A project that took a creative approach was an aging tape drive backup and a limited budget that could not consider an enterprise disk system. Therefore, I created a DIY offsite disk system by using 2 SATA hot docks, a collection of SATA hard drives, a disk encryption software, some scripting to make the mounting, unmounting a single click and target the VMDK files to be copied from a Veeam Backup Replication job to be off sighted. This system is still serving this primary function for over 5 years.

With SAN's storage at a premium price, I cost effectively repurposed old server hardware to make several open source NAS targets by adding a few  SATA drives. This is a slow but large storage system and very cost effective to archive data and other low accessed files.  I used NFS to access ISO files for mounting to VMware.  I created a Microsoft VM server with a small  VMDK to boot from on the expensive SAN's and made the large archive VMDK file on a NFS share on the cost effective NAS.  (This is where we archive old user accounts.) Additionally, I use power shell scripts for archiving former employees from the SAN's to the NAS with managed file access. I would not recommend this for high access files but a very good long-term storage solution. 

It was hard to get the buy-in from senior leadership, at a 501c3 nonprofit organization, for an email archiving initiative since spending is very limited. 
Deploying an open source archive was a simple solution to save costs, and it was compatible with the open source NAS / NFS target with no direct purchase costs. Additionally, it resulted in only a day or two for deployment and satisfied complacency requirements.  

Built a NOC status display using Xibo, an open source advertisement project, to deliver different web pages in a custom slide view. Using a SQL stored procedure to ping remote sites and SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), for a status this web report is one of the NOC slides displayed. I also used power shell scripts to get different server status and saved as html files for the NOC display. Another trick was configuring an outlook account as a department calendar on the display.  I have added many SSRS reports over the years for different KPI's. 

The accounting department needed Microsoft Navision and jet installed along with several custom manual strips to be properly installed. I broke down each requirement to create a script that would install the software and package all the content into a single exe installer so it could be deployed. 

With all these creative approaches I have learned that there are several ways to look at a problem to solve it. If thought through entirely, these solutions save a lot of time and money. I love the purpose of making something better, faster or easier for someone and mastering the challenge.