance. He focuses primarily on cybersecurity product reviews, but will also provide industry insight trends for both SC Media and Security Weekly (both CyberRisk Alliance companies). He brings two decades of industry experience, working as a practitioner, penetration tester and industry analyst. He has spent the last few years as an entrepreneur and challenging (mostly terrible) norms in sales and marketing for a variety of vendors. Adrian loves to cook, eat, hike, play music and regale his teenagers with stories of what the early days of the Internet were like.
Speaker: Adrian Sanabria, Security Weekly Labs
Link to video
In the early days, folks weren't too sure about this new security department that started popping up. Most "hacks" were defacements of websites done by activists and kids - nothing too worrisome. Then, in the mid-2000s the first major breaches started getting reported.
Thrilled that the mainstream was starting to take security more seriously, the security community started to take itself a bit too seriously. Security became the department of "no". In many organizations, security folks became patronizing and adversarial. It wasn't a great look and we're still trying to fix our public image.
Fast forward to today and security has been relatively humbled. Breaches happen every day, but they rarely cause lasting damage and almost never kill businesses. DevOps, agile, cloud, and the ever-growing VC/startup culture have transformed technology. This transformation has led to a hard split in the security community that's starting to look a bit like the split between sysadmins when Linux came on the scene in the 90's.
How does this "new" security practitioner differ from the "old"?
This talk will explore the differences between them, including analysis of actual job postings, and some fun anecdotes.
About the Speaker:
Adrian is the founder of Security Weekly Labs at CyberRisk Alliance. He focuses primarily on cybersecurity product reviews, but will also provide industry insight trends for both SC Media and Security Weekly (both CyberRisk Alliance companies). He brings two decades of industry experience, working as a practitioner, penetration tester and industry analyst. He has spent the last few years as an entrepreneur and challenging (mostly terrible) norms in sales and marketing for a variety of vendors. Adrian loves to cook, eat, hike, play music and regale his teenagers with stories of what the early days of the Internet were like.
August 2021
Topic: Over Engineering Your Internet Presence
Speaker: Wesley Kirkland, Ministry Brands
Link to video
We all know how to setup a website with GoDaddy, but how much do you really know and how can we over-engineer it with traditional IT concepts?
About the Speaker: Over the last several years, Wesley Kirkland has cut his teeth doing Systems Engineering work until he got the opportunity to become a real boy again and move to a cloud-centric infrastructure role. Currently, he is a Sr. Cloud Engineer at Ministry Brands, working with AWS & Azure with PowerShell daily. Though somehow his old life follows him and he still does networking.
Speaker: Wesley Kirkland, Ministry Brands
Link to video
We all know how to setup a website with GoDaddy, but how much do you really know and how can we over-engineer it with traditional IT concepts?
About the Speaker: Over the last several years, Wesley Kirkland has cut his teeth doing Systems Engineering work until he got the opportunity to become a real boy again and move to a cloud-centric infrastructure role. Currently, he is a Sr. Cloud Engineer at Ministry Brands, working with AWS & Azure with PowerShell daily. Though somehow his old life follows him and he still does networking.
July 2021
Topic: Your Community, Our Community
Speaker: Jesse Trucks, Splunk
Many of us have redefined community in new ways in the last 18 months. Some of us talk about being changed forever. Some of us talk about things being back to normal. Is community different now? Was it different in the last 18 months? Let’s define our community and move into the future.
About the Speakers:
Jesse Trucks has over 24 years of experience in ITops and SecOps. He has worked in non-profit group and organizational management since 2005, beginning with helping draft the LOPSA Code of Ethics and being a founding member of LOPSA. He later served as a LOPSA board member for several years. Trucks has founded and managed two LOPSA chapters - including our own LOPSA East Tennessee. He is a co-founder and President of ETSA, the non-profit formed by members of ETENN to support and grow our community, and he is the co-founder, President, and Principal of Knoxville School of Progressive Education, a non-profit, K-5 school. Trucks routinely consults with other non-profits on their bylaws and other organizational forming and management matters. He is the author and host of the Meanwhile in Security newsletter and podcast and the Minister of Magic at Splunk. He lives in Knoxville with his wife and son and their poodles and chickens building an oasis in the suburbs of West Knox, and he is an amateur radio operator with the callsign N9MOM.
Speaker: Jesse Trucks, Splunk
Many of us have redefined community in new ways in the last 18 months. Some of us talk about being changed forever. Some of us talk about things being back to normal. Is community different now? Was it different in the last 18 months? Let’s define our community and move into the future.
About the Speakers:
Jesse Trucks has over 24 years of experience in ITops and SecOps. He has worked in non-profit group and organizational management since 2005, beginning with helping draft the LOPSA Code of Ethics and being a founding member of LOPSA. He later served as a LOPSA board member for several years. Trucks has founded and managed two LOPSA chapters - including our own LOPSA East Tennessee. He is a co-founder and President of ETSA, the non-profit formed by members of ETENN to support and grow our community, and he is the co-founder, President, and Principal of Knoxville School of Progressive Education, a non-profit, K-5 school. Trucks routinely consults with other non-profits on their bylaws and other organizational forming and management matters. He is the author and host of the Meanwhile in Security newsletter and podcast and the Minister of Magic at Splunk. He lives in Knoxville with his wife and son and their poodles and chickens building an oasis in the suburbs of West Knox, and he is an amateur radio operator with the callsign N9MOM.
June 2021
Topic: Recruiter Round Table
Speaker: Reps from Several Area IT Recruiting Firms
Looking for a job or thinking about it? Aiming to beef up your skills and unsure which? Curious about the impact of the pandemic on hiring? If so, join us on June 1 as representatives from several IT recruiting firms gather to answer your questions, offer tips, insights, and the inside scoop on how you can position yourself for success as an IT professional in the current IT job market.
About the Speakers:
Kris Ann Hawkins, Premier Staffing Partners
Kris Ann is a Senior Recruiter at Premier Staffing Partners, a small privately owned Knoxville recruiting agency. Over the past 6 years she has recruited all genres and levels of technical professionals for multiple Knoxville clients. Kris Ann sponsors many of Knoxville’s technical meetups, has worked closely with the Knox Dev board since it’s beginning, and is the Community Director for Codestock. Prior to her time with Premier, Kris Ann recruited students for a Federal Trio Program, college students for MTSU and UT, and was the first female Director of Campus Recruiting for Tennessee Football. Kris Ann has lived in Knoxville since 1996, is a mom to 2 tweens and labradoodle named Sir Rocco Taco.
David Moir, Patriot Talent Solutions
David has over 14 years' experience with IT recruiting including a national agency, corporate recruiting and boutique IT staffing firm. He has lived here in the Knoxville area for the last 23 years and loves connecting IT talent with great positions. He enjoys networking with IT professionals and not only helping technical professionals find new opportunities, but helping them understand current market conditions for their skill sets.
Devan Parrott, TEKsystems
Recruiting chair for 2 1/2 years in the local Knoxville market, Devan is the Network Infrastructure/Security Account Manager for Knoxville where he works with hiring managers to identify services and solutions including talent management and talent retention within their organization.
Speaker: Reps from Several Area IT Recruiting Firms
Looking for a job or thinking about it? Aiming to beef up your skills and unsure which? Curious about the impact of the pandemic on hiring? If so, join us on June 1 as representatives from several IT recruiting firms gather to answer your questions, offer tips, insights, and the inside scoop on how you can position yourself for success as an IT professional in the current IT job market.
About the Speakers:
Kris Ann Hawkins, Premier Staffing Partners
Kris Ann is a Senior Recruiter at Premier Staffing Partners, a small privately owned Knoxville recruiting agency. Over the past 6 years she has recruited all genres and levels of technical professionals for multiple Knoxville clients. Kris Ann sponsors many of Knoxville’s technical meetups, has worked closely with the Knox Dev board since it’s beginning, and is the Community Director for Codestock. Prior to her time with Premier, Kris Ann recruited students for a Federal Trio Program, college students for MTSU and UT, and was the first female Director of Campus Recruiting for Tennessee Football. Kris Ann has lived in Knoxville since 1996, is a mom to 2 tweens and labradoodle named Sir Rocco Taco.
David Moir, Patriot Talent Solutions
David has over 14 years' experience with IT recruiting including a national agency, corporate recruiting and boutique IT staffing firm. He has lived here in the Knoxville area for the last 23 years and loves connecting IT talent with great positions. He enjoys networking with IT professionals and not only helping technical professionals find new opportunities, but helping them understand current market conditions for their skill sets.
Devan Parrott, TEKsystems
Recruiting chair for 2 1/2 years in the local Knoxville market, Devan is the Network Infrastructure/Security Account Manager for Knoxville where he works with hiring managers to identify services and solutions including talent management and talent retention within their organization.
May 2021
Topic: To Catch a Thief: Thwarting Financial Scammers
Speaker: Jonathan Evenden, Aegis IT
"I have $40,000,000 USD locked in a country, and I need your help to get it out - for a small fee, of course." "Please click on this file to see the shipping details for a package you never ordered that was actually never delivered. Or maybe the invoice for it."
Financial scammers like these are typically easy to avoid when you have a modicum of common sense on the internet. However, how do you respond when someone asks you to pay an invoice? To company that you may not recognize? For an amount that may or may not be a rounding error?
I recently had two clients almost lose money to this same scam. I will compare both compromises to discuss why these attacks are so effective, and IT can help prevent this from being possible in the first place.
About the Speaker
Jonathan Evenden is the President and founder of Aegis IT, located in Kingsport, TN. He has been full time in the IT industry since 2004, and has owned Aegis IT for over seven years. In the rare moments he is not in front of a computer, he loves playing board games and watching Netflix with his wife and son.
Speaker: Jonathan Evenden, Aegis IT
"I have $40,000,000 USD locked in a country, and I need your help to get it out - for a small fee, of course." "Please click on this file to see the shipping details for a package you never ordered that was actually never delivered. Or maybe the invoice for it."
Financial scammers like these are typically easy to avoid when you have a modicum of common sense on the internet. However, how do you respond when someone asks you to pay an invoice? To company that you may not recognize? For an amount that may or may not be a rounding error?
I recently had two clients almost lose money to this same scam. I will compare both compromises to discuss why these attacks are so effective, and IT can help prevent this from being possible in the first place.
About the Speaker
Jonathan Evenden is the President and founder of Aegis IT, located in Kingsport, TN. He has been full time in the IT industry since 2004, and has owned Aegis IT for over seven years. In the rare moments he is not in front of a computer, he loves playing board games and watching Netflix with his wife and son.
April 2021
Topic: Deconstructing the SolarWinds Attack: Timeline and Technique
Speaker: Jesse Trucks, Splunk
In December 2020, the most extensive cyber attack in United States history was uncovered. Hidden in the monitoring software SolarWinds, the extent of the attack was unprecedented, creating back doors in networks in numerous companies and government agencies in the United States and other countries. In this talk, Jesse Trucks will walk through both the chain of events and lay out the technical logic comprising the attack.
Speaker: Jesse Trucks, Splunk
In December 2020, the most extensive cyber attack in United States history was uncovered. Hidden in the monitoring software SolarWinds, the extent of the attack was unprecedented, creating back doors in networks in numerous companies and government agencies in the United States and other countries. In this talk, Jesse Trucks will walk through both the chain of events and lay out the technical logic comprising the attack.
February 2021
Topic: Tech-ronomicon: Keeping documentation that won't drive you mad
Speaker: Michael Campfield, SAIC
"They just walked out the door and left us with no idea how everything
works!" Institutional knowledge always exists but relying on it will
chip away at your organization's sanity. Some people call it built-in
job security. What it really means is: "Panicked calls from operations
about a NetApp failure while I'm at Disney World."
If your group jokes about how doomed the department would be if some
person actually left or wonder exactly why there are binders about
Windows NT 4.0 on the office bookshelf - this talk will be perfect for you.
At the end of this presentation you will have a handful of extremely
quick and simple methods that will start you writing sane documentation
that will make your life simpler, work easier, and keep your team out of
padded cells.
About the speaker
Michael Campfield is a Principal Systems Administrator with the Digital
Solutions Delivery group at SAIC in Oak Ridge. He is a Linux systems
specialist, SME in cloud solutions, a configuration management master,
and a DevOps proponent (except where DevOps doesn't work). If you sit
still long enough he will wax poetically about becoming a librarian or
his moderately sized collection of slide rules.
Speaker: Michael Campfield, SAIC
"They just walked out the door and left us with no idea how everything
works!" Institutional knowledge always exists but relying on it will
chip away at your organization's sanity. Some people call it built-in
job security. What it really means is: "Panicked calls from operations
about a NetApp failure while I'm at Disney World."
If your group jokes about how doomed the department would be if some
person actually left or wonder exactly why there are binders about
Windows NT 4.0 on the office bookshelf - this talk will be perfect for you.
At the end of this presentation you will have a handful of extremely
quick and simple methods that will start you writing sane documentation
that will make your life simpler, work easier, and keep your team out of
padded cells.
About the speaker
Michael Campfield is a Principal Systems Administrator with the Digital
Solutions Delivery group at SAIC in Oak Ridge. He is a Linux systems
specialist, SME in cloud solutions, a configuration management master,
and a DevOps proponent (except where DevOps doesn't work). If you sit
still long enough he will wax poetically about becoming a librarian or
his moderately sized collection of slide rules.
December 2020
Topic: From the South Lawn to South Bend: A Life of Cybersecurity in Public Service
Speaker: Mick Baccio, Splunk
Mick Baccio fell in love with the idea of cyberspace around 9 years old after reading Neuromancer, which led him to pursue a career in computer operations, focusing on Information security. He was the Chief Information Security Officer for Pete Buttigieg's Campaign, Pete for America; holding the honor of being the first CISO in the history of presidential campaigns. Previously the White House Threat Intelligence Branch Chief in both the Obama and Trump administrations, Mick also helped create a threat intelligence program during the rollout of the Affordable Care Act at the Department of Health and Human Services. Mick has served in cybersecurity and technical roles at the Department of Defense and Centers for Disease Control, and is a US Navy veteran. As a Security Advisor for Splunk, Mick continues to leverage his background and help customers solve security problems.
When not posting pictures of cats, food, and sneakers to social media, Mick is the Vice President of The Open Organisation of Lockpickers in Washington DC, and a Goon at DEFCon
Speaker: Mick Baccio, Splunk
Mick Baccio fell in love with the idea of cyberspace around 9 years old after reading Neuromancer, which led him to pursue a career in computer operations, focusing on Information security. He was the Chief Information Security Officer for Pete Buttigieg's Campaign, Pete for America; holding the honor of being the first CISO in the history of presidential campaigns. Previously the White House Threat Intelligence Branch Chief in both the Obama and Trump administrations, Mick also helped create a threat intelligence program during the rollout of the Affordable Care Act at the Department of Health and Human Services. Mick has served in cybersecurity and technical roles at the Department of Defense and Centers for Disease Control, and is a US Navy veteran. As a Security Advisor for Splunk, Mick continues to leverage his background and help customers solve security problems.
When not posting pictures of cats, food, and sneakers to social media, Mick is the Vice President of The Open Organisation of Lockpickers in Washington DC, and a Goon at DEFCon
November 2020
Topic: Self-enforcing* rules - The mysterious 'blockchain'
Speaker: Aaron Haun, ORNL
Link to video
A brief high-level tour of blockchains in general, told from a system administrators perspective, focusing on the tradeoffs and goals of these systems, as well as comparing and contrasting various implementations with more traditional storage and execution systems.
About the Speaker:
Aaron Haun is a self-described systems generalist, who enjoys picking apart complex systems, and (usually) putting them back together. He currently works as a '"DevOps" Engineer' at a local DOE contractor, and has previously worked in the Payment Processing and Loss Prevention industries.
Speaker: Aaron Haun, ORNL
Link to video
A brief high-level tour of blockchains in general, told from a system administrators perspective, focusing on the tradeoffs and goals of these systems, as well as comparing and contrasting various implementations with more traditional storage and execution systems.
About the Speaker:
Aaron Haun is a self-described systems generalist, who enjoys picking apart complex systems, and (usually) putting them back together. He currently works as a '"DevOps" Engineer' at a local DOE contractor, and has previously worked in the Payment Processing and Loss Prevention industries.
October 2020
Topic: Social Engineering Your Metrics: Using Data Science to Provide
Value in Security Reporting
Speaker: Joe Gray, Qomplx, Inc.
Link to video
Reporting is generally boring. Social engineering security consultants often get wrapped up in
the hustle and bustle of performing the engagement and report writing falls to the
side. While the reports do go out and we meet client obligations, a serious
question arises: Are we providing meaningful measurements, metrics, and advice
to the client?
We surely highlight the deficiencies and where to improve in a report, which is
pretty standard. How do we measure the things that matter most to the client?
Measuring 'opens' just tells us how many people read their email and, while risky,
clicks do not always translate to negative outcomes. Instead of focusing on email
opens or links clicked by users, this presentation is introducing:
- Measurements rooted in statistics
- Data science techniques
- Indicators that actually speak to the security posture and culture of the
organization.
The distance of a metric is the time between an event (a click or open) and
another event (inputting information or reporting the event). These metrics are far
more indicative of how an organization would fare against social engineering
than who opens an email.
About the Speaker:
Joe Gray joined the U.S. Navy directly out of High School and served for 7 years as a Submarine Navigation Electronics Technician. In addition to offering Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) training through The OSINTion, Joe is currently a Senior OSINT Specialist at Qomplx, Inc. and previously maintained his own blog and podcast called Advanced Persistent Security. Joe is the inaugural winner of the DerbyCon Social Engineering Capture the Flag (SECTF) and was awarded a DerbyCon Black Badge. As a member of the Password Inspection Agency, Joe has won the Missing Persons CTF/OSINT Search party during DEFCON conference, placed 2nd in the HackFest Quebec Missing Persons CTF, and 5th in the Global Missing Persons CTF IV, all powered by TraceLabs, 2nd in the BSides Atlanta OSINT CTF, and 3rd Place in the 2018 & 2019 NOLACon OSINT CTFs. Joe has independently placed 2nd in the HackFest Quebec SECTF, 4th Place in the DerbyCon OSINT CTF, and 2nd Place in Hacker Jeopardy at Hack in Paris. Joe has contributed material for the likes of TripWire, AlienVault, ITSP Magazine, CSO Online, Forbes, and Dark Reading as well as his own platforms. Joe is the author of a few OSINT tools, such as WikiLeaker and the forthcoming tools DECEPTICON and INTERCEPTICON.
Value in Security Reporting
Speaker: Joe Gray, Qomplx, Inc.
Link to video
Reporting is generally boring. Social engineering security consultants often get wrapped up in
the hustle and bustle of performing the engagement and report writing falls to the
side. While the reports do go out and we meet client obligations, a serious
question arises: Are we providing meaningful measurements, metrics, and advice
to the client?
We surely highlight the deficiencies and where to improve in a report, which is
pretty standard. How do we measure the things that matter most to the client?
Measuring 'opens' just tells us how many people read their email and, while risky,
clicks do not always translate to negative outcomes. Instead of focusing on email
opens or links clicked by users, this presentation is introducing:
- Measurements rooted in statistics
- Data science techniques
- Indicators that actually speak to the security posture and culture of the
organization.
The distance of a metric is the time between an event (a click or open) and
another event (inputting information or reporting the event). These metrics are far
more indicative of how an organization would fare against social engineering
than who opens an email.
About the Speaker:
Joe Gray joined the U.S. Navy directly out of High School and served for 7 years as a Submarine Navigation Electronics Technician. In addition to offering Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) training through The OSINTion, Joe is currently a Senior OSINT Specialist at Qomplx, Inc. and previously maintained his own blog and podcast called Advanced Persistent Security. Joe is the inaugural winner of the DerbyCon Social Engineering Capture the Flag (SECTF) and was awarded a DerbyCon Black Badge. As a member of the Password Inspection Agency, Joe has won the Missing Persons CTF/OSINT Search party during DEFCON conference, placed 2nd in the HackFest Quebec Missing Persons CTF, and 5th in the Global Missing Persons CTF IV, all powered by TraceLabs, 2nd in the BSides Atlanta OSINT CTF, and 3rd Place in the 2018 & 2019 NOLACon OSINT CTFs. Joe has independently placed 2nd in the HackFest Quebec SECTF, 4th Place in the DerbyCon OSINT CTF, and 2nd Place in Hacker Jeopardy at Hack in Paris. Joe has contributed material for the likes of TripWire, AlienVault, ITSP Magazine, CSO Online, Forbes, and Dark Reading as well as his own platforms. Joe is the author of a few OSINT tools, such as WikiLeaker and the forthcoming tools DECEPTICON and INTERCEPTICON.
September 2020
Topic: Customer Service for Technical People
Speaker: Jonathan Evenden, Aegis IT
Link to Video
A common stereotype is that technical people have no people skills. Frequently, it is a well-earned stereotype! If you are like me, being great at customer service is *NOT* why you entered into a technical field. However, almost all technical roles require helping other people in some way, and there are common mistakes I keep encountering when interracting with other technical people.
I hope to make a case for why this skill is important, explain common mistakes made, and address how to handle typical people problems that arise in the process.
About the Speaker:
Jonathan Evenden is the President and founder of Aegis IT, located in Kingsport, TN. He has been full time in the IT industry since 2004, and has owned Aegis IT for over seven years. In the rare moments he is not in front of a computer, he loves playing board games and watching Netflix with his wife and son.
Speaker: Jonathan Evenden, Aegis IT
Link to Video
A common stereotype is that technical people have no people skills. Frequently, it is a well-earned stereotype! If you are like me, being great at customer service is *NOT* why you entered into a technical field. However, almost all technical roles require helping other people in some way, and there are common mistakes I keep encountering when interracting with other technical people.
I hope to make a case for why this skill is important, explain common mistakes made, and address how to handle typical people problems that arise in the process.
About the Speaker:
Jonathan Evenden is the President and founder of Aegis IT, located in Kingsport, TN. He has been full time in the IT industry since 2004, and has owned Aegis IT for over seven years. In the rare moments he is not in front of a computer, he loves playing board games and watching Netflix with his wife and son.
August 2020
Topic: The Container Show: Behind the Scenes of OS Virtualization
Speaker: Robert French
Link to Video
Containers are a stage, and the processes we run in them are often unwitting stars. In this talk,
we'll peek behind the curtain to get a better understanding of the fictions needed to create these
stages. We'll also look at how different operating systems attempt to combine those fictions into a
compelling reality, such that neither we nor our applications need be any the wiser.
About the speaker:
Robert D. French is an unemployed graduate student at the University of Reddit. He earned a "Complete
BS" in Computer Science from YouTube State, where he graduated Summa Cum Deteste in 2012.
You can find him on Twitter @robertdfrench.
Speaker: Robert French
Link to Video
Containers are a stage, and the processes we run in them are often unwitting stars. In this talk,
we'll peek behind the curtain to get a better understanding of the fictions needed to create these
stages. We'll also look at how different operating systems attempt to combine those fictions into a
compelling reality, such that neither we nor our applications need be any the wiser.
About the speaker:
Robert D. French is an unemployed graduate student at the University of Reddit. He earned a "Complete
BS" in Computer Science from YouTube State, where he graduated Summa Cum Deteste in 2012.
You can find him on Twitter @robertdfrench.
July 2020
Topic: Introduction to the Department of Defense Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certifications
Speaker: Dan Ciarlette, Boston Government Services
Link to Video
The talk will consist of a high level overview of what Cybersecurity Maturity Model is, why the US Department of Defense is doing it, the process for being assessed, and what will be assessed from a security standpoint.
About the speaker
Dan Ciarlette serves as the Boston Government Services (BGS) Senior Program Manager for the Cyber and Technology Solutions business unit where he delivers project and technical leadership for new and ongoing projects, provides technical architecture expertise for the Cyber and Technical Solutions business unit, and develops new business opportunities.
Dan brings over 30 years of experience leading the development of complex cybersecurity, IT, and industrial control systems (ICS) by implementing innovative cutting-edge solutions for large US Department of Energy facilities and international collaborations ranging from the Advanced Photon Source, Spallation Neutron Source, US ITER international fusion reactor, and the Exascale Computing Project. He just got his CISSP in May 2020.
Prior to joining BGS, Mr. Ciarlette was the Senior Solutions Architect for the Exascale Computing Project ($3.8B) where he defined, designed, and implemented the agile project tools, integrated the tools with U.S. DOE standard project management methods, and created a business intelligence capability for the >1,000 person project.
Most recently, he has been following and participating in the US Department of Defense Cybersecurity Maturity Model certification program that will require ~300,000 Defense Industrial Base (DIB) companies be audited and certified to be able to participate in DOD contracts.
Speaker: Dan Ciarlette, Boston Government Services
Link to Video
The talk will consist of a high level overview of what Cybersecurity Maturity Model is, why the US Department of Defense is doing it, the process for being assessed, and what will be assessed from a security standpoint.
About the speaker
Dan Ciarlette serves as the Boston Government Services (BGS) Senior Program Manager for the Cyber and Technology Solutions business unit where he delivers project and technical leadership for new and ongoing projects, provides technical architecture expertise for the Cyber and Technical Solutions business unit, and develops new business opportunities.
Dan brings over 30 years of experience leading the development of complex cybersecurity, IT, and industrial control systems (ICS) by implementing innovative cutting-edge solutions for large US Department of Energy facilities and international collaborations ranging from the Advanced Photon Source, Spallation Neutron Source, US ITER international fusion reactor, and the Exascale Computing Project. He just got his CISSP in May 2020.
Prior to joining BGS, Mr. Ciarlette was the Senior Solutions Architect for the Exascale Computing Project ($3.8B) where he defined, designed, and implemented the agile project tools, integrated the tools with U.S. DOE standard project management methods, and created a business intelligence capability for the >1,000 person project.
Most recently, he has been following and participating in the US Department of Defense Cybersecurity Maturity Model certification program that will require ~300,000 Defense Industrial Base (DIB) companies be audited and certified to be able to participate in DOD contracts.
June 2020
Topic: Community in Time of Crisis
Speaker: Jesse Trucks, Splunk
Link to video
Community means many things to many people. In these days of pandemic driven isolation and event cancellations, many people are struggling to define community in new ways and forced to seek connection in different ways and for different reasons than before. This talk discusses those differences and envisions a path forward to building and maintaining community connection in a post-pandemic world.
About the speaker
Jesse Trucks has over 23 years of experience in ITops and SecOps. He has worked in non-profit group and organizational management since 2005, beginning with helping draft the LOPSA Code of Ethics and being a founding member of LOPSA and then later serving as a LOPSA board member for several years. Trucks has founded and managed two LOPSA chapters - including our own LOPSA East Tennessee - as well. He routinely consults with other non-profits on their bylaws and other organizational forming and management matters, and he is a founding member of ETSA, the organization forming to take over management and operations of ETENN. He works in security for Splunk as the Minister of Magic.
Speaker: Jesse Trucks, Splunk
Link to video
Community means many things to many people. In these days of pandemic driven isolation and event cancellations, many people are struggling to define community in new ways and forced to seek connection in different ways and for different reasons than before. This talk discusses those differences and envisions a path forward to building and maintaining community connection in a post-pandemic world.
About the speaker
Jesse Trucks has over 23 years of experience in ITops and SecOps. He has worked in non-profit group and organizational management since 2005, beginning with helping draft the LOPSA Code of Ethics and being a founding member of LOPSA and then later serving as a LOPSA board member for several years. Trucks has founded and managed two LOPSA chapters - including our own LOPSA East Tennessee - as well. He routinely consults with other non-profits on their bylaws and other organizational forming and management matters, and he is a founding member of ETSA, the organization forming to take over management and operations of ETENN. He works in security for Splunk as the Minister of Magic.
May 2020
Topic: A Carbonell Show and Tell: Systems Administration Automation using APIs
Speaker: Bo Carbonell, Maryville College
In an ever changing technical world, Systems Administrators today often wear many hats. For me, those hats include server administration, network engineering, Backup & DR/storage administration, virtualization engineering, as well as end user support. What are we to do with so many hats?! The obvious answer is automation. I will give a simple presentation using examples to illustrate how I have overcome some of my most time consuming tasks by taking advantage of scripting and APIs.
About the Speaker
Bo Carbonell is the Systems Administrator for Maryville College, a small liberal arts college in Maryville TN. Bo has previously worked for Creekside Technologies, a managed service provider, and interned for the Cyber Warfare Research Team at ORNL. Bo's hobbies include music, fishing, and general learning, while his favorite thing in the world is his family.
Speaker: Bo Carbonell, Maryville College
In an ever changing technical world, Systems Administrators today often wear many hats. For me, those hats include server administration, network engineering, Backup & DR/storage administration, virtualization engineering, as well as end user support. What are we to do with so many hats?! The obvious answer is automation. I will give a simple presentation using examples to illustrate how I have overcome some of my most time consuming tasks by taking advantage of scripting and APIs.
About the Speaker
Bo Carbonell is the Systems Administrator for Maryville College, a small liberal arts college in Maryville TN. Bo has previously worked for Creekside Technologies, a managed service provider, and interned for the Cyber Warfare Research Team at ORNL. Bo's hobbies include music, fishing, and general learning, while his favorite thing in the world is his family.
April 2020
Topic: The Art of an Interview
Speaker: Jonathan Evenden, Aegis IT
Link to slides
Do you like interviews? Does the thought of explaining how to move Mount Everest or fit ping-pong balls into a 747 take you to the heights of excitement or drop you to the depths of despair? What makes a good interview? How do you know if it was successful? This presentation will cover both sides of an interview: what to do, what not to do, what to look for, and what you might want to get from one (besides a new job or a new employee). The goal will be to help you avoid common mistakes that keep getting made, especially by people who are more technically inclined, as well as what to focus on to have a successful interview.
About the Speaker
Jonathan Evenden is the President and founder of Aegis IT, located in Kingsport, TN. He gave his first computerized presentation in 1994, and has never looked back since. He has been full time in the IT industry since 2004, and has owned Aegis IT for over seven years. In the rare moments he is not in front of a computer, he loves playing board games and watching Netflix with his wife and son.
Speaker: Jonathan Evenden, Aegis IT
Link to slides
Do you like interviews? Does the thought of explaining how to move Mount Everest or fit ping-pong balls into a 747 take you to the heights of excitement or drop you to the depths of despair? What makes a good interview? How do you know if it was successful? This presentation will cover both sides of an interview: what to do, what not to do, what to look for, and what you might want to get from one (besides a new job or a new employee). The goal will be to help you avoid common mistakes that keep getting made, especially by people who are more technically inclined, as well as what to focus on to have a successful interview.
About the Speaker
Jonathan Evenden is the President and founder of Aegis IT, located in Kingsport, TN. He gave his first computerized presentation in 1994, and has never looked back since. He has been full time in the IT industry since 2004, and has owned Aegis IT for over seven years. In the rare moments he is not in front of a computer, he loves playing board games and watching Netflix with his wife and son.
March 2020
Topic: Understanding and Exploiting Domain Name and DNS Architecture
Speaker: Wesley Kirkland, Ministry Brands
Link to video
Buying a domain and setting up DNS is just as easy and giving GoDaddy/Namecheap a credit card and some fake info, right? Well as typical to IT, it depends on what it is. In this talk, we will be exploring all the intricacies of Domain Names and DNS. You will leave with a new view on Domains and DNS with a wealth of information, ranging from ccTLDS to fun with TXT records.
About the speaker
Over the last several years, Wesley Kirkland has gained Systems Engineering experience consisting of On Premise, Cloud, and scalable automation, primarily using PowerShell to integrate Active Directory environments and Office 365. He's currently at Ministry Brands as a Sr. Systems Engineer working with AWS & Azure.
Speaker: Wesley Kirkland, Ministry Brands
Link to video
Buying a domain and setting up DNS is just as easy and giving GoDaddy/Namecheap a credit card and some fake info, right? Well as typical to IT, it depends on what it is. In this talk, we will be exploring all the intricacies of Domain Names and DNS. You will leave with a new view on Domains and DNS with a wealth of information, ranging from ccTLDS to fun with TXT records.
About the speaker
Over the last several years, Wesley Kirkland has gained Systems Engineering experience consisting of On Premise, Cloud, and scalable automation, primarily using PowerShell to integrate Active Directory environments and Office 365. He's currently at Ministry Brands as a Sr. Systems Engineer working with AWS & Azure.
February 2020
Topic: Ansible & Microsoft: Automation for the MSFT Admin
Speaker: Ben Mitchell, Ministry Brands
The world of DevOps is full of amazing tools and solutions for managing various platforms and systems. However, as a Windows Admin, we often felt left behind in this brave new world. But I’m here to tell you, that simply isn’t the true. Many of the modern automation tools such as Ansible, Chef, Puppet, Terraform, etc fully support Microsoft Windows. This talk will focus on using Ansible to deploy and configure Windows workloads in Azure.
About the speaker
Benjamin Mitchell
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://cloudgeek.xyz
Twitter: BenMitchell1979
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benmitchell1979
Speaker: Ben Mitchell, Ministry Brands
The world of DevOps is full of amazing tools and solutions for managing various platforms and systems. However, as a Windows Admin, we often felt left behind in this brave new world. But I’m here to tell you, that simply isn’t the true. Many of the modern automation tools such as Ansible, Chef, Puppet, Terraform, etc fully support Microsoft Windows. This talk will focus on using Ansible to deploy and configure Windows workloads in Azure.
About the speaker
Benjamin Mitchell
- Cloud Solutions Architect
- Father and Husband
- Certifications: MCSE, Azure Cloud Architect Expert, AWS Architect Professional, VMWare VCP (and more)
- Lover of Sci/Fi, Gaming, and All things Geek
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://cloudgeek.xyz
Twitter: BenMitchell1979
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benmitchell1979
January 2020
Topic: Ops to DevOps to NoOps: The changing face of IT Operations
Speaker: Andy Cowell, Discovery, Inc.
Link to video
Modern IT operations has had dramatic changes over the last several years, thanks to the cloud and API access to traditional infrastructure. What does “operations” look like in an age when anybody can provision anything? Does “NoOps” really portend a future where nobody has to do any operations?
We will discuss these topics, relying on the real-world experiences of undergoing these transformations multiple times and in different ways at a Fortune 300 company.
About the Speaker
Andy Cowell has over twenty years of system administration experience in a variety of environments. Currently, he works for Discovery, Inc., as the manager of the Application Engineering and Automation group in Cloud Infrastructure.
He has been responsible for some of the top destinations on the Internet, such as HGTV.com, Dilbert.com, and Metallica.com. In the past, he has worn many hats, from networking admin to full-time developer, and cut his teeth as a “Wizard” with the UTK Computer Science department.
When not wrangling systems, he solders microcontrollers, plucks strings, paints toy soldiers, drinks bourbon, smokes pipes, watches hockey, grows algae, and rolls 20s.
Speaker: Andy Cowell, Discovery, Inc.
Link to video
Modern IT operations has had dramatic changes over the last several years, thanks to the cloud and API access to traditional infrastructure. What does “operations” look like in an age when anybody can provision anything? Does “NoOps” really portend a future where nobody has to do any operations?
We will discuss these topics, relying on the real-world experiences of undergoing these transformations multiple times and in different ways at a Fortune 300 company.
About the Speaker
Andy Cowell has over twenty years of system administration experience in a variety of environments. Currently, he works for Discovery, Inc., as the manager of the Application Engineering and Automation group in Cloud Infrastructure.
He has been responsible for some of the top destinations on the Internet, such as HGTV.com, Dilbert.com, and Metallica.com. In the past, he has worn many hats, from networking admin to full-time developer, and cut his teeth as a “Wizard” with the UTK Computer Science department.
When not wrangling systems, he solders microcontrollers, plucks strings, paints toy soldiers, drinks bourbon, smokes pipes, watches hockey, grows algae, and rolls 20s.
December 2019
Topic: DTrace or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Debugging in Production
Speaker: Robert French
Link to Slides
YouTube Video
DTrace is a tool for safely debugging live systems. It gives insight into both application and kernel behavior, even for 3rd party and closed-source applications. Previously only available for Unix derivatives, DTrace is now available for a very popular "Not Unix" operating system!
About the speaker:
Robert French is an unemployed trust-fund baby whose opinions on technology are heavily influenced by his lack of ever having run anything in production. He is a 2-bit Brendan Gregg impersonator who regularly steals presentation material from James Mickens and Kate Gregory. Attending his talk may result in a complete loss of faith in the computer industry's ability to solve the problems it has thrust upon mankind.
Speaker: Robert French
Link to Slides
YouTube Video
DTrace is a tool for safely debugging live systems. It gives insight into both application and kernel behavior, even for 3rd party and closed-source applications. Previously only available for Unix derivatives, DTrace is now available for a very popular "Not Unix" operating system!
About the speaker:
Robert French is an unemployed trust-fund baby whose opinions on technology are heavily influenced by his lack of ever having run anything in production. He is a 2-bit Brendan Gregg impersonator who regularly steals presentation material from James Mickens and Kate Gregory. Attending his talk may result in a complete loss of faith in the computer industry's ability to solve the problems it has thrust upon mankind.
November 2019
Topic: HPC: Reasoning and Purpose
Speaker: Sean Taylor, ORNL
Link to slides
These three little letters — HPC — we’ve all heard them, and we’re pretty sure they stand for High Performance Computing, but what does that mean? What kind of work and technical considerations does this entail? In this talk we’ll explore this other field of computing, including the history and reasoning behind it, how it’s different from standard, enterprise IT, and its present hurdles and future direction. If yours is an inquiring mind eager to explore other realms of computing, then this is a talk you won’t want to miss.
About the speaker:
With over 23 years as Linux engineer in High Performance Computing, Sean Taylor has worked in many HPC firsts-in-the-field — Parallel File Systems, Infiniband, and GPU computational systems. Early in his career, he built one of the first Beowulf clusters for Air Forces Phillips Laboratory (now ARFL), and later worked on the first Intel Pentium petaflop cluster at Sandia National Laboratory, which laid the foundation for Infiniband and the SGI Taurus Mesh network. He was lead engineer on the Thunderbird Cluster, a 4500 node, Infiniband 10Gb networked cluster, that ranked No. 3 on the Top 500 supercomputer list for over a year.
Over the years, Sean has contributed to R&D for both academic and commercial research — SGI-based modelling for NOAA at Princeton University, and as senior engineer on a 13,500 node cluster for Concoo Phillips. In his work for Roche and Pfizer, he supported research in Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) computational analytics systems, and he was an integral contributor to multiple drug and diagnostic discoveries in cancer research. He considers this latter work his most significant, as lives were saved with each new discovery. His current work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is especially important to him as he now directly supports research for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs programs for health, cancer, suicide, and VA modernization projects.
Speaker: Sean Taylor, ORNL
Link to slides
These three little letters — HPC — we’ve all heard them, and we’re pretty sure they stand for High Performance Computing, but what does that mean? What kind of work and technical considerations does this entail? In this talk we’ll explore this other field of computing, including the history and reasoning behind it, how it’s different from standard, enterprise IT, and its present hurdles and future direction. If yours is an inquiring mind eager to explore other realms of computing, then this is a talk you won’t want to miss.
About the speaker:
With over 23 years as Linux engineer in High Performance Computing, Sean Taylor has worked in many HPC firsts-in-the-field — Parallel File Systems, Infiniband, and GPU computational systems. Early in his career, he built one of the first Beowulf clusters for Air Forces Phillips Laboratory (now ARFL), and later worked on the first Intel Pentium petaflop cluster at Sandia National Laboratory, which laid the foundation for Infiniband and the SGI Taurus Mesh network. He was lead engineer on the Thunderbird Cluster, a 4500 node, Infiniband 10Gb networked cluster, that ranked No. 3 on the Top 500 supercomputer list for over a year.
Over the years, Sean has contributed to R&D for both academic and commercial research — SGI-based modelling for NOAA at Princeton University, and as senior engineer on a 13,500 node cluster for Concoo Phillips. In his work for Roche and Pfizer, he supported research in Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) computational analytics systems, and he was an integral contributor to multiple drug and diagnostic discoveries in cancer research. He considers this latter work his most significant, as lives were saved with each new discovery. His current work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is especially important to him as he now directly supports research for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs programs for health, cancer, suicide, and VA modernization projects.
October 2019
Topic: Humble-Torvaldsian Operations: Arresting Control of Software Deployment
Speaker: Mystery Speaker
Congratulations on your new job! You are now the head of one person operations team for a rapidly growing software development group. You are going to be taking on a new project every week, and each project deploys several times a day. Your job is simple: make the latest version of every application your developers produce available instantly, but don't release any broken code!
Do you have a plan? No? Maybe this presentation will help.
About the Speaker:
████████ ███████ is a ███████ at ████████ where ███ has worked for █████ ██████. In ███ spare time ███ likes to ███████,███████, and ██████.
Speaker: Mystery Speaker
Congratulations on your new job! You are now the head of one person operations team for a rapidly growing software development group. You are going to be taking on a new project every week, and each project deploys several times a day. Your job is simple: make the latest version of every application your developers produce available instantly, but don't release any broken code!
Do you have a plan? No? Maybe this presentation will help.
About the Speaker:
████████ ███████ is a ███████ at ████████ where ███ has worked for █████ ██████. In ███ spare time ███ likes to ███████,███████, and ██████.
September 2019
Topic: Using Powerpoint for Fun and Profit: Tip and Tricks for Giving a Great Powerpoint Presentation
Speaker: Jonathan Evenden, Aegis IT
Link to slides
Have you ever suffered from "death by Powerpoint?" Do you have distinct memories of horrible presentations? If so, I have a number of suggestions and tips on avoiding this common malady. I will discuss both good and bad presentation techniques, focusing primarily on Powerpoint as an engine for success. When done well, Powerpoint is a great tool at supporting a presentation, but frequently used as a replacement for the presentation.
About the speaker
Jonathan Evenden is the President and founder of Aegis IT, located in Kingsport, TN. He gave his first computerized presentation in 1994, and has never looked back since. He has been full time in the IT industry since 2004, and has owned Aegis IT for over seven years. In the rare moments he is not in front of a computer, he loves playing board games and watching Netflix with his wife and son.
Speaker: Jonathan Evenden, Aegis IT
Link to slides
Have you ever suffered from "death by Powerpoint?" Do you have distinct memories of horrible presentations? If so, I have a number of suggestions and tips on avoiding this common malady. I will discuss both good and bad presentation techniques, focusing primarily on Powerpoint as an engine for success. When done well, Powerpoint is a great tool at supporting a presentation, but frequently used as a replacement for the presentation.
About the speaker
Jonathan Evenden is the President and founder of Aegis IT, located in Kingsport, TN. He gave his first computerized presentation in 1994, and has never looked back since. He has been full time in the IT industry since 2004, and has owned Aegis IT for over seven years. In the rare moments he is not in front of a computer, he loves playing board games and watching Netflix with his wife and son.
August 2019
Topic: From Rags to Riches: Adventures in the Enterprise as the "Solo IT Guy"
Speaker: Tommy Hardin, Master Service Companies
Though many of us IT professionals work with other IT folks in a team setting, many others may be the only IT person in the organization. Like the vast majority of IT professionals, we start Day 1 on the job where others left off -- for better or worse! Flying solo presents a unique set of challenges and opportunities. In this talk, I'll share my experience, strength, and hope as the one "IT guy" at my place of employment, and how I turned a technological nightmare into a functional environment in service to the business.
About the speaker
Tomy Hardin has served a number of roles in his 6 years in IT — from sysadmin to cybersecurity analyst, to all around IT generalist. Currently, he is IT Specialist at Master Service Companies. In his personal life, he enjoys life on the lake, and riding ATVs in the mountains. He also enjoys assisting others in need, serving as first responder for the Roane County Rescue squad for 3 years, and as fire fighter for 9 years at Midtown Fire.
Speaker: Tommy Hardin, Master Service Companies
Though many of us IT professionals work with other IT folks in a team setting, many others may be the only IT person in the organization. Like the vast majority of IT professionals, we start Day 1 on the job where others left off -- for better or worse! Flying solo presents a unique set of challenges and opportunities. In this talk, I'll share my experience, strength, and hope as the one "IT guy" at my place of employment, and how I turned a technological nightmare into a functional environment in service to the business.
About the speaker
Tomy Hardin has served a number of roles in his 6 years in IT — from sysadmin to cybersecurity analyst, to all around IT generalist. Currently, he is IT Specialist at Master Service Companies. In his personal life, he enjoys life on the lake, and riding ATVs in the mountains. He also enjoys assisting others in need, serving as first responder for the Roane County Rescue squad for 3 years, and as fire fighter for 9 years at Midtown Fire.
May 2019
Topic: Terraform: Everything as Code
Speaker: Andy Cowell, Discovery Inc.
Link to video
Link to slides
Infrastructure as Code is so 2017. Now, we want Everything as Code! We’ll introduce HashiCorp terraform and discuss how to use it to provision cloud resources in Amazon Web Services. We’ll also use terraform to manage related non-infrastructure services. Together, we can create real-world deployments that require no manual intervention!
Andy Cowell has over twenty years of system administration experience in a variety of environments. Currently, he works for Discovery, Inc., as the manager of the Application Engineering and Automation group in Cloud Infrastructure. He has been responsible for some of the top destinations on the Internet, such as HGTV.com, Dilbert.com, and Metallica.com. In the past, he has worn many hats, from networking admin to full-time developer, and cut his teeth as a "Wizard" with the UTK Computer Science department.
When not wrangling systems, he solders microcontrollers, paints toy soldiers, drinks bourbon, smokes pipes, watches hockey, grows algae, and rolls 20s.
Speaker: Andy Cowell, Discovery Inc.
Link to video
Link to slides
Infrastructure as Code is so 2017. Now, we want Everything as Code! We’ll introduce HashiCorp terraform and discuss how to use it to provision cloud resources in Amazon Web Services. We’ll also use terraform to manage related non-infrastructure services. Together, we can create real-world deployments that require no manual intervention!
Andy Cowell has over twenty years of system administration experience in a variety of environments. Currently, he works for Discovery, Inc., as the manager of the Application Engineering and Automation group in Cloud Infrastructure. He has been responsible for some of the top destinations on the Internet, such as HGTV.com, Dilbert.com, and Metallica.com. In the past, he has worn many hats, from networking admin to full-time developer, and cut his teeth as a "Wizard" with the UTK Computer Science department.
When not wrangling systems, he solders microcontrollers, paints toy soldiers, drinks bourbon, smokes pipes, watches hockey, grows algae, and rolls 20s.
Early Career Series: April 9, 2019
Topic: phpIPAM in the Enterprise
Speaker: Antonio Quintero-Hernandez, Intern Master Service Companies
PhpIPAM is an open sourced, web based IP management application. It is php-based with a MySQL backend that uses Jquery libraries, ajax, and HTML5/CSS3 features. During my internship, I have been tasked with installing and configuring phpIPAM on Master Service Company's network. Join me as I share what I have learned, and the benefits of this application for Enterprise IT.
About the speaker
Antonio Quintero-Hernandez began his IT journey as a Computer Science major, and while he enjoyed learning some C++, he was drawn to Enterprise IT as an alternative path. For him it seemed the perfect fit in which he could develop and balance the application of both technical and soft skills. He has been an intern at Master Service Companies since February where he has learned much about day-to-day IT infrastructure support, and applied much of what he has learned as a System Administration and Networking major at Pellissippi State Community College.
Speaker: Antonio Quintero-Hernandez, Intern Master Service Companies
PhpIPAM is an open sourced, web based IP management application. It is php-based with a MySQL backend that uses Jquery libraries, ajax, and HTML5/CSS3 features. During my internship, I have been tasked with installing and configuring phpIPAM on Master Service Company's network. Join me as I share what I have learned, and the benefits of this application for Enterprise IT.
About the speaker
Antonio Quintero-Hernandez began his IT journey as a Computer Science major, and while he enjoyed learning some C++, he was drawn to Enterprise IT as an alternative path. For him it seemed the perfect fit in which he could develop and balance the application of both technical and soft skills. He has been an intern at Master Service Companies since February where he has learned much about day-to-day IT infrastructure support, and applied much of what he has learned as a System Administration and Networking major at Pellissippi State Community College.
April 2, 2019
Topic: Tales From the Far Side: Being Your Own Boss in the IT World
Speaker: Jonathan Evenden
Link to slides
Speaker: Jonathan Evenden
Link to slides
March 2019
Topic: Advanced Bash
Speaker: Mystery Guest
The Bourne Again Shell (Bash) is not just an interactive shell for Linux devices; it is also a powerful interpretive language capable of empowering you to take your automation to the next level. Learn how the Bash builtins can make your scripts faster, portable, and, most importantly, more fun. For example, did you know you can load a template email from a text file into an array, replace placeholder terms, then email it out over a direct TCP socket without calling anything other than "/bin/bash"? Learn all that and more!
About the speaker:
Mystery Guest has 14 years of Linux experience ranging from custom distributions for small children to managing data collection and analysis systems for a particle accelerator. In his free time, Mystery likes to test the limits of Bash by building games, text user interface tools, and self-service web deployment systems. Unrelated: he is allergic to milk.
Speaker: Mystery Guest
The Bourne Again Shell (Bash) is not just an interactive shell for Linux devices; it is also a powerful interpretive language capable of empowering you to take your automation to the next level. Learn how the Bash builtins can make your scripts faster, portable, and, most importantly, more fun. For example, did you know you can load a template email from a text file into an array, replace placeholder terms, then email it out over a direct TCP socket without calling anything other than "/bin/bash"? Learn all that and more!
About the speaker:
Mystery Guest has 14 years of Linux experience ranging from custom distributions for small children to managing data collection and analysis systems for a particle accelerator. In his free time, Mystery likes to test the limits of Bash by building games, text user interface tools, and self-service web deployment systems. Unrelated: he is allergic to milk.
February 2019
Speaker: Wesley Kirkland, Ministry Brands
Topic: Gone Phishing with Email and DMARC
Link to slides
In this talk, we will be exploring email security, starting with the basics of SPF and DKIM. Next, we'll move all the way into DMARC, and how you can use it to protect your domain and identity. Will finish up with some live phishing demos.
About the speaker:
Over the last several years, Wesley Kirkland has gained Systems Engineering experience consisting of On Premise, Cloud, and scalable automation, primarily using PowerShell to integrate Active Directory environments and Office 365. He's currently at Ministry Brands as a Sr. Systems Engineer working with AWS & Azure.
Topic: Gone Phishing with Email and DMARC
Link to slides
In this talk, we will be exploring email security, starting with the basics of SPF and DKIM. Next, we'll move all the way into DMARC, and how you can use it to protect your domain and identity. Will finish up with some live phishing demos.
About the speaker:
Over the last several years, Wesley Kirkland has gained Systems Engineering experience consisting of On Premise, Cloud, and scalable automation, primarily using PowerShell to integrate Active Directory environments and Office 365. He's currently at Ministry Brands as a Sr. Systems Engineer working with AWS & Azure.
December 2018
Speaker: Chad Waddell, Sword & Shield
Topic: Back to Basics: Basic CIS Controls
Link to slides
The new Center for Internet Security (CIS) Controls Version 7 was released in 2018 and it is a great time to get back to basics or to learn them for the first time. Come and hear Enterprise Consultant, Chad Waddell from Sword & Shield share more about the first 6 CIS Controls which are well-known as the Basic CIS Controls.
About the speaker:
With 13 years of experience as an IT professional, Chad Waddell is a valued member of Sword & Shield Enterprise Security’s enterprise consulting team. Chad’s current responsibilities include security assessments, incident response, and enterprise solutions projects. Chad specializes in many security standards and frameworks such as NIST SP 800-53, NIST SP 800-171, ISO 27001, and CIS Controls.
Topic: Back to Basics: Basic CIS Controls
Link to slides
The new Center for Internet Security (CIS) Controls Version 7 was released in 2018 and it is a great time to get back to basics or to learn them for the first time. Come and hear Enterprise Consultant, Chad Waddell from Sword & Shield share more about the first 6 CIS Controls which are well-known as the Basic CIS Controls.
About the speaker:
With 13 years of experience as an IT professional, Chad Waddell is a valued member of Sword & Shield Enterprise Security’s enterprise consulting team. Chad’s current responsibilities include security assessments, incident response, and enterprise solutions projects. Chad specializes in many security standards and frameworks such as NIST SP 800-53, NIST SP 800-171, ISO 27001, and CIS Controls.
November 2018
Speaker: Chad Bloch, ORNL
Link to Slides
Topic: Apple Device Management – macOS in a Corporate Environment
You have just been hired to manage a corporate environment that includes a thousand Macs. What now? Learn the basics of Mac Management, Software Distribution and Security.
About the speaker:
Chad Bloch has managed and supported Macs in large multi-platform environments for more than 15 years. He is currently the Mac Systems Management Engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory where he oversees the configuration security and software deployment of 2500 Macs and 2 Apple TVs.
Link to Slides
Topic: Apple Device Management – macOS in a Corporate Environment
You have just been hired to manage a corporate environment that includes a thousand Macs. What now? Learn the basics of Mac Management, Software Distribution and Security.
About the speaker:
Chad Bloch has managed and supported Macs in large multi-platform environments for more than 15 years. He is currently the Mac Systems Management Engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory where he oversees the configuration security and software deployment of 2500 Macs and 2 Apple TVs.
October 2018
Speaker: Mike Stanley, UTK
Topic: Soft Skills for IT Professionals
https://www.slideshare.net/mikestanley/soft-skills-for-it-professionals-lopsa-20181002
https://www.extension.harvard.edu/inside-extension/10-soft-skills-every-it-professional-should-develop
https://www.cio.com/article/3269428/it-skills-training/the-14-soft-skills-every-it-pro-needs.html
https://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/soft-skills-you-need
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/top-information-technology-it-soft-skills-2063781
https://www.careerbuilder.com/advice/6-soft-skills-every-professional-needs
Accelerating your IT career - https://tiny.utk.edu/itcareer
We work in IT and our technical skills are the foundation upon which we build our careers. Whether it's writing code, managing systems or networks, or securing our environments, technology matters. Something that I didn't fully realize until much later in my career than I wish was that something other than my technical expertise can matter as much or more - my ability to function as part of a team and communicate effectively and positively with my teammates and customers. I'm going to share my experience receiving training in the soft skills and the difference that sort of training has made for me and my team members.
About the speaker
A 22 year IT veteran, Mike Stanley has worked as a Citrix Engineer for LPS Integration, a value added reseller in TN, and as an IT Administrator for UT Knoxville. He is currently a System Architect at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture.
Topic: Soft Skills for IT Professionals
https://www.slideshare.net/mikestanley/soft-skills-for-it-professionals-lopsa-20181002
https://www.extension.harvard.edu/inside-extension/10-soft-skills-every-it-professional-should-develop
https://www.cio.com/article/3269428/it-skills-training/the-14-soft-skills-every-it-pro-needs.html
https://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/soft-skills-you-need
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/top-information-technology-it-soft-skills-2063781
https://www.careerbuilder.com/advice/6-soft-skills-every-professional-needs
Accelerating your IT career - https://tiny.utk.edu/itcareer
We work in IT and our technical skills are the foundation upon which we build our careers. Whether it's writing code, managing systems or networks, or securing our environments, technology matters. Something that I didn't fully realize until much later in my career than I wish was that something other than my technical expertise can matter as much or more - my ability to function as part of a team and communicate effectively and positively with my teammates and customers. I'm going to share my experience receiving training in the soft skills and the difference that sort of training has made for me and my team members.
About the speaker
A 22 year IT veteran, Mike Stanley has worked as a Citrix Engineer for LPS Integration, a value added reseller in TN, and as an IT Administrator for UT Knoxville. He is currently a System Architect at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture.
September 2018
Speaker: Blake Bevard, ORNL
Topic: Evaluating and Protecting Your Endpoints
Given the constantly evolving cyber threat landscape, it is imperative to consider a multi-layered defense strategy in your environment. The foundation for this strategy begins with your endpoint security solution. Traditional, definition-based antivirus solutions are struggling to keep up. Blake will take you through his recent evaluation and selection process, highlighting available features and capabilities that are prevalent today. He will also give a retrospective on the presumptions entering the implementation and the lessons learned from the implementation process.
About the speaker
Blake has worked as a Windows System Engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory since 2016. His primary focus in this time has been endpoint management, desktop virtualization and PowerShell scripting. Prior to coming to ORNL, he spent 7 years at EnergySolutions focusing on desktop virtualization, patch and software management and Active Directory administration. In his spare time he enjoys playing League of Legends, playing tennis and spending time with his wife Katie and his 2 dogs, Baxter and Max.
Topic: Evaluating and Protecting Your Endpoints
Given the constantly evolving cyber threat landscape, it is imperative to consider a multi-layered defense strategy in your environment. The foundation for this strategy begins with your endpoint security solution. Traditional, definition-based antivirus solutions are struggling to keep up. Blake will take you through his recent evaluation and selection process, highlighting available features and capabilities that are prevalent today. He will also give a retrospective on the presumptions entering the implementation and the lessons learned from the implementation process.
About the speaker
Blake has worked as a Windows System Engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory since 2016. His primary focus in this time has been endpoint management, desktop virtualization and PowerShell scripting. Prior to coming to ORNL, he spent 7 years at EnergySolutions focusing on desktop virtualization, patch and software management and Active Directory administration. In his spare time he enjoys playing League of Legends, playing tennis and spending time with his wife Katie and his 2 dogs, Baxter and Max.
August 2018
Speaker: Chad DeGuira
Topic: Single Source of Truth
Is there a single source of truth for what objects and threats exist on the network, when data from multiple management and security systems reveal discrepancies? What is an acceptable patch deployment success rate in a diverse environment, who decides, and who cleans up the residual? Who is the SME for all the applications in the environment, or those necessary one-off configurations? With limited IT resources, without transparency, and lack of trust in the data available, the task at hand can be overwhelming, and can get lost in the static. ORNL has been developing an application for use by all of its users, that consolidates the pertinent data surrounding devices from many data sources, to build to a high confidence repository in a dynamically changing landscape. Vulnerabilities, configuration issues, exceptions processes, procurement and performance info, etc. is aggregated in a way to create a holistic view of a device, using the latest information at hand, in a format that is relevant to everyone. In this presentation, we will show a demo of this application, discuss the underlying philosophies and architecture, and the challenges we faced for such an endeavor.
About the speaker
Chad DeGuira is the Client Services Team Leader in the Business Systems Group in the Information Technology Services Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He has worked in Information Technology for the past 20 years in support,administrative, and management roles. He has been at Oak Ridge DOE facilities for the past 15 years with a primary focus towards systems management, with interests in substantial cost reductions based on efficient and effective use of computing resources through automated processes and improved workflow.
Topic: Single Source of Truth
Is there a single source of truth for what objects and threats exist on the network, when data from multiple management and security systems reveal discrepancies? What is an acceptable patch deployment success rate in a diverse environment, who decides, and who cleans up the residual? Who is the SME for all the applications in the environment, or those necessary one-off configurations? With limited IT resources, without transparency, and lack of trust in the data available, the task at hand can be overwhelming, and can get lost in the static. ORNL has been developing an application for use by all of its users, that consolidates the pertinent data surrounding devices from many data sources, to build to a high confidence repository in a dynamically changing landscape. Vulnerabilities, configuration issues, exceptions processes, procurement and performance info, etc. is aggregated in a way to create a holistic view of a device, using the latest information at hand, in a format that is relevant to everyone. In this presentation, we will show a demo of this application, discuss the underlying philosophies and architecture, and the challenges we faced for such an endeavor.
About the speaker
Chad DeGuira is the Client Services Team Leader in the Business Systems Group in the Information Technology Services Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He has worked in Information Technology for the past 20 years in support,administrative, and management roles. He has been at Oak Ridge DOE facilities for the past 15 years with a primary focus towards systems management, with interests in substantial cost reductions based on efficient and effective use of computing resources through automated processes and improved workflow.
June 2018
Speaker: Jesse Trucks, Splunk
Topic: Power of Community
Humans are social creatures. Technical professionals are often isolated, despite the prevalence of global communications. Being part of a close community of personal connections with other people, especially with nearby geographical proximity, provides powerful support and help in both the technical and social skills. Technical professionals find networking and community building difficult, but it is easier than most people think it is.
About the speaker
Jesse Trucks has been involved with the formation and management of professional communities for over 13 years. His initiation into professional community involvement began with co-authoring, as part of a committee, the original version of the Code of Ethics currently adopted by The League of Professional System Administrators (LOPSA), USENIX, and LISA. In the following years, he helped manage a local SAGE chapter (the precursor to LISA); was a Founding Member of LOPSA; formed and managed the successful LOPSA Madison Local Chapter; served on the LOPSA Board of Directors from 2007 - 2013; founded and still manages the LOPSA East Tennessee Local Chapter; and is a senior freenode IRC network staff member and the freenode Sponsor Liaison. Over the years, Trucks has seen how professional communities wax and wane through successes and failures, and he advocates that all professionals get involved in their own professional communities to the betterment of everyone involved.
Topic: Power of Community
Humans are social creatures. Technical professionals are often isolated, despite the prevalence of global communications. Being part of a close community of personal connections with other people, especially with nearby geographical proximity, provides powerful support and help in both the technical and social skills. Technical professionals find networking and community building difficult, but it is easier than most people think it is.
About the speaker
Jesse Trucks has been involved with the formation and management of professional communities for over 13 years. His initiation into professional community involvement began with co-authoring, as part of a committee, the original version of the Code of Ethics currently adopted by The League of Professional System Administrators (LOPSA), USENIX, and LISA. In the following years, he helped manage a local SAGE chapter (the precursor to LISA); was a Founding Member of LOPSA; formed and managed the successful LOPSA Madison Local Chapter; served on the LOPSA Board of Directors from 2007 - 2013; founded and still manages the LOPSA East Tennessee Local Chapter; and is a senior freenode IRC network staff member and the freenode Sponsor Liaison. Over the years, Trucks has seen how professional communities wax and wane through successes and failures, and he advocates that all professionals get involved in their own professional communities to the betterment of everyone involved.
May 2018
For today’s engineer, automation is everything. Having a reliable and secure way to handle your automation tasks in your Hybrid Cloud is critical to having a healthy cloud. In this presentation, I’ll go over how Azure Automation enables you to automate the creation, deployment, monitoring, and maintenance of resources in your Hybrid Cloud. Using Azure Automation you can orchestrate time-consuming & repeatable tasks across Azure and the Hybrid cloud using PowerShell & Python runbooks, safely use shared variables in multiple scripts, and securely pass sensitive credentials into your code without hardcoding them.
About the speaker:
Benjamin is a Cloud Infrastructure/Operations Engineer with experience in VMWare, AWS, and Azure. He is a certified AWS Cloud Solutions Architect Professional, Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert in Cloud and Infrastructure, and he has multiple certifications in VMWare. Benjamin has led deployments of Cloud environments in AWS and has designed, implemented, and supported end-to-end Automation frameworks in AWS, Azure, and VMWare. He has developed and implemented Cloud Security solutions, as well designed and executed Hybrid-Cloud infrastructure roll-outs in AWS and Azure. He has a B.S. in Computer Technology with a background in automating Microsoft, VMWare, and Public Cloud (AWS/Azure) solutions using various automation tools. He is well versed in network infrastructure design and has led and performed data-center relocation and design. He recently presented: “How IT Can Enable Development Teams to Build Apps on AWS, Azure, and VMWare without Compromising on Costs and Security” at VMWorld 2017.
About the speaker:
Benjamin is a Cloud Infrastructure/Operations Engineer with experience in VMWare, AWS, and Azure. He is a certified AWS Cloud Solutions Architect Professional, Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert in Cloud and Infrastructure, and he has multiple certifications in VMWare. Benjamin has led deployments of Cloud environments in AWS and has designed, implemented, and supported end-to-end Automation frameworks in AWS, Azure, and VMWare. He has developed and implemented Cloud Security solutions, as well designed and executed Hybrid-Cloud infrastructure roll-outs in AWS and Azure. He has a B.S. in Computer Technology with a background in automating Microsoft, VMWare, and Public Cloud (AWS/Azure) solutions using various automation tools. He is well versed in network infrastructure design and has led and performed data-center relocation and design. He recently presented: “How IT Can Enable Development Teams to Build Apps on AWS, Azure, and VMWare without Compromising on Costs and Security” at VMWorld 2017.
April 2018
Speaker: Matt Lindsey
Topic: IoT Hacking for Fun and Profit!
Link to slides
The Internet of Things is an increasingly inescapable element of life on the information superhighway in 2018. While these plethora of low power, infrastructure-like devices can provide a lot of user convenience, it’s no secret that security is near the bottom of most vendor’s priorities. This talk will cover the state of IoT industry security in 2018, recent events that shape it, a primer on the unique security considerations of these devices and best practices for organizations that leverage them.
About the speaker:
Matt Lindsey is the Security Operations Center lead for Oak Ridge National Laboratory and a long time Cyber education enthusiast in and out of work. A ten year veteran of the security industrial complex, he spends much of his time doing incident handling and tracking emerging threats throughout the IT world. When he’s not manning the thin blue line between federal networks and the Internet, he enjoys the traditional nerdy pastimes of podcasts, Firefly and Pokemon Go.
Topic: IoT Hacking for Fun and Profit!
Link to slides
The Internet of Things is an increasingly inescapable element of life on the information superhighway in 2018. While these plethora of low power, infrastructure-like devices can provide a lot of user convenience, it’s no secret that security is near the bottom of most vendor’s priorities. This talk will cover the state of IoT industry security in 2018, recent events that shape it, a primer on the unique security considerations of these devices and best practices for organizations that leverage them.
About the speaker:
Matt Lindsey is the Security Operations Center lead for Oak Ridge National Laboratory and a long time Cyber education enthusiast in and out of work. A ten year veteran of the security industrial complex, he spends much of his time doing incident handling and tracking emerging threats throughout the IT world. When he’s not manning the thin blue line between federal networks and the Internet, he enjoys the traditional nerdy pastimes of podcasts, Firefly and Pokemon Go.
March 2018
Speaker: Wesley Kirkland
Topic: Metaprogramming with PowerShell
Link to slides
Have you ever dreamed of writing a script so advanced it can make backups of itself, completely transform its environment, or even code by itself in a different language? If so, you’ve come to the right place. In this talk, we will discuss Metaprogramming and how to do it with PowerShell. We will describe and outline how to use PowerShell to write your code for you, all while maintaining the ability to adapt to your environment. Focusing on use cases, we will highlight some examples that you may have seen in the real world in products like Microsoft System Center, and others. We will demonstrate how to rebuild AD (Sites & Services, Users, OU structure, and more) via dynamically generated scripts, build T-SQL statements, and how to build some very dynamic functions all with minimal code.
About the speaker:Over the last several years, Wesley Kirkland has gained Systems Engineering experience consisting of On Premise, Cloud, and scalable automation, primarily using PowerShell to integrate Active Directory environments and Office 365. He currently works at Ministry Brands as a Sr. Systems Engineer working with AWS & Azure.
Topic: Metaprogramming with PowerShell
Link to slides
Have you ever dreamed of writing a script so advanced it can make backups of itself, completely transform its environment, or even code by itself in a different language? If so, you’ve come to the right place. In this talk, we will discuss Metaprogramming and how to do it with PowerShell. We will describe and outline how to use PowerShell to write your code for you, all while maintaining the ability to adapt to your environment. Focusing on use cases, we will highlight some examples that you may have seen in the real world in products like Microsoft System Center, and others. We will demonstrate how to rebuild AD (Sites & Services, Users, OU structure, and more) via dynamically generated scripts, build T-SQL statements, and how to build some very dynamic functions all with minimal code.
About the speaker:Over the last several years, Wesley Kirkland has gained Systems Engineering experience consisting of On Premise, Cloud, and scalable automation, primarily using PowerShell to integrate Active Directory environments and Office 365. He currently works at Ministry Brands as a Sr. Systems Engineer working with AWS & Azure.
February 2018
Speaker: Ben Taylor
Topic: GitLab is for Admins, Too!
Link to slides
If you've never heard of GitLab, think "GitHub," but with an open-source, free Community Edition with fully integrated CI/CD. Most Devs' ears will perk up at this, but it should also catch the attention of ops folks, too. The same single user experience GitLab offers to developers for navigating the complexities of software development, it also offers to admins for managing a no less complex infrastructure. This talk will highlight several GItLab features of particular relevance to sysadmins. If you're interested in a low-cost, easy-to-use tool for making your life easier, then join us for this meeting!
About the speaker:
By day, Ben Taylor is a Linux Sysadmin at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Though he's passionate about Linux, he's also a self-described Technology Ecumenist, ever seeking new ways of overcoming technological sectarianism by way of a Big Tent IT approach for building professional community. He enjoys reading aloud to his girlfriend, playing board games, cleaning up after his horses and keeping them out of trouble.
Topic: GitLab is for Admins, Too!
Link to slides
If you've never heard of GitLab, think "GitHub," but with an open-source, free Community Edition with fully integrated CI/CD. Most Devs' ears will perk up at this, but it should also catch the attention of ops folks, too. The same single user experience GitLab offers to developers for navigating the complexities of software development, it also offers to admins for managing a no less complex infrastructure. This talk will highlight several GItLab features of particular relevance to sysadmins. If you're interested in a low-cost, easy-to-use tool for making your life easier, then join us for this meeting!
About the speaker:
By day, Ben Taylor is a Linux Sysadmin at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Though he's passionate about Linux, he's also a self-described Technology Ecumenist, ever seeking new ways of overcoming technological sectarianism by way of a Big Tent IT approach for building professional community. He enjoys reading aloud to his girlfriend, playing board games, cleaning up after his horses and keeping them out of trouble.
January 2018
Speaker: Joe Gray
Topic: Digital Forensics and Incident Response
Further reading
In an age where data breaches and malware infections are quickly becoming the norm, we must prepare for Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR). Most DFIR talks and advice discuss what to do once an incident has occurred. Instead, this talk provides Security Architects, System Administrators, SOC teams, and management new techniques and advice to supercharge their IR capabilities by preemptively collecting forensic evidence as a baseline.
The content provided in this presentation goes beyond the age-old advice of verbose logging and asset inventories. It will promote a cooperative relationship between DFIR and the rest of the “Blue Team.” We will kick this presentation off with a discussion about Threat Hunting versus Forensics. During this presentation, blue teamers and management will be armed with actionable advice as to how to pre-preemptively capture artifacts as baselines BEFORE anything ever happens and the actions to take WHEN something happens.
About the speaker:
Joe Gray joined the U.S. Navy directly out of High School and served for 7 years as a Submarine Navigation Electronics Technician. Joe maintains his own blog and podcast called Advanced Persistent Security. In his spare time, Joe enjoys attending information security conferences, contributing blogs to various outlets, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (spoken taps out A LOT!), and flying his drone. Joe is in the inaugural winner of the DerbyCon Social Engineering Capture the Flag (SECTF) and was awarded a DerbyCon Black Badge. Joe has contributed material for the likes of AlienVault, ITSP Magazine, CSO Online, and Dark Reading.
Topic: Digital Forensics and Incident Response
Further reading
In an age where data breaches and malware infections are quickly becoming the norm, we must prepare for Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR). Most DFIR talks and advice discuss what to do once an incident has occurred. Instead, this talk provides Security Architects, System Administrators, SOC teams, and management new techniques and advice to supercharge their IR capabilities by preemptively collecting forensic evidence as a baseline.
The content provided in this presentation goes beyond the age-old advice of verbose logging and asset inventories. It will promote a cooperative relationship between DFIR and the rest of the “Blue Team.” We will kick this presentation off with a discussion about Threat Hunting versus Forensics. During this presentation, blue teamers and management will be armed with actionable advice as to how to pre-preemptively capture artifacts as baselines BEFORE anything ever happens and the actions to take WHEN something happens.
About the speaker:
Joe Gray joined the U.S. Navy directly out of High School and served for 7 years as a Submarine Navigation Electronics Technician. Joe maintains his own blog and podcast called Advanced Persistent Security. In his spare time, Joe enjoys attending information security conferences, contributing blogs to various outlets, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (spoken taps out A LOT!), and flying his drone. Joe is in the inaugural winner of the DerbyCon Social Engineering Capture the Flag (SECTF) and was awarded a DerbyCon Black Badge. Joe has contributed material for the likes of AlienVault, ITSP Magazine, CSO Online, and Dark Reading.
December 2017
Speaker: Ketan Maheshwari
Topic: Linux Power Tools
Link to slides
The lecture aims at familiarizing users with common tools to work efficiently and effectively in Linux environment. We will build powerful command lines that will help save time accomplishing common tasks and enable users to conceive and execute complex tasks with ease. Age-old and time tested productivity concepts such as pipelines, session management, regular expressions will be discussed. Additionally, techniques such as fast navigation on the command line, and tools such as find, grep, awk, and sed will be discussed.
About the speaker:
Ketan is an engineer at ORNL with a background in scientific and parallel computing applications. Ketan has a PhD in computer science from University of Nice in France. He is a Linux enthusiast and likes to participate in Linux online communities such as StackExchange and r/linux.
Topic: Linux Power Tools
Link to slides
The lecture aims at familiarizing users with common tools to work efficiently and effectively in Linux environment. We will build powerful command lines that will help save time accomplishing common tasks and enable users to conceive and execute complex tasks with ease. Age-old and time tested productivity concepts such as pipelines, session management, regular expressions will be discussed. Additionally, techniques such as fast navigation on the command line, and tools such as find, grep, awk, and sed will be discussed.
About the speaker:
Ketan is an engineer at ORNL with a background in scientific and parallel computing applications. Ketan has a PhD in computer science from University of Nice in France. He is a Linux enthusiast and likes to participate in Linux online communities such as StackExchange and r/linux.
November 2017
Speaker: Richard Whitehead, ORNL
Topic: IT Risk Management
In a world full of hurry up, complete your project, get this to production, and make-it-happen, is there time to identify and deal with potential risks in the midst?We’ve all seen our business world change around us to include a do more with less mentality. Everyone wants to do their job with as few interruptions as possible. What could possibly go wrong with standing up a new server? Why would eyebrows be raised by wanting to move a service to another location on the network? This discussion will challenge you to ask questions about identifying the risks associated with what you do daily.
About the speaker:
Richard Whitehead is an IT Risk Management Analyst at ORNL, working within Cyber Security and the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO). He has over twenty years of experience in the IT world ranging from system administration, network administration, and cyber security. His background began in the Air Force with electronics and has transformed through working with private companies, government agencies, and government contractors.
Topic: IT Risk Management
In a world full of hurry up, complete your project, get this to production, and make-it-happen, is there time to identify and deal with potential risks in the midst?We’ve all seen our business world change around us to include a do more with less mentality. Everyone wants to do their job with as few interruptions as possible. What could possibly go wrong with standing up a new server? Why would eyebrows be raised by wanting to move a service to another location on the network? This discussion will challenge you to ask questions about identifying the risks associated with what you do daily.
About the speaker:
Richard Whitehead is an IT Risk Management Analyst at ORNL, working within Cyber Security and the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO). He has over twenty years of experience in the IT world ranging from system administration, network administration, and cyber security. His background began in the Air Force with electronics and has transformed through working with private companies, government agencies, and government contractors.
October 2017
Speaker: Jack Ramsey, ETSU
Topic: Teaching and Training System Administrators
Link to slides
The question of how to prepare students and early-career sysadmins is one of the most important we face in our field, and one that continues to evolve. In this talk we'll learn how East Tennessee State University is contributing to that ever evolving question. If you're interested in this question, as well as in shaping future dialogue on this subject, this is a talk you won't want to miss.
About the speaker
Jack Ramsey has been all over the chart, professionally, from the military to law enforcement to teaching. For the past three years, since earning his M.S. in computing, he's been teaching web design and development, and introduction to system administration. at East Tennessee State University.
Topic: Teaching and Training System Administrators
Link to slides
The question of how to prepare students and early-career sysadmins is one of the most important we face in our field, and one that continues to evolve. In this talk we'll learn how East Tennessee State University is contributing to that ever evolving question. If you're interested in this question, as well as in shaping future dialogue on this subject, this is a talk you won't want to miss.
About the speaker
Jack Ramsey has been all over the chart, professionally, from the military to law enforcement to teaching. For the past three years, since earning his M.S. in computing, he's been teaching web design and development, and introduction to system administration. at East Tennessee State University.
September 2017
Speaker: Matt Hermanson, Red Hat
Topic: Ansible: Automation for Everyone!
Link to Slides
Ansible is automation for everyone. For a long time we have been told a good sysadmin should always be automating. This has led to a proliferation of tools and platforms that seem to add as much complexity as they aim to remove. If you are like me, you embarked on a career in system administration because you didn't want to be a programmer -- what happened?
Ansible is a simple, powerful, agent-less automation language that works across platforms designed to lower the barrier to automation and focus on the more interesting parts of our job. In this presentation we will talk about the features of Ansible and how you can use it to love your job again.
About the Speaker
Matt Hermanson is Cloud Solutions Architect for Red Hat. He received his Bachelors in Computer Science from Tennessee Tech University, and spent the last decade of his career in financial services and government research. When he's not working, he enjoys Golf, Softball, and anything that keeps him active.
Topic: Ansible: Automation for Everyone!
Link to Slides
Ansible is automation for everyone. For a long time we have been told a good sysadmin should always be automating. This has led to a proliferation of tools and platforms that seem to add as much complexity as they aim to remove. If you are like me, you embarked on a career in system administration because you didn't want to be a programmer -- what happened?
Ansible is a simple, powerful, agent-less automation language that works across platforms designed to lower the barrier to automation and focus on the more interesting parts of our job. In this presentation we will talk about the features of Ansible and how you can use it to love your job again.
About the Speaker
Matt Hermanson is Cloud Solutions Architect for Red Hat. He received his Bachelors in Computer Science from Tennessee Tech University, and spent the last decade of his career in financial services and government research. When he's not working, he enjoys Golf, Softball, and anything that keeps him active.
August 2017
Speaker: Wesley Kirkland
Topic: Winnux & Lindows: Powershell for All!
Link to Slides
BASH on Windows? Old news. Now get object-oriented with PowerShell on Linux! For those of who have been yearning lo these many years for an automation platform and scripting language compatible with all the major OSs, that day has arrived! Last year Microsoft open-sourced PowerShell Core, and with it came portability to Linux and MAC. If you'd like to learn about the next step in convergence, join us as Wesley Kirkland shows us the way.
About the speaker
Over the last several years, Wesley Kirkland has gained Systems Engineering experience consisting of On Premise, Cloud, and scalable automation, primarily using PowerShell to integrate Active Directory environments and Office 365. He currently works at Ministry Brands as a Sr. Systems Engineer working with AWS & Azure.
Topic: Winnux & Lindows: Powershell for All!
Link to Slides
BASH on Windows? Old news. Now get object-oriented with PowerShell on Linux! For those of who have been yearning lo these many years for an automation platform and scripting language compatible with all the major OSs, that day has arrived! Last year Microsoft open-sourced PowerShell Core, and with it came portability to Linux and MAC. If you'd like to learn about the next step in convergence, join us as Wesley Kirkland shows us the way.
About the speaker
Over the last several years, Wesley Kirkland has gained Systems Engineering experience consisting of On Premise, Cloud, and scalable automation, primarily using PowerShell to integrate Active Directory environments and Office 365. He currently works at Ministry Brands as a Sr. Systems Engineer working with AWS & Azure.
June 2017
Speaker: Jesse Trucks, Splunk
Topic: ETSA, Our Phoenix
Our LOPSA East Tennessee Local Chapter we call ETENN is evolving and growing. We were displaced last year from our home in downtown Knoxville, and we've been struggling with the situation and our future. A small committee formed to create ETSA, a new organization that will be our Phoenix rising from the ashes of our past troubles. Join us to hear the details of the impetus for a new organization, the solution, and the future from ETENN and ETSA co-founder Jesse Trucks.
About the Speaker
Jesse Trucks has been involved with the formation and management of professional communities for over 13 years. His initiation into professional community involvement began with co-authoring, as part of a committee, the original version of the Code of Ethics currently adopted by The League of Professional System Administrators (LOPSA), USENIX, and LISA. In the following years, he helped manage a local SAGE chapter (the precursor to LISA); was a Founding Member of LOPSA; formed and managed the successful LOPSA Madison Local Chapter; served on the LOPSA Board of Directors from 2007 - 2013; founded and still manages the LOPSA East Tennessee Local Chapter; and is a senior freenode IRC network staff member and the freenode Sponsor Liaison. Over the years, Trucks has seen how professional communities wax and wane through successes and failures, and he advocates that all professionals get involved in their own professional communities to the betterment of everyone involved.
Topic: ETSA, Our Phoenix
Our LOPSA East Tennessee Local Chapter we call ETENN is evolving and growing. We were displaced last year from our home in downtown Knoxville, and we've been struggling with the situation and our future. A small committee formed to create ETSA, a new organization that will be our Phoenix rising from the ashes of our past troubles. Join us to hear the details of the impetus for a new organization, the solution, and the future from ETENN and ETSA co-founder Jesse Trucks.
About the Speaker
Jesse Trucks has been involved with the formation and management of professional communities for over 13 years. His initiation into professional community involvement began with co-authoring, as part of a committee, the original version of the Code of Ethics currently adopted by The League of Professional System Administrators (LOPSA), USENIX, and LISA. In the following years, he helped manage a local SAGE chapter (the precursor to LISA); was a Founding Member of LOPSA; formed and managed the successful LOPSA Madison Local Chapter; served on the LOPSA Board of Directors from 2007 - 2013; founded and still manages the LOPSA East Tennessee Local Chapter; and is a senior freenode IRC network staff member and the freenode Sponsor Liaison. Over the years, Trucks has seen how professional communities wax and wane through successes and failures, and he advocates that all professionals get involved in their own professional communities to the betterment of everyone involved.
May 2017
Speaker: Andy Cowell, Scripps Networks
Topic: Server Administration in a Serverless World
Link to slides
What does it mean to have built your career around maintaining servers when they take your servers away?
The technology world is changing in interesting ways. The rise of the cloud has hyped new trends to the spotlight, and among them is "Serverless" computing. You can today build a substantial technology company without ever seeing a shell prompt. What does serverless computing mean to a career built around the care and feeding of...servers? Could another trend, NoOps-- automating away your operations staff (hint: that's us) become reality? Is your career path a dead end? Is our future doomed to be in front end javascript development?
We will examine the reality of Serverless computing, and what impact that has on the roles traditionally filled by server administrators.
About the speaker:
Andy Cowell has over twenty years of system administration experience in a variety of environments. Currently, he works for Scripps Networks as the manager of the Application Engineering and Automation group, which is responsible for a large number and wide variety of environments, from legacy Windows apps to DevOps-style Linux web deployments, both on-prem and in the cloud. He has been responsible for some of the top destinations on the Internet, such as HGTV.com, Dilbert.com, and Metallica.com. In the past, he has worn many hats, from networking admin to full-time developer, and cut his teeth as a "wizard" with the UTK Computer Science department.
Topic: Server Administration in a Serverless World
Link to slides
What does it mean to have built your career around maintaining servers when they take your servers away?
The technology world is changing in interesting ways. The rise of the cloud has hyped new trends to the spotlight, and among them is "Serverless" computing. You can today build a substantial technology company without ever seeing a shell prompt. What does serverless computing mean to a career built around the care and feeding of...servers? Could another trend, NoOps-- automating away your operations staff (hint: that's us) become reality? Is your career path a dead end? Is our future doomed to be in front end javascript development?
We will examine the reality of Serverless computing, and what impact that has on the roles traditionally filled by server administrators.
About the speaker:
Andy Cowell has over twenty years of system administration experience in a variety of environments. Currently, he works for Scripps Networks as the manager of the Application Engineering and Automation group, which is responsible for a large number and wide variety of environments, from legacy Windows apps to DevOps-style Linux web deployments, both on-prem and in the cloud. He has been responsible for some of the top destinations on the Internet, such as HGTV.com, Dilbert.com, and Metallica.com. In the past, he has worn many hats, from networking admin to full-time developer, and cut his teeth as a "wizard" with the UTK Computer Science department.
April 2017
Speaker: Nolan Davidson, Chef Software
Topic: Compliance as Code with InSpec
Click for link to slides
We're living the DevOps life. Devs are on call, ops personnel are putting infrastructure changes in though pipelines, and everybody's going out for beers on Friday afternoon, right?
What about our friends in Security? (yes, they ARE our friends, I promise). Are they staying behind at the office to make sure their compliance spreadsheets are all filled out for the new systems you just built? Let's talk about bringing them along for our DevOps adventure with InSpec, a framework for expressing compliance as code. *Unicorns and rainbows sold separately
About the speaker:
Nolan Davidson is a systems engineer with over 15 years of experience. Currently an engineer for Chef Software, Nolan focuses on infrastructure design, automation, and application delivery. He also spends time on tool development, both internal and contributing to open source automation related projects. When not automating all the things, he enjoys video games, reading, and failing miserably at keeping up with his wife and two daughters.
Topic: Compliance as Code with InSpec
Click for link to slides
We're living the DevOps life. Devs are on call, ops personnel are putting infrastructure changes in though pipelines, and everybody's going out for beers on Friday afternoon, right?
What about our friends in Security? (yes, they ARE our friends, I promise). Are they staying behind at the office to make sure their compliance spreadsheets are all filled out for the new systems you just built? Let's talk about bringing them along for our DevOps adventure with InSpec, a framework for expressing compliance as code. *Unicorns and rainbows sold separately
About the speaker:
Nolan Davidson is a systems engineer with over 15 years of experience. Currently an engineer for Chef Software, Nolan focuses on infrastructure design, automation, and application delivery. He also spends time on tool development, both internal and contributing to open source automation related projects. When not automating all the things, he enjoys video games, reading, and failing miserably at keeping up with his wife and two daughters.
March 2017
Speaker: Bruce Wilson, ORNL
Topic: Up, But Not Working: An Investigation into Infrastructure Testing using Cucumber
The monitoring system says the server is up and ping works. But that doesn’t always mean the application or the infrastructure is working. That often requires several systems are working together and meaningful tests have to have credentials.
This talk will show some work using Cucumber (a domain specific language for testing), along with the Watir web driver, as a tool to do functional tests of systems.
About the speaker:
Bruce Wilson is an Enterprise Architect at ORNL, working particularly on authentication, authorization, remote access, and mobility. He is a chemist by original training, and he spent 18 years in the chemical industry, working for Eastman Chemical Company, Dow Corning, and the Dow Chemical Company. Much of that work was very data-intensive, particularly the work on high throughput methods in material sciences. He migrated from writing tools to help get his own work done to making those tools available to others, to taking on more of an IT role in enabling scientists to do science.
Topic: Up, But Not Working: An Investigation into Infrastructure Testing using Cucumber
The monitoring system says the server is up and ping works. But that doesn’t always mean the application or the infrastructure is working. That often requires several systems are working together and meaningful tests have to have credentials.
This talk will show some work using Cucumber (a domain specific language for testing), along with the Watir web driver, as a tool to do functional tests of systems.
About the speaker:
Bruce Wilson is an Enterprise Architect at ORNL, working particularly on authentication, authorization, remote access, and mobility. He is a chemist by original training, and he spent 18 years in the chemical industry, working for Eastman Chemical Company, Dow Corning, and the Dow Chemical Company. Much of that work was very data-intensive, particularly the work on high throughput methods in material sciences. He migrated from writing tools to help get his own work done to making those tools available to others, to taking on more of an IT role in enabling scientists to do science.
February 2017
Speaker: Michael Campfield
Topic: Tips for Great Resume Writing
[Bring Two Copies of Your Resume!]
click to download presentation
You're résumé is prefect, You have red it many times. When it hits my desk. I dont even reed your name, I just start Nit-picking. Buy inch one, I begin to dislike you, but inch 4 I'm sure your triing to make me angry, by in eight, I've taken out the dramamine since you have made me so angry I'm nauseous. This talk is about those simple and not-so simple issues that you insert in to your résumé, the formatting, and from your personal life that make me want to see which of my co-workers recycled it 1st.
Think your resume is perfect? please bring yours four part of this educational and interactive talk where you will be judge, jury and executioner of your own future and move from first on the disscard stack to the point where I'm Itching to give you an on-sight interview.
Your resume has as many subtle and not so sublte flaws as the ones that I've inserted in this description and you likely don't know it, no matter how detailed you think you are.
But this talk is about much more than nit-picking flaws. It's about what you can do to make your resume truly stand out in the best possible sense -- in a way that gets your foot in the door for the job and the career that you're seeking.
Again, bring at least 2 PRINTED copies of your resume to this talk, pencils will be provided.
About the Speaker
Michael Campfield is a systems administrator with the National Center for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Lab. He received his Bachelor and Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Tennessee. Over the last decade in his professional career, he has worked with various state agencies and higher education institutions, along with National Science Foundation projects such as XSEDE. He has recently transferred from the National Institute for Computational Sciences, part of UT's Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at ORNL.
As a result of Michael's upbringing in Upstate New York, he only eats sweet cornbread but never drinks sweet tea.
Topic: Tips for Great Resume Writing
[Bring Two Copies of Your Resume!]
click to download presentation
You're résumé is prefect, You have red it many times. When it hits my desk. I dont even reed your name, I just start Nit-picking. Buy inch one, I begin to dislike you, but inch 4 I'm sure your triing to make me angry, by in eight, I've taken out the dramamine since you have made me so angry I'm nauseous. This talk is about those simple and not-so simple issues that you insert in to your résumé, the formatting, and from your personal life that make me want to see which of my co-workers recycled it 1st.
Think your resume is perfect? please bring yours four part of this educational and interactive talk where you will be judge, jury and executioner of your own future and move from first on the disscard stack to the point where I'm Itching to give you an on-sight interview.
Your resume has as many subtle and not so sublte flaws as the ones that I've inserted in this description and you likely don't know it, no matter how detailed you think you are.
But this talk is about much more than nit-picking flaws. It's about what you can do to make your resume truly stand out in the best possible sense -- in a way that gets your foot in the door for the job and the career that you're seeking.
Again, bring at least 2 PRINTED copies of your resume to this talk, pencils will be provided.
About the Speaker
Michael Campfield is a systems administrator with the National Center for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Lab. He received his Bachelor and Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Tennessee. Over the last decade in his professional career, he has worked with various state agencies and higher education institutions, along with National Science Foundation projects such as XSEDE. He has recently transferred from the National Institute for Computational Sciences, part of UT's Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at ORNL.
As a result of Michael's upbringing in Upstate New York, he only eats sweet cornbread but never drinks sweet tea.
January 2017
Speaker: Wesley Kirkland
Topic: VBScript? Ugh, No. Let's Do Some PowerShell!
PowerShell is a modern 4th generation object oriented scripting & programming language. It is an absolute must for any Windows admin to learn. This talk offers both an introduction to PowerShell, and highlights some of its relevant features and advantages for scalable automation.
Over the years, Wesley Kirkland has worked extensively with VMWare and Hyper-V Clusters, System Center Configuration/Operations/VM Manager, particularly using PowerShell to increasingly automate and integrate Active Directory ennvironments. He is currently a Cloud Engineer for TeamHealth, where he implements and maintains SaaS applicataions, including AWS, Okta, various Web APIs, and other backend programs for scalable automation.
Topic: VBScript? Ugh, No. Let's Do Some PowerShell!
PowerShell is a modern 4th generation object oriented scripting & programming language. It is an absolute must for any Windows admin to learn. This talk offers both an introduction to PowerShell, and highlights some of its relevant features and advantages for scalable automation.
Over the years, Wesley Kirkland has worked extensively with VMWare and Hyper-V Clusters, System Center Configuration/Operations/VM Manager, particularly using PowerShell to increasingly automate and integrate Active Directory ennvironments. He is currently a Cloud Engineer for TeamHealth, where he implements and maintains SaaS applicataions, including AWS, Okta, various Web APIs, and other backend programs for scalable automation.
December 2016
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Speaker: Nolan Davidson
Topic: Rust for the Rest of Us Mozilla's Rust is on the rise. This relatively young language is making inroads to the systems programming world, typically dominated by C and C++. For those of us in the DevOps world, as well as for those of us who increasingly find ourselves wearing developer hats, and for any others who might be yearning for a language that offers innovations in fundamental design, safety, and concurrency, then this is a presentation you won't want to miss. About the speaker: Nolan Davidson is a systems engineer with over 15 years of experience. Currently an engineer for Chef Software, Nolan focuses on infrastructure design, automation, and application delivery. He also spends time on tool development, both internal and contributing to open source automation related projects. When not automating all the things, he enjoys video games, reading, and failing miserably at keeping up with his wife and two daughters. |
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November 2016
Speaker: Rob Barker
Topic: All About SharePoint
Rob Barker will offer us insight from his extensive experience with SharePoint, and how he implements it in the ORNL environment. He will discuss the different types of roles that are required to implement, maintain, and support SharePoint, as well as present a show-and-tell on his new dev SP 2016 farm, and where ORNL is going with it.
About the Speaker
Rob Barker has over 20 years of experience in IT, ranging from Lotus Notes Development to a whole slew of Microsoft products, including Active Directory, Exchange, and SharePoint. He is currently SharePoint & Web Team Lead at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Topic: All About SharePoint
Rob Barker will offer us insight from his extensive experience with SharePoint, and how he implements it in the ORNL environment. He will discuss the different types of roles that are required to implement, maintain, and support SharePoint, as well as present a show-and-tell on his new dev SP 2016 farm, and where ORNL is going with it.
About the Speaker
Rob Barker has over 20 years of experience in IT, ranging from Lotus Notes Development to a whole slew of Microsoft products, including Active Directory, Exchange, and SharePoint. He is currently SharePoint & Web Team Lead at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
September 2016
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Speaker: Jesse Trucks
Topic: ETENN, History and Future' LOPSA-ETENN is at a crossroads in its short life. What challenges do we face? What does the future hold for us? What kind of organization do we wish to become? If you're interested in the inside scoop, and even want to pitch in your ten cents, then join us this Tuesday as co-founder Jesse Trucks engages us on the whence, hither, and whither of LOPSA-ETENN. About the Speaker Jesse Trucks has been involved with the formation and management of professional communities for over 13 years. His initiation into professional community involvement began with co-authoring, as part of a committee, the original version of the Code of Ethics currently adopted by The League of Professional System Administrators (LOPSA), USENIX, and LISA. In the following years, he helped manage a local SAGE chapter (the precursor to LISA); was a Founding Member of LOPSA; formed and managed the successful LOPSA Madison Local Chapter; served on the LOPSA Board of Directors from 2007 - 2013; founded and still manages the LOPSA East Tennessee Local Chapter; and is a senior freenode IRC network staff member and the freenode Sponsor Liaison. Over the years, Trucks has seen how professional communities wax and wane through successes and failures, and he advocates that all professionals get involved in their own professional communities to the betterment of everyone involved. |
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August 2016
Speaker: Bruce Wilson, ORNL
Topic: Deploying a SAML-based Single Sign On Solution Using Ping Federate
(For link to slides, click here)
SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) is a very useful tool for an organization to allow its users to sign into external cloud applications without having to have application specific usernames and passwords. It is also useful for a service provider to let users “bring their own accounts."
This talk will provide an overview of how SAML works, differences between SAML and OAuth, the design choices which drove ORNL’s particular implementation, some tips and tricks for working with SAML, and some preliminary work in developing some penetration testing tools for testing SAML implementations.
About the speaker:
Bruce Wilson is an Enterprise Architect at ORNL, working particularly on authentication, authorization, remote access, and mobility. He is a chemist by original training, and he spent 18 years in the chemical industry, working for Eastman Chemical Company, Dow Corning, and the Dow Chemical Company. Much of that work was very data-intensive, particularly the work on high throughput methods in material sciences. He migrated from writing tools to help get his own work done to making those tools available to others, to taking on more of an IT role in enabling scientists to do science.
Topic: Deploying a SAML-based Single Sign On Solution Using Ping Federate
(For link to slides, click here)
SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) is a very useful tool for an organization to allow its users to sign into external cloud applications without having to have application specific usernames and passwords. It is also useful for a service provider to let users “bring their own accounts."
This talk will provide an overview of how SAML works, differences between SAML and OAuth, the design choices which drove ORNL’s particular implementation, some tips and tricks for working with SAML, and some preliminary work in developing some penetration testing tools for testing SAML implementations.
About the speaker:
Bruce Wilson is an Enterprise Architect at ORNL, working particularly on authentication, authorization, remote access, and mobility. He is a chemist by original training, and he spent 18 years in the chemical industry, working for Eastman Chemical Company, Dow Corning, and the Dow Chemical Company. Much of that work was very data-intensive, particularly the work on high throughput methods in material sciences. He migrated from writing tools to help get his own work done to making those tools available to others, to taking on more of an IT role in enabling scientists to do science.
July 2016
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Speaker: Dewayne Holiway, ORNL
Topic: Deploying Software in an Enterprise Environment In today's multi-device, multi-platform enterprise environments, Microsoft's System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) provides a user-centric, comprehensive, and coherent solution for bringing order out of chaos. In this talk, we'll focus on Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) as a case study for SCCM. In particular, we'll discuss its advantages for streamlining the software deployment and update process. About the speaker Dewayne Holiway has 20 years of IT experience. He started out on help desks before working his way up to sysadmin. His early work was as a jack-of-all-trades admin. About five years ago, he specialized in Microsoft Exchange. He has worked for First Tennessee, and then later for SCI as Exchange Administrator for Y12. In September of last year, he moved to ORNL where he has since further specialized in software deployment using SCCM. |
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June 2016
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Speaker: Andy Cowell, Scripps Networks
Topic: Amazon Web Services AWS is on track to have over $10B in revenue this year, with a third of the public cloud market. The public cloud is no longer just a trend but a reality, and with triple the market share of number two, AWS is shaping that reality. I will discuss what AWS is, how you can use it, how operating in it compares and contrasts to traditional system administration, and what the future trends might be.
About the speaker Andy Cowell has over twenty years of system administration experience in a variety of environments. Currently, he works for Scripps Networks as the manager of the Application Engineering and Automation group, which is responsible for a large number and wide variety of environments, from legacy Windows apps, to DevOps-style Linux web deployments, both on-prem and in the cloud. He has been responsible for some of the top destinations on the Internet, such as HGTV.com, Dilbert.com, and Metallica.com. In the past, he has worn many hats,from networking admin to full-time developer, and cut his teeth as a "wizard" with the UTK Computer Science department. When not wrangling systems, he solders microcontrollers, paints toy soldiers, drinks bourbon, smokes pipes, and rolls 20s. |
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May 2016
Speaker: David Blank-Edelman, Apcera
Topic: How Can You Scale It If You Don't Trust It?
When you scale up an infrastructure, it is crucial that you can trust that you have the right resources in play, the right code deployed, and that information can only flow in a secure manner. When you scale the organization, trust is required among all of the people responsible for coding, testing, deploying, and managing the applications that power the business.
With all of the chatter around scaling, you would think someone would have told you the key ingredient
necessary for creating and fostering the required trust. Unfortunately, it is very easy to get to the end of the
diving board, right on the edge of jumping into something like a hybrid cloud deployment, before you realize
you need to figure this out on your own.
This talk can help. We’ll discuss some concrete ways you can engineer trust into the system (complete with examples) that you are building or operating so that it works well for cloud-native and legacy applications. By the end, you’ll have a good idea of the decision/enforcement points you’ll need to consider to be able to create a system (and an organization) that can scale.
About the speaker
David is the Technical Evangelist at Apcera. He has spent thirty years in the systems administration/DevOps/SRE field in large multi-platform environments, including Brandeis University, Cambridge Technology Group, MIT Media Laboratory, and Northeastern University. He is the author of the O'Reilly Otter book Automating System Administration with Perl, and is a frequent invited speaker at conferences in the field. David is honored to serve on the USENIX Board of Directors where he helped to re-engineer the LISA conference and co-founded the global SREcon conferences. He prefers to pronounce Evangelist with a hard 'g’.
Topic: How Can You Scale It If You Don't Trust It?
When you scale up an infrastructure, it is crucial that you can trust that you have the right resources in play, the right code deployed, and that information can only flow in a secure manner. When you scale the organization, trust is required among all of the people responsible for coding, testing, deploying, and managing the applications that power the business.
With all of the chatter around scaling, you would think someone would have told you the key ingredient
necessary for creating and fostering the required trust. Unfortunately, it is very easy to get to the end of the
diving board, right on the edge of jumping into something like a hybrid cloud deployment, before you realize
you need to figure this out on your own.
This talk can help. We’ll discuss some concrete ways you can engineer trust into the system (complete with examples) that you are building or operating so that it works well for cloud-native and legacy applications. By the end, you’ll have a good idea of the decision/enforcement points you’ll need to consider to be able to create a system (and an organization) that can scale.
About the speaker
David is the Technical Evangelist at Apcera. He has spent thirty years in the systems administration/DevOps/SRE field in large multi-platform environments, including Brandeis University, Cambridge Technology Group, MIT Media Laboratory, and Northeastern University. He is the author of the O'Reilly Otter book Automating System Administration with Perl, and is a frequent invited speaker at conferences in the field. David is honored to serve on the USENIX Board of Directors where he helped to re-engineer the LISA conference and co-founded the global SREcon conferences. He prefers to pronounce Evangelist with a hard 'g’.
April 2016
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Speaker: Chad DeGuira, ORNL
Topic: Windows 10 Deployment in the Enterprise With plenty of reasons to migrate to Windows 10, ORNL began defaulting all installs/reinstalls to the new platform in February, utilizing Microsoft’s latest deployment tool technologies. Obviously, there are many factors to take into account prior to such a deployment, yet there are many opportunities to introduce enhancements for operations, support, security, as well as improving users' mobility and productivity. In this presentation, we will discuss the migration path ORNL chose, issues we experienced along the way, and strategies employed to ensure a smooth transition, such as Windows 10 configurations, management and patching, browser compatibility, and security enhancements. Additionally, we will highlight our testing, training, and communications methods, and how Windows 10 has been accepted and utilized by the ORNL community. About the Speaker: Chad DeGuira is an Architecture & Integration Engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He has worked in Information Technology for the past 20 years in support, administrative, and management roles. He has been at Oak Ridge DOE facilities for the past 12 years with primary interests in substantial cost reductions based on efficient and effective use of computing resources through new technology, automated processes, and improved workflow. RSVP for pizza! Even if you don't RSVP, you're welcome to join us. The doors open at 6pm, and if you'd like to join us for pizza, click to give us a head's-up! |
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March 2016
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Speaker: Michael Campfield, ORNL
Topic: Packing Up and Shipping Out for Hostile Environments Say hello to my friends Vagrant and Packer, the one-two punch combo for those who yearn for a tougher, leaner, and meaner virtual machine provisioning and deployment process. If this honey-badger hybrid from Hashicorp sounds appealing to you, then don't miss this presentation! About the Speaker: Michael Campfield is a systems administrator with the National Center for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Lab. He received his Bachelor and Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Tennessee. Over the last decade in his professional career, he has worked with various state agencies and higher education institutions, along with National Science Foundation projects such as XSEDE. He has recently transferred from the National Institute for Computational Sciences, part of UT's Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at ORNL. As a result of Michael's upbringing in Upstate New York, he only eats sweet cornbread but never drinks sweet tea. |
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February 2016
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Speaker: Chris Layton, ORNL
Topic: OOB Management and You! At February's meeting we will be discussing an often overlooked part of our hardware platform, the Out of Band device. This technology, which goes by names such as Drac, IPMI, and BMC, is a powerful tool for managing systems. The talk will be a high level overview of OOB management including how to interact with the devices that support it, basic automation examples, its role in root cause analysis, and even how it can play a part in your monitoring infrastructure. About the Speaker With almost two decades of IT experience behind him, Chris is always looking for new challenges and opportunities to grow, especially if they involve Linux. He currently serves on the R&D Linux Engineering team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory where he helps support the technical needs of the lab's many scientific research projects. His prior experience includes working as part of a two man engineering team at a Tier 1 ISP, a year long stint as a Senior Systems Engineer at Peak Hosting, and also supporting ORNL's supercomputing effort as a member of the HPC Operations Infrastructure team. When not chasing packets or bending Linux systems to do his bidding, his time is spent trying to keep pace with his daughter, exploring the local hiking haunts, playing with embedded Linux systems, and driving mountain roads in small two seater automobiles. |
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January 2016
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Andy Cowell, Scripps Networks
The Cloud, DevOps, and the Changing Face of Modern Operations Unicorns and cattle and pets, oh my! We will be discussing clouds, what DevOps is, what that means, how it is influencing the profession of systems administration, and how you might prepare for possible future directions of the industry. About the Speaker: Andy Cowell has over twenty years of system administration experience in a variety of environments. Currently, he works for Scripps Networks as the manager of the Application Engineering and Automation group, which is responsible for a large number and wide variety of environments, from legacy Windows apps, to DevOps-style Linux web deployments, both on-prem and in the cloud. He has been responsible for some of the top destinations on the Internet, such as HGTV.com, Dilbert.com, and Metallica.com. In the past, he has worn many hats,from networking admin to full-time developer, and cut his teeth as a "wizard" with the UTK Computer Science department. When not wrangling systems, he solders microcontrollers, paints toy soldiers, drinks bourbon, smokes pipes, and rolls 20s. |
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December 2015
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Matt Disney, ORNL
Pricing IT Services Ever wish you were a fly-on-the-wall when they decided on those figures? It turns out it's not a conspiracy of the five people who own everything in the world (including the internet). It's much less sinister, more complex, and even more interesting than we might imagine. If you'd like to hear more, join us at 7pm as Matt Disney shares his experience in this fascinating topic. About the Speaker: Matt Disney is Group Lead for R&D Systems Engineering in the Information Technology Services Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He has a background in systems and security administration, with particular interest in intrusion detection, scalable automation, and configuration management. Matt's education includes a Computer Science degree from the University of Tennessee and a master's degree from the University of Oslo in Network and Systems Administration. He currently serves as a member of the LOPSA Board of Directors. |
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November 2015
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Bryan Burke, EECS
CFEngine - The Tool and Language CFEngine is a system configuration and management tool with a rich history and a small footprint. It's also a language with a potentially steep learning curve at its core. In this talk, I'll introduce the two parts of the product, and I'll attempt to elucidate some of its advantages and disadvantages, as well as impart some of the wisdom acquired from actually deploying it. About Bryan Burke I am an IT administrator for the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department (EECS) at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I also keep a home infrastructure, which I give out to people for free, and which I use to test software. In my spare time, I enjoy board and video games, moonlighting as a sysadmin and software developer, and making life difficult for my awesome girlfriend and cats. |
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October 2015
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Michael Weaver
Frontline Enterprise Security I will go over a day in the life of a Sword & Shield Enterprise Consultant. Examples of things that I, and other professionals, look for when conducting audits and assessments will be provided. We will briefly cover PCI, HIPAA, ISO, and other compliance frameworks to explain the main differences and similarities between them. I’ll describe the importance of information security policies and their purpose in an organization. We will discuss how you don’t have to have a lot of technical knowledge to “hack” a network. If there is any remaining time, I might share some of the more difficult or unexpected things I’ve encountered. About Michael Weaver Michael Weaver, Enterprise Consultant, Sword & Shield Enterprise Security, Inc. Michael Weaver is a Knoxville-based Enterprise Consultant who provides information security advisement, auditing, compliance gap analysis, design & engineering, and project management for clients while working at Sword & Shield. Michael has a diverse skill set spanning 13 years of experience as an IT professional in various security roles and responsibilities for a number of companies in and around his home town of Knoxville, TN. As a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and Qualified Security Assessor (QSA), Michael works throughout the US with companies of varying sizes, ranging from dozens to tens of thousands of employees, helping them achieve their security goals. |
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September 2015
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Jeff Nichols
So You Want to Build a Cray Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is home to Cray's Titan, the world's fastest, open science supercomputer. Not far from ORNL is the local hacker space, KnoxMakers. At KnoxMakers, a cabinet left over from a previous generation Cray captured their imagination. "Could we restore the machine?", they wondered. And with this musing, a wild adventure began. About Jeff Nichols Currently a Cyber Security Research Scientist for the Cyber Warfare Research Team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Jeff Nichols has a Ph.D. in Mathematics (Math Ecology) from the University of Tennessee. He was IT Director at Jewelry Television, and has been messing with computers since the age of 12. His research areas are high-performance computation, parallel computing, and data flow. This talk was originally given at PhreakNIC 17. |
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August 2015
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John Wynkoop
Kanban for IT Ops: Limiting WIP to Increase Productivity Originally adopted by Toyota in the late 1940's, Kanban is a system for scheduling Just In Time (or Lean) production. Originally applied to manufacturing, technical organizations have begun adopting this methodology to reduce task switching, schedule work more efficiently, and promote continuous improvement. In this talk, we'll discuss how teams can apply the Kanban principles to IT Operations to increase agility, improve productivity, and reduce burn-out. You can get started using Kanban with nothing more than a wall, some tape, and a stack of Post-it Notes. About John Wynkoop
Currently the Lead Architect for Peak Hosting, a managed service provider for some of the fastest growing companies on the web, John provides technical oversight for the research, development, and improvement of all of Peak's products and services. Over the past 15 years, John has designed systems and networks for government, academia, and private industry, including real-time submarine tracking systems, supercomputers, e-commerce sites, and mobile games. Having worked with agile methods for almost 10 years, John is passionate about combining development and operations teams to deliver a more responsive IT organization. |
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