As IT professionals, our main mission is to keep applications running successfully. Each application is judged by end-users, using different factors. Exchange is considered successful by users as long as email can be sent and received. Active Directory® is seen as running efficiently, as long as users can access the file shares that they need […]
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As IT professionals, we have all been there, the dreaded help desk call “Is email down?” (Replace with any business critical application). One of the worst things we deal with in this line of work is having an outage. Outages for critical systems can impact the business in many ways. Take for example email, as […]
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“Horizontal expansion loses the depth, though excessive depth that only provokes darkness is futile. Therefore a balance between depth and vastness is essential in learning” ― Privavrat Thareia This year, consider spending more time protecting the vast bytes that make up your corporate data. As an IT or security professional, do you know how much data […]
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The network as we know it is being redefined. As more endpoints, applications, and devices are added to the mix, the network is transforming. For IT, the challenge is two-fold: stay on top of the network today, and prepare for what it could look like tomorrow. In an environment where workers expect to be online […]
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Contained databases were first introduced in SQL Server® 2012. They make it easier to deploy databases to different SQL Server instances by removing the requirement to separately transfer server logins and permissions apart from the database that you want to deploy. In Using Contained Databases Part 1, I provided an overview of contained databases. I […]
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If there’s a chance to save time by using scripts or automation tools, I always take it. Over the years I’ve found that there are a set of common themes associated with these scripts, and many that my colleagues and I use on a daily basis Here are some of the common categories that […]
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One of the biggest factors that influences SQL Server® performance is memory. This is true whether the SQL Server instance is running on a physical or a virtual server. On a physical server, the easiest path to ensure that you are taking full advantage of SQL Server’s memory requirements is simply to put as much […]
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SQL Server® 2016 has many new features and enhancements. This is a trend with most software companies—that the much-anticipated next release holds something to wow every enthusiast. In that aspect, this release of SQL Server 2016 is no different for me. Every major release of SQL includes a little something for developers. After taking a […]
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Contemporary monitoring solutions are no different from any other distributed application in your environment. Even a small-scale deployment can include multiple components: often, these include a Web server, an application server, and a database server. And as with any distributed application, you need to consider placement for each component. More specifically, when you are charged with designing a monitoring […]
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VMware® as a technology has a huge potential to sprawl. Have you created an environment for testing purposes? Have projects required a number of guest VMs to be built, but are no longer in use? How about your storage? Is there some chance that your storage can be helpfully augmented by vSAN? What about the […]
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Custom applications play a vital role in all kinds of organizations, including education, government, healthcare, IT, and more. In order to adapt to the latest technologies, there are many changes businesses must make, especially the method they use to reach out to their customers. Most interactions between the customer/client and the organization takes place via tailor-made […]
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I’ve been a VMware® evangelist and virtualization advocate for a decade. Even before I first started using VMware—by accident, I’ll admit—I’ve had the (dis?)advantage of wearing many hats in IT. In that time, I’ve had many opportunities to work with men and women who are responsible for VMware and competing virtualization environments.* Based on […]
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