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Is Software as a Service (SaaS) Really for You?
Software as a Service (SaaS) sounds like a terrific deal, because it requires relatively little money up front. You only pay for what you use each month. And then there’s no worry about upgrades, support, or maintenance. All you have to do is pay and play, right? Well, it’s not necessarily that simple. For example, with…
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It's a Trap! Using SNMP Traps to Get your Network to Talk to You
You have a network, and it's your job to keep it running. How do you know it's doing what it should? You could just wait to hear from your users; surely your CIO will let you know when his "internet is broken", but this approach may not have a positive influence on your continued employment. No, you need some network…
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Reviewing the Business Cases for Network Configuration Management
Four predominant IT use cases any network device configuration management tool must address are: * Configuration change management: scheduling device configuration backups, requiring change approval for configuration changes, scheduling execution of approved changed. * Compliance reporting: defining and enforcing…
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The Art of Simplicity is a Puzzle of Complexity
As network engineers, administrators, architects, and enthusiasts we are seeing a trend of relatively complicated devices that all strive to provide unparalleled visibility into the inner workings of applications or security. Inherent in these solutions is a level of complexity that challenges network monitoring tools, it…
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The Cost of Monitoring - with the wrong tool (part 1 of 2)
or “It’s not just the cost of buying the puppy, it’s the cost of feeding the puppy that adds up” This is a story I've told out loud many times, on conference calls, and around water coolers. But I've never written it down fully until now. This is the story of how using the wrong tool for the job can cost a company so much…
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When Competitors Close the Digital Experience Gap
After 2020, there are only two types of businesses: those who have retained customers or grown, and those who lost customers to more nimble competitors. There are many reasons. The transition away from traditional retail, shifting customer expectations, and internal operations challenges due to increasing complexity all…
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Better Together - Working Together in Silo Organizations
In my last post WHEN BEING AN EXPERT ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH: MASTER OF ALL TRADES, JACK OF NONE, you all shared some great insight on how you were able to be find ways to be successful as individual SMEs and contributors, and how you could navigate the landscape of an organization. This week, I’d like to talk about silo…
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Networking 101 – The Importance of Network Baselining
One of the most common discussions among network administrators is about anticipating and preventing issues even before users notice them. This blog will help you understand the importance of baselining in network monitoring, and how beneficial it can be to get steady network performance. What is Network Baselining?…
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EMS, NMS and OSS- The difference and similarities.
The terms EMS, NMS and OSS are often misunderstood and used interchangeably. This can, sometimes, lead to a confusion on which system can do what functions. Therefore I am attempting to clarify these terms in a simple way. This may help you in making informed decisions when procuring management systems. But before…
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10 Orion Platform Connected Use Cases You Should Know
Part 1 IT environments are getting increasingly complex and can often straddle on-premises gear, private cloud, public and/or multi-cloud, and SaaS environments... oh, and it’s a moving target. Your legacy applications may have to reincarnate in one of these forms with minimal disruption. And when things go wrong, you need…