David Taylor

01175206

IpConfigure

Cyse 368

Fall 2023

Table of Contents

1. Introduction and About Me
2. Beginning of the Internship
3. Management Environment
4. Work Duties
5. Cybersecurity Skills
6. Connection from Internship and ODU
7. Objectives
8. Motivations
9. Discourages
10. Challenges
11. Recommendations For Future Interns
12. Conclusion

1)         Hello, my name is David Taylor, and I am a senior here at Old Dominion University. To tell you about myself I am from Suffolk, Virginia and I grew up in all kinds of sports from soccer to basketball and finally settled on baseball. I love playing baseball and I still do at Old Dominion on the club team where I was vice president and president of the club. In my high school we didn’t have any IT classes, but I always thought technology was amazing and how cool it was for hackers to be able to get into systems and nobody know until it was too late. So, when applying to ODU I signed up as a cyber security major knowing nothing about that except that it sounded cool. I went through my first 3 years taking classes about cybersecurity but never got any real-world action until the summer before my senior year. I know I needed to get a internship to graduate so I started looking around for a position, it took a while, other positions were filled by grad students or there were people more qualified than I was and that was quite difficult to feel and understand. That was until I heard about an opening in May with IpConfigure. I was ecstatic so much so that I showed up after I did an application to their work and gave the head of technology for the company my paper resume because I wanted the position that bad. A couple weeks later I got an interview with the company, and I crushed it and got the position. There were a few complications though when I got this position, one I would have to move back to Norfolk after just moving all my belongings home a month prior, and two I had never had hands on work with computers before. However, I wanted this job so badly that I moved back to Norfolk swiftly and was willing to do any learning possible to have this position. There were three learning goals that I had going into this internship. The first goal was to learn how to assemble servers from scratch, in my eyes the best way to know all the parts of the computer is to put them together and know what each part is and what each part does to make that computer run. The second learning objective that I needed to learn was how to trouble shoot CPU, ram, disk, and power supply issues that you may run into once you get further down the process. The third and final goal to learn for this internship was to learn the production cycle for the company and to do quality assurance testing on all the servers so that these companies know they are getting a quality and reliable server and that the company has a good reputation for them to have a smooth workflow and gain a good reputation in the field. However, the beginning of this internship was challenging and frustrating.

2)         The beginning of the internship was a struggle. My first day was quite easy, I went in and met my boss whose name is Mark, Mark is a nice and easy going boss but will tell you if you’re doing something wrong and he will help you fix it. Then I met everyone in the support team, all who were very nice and are always helpful to any situation or question I may need to ask.          Then I met my coworkers in my department and who I would be spending the most time with and they were extremely at the beginning stages of this internship and who I felt comfortable to go and ask any question I may have about anything throughout the work process. I then spoke with the human resources boss and got all my tax information and all payment requirements done and out the way. I then met the CEO of the company, Chris Uiterwyk who is a former U.S. Navy veteran who wanted to make a video surveillance software that was easier to manage all cameras and technology into one software. That’s when IpConfigure was build. I then learned about IpConfigure and the history of the company. So, in 2003 IpConfigure was founded and is headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, USA. The building they use is a modified World War 2 gas facility and has unique features such as doors near the ceiling and a very rustic but also modern look to the building which makes you want to work there even more. The company has focused on developing video surveillance and security solutions, with an emphasis on providing innovative and user-friendly software platforms. Their Orchid Video Management Software (VMS) has gained recognition for its scalability and flexibility in managing video feeds from various surveillance cameras. The servers that the company builds are called SteelFin servers and there 4 different builds of servers call Tiger, Reef, Mako, and Whale servers all different but the same in a way that they could have different chassis, different storage sizes, different Icore CPUs, and many different features but they all come with Orchid Video Management Software on that. Many of the companies that we work with are Dollar Tree, Wawa, Sephora, European McDonalds, Canadian McDonalds, Luxottica, and many more deals are in the works for the company to add on to their line of work. After CEO Chris gave me the run down on what the company was about, I then started getting hands on practice. The senior assembler who has sense moved up described to me how to build a server. He showed me what the CPU fan and the CPU chip was, he showed me all the different pin inputs on the motherboard, for our company we typically use a MSI business mother board and have sometimes used and Asus motherboard for a few builds. He then showed me where all the cords and connection pieces from the power supply go into on the mother board and what everything did and showed me that if I placed anything wrong that either the entire serve itself would not turn on or that the server would turn on and the display would not show so that attention to detail while working is crucial. The first workday went by very fast even though it was 6 hours and I had only gotten three servers done for the day. The first month was challenging physically and mentally, my fingers were getting cuts and sore every day to the point I didn’t want to work but I did and it was challenging remembering everything and going slow while my coworkers that had been there for a while were building the servers quickly with no mistakes and even though I was going slow I made mistakes and at the time they made me fix my own mistakes but I soon realized that I was learning that way and seeing things I was doing wrong and how to fix them. After the first month struggles, I soon started picking up on the workflow and felt like I was fitting in well and gaining confidence.

3)         The management at my work is streamlined and easy to understand. My boss is Mark, and he is the boss for everyone in my department. He is kind and easy going but will correct you on any mistakes that you may run into. Mark oversees all the assembly process and the production process. He makes sure that we know what orders we must complete for each company and has parts list waiting for us, so we know what to put into each server for the order. Typically, he creates orders in either 25 or 1, sometimes we will get a random number like 10 or 17 but we often know that each order has 25. He also provides us with deadlines for each order and then when we need to update the BIOS and do imaging on each order. He is also the head of QA testing and makes sure that each server is up to par with the quality that our company wants to put out. Any time I have a question about something I will always go to Mark to ask, Mark typically has the answer to my questions but if he doesn’t, he goes to his boss Ben. Ben is the boss of everyone on the support team and makes sure that calls are being answered, if customers have a issue with a server and the other employees can’t handle it or give a definite answer the send them over to Ben. Ben can be hard on people sometimes but that’s just so he doesn’t get walked all over which is needed for someone that runs the department. The head of all technology at my internship is named Cort. He oversees everything that has to do with technology whether that be with the engineers and the coding side of the business or if it be with the support sides and production side of the business. Cort makes sure that everything is running smoothly and that everything works so that there are no bugs in our software and puts out updates to make the service we provide better. The supervision is relaxed as we can use our phones on breaks and listen to music while working if that’s what helps us work quicker and more efficiently. They do have cameras over where we work that have microphones too, so we don’t do or say anything that is wrong or steal parts. If parts, get broken its typically an accident and we just go tell Mark what happened. Overall, I think how they have run the internship has been effective as they let me learn by getting hands on and making mistakes because at the end of the day that’s how they want us to learn, and I think it’s great for me rather than having a boss that helicopters me and blames me or yells at me for mistakes.

4)         So, my internship duties were repetitive day to day and that made it easy to get the hang of. My first big job duty would be to set up servers to be assembled. This would be locating the pallet with all the supplies needed to complete an order. I would be looking for the order sheet as well that would be telling me about every item in the order and how much of which items were to go into the server, the sheet also tells me the order number, so I know how to log my build numbers into my notebook to give to my boss to track productivity. The second job responsibility I have is to assemble the servers. There are a few different server types we must assemble with the most common being Chenbros which Wawa and Sephora use and then BK series which Dollar Tree and Sephora use as a workstation. Assembling the servers take the most time out of this job because first you must set up the motherboards which include a CPU, CPU fan, one or two sticks of ram, one to four sata cables, and then an SSD if the order requires it. It is important to note that whatever the order sheet says we need to have in the server must be in there because that is what the costumer expects to be in their server when it arrives. Then we attach all the cables from the power supply or chassis to the motherboard and hard drives and then we QA each server after we have assembled them to make sure that everything looks right and that the lights and fans work properly before racking them in the support room. The last important job duty we have is to update the bios and updating the motherboard settings once we rack the servers. This is the second biggest part of the job other than building the servers because it requires us to know what we are doing. It is easy to click the wrong file in the flash drive and update the bios with the wrong version or to forget about a motherboard setting like not turning the fans on to full speed or powering on when the machine loses power. There are some other duties like packaging the servers and putting them on a pallet for shipping, but we only really do that if Mark is busy doing other things. I have also just learned how to QA the server’s interior settings so I will be learning more about that even past this class. Overall, the work duties for the internship are not too complicated but it teaches me to be diligent in my work, to be quick with my work but precise, and how business works outside of just what the outside person might see.

5)         The skills I have learned from this internship are going to be useful in the cyber field or IT field whichever I go into after my college careers. What I seem to have learned the most since I have started the internship is the physical side of the computers. Assembling servers tailored for Video Surveillance customer’s demands a keen understanding of PC/Server architecture, components, and a fundamental knowledge of how various technologies work. The emphasis on following quality control procedures and testing for basic hardware functionality aligns with cybersecurity principles, making sure that the assembled servers operate securely and reliably. This is a key feature as we must make sure our servers, we are building meet up with the quality that our company wants to put out. The requirement for component-level diagnostic skills is particularly relevant, as it signifies the ability to identify and address potential hardware vulnerabilities, a crucial aspect of cybersecurity. Additionally, the meticulous preparation and maintenance of detailed records for each server build contribute to the broader cybersecurity objective of documentation and traceability. The self-motivation, multitasking, and teamwork aspects of the role mirror the dynamic nature of cybersecurity environments, where collaboration and adaptability are essential. The preference for a ComTIA A+ or related hardware certification adds a cybersecurity credential, underscoring the importance of a solid foundation in hardware security. This position not only involves hardware assembly but integrates foundational cybersecurity skills, making it a valuable role in ensuring the security and reliability of technology deployed for Video Surveillance and can help lead into other factors when trying to get a job in the cyber space.

6)         The curriculum at ODU helped me as I was starting and still currently doing my internship. It prepared me as far as knowing certain terms that would be said by my boss such as terminal, network chain, and many more terms that could be used in both the IT field and the cybersecurity field. It also prepared me to know the physical components of these servers such as the power supply, motherboard, and CPU. There were also many other things that I had to learn while working such as how to update the BIOS and image a machine, where all the connections go on the motherboard and so on. I made a bunch of connections from what I learned at ODU especially while using Ubuntu. In CYSE 270 we learned all the basic commands for Ubuntu and that really helped me understand what was going on when first starting out and even know when it comes to QA testing and checking to see how much storage I have, if the ram is properly seated and all the little things to make sure the server is up to standard. I made connections also from my class in IT 315 when it comes to the network layer and how that is used at an IT company and not just something you learn in class and never use in the field. We were working on the hardware layer and the physical layer for everything that we did and knowing that was something I felt ahead on when first starting the job. Having all these connections from the curriculum at school and during the internship has helped me learn and better understand that what I learned at ODU and currently helps me in classes that I take now. The hands-on part at work revealed a new experience for me as most of the classes offered by ODU for cybersecurity are online which I am not a big fan of because I learn better by seeing and then doing. Techniques and skills I learned that I had not yet know was updating BIOS and imaging computers whether that be with Linux, Windows and for Apple products MacOS. This was probably the biggest transition and trouble I had when I first got the job but since then it is probably my favorite part and reinforces material that I learned while at ODU.

7)         For the internship class we had to have our boss give us 4 objectives to meet during the internship and what we are working towards to learn. The first objective I was given to learn was to learn how to assemble servers from scratch. To make a server from scratch we were given a parts list and a kitted order which had everything we needed to be able to put a server together from scratch. Let’s use a BK series for Dollar Tree as an example, we would be giving the BK series chassis, a CPU, a CPU fan, one stick of ram, one sata cable, and one hard drive. First, we would prep everything and get it on the table, if you’re putting five together you would get five of everything and first you would put the mother boards together. The CPU, fan, ram, and sata all can be seated in the mother board. Then you would get the chassis and take that and the screw packet out of the box, put the box to the side then open the chassis. Then you would put the IO shield in the chassis and then the motherboard and screw that down. Then you would connect all the outputs from the power supply onto the mother board. Then you would take out the hard drive slot and screw that into the slot, put the slot back in and then connect the sata cable to the hard drive. Then after that you put the chassis back together and you have built a server from scratch. My internship really met and exceeded my goal with this objective because I know that whatever type of server, they give me to assemble that I can do it. The second objective my boss wanted me to learn was to trouble shoot cpu, ram, disk, and power supply issues. This objective wasn’t so much taught, but they wanted us to learn on our own. If we had troubles with a server not turning on, we had stickers on the servers with our initials that say who built what and then you would go into your server and reseat the ram, CPU, make sure everything was plugged in. If the power supply was bad you had to take out the old power supply and put a new one in. This was a simple but effective objective that I learned over time. The third objective to learn was to work in all aspects of hardware production cycle imaging and configuration. So, the hardware production cycle began with the building the servers from scratch and then we had to put them on the racks and image the servers. Imaging the servers was updating the BIOS on the motherboard using a flash drive that were provided us. Once all the motherboards were done imaging, we updated the motherboard settings that are company gave us to do and then uploading our company software onto the server so that our working platform could be on every server that we ship out. Once all the technical aspects of the server we’re done then we boxed up the servers again and put them on a pallet wrap that with saran wrap and used ratchet straps to keep them down to be able to ship out. This aspect taught me how shipping of products worked alongside a business and can use this in more ways than just my internship. The fourth objective was QA testing, I just started to learn about this so I don’t know too much but I will be learning over the next few months as I am keeping the internship past the class so I can learn more and hopefully be brought on as a full-time employee when I do end up graduating.

8)         There were a few exciting and motivating parts that I have encountered during the internship. One of the most motivating would have to be the pay. It is the most money per hour I have made in my life, and it feels good knowing that what I am doing for the company feels appreciated and that I am just not another worker at a big cooperation that makes minimum wage and is expendable. Other than money however one thing that motivates me about this job is that it is setting myself up for the future. As a college student who started in 2020 during the pandemic and now graduating in May 2024, it really does feel like everything is paying off and this job is getting me the experience I need to be able to excel in the future. This job feels to me as I am putting myself in a good position to succeed coming out of college and it just motivates me to do the best I can. My boss has also given me motivation as he has told me that many of the people in the position, I am in now get promoted if they work hard so that has motivated me to work hard at my job and to do the best work possible. When starting the internship is what exciting to be able to put together this server and watch it turn on. The joy I felt when I first did one by myself and it worked first try was like a kid going downstairs for Christmas. I think the environment that the company sets are one that just motivates people, it’s a very open office with a lot of natural light so it doesn’t just feel like you’re in a cubicle in a dingey room. They provide food in their kitchen and cater food a lot so to lose all these things by not being motivated is hard for me because that is what I want in a job or internship. Overall, I just feel motivated to go to work, even on rainy days or days where I am tired, it’s just a good environment to work and it feels good to work there.

9)         With this job being so motivating there also must be some downsides or unmotivating parts to the job. Something that is more discouraging rather than unmotivating is that sometimes I wouldn’t be able to go to work because there are no orders ready to build. This happens quite frequently, and it is because the season is down right now for the company and that contracts with Dollar Tree have seemed to be completed for now. This means that we can come in and do a few minor things for an hour or two but then we get sent home and it stinks when you prepared for your day at work, and you need the hours for the class just to be sent home. It is also a discouraging feeling when you must go back and fix a server that does not turn on properly or does not display properly. When this happens you must go into the server and fix whatever may not be seated properly or see if the power supply is bad so you’re undoing what you spent time on building. Another discouraging part about the job is when you accidently break a part. I know over my time working for the company I have broken screws into the hard drives, bent CPU chips and broke CPU pins on the motherboard. This makes you feel bad for one not doing the job correctly, and two the lecture you get from the boss after this happens because you know you did not do this on purpose, but the accident does happen and there is nothing you can do about it at that point. The bosses never want to bring us down because we are technically part time, but we are also a collective so if one of us mess up then they address all of us to make sure that we all know what happened and to not make that mistake again. For me right now it is a little discouraging that a couple months ago they said they were going to transition me into support but that has not happened yet, so I just need to keep working hard and do my job to the best of my ability.

10)       Having a job, you have never done before there are some challenges that come up that may be difficult to overcome. I had challenges I had to face when I first started working. The first challenge was to learn all the parts of the chassis, power supply, and mother board and what all went where. This was a challenge at first as I had to take pictures of where each part went and looked at those pictures to know exactly where each part goes and what exactly that part does. I had messed up quite a few times and had to go back in a fix my mistakes but that took practice. What else also took a lot of practice was making time with the servers. For certain servers they want you to be able to do like 3-4 in an hour and when I first started that number seemed impossible. Over time as you would get used to the server you would get quicker at building them and eventually make time with the servers and now, I am at the time they want you to build servers and sometimes even better. This job did not have to many challenges other than learning the position and I feel like I have done that and more.

11)       For future interns I would recommend that you take this position if it is available for you. The commute from campus to the office is two minutes max and if you don’t have a car, you could walk or ride you bike everyday without any trouble. To be prepared you should know a little about Linux and have a somewhat understand about what servers are and the parts that go in them. If you don’t know that much than it is ok because they will teach you everything you need to know but also don’t be discouraged at mistakes because they will happen, and mistakes help you learn. Also know how to trouble shoot parts if you want to be able to fix mistakes that you will make. This role requires physical capabilities, including the ability to lift to 70 pounds and sustain sitting, standing, and reaching for extended periods. It is also important to note that there is no one standing over your shoulder making sure you do the work so good work ethic and time management are a must or they will not hesitate to let go of you. If you can work with a team, teachable, and willing to work hard this job is a great opportunity for anyone who would take this opportunity.   

12)       In conclusion, my internship experience at IPConfigure as a Hardware Assembly and Server Provisioning Technician has been a great learning tool for my future. From the initial excitement of securing the position to facing challenges in the early stages, I have emerged with a deep sense of accomplishment. The hands-on nature of the role allowed me to achieve my learning goals, from assembling servers from scratch to troubleshooting hardware issues and understanding the complete production cycle. The supportive and streamlined management, led by Mark, and overseen by Ben, provided a conducive environment for learning and growth. The integration of skills learned at Old Dominion University, particularly in cybersecurity and IT, was evident as I applied school knowledge to real-world scenarios. The motivation derived from a positive work environment, coupled with the gratification of earning a competitive wage, has been instrumental in shaping my professional outlook. While there were occasional discouragements, such as downtime due to lack of orders or the need to correct mistakes, these challenges served as valuable learning experiences. Unfortunately, my time in college is limited and will be hard to influence much but I think my internship will help me with the next five classes I take in the spring and be able to cross reference each other. Looking forward, I see this internship as a steppingstone toward a successful future in the cyber or IT field, equipped with a comprehensive understanding of hardware assembly, troubleshooting, and quality assurance. I can see these skills being useful in any cyber or IT job I take. This internship has also showed me what I want in a work environment and what I would want to look for when job searching or who knows maybe they will even hire me on full time.