Systems

Latest Posts in Systems

The Benefits of Integrating Monitoring with ITSM Solutions

When you evaluate a monitoring solution for your environment, consider the solution’s ability to integrate with other applications and services. Most notably, a monitoring solution should be able to integrate…

KMS Server Activation

In a previous article, I wrote about the virtualization administrator’s interest in choosing between the two operating system activation methods Microsoft® offers: Multiple Activation Keys (MAK) and Key Management Service…

When Should You NOT Virtualize That System?

Virtualization is an amazing and valuable tool for so many reasons. I’ve been a proponent of the concept since GSX server, and early Workstation products. In the early days, I…

Operations vs. Engineering Tools

Whether your IT operation is a small-scale endeavor or a web-scale enterprise, systems monitoring plays a critical role in the delivery of your services. The ability to quickly and accurately…

How to Prevent a Data Breach from SQL Injection Attacks

The average total cost of a data breach right now is $3.79 million, according to the 2015 Cost of Data Breach Study: Global Analysis. Cyber attacks are one of the top…

How to Explain Virtualization to Newbies

In the world of enterprise architecture, many parts of our daily conversations are taken for granted. We talk about virtualization, vMotion®, Storage vMotion, Replication, IOPS, and so very many other…

Monitoring: How and Why We Do It

Monitoring is a lot of work. A monitoring system is a service unto itself, and like other applications it needs care, feeding, configuration, databases, DBAs, patching, and maintenance. Though it…

Are You Getting Full Benefit of your IT Monitoring Tools?

I think we’ve all had that moment at 3:00 a.m. over the weekend when we wish our monitoring and management systems would just shut up. The UPS in rack 4’s…

Using VSAN to Maximize Database Performance

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to speak at VMWorld in San Francisco. The session title was Using Virtual SAN to Maximize Database Performance, and in that session I…

Learning to Pivot

The role of information technology inside of corporations is not new; it has existed for decades. With each passing year we see acceleration in the speed and complexity of changes…