I’ve been watching the news, as we all have been with the pandemic impacting our daily lives. We continually see tearful appreciation and tributes to doctor’s, Nurses, healthcare workers, first responders, military, teachers, which are all truly deserved. We see their challenges and heroic actions during this challenging time. What I haven't seen is any acknowledgement of the behind the scenes workers that allow these professionals to function in their roles. IT professionals work in a field where generally the only time they are acknowledged is when something goes wrong. Yet due to our Nation's dependence on IT to perform many of these functions, the IT teams that are keeping things up and rolling deserve a THANK YOU as well! After all, IT workers are designated essential by DHS.
I am not writing this because I personally want a thank you. I am a consultant and while we perform essential functions for many of our customers, we are not involved with Keep the Lights On (KTLO) actives. KTLO IT workers are more critical at this time of crisis amid an IT landscape change of epic proportions. My guess is that many of the KTLO IT teams out there who already run lean to begin with, are over worked, tired, and stressed while being asked to make sacrifices in time and sleepless nights to migrate an onsite workforce, education, government, etc.… to a remote workforce all the while keeping onsite operations safe and secure.
This a thank you for the hospital IT staff who are keeping critical systems up and running like charting, telemetry, phones, and medical machines running, while dealing with doctors and nurses who are stressed, tired, and fighting a different fight. All the while seeing continual stories like this in the news: “Hackers targeting security flaws in medication and anesthesia systems” Or “Hackers targeting hospitals and bio research companies."
This is a thank you for the frontline helpdesk team members who are taking calls and tickets from people who are concerned for not only their family’s health, but their own. Meanwhile, these critical team members are adjusting to a new work environment, experiencing the same health concerns, and still keeping the operations running.
This is a thank you for the one-person team keeping a small business IT up and running.
This is a thank you for network engineer, server admins, and DBAs that keep the onsite infrastructure up and running.
This is a thank you to the ecommerce and website admins that keep the sites up and safe so we can shop from home.
This is a thank you to those managing the VPN and collaboration solutions while cybercriminals continue to try to find ways to exploit them.
This is a thank you to the IT security teams who are keeping the infrastructure safe while cybercriminals try to take advantage of the chaos.
This is a thank you for the Project Manager who fought the fight to get more bandwidth and capacity just in case despite a restricted budget.
This is a thank you for IT management from manager to CIO who fought for the extra needed budget to keep things safe, secure, and running.
This is a thank you for the engineers at the ISPs and Cell Phone companies that keep us in communication with our loved ones and even those we don’t especially care for during this time of crisis.
This a thank you to the front-line IT government workers at all the alphabet agencies fighting the cyber war against APTs.
Thank you, IT resources, if I missed anybody, I do apologize.
Keep the up the fight we will get through this together!