I hate being unprepared. When I was in high school, I had a locker. I even had one of those clever plastic shelves and a magnetic mirror. You know what I stored in there? Nothing -- I spent far too much time watching MacGuyver. So I carried around all my books, pens,...
An often overlooked part of IT network infrastructure management is network security. The majority of business networks, even for small businesses, have a large variety of heterogeneous devices that are working together to provide the services for the various...
There is a subtle art to creating an appealing, well-structured data entry graphical user interface (GUI). Due to the repetitive interaction users have with data entry GUIs, small things like choice of colors and the size of margins can have actual consequences...
Developing new and innovative products is essential for companies to survive and thrive -- however safety can never take a backseat to innovation. That is why many companies, like those in the Medical Devices, Aeronautics and Automotive industries, have strict...
One of the more common requests I receive from users is that their computer is running slowly, or even worse, they're getting a popup saying that their machine is infected with a virus and Extreme AntiVirus 2013 can remove that virus for the low low cost of $39.95!...
As technology has advanced, it's become more complex -- and with complexity comes the issue of tracking and monitoring the different processes and their corresponding data. In non-critical applications, the extent of this reporting is often minimal. However, in...
Ensuring servers provide consistent performance is a primary goal for all infrastructure management services . A large portion of our servers are in a virtualized environment, and the additional complexity involved there can present some challenging performance...
I will assume that everyone reading this is familiar with Dropbox -- my favorite program ever -- but I would like to highlight some newer features and espouse the virtues of this program in case anyone is still living in 2007. Dropbox acts as a shared folder between...
During 2012, the shining star for cloud services has once again been Amazon’s web service (AWS) offering. It success and popularity has made it an almost household name for cloud based web services. However AWS, or any other web services cloud offering, isn't the only...
Here's a common situation: you manage an application; you haven't gone through a release; no patches have been applied (to your knowledge); and the infrastructure guys say that they haven't touched the network in ages. But a user calls, and to your...
As the push towards the cloud continues, 2013 will see a growing emphasis on cloud-related outsourcing projects. Cloud-related IT expenditure covers a wide range of areas including; Software as a Service (SaaS), cloud compute centers, infrastructure as a service...
In 2013, roughly one third of businesses will increase their IT outsourcing budgets. Chief Information Officers and CEOs, from small businesses to large enterprises, are planning to up their spending on the outsourcing of web/e-commerce platforms, application...
