Tech Talk #003 Joey Andrews | Arkadelphia School District

Tech Talk Interviews

This is a fun show by two IT sales reps trying to add some color to the DMR [Direct Market Reseller] world. In it they interview customers and prospect clients on good IT planning and implementation strategies. Enjoy this episode with Joey Andrews. He is the IT Director over at Arkadelphia School District. When did you get interested in technology? Back in college in the 80's Joey began to get interested in technology. He started at Arkadelphia School District back in 2005. When he first started the district had Pentium III's and Windows 98! I remember those days as a gamer in highschool. What hobbies do you have besides deploying systems and implementing switches? Joey likes to hunt and fish. He also enjoys watching his kids play baseball. Star Wars or Star Trek? And Why? Star Trek! Because Star Trek is based on a human future. Current / new technology you like: Joey like their new chromebooks although they have apple too. However, he is not a fan of Apple because of the price and difficulty managing them with active directory. Best IT moves of 2014-2015 YTD? Getting a 'Metro Area Network' and switching to fiber for bandwidth. The school is going to 500 Megs of bandwidth this year [good for a school in Arkansas with 2,000 students]. He also is glad he went with Aerohive for their wireless network although he states that xirrus wireless is a bit easier to program. Biggest Lesson learned? If Joey was able to go back to himself 10 years ago right when he started he would have told himself to not go to a 1-1 initiative [New Tech] until he had been able to fully implement a wireless system. His recommendation is to have 1 AP to classroom [1 AP : 15 Clients runs the best]. He says that you also need to watch out for cable companies that will be over redundant on the amount of cable you need. What brands do you like and why? Joey has used HP, Lenovo, and Dell. His favorite manufacturer for client is Dell. If you were on a tropical island and could only bring 1 piece of technology – what would it be and why? Joey would bring his Dell Laptop - that is all he really needs. He would watch YouTube and Netflix. GO TO http://techtalkinterviews.com/techtalk003/ to see the funny video short from this interview. AND VISIT http://techtalkinterviews.com/ for more great interviews.