Tips

Tips

• How Windows Admin Center stacks up to other management tools

  Microsoft is putting a lot of resources into this relatively new tool to manage Windows systems, but is it ready for prime time when compared with more seasoned offerings?  Continue Reading

• Sizing up the Office 365 protection options

  Get serious about protecting your organization from ransomware and phishing attacks by taking a closer look at the leading Office 365 security offerings.  Continue Reading

• Explore Docker vs. LXC through the lens of a three-tier app

  Containers are not small virtual machines, and they're not all the same under the hood. To make smart deployment choices, understand the nuanced differences between container types.  Continue Reading

• Unlock hybrid cloud with this AWS Transit Gateway integration

  AWS Direct Connect should be a much more attractive service for enterprises due to some recent changes. See how these upgrades can simplify your hybrid architecture.  Continue Reading

• Try these 5 team-building activities for software developers

  Whether it's a soft skills workshop, simulated outage exercise or in-house tech conference, these one-day events get dev teams out of a coding rut. Plan yours now.  Continue Reading

• Kick-start AWS cost reduction with these tools and techniques

  Never turn your back on a cloud deployment. Learn how to tame AWS bills through capacity planning and governance practices, relying on CloudFormation, Cost Explorer and other AWS products.  Continue Reading

• Follow these hybrid cloud infrastructure best practices

  Although a hybrid cloud approach can seem daunting, it enables enterprises to get the best of both worlds -- if managed correctly. Learn the dos and don'ts of hybrid cloud deployments.  Continue Reading

• Exchange troubleshooting tools help unclog email issues

  When problems with email occur, they can stem from an improper configuration of the Exchange Server system. Here's how to unravel some common messaging platform problems.  Continue Reading

• How to handle service downtime in the cloud age

  You know what happens when you assume. Don't set and forget those critical IT infrastructure services in the cloud without putting together a contingency plan.  Continue Reading

• What the VMware VCP certification backtrack means for you

  In 2019, VMware rolled back its VCP certification policy. This means that expired VCP 4 and 5 certificates have gone live again, and VCP names now correlate with year.  Continue Reading

• Top 8 cloud administrator interview questions and answers

  Hoping to become a cloud administrator? There's a lot to cover -- from tools to certifications. Prepare for your interview with these eight questions.  Continue Reading

• Simplify SaaS integration with an IT service aggregator

  SaaS management can cause as many headaches as SaaS apps prevent. Poor integrations between disparate tools can create bottlenecks and failures, but aggregators can help.  Continue Reading

• A comparison of 6 speech-to-text services

  AWS, Microsoft and Google can add speech-to-text capabilities to apps, but they're not your only option. Compare those cloud-based tools to other AI-infused transcription services.  Continue Reading

• 10 skills of highly effective software testers

  QA professionals with hands-on experience and a mix of technical and soft skills offer great value for software engineering teams. Testers with these 10 skills can boost their careers.  Continue Reading

• Design vSphere clusters with consistency in mind

  You can reduce the chances of poor performance and data loss with a solid vSphere cluster design, one that keeps networking and configuration consistency in mind.  Continue Reading

• Implement and manage an event-driven microservices architecture

  Learn the basics of event-driven architecture as they apply to microservices, with the help of real-world examples and three main architecture patterns.  Continue Reading

• Serverless testing in CI eliminates surprises in production

  Writing in a functional language without intuitive unit test coverage? Don't have control over resources or scaling? Here's how to make serverless testing work anyway.  Continue Reading

• Use modern cloud security best practices

  Enterprises still worry about the security of cloud and if migrating will put data at risk. Explore modern methods, technologies and tools that help strengthen cloud environments.  Continue Reading

• Assess the pros and cons of citizen developers in the enterprise

  When it comes to citizen developers and no-code/low-code, there really is no one-size-fits-all approach. Determine their value, as well as their limitations, for your specific app development needs.  Continue Reading

• 3 key unstructured data storage challenges and how to resolve them

  Volume, variety and value make storing unstructured data difficult. We look at how some vendors are helping enterprises get control of their burgeoning data stores.  Continue Reading

• Software reliability engineering practices for distributed apps

  Learn how these four software reliability engineering concepts -- inventories, monitoring, observability and Pareto analysis -- can aid API management and application performance.  Continue Reading

• With Packer, VM template creation is easy

  Templates are the quickest, easiest way to deploy VMs in vSphere. You can use a free tool such as Packer and a builder such as vmware-iso to automate the creation of VM templates.  Continue Reading

• Managed Kubernetes doesn't mean set it and forget it

  Don't let the name fool you: Cloud-based managed Kubernetes services still require user management. Here's what IT teams still need to know when deploying on AKS, EKS and GKE.  Continue Reading

• Implement serverless architecture on AWS without Lambda

  Serverless on AWS isn't all about Lambda. In fact, many of the services developers use often -- such as S3, Aurora and others -- can fit into serverless orchestration patterns.  Continue Reading

• Don't buy a GPU for machine learning unless you have the workload

  Virtual GPUs and machine learning might seem like a perfect match, but specialized chips might not be worth the investment if your workloads won't use the cards' full capacity.  Continue Reading

• Public cloud services grow HPC market, but work remains

  HPC applications need a lot of resources, but not all enterprises can meet those requirements. However, new cloud services are emerging to address that gap in the market.  Continue Reading

• What semantic monitoring can and can't do for microservices

  Semantic monitoring can identify microservices performance problems, catch bugs in transactions and ensure uptime. But when you test in production, you'd better know what you're doing.  Continue Reading

• How to choose hyper-converged backup for data protection

  Data protection is essential for any hyper-converged infrastructure. How you back up data -- natively, agentless or using agents -- depends on your environment and other factors.  Continue Reading

• How to become a UX designer with your QA background

  If you're a tester, a switch to a UX role is fairly simple. A range of UX design skills are just a matter of evaluating user needs before developers build the app code -- not after.  Continue Reading

• What you need to know about Google Cloud Anthos

  It's time to learn the foundational concepts of Google Anthos, as well as its seven core components that set it apart from AWS Outposts and Azure Stack.  Continue Reading

• Understand KubeVirt basics to help get you started

  Getting to know KubeVirt prior to use is essential. Though it relies on core Kubernetes technology, running VMs alongside containers is something you might be unfamiliar with.  Continue Reading

• Think carefully about API language standards

  API language standards were few and far between in the past, but now cloud has made API standardization more important than ever. Learn what you need to know about these standards.  Continue Reading

• Data center performance requirements spur 25 GbE upgrades

  Enterprises are upgrading their data centers with 25 GbE to achieve better throughput and support I/O-intensive applications. Here are some best practices for making the switch.  Continue Reading

• Obtain and deploy Hyper-V with Admin Center rather than VARs

  Using Admin Center to deploy Hyper-V over VARs can offer admins flexibility and the ability to remotely manage servers, but the push toward cloud migration can be an issue.  Continue Reading

• How to live with loss of control with cloud software updates

  IT pros don't have the same control over updates and versions in the cloud as they do on premises. Stay ahead of the changes and communicate to staff to lessen any negative impacts.  Continue Reading

• How to get out of a bad colocation contract

  Renegotiation, legal action and cancellation are all options if your colocation service agreement isn't up to par. But each option requires research to avoid big fees or downtime.  Continue Reading

• Achieve network perimeter security through deep segmentation

  Firewall effectiveness is in deep decline, but there's still a way to create an effective security perimeter through the practice of deep segmentation. Learn how.  Continue Reading

• 5 steps to include on your software update checklist

  Training, testing and automation are all essential components to software updates. Implementing these concepts makes version maintenance a less herculean task.  Continue Reading

• Ensure cloud migration security with these tips

  Security is always a concern in the data center, as well as in cloud -- but what about during a migration? Learn how to protect sensitive data both in transit and before it goes live.  Continue Reading

• ALM tools face-off pits SpiraTeam vs. Jira

  Development teams must adopt an ALM tool that supports its procedures and objectives. Atlassian and Inflectra cater to different size dev teams. Which tool fits your needs?  Continue Reading

• Do multi-tenant environments still create noisy neighbors?

  A noisy neighbor isn't just a real-world problem. Learn how a noisy neighbor can affect workload performance and how the public cloud has changed to address this issue.  Continue Reading

• An overview of VMware's UEM market involvement

  Despite a slow start, the UEM market is on the rise. VMware offers Workspace ONE and forges deals with Sprint, Dell and Honeywell in the hopes of increasing UEM adoption.  Continue Reading

• How to migrate from Azure to Amazon's cloud with AWS SMS

  AWS Server Migration Service can move large swaths of Azure, Windows and VMware VMs into AWS, whether it's a one-time migration or a periodic replication between environments. Learn how to put it to use.  Continue Reading

• API workflow design patterns for microservices scenarios

  When it comes to workflow systems for microservices, there's no one-size-fits-all approach. Learn about the API workflow pattern options that can set you straight.  Continue Reading

• What to expect with SD-WAN management, intent and usability

  Users can expect advancements in SD-WAN intent, usability and management, as vendors seek to improve their developer ecosystems, integration and multi-tenancy capabilities.  Continue Reading

• Compare Google Cloud Firestore and Firebase Realtime Database

  Managed NoSQL databases are increasingly popular for app development. Compare two such options from Google -- Realtime Database and Cloud Firestore -- to see if they meet your needs.  Continue Reading

• 4 QLC workloads and why they're a good fit for QLC NAND flash

  Find out about the read-intensive applications that work best with QLC NAND. Analytics, data archiving, streaming media and database workloads are all good options.  Continue Reading

• 6 multi-cloud storage challenges that affect strategic plans

  Using multiple cloud storage providers can affect more than just how and where your data is stored. Discover the areas you need to consider to improve performance and costs.  Continue Reading

• Understanding AWS security groups' capabilities and limitations

  Expand your knowledge of AWS security groups. Learn how to configure them for traffic protection, along with how they compare to other firewall options on AWS.  Continue Reading

• Cloud adoption questions every IT admin should ask

  For all of a cloud service's benefits, there are limitations, such as restricted access to infrastructure, that cause IT teams to be leery of adoption.  Continue Reading

• 3 key problems computational storage devices can solve

  This emerging technology brings stored data closer to compute processes, solving latency and performance issues. Discover the three potential advantages of computational storage.  Continue Reading

• BigQuery updates highlight AI push, but work remains

  Google took a different approach than AWS and Microsoft when it built a service for ad hoc SQL queries. See how that played a role in the latest round of updates to BigQuery.  Continue Reading

• NSX-T 2.4 could surpass NSX-V as VMware's primary SDN platform

  VMware NSX-T now includes High Availability, a simplified UI and firewall updates. If it can provide your data center the same functionality as NSX-V, consider making the switch.  Continue Reading

• Design a VMware environment with CPUs, storage in mind

  A solid infrastructure is critical to smooth operations in the data center. Admins designing a VMware environment should think about CPUs, storage and reference architectures.  Continue Reading

• Flexible consumption models lower IT overhead, help investments

  Flexible consumption lets you track infrastructure usage and decrease tech investment overhead. It may seem similar to the as-a-service model, but there are differences between the two.  Continue Reading

• 6 steps to a successful network disaster recovery plan

  Don't wait until disaster strikes to consider network resiliency and recovery. Use these six practical steps to build a network disaster recovery plan that fits your business needs.  Continue Reading

• How to troubleshoot unexpected ESXi host reboots using crash logs

  When your ESXi host abruptly reboots, you can use logs to track the potential causes, whether they are planned, environmental or hardware-related.  Continue Reading

• Weigh infrastructure as code risks against the benefits

  Infrastructure as code can transform the modern data center, but maintain a healthy dose of caution -- and thorough documentation and testing environments -- to prevent chaos.  Continue Reading

• Staging environment best practices that boost software QA

  Despite advances like shift-right testing in production environments, staging environments still have a crucial role to play.  Continue Reading

• Prepare your organization for 100G data center Ethernet

  Leaf-spine topologies, Ethernet and optics research are driving the next generation of data center networking infrastructure. Stay ahead of the curve with these technologies.  Continue Reading

• Check Office 365 usage reports for user adoption insights

  Microsoft gives administrators access to many Office 365 reports to pinpoint ways to improve user adoption rates and tighten up potential security leaks.  Continue Reading

• Explore Azure interface options for cloud developers

  All cloud providers, including Microsoft, offer a range of resources to aid cloud development, deployment and management. Explore the various interfaces Azure developers can use to accomplish these tasks.  Continue Reading

• Cloud experts weigh in on AWS container capabilities

  Learn where AWS container services stand today: what limitations AWS needs to improve upon and where Amazon's container capabilities are headed in the future.  Continue Reading

• The essentials of refactoring a monolith to microservices

  Enterprise apps are complex, long-lived and vital to the business. In short, they're excruciatingly difficult to modernize. If you address these prerequisites, it will hurt less.  Continue Reading

• Set up an AWS recommendation engine with Amazon Personalize

  Amazon Personalize offers machine recommendation algorithms as a service, but it's not the only recommendation engine on the market with AI behind it.  Continue Reading

• How to install ESXi on a USB drive and why you should

  With just a USB flash drive and an ISO image, you can install VMware ESXi. Learn how this can save you time and money, as well as two methods for installation.  Continue Reading

• How to design APIs for hybrid cloud architecture

  Hybrid cloud is complex, particularly because it's the application -- not the server -- that manages API flows. Review some strategies for API management in a hybrid scenario.  Continue Reading

• CASB tools evolve to meet broader set of cloud security needs

  When choosing a CASB, enterprises face two primary options: a stand-alone service from a third party or a bundled tool set from some of the large cloud providers. It's important to pick your flavor wisely.  Continue Reading

• A serverless architecture tutorial for development teams

  Still emerging serverless technology offers some big advantages for development teams. This serverless architecture tutorial can help clarify the basics on where to start.  Continue Reading

• Design vSphere data stores with VM change and growth in mind

  As the data inside a VM grows, you can make sure your storage accounts for that growth using a few methods, such as thin-provisioning VMDK files and limiting snapshots.  Continue Reading

• Apply automation for streamlined IT asset management

  Without accurate data, IT asset management processes fail. But, with automation and self-service capabilities, admins can efficiently track assets -- from onboarding to end of life.  Continue Reading

• How to build a test automation framework

  To create an automated testing framework, establish plans for test creation, tools, reporting, logs and maintenance.  Continue Reading

• Is a Cloud Foundry deployment right for you?

  Enterprise PaaS needs have grown from streamlining app deployment to the ability to use the hosting infrastructure of their choice -- which has put Cloud Foundry in the spotlight.  Continue Reading

• A quick guide to data center commissioning

  Service provider selection, design documentation and thorough testing are all necessary for commissioning. Learn the process's nuances to get your facilities online.  Continue Reading

• 4 practical methods to increase service resilience

  Resiliency refers to the ability of your architecture to quickly predict, detect and mitigate potential performance failures. Here are four ways to fortify your software.  Continue Reading

• Discern these open source license terms to avoid legal snags

  Fluent in Ruby but at a loss in legalese? Open source licenses obligate developers to observe specific conditions, so you must know these terms. Let's break them down in plain English.  Continue Reading

• What to expect -- and not expect -- from serverless computing

  The scope of serverless computing continues to evolve as cloud providers try to reduce the drawbacks and join the technology with containers.  Continue Reading

• Deploying a hyper-converged cluster with mismatched hardware

  Software HCI implementations make it possible to build HCI clusters from mismatched hardware. Even so, see why matched hardware can make deployment easier to manage and maintain.  Continue Reading

• How HPE InfoSight AI proactively spots, solves infrastructure issues

  Find out how the cloud service uses AI, machine learning and predictive analytics to collect and analyze data from millions of sensors to address problems before they happen.  Continue Reading

• Examine the role of VMware in the HCI market

  VMware carved out a leading position for itself in the HCI market. But HCI's evolution to encompass new areas, such as public cloud, keeps VMware on its toes.  Continue Reading

• How to plot out an Office 365 tenant-to-tenant migration

  IT pros in organizations on Office 365 that undergo a merger or acquisition will have their work cut out for them to successfully execute a data migration plan between tenants.  Continue Reading

• Conduct cloud security training across the business

  A well-educated staff is one of the best tools in the fight against security breaches. Consider these tips to prepare your employees for the risks in the cloud.  Continue Reading

• Construct a solid Active Directory password policy

  Most user authentication still relies on a strong password to keep attackers at bay. Here's how to keep your guard up without adding to your administrative workload.  Continue Reading

• Best practices for negotiating a SaaS SLA

  SaaS apps offer convenience, but enterprises still need to do their due diligence with prospective vendors. Follow these tips to get the best SaaS service-level agreement.  Continue Reading

• 5 Kubernetes adoption considerations you should think about

  Understand the basics of Kubernetes, including how it works and its pros and cons, before deciding whether or not to adopt. Then, figure out how you plan to manage it.  Continue Reading

• 3 distributed tracing tools perfect for microservices

  Distributed tracing is a critical part of the microservices monitoring processes. Here are three tools that can help provide the view you need to identify strangling bottlenecks.  Continue Reading

• Prepare for the deprecation of Amazon S3 path-style API requests

  AWS' users should start building apps with virtual-hosted API requests, if they aren't already. Learn about the S3 path-style change and how it could affect your workloads.  Continue Reading

• Combine Puppet and Chocolatey to drive Windows DevOps

  Through the use of Puppet and Chocolatey side by side, Windows IT professionals can use Linux-like DevOps tools to automate the deployment and configuration of their systems.  Continue Reading

• Learn about the top telecom certifications

  Use this expert advice to wade through myriad telecom certifications and pinpoint the top certifications for the industry, like TCO, iNARTE and BICSI certifications.  Continue Reading

• Inside Amazon Managed Blockchain components and pricing

  Many enterprises can benefit from blockchain technology, but few should build it from scratch. See how Amazon Managed Blockchain works, and its pricing, as one option for blockchain as a service.  Continue Reading

• PKI authentication explained: The basics for IT administrators

  Public key infrastructure is part and parcel of modern digital business, from secure communications to data transmission and beyond. Admins must understand PKI to optimize its benefits.  Continue Reading

• Streamline CI/CD with the Jenkins Blue Ocean tool

  Organizations that run Jenkins may find that plugins complicate their CI/CD pipeline. Here's how the continuous delivery tool Blue Ocean can help keep things on track.  Continue Reading

• Essential virtualization certifications for IT professionals

  As companies move beyond virtualization, the need for IT pros with fine-tuned expertise in cloud administration, ethical hacking, legacy infrastructure migration and automation rises.  Continue Reading

• Prepare to face these 4 common challenges with microservices

  The benefits of microservices come with a cost. Review four common ways breaking up a monolith can actually complicate routine application development and management tasks.  Continue Reading

• Why streaming telemetry tops SNMP in tracking network performance

  SNMP isn't going away anytime soon, but streaming telemetry is a much more effective way to generate critical alerts and measure network performance.  Continue Reading

• Explore the Citrix guest UEFI boot feature for modern systems

  A guest boot feature offered by Citrix provides admins with improved system performance, but they should be wary of its continued experimental status.  Continue Reading

• 3 ways to benefit from open source infrastructure

  Using open source infrastructure can reduce operating costs and streamline upgrades, but it's important to weigh the pros and cons before you jump on the bandwagon.  Continue Reading

• Run ESXi on NUC for a quiet but powerful at-home test lab

  You can use Intel's NUC to set up a small but mighty at-home VMware test lab. Decide whether to nest your environments, and then learn how an NUC could benefit you.  Continue Reading

• How to use Athena to troubleshoot AWS operations issues

  Amazon Athena runs analysis against data stored in S3, where AWS admins can find a trove of ops data for troubleshooting and optimization. Use it on ELB, VPC and other services.  Continue Reading

• How to form a regression testing plan with these 5 questions

  Make regression testing part of a software quality control plan. Determine the project's testing requirements, and team preferences, to clarify a potent regression testing strategy.  Continue Reading