Modern IT Operations Skills

The modern programmer’s many hats: Putting together a DevOps team

The scale and demands of a business ultimately determines the makeup of its DevOps team, whether it’s a few full-stack devs or a group of specialists. Continue Reading

Learn shell scripts: A sys admin's guide to automation

Shell scripts and sys admins should be best friends. A day rarely goes by without using some form of shell script or another. Learn how those scripts work and start writing them. Continue Reading

Note these ops issues before you deploy with Docker containers

Docker regularly updates its containerization offering, but it's not click-to-deploy ready for production. Ops professionals should acknowledge these points before deploying Docker containers. Continue Reading

DevOps lab: Build Vagrant VMs to learn immutable infrastructure

This article is part of a series to help IT ops professionals learn DevOps by building a home lab. In this first step, a cluster of Vagrant VMs represents immutable infrastructure. Continue Reading

Learn DevOps techniques and tools in this home lab setup

This DevOps lab uses Linux VMs and Docker containers to teach administrators the basics of immutable infrastructure, configuration automation and other modern IT concepts. Continue Reading

Deep dive into Hyper-V files and folders

Understanding all aspects of a Hyper-V installation now makes it easier to troubleshoot problems later. Look under the hood of Hyper-V files and folders to prep for the worst. Continue Reading

When the big cloud infrastructure providers aren't the right fit

When a business chooses one of the major providers for its cloud services, there shouldn't be a lot of surprises. You do your homework, consider the available services, select instance types, compare costs and then make a decision. At that point, you should know what you are getting. But what if you don't want what you're getting?

There are scenarios where a business seeks out the services of one of the specialty cloud infrastructure providers. These niche providers compete against behemoths such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform, but not by trying to match them service for service. Nor can they keep pace on price. Instead, these smaller providers focus on particular niches, trying to offer specialized services, customer care and flexibility that the hyperscale providers may struggle to furnish.

The cover story for this issue of Modern Infrastructure delves into the reasons a business might choose a niche player instead of one of the major cloud infrastructure providers. TechTarget's Kristin Knapp reports on how these situations arise and how businesses respond. The right fit, she finds, might not always be found in one of the expected places.

 Continue Reading

Let's talk about IT infrastructure and emerging technologies

Work closely with hardware specialists and engineers in the data center, as emerging compute, network and storage technologies have ramifications beyond the racks. Continue Reading

How well do you know Docker components and services?

With Docker containers moving into more enterprise IT shops, it's imperative to grasp how the technology works. Test your knowledge of Docker components and services with this quiz. Continue Reading

An early adopter, Facebook is still leading DevOps best-practices

Facebook has become a marquee organization by embracing a DevOps-style philosophy. It’s a model worth following, and one companies should follow to compete. Continue Reading

Set Salt configuration management free without a master

Salt configurations usually involve at least one minion controlled by a master, but that's not always necessary. See how to use Salt to run a single machine in masterless mode. Continue Reading

Advanced shell scripting for IT ops professionals: Free chapter

Shell scripts can improve speed and automation for sys admins beyond what's possible with graphical user interfaces. Dana French's books cover advanced shell scripting for experienced users. Continue Reading

Staring down the security issues in cloud computing

Adoption of cloud computing has no doubt been slowed by worries about the security of those out-of-sight servers and resources. While reasonable, those worries have given way over time to acceptance and even optimism.

In this month's Modern Infrastructure cover story, TechTarget’s Trevor Jones writes about why security issues in cloud computing are not the impediment to adoption that they once were. In fact, some organizations are coming to the conclusion that their workloads run more securely in a public cloud than in an on-premises environment. Cloud service providers possess security expertise and experience at levels that aren’t as readily available on a typical IT staff, and certifications give confidence that providers can actually do all they claim to do.

The public cloud is not a risky place to do business, though its safeguards are different from those you've put in place to protect your own data center. These differences are most clearly seen when looking at the shared-responsibility model, which addresses many of the security issues in cloud computing. Users and providers must each do their part. Otherwise, the risks will become apparent, and cloud computing won't be what you need it to be.

This issue also looks at how a new wave of products in development brings memory and storage technologies closer together. Nonvolatile dual-inline memory modules, for example, combine the speed of memory with the persistent qualities of storage in some interesting ways. Also included is an article on how some IT shops that have adopted flash storage are simultaneously impressed and disappointed with the results. Costly flash products invariably improve performance, but they won't solve every problem or clear every bottleneck.

 Continue Reading

Shipyard floats a Docker GUI for easier container management

Deploying new Docker images is the easy part; managing and reporting on those instances is tricky. IT teams can use the Shipyard GUI to stop, start, orchestrate and manage Docker. Continue Reading

Application support and maintenance add up to operational ALM

An application isn't fully grown when it moves from development to production -- it still needs nurturing to meet its full potential. Continue Reading

Are there IT jobs in cloud capacity management?

If a company moves only 30% of workloads from its data center to the public cloud, that will reduce IT ops demand. Is there still a role for the ops engineer? Continue Reading

How the Puppet architecture manipulates configurations

Puppet is intrinsically scalable, enabling IT teams to manage one machine or hundreds. Its architecture makes the configuration management tool compatible with a range of IT setups. Continue Reading

Not playing games: The GPU vs. CPU question gets more interesting

Putting thousands of cores to work makes perfect sense when you're powering a video game. But graphics processing units, or GPUs, can't serve much practical purpose in a corporate data center, can they?

The GPU vs. CPU discussion isn't as odd as it sounds. In fact, a more broad application of GPUs in the data center can provide the processing punch that CPUs simply cannot. With tasks where data can be processed in parallel rather than in sequence, GPUs might be a particularly valuable tool. The cover story in this issue of Modern Infrastructure looks at scenarios where simultaneous processing can be just what's needed, such as with machine learning and artificial intelligence.

This month's Modern Infrastructure also looks at how data can be protected while in the data center. Full encryption is seemingly a perfect defense for data theft. But that's a difficult -- and, to some, an unrealistic-- road to travel. We look at how an IT team can better safeguard its data, factoring in costs, the tools available and the tradeoffs involved in hack-proofing an organization's data.

And what about the vulnerabilities that arise from within your business? We examine the risk of data loss posed by the shadow IT phenomenon, an ongoing and ever-changing challenge.

It's clear that data is an increasingly valuable resource. Processing it and keeping it safe -- whether that entails taking up the question of GPU vs. CPU for certain workloads or upgrading encryption -- need to be priorities for IT professionals in organizations of all sizes and types.

 Continue Reading

Set up Docker container networking for real production workloads

A technology as old as data centers -- networking -- threatens to derail the next new thing. Smart networking choices make Docker container deployments functional and organized. Continue Reading

Orchestration software: The functions and vendors to watch

Enterprises must keep their IT processes on track to stay ahead in the DevOps era. Solid orchestration software will pull automation tasks together and accelerate workflows. Continue Reading

Optimize PHP with finely tuned IT resources and settings

Application ops should address the elephant in the room -- poorly optimized PHP -- to speed load and processing times. Continue Reading

The future of containerization goes more abstract

Containers have benefits over VMs in the data center, but the future of containerization is broader than that. Continue Reading

Top cloud and data center technologies win Impact Awards

Plenty of data center technologies enter the market, aiming to solve this problem or that problem. (Or every problem, if the hype is to be believed.) But which products really hit the mark? Which ones stand out, coming along at just the right moment to address just the right need? Those are the kinds of products that garner attention in the annual Modern Infrastructure Impact Awards, and now is the time to name names. This issue unveils the 2017 Impact Award winners for the top cloud computing and data center technologies and services as selected by editors, independent experts and Modern Infrastructure readers. These participants assessed the tools they found worthy of recognition in categories ranging from best converged and hyper-converged product to best cloud migration and optimization offering to top systems management tool. To be eligible, a product needed to be either new to the market or substantially upgraded within the past year. And when the best of them distinguish themselves, that's when they warrant attention from the Modern Infrastructure awards. This issue of Modern Infrastructure also looks at artificial intelligence -- past the lofty speculation and into its possible real-world implications -- as well as the transformation going on in the server backup market. Continue Reading

2017 Impact Awards honor the best IT products and services

The votes are in. From AWS partners to system management, Modern Infrastructure readers recognize the best IT products in the 2017 Impact Awards. Continue Reading

CMDB discovery tools alone aren't the answer

CMDB discovery tools have been around for quite a long time because their need is pretty obvious. Organizations are generally understaffed to do the daily work. Many just do not staff to ... Continue Reading

Automated deployment tools mitigate the risk of human error in DevOps

There are dozens of application and infrastructure automation tools for IT shops. Choosing the right one requires project and feature evaluation. Continue Reading

Real-life change management examples prove it's harder than it looks

Whether your IT shop rigorously follows a service management framework or takes a laissez-faire approach to changes, these examples help hone change management procedures. Continue Reading

Set up a virtual home lab to learn OpenStack and more on your own time

There are many reasons to set up a virtual home lab, not least of all for career advancement and learning. Occasionally, it can be fun too. Continue Reading

Agent vs. agentless: Monitoring choices for diverse IT ops needs

All management tools must run on a device, but the standards for agent and agentless monitoring vary widely. The determination is easier once you understand monitoring data needs. Continue Reading

Idempotent configuration management sets things right -- no matter what

Idempotency ensures a system won't stray from its designated desired state, sending alerts to systems administrators if a requested change would cause a disruption. Continue Reading

Release management best practices for every IT team

No one likes an app that implodes once it reaches production. IT operations teams can save themselves some headaches by implementing release management from the initial design on. Continue Reading

Simplify your platform with IT systems management tools

So much effort goes into simply keeping an IT infrastructure up and running. Imagine what more could be accomplished once you automate some of those tasks with IT systems management tools. Continue Reading

A SaltStack tutorial to start mastering data center minions

With a basic understanding of SaltStack minions, modules, grains and other concepts, IT administrators have the power to scale up configurations. Continue Reading

CMDB best practices remain out of reach for many IT shops: Free chapter

Most IT pros know what a CMDB is, but mastering the database and asset management is difficult -- though not impossible. Continue Reading

Should I allow SSH tunneling connections through the firewall?

Allowing users to tunnel through a firewall to access any site creates a security risk. How big of a risk is it? It depends on how much you trust your users. Continue Reading

Ways to make the application deployment process clear and flexible

The application deployment manual must be flexible, and short enough to actually follow. A process that can't change with the evolving IT system isn't of much use to anyone. Continue Reading

Why orchestration services are important in the DevOps age

Automation and orchestration services are critical for modern IT systems to function well. Learn more about how these functions facilitate IT processes and workflows. Continue Reading

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A continuous delivery model right on time

With continuous delivery, good enough makes things better for business. Changing to this delivery model doesn't alleviate all app problems, but the right implementation means fewer of them. Continue Reading

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

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

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

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.

 Continue Reading

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

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.

 Continue Reading

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.

 Continue Reading

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

Pop quiz: Test your knowledge of open source terminology

Open source technology is a wild west at times. Make sure your open source terminology is up to snuff with this short quiz. Continue Reading

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.

 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.

 Continue Reading

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

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

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!

 Continue Reading

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

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

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

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

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.

 Continue Reading

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

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

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

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!).

 Continue Reading

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

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

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

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.

 Continue Reading

Five cons of container technology

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

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

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.

 Continue Reading

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.

 Continue Reading

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

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

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