JumpCloud API with HR & Asset Management

[steven]

I'm not sure how to start this, but I wanted to talk about what we're doing internally with HR & Asset Management, how it started, evolved, and where it is now. Hopefully this will spark a conversation about what you're doing and how you got there.

Background of our company: We're a website & app development, design, and digital marketing agency in Iowa. I'm our sole IT person and manage 3,000+ websites, 300+ servers, and 60+ computers. Some of our servers are dedicated to 1 client, some of our servers are shared and have at most 50 sites.

A few years ago I got tired of developers comping to me multiple times a week asking what server to launch a new site or application to. So that lead to the "Server Dashboard"

First iteration: I built a flat PHP site that pulls data each of our shared servers and shows a very basic "Available, Not Available" dashboard. Each server was hard coded into the page, so obviously not a great long-term solution.

Second iteration: I realized pretty quickly that a flat PHP site with servers hard coded in was not a long term solution. So I rebuilt it into Laravel. Instead of hard coding the servers, I run some API calls against our cloud server provider and pull a list of all of our servers. Then categorize them by "Shared" or "Dedicated" servers. Pretty easy to do because all of our shared servers are named "identifier.company.hosting" - The dedicated servers are the sites URL. Nothing really happens with the dedicated servers, but I do display server info (IP, Datacenter, Hostname, server resources).

Third iteration: I got tired of having a huge spreadsheet tracking all of our computers... so I renamed the "Server Dashboard" to the "Systems Dashboard" and started tracking our Computers and Phones. Each computer and phone are assigned to a user, so I had to create accounts for every employee. Around this time we migrated to JumpCloud, so I integrated into the JC API to create the user itself instead of me adding every employee one-by-one.

Fourth Iteration: A few years before I came to the company, an employee built a web app that would pull every site from our shared servers, and determine if we hosted it or not (Checking site DNS against the server IP). The "Systems Dashboard" that I developed also tracked all of our sites, so I merged the two together. During this time, our lead WordPress developer came to me and asked me to built a "Plugin management" system into the dashboard.

Fifth (and current) Iteration: Decided to go "balls to the wall" and just get rid of all of our previous web apps and spreadsheets. Renamed the "Systems Dashboard" to the "Company-Name Dashboard". This iteration now tracks sites, servers, site logins, Human Resources information, asset and life cycle management.

It's come a long way in 2 years, and has helped us organize our entire company immensely. So what are you all doing to help track your company data? Are you using something custom built or are you using something like ADP or WorkDay? If you're using something like ADP or WorkDay, what are you using to track your infrastructure?

[BenGarrison]

This is awesome! I always wanted to take the time to develop something like this. My PHP/Python skills are subpar, but it would be a good project to sharpen my skills and learn some new new. 

I think a really cool React or Django application would be nice to see as well. Maybe I will use this as inspiration and try and build something. 

[BenGarrison]

We are also building the ability to import directly into JumpCloud from other applications. This might help with your next iteration 🙂

[steven]

I actually just got a notification when I logged into the JC Admin Console that you could create custom SCIM or API integrations for managing new user accounts! I may end up flipping the direction and have our internal app become the authority for JC users.

Currently on Iteration 5 v2, which is giving it a whole UI overhaul. Moving away from Bootstrap and using Tailwind to create something completely unique to us!

We also have a common shortcuts page with the JumpCloud Console link on there, and I'm being extra so when you hover over it, the color changes to the JumpCloud light blue (same color as the JC Employee names on here). And when you hover over the Google Shared Drives link, it rotates between the 4 primary Google colors lol

[BScott]

Aha, so that explains the JumpCloud blue question. Heh.

[steven]

HAHA, I forgot I never actually explained that

[chrisbaswell]

Hey Steven - I'm building an "intranet" site for our company using Laravel and we just started using JC.  I'd love to get some more info on how you have everything working.  Any way we can link up?

[BScott]

@chrisbaswell — would love it if you get a chance to document as you go along and share your learnings. 🙂

[steven]

Absolutely! Are you in the JumpCloud slack?

[Vahid]

Hey Steven

How do I obtain access to JumpCloud's Slack?

[BScott]

I can help you with that, since Steven is slacking. 😉 

http://join.jumpcloudlounge.com