Print Management in the Modern Era
I think it’s safe to say the printing landscape for most IT Pros has changed. Businesses have shifted from bricks and mortar to a distributed workforce, and printing today is more about where the print job needs to go than where the user is. So the question becomes what’s the right way to setup and configure printing that accomplishes a couple of things - lowers IT support costs, raises user productivity, and simplifies the printing environment for both IT and users? In this
Eliminate AD Migration & Disaster Recovery Headaches the Virtual Way
By your even looking at this blog post, it’s a safe assumption that you’re planning on going (or are already going) through a migration or are preparing for a disaster. With Active Directory being the crux of so many critical systems, you need your plan to be as close to reality as possible to ensure a successful migration or recovery. So how can you best prepare for any unforeseen contingencies in a way that doesn’t take up all your time and focus? In this webcast sponsored
Roll with the Changes: See Clearly into Your Virtual Environment
We all know your virtual environment isn't going to remain static. And with the potential for so many IT pros managing an already complex virtual infrastructure, the question inevitably comes up How do you keep track of changes? as well as (and probably more importantly) What impact do those changes have? In this webcast, I'm joined by Hassan Fahimi from Dell Software, product manager for Foglight for Virtualization, as we discuss the challenges of maintaining control over ch
Office 365 - When the Hype and Reality of Email Security & Availability Collide
You have to admit it’s tantalizing to say the least – exchanging (bad pun intended) the headache of implementing, managing, supporting, and updating Exchange for the lure of the simplicity of Exchange online within Office 365. But, when you get there, does the reality match the hype? You each have legitimate concerns with issues around security and availability, as you would for any system, so the question "Just what should I expect and what’s available to compensate for any
Servers, Storage, Virtualization and You: It’s Complicated
When you think of the mix of servers, storage, and virtualization in your data center, the word simple probably doesn’t come to mind. Your architecture is likely understood by only a few seasoned IT pros, disaster recovery plans are a disaster themselves, and updating your environment requires some significant planning and most of your time this weekend.
So, why does everything need to be so complicated? Well, in this recorded webcast, I talk with Jason Collier from Scale
Protecting Against and Surviving a Targeted Attack
The Sony data breach made it obvious to us all that it is possible for even the biggest of companies to be subject to a targeted attack. With losses in revenue and reputation in the hundreds of millions of dollars, it’s imperative for companies today to recognize the need to protect endpoints, servers, and infrastructure that can serve as an entry point for an attacker – whether external or internal. In this supercast, I discuss the realities of external attacks beyond just t
Modern Active Directory Management in a Hybrid AD World
Today's Active Directory (AD) requires so much more than simply creating a few groups and resetting passwords. The introduction of Azure AD essentially forces you to manage two environments. Incorporating this identity and access management cloud technology increases the reliance on DNS for connectivity, and means you must give special attention to the reliability and availability of this service. Plus, as more applications are exposed to the web, you need to manage the lifec
Business Recovery, Step 8: Disaster Recovery Testing
We’ve reached the final article in this 8-step program. Throughout the last 7 articles, I’ve laid the foundation for expanding your backup services to a true recovery offering by establishing the Recovery Time Objectives and Recovery Point Objectives for each critical data set, application, service, or server, and introducing various kinds of recovery services you can provide: Virtual Disaster Recovery Continuous Recovery File Versioning File Level Recovery Virtual to Virtual
Business Recovery, Step 7: Bare Metal Recovery
We’re nearly at the end of this series of articles covering the ways you can improve business recovery, while increasing your service revenue. I’ve covered a number of ways to recover entire machines using virtualization as both a platform for disaster recovery, for continuous recovery, and in cases where going virtual to virtual makes sense. While virtualization plays a dominant role in the infrastructure for many of your customers, some still have specific servers still run
Moving Messaging and Collaboration to Office 365: It's Not All Sunshine and Rainbows
As Microsoft continues to add new features and functionality to their Office 365 platform, more and more organizations are evaluating when or if to transition their messaging and collaboration to the cloud. However, those making the move understand that Office365 can bring a whole new set of challenges around migration, security and management.
Whether moving from on-premises Exchange or transitioning from a non-Microsoft platform, taking on an Office 365 migration project