why working in IT rocks

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a meeting at work about virtualization and how this will be my company's strategy for reducing hardware costs. I could go on about that topic, but that's not where I'm going with this.

Over the course of my six weeks with SharePoint, I've concluded that I really need a test environment I can play around with. The only other option would be to use the live server, and because I was raised correctly, I know better than that (even if Microsoft doesn't--DON'T get me started). I talked to the manager-across-the-hall about it, and we agreed that requesting a virtual machine would be the way to go.

We use VMWare Lab Manager to create and run our virutal machines. This is the process you must follow to get to the point where you can even use Lab Manager:

1. Submit a Lab Manager login request to Support.


2. Get your manager to approve the request.


3. Enroll in and take an 30-minute online course about Lab Manager on our internal education site.


4. Get authorized to the policy server, read the policy document about Lab Manager, and sign an agreement, stating that you have read and understand the policy.


5. Get access to the virtualization team's SharePoint site, and read two documents stored there.


6. Communicate to Support that you have completed the course, signed the policy agreement, and read the additional documents.


7. Wait for Support to create your login and inform you of it.


8. Log into Lab Manager and watch five videos about how to use it.

Now you're set to create and/or use a virtual machine! Naturally, with a process like that, I wasn't exactly chomping at the bit to get set up. The manager I talked to said that the process can take several days--even weeks.

This is the part about why working in IT totally rocks. Yesterday afternoon, a support manager came over to my cube and told me that they had a request from a product tester for a SharePoint virtual machine that he could use for his testing. Support doesn't have anyone who knows anything about installing SharePoint, so she wanted to know if I'd be willing to set up the VM for him--oh, and by the way, he needs it by Monday. I said, "Sure, I can do it. But, I don't have access to Lab Manager." She got kind of a frantic look, and asked me if I had at least taken the online course. "Nope, but I have some time now."

Thirty-five minutes later, I was logged into Lab Manager and playing around with my first virtual machine. Needless to say, the process had been expedited a bit. I didn't cheat--I went through all the steps, but turnaround time on their side was rather amazing. Oh, and I didn't have to wait very long to get access to the SharePoint site. ;-)