I’m writing this as I fly to Charlotte. Yes, in the middle of a pandemic, I am on an airplane. My first flight since March and bringing back a flood of memories. Not of flying, though. About my career. About fifteen years ago, I …
How many applications do you use every day? On average, probably 20. Think about it—We use them to check email, to avoid traffic, to know if we need a coat, to order dinner, and to connect with friends and family. We use others to …
Experienced IT practitioners know applications and solutions—whether off-the-shelf, customized, or built from scratch—are rarely a perfect fit. Inevitably, something doesn’t work quite the way we want, scale to quite the level we need, or cost exactly what our budget approvers would prefer. However, there’s …
What I love most about working in technology is the continual discovery. It doesn’t matter the implied scale of the discovery because it’s all about the ripples from that discovery. Learning a new software package requires you to learn a new scripting language, which …
The year 2020 has been a rollercoaster. With nearly every aspect of our daily lives flipped on its head, it’s hard to think of a single thing that went as planned or any of us were prepared for. That is, until it comes to …
Earlier this year, we held a virtual SolarWinds User Group™, or vSWUG, in which my colleague Kevin M. Sparenberg presented an interesting webinar, “Cross-Train Before It’s Too Late.” The idea is to train your colleagues to learn your silo. If you’re a network guy …
So, we’re all working from home these days. As I’m living close to our office in Berlin, I occasionally pop in just to see something else than my four walls, but not more often than once or twice in a month. The other day, …
The IT community has left its indelible mark on me—the sum of my experiences has led me to where I am now. I’m constantly impressed by IT’s creativity and ingenuity. No matter the circumstances, the time of day, or the hurdle, IT pros show …
The theme for IT Pro Day 2020 is “You Were Built for This” and, while we knew it could be relevant in almost any minute of any day of any year, it seems exceptionally, especially apropos now. We, who make our lives and earn …
Think back to the last time you were in a restaurant and witnessed a patron treating a server rudely. Perhaps they yelled out, snapped their fingers, or loudly complained. You likely cringed, and rightfully so. This is no way to conduct business, at any …
