IT Operations

Salt minions and grains facilitate deployment at scale

A tiered management setup and finely grained monitoring capabilities make SaltStack's configuration management tool worth considering. Continue Reading

By

• Sander van Vugt

2017 Modern Infrastructure Impact Awards

The 2017 MI Impact Awards recognize the top products, technologies and services in seven categories. Here are the finalists that made the cut. Continue Reading

Use these DevOps examples to reimagine an IT organization

These before and after DevOps adoption stories from real IT organizations yield insights into processes and tools, metrics for success and mistakes made. Continue Reading

DevOps capabilities vary widely by industry vertical

DevOps isn't the same from one IT shop to another, let alone from healthcare to retail IT. Some verticals rise higher than others when it comes to agility and communication. Continue Reading

Know how to handle IT incident management to avoid chaos

When an important application goes down, you'd better have the right IT incident management processes and procedures in place to fix it. Continue Reading

By

• Clive Longbottom

Log Parser Studio provides flexibility for Exchange troubleshooting

Administrators can use default queries in Log Parser Studio or modify existing queries to analyze logs and troubleshooting Exchange issues. Continue Reading

By

• Michel de Rooij

Mimic production with the right staging environment

With public or private cloud templates, it becomes easy to copy your production IT environment for staging new code as often as development needs it. Continue Reading

By

• Mike Pfeiffer, CloudSkills.io

The steps in selecting the right configuration management system

Configuration management helps enterprises standardize IT systems and eases updates. This guide assists buyers in selecting the right tools for their CM systems. Continue Reading

IT service delivery model uses BPM to translate ops to biz

A business process management structure for IT service delivery can bridge the gap between IT and the rest of the business, allowing IT leaders to sit at the table for important decisions. Continue Reading

By

• Kurt Marko, MarkoInsights

Setting up and controlling resources on a Proxmox cluster

You're learned how to create Proxmox hosts and group them into a cluster. Now it's time to add resources to your cluster and assign access rights to them. Continue Reading

By

• Stuart Burns

CFEngine configuration management tool up close and in-depth

CFEngine is a widely known and used configuration management tool. Learn about its primary features and functions and if and how your organization could benefit from it. Continue Reading

By

• Clive Longbottom

Inside Docker configuration management functions

Docker may not be a standard configuration management tool, but it possesses a set of capabilities that have made it a growing player in the CM market. Continue Reading

By

• Clive Longbottom

The Cobbler configuration management tool's ins and outs

Cobbler is a configuration management tool best suited for Linux-based IT environments. Learn more about this tool and if it can benefit your enterprise. Continue Reading

By

• Clive Longbottom

These Windows configuration management tools can prevent mishaps

It's a challenge to limit downtime and speed up deployments in the data center. Configuration management tools can help IT maintain control. Continue Reading

By

• Tim Warner

Secure Docker on Linux or Windows platforms

With Docker appearing in businesses of all shapes and sizes, security is a concern for many IT admins. Here's how to secure Docker on the container or the host machine. Continue Reading

By

• Brad Casey

Google Project Aristotle - 5 Keys to Team Success

If I picked one word to collectively describe the five components from Project Aristotle, it would have to be value. Continue Reading

By

• Carlos Casanova, Casanova Advisory Services

SaltStack configuration management tools and their many functions

SaltStack is a relatively new tool in the configuration management market with powerful capabilities and an active user community. Read more about this emerging product here. Continue Reading

By

• Clive Longbottom

Improve application rollout planning with advanced options

Enterprise IT teams have several advanced options for deploying application updates. The right one depends on what makes the most sense for the business, available IT infrastructure and your confidence in the update. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

What Chef configuration management can do for your IT systems

Chef configuration management tools possess a huge community of users. Learn more about product versions, capabilities, user resources and what Chef can offer an enterprise. Continue Reading

By

• Clive Longbottom

Select the best configuration management tools for your company

What characterizes the best configuration management tools for your company? Read about the different tools available and which ones would address your company needs the best. Continue Reading

By

• Clive Longbottom

Script management technology adds safety to scripting's power

Script management is a necessity to maintain an IT deployment. The canny organization will choose the right tools that give power to the sys admin, while protecting against accidents. Continue Reading

By

• Clive Longbottom

Decision criteria for choosing configuration management software

Selecting the right configuration management software is vital for your company to function well in this modern age. Learn what you need to know in order to select the best tool. Continue Reading

By

• Clive Longbottom

Microsoft Ignite 2016 conference coverage

Find all the independent reporting and analysis from the Microsoft Ignite conference 2016 in one place. Continue Reading

How application scalability works in event-driven vs. IaaS computing

Event-driven computing saves IT admins' time and helps application scalability, compared to managing traditional cloud infrastructure. But IaaS and event-driven computing aren't exclusive. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

Patch servers the right way without wasting time

Apply these server patching best practices to save time, reduce complexity, and build an optimal schedule and toolkit. Continue Reading

By

• Paul Korzeniowski

Aviva’s annual Hackathon – the customer is key

One insurance company organizes an annual hackathon, where cross-discipline teams form to create features that employees dream up. In 24 hours, it's all over, but the lessons learned persist much longer. Continue Reading

— http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/

Pick up infrastructure as code tools and techniques

Walk through an infrastructure as code template, using AWS CloudFormation as an example, to better understand defining and connecting resources. Continue Reading

By

• Mike Pfeiffer, CloudSkills.io

How is runtime as a service different from PaaS or IaaS?

What is runtime as a service and how does it differ from platform as a service and infrastructure as a service? Continue Reading

By

• Chris Moyer, ACI Information Group

How do I size capacity for VMware oversubscription?

What best practices and tools can I use to allocate the right resources in an oversubscribed virtualization deployment? Continue Reading

By

• Matt Sprague, CDI LLC

Set Office 365 data loss prevention policies with PowerShell

Exchange administrators can use PowerShell to manage Office 365 compliance, e-discovery and data loss prevention. Continue Reading

By

• Adam Bertram

The real future of IT infrastructure lies in abstraction

Future IT infrastructure will be so abstracted from the applications using it that, while always a misnomer, serverless computing will be a reality. Continue Reading

By

• Keith Townsend, The CTO Advisor LLC

Hadoop workflow automation lets IT pros go with the flow

Hadoop workflow managers are not just resource schedulers. They handle intricate tasks and service handoffs that are essential for managing big data services. Continue Reading

By

• Kurt Marko, MarkoInsights

Modern open source systems management

The open source sector abounds with configuration management, monitoring and analytics, CI/CD tools and more to arm IT teams against failure in complex apps and infrastructure. Continue Reading

By

• Austin Allen, Meredith Courtemanche and Michelle Boisvert

DevOps automation boosts Rosetta Stone's app delivery

The language learning company uses multiple tools to make its DevOps environment run smoothly, but Docker has been the key to streamlining application releases. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau

Test and confirm functions with PowerShell parameters

Windows PowerShell functions support parameters that can prevent scripts from being run accidentally and simulate the outcome of the function. Continue Reading

By

• Adam Bertram

OpenStack infrastructure turns to containers

OpenStack is far from perfect. In fact, there are a number of hurdles it needs to clear before widespread adoption in the enterprise becomes a reality. However, a recent technology trend might just be what the OpenStack infrastructure needs, and it's one that many originally thought would be OpenStack's death sentence -- containers.

A recent study from OpenStack's user survey showed that containers generated the most interest among the community, a sign that IT is ready to take the leap from virtualization to containers. OpenStack leaders say containers are the central piece to the underlying cloud framework that OpenStack lives on.

Meanwhile, data analytics continues to drive the next wave of IT ops tools by combining input from various platforms to create predictive information for the enterprise. So where does IT go from here? Read on to find out.

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Create a cloud development environment for on-premises apps

With built-in tools from many of the mature public cloud services and a well-planned deployment strategy, IT teams can -- and should -- move test/dev to public cloud. Continue Reading

By

• Mike Pfeiffer, CloudSkills.io

Primer on DevOps roles and responsibilities

DevOps planning in enterprises revolves around getting the right teams in place, the necessary skills spiffed up and the proper tools to make it all come together. Continue Reading

Container orchestration for a new breed of IT

PaaS offerings such as Heroku, RedHat OpenShift and Cloud Foundry have always used containers under the covers, but as containers move toward production use outside of PaaS in the cloud, they're being deployed in clusters of server infrastructure that are orchestrated to automate the deployment of containers. So is container orchestration right for IT? Well, that depends.

Beth Pariseau's feature this month, 'A New Day for PaaS' analyzes the way IT views PaaS, and how it's evolving. On the other hand, IT pros must dish out reality every once in a while to the business side, and often 'live on the edge' according to Alan Earls. But life on the edge can be dangerous, and it isn't just a figurative turn of phrase anymore, it's a physical location.

Both these stories, and much more, including columns from Bob Plankers and Mike Matchett, and what enterprise IT is thinking about VMware in the May issue of Modern Infrastructure.

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Crunching the costs of Microsoft Exchange on-premises vs. cloud services

Security concerns are less of an issue for most organizations, but do the costs of using Exchange on premises vs. the Office 365 mail service stack up? Continue Reading

By

• Paul Korzeniowski

Start using the PowerShell pipeline with this example

An administrator can create functions to support the PowerShell pipeline, which improves upon text-based shells by allowing the scripter to pass objects across the pipe. Continue Reading

By

• Adam Bertram

Container trends fuel storage needs

In life as in technology, there is no free lunch. We've seen this time and again. Every time a technology seems to be too good to be true, we do a little digging, and it turns out we were right.

Containers are just the latest example of a technology that IT must scrutinize. Sure, containers offer a ton of benefits -- density, portability and low-cost -- but what's the catch? Storage may very well be it.

And now that more IT organizations are "doing" DevOps, it's become clear that DevOps isn't some magic pixie dust whose mere mention makes everything right with the world. Meanwhile, over in the cloud, enterprises have learned that it's not all sunshine and roses. Notably, it's dawned on them that migrating legacy applications to an infrastructure as a service provider like AWS or Google Cloud Platform can be more trouble than it's worth.

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How to upgrade to PowerShell 5

PowerShell version 5 is the most recent iteration of the scripting language and offers new features from previous versions. Admins can upgrade to the new version in a few steps. Continue Reading

By

• Adam Bertram

PowerShell script examples and reference guide for admins

Microsoft unveiled PowerShell in 2006, but many Windows administrators are still unaware of the tremendous amount of resources available to help automate numerous tasks. Continue Reading

By

• Ed Tittel

Adding an additional virtual bridge to a KVM environment

Virtualization expert Sander Van Vugt offers tips to simplify the process of adding a second software bridge to your KVM environment to run VMs in an isolated SDN. Continue Reading

By

• Sander van Vugt

Mad about microsegmentation

The tech industry seems fixated breaking things apart into ever-smaller units for greater levels of "granularity." Traditional standalone applications are maligned as "monoliths" that must be broken apart in to their component pieces, or "microservices." Broad brush security that covers an entire network is deemed insufficient, to be replaced by "microsegementation" -- applying security policies on a per-workload basis.

But breaking up is hard to do. In his story, "Mad About Microsegmentation," senior technology editor Stephen Bigelow lays out the pitfalls that will befall operators as they go down this road.

Breaking with tradition is hard too. For decades, one of IT's primary responsibilities has been to protect its systems from catastrophic failure by performing regular point-in-time backups that can get back to a known good state.

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Use the admin center for some Office 365 administration

Administrators can choose the admin center or PowerShell for Office 365 management -- the best option depends on the circumstances. Continue Reading

By

• Adam Bertram

Microsoft Hyper-V Shielded VM

A Microsoft Hyper-V Shielded VM is a security feature of Windows Server 2016 that protects a Hyper-V second-generation virtual machine (VM) from access or tampering by using a combination of Secure Boot, BitLocker encryption, virtual Trusted Platform Module (TPM) and the Host Guardian Service. Continue Reading

By

• Tom Walat, Editor

Eight influential Microsoft experts to follow on Twitter

Stay up to date with all things Microsoft by following some of the most knowledgeable experts on Twitter, including CEOs, CTOs and MVPs. Continue Reading

Windows workloads leap to cloud

Regardless of hype, there are quite a few areas where cloud remains very much a work in progress. Take cloud bursting. This has long been IT's holy grail for cloud -- the ability to seamlessly expand capacity constrained workloads to outside of your data center to meet unexpected demand. But while it sounds good on paper, it's not as easy as it sounds.

Running Windows rather than Linux in the cloud also hasn't been easy, but things are getting better. Technically, any infrastructure-as-a-service provider whose hypervisor exposes x86-based VMs should be able to run Windows.

Speaking of Windows, you'd think that Microsoft Azure would be a shoe-in with developers looking for an easy-to-use cloud platform. Based off our recent #Hashtag feature, however, it seems Azure has its fair share of discontented developers.

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Why is there an Outlook folder missing from Outlook Web App?

Some folders in a mailbox on Exchange Server 2013 are not showing up on the folder list in the OWA virtual directory but do appear in other views. Continue Reading

By

• Richard Luckett, Learn IT Solution Group LLC

An initiation into infrastructure automation tools and methods

IT infrastructure automation isn't always easy, but the right tools with the right implementation strategy will pay off with faster provisioning and fewer errors. Continue Reading

Six alternative Hyper-V management tools

There are a number of third-party Hyper-V management tools available for organizations that need to handle a few dozen nodes. Continue Reading

By

• Trevor Pott, eGeek Consulting

How can active-active clustering use load balancers?

Active-active clustering and cloud services enable IT workload resilience or redundancy in the enterprise. How does load balancing influence these setups? Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

The 2016 MI Impact Awards

It's January, people, and you know what that means -- awards season! Not one to be left out of the party, Modern Infrastructure is happy to announce the winners of its third annual Impact Awards, where readers, industry experts and editors weigh in on the products and technologies that will have the biggest impact on IT operations in the coming year. Congratulations to all the winners.

Part of the fun of holding an awards program is watching the returns roll in (over 800 readers participated in this year's voting). But for me, the fun comes much earlier -- back in the summer when we're thinking about which categories to keep, which categories to add, which categories to tweak, and which to retire. We don't want to boil the ocean and recognize every conceivable product category on which IT spends time and money. The idea is to highlight the technologies that are effecting the most change in the data center -- and the areas where infrastructure and operations folks can use a little help from their friends. And now, the winners are!

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Hardware vs. software load balancer: Which is better for an enterprise?

Can a software load balancer perform with the same capabilities as a hardware load balancer? Decide which aides enterprise the best in this hardware vs. software load balancer comparison. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

How do I set up a file sharing server for three clients?

If I want to share files between three client machines and a Windows server, what are my options? Continue Reading

By

• Adam Fowler

Use GitHub for open source data center automation ideas

GitHub, a bastion of software developers, also offers automation scripts and open source collaboration for data center administrators. Continue Reading

By

• Brad Casey

What are my options for Azure ExpressRoute connections?

For companies that need a private connection and full access to different Azure regions, Microsoft offers a premium version of Azure ExpressRoute. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

How can I share Outlook calendars from the EMC?

Is there a way to gain access to multiple users' calendars from the Exchange Management Console in Exchange 2010? Continue Reading

By

• Richard Luckett, Learn IT Solution Group LLC

What works for daily event log monitoring?

I have 80 Windows servers in the data center. What can I use for daily event log monitoring? Continue Reading

By

• Adam Fowler

Using PowerShell to create XML documents

Administrators can avoid introducing errors when building an XML file by using PowerShell to construct the document. Continue Reading

By

• Adam Bertram

The merits of white box switching

Modern infrastructures are based on commodity, non-proprietary hardware. People have used commodity servers for a long time, but now we are seeing commodity switching gear too, on which we layer open network operating systems. This is a promising area, writes Ethan Banks in "Why White Box Switching?" An offshoot of software defined networking, "white box switching might survive on its own merits -- even if SDN falls by the wayside."

Modern infrastructures run on open source software, finds Ed Scannell in "Opening Up to Open Source." The reasons for today's surge of open source projects aren't the same as yesterday's -- whereas open source used to be about saving money, now it's about exploiting "the latest Web-based technologies for mobile, cloud and analytics platforms."

What makes one infrastructure "modern" and another not so much? That is continually up for debate, but there are definitely some common themes. Read on to learn more.

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Using XPath syntax to root through XML documents

Using XPath syntax and the Select-XML cmdlet can help uncover the information you need in an XML document. Continue Reading

By

• Adam Bertram

Server patch management for multi-OS data centers

If you have a multi-OS data center, you know the struggle that is server patch management. Don't fret, the right combination of tools and human intuition can alleviate the pain. Continue Reading

By

• Brad Casey

Office 365 issues that torment email admins

Tricky Office 365 problems are no treat to the IT admin. Fix the nuisances that corrupt your email with these troubleshooting treats. Continue Reading

By

• Sharon Zaharoff, Associate Site Editor

Learn Group Policy basics for Windows administrators

Group Policy hasn't changed much since its introduction, but it can be overwhelming to beginners. Learn how to use Group Policy to manage users and computers. Continue Reading

By

• Tayla Holman, Site Editor

Change boot settings from a VM BIOS

Often overlooked, a VM's BIOS is more limited than a physical machine's BIOS, but will allow you to adjust boot settings. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

Container technology's role in storage

Containers are somewhat limited in scope and scale so the next logical step for the technology is dealing with storage. Continue Reading

By

• Mike Matchett, Small World Big Data

Collaboration moves beyond email

We have some nice examples of thinking out, not up, in this issue of Modern Infrastructure. Take data-aware storage -- a topic explored by contributing writer Alan R. Earls in "Not Your Average Disk Array." Conversations about data storage can be fairly predictable, centering on performance and capacity. Some storage vendors are stretching the bounds of traditional storage by leaning heavily on metadata and analytics, so as to give operators much more advanced management capabilities.

Then there's email. Given its shortcomings, a lot of people like to think, let's get rid of email altogether and just rely on new and exciting social messaging and collaboration tools. But that's impractical. In "Beyond Email," I talk to organizations augmenting existing email systems with complimentary tools that reduce our reliance on email, but don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Read all these stories and much more in the October issue of Modern Infrastructure (we promise -- no corny Halloween jokes!).

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2016 Modern Infrastructure Impact Awards

The 2016 MI Impact Awards recognize the top products, technologies and services in six categories. Here are the finalists that made the cut. Continue Reading

Check your hybrid Outlook Autodiscover performance

IT shops with hybrid Office 365 and on-premises Exchange mailboxes need to know how Outlook Autodiscover works when mailboxes haven't migrated. Continue Reading

By

• Neil Hobson

Three steps to avoid server NIC teaming problems

NIC teaming can help reduce resource contention and improve VM performance, but don't fall victim to common mistakes when setting it up. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

How to calculate Exchange 2013 resource requirements

Inadequate server resources can impair performance and growth. Here's how to calculate megacycles of work and memory requirements for Exchange 2013. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

Use a PowerShell script to force logoff an RDP session

When end users remain logged in to an RDP session, it consumes valuable resources. Use this PowerShell script to force users to log off. Continue Reading

By

• Adam Bertram

How CPU and memory affect application performance

Application performance will change depending on if you want more cores, better clock speed or what you choose for memory. Continue Reading

By

• Brian Kirsch, Milwaukee Area Technical College

Configure disk volumes to optimize your Exchange 2013 performance

The wrong disk volumes can foil Exchange optimization practices. Assess your configurations with support and compression in mind. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

Constant and read-only PowerShell variables for admins who fear change

Constant and read-only PowerShell variables can prevent accidental changes to a script. Here’s how they differ and how to use them. Continue Reading

By

• Adam Bertram

Lift and shift vs. re-platforming cloud apps

When evaluating a new technology, some people like to go all in, with gusto, and adopt it hook line and sinker. Then there are folks whose MO is to take baby steps: Dip a toe in the water and do a lengthy proof of concept. What's right for any given organization depends on its temperament, needs, budget, skills -- any number of factors. One thing's for certain, there's no right answer.

This cover story in this issue of Modern Infrastructure delves into the different ways organizations implement cloud applications, whether replatforming or "lift and shift."

Sometimes, the question isn't how to implement this new technology, but whether to bother implementing it at all. "I'm a big believer in the natural balance that forms based on how people actually use things versus planning for how people might use things," Brian Madden said. So sit tight. What you need to do will become clear soon enough.

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How to run PowerShell cmdlets on remote servers

The Invoke-Command and New-PSSession PowerShell cmdlets can make it easier for admins to manage a number of remote servers. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

Five cons of container technology

Containers promise rapid scalability, flexibility and ease, but they're not right for every workload. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

Brace your infrastructure for a microservices approach

Before transitioning to microservices, it's crucial to consider the effects on your underlying infrastructure and network -- and to plan ahead. Continue Reading

By

• George Lawton

Can hyperconverged systems transform the enterprise?

It's hard to predict which novelties will become mainstays, and which will be has-beens. One current hot technology is hyperconvergence, the subject of Alex Barrett's article in our May issue, "The Hyperconvergence Effect." Is hyperconvergence a transformative approach to delivering IT, or just a nifty way of packaging compute and storage?

There are also many operational implications to a microservices route, says George Lawton: service discovery, network provisioning and release automation. Microservices has its challenges, but some say doing so can deliver significant ROI.

And virtualization has been transformative over the years, even as it's evolved. We've seen a shift away from hypervisor-based server virtualization to containers popularized by Docker. But it's hard to imagine a world without virtualization -- if only for the management and automation opportunities it brings to the table.

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Advanced threat protection add-on comes to Microsoft EOP

The ATP add-on for Exchange Online Protection gives on-premises Exchange Server and Office 365 customers another layer of security. Continue Reading

By

• J. Peter Bruzzese, ClipTraining.com

A Windows Server 2016 Group Policy walkthrough

Administrators who work with Group Policy will appreciate that the structure hasn't changed in Windows Server 2016, but there are new policies unique to the release worth noting. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

Container technology thrives for IT

Just when you thought you had driven the last nail in the coffin of old-school IT, you find out it's back -- albeit with a twist.

Remember operating system-level virtualization? This method of server virtualization is back with a vengeance as containers, with Docker leading the charge. But whereas the old-school containers were used largely by service providers to eke out every last drop of capacity from their server farm, today's containers are an application-portability play.

As for data center infrastructure, not only has the entire world not moved to public cloud, but many organizations use that consummate old-school IT model: the data center co-location facility.

Ethernet, meanwhile, never left the data center. Still, tomorrow's Ethernet doesn't look much like the Ethernet you know and love.

Read all about this and more in the May issue of Modern Infrastructure.

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Facebook completes Chef DevOps migration, shares lessons

The mistakes, best practices and tools that Facebook shares from its migration to Chef configuration management apply to your DevOps shop too. Continue Reading

By

• Meredith Courtemanche, Director of Editorial Training

How to integrate IT infrastructure monitoring tools

When done successfully, performance monitoring tool integrations enhance administrative insight and productivity across a busy data center. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

What are SR-IOV pros and cons with Hyper-V?

SR-IOV in Windows Server 2012 R2 supports Hyper-V Live Migration, but system requirements hampered adoption for some cases. Should everyone put PCIe SR-IOV to use? Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

Learn how to use BitLocker in Windows Server 2012

BitLocker is an encryption feature in all versions of Windows Server 2012 that can protect the data on your PC and hard drive. Learn how to install and use it. Continue Reading

By

• Tayla Holman, Site Editor

What are the limitations and drawbacks of an IPAM server?

Windows Server IPAM can only handle one Active Directory forest. Learn about other limitations. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

Switch authentication modes during a disaster recovery

Converting authentication modes is a rare thing admins need to address, but it must be fixed right away when it happens -- and Microsoft's documentation on it is incorrect. Continue Reading

By

• Steve Goodman, Content and Code

Two ways to manage different server operating systems

Several tools and techniques let data center systems administrators work with multiple server OSes on one host system, and manage it effectively. Continue Reading

By

• Paul Korzeniowski

Big data workloads live on-premises

Seven years after its birth, the frenzy around cloud is beginning to subside. IT organizations have embraced public cloud for some workloads, and built private clouds for others.

IT is having productive discussions about which applications to leave where they are, and which applications to re-platform. They're considering the pros and cons of renting shared infrastructure rather than buying dedicated on-premises resources.

You may not get the raw performance from a virtualized cloud instance that you could from dedicated bare-metal hardware -- you need to weigh that against the cost of hiring data center operations staff.

Meanwhile, the hype around big data and social media has just begun. The technology for doing this kind of analytics exists today. You can build a Hadoop-based repository to store the untold amounts of raw data that can later be used to discover unimagined relationships and patterns. It all sounds very promising, but for now, the jury's still out about the value of these initiatives.

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Microsoft Network Policy and Access Services (Microsoft NPAS)

Microsoft Network Policy and Access Services (Microsoft NPAS) is a server role in Windows 2008 and Windows Server 2012 that allows administrators to provide local and remote network access. Continue Reading

By

• Tayla Holman, Site Editor

This PowerShell module takes control of NTFS permissions

One simple install of the File System Security PowerShell Module can help manage NTFS permissions for user access to folders. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

What's the effect of network switch buffer in a data center?

What's causing buffer? How much buffer should ideally be available in a network switch? Is there any standard available for buffer? Continue Reading

By

• Jon Langemak

The new face of scale-out storage

There are plenty of new approaches to address ever-growing data needs, including scale-out vs. scale-up designs, the shift from hierarchical file systems to object storage, and the Hadoop Distributed File System. Pretty soon there will be absolutely no excuse not to store every crumb of data ever created.

Delivering Windows applications remotely is another area that could use some improvement, especially in today's age of tablets and mobile devices. App transformation takes existing Windows applications and intelligently delivers them to the target device, similar to how responsive web design principles package web pages differently depending on whether the client is a traditional PC, tablet or smartphone.

VMware, meanwhile seems to have hit a home run among users with its latest release to its venerable vSphere virtualization platform. Some things, it seems, get better with age.

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IIS exploits in Windows Server and how you can fix them

There are several flaws in IIS that can jeopardize the security of Windows servers. Here are some of the top threats and how to solve them. Continue Reading

By

• Kevin Beaver, Principle Logic, LLC

Three apps in which Docker containers really shine

Docker containers offer a variety of benefits. But apply the software to these three application types to get the biggest bang for your buck. Continue Reading

By

• David Linthicum