Mac Setups: The Desk of an IT Services Manager

It’s the weekend again, which means it’s time for another featured sweet Mac desk setup! This time we’re showing off the awesome workstation of Joey N., an IT Services Manager who uses plenty of Apple, Mac, and iOS gear for both professional and personal pursuits. Let’s get right to it and learn a bit more about the hardware and software used.

What hardware makes up your Apple setup?

• 15” MacBook Pro (Mid 2012) with Hi-Res display upgrade
• 2.7GHz Intel Quad Core i7 CPU 
• 16GB OWC RAM
• 240GB OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD Boot Drive
• 960GB OWC Mercury Electra 3G SSD in an OWC Data Doubler Caddy replacing the Optical Drive
• 64GB Micro SDHC card in a Nifty MiniDrive caddy docked in the SDHC slot for additional data storage
• OS X Mavericks
• Two Apple 27” Thunderbolt Displays
• 32 GB iPad Mini
• 64GB iPad Air *
• 64GB iPhone 5s *
• Ergotron LX Dual Monitor adjustable arm mount holding MacBook Pro for ease of use
• Two Twelve South HiRise Stands for iMac attached to the dual Thunderbolt displays
• Twelve South BackPack for Mac
• 500GB HDD for Time Machine Backups and additional storage in one of the HiRise Stands
• 4TB NAS for additional storage, residing under the desk
• OC Dock for iPhone mounted on the right side HiRise stand
• Airport Extreme 802.11ac Base Station connected to a dedicated gigabit fiber Internet connection (Yes, it’s fast!)
• Bear Extender Turbo for Mac for 802.11ac wireless connectivity
• SONOS Play 5 Wireless Speaker for music while I work
• HP LaserJet Printer

(click the image below to open a full sized 5536 × 1372 image of the desk setup** in a new window)

What do you use your Apple gear for?

With my Mac rig, I manage my company’s IT operations across the nation and abroad. I can remote access and manage multiple branch sites and it’s associated IT infrastructure and equipment from my little makeshift command center, and of course read OSXDaily when I get the chance. 

I also do a bit of photography on the side and edit my images with this setup as well as editing my video projects.

Tell us a bit about your setup and why you chose it

I chose this setup for power and portability when I have to travel, and I tend to travel a lot for work. When I’m in the office, the iPad mini is always tuned to the live video feed of France 24’s online news channel, and the iPad Air is always tuned to the live video feeds from the TWIT Brickhouse. The iPhone 5s is docked in my OC dock and displays an analog clock app that I like called Quick Alarm.

* The picture shows a white iPad 3 and a white iPhone 5, but I replaced those shortly after I took the picture with a black iPad Air and black 5s

** For the astute eye, the nicknacks on the shelf to the right is my Mr. Fusion time machine, as Back To The Future is one of my favorite movie trilogies, Yoda standing under a Disney ride sign showing he is not tall enough to ride (and he’s not so happy about that), in the middle is a fairly rare Steve Jobs Figure from MIC Gadget in China, I managed to score one before the C&D letter banned the sale of it. Next to that of course is the TARDIS and the 11th Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver, and the last couple of things are mementos I picked up during some of my travels around the world. 

What apps do you use most often?

For those applications that don’t have a Mac native counterpart, I’ll fire up a VMWare Fusion session to deal with it.

Outside of work, I’ll edit my photos using Lightroom and Photoshop CS6, Aperture, and various plugins from OnOne, Topaz, Imagenomic, and Nik. When tackling video projects, I’ll use Final Cut Pro 10.1, Motion 5.1, and Compressor 4.1.

All media assets are stored on a Drobo that I connect and use only when I’m editing video. 

Do you have any personal productivity tricks you want to share?

To keep myself organized, I like to use VoodooPad, which was acquired not too long ago by Plausible Labs. I have it loaded on all my iDevices and my Mac and sync all my notes and wiki material between all my devices to help me remember stuff. Additionally, 1Password is used heavily to keep all my logins and important personal data in a safe place, and it’s loaded on all my iDevices and Macs as well. Finally, I like to use Clear from RealMac software on all my devices to keep my to do lists in check.

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