Data Center Technician Duties and Responsibilities

Data Center Technician Job Description

Data center technicians are skilled, hands-on professionals who provide a variety of services to keep computer data servers and hardware networks operating smoothly. They are the first line of defense in safeguarding a company ‘s valuable information. Most data center technicians have full-time schedules but do not work a typical 9 to 5 shift. They work shifts that are 8-12 hours long on nights, weekends, and holidays. They normally work in server rooms where usual office noise, machine noise, or construction noise is present. Data technicians must be willing to respond to emergency calls 24 hours a day, since data support is vital to any business’s core operations.

 Data Center Technician Duties and Responsibilities

Specific job responsibilities of a data center technician differ according to where they work. However, there are several core tasks associated with the role. Based on our analysis of multiple job listings, these include:

Perform Preventative Maintenance

On a daily basis, data center technicians complete preventative maintenance of equipment and data network devices. They operate in tight spaces, run cables, and improve physical security around their assigned data center. Data center technicians engage in building projects and check utilities. To make sure the center does not overheat, they carefully examine power sources and heating and cooling controls.

Server Management and Repair

Data center technicians troubleshoot and repair servers that have hardware and network issues. They run hardware diagnostics and replace failing parts. They are responsible for day-to-day performance and capacity management of servers. If something goes wrong, data center technicians are called on to quickly fix it in order to keep business data flowing.

Monitor System Processes

Monitoring and maintaining operation of all network processes is the primary duty of data technicians. They evaluate machine temperature levels for optimal performance. Data technicians are expected to maintain accurate work records and event logs. They also create concise virtual information reports to keep company management informed of status updates.

Cross-Collaborate to Protect Data

Data technicians install and arrange new equipment for data centers. This may include physically upgrading internal system components (CPU), memory hard drives, fiber cables, copper, and more. Once they install new equipment, data technicians often collaborate with software and networking engineering teams to ensure cybersecurity and network efficiency.

Technical Support and Education

Data center technicians provide live support to clients and coworkers, and are expected to troubleshoot problems as they occur. They act as a main point person in the field, putting out fires and working on projects simultaneously. Educating other data center staff on how to properly troubleshoot hardware and software is also a key part of their role.

Security Analyst Job Description

Information security analysts design and implement security systems to protect a company or organization’s computer networks from cyber attacks, and help set and maintain security standards.

Information Security Analyst Responsibilities:
Monitor computer networks for security issues.
Investigate security breaches and other cyber security incidents.
Install security measures and operate software to protect systems and information infrastructure, including firewalls and data encryption programs.
Document security breaches and assess the damage they cause.
Work with security team to perform tests and uncover network vulnerabilities.
Fix detected vulnerabilities to maintain a high-security standard.
Stay current on IT security trends and news.
Develop company-wide best practices for IT security.
Perform penetration testing.
Help colleagues install security software and understand information security management.
Research security enhancements and make recommendations to management.
Stay up-to-date on information technology trends and security standards.
Information Security Analyst Requirements:
Bachelor's degree in computer science or related field.
MBA in information systems.
Experience in information security or related field.
Experience with computer network penetration testing and techniques.
Understanding of firewalls, proxies, SIEM, antivirus, and IDPS concepts.
Ability to identify and mitigate network vulnerabilities and explain how to avoid them.

Understanding of patch management with the ability to deploy patches in a timely manner while understanding business impact.

Do I have to declare freelance income?

 freelancer sites

Always check your contract

It’s unlikely, but some employment contracts may prohibit you from freelancing or taking on additional employment on the side. Before considering freelancing you should check that this is not written into your contract as you do not want to jeopardise your job or potentially damage your reputation in the industry.

What expenses can you claim as a sole trader?

A sole trader is someone who works as self-employed without operating through their own company or partnership. As a sole trader, you can offset certain business expenses against your income and you will only be taxed on your self-employed profits. The general rule of thumb is that you can only claim expenses on costs that are wholly and exclusively incurred for business.

Declaring income earnt from freelancing to HMRC

If you get paid more than £1,000 during a tax year and plan to further your freelancing career, you need to register online and complete a self-assessment tax return to declare your income.

You can register here.

You are required to declare your freelance earnings each year by the 31st January deadline following the end of the tax year on 5th April. Unlike the income earnt from your permanent employment, the money you earn from freelancing is untaxed and it will need to be declared to HMRC. https://www.fieldengineer.com/blogs/where-to-find-freelance-jobs-online

The amount of tax and National Insurance Contributions (NICs) that are due will depend on how much you earn as a freelancer and how much you are paid in your full-time job.

What Income Tax are you required to pay as a freelancer?

Your Income Tax will be calculated on your total earnings – combined income from employment and sole trader profits. You will need to pay Income Tax on any income above the personal allowance of £12,500 for the 2019/20 tax year.

The Income Tax rates for the 2019/20 tax year are as follows:

• Basic rate (20%) tax is due on income up to £37,500
• Higher rate (40%) is due on income from £37,501-£150,000
• Additional rate (45%) is due on income over £150,000

When you file your self-assessment tax return, you will disclose the tax already paid on your earnings from your employer. HMRC will then work out the amount of tax due on your profits from freelancing when you submit your self-assessment tax return.

Please be aware that if the profits earnt from freelancing push your total earnings into a higher rate tax band, you will be required to pay the higher rate tax.

How much National Insurance should you pay as a freelancer?

The amount of NI you pay on your income from your permanent employer will not change, but depending on how much you earn freelancing you may be required to pay Class 2 NI or Class 2 and 4 NI.

If your profits earnt from freelancing exceed £6,365 in the tax year you will have to pay Class 2 NI. This is a flat rate of £3.00 per week which is paid via direct debit to HMRC.

Class 4 NI – which is charged at 9% – will also be due on self-employed profits between £8,632 and £50,000. For all profits greater than £50,000 the Class 4 NI drops to 2%. Your Class 4 NI will be worked out when you submit your self-assessment tax return

Freelance Jobs You Can Work From Home

freelance projects

When most people think of freelancers, they think of creative jobs: writing, editing, perhaps advertising and marketing gigs. While those areas are full of opportunities for entrepreneurial types who want to work at home, either on a full-time or part-time basis, they're far from the only occupations that lend themselves to the freelance life. Here's a roundup of several freelance jobs -- some you'd never expect.

Writing

Let's start with the obvious: freelance writing is the classic work-from-home job. If you're not already toiling away in virtual ink, however, you might not realize how many different types of freelance writing jobs there are. From journalism to copywriting, blogging to social media, there are writing jobs for every temperament and type of experience.

Editing and Proofreading

Whether you're a seasoned grammarian or just someone with a solid eye for detail, the internet teems with editing and proofreading gigs for your level of skill and experience.

Marketing and PR

If you have a phone and an internet connection reliable enough to sustain a Skype meeting, you can do your marketing or PR job from the comfort of your own home. Just be prepared to take the occasional on-site meeting. In many cases, the client will want to look at their marketing or PR pro in the eye once in a while -- and not just over a webcam. Social media coordinator and manager jobs also fall under this umbrella, and as easy to do from home as from an office.

Transcription

Transcription jobs generally come in three flavors: medical, legal, and market research. The latter requires the least amount of study, in terms of familiarizing yourself with the specialized technical language of the field. In most instances, transcription jobs are meted out by an agency, which will require you to take a typing test and then set you up with jobs as needed.

Noc It Meaning

NOC engineers A NOC It  engineer has several duties in order to ensure the smooth running of the network. They deal with things such as DDoS Attacks, power outages, network failures, and routing black-holes. There are of course the basic roles, such as remote hands, support, configuration of hardware (such as firewalls and routers, purchased by a client). NOC engineers also have to ensure the core network is stable. This can be done by configuring hardware in a way that makes the network more secure, but still has optimal performance. NOC engineers are also responsible for monitoring activity, such as network usage, temperatures etc. They would also have to install equipment, such as KVMs, rack installation, IP-PDU setup, running cabling. The majority of NOC engineers are also on call and have a 5-6 day rotation, working different shifts.

The Full form of NOC is No Objection Certificate. NOC is a type of legal certificate issued by any organization, agency, institute or, in certain cases, an individual. It does not object to the covenants of the certificate. The certification is an important requirement at most government-based departments in India. No Objection Certificate (NOC) is a legal document, which states that an individual, organization, agency or institute have no objection to the mentioned details in the document. It can be also be used for litigation, employment, trade, immigration, and many other purposes to nullify any objection by the party concerned in the process. This legal document can be used for or against in the court of law. NOC usually consists of some basic details of the parties involved, and it is addressed to whosoever is concerned. Let us take an example of a person buying a vehicle which is registered in a different state, say in Punjab, to be used in a different state, say in Rajasthan. In this case, the seller of the vehicle must get a NOC from the Punjab Regional Transportation Officer (RTO) and issue the same to the buyer of the vehicle in Rajasthan.

what is wireless lan ?

A wireless LAN (WLAN) is a wireless computer network that links two or more devices using wireless communication to form a local area network (LAN) within a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, campus, or office building. This gives users the ability to move around within the area and remain connected to the network. Through a gateway, a WLAN can also provide a connection to the wider Internet.

Most modern WLANs are based on IEEE 802.11 standards and are marketed under the Wi-Fi brand name.

Wireless LANs have become popular for use in the home, due to their ease of installation and use. They are also popular in commercial properties that offer wireless access to their employees and customers.

Norman Abramson, a professor at the University of Hawaii, developed the world's first wireless computer communication network, ALOHAnet. The system became operational in 1971 and included seven computers deployed over four islands to communicate with the central computer on the Oahu island without using phone lines.^[1]

54 Mbit/s WLAN PCI Card (802.11g)

Wireless LAN hardware initially cost so much that it was only used as an alternative to cabled LAN in places where cabling was difficult or impossible. Early development included industry-specific solutions and proprietary protocols, but at the end of the 1990s these were replaced by standards, primarily the various versions of IEEE 802.11 (in products using the Wi-Fi brand name). Beginning in 1991, a European alternative known as HiperLAN/1 was pursued by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) with a first version approved in 1996. This was followed by a HiperLAN/2 functional specification with ATM influences^{[citation needed]} accomplished February 2000. Neither European standard achieved the commercial success of 802.11, although much of the work on HiperLAN/2 has survived in the physical specification (PHY) for IEEE 802.11a, which is nearly identical to the PHY of HiperLAN/2.

In 2009 802.11n was added to 802.11. It operates in both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands at a maximum data transfer rate of 600 Mbit/s. Most newer routers are able to utilise both wireless bands, known as dualband. This allows data communications to avoid the crowded 2.4 GHz band, which is also shared with Bluetooth devices and microwave ovens. The 5 GHz band is also wider than the 2.4 GHz band, with more channels, which permits a greater number of devices to share the space. Not all channels are available in all regions.

IT education and job functions

 information technology specialist

A team of administrators and other technical staffers deploy and manage the company's IT infrastructure and assets. IT teams depend on a wide range of specialized information and technology skills and knowledge to support equipment, applications and activities. Third-party contractors and IT vendor support personnel augment the IT team.

The information technology profession is extremely diverse. IT workers can specialize in fields like software development, application management, hardware components such as desktop support, server or storage administrator and network architecture. Many businesses seek IT professionals with mixed or overlapping skill sets.

Common IT careers:

Chief information officer: This person is responsible for IT and computer systems that support the enterprise's goals.

Chief technology officer: This person sets all technology goals and policies within an organization.

IT director: This person is responsible for the function of all of the business's technology tools and processes. This role is commonly called IT manager or IT leader.

Systems administrator: This person configures, manages, supports and troubleshoots a multi-user computing environment. Within an enterprise, this role can be segmented by technology, requiring an administrator or team dedicated to server, desktop, network, virtualization or other components.

Skills needed to be a systems engineer

 application systems engineer

A systems engineer uses engineering, computer science, and mathematical analysis knowledge to plan, design, develop, and test computer system's hardware and software and can take part in designing microprocessors, personal computers, circuits, robotics and cloud computing. He/she produces a computer system that meets clients needs by understanding the current system and improving it as well as integrating hardware and software programs.

Other duties include advising clients on the best hardware and software to use for effectiveness, take part in the acquisition, installation, and testing of the systems, evaluate whether the existing system is effective, recommend measures to be taken to improve ineffective systems and troubleshoots problems that occur when the computer system is in use.

Core Skills Required to be a Systems Engineer

Core skills describe a set of non-technical abilities, knowledge, and understanding that form the basis for successful participation in the workplace. Core skills enable employees to efficiently and professionally navigate the world of work and interact with others, as well as adapt and think critically to solve problems.

Core skills are often tagged onto job descriptions to find or attract employees with specific essential core values that enable the company to remain competitive, build relationships, and improve productivity.

A systems engineer should master the following 10 core skills to fulfill her job properly.

Problem Solving:

Problem Solving is the skill of defining a problem to determine its cause, identify it, prioritize and select alternative solutions to implement in solving the problems and reviving relationships.

A Systems Engineer has a fundamental role in finding ways to address all types of problems through having a good method to use when approaching a problem without being ineffective, favoring or causing painful consequences.