IT and Security Synergy with Catie Adams

Ashley Smith:  

So Welcome to Automox's Autonomous IT podcast, where we launch every Tuesday and Thursday, new podcasts. Today we have Catie Adams from New Pig. Welcome.

Catie Adams: 

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Ashley Smith:  

Before we dive into our questions and our topics for today, why don't you just give us a little bit of background on who you are, what you do, and how you got into IT.

Catie Adams: 

Sure. So I'm Catie Adams. I work at New Pig. I've been a Sys Admin here for about 12 years now. My story about getting into IT is kind of rather boring. I actually started college as like an exploratory major because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. And then I kind of had this thought that while you really have this love for computers, you know, why don't you take an IT related track?

So I graduated with a degree in information technology and I actually landed an internship here at New Pig and then I got hired on and I've been here ever since.

Ashley Smith:  

That's awesome. That's like some of the best stories that I've heard. know there are a couple of people at Automox who started as interns and they're like employee six in the startup. And it's such an incredible thing to see how things grow over the years.

Catie Adams: 

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, it's actually happened here a few other times as well with with interns, you know, being hired on full time and staying here. So it definitely is nice.

Ashley Smith:  

Yeah, yeah, it definitely says a lot about the culture, I think.

Awesome. Well, let's dive into your background with Automox. How do you use it? How did you find it? And what is your journey with Automox been like?

Catie Adams: 

Sure.

So we use Automox primarily for patch management. I know there's some other tools within it, like the remote management piece. We don't use that much, but definitely are using it for patch management, specifically for automating our patch management. We're a smaller environment. We have less than 1,000 endpoints. And probably about a little or 3 quarters of those are end user machines.

I actually found you guys, I believe on a Gartner report. I was looking for a platform to replace what we had currently been using, which was WSUS. I'm not sure if you're very familiar with that, but it has pretty limited capabilities. And we had used it for about two years and it came down to the fact that the endpoints weren't receiving patches as they needed to. So I went and started to explore other options and Automox came up.

You know, you guys are really great to work with. We did a POC with you and we tested, you know, some other products as well, but ultimately Automox came out on top. So, you know, we've been with you for four years now, I think. Obviously couldn't be any happier. But yeah, it's been, it's been great, a great journey. And, you know, we plan on sticking around for a while.

Ashley Smith:  

That's great. That's music to my ears.

Catie Adams: 

Hahaha.

Ashley Smith:  

So, this month is, security month at Automox. So talking about IT and security together, obviously every organization kind of handles those two a little bit differently. Sometimes they're completely separate entities. Sometimes, you know, you're the exact same team. I'd love to get your opinion on how it operations and security operations can work together.

Catie Adams: 

sure.

So in our case, ITOps and SecOps end up being the same team basically. Our ITOps team is a little bigger than our SecOps team, but myself and my manager actually, you know, our SecOps team here. So obviously, you know, we're integrated well with the ITOps team as well. So we kind of work hand in hand. We, you know, we try not to, you know, hinder.

the ITOps side of things with the security piece. But we also make sure that the other admins and the help desk folks are very aware of security related items when making any ITOps related changes, whether that's server based or app based or anything like that. We're always trying to keep security in the back of their mind. Now I know in larger organizations, those teams are probably separate and they work together a little bit differently.

But for us, it's very much integrated for both teams.

Ashley Smith:  

Yeah. I know that you said that you try not to hinder too much for the IT side of things. Are there anything, anything in particular that you try and keep in mind to work best with them? Or is there anything that anyone listening can take into practice in their day to day?

Catie Adams: 

You know, obviously, you know, we have like major projects come up. you know, we're starting to configure things or, know, we're, standing up some servers or can we're configuring apps on those servers. we're always trying to, you know, get them to follow best practice security wise as, and as, you know, as best that they can, obviously there, there are things that come up, that need more of a discussion, you know, a bigger discussion. If something is,

if something's going to come up and security is going to in any way hinder app performance or user, I don't want to say user performance, but usability, I guess, would be a good word. Then we try to have discussions around that and maybe find a middle ground between best practice  and functionality for the user.

Ashley Smith:  

Awesome.

Okay, moving on to my next question. I'd like to get your advice. If there is someone in IT that feels like they don't work closely with security or that they don't contribute to a security related outcome, what are some steps that they could take to move towards that?

Catie Adams: 

Sure.

So in my experience, and this is just kind of being in the industry for a while now, I've kind of always been taught and kind of learned that security is an everyone problem. You know, it's not just the SecOps teams problem. You know, it's your end users problem. It's your marketing folks' problem. It's your IT dev problem. So in the case that someone doesn't feel like, you know, they're contributing to that.

I think they probably are in a way that they're not, maybe they're not thinking about. But, you know, if I was someone who worked in IT and didn't feel like I was kind of contributing to security, I would probably kind of reach out to my manager or director or what have you, have a discussion with them. And maybe you could get together with the SecOps team and discuss where you think you might fit in or where you could add value. But...

Like I said,  security is definitely an everyone problem. So I'm sure that this individual would definitely fit in in some capacity, but maybe they just need to figure out what role they have in it.

Ashley Smith:  

Yeah, definitely. And if they are an IT professional, maybe just starting out in IT, and they'd really like to get focused in on security, do you have any advice for that?

Catie Adams: 

That's a tough one because there are a lot of folks that are coming out of college these days with security degrees in some aspect. It's very, very popular. And I've seen a lot of people that are having trouble getting the foot in the door somewhere. So I definitely say, apply as many places as you can, get as many certifications as you can. If you're working in an IT environment and you kind of want to become more on the security side.

you know, definitely do those same things. and just, try to get your foot in the door and kind of go from there. It's, difficult because there are so many folks now that are, that are coming into the field.

Ashley Smith:  

Yeah, definitely. I know here at Automox, we definitely watch the job market and stuff like that. And it's been really difficult as of late. It probably has to do with so many different macroeconomic factors.

Catie Adams: 

Right, right, absolutely. Yep.

Ashley Smith:  

This is actually probably the perfect time to plug For all of those who are listening and are interested in hearing more about the job market and how to position yourself, Automox is actually throwing a live show on our YouTube on October 30th.

And we actually have an IT recruiter coming on and she's going to give us some best practices, some tips and tricks. So if you are having difficulty getting that foot in the door, hopefully there will be some really great advice on that for you.

Catie Adams: 

Yeah, that's awesome. That's definitely probably going to be helpful for a lot of folks. So I hope a lot of people tune in for that.

Ashley Smith:  

Yeah, definitely. think something that has really surprised me in a very good way is, since starting at Automox a little bit over two years ago is seeing how much of IT is like a community and how interlinked different organizations is. And everyone kind of knows of everyone in some way or it's, it's a really tight knit community. And I think that's really awesome. I think we've seen that in a lot of ways, like people willing to help each other out in the community or

Catie Adams: 

Yes. Yep.

Yep.

Yep.

Ashley Smith:  

building Worklets or I know there are a lot of people who will be an Automox customer and then come and work for Automox. It's all kind of like interlinked like that.

Catie Adams: 

Yeah, I've had a couple of calls with folks at Automox who started out as customers and then became employed there. So that's really awesome. But yeah, it's nice to see that for you guys.

Ashley Smith:  

Yeah, no, definitely. And I think it really reinforces having a customer-centric point of view, wanting to help out as much as possible. Awesome.

Catie Adams: 

Absolutely.

Yep.

Ashley Smith:  

Well, thank you so much for coming on here and sharing some of your tips and tricks. I think it's always so interesting because, well, Automox is, it is an IT product. It's also so security focused and it has such a security outcome. It's, it's a really interesting niche to be in. And it's really interesting to hear how different people use them, use it on their teams.

Catie Adams: 

Absolutely.

Yep.

Ashley Smith:  

And I'm sure there are people who are listening to this out there and they're like, okay, I'm going to go talk to my security operations team and we're going to change some things.

Catie Adams: 

Yeah, I hope they do. hope they do. It's a good product, especially if you know, you're in the market for something new, or obviously if you have a, you know, a patch management system, then maybe it's not performing like you need it to, or maybe you need a little more automation involved where you're a little more hands off with it. Definitely would recommend Automox for sure.

Ashley Smith:  

Thank you. Well, thank you so much. If you are listening to the podcast or you're wondering where you can find us, we are available on every platform where you can find your podcasts, Spotify, Apple, YouTube. And we come out with different episodes every Tuesdays and Thursdays. Thank you for listening.

Catie Adams: 

Thanks, Ashley.