When Michael Israel became the CIO of The Kraft Group five years ago, he says what kept him up at night was the fear of potential issues because of the lack of standardization.
“In my mind, the pressure was greater then because nothing was being monitored the way it should have been,” he said.
Five years later, IT standardization has become part of the best practices under Israel’s leadership.
“The common piece that you will see in every IDF (Independent Distribution Frame) and every MDF (Main Distribution Frame) that we have is core IT 101 of documentation and standardization,” said Israel. “If you go to any of our as builds or any of our pieces, no one is moving anything unless they go through change management and document it. That is critical to everything that we do.”
Acadia Technology Group President Kevin Hynes, who has worked on cutting-edge IT projects with Israel for 20 years, said the focus on standardization is one of Israel’s great “gifts” to the Kraft organization, which owns the New England Patriots football team.
“Everything is standardized,” he said of The Kraft Group’s IT operations, which spans Gillette Stadium, Kraft Sports and Entertainment, Patriots, The New England Revolution, Kraft Analytics Group, Patriot Place, International Forest Products, Rand-Whitney Containerboard and the Rand-Whitney Group. “As we like to say in engineering, that means it is deterministic and predictable. Michael enforces standards. You can see the cabling and the lettering, which is a physical representation of what he expects from software, documentation and operations.”
Israel, a 30-year-plus IT veteran, said the focus on standardization is part of the best practices he brings from his years as a consultant and reseller. “I mentor the folks who work for me, showing them this is the way you do it,” he said.
Here are excerpts from CRN’s discussion with Israel on a wide range of issues, including the importance of standardization, key partnerships and collaboration with other NFL teams.
On The Importance Of Documentation And Standardization
The common piece that you will see in every IDF (Independent Distribution Frame) and every MDF (Main Distribution Frame) that we have is core IT 101 of documentation and standardizardization.
If you go to any of our as builds or any of our pieces, no one is moving anything unless they go through change management and document it. That is critical to everything that we do.
You have to put controls in place. When you talk about cloud, folks could start using an app that you are not aware of. You need to ask if you have data leaking somewhere that you are not aware of.
We need to make sure that we know what is being used—not because we want to be Big Brother, but because in this day and age the slightest data leak will lead to penetration that you are not expecting.
On The Impact The Cisco IP Fabric For Media Network Has Had On Fan Experience
The biggest impact on the fan experience is our production control room. It is the ability for us to enhance where we go and how we engage with fans. Remember, we are fighting to not just make sure we have a stadium full of fans, but that it is a better experience than staying home and watching the game on TV.
You also have changing demographics, with some fans watching it on their phone or anywhere. We want to make sure this is a place where the experience as a whole makes folks want to keep coming back.
On Key Partnerships, Including Dell Technologies
All our endpoints are Dell. All of our storage and server systems are Dell. They are our other prime partner.
On security, we expand constantly. Right now we use Carbon Black. We use Secureworks.
We get audited by The NFL. We get audited by a variety of other agencies. We had The Department of Homeland Security in this past year.
The big piece we are looking at now is continuing with non-IT security, not just IoT (Internet of Things), but facilities components—the elevator systems, any videoboard systems. Also in our manufacturing plants, any of our manufacturing machines that are now being monitored by the network.
We must make sure the components of the machines from Siemens to ABB are being patched. So we are really reeducating our end users and our business partners to realize if we have bought a machine with computers in it and it is going on the network, then it has to have a patch plan and a management plan. That is something that those traditional vendors aren’t accustomed to.
If you go to any of our manufacturing plants, for example, we monitor how well these machines are running. So there is a connection there. If there is a connection there, we have to look at how to lock it down.