Ashley Smith chats with Dustin Mobley from SM Energy about how he got started in IT, how technology has changed over the years, and how his team uses Automox to keep server management under control. Dustin breaks down what it’s like managing a 24/7 server environment and shares real-world tips on building routines, working with business teams, and using automation to make IT life easier.
Creators & Guests
Host
Ashley Smith
Ashley Smith isn't just the voice behind the Heroes of IT podcast, she's a beacon for customer satisfaction and engagement. With her roots deeply planted in customer marketing, Ashley brings an unparalleled passion for nurturing strong, impactful relationships. At Automox, she ensures IT heroes are equipped, supported, and celebrated. Her episodes are treasure troves of insight, packed with real-world successes and solutions to the toughest challenges in IT. Ashley has a knack for getting IT practitioners to open up, making her interviews a gold mine for anyone wanting to grasp the intricacies of IT.
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Go from monotonous to autonomous IT operations with this series. Hosts from Automox, the IT automation platform for modern organizations, will cover the latest IT trends; Patch Tuesday remediations; ways to save time with Worklets (pre-built scripts); reduce risk; slash complexity; and automate OS, third-party, and configuration updates on all your Windows, macOS, and Linux endpoints. Automate confidence everywhere with Automox.
Ashley (00:00)
Welcome to the Heroes of IT podcast hosted by Automox where we interview people who we consider our heroes of IT. Today we have on Dustin Mobley from SM Energy. Thanks for being on the podcast, Dustin.
Dustin Mobley (00:13)
Thank for having me.
Ashley (00:15)
well, I like to start every single podcast just by asking, how did you start your career in IT? And when did you first become interested in technology?
Dustin Mobley (00:26)
wow. Yeah. Good question. I have to go back quite a ways to where I was in grade school and my parents had got a used Apple II computer for the house and with it came a game called Oregon Trail and started, you know, mainly because of the computer. What's this shiny thing? it has this game, right? And got big into playing that game and fighting with the family to get
playing time is when that really started, that was our first computer ever, right? And then that led to the family getting a Gateway computer with this dot matrix printer, with this print shop software that could make these continuous banners, right? Of happy birthday. so spending a lot of time on that early technology, right? How much it, and really how it's changed. And then, you know, fast forward in the,
late 90s, early 2000s, started taking MS DOS classes, which led to Windows classes. And then like in the early 2000s, that, you know, just having that experience with the computers, I thought, could I make a career out of this? In early 2000s, careers were a big thing with IT, like MCSE, A+, Network+, everything like that. And that's really where my took off actually utilizing my
interest in technology to have a career with IT.
Ashley (02:00)
Yeah, that's very cool. They always say it's not really a job if you enjoy doing it. So I think you definitely fell right down that path. It's a little bit funny, I was having this conversation with one of my friends the other day, but a kid's version of getting into technology is so different nowadays versus like,
when we were all growing up, like before like the dot-com boom and before like personal computers, like really became common in every household and, you know, fighting for a desktop computer that the entire family used with your siblings is just like not the same experience as it is nowadays with like iPads and tablets and Amazon Kindles and things like that. So I think, I think it's maybe missing out on some character building there.
Dustin Mobley (02:51)
Yeah, I have two children, right? And they grew up with mobile devices, tablets, multiple computers, myself being in IT when they were growing up kind of helped with that. like you said, I grew up in a family of four and we are always fighting over the one piece of technology we had in the house, right? So it definitely has changed.
Ashley (03:10)
Yeah.
Yeah, they've never been bitten by a rattlesnake on the Oregon Trail.
Dustin Mobley (03:17)
Right, absolutely.
Ashley (03:20)
Okay, well diving into a little bit more specifics, how do you and your team use Automox for endpoint management?
Dustin Mobley (03:30)
Yeah, so the way we actually use Automox in our environment here at SM Energy is we use Automox to patch and report on all of our server environment. And Automox, it really has changed the way that we do our patching and how we report on all of that patching of our server environment, which is give or take, we're starting to get close to about a thousand servers, right? And so it varies from company to company on this size.
What's been great about automox and using it to patch our servers is we, it's really reduced this window that used to take an entire weekend or even beyond a weekend. And it was chaotic, to get our, and had no process behind it to get, our servers patched. And because of Automox we have been able to, now that window is a once a quarter.
from 6 p.m. to midnight. And so it's really given my team and myself a lot of time back and has really made this process efficient for patching our servers.
Ashley (04:48)
Yeah. Servers are kind of a different beast from all the customers that I've interviewed and talked to during my time here at Automox, feels like servers tend to be a little bit more sticky to work with than, you know, a normal workstation. they seem to give people a little bit more problems or take more time than, patching on like a regular computer.
Dustin Mobley (05:17)
Yeah, in our environment, we are a energy company and we run 24/7 right? And so to take down systems that people need access throughout all hours of the day really is a tricky thing to navigate around to, hey, we need to protect our systems. We need to get them patched for specific reasons. And that balance of
the user still being able to do their job. So minimizing that window to really six hours is huge, is huge, right? And I do know that that changes from environment, on how many servers you have.
Ashley (05:57)
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Okay, well, for those of you listening, you might have picked up on this, but it is server month here at Automox So every month on our podcasts across our different segments. whether that's CISO IT, Hands-on IT, maybe even a little bit of Patch Tuesday, we like to talk about a specific theme each month. And this month is obviously server month. And so, Dustin, I'm going to give you a couple of would you rather questions and we can chat through them. So would you rather manage
Windows server or a Linux server and why.
Dustin Mobley (06:35)
that's actually for me a very easy question because I'm a Windows guy. I've always been a Windows guy. I've actually never have had to really use or support Linux in what is crazy and now a 20+ year career career, right? So it truly is I'd be choose Windows because that's what I'm used to. That's what I'm familiar.
It's interesting you asked though in our environment, Linux over the last year, we're starting to get more and more requests or projects implemented that require Linux. So I'm actually finding myself having to skill up in that area as well as have some of my team members skill up in that area as well.
Ashley (07:23)
Are there any resources that you're using to skill up into that Linux server environment that you're using to maybe study up on?
Dustin Mobley (07:31)
Yeah, so we're using a combination of things. There's some online training out there that we're looking at to where they can just do it ad hoc on their own time. We've also reached out to some third-party vendors that we utilize that have that bench strength of Linux as well as a lot of other technologies. So we're working with them to get into their system so that
if something comes up and we can't answer it or we haven't skilled up in that, or it's beyond our abilities, we want to be able to reach out, ask an expert and not hold the project up or not be that bottleneck as the business is waiting for us. We can't just say, we don't really know Linux. So it's really a combination of using some third-party vendors that have that bench strength and then just that self-paced training that you can find throughout the internet.
Ashley (08:27)
Yeah, cool. Would you rather patch an on premise server or a virtual server?
Dustin Mobley (08:36)
Oh, good question. think a lot of people like us are moving more to a virtual world, have a big virtual presence in their enterprise, right? And so I'm going to go with patching a virtual machine. A few reasons are, I feel personally that it is easier to deal with a virtual machine if something goes wrong with the patch. I feel it's pretty easy to set restore points.
prior to patching activities tends to be a little bit more easy to remotely monitor the process than with physical servers, especially if something goes down or doesn't come back up. I don't have to actually go and physically put hands on that server or say it's our data center where I'd have to call maybe the remote hands and say, can you go
hook up a monitor or keyboard to this physical server so we can see what it's doing? Having that virtual management, that virtual interface, that virtual environment. I'm always gonna pick that, right? The more things that we can do that's a little bit hands-off, more efficient is always kind of where I'm going to lean towards. So that's how I would answer that question.
Ashley (10:00)
Yeah, definitely got to reduce the commute. When you're at work. OK, would you rather be assigned to a workstation team or server team?
Dustin Mobley (10:13)
Wow, you know, that one's a little of a tough one to answer. And it's tough to answer because there's pros and cons to both, but I started my career out in service desk, help desk, Supporting workstations and learning that is really where I got a lot of experience, a lot of exposure to troubleshooting, right? But knowing what I know now and the area that I support and supervise,
My answer would be, I'd rather be on a server team. And the reasons behind that is if you're comparing a server to a workstation, at least in our environment and the way that we patch, stay up on the most recent OS and upgrades is it's more of a set it, leave it. And we just don't have a lot of issues. You don't have to spend a lot of time troubleshooting a server.
as you would with a workstation, right? Also, workstations, you have an end user using it. So you tend to have to support a lot of higher volume of requests compared to a server, right? Server, we're just like, hey, we're setting up some program forum. It runs. You update it once in a while. Whereas a workstation, that user constantly
may have or could have issues. always need, they always want more software. They want it to run faster. They want the latest and greatest in hardware. We're always trying to pack so many things into a workstation that the support for that workstation can be anything from hardware, software in our environment where we have over 50 some apps that
we support, right? And going on these workstations, they don't always work the best. And so that's kind of why I lean towards that server now is because it just more, just, you don't have to deal with it a lot. And, but the one thing I will say is I typically get more kudos and acknowledgement by fixing a workstation.
you know, the user's just happy, right? They're like, "oh my God, you got me up and working. I had this deadline" and they tend to reach out to their bosses and you get a lot more kudos. Whereas if I fix a server, I don't really get a lot of feedback other than from our direct team or direct management. Like, Hey, thanks for getting that server back online. That was real important, but you don't really get a lot of the kudos.
Ashley (12:52)
And lastly, to wrap this up, like I mentioned earlier, servers can kind of be a little bit of a struggle point for a lot of people. So do you have any tips for people listening who may be struggling with their server environment and keeping it up to date?
Dustin Mobley (13:11)
Yeah, I could come up with a few and especially since I come from a background where, I mentioned earlier that patching for us sometimes was an entire weekend, if not bleeding into the upcoming week, right? And now we're down to a six hour window. The first thing I'd say is find or use a software like Automox that helps you manage and report on patching and helps you
do some pre-patching and get things set up prior to that window that you have dedicated to patch. The other thing, these are buzzwords that are all over our industry right now. And I know Automox is doing things to take advantage of this, but I would get with your team to brainstorm, how can you utilize Automox to take advantage of AI?
and automation to gain those efficiencies, to narrow that window down, right? To limit the downtime of your servers that, know, especially these businesses that run 24/7 that people are relying on. Another one that comes to mind if you're not already doing this, you're struggling is establish a routine and set dates early.
on in the year so that the business can prepare. And so what I mean by that is like every January we collaborate with all the major business units and we establish our quarterly patching schedule. So, because typically what happens if you don't have that out there, you don't work with your business, you say, hey, I'm going to patch this week. all of people are like, no, we have a deadline where nothing can be done. We can't be without our computers, right?
And so if you work with your business to collaborate and come up with a routine that is early, that's set, and that it doesn't change too much from year to year, the businesses can, the business units can focus on planning around that and making sure they understand why you patch, right? So many times IT is like, we just got a patch, it's Microsoft put out a patch. And sometimes the business does not know what that even means. And so we've actually had
training sessions, educational sessions to put out there to our business, why we do these things. And that, that helps, right? Cause you want buy in from the business to be able to continue to do these things in it. Right. and I'll say one last thing. And that is if you're not, patching can be massive, right? So we always prioritize our critical updates to prod systems.
before anything else, right? And Automox can help with that. And that's why I truly believe we have gained so much efficiency in our maintenance window for patching our servers is that.
Ashley (16:19)
That's awesome. For anyone listening, I didn't tell Dustin to say any of those things, I promise. But I think that's some really good advice, know, establishing a baseline of what you would like to do, communicating that out to the business, and then looking on how you can automate things. I feel like those are very clear steps that yes, it might be like a little bit more work up front, but I'm sure it will save people time, definitely in the long run.
Okay, awesome. Well, that brings me to the end of my questions. Dustin, thank you so much for joining today. This is a great conversation. I hope everyone listens to this podcast and gets energized to patch their servers.
Dustin Mobley (17:02)
All right, well, thanks for having me. And yeah, this was great. This is awesome.
Ashley (17:06)
Awesome. Thank you. Um, for those listening, this is the Heroes of IT podcast. come out with episodes every Tuesday and Thursday across the Automox team revolving around different topics. So whether that CISO IT with Jason Kikta , Patch Tuesday, Hands-On IT with Landon Miles, or Product Talk. You can always find our podcasts wherever you listen.