Milestones

Today marks a milestone for my company, Endosys. We completed our move from Level 3 colo facilities to our new office. Endosys had used Level 3 services for over 4 years. During that time, Endosys transitioned from simple web hosting to reselling colo space to managed services.

We got into Level 3 because I had worked for a previous company that was one of Level 3's first customers in that particular colo facility. Some folks I talked to thought that the service we were paying for at Level 3 was overpriced and could be found elsewhere for less cost. So with Victoria and Joshua's help, we researched the offerings that were available elsewhere. We discovered that the price was not only competitive, it was also the best service available for that price.

The move into Level 3 was one of my proudest moments as one of the founders of Endosys. Prior to that, we had been building our company by setting up servers and running DSL or T1 lines in our homes. We started Endosys as an Internet and Ecommerce consulting company. When I found that I needed more experience building and running high availability web services, we moved into web hosting. Shortly thereafter, I got a work as a remote system administrator for one of my brother's client. (My brother was running a web design firm called Faktory Studios at the time.) This client was running an up and coming custom tshirt company. Since they had large aspirations, they agreed to a significant infrastructure setup with Endosys at Level 3. In June of 2003, Endosys moved it's services into the Level 3 facility.

Since the move, Endosys has transitioned from a web hosting company to a services company and now has come back full circle to offer Internet, Ecommerce and Business consulting.

What a challenge it's been to move all the hardware and services!

The joys of teaching

I recently changed my job responsibilities to include technical instruction and I have to admit, that this is more enjoyable than sitting in front of a desk all day long. During a recent conversation with another instructor, he pointed out to me how much he enjoys what he does. I have to admit that standing up in front of a classroom did give me a bit of pause initially, I have found it to be rather enjoyable to describe how things work and demonstrate them.

He said to me, "My job is great! I get to spend all day long in front of students who have paid for the class and are usually genuinely interested in what I have to say about Open Source software!"

Sure, there are things that are difficult about teaching - students that are not interested in the material, classroom and hardware issues, typos and incorrect information in the instructional materials, etc. - the satisfaction you get from seeing the faces light up with comprehension is well worth it. While it's true that standing in front of complete strangers gives most people the terrors the same way that standing in the middle of a highway and realizing that a tractor trailer is about smash into you, I feel comfortable walking into a room of complete strangers and saying hello and diving right into the material.

Perhaps I feel comfortable with that because I know the students have paid a fee to get into the classes or perhaps it's because I know the material from having workd with the software for almost ten years now. Perhaps it's simply the motivation that the students will learn something and knowing that in the process I will also learn a lot.