I started my SMS/SCCM/ConfigMgr career with SMS 2.5 on Windows 2000 Server. I also had 13 years of experience as a systems, LAN/WAN Network, and Telephone Administrator. I had a lot of experience with trunking, multiplexors, and IP Telephony including SIP. I started networking in the early 90’s using the X.25 protocol in Amateur Radio (wireless networking node-to-node) then eventually we had TCP/IP and Ethernet. The first server product I implemented was NT 4. Later with Windows 2000 I implemented Active Directory and started migrating all the Novell servers to Windows.
Fast forward to the current era, I administer/troubleshoot the current branch of Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr) with nearly 70,000 clients and just over 200 DP’s around the world. I look up to Sherri Kissinger who does this with 150,000 clients I think. Thinking about that many clients keeps me humble!
For several years I focused on the infrastructure part (Server, SQL, IIS, Networking, Authentication) while my friends and co-workers focused on packaging, imaging, antivirus (SCEP), firewall, and disk encryption (MBAM) that SCCM/ConfigMgr can manage. I also setup and manage the Cloud Management Gateway and Intune connection, etc. ConfigMgr has really evolved over the years and I’m really looking forward to using Azure for other bits and bobs however I suspect it’s cheaper on-prem for DP’s than cloud (if your paying for Azure data egress and a few GB per day is downloaded, an on-prem DP makes better sense). Also with the 3 GB W10 semiannual build update, to only 10 devices is 30 GB which is a lot for most WAN’s on a weekday mornings (LEDBAT may help – hard to say since no one is in the offices since COVID began).
I also do a fair amount of PowerShell Scripting. Puzzles are given to me frequently (example: computers are doing X, we don’t know why, we need them to stop – or we need them to do Y instead). I solve all of these problems using PowerShell. I also wrote “System Helper” in PowerShell. It is an icon that sits in the tray of the logged on user to facilitate help desk calls. If someone needs to create a help-desk ticket, they click the icon. If IT is calling them and requesting their IP address to remote in, they click the icon. When IT has remote control and needs to look at logs, or CPU, etc they click the icon. This drastically speeds up the support process. Having been a Level 1, 2, and 3 technician I recognize things that slow down forward progress, and thus reduce productivity.