Behind-the-scenes support keeps the technology ticking
Even as a kid, Kenneth “Ken” Huckaby was interested in the technical side of things.
“When I was young, I wanted to either be a mechanic or a woodworker,” said Huckaby, senior director, ITS Technology Operations for Texas Health. “I made money servicing lawnmowers for the neighborhood, and I worked for my grandfather’s general contracting company during summers and for almost a year after high school.”
After working for his grandfather, Huckaby served in the U.S. Army until 1992 as a specialist in a telecommunications role.
“Through that experience, I learned everything technology-wise that was required to run a city of up to 100,000 people,” Huckaby said. “This opportunity helped me learn every job that I interfaced with both technically and from a business perspective. It also set me on the path to honor and support servant heart jobs, like healthcare.”
Since joining Texas Health in 2008, Huckaby has used his technical skills to connect Texas Health colleagues to the tools they need to serve internal customers and consumers. According to his manager, Ron Mehring, Texas Health’s chief information security officer, supporting others to provide a seamless technological experience is what Huckaby does best.
“Ken’s true strengths are demonstrated through the convergence of his technical prowess and his genuine interest in serving others,” Mehring said. “Ken’s approach to his work is firmly rooted in Texas Health’s Values of respect, integrity, compassion and excellence.”
Read more about Huckaby’s impact on the technology in use every day across Texas Health.
How do you spend your days at work?
Texas Health Resources gives me a great opportunity to work alongside a team that literally touches almost every piece of technology within the system. It is really a collaboration to ensure we are providing the services that best serve our customers, both internal and external to Texas Health. I also get to help drive and lead the innovative solutions that are going to take Texas Health well past Vision 2026.
What’s your favorite part of your job, and what is the biggest challenge?
My favorite part of my job is getting to serve others. That is the fun part of the job that usually eases the stress level. The second part has just the opposite effect on stress levels. My team helps ensure that what we do is first and foremost secure and as fault tolerant as it can be. We also make the many diverse technologies across the system all work together. Think of all the different applications, locations, people, etc. you work with on a daily basis. Making it all work together seamlessly is a huge challenge.
What has your department implemented to make consumers and co-workers more comfortable and give them a better experience overall?
While it may not always seem like an innovative solution as we go through the growing pains, things like migrating our data centers out of the hospitals and into true high reliability facilities with the ability to provide redundancy is an important implementation. Another one is the move we made from Citrix to WS1/VDI so we can push out updates to the majority of the enterprise simultaneously, plus the move from Skype to Teams and all the extra integrations that come with that. These are just a few that have transformed the way we do business without many people ever realizing this work is going on.
What is your favorite work-related hack?
I like using Microsoft Office 365 products to the fullest. I can literally start something on one device, save it to my OneDrive and then continue it on another. I deliberately move around to multiple devices every day to make sure various platforms we support are functioning well.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
Since my days of Ironman and ultra-sports are done due to physical limitations, I now enjoy hunting and extreme long range shooting.
