Episode 267
The Altispeed Origin Story
January 9th, 2022
2 hrs 33 mins 30 secs
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About this Episode
The team from Altispeed Technologies join Noah this episode to tell the story of how Altispeed Technologies was born, where it is today, and where the team is headed!
01:15 Altispeed Today
- Help Desk - Issac
- Installation and Support - Kenny & Peter
- Backend R&D - Richard & Simon
- Administration - Sarah & Jess
02:28 Epoch 1
- 02:30 Origins of Altispeed
- 02:40 Why Open Source
- 05:50 Professional Development Program
- 07:50 RHEL 5.0 & Red Hat
- 11:15 Dec 2009 Altispeed is Born
- 12:25 Noah does everything
- 13:50 Altispeed Mission Statement
- 14:55 Philippians 2-4
- 15:08 Matthew 20-28
17:00 Epoch 2
- 17:20 Altispeed's First Hire
- 18:38 The 3 Hiring Questions
- Do they get what we are trying to do?
- Do they want to do what we are trying to do?
- Do they have the capacity to do it?
- Value People and Relationships above all else
- 19:40 Buck Stops with Me
- 20:00 Employees are a mixed blessing
21:42 Epoch 3
- Remote Services & Support
- Podcast Starts
- A Complete Disaster
- Success is standing on a pile of failures
26:18 Epoch 4
- Covid 19 Hits
- 28:50 Going forward decisions
- 30:15 How to serve better
- 30:46 Peter & Kenny Join the Disscusion
- 31:00 Kenny's Take
- 34:30 RpiSurv
- 37:15 FOSS Polish
- 39:02 ANS Outreach & Service
- 41:55 Noah can work "on" not "for" Altispeed
- 43:43 Noah's dedication to ANS & the community
- 44:50 Ask Noah Show Studio
48:30 Epoch 5
- The Future of Altispeed
- 49:28 People stay when they can directly impact the work they do
- 50:22 How to serve clients going forward
- 52:32 More than a show tag line
- 58:16 Tony from Jitsi Asks
- How do you control what you support?
- Virtualize
- Define things up front
- Altispeed rejects "monkey hands jobs"
- One place to call has value
- Being the "middle man" allows you to introduce FOSS alternatives
- 1:14:36 Today people ask "what can technology do for me" not "what can I do with technology"
- 1:16:40 How Altispeed does cloud better
- 1:19:35 Radio likes to be self sufficient
- 1:20:22 Build Modular Solutions
- 1:22:55 Plans for 2022
- 1:24:05 Software is more than a tool
- 1:24:44 Learn from others
- Dave Ramsey - Podcast
- Franklin Covey - 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Book
- Rabbi Daniel Lapin - Thou Shalt Prosper Book
- 1:27:48 Reducing friction and setting boundaries
Altispeed Tools
- 1:29:52 Element/Matrix
- Channels
- Reply Chains
- Reactions
- Federation
- Spaces
- 1:40:02 SeaFile
- Beautiful UI
- Able to be White Labeled
- 1:42:24 Nextcloud
- Deck
- Gets better over time
- 1:44:30 OSTicket
- Lacking Solid Mobile App
- Open API
- 1:48:08 Simple Help
- Proprietary
- Intuitive UI
- Unstable on Macs
- Self Hosted
- Extra tools that reduce friction
Audience Questions
- 1:50:52 Kpovoc Asks
- I’d be curious to know how often your clients have problems that might be easier solved by a custom written software vs finding an applicable existing FOSS solution?
- Many times combining/modifying open source solutions works best
- 1:54:30 Tony Asks
- I'd be interested in knowing if you charge customers extra if they want to make changes to an already working solution. Would that be a charge to not have them abuse your time/technician time?
- Managed Service Contracts
- Hourly Service
- What is your most popular service?
- Access Controls and Cameras
- Networking
- 1:57:42 AtypicalKernel Asks
- How do you deal with clients who don't communicate their needs clearly?
- Discovery Process
- R&D Phase
- Presentation
- Execute
- Circle back to Discovery
- Project Planning recommendations
- Follow up
- How do you deal with a client who blames the solution rather than acknowledging their own mistakes and/or short comings?
- Teach the user
- Help them understand the limitations of their technology
- 2:09:30 Tony Asks
- Are you able to share how you price a solution/support contract?
- Price hourly
- Contract Services are locked down
- What access control systems do you typically deploy?
- Axis A1001 Door Controller
- Powerful integrations
- HID Readers
- Proxy III
- Adams Rite door strikes
- Completely Modular
- Understand your threat vector
- HID SEOS
- Why Noah like HID products
- 2:19:50 Kpovoc Asks
- Do clients pay for the discovery process?
- No, never
- Discovery benefits Altispeed not the client
- 2:21:25 Tony Asks
- How do you deal with a customer who comes to you asking you if you can provide a solution for something you've never done? Do you tackle it even if it is a one of?
- We love learning new technology
- Noah loves getting to see behind the scenes
- Altispeed specializes in this
- Tony clarifies his previous question
- We try to move to a open source solution
- We still take on proprietary software to reduce friction and server the customer well
- 2:25:14 jutana Asks
- You mentioned virtualization desktops , are you then using thin clients to access or low end PCs, also how do you deal with multimonitor support (SPICE?) and or USB peripherals? How are you dealing with standardizations on physical machines, imaging or other?
- RDP in lightweight Windows 10
- Moving away from this
- Thinlinx
- Continuing to explore
- Focus is more on the back end VM
- 2:29:15 Tony Asks
- Do you guys host email yourselves?
- Not currently
- Mail in a Box
- 2:30:31 toadrocksboat Asked
- Do you provide critical 24/7 after hours support? How do you balance that with such a lean team?
- Absolutely
- Open Source Tooling helps us do that
Mentioned in the show
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