Palms Up or Palms Down

So, I was attending a yoga class at a local studio; the class was intended for stress management. In preparation for the last meditation, the instructor told us to lie on our backs, place our arms on the floor at a slight angle from our bodies, and then rest our hands either palms up or palms down.

Palms up or palms down . . . Palms down felt right to me.

At the conclusion of the class, I was chatting with one of the other instructors. She asked which position my hands “went to.” What I didn’t realize was that this can be an indicator of one’s inner state. What are you looking for? What do you need?

It’s been a busy week.

One project we’re assisting with is a divestiture that was originally five distinct business units of a larger company being spun off to form a new entity. The organizations involved support the aerospace sector. The parent company is a mature, high-security environment with everything locked down tightly. The new company is a greenfield, maturing quickly.

Adding to the scenario, there are lots of pieces in motion concurrently – an Exchange migration, Active Directory migrations, and a networking infrastructure cutover complete with a Re-IP effort to name a few. The good times seem endless, but that’s not the case. Coexistence is on a countdown to Armageddon.

Although our client has had time available for planning and execution of this effort, their original partner failed to deliver significant results. Engaged via a Microsoft business partner chain, Convergent Technologies has been assisting with this project since early April by providing Quest Migration Manager (QMM) for Exchange skillsets. Our focus has been designing and standing-up the QMM environment—then ensuring that identity and email synchronizations are performed as quickly as possible.

Due to the other concurrent workstreams, the client’s IT environment undergoes changes. There is no formal change control process in place today. Despite the fact that we have many regular meetings with the client, some changes have unexpected impact.

On top of this, the timeline keeps getting compressed. What should be a six-nine-month project has been compressed into about four weeks for delivery. Apparently, both organizations must be separated by the end of June. In preparation for this, we’re positioning them for what I would term a “hard cutover.” It’s going to be bloody. Flip a switch, what’s goes goes, and what doesn’t go will require a more high-touch approach.

Luckily, there’s a HelpDesk in place to provide triage and first line support. I’m sure we’ll need to craft some guidance to help them remediate whatever becomes a “common issue” for this engagement. I’d also expect a fair amount of IT presence at each site. Again, high-touch.

It’s very “seat of the pants” . . . Stressful.

So, back to the question, “Palms up or palms down?” Which would you lean toward?

My understanding from the conversation was “palms down” indicates a desire for earth—grounding. I think that sounds right.

Sometimes, couldn’t we all use a little anchoring in a fast-paced, ever-changing world? 🙂

We here at Convergent Technologies would love to be your partner in change. We’ve assisted many organizations with Microsoft Active Directory projects including assessments, segmentation, consolidation, as well as other forms of migration. We’ll help you keep your palms down.

How may we help you?

A TECH GUY TALKS TWEETS

A lot of people think it’s hilarious that a guy who owns a technology company could be anything less than adept with social media. While my medium is computers—and I like to think I’m a gregarious guy, connecting with others and dealing with data have traditionally been separate functions.

I’m certainly aware of the necessity of an online presence; professional posts are part of the protocol—but when the protocol extends to multiple platforms and spawns a whole new profession of algorithm analyzers, I have to pause the program and ask, WHATSAPP?!

While pondering the merits and methods of social media marketing, I’ve noticed it can be burdensome to entrepreneurs who already have blurry boundaries between work and personal time. That’s a discussion for another day. For now, I’ll just say we should take time to play—and when we’re promoting our companies, there’s no reason not to utilize free channels of open communication. The key is to know one’s purpose. Then, it’s surprisingly simple to post it, pin it, or put it out there in any format.

When I first began to consider social media as a marketing tool, I was concerned with exactly what to post and where and when. That’s fundamental, but it’s about more than what I send into cyberspace. One-way communication is just broadcasting; the advantage we have with social media is the opportunity for interaction. With that said, it’s not a numbers game for a company like mine, but an open forum to tell people what I do, what I value, and occasionally, what I eat, drink, watch, or find that inspires me or just makes me laugh. With a little deliberate thought, which I hesitate to term “strategy,” and a commitment to genuine conversation, there are infinite possibilities.

If you’ve Reddit, and it hasn’t caught your Pinterest, I hope I won’t be unfriended. A final piece of advice to business owners everywhere: Before you enter the #Hashtagwar, remember that even though we live in an Insta world, building connections takes time, and people won’t give a Hootsuite if your efforts to engage don’t stem from the same purity of purpose that got you to where you are now.

This has been another deep thought from deep in the heart of Texas where I’m exploring new frontiers in Austin.

Until next time …

KEEPING COOL AMID CHAOS

So, I’ve arrived—Day 5 in Austin, and damn, these days are flying by! Observations: It’s hot. And humid. And has lots of tourists here in the SoCo area where I’m staying. I’m trying to get out and explore on a daily, partly because my Airbnb host hardly runs her A/C and mostly because my intention is to get a feel for this city as I consider a possible relocation.

Work (Client requests) have been off the chain since Memorial Day weekend. Among other workstreams, we have one high-touch project running, a divestiture, with a 6/30 separation date. Apparently, the client is getting kicked-off their present network, sink or swim. This could be because of legal or business considerations, but with such a compressed window of time, risk increases. Any mitigation tactic we’ve proposed to allow us a “continuance” has been nixed by the company’s former ownership, so it’s going to be tough push, even with all oars in the water. The best we can do is position everything for cutover, sync identities, re-permission resources, and push to get mailboxes synced—all while trying to provide some overall guidance and input.

The client is good people, but they are in a poor position for a desirable business outcome. We’ll help them prepare as much as we can and help them pick up the pieces on the other side of this separation.

Sometimes this is what a migration looks like. Chaos. It’s inherent in the undertaking, along with risk—in regard to the impact on business . . . processes, continuity, reputation, even brand if there is a significant outage.

 A well-planned migration comes in phases: 

1.            Discovery

2.            End-User Compute

3.            Applications & Services

4.            Clean-up & Closure

 We here at Convergent Technologies would love to be your partner in change. We’ve assisted many organizations with Microsoft Active Directory projects including assessments, segmentation, and consolidation, as well as other forms of migration projects. How may we help you?

 Now, I’m off to discover more of Austin!

 #KeepAustinWeird

 

 

Austin, TX, here I come!

Getting ready to hit the open road: Austin, Texas, here I come! Yee-haw 🙂 Not only is this area great for entrepreneurship, it is also the #2 upcoming tech-hub in the US! This is a great opportunity to meet with emerging tech folk and see what is new in the IT world.