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ITSM: A Conversation with Garry Schmidt (Part 2 of 3)
Garry Schmidt first got involved in IT Service Management almost 20 years ago. Since becoming the manager of the IT Operations Center at SaskPower, ITSM has become one of his main focuses. Here's part 1 of our conversation. Bruno: How has the support been from senior leadership, your peers, and the technical resources that…
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The Actuator - December 18th
I hope this edition of the Actuator finds you and yours in the middle of a healthy and happy holiday season. With Christmas and New Year's falling on Wednesday, I'll pick this up again in 2020. Until then, stay safe and warm. As always, here's a bunch of stuff I found on the internet I thought you might enjoy. Why Car-Free…
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December Writing Challenge Week 2 Recap
Week 2 of the challenge has brought even more insights and wisdom than I imagined - although I should have expected it, given how incredible the THWACK community is day after day, year in and year out. As a reminder, you can find all the posts here: December Writing Challenge 2019 I also wanted to take a moment to to talk…
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Say Kubernetes One More Time, I Dare You….
Introduction OK, so the title is hardly original, apologies. But it does highlight the buzz for Kubernetes still out there not showing any signs of going away anytime soon. Let’s start with a description of what Kubernetes is: Kubernetes is a portable, extensible, open-source platform for managing containerized workloads…
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POwerful SHortcut to Automating Operations
A few years back I was working at a SaaS provider when we had an internal hackathon. The guidelines were simple: As part of your project you had to learn something, and you had to choose a framework/methodology beneficial to the organization. I was a Windows and VI admin, but along with my developer friend, we wrote an…
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Leon and Sascha's Excellent VMWorld Adventure!
It's been a few weeks since VMworld Europe, and that's given Sascha and me a chance to digest both the information and the vast quantities of pastries, paella, and tapas we consumed. VMworld was held again in Barcelona this year and came two months after the U.S. convention, meaning there were fewer big, jaw-dropping,…
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Thoughts on the VividCortex Acquisition
I visited the Austin office this past week, my last trip to SolarWinds HQ for 2019. It’s always fun to visit Austin and eat my weight in pork products, but this week was better than most. I took part in deep conversations around our recent acquisition of VividCortex. I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am for the…
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ITSM: A Conversation With Garry Schmidt (Part 3 of 3)
Garry Schmidt first got involved in IT Service Management almost 20 years ago. Since becoming the manager of the IT Operations Center at SaskPower, ITSM has become one of his main focuses. Here are part 1 and part 2 of our conversation. Bruno: What have been your biggest challenges with adopting ITSM and structuring it to…
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ITSM: The Tie That Binds
Few relationships sail along without ever having to cross stormy seas. Even the best marriages need to batten down the hatches occasionally. A combination of genuine involvement, good communication, and various tools used by all involved is the best way to extend the time between encountering tempests. Business and…
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The Actuator - January 22nd
Back from Austin and home for a few weeks before I head...back to Austin for a live episode of SolarWinds Lab. Last week was the annual Head Geeks Summit, and it was good to be sequestered for a few days with just our team as we map out our plans for world domination in 2020 (or 2021, whatever it takes). As always, here's…