Iodynamics has been very busy. Also, we're about 2-3 weeks away from closing on our house.

A Linux Server Milestone

This last weekend, Iodynamics installed a file server on the corporate network of one of our clients. The client had been running Novell Netware for their file and print services for about eightyears. The file server hardware they were using was in need of being replaced and they decided it ma be time to evaluate their options for a network operating system as well.

They already had an Iodynamics NetGateway for e-mail and Internet firewall services, so they were familiar with the reliability of our Linux solutions. We put a lot of effort into selling Linux to them for file and print services, which may have been unnecessary - they've been sold on Linux for quite a while.

We installed a Red Hat Linux 9 server running Samba v2.2 on the server. I had some issues with the Adaptec SCSI adapter our hardware supplier recommended to us, but I found updated Linux kernel drivers for it which resolved those issues.

For the most part, things went well. Chadd, Mike, and I did the install and it took most of the day Saturday to get the server installed and configured properly, and get all the client workstations (30-40 of them) reconfigured to use the Linux Samba server instead of the Novell Netware server.

Configuring Windows 98 clients was a piece of cake. Configuring Windows 2000 clients was a pain in the ass! This was mostly because users would lose all their personal settings once we set up their computer to authenticate their login off the Samba server. We had to copy all their profiles and then make sure they still had all the access they needed to the programs they used. I wouldn't be surprised if that comprised nearly half of our time.

This is the first major Linux file server installation we've done and we're happy with how it went. I think the client is and will be happy with its performance and ease of maintenance.

We have one other client for whom we've set up a dedicated Linux fileserver for, but it is not used as a corporate file server. It is only used by a few employees for specific applications.

For the client we did the installation for on Saturday, the file server was key to their daily operations.

Iodynamics narrows its focus

For a long time, all four of us in Iodynamics have felt it was difficult to define what Iodynamics did. If someone would ask me, “Now what do you guys do?” I would take a deep breath and say something like, “Well, we do website design and development, we do Linux consulting, Internet connectivity consulting, and we have these Linux servers called NetGateways that help a small business get on the Internet with e-mail, web browsing, name services, and more.”

And then, I'd pass out.

Recently, our director of operations — Mike — sat down and came up with a marketing strategy for us and narrowed our focus down to two products: linux servers and web application development. It's such a simple thing to look at, yet a monumental achievement for us to be able to tell people what we do in one (fairly short) sentence.

With this done, we need to move forward with revising our website, and marketing literature to reflect this more focused marketing direction.

Meanwhile, we're getting close to needing to hire people both for sales and for technical roles. That's going to be a major milestone.

A month ago, my major concern was generating enough work to generate decent profit distributions so I could afford to buy a house. Now my main concern is staying on top of the work and not letting anything fall through the cracks.