First Tee's IT pro

Raul Ramos, IS director, keeps this World Golf Foundation youth group out of the technology sand trap.

At First Tee, an organization focused on teaching kids lessons in leadership and integrity through golf, one would think the day is filled with thoughts of drivers, pitching wedges and putters. But the chief concern of IS Director Raul Ramos is network security, redundancy and reliability.

First Tee, an arm of the PGA's World Golf Foundation, is at the World Golf Village, in St. Augustine, Fla. The village also houses golf's Hall of Fame, hotels and housing developments, all surrounded by lush golf courses. Ramos landed at the World Golf Foundation as employee No. 11 nine years ago, when the village was just taking shape. He helped build the network infrastructure for the Hall of Fame and other village facilities, leveraging 20 years of experience planning and implementing technology projects for the Air Force (including for NASA, on contract jobs that frequently brought him to Florida).

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At First Tee, an organization focused on teaching kids lessons in leadership and integrity through golf, one would think the day is filled with thoughts of drivers, pitching wedges and putters. But the chief concern of IS Director Raul Ramos is network security, redundancy and reliability.

First Tee, an arm of the PGA's World Golf Foundation, is at the World Golf Village, in St. Augustine, Fla. The village also houses golf's Hall of Fame, hotels and housing developments, all surrounded by lush golf courses. Ramos landed at the World Golf Foundation as employee No. 11 nine years ago, when the village was just taking shape. He helped build the network infrastructure for the Hall of Fame and other village facilities, leveraging 20 years of experience planning and implementing technology projects for the Air Force (including for NASA, on contract jobs that frequently brought him to Florida).

Four years ago, Ramos moved to First Tee to help get its IT infrastructure off the ground. Some common infrastructure, such as T-1s for Internet access, are shared among village facilities, but Ramos has final say over most technology matters.

Ramos, who has a staff of three and is looking for a fourth, supports 45 employees in the main office, plus six regional managers around the country. He's a jack-of-all-trades, overseeing development of a variety of efforts, including an automated backup and recovery system, an online database for tracking program participants in the organization's 200-plus chapters and a Gigabit Ethernet-capable network.