Written by: Bill Mathews
From Eye of the Storm - March 2008

Editor’s Note: This originally appeared on my personal blog. Despite the fact that it’s not directly security related, I hope it reminds us that though our jobs are to secure information, we have to let good technology shine.

I’m not one given to fits of emotional fancy or professing my gratitude for things in an overly dramatic way, but here I go. First, let me give you some background. For the last few years I’ve suffered from a couple of wretching and debilitating diseases and we don’t need to go any further about what they are. Let’s just say they make it very difficult to lead a “normal” life. Yeah I know, wah wah poor me, but this story isn’t about how sick I am. It’s about how technology has let me lead a fairly productive life despite my health issues.

Now 90% of the time I am able to go into the office and work away with no problems. However when I have an episode, it usually keeps me at home for an extended period — this week has been one of them. In no particular order, here’s a list of the technology I use to keep my work going even when my body isn’t.

The Blackberry: I suspect it's pretty obvious why this is on the list. I can make my doctor appointments, get prescriptions, lay in bed when necessary, still keep up with my daily email routines, and answer any questions, tickets, etc that need immediate attention. My loyalty to the Blackberry is being challenged though by the Apple iPhone especially since the new Blackberries have lost their scroll wheel. Very upsetting.

Asterisk and various add-ons: Recently we added softphones (basically a software phone) to our Asterisk system, which extends my desk phone to my home office via VPN. Basically without call forwarding, I can take/make calls abstaining from any extra effort or running up the cell phone minutes — truly a great technology.

Instant Messaging (IM): We use instant messaging religiously for our internal communications. Most of the guys sit right next to each other and use IM to talk back and forth. It’s great when you’re on a call and need some advice. It provides almost instant escalation when needed. We use an internal Jabber server for our IM stuff so we can do TLS encryption for privacy and control - who can and cannot be on the service. Given the nature of what we do, it's pretty important. More relevant to this list, it allows me to be there even when I’m not.

Virtual Machines: Vmware, Xen (being bought by Citrix might change my attitude towards them), and the rest. This technology allows me to quickly build up servers and test out new ideas quickly and efficiently. More importantly, I can do this without tons of hardware that I have to interchange and climb around the floors to wire up. We were late to this game I admit, but it really has changed the way we think about things. Off topic for this list, but to save money, power, and space all of our failover systems will run on VMWare virtual machines.

Email, Websites, VPNs, etc: These old technologies enable the remote aspect of business. You can send email from pretty much anywhere and VPNs allow you to do that in a private (and if done properly) authenticated environment. Both technologies have been around for many moons and really need no further description.

These are the so-called disruptive technologies that have saved my life. They have enabled me to start and run a company in spite of my physical limitations and prosper at doing so. The moral, I hope, is that technology isn’t always bad or scary. If used properly, it can be powerful and life altering. That’s why I love technology and my job.