Joe Carter is a manager within Data Center Operations.  He is primarily responsible for the day-to-day operations of the data center, overseeing a team of 27 people through three supervisors.  They run a 24/7/365 operation.  Joe’s duties include overseeing the production and DR data centers, working on power infrastructure upgrades, floor planning, project management and scheduling maintenance and upgrades of the servers.  Joe says he spends more of his time managing, but that he still has his hands on some of the technical aspects, as well.  “One person can’t do it all, so we have to depend on the team,” he said.

Joe says his favorite aspect of the job is to be able to accomplish things.  He enjoys completing projects and having a sense of accomplishment.   One such accomplishment was the completion of the operations procedures for the data center (formerly MIPC).  Joe also worked on the migration of the CSES operations into DCO and on the development of Data Center floor plans.  He also had the opportunity to research and report on data storage, having attended a conference that looked into where tape technology was headed.  Based on his findings, SAN, MediaServe and virtual tape technologies are now in use in state government.

The most challenging part of his job, Joe says, is trying to keep his staff trained on the constantly changing and complex technology and processes.  Data Center Operations also have to deal with a lot of turnover, as many of their shift positions are filled by student assistants who graduate and leave DCO to start their careers.  The biggest change he has encountered since the creation of DIT has been to get acclimated to how his work fits into the whole department and whole state, as opposed to just DCO.  This is especially important because the work DCO does impacts every computer system the state runs.                    

Joe has worked for the state for 27 years, the last 8 with DCO/MIPC.  He has also worked in the Department of Social Services (now FIA) and DMB.  Away from work, Joe is an accomplished bowler who plays in three leagues, and also enjoys roller skating.  He has been skating since he was 7 and used to teach it, as well.  Joe is also a songwriter who plays keyboards and has several copyrights with the Library of Congress.

At the Vision & Values sessions, employees were asked to list which of their peers lived and exemplified the values of integrity, excellence, inclusion and teamwork.  Joe’s  name was also mentioned several times, so he is being featured in the latest “Day in the Life.”