Who You Gonna Call?

Why Your Church Needs an IT Person

Section Overview

Do I need an IT person?
Nuts and Bolts
Wrangling the 1's and 0's
What are the costs?
Questions

Why does a church need a full time IT person?

Christ Lutheran Charlotte's IT past
Volunteers and part timers

The volunteers
The part timers

The managed service provider

Overlap with the volunteers
Who is running the show?

The full time person

What do I do?

Troubleshoot technical issues
Maintain physical infrastructure
Update software
Setup Zoom calls
Fix printers, phones, computers, etc...
Develop websites
Repair or replace obsolete hardware
And as always... other duties as assigned

"But I can do those things!"

Is it scalable?
Is it secure?
What happens when someone leaves?
What happens when something breaks?
How do you backup data?
Does it get your full attention?

Nuts and Bolts

Let's talk hardware

Office Computers

Go for business class
Used enterprise hardware is a great "bang for the buck"
2022 baseline specs^*

CPU: At least 4 true cores
Memory/RAM: 16GB
SSD: At least 256GB
HDD: 1TB (Only as file storage)
Dedicated Graphics Card: It depends

Laptops vs Desktops

Networking - The basics

Enterprise vs home networking
Basic terminology

Router
Firewall
Switch
Access Point

How they all fit together

Networking - Wifi

Common mistakes

Too few access points
Transmit power too high
Channel congestion
2.4GHz interference

Brands to know

Ubiquiti
TP-Link
Aruba Networks
Cisco Meraki

(Picture) This is a great example of how NOT to improve your churches wifi.

Wifi is tricky to get right and its only noticed when it isn't working. With a few simple tweaks wifi performance can be greatly improved.

Generally, you don't want an access point to have to reach more than one room over. ~30ft
This goes hand in hand with too few access points. If the transmit power is too high the signal from an access point can overpower one that may be closer to the device trying to connect.
In especially dense urban areas there are lots of wifi networks. They all use the same few channels to communicate so selecting one that is not as highly used will allow for easier communication.
Lots of devices can give off 2.4GHz signals. Or in short, don't put your access point on top of the break room microwave.

Ubiquiti: Sleek, does the job well, user friendly, cost premium, no recurring charges
TP-Link Omada: Does everything Ubiquiti can just cheaper. Not as user friendly
The Aruba IAP line is good for 2 or 3 ap deployments where a central controller would be overkill. Going beyond the IAP line is pricy.
Cloud managed. Industry leader. The price will reflect that.

Networking - Switches

Managed vs Un-managed
Speeds

100 megabit
1 gigabit
10 gigabit

Power over ethernet
Fiber optics vs copper

Networking - Firewalls and routers

The gateway to the internet
Firewalls often act as the router in a network
Old desktops make great firewalls
Any firewall you build or purchase will outperform the ISP provided one

Servers

Do you need one?

Network Storage
Active Directory
On site services

When is the cloud is good?
When is the cloud bad?
Should I self host?

Wrangling the 1's and 0's

Software to get things done

Open source and free software

LibreOffice - Alternative to Microsoft office suite
OBS Studio - Free livestreaming/recording software
Gimp (GNU Image Manipulation Program) - Alternative to PhotoShop
Nextcloud - Self hosted Google Drive
VLC media player - Free multimedia player
YT-DLP - YouTube downloader
Kdenlive - Open Source video editor

Paid Software

ProPresenter - The definitive choice in live production & presentation software
Final Cut Pro - Apple only video editor
MainStage - Live rig for Mac
Dropbox - Cloud file storage
Canva - Web based graphic design

Non-profit options

TechSoup - Non-profit providing software options and hardware.

Microsoft Volume Licensing Center - Bulk licenses for Windows/Office/Windows Server
Adobe Creative Cloud
Discounted Hardware*

Amazon Smile - Receive a percentage of Amazon purchases for your Church

What are the costs?

Is it worth investing in technology?

It's complicated

Technology is ever changing
The 'as a service' model adds up
Business class internet is a rip off
Remote work means more reliance on the cloud
There isn't a one size fits all solution

There are ongoing costs as well as one time purchases with any aspect of business. Technology is no different. The pandemic has changed our reliance on certain aspects of tech and as such the costs associated with them has changed.

While you can spend less in some areas, there are areas where spending the money is worth it.

There will always be something to upgrade.
SaaS products are generally more convenient than standing up your own infrastructure. However, this locks you into a platform and it's not always easy to leave. O365/ Adobe CC
Business and enterprise internet comes with SLA requirements, but you pay the price for it. Working internet on a Sunday morning example.
There is no cloud. Its just someone elses computer.

No money, no problem

You don't always need the cutting edge
Enterprises love tax write-offs
Non-profits can get special pricing
Learn to love Open Source
Outsourcing is not always cheaper

However...

It benefits you to buy the best you can afford
One man's trash is not always another's treasure
You need to be ok upgrading