Tips

Tips

• Use Puppet for Windows ops automation with dsc_lite

  With DSC and dsc_lite, as well as a native option, users operate in Puppet within the familiarity of PowerShell settings. Here's how each approach works.  Continue Reading

• How to create test data that yields accurate QA results

  Testers need valid data to prevent app defects, which means they must simulate real data types and structure them as closely as possible. Don't fake it when you make it.  Continue Reading

• The future of SD-WAN moves away from stand-alone product

  'Tis the season for a look at the future of SD-WAN. In 2019, one networking expert expects more managed SD-WAN, further market consolidation and a shift away from individual SD-WAN devices.  Continue Reading

• DynamoDB pricing option makes it a go-to for serverless apps

  DynamoDB had its drawbacks, but the addition of on-demand billing and ACID transactions makes it a solid database option for serverless applications.  Continue Reading

• Foster cross-team collaboration with IM, mind maps and more

  Build a collaborative workspace that's more than just an HR slogan. These tools get teams to talk and tackle problems together.  Continue Reading

• Gauge your platform purchasing options before SD-WAN deployment

  Finalizing how an organization deploys SD-WAN can be a complex process, especially with the range of available purchasing options. But studying the options is always a good start.  Continue Reading

• Ways administrators can avoid IT burnout

  The last thing an overextended admin needs is additional work, but there are certain practices that, once introduced, can curb tech burnout in the long run.  Continue Reading

• AIOps use cases address complexity in virtual data centers

  The ever-growing complexity of virtual infrastructures is making management a struggle, but an AIOps platform can enable admins to transform raw data into useful information.  Continue Reading

• Align KPIs for IT with corresponding business goals

  It's easy for IT KPIs to take a back seat to those of the business or vice versa. Instead, explore these ways to maintain a working balance.  Continue Reading

• Which APM tool works for devs, CIOs? New Relic vs. Stackify

  Stackify Retrace and New Relic tools typify a divide between developers and CIOs on application monitoring. The products share many capabilities, but those features aren't equally granular or accessible.  Continue Reading

• Create an IT support process to take on any outage

  Every IT incident must be met with a streamlined resolution procedure, all the way from critical to trivial. Ensure those plans are in place before it's do or die.  Continue Reading

• Streamline data center power usage tracking with DCIM

  If you want a more in-depth picture of your data center's power consumption, explore DCIM options that provide server workload metrics and overall power system data.  Continue Reading

• Meet Hyper-V cluster requirements to maintain high availability

  Hyper-V high availability is important for failover, so check that Hyper-V clusters meet the proper requirements, which range from hardware management to network configuration.  Continue Reading

• How to install ZFS on Linux

  ZFS on Linux lets admins error correct in real time and use solid-state disks for data caching. With the command-line interface, they can install it for these benefits.  Continue Reading

• 10 critical multi-cloud and edge computing storage questions

  Combining edge-to-cloud computing with data storage is riddled with complexities. Luckily, there are steps to take that can help avoid a storage management disaster.  Continue Reading

• An overview of ARM templates for Azure resource deployment

  Azure Resource Manager templates streamline the way IT and development teams deploy cloud resources. To get started, grasp these key concepts around formatting, syntax and more.  Continue Reading

• 3 tips for managing multi-cloud network architectures

  By correlating network events, understanding network paths and crafting detailed exception reports, network managers can get a handle on their multi-cloud environments.  Continue Reading

• Embrace these 5 tenets for better QA leadership

  Knowledge and hands-on skills are always useful, but successful QA team leads also inspire and stand up for their teams. Here are five ways to remove team obstacles and coach great testers.  Continue Reading

• How to use microservices to manage serverless APIs

  Monolithic applications may be a little bit heavy for development of serverless APIs, but microservices can make all the difference. Here's how to make it work.  Continue Reading

• Use these shift-right methods to test code in production

  There's no shortage of ways for a QA team to adopt shift-right testing. But, while the approach can fit in with continuous deployment, don't consider it a catch-all for bug removal.  Continue Reading

• 5 best ways to minimize cloud scaling costs

  Many factors can contribute to a high public cloud bill -- one of which is scalability. Apply these five practices to effectively scale cloud resources without breaking the bank.  Continue Reading

• How to use Azure Site Recovery Deployment Planner

  A successful disaster recovery procedure is more complicated than most people think. Learn how an Azure service can streamline the process of VM replication and failover.  Continue Reading

• IBM multi-cloud portfolio grows with more tools, acquisitions

  IBM continues to build out its multi-cloud management portfolio, but it's still far from alone in a highly competitive market.  Continue Reading

• Stay in control with these Active Directory basics

  Administrators have an ever-increasing number of resources to handle and permissions to track, but they can cut this seemingly impossible task down to size with Active Directory.  Continue Reading

• Integration tactics to ease hybrid, multi-cloud environments

  Hybrid and multi-cloud are increasingly common deployment models, which makes integration a priority. Review three specific approaches to connect on-premises and cloud-based systems.  Continue Reading

• Meet data center compliance standards in hybrid deployments

  Data center compliance is a moving target that shifts with standards and technologies. Don't get sidetracked by the complexity -- prioritize performance while maintaining compliance.  Continue Reading

• Simple-to-automate IT tasks: Stop doing these 3 things

  There are certain tasks that no IT ops administrator should still do manually. No more excuses -- take these easy operations processes off your plate, and let scripts or tools take over.  Continue Reading

• Compare Docker containers vs. VMs for app dev environments

  While there are important technical distinctions between VMs and containers, the reasons developers opt for the latter are often more philosophical, or cultural, in nature.  Continue Reading

• Unlock storage savings with Windows Server deduplication

  Windows Server comes with a data deduplication feature to reduce the organization's storage crunch, but it's important to plan around some potential drawbacks.  Continue Reading

• Network design checklist: How to design a local area network

  Local area network design considerations for IT consultants range from IP default gateway redundancy to device standardization. Browse these tips iIf you are building a LAN.  Continue Reading

• Weighing open converged infrastructure against composable

  OCI and composable infrastructure are both touted as the latest in convergence, but it is important to know how they differ before making an IT buying decision.  Continue Reading

• Consider these options to reduce AWS data transfer costs

  While it's free to get data onto AWS, it can be expensive to get it off. Avoid being stung by hefty egress fees with services such as CloudFront, Direct Connect and Snowball.  Continue Reading

• Ways to partially implement Agile and still get results

  Pair programming, iterative workflows, timeboxed builds and other Agile tenets benefit app dev teams. Here's how to incorporate Agile practices and culture with minimal disruption.  Continue Reading

• When traditional data center technology trumps hyper-converged

  Committing to a conventional data center rather than a hyper-converged approach is sometimes the smarter move. We take a look at some reasons to steer clear of HCI.  Continue Reading

• Choosing the best OS: Linux server vs. Windows Server

  When determining the best server OS for a data center, you have Windows Server and multiple Linux options. For both, you'll want to look at vendor support, cost and functionality.  Continue Reading

• Google Cloud Filestore lends itself to legacy enterprise apps

  Among other uses, Google's cloud file storage service can simplify the migration of legacy apps to the cloud. Learn about its main features, and how it compares to the competition.  Continue Reading

• Resolve an Outlook outage when using Office 365

  When administrators get reports about an Outlook outage, they must work quickly to identify the affected accounts, research the causes and know where to turn for support.  Continue Reading

• Discover practical applications of machine learning on AWS

  Many organizations still don't know how to get value out of AI, but industries ranging from finance to manufacturing have found practical applications for Amazon SageMaker.  Continue Reading

• Assess native cloud monitoring tools from top IaaS providers

  Monitoring tools from Google, AWS and Azure all share a common goal: help developers optimize application performance. But they also have key differences that users should note.  Continue Reading

• Cloudlets extend cloud power to edge with virtualized delivery

  Cloud computing power for IoT and mobile devices is within reach due to the capabilities of cloudlets, which use virtualization and small data centers to extend computing power.  Continue Reading

• How mainframe maintenance intersects with x86 server upkeep

  Mainframe maintenance overlaps with some x86 server upkeep tasks. Patching and storage management play a role in keeping mainframes up to date.  Continue Reading

• Learn how to improve software quality with reverse-engineering

  Customer complaints about a team's app can contain insight on how to improve it. Yet, to decipher the actual cause of any problem and a change to fix it, QA needs to be brought in.  Continue Reading

• Design data center redundancy based on cloud outage lessons

  Public cloud providers have had catastrophic outages, but IT administrators can learn from cloud redundancy failures and successes -- and apply them to on-premises infrastructures.  Continue Reading

• Open source tools to consider for your RESTful APIs

  Software teams don't have to break the bank when they shop for RESTful API management tools. The right combination of tools that use open source code can help manage the whole lifecycle at low cost.  Continue Reading

• Why teams create DevOps platforms to match projects

  Prebuilt platforms offer a wealth of capabilities without the hassle to integrate everything. But cherry-picking for exact needs yields tighter resource management.  Continue Reading

• Control resource sprawl in multi-cloud architectures

  Resource sprawl can occur quickly and easily in a multi-cloud deployment. Learn how to dodge this costly, yet common, issue with these five best practices.  Continue Reading

• Compare cloud container registries from AWS, Azure and Google

  Many developers use the Docker Hub container registry, but there are other options from AWS, Azure and Google. Explore these provider-native registries, and their key differences.  Continue Reading

• 8 steps to effective multi-cloud cost management

  Strategic thinking and careful planning can help you squeeze the maximum value out of your multi-cloud environment. Here are eight tips to help you get started.  Continue Reading

• Hyper-convergence forms core of Windows Server 2019 features

  The latest server OS release from Microsoft upgrades many of its software-defined features to make it easier to use a hybrid cloud model.  Continue Reading

• Understanding what Azure AD federation really means

  A company that adopts SaaS apps to get work done can ease the transition by implementing a single sign-on method. Learn how to set up this arrangement in a secure manner.  Continue Reading

• Evaluate 3 cloud-native CI/CD pipeline tools

  When it comes to continuous integration and delivery tools, there is no shortage of comparable options -- including those from public cloud providers, such as AWS, Azure and Google.  Continue Reading

• Manage host, VM access with a Hyper-V administrators security group

  Use Hyper-V roles to limit users to predefined levels of access. By creating security groups and managing them with PowerShell, you can implement role-based security at scale.  Continue Reading

• What to look for in an API development SaaS platform

  Not all SaaS API development platforms are made the same. Learn about the fundamental capabilities that API SaaS tools should provide and discover some popular options.  Continue Reading

• How CloudFormation Macros stack up against other IaC tools

  Developers can use an updated CloudFormation feature to manage and deploy IaC templates with Lambda. However, other native and third-party tools may be better choices depending on users' needs.  Continue Reading

• Generate a Hyper-V report to track clusters, nodes with PowerShell

  It's difficult to navigate all the information related to Hyper-V nodes and clusters, so use PowerShell commands and scripts to generate reports and automate information retrieval.  Continue Reading

• AWS security tools embrace AI, but miss on multi-cloud

  AWS has added AI-backed services, such as Amazon GuardDuty and Amazon Macie, to expand its security capabilities, but still hasn't addressed users' needs outside of its own platform.  Continue Reading

• Big picture QA testing skills foster better app usability

  As companies wrestle to fit QA into budgets, keep in mind the skills that human testers provide -- from customer satisfaction to disaster prevention.  Continue Reading

• How NFV and SDN could shape the future of telecom

  Looking to the future of telecom, NFV and SDN can help generate new services revenue and lower operating costs using cloud principles, rather a traditional network standards approach.  Continue Reading

• Snowball Edge enhances data migration to AWS

  Enterprises use Snowball to speed data migrations, but the portable appliance has its limitations. With its newer Edge devices, AWS added compute capabilities to address that.  Continue Reading

• Use Active Directory for testing environments in DevOps shops

  AD enables admins to create testing environments almost identical to production environments through duplicated trees, interconnected forests and authentication best practices.  Continue Reading

• How 3 benefits of SDN can help small businesses

  As SDN matures and evolves from its original definition, it's getting harder for small businesses to ignore the benefits of SDN, like better visibility, security and efficiency.  Continue Reading

• Combat algorithm bias with these software test pointers

  As AI penetrates all kinds of software, it's imperative that testers devise a plan to verify predictive results. Put QA professionals on task to root out AI bias.  Continue Reading

• NetOps, SecOps, DevOps concepts merge to automate security testing

  By adopting DevOps concepts, network teams can automate security testing. But, as development, network and security tasks mingle, some staffing challenges can arise.  Continue Reading

• Evaluate Linux server distros for your data center

  Linux is known for its reliability and flexibility in the data center. To select the proper distribution for your servers, you'll need to evaluate your application and support needs  Continue Reading

• Break down the main features of Azure DevOps Services

  DevOps continues to influence how vendors shape their cloud offerings, and this was the case behind Microsoft's recent rebranding of Visual Studio Team Services.  Continue Reading

• 4 NVMe storage array options to consider

  Here's what you need to know to pick the NVMe array that provides your organization with the performance improvement it needs and also fits its budget.  Continue Reading

• Hunt down zombie VMs to trim Windows Server licensing costs

  Temporary workloads can cause organizations to buy more Windows Server licenses than they need, but admins can track down zombie servers to consolidate workloads and keep costs down.  Continue Reading

• Prioritize UX in a serverless mobile app framework

  There's no universal approach to incorporate serverless functionality into mobile app development. Cloud tools and serverless elements can complicate a deployment.  Continue Reading

• How to realize server virtualization energy savings

  Virtualizing servers is one of the most effective steps to reduce energy consumption, especially when the hypervisor and VM placement are taken into account.  Continue Reading

• Using AI, machine learning in networking to improve analytics

  The barrage of alerts modern network analytics tools create is problematic, but the capabilities advanced tech like AI provides can help ease the burden to network operations.  Continue Reading

• Compliance automation prevents regulation audit snafus

  Many IT organizations address compliance issues manually, even though Puppet, Fugue and other tools can enforce configurations that comply with regulations and even provide an audit trail.  Continue Reading

• Hyper-V VM template creation made easy

  Creating Hyper-V VM templates is a straightforward process, but there are a few things you should consider, such as template creation source and administrative password assignment.  Continue Reading

• 5 fundamental steps of managing APIs

  API management is undeniably essential, but it requires a comprehensive plan. Here are the five steps of an API management strategy and advice on how to complete each one.  Continue Reading

• Azure Reserved Instances boost flexibility around VM size

  A recent Azure update for Reserved Instances offers enterprises increased flexibility in terms of VM size, but it also comes with some additional management tasks.  Continue Reading

• Here's what it takes to become a cloud automation engineer

  A cloud automation engineer is a challenging role for any IT professional because of the varied requirements. Find out what education, experience and skill sets you need to get the job.  Continue Reading

• AWS container services set for next steps

  AWS' container line-up doesn't differ much from the competition today, but expect the cloud provider to expand its offerings and integrate with serverless platforms such as Lambda.  Continue Reading

• Avoid these app design mistakes to save a cloud budget

  Certain oversights during app design can increase cloud costs. Dive into the details of four often-overlooked mistakes, and learn how to avoid them to keep your budget in check.  Continue Reading

• Support for SaaS applications demands a hands-on approach

  While they reduce some management burdens for enterprise IT teams, SaaS apps don't exactly run on autopilot, either. Be sure to put a proper support model in place.  Continue Reading

• Properly configure resources to reduce cloud security threats

  Misconfigured cloud resources can quickly open the door to IT risks. Be mindful of access controls, and don't brush off your cloud provider's recommended security practices.  Continue Reading

• Use this Microsoft deployment tool for easier setups

  It's not new, but the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit tends to be overlooked when administrators need a way to set up Windows in an automated fashion. See why MDT is worth using.  Continue Reading

• Enable and disable Hyper-V secure boot with PowerShell

  The manual process of enabling secure boot is time-consuming, so use PowerShell cmdlets and scripts to make it efficient to use secure boot in Hyper-V.  Continue Reading

• A quick primer on microservices load balancing

  Work distribution in microservices is tricky; without the right strategy, you risk that workloads won't scale effectively. Here's how to nail down load balancing for microservices.  Continue Reading

• Construct a better build-deploy pipeline with these 6 measures

  Developers can launch code to production faster than ever, and still do it safely, with careful attention to the build-deploy pipeline, tests and monitoring metrics.  Continue Reading

• Understand the ins and outs of private cloud architecture

  Private clouds are based on server virtualization, but they aren't the same. Organizations must consider private cloud's specific use cases in comparison to server virtualization.  Continue Reading

• Use Microsoft SCVMM to clone a VM

  There are some requirements you must meet to clone VMs with SCVMM, but the steps to clone an existing VM -- whether it's running, paused or shutdown -- are fairly simple.  Continue Reading

• SD-WAN and SLAs: Why crafting internal SLAs is a smart move

  IT teams can use SD-WAN to keep track of network performance, upping the possibility to create and enforce internal SLAs that better reflect business requirements.  Continue Reading

• Choose the right workloads for serverless platforms in cloud

  Serverless might be the next big thing in cloud, but that doesn't mean it's a fit for all enterprise workloads. See if your requirements align with these common use cases.  Continue Reading

• How blockchain data storage may revolutionize the enterprise

  Blockchain for data storage promises to bring added trust, reliability and security to storage, but is it ready to become a mainstream technology? Experts offer their views.  Continue Reading

• Recommended QA conferences for software testers of all stripes

  Testing, QA and development conferences host a breadth of experts and helpful peers. From one-day vendor events to weeklong national shows, there's an option to fit your needs.  Continue Reading

• Compare AWS data lakes with S3 against HDFS

  An S3 data lake streamlines the analysis of data that lives exclusively on AWS infrastructure but presents limitations for those who want to move beyond the Amazon ecosystem.  Continue Reading

• Explore Aurora Serverless capabilities for enterprise use

  Users should explore the potential benefits and disadvantages of AWS' serverless database option before they jump in and focus on which environments the service fits best.  Continue Reading

• Research advances data center liquid cooling tech

  You might want to investigate alternatives to water and fans to keep your data center cool. Still, there are costs and environmental concerns facing researchers and IT administrators.  Continue Reading

• Mitigate data center storage capacity miscalculations

  You can use cloud storage and deduplication to expand storage capacity, prevent application failure and maintain data center performance.  Continue Reading

• PowerShell Core 6.1 offers many small improvements

  New PowerShell Core functionality includes the addition of Windows PowerShell 5.1 modules, making this version worth a closer look for administrators.  Continue Reading

• How to choose between serverless and containerized microservices

  Explore the intricacies of serverless microservices and container microservices to discover which development requirements are crucial to your ultimate decision.  Continue Reading

• Some tricks to help manage load balancing in microservices

  Load balancing is a critical, and potentially thorny, part of cloud-native microservices management. Consider these methods and tools that can help address these challenges.  Continue Reading

• Don't dwell on the nuances of low-code vs. no-code

  As more and more business users acquire basic programming skills, enterprises shouldn't get too caught up in the nuances between low-code and no-code platforms.  Continue Reading

• Bring AI to the edge with AWS Greengrass ML Inference

  Learn the basics of machine learning inference with AWS Greengrass and how it can help train models and increase data value with real-time insights.  Continue Reading

• Secondary storage structure is based on workload needs

  Using secondary storage can improve the performance of mission-critical applications, but deciding what data is secondary in importance isn't as easy as it seems.  Continue Reading

• Keep IT project planning on track with 5 principles

  Whether you're a seasoned IT vet about to take on the biggest project yet or a new team member spearheading an important build, follow a project planning approach that limits scope and hits goals.  Continue Reading