David Dickinson

From work

A year in Station Physics

What Nuclear Physics Taught Me About Debugging Systems

data-analysisstatisticsnuclearengineeringproblem-solvingexcelinvestigationsystems-thinkingon-the-job

When IT Stops Being Systems and Starts Being Strategy

There was a time when building a Linux server meant following a document.

project-managemententerprise-itinfrastructurestrategysystems-thinkingglobal-deliveryitpm

Making Networks Predictable

Being asked to document a DR solution that only half existed.

networkinginfrastructurenetwork-designlayer-1ciscostandardisationproject-managemententerprise-it

Scripting the Network

Working in network engineering, there’s a point where scale starts to hurt.

pythonnetwork-automationciscoiossnmpnagioslinuxautomationchange-managementcabinfrastructurenetwork-engineeringscriptingprocess-improvement

Building Linux Servers Before Automation

There was a time when building a Linux server meant following a document.

linuxrhelcentossystemdiptablesnagiossnmpinfrastructureserver-builddevops

What Counts as Disaster Recovery?

Being asked to document a DR solution that only half existed.

networkingdisaster-recoveryinfrastructurenetwork-designenterprise-itsystems-thinkingchange-management

Separating the WAN from the Core

There’s a point in most networks where everything ends up in the core.

networkingciscowanlayer-2layer-3spanning-treehsrpnetwork-designinfrastructurechange-managemententerprise-it

Making Redundancy Real

There’s a difference between having redundancy... and actually using it.

networkingciscospanning-treehsrplayer-2layer-3high-availabilityload-balancinginfrastructurenetwork-engineeringenterprise-itchange-managementresilience

Learning at Layer 1

I’ve always preferred to understand things by pulling at them.

networkingnetwork-engineeringciscojunipercheckpointriverbedarubamerakitelecomspabxsiemensavayaisdninfrastructuretroubleshootinglearning-by-doinglegacy-systemslayer-1career-progression

The Accidental SharePoint SME

I didn’t set out to work with SharePoint. I’d been brought in as an Exchange Subject Matter Expert...

sharepointmicrosoftactive-directoryexchangewindows-serverit-supportservice-managementslakpiknowledge-baseintranetpermissionstroubleshootingprocess-improvementincident-managemententerprise-it