The Windows and Linux Service and Operations track is unique in its genre. It will instruct you on how to achieve higher security through proper operations management; this course goes way beyond being simply another security course, it covers the core of operations management within enterprises and the functions needed to deliver continuous services to your clients. This course demonstrates how security and operations roles and functions complement each other. It has been clearly demonstrated that stacking security devices and security protection mechanisms will not produce any results if these devices are not properly managed. Without proper operations management, it is not possible to expect, reach, and maintain an environment that can grow and expand at the same speed as your enterprise. This track will teach you the key skill that anyone involved in operations either as a manager, operator, or data center staff should possess. This six day track will give you an overview of all facets of operations and put you on your way to obtaining the GOEC (GIAC Operations Essentials Certification) certification. After all, Operations well done is security.

Total immersion to the world of Operations as it is being lived today. You will be presented with the challenges that lie ahead and how you can address them. We will cover the models and frameworks that are recognized and quickly evolving into best practices in the field. A short technical refresher will be presented to ensure we are all on the same level for the remainder of the week and finally we will end the day covering how business requirements can be defined and analyzed.

This day is what any operation person has always dreamed of: being able to step through each of the steps and areas of concern related to upgrading, moving to, or building a new facility. You will cover the essential elements that will make a world of difference between being able to grow as fast as your company does or having to redesign everything all over in a few years.

Having a methodological approach to building systems and replicating them to the different platforms across the enterprise is something you must master in a world where updates are coming out daily. Regardless of how well you prepared your deployment, you must ensure that your environment is properly optimized and is performing the way it should be for your clients. Meeting your service level agreements (SLA) will avoid suffering undue penalties while keeping the clients happy. To succeed, you need an environment that can quickly adjust to sudden increases in processing, bandwidth, or storage loads.

Initial deployment always seems like all went well, however only the long term is the real endurance test. You have to manage your environment, keep tabs on what you have, where it is, and how it is configured. Realizing that all is interlinked and one server might have numerous dependencies avoids making changes that will affect your environment. Regularly, you must report back to your management on how well you are doing, this is where security metrics comes handy. We all plan for the best but sometimes things do not go as expected and you have to know how to react and what action to take to avoid compounding the problem. Incident Response is all about being ready and well trained to quickly respond to undesirable events.

A clear trend has been noticed in the operation field: more and more tasks that used to be performed strictly by the security group are now falling under the operations staff. You will get to perform some of them during this hands-on day and master how they should be properly done. After all, Operations well done is security. The day consists of 50% labs and 50% theory. There is no better way to learn and remember than doing it yourself.

For the final touch you will get to learn how to manage, operate, and maintain Linux and Unix servers. You will perform a series of labs throughout the day that will show you the best practices for securing, patching, backing up and keeping your system up and running in your environment. This day consists of 50% labs and 50% theory. It will allow the seasoned Linux/Unix administrator to validate that he is doing things correctly and the beginner to understand how things are done on these platforms.