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IT Pro Day 2020: You Were Built for This — SolarWinds TechPod 032
Every year, on the third Tuesday of September, we celebrate IT Pro Day – a day set aside to recognize all tech pros and the work they do. For some obvious reasons, this year we ran a survey to find out how IT folks are holding up. The answers we got back were by turns insightful, funny, and touching. In this episode of…
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Automate IT
Last week, I covered optimization as a skill to keep your IT environment in tip-top shape by constantly delivering the most optimal Quality-of-Service (QoS). This week, I’ll walk through automation as another high value-add skill for the virtual environment. Automation is one part best practice, one part policy, and one…
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Everything I Needed To Know About IT I Learned from Logan (Part One)
"When the student is ready, the teacher appears." I mentioned this idea back when I revealed that the Marvel movie, Doctor Strange, offered a wealth of lessons for itinerant IT pros (and a few for us grizzled veterans, as well). You can find Part Four here and work your way back from there. It seems inspiration has struck…
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It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday
My fellow Head Geek and Microsoft Data Platform MVP, Thomas LaRock, defines hard skills as a tech certification, a college degree, or any tech skill including any vendor- or industry-specific skills. These hard skills represent an achievement or acknowledgement of base expertise at a specific point in time. They are static…
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What's in an IT title?
Continuous integration. Continuous delivery. Cloud. Containers. Microservices. Serverless. IoT. Buzzworthy tech constructs and concepts are signaling a change for IT professionals. As IT pros adapt and evolve, the application remains the center of the change storm. More importantly, the end goal for IT remains essentially…
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How did they get them all to wear shirts and jackets???
That's what I want to know... and check out that bowtie pHubb is rocking scarf and all!!!! patrick.hubbard kong.yang sqlrockstar adatole
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My Resolution for 2016: Keep IT Stupid Simple
As 2015 ends, businesses are busy closing deals, evaluating project success, and planning for the New Year. For IT professionals, this transitional period is crucial in building a foundation for success in the upcoming year. This year, I resolve to keep IT stupid simple. It’s guaranteed to KISS away all IT issues. A Walk…
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2016 Resolutions: 4 Suggestions For Your IT Bucket List
Here in these early days of January, it feels the same way weekends did on Saturday mornings when I was 8 years old—a giant bowl of Sugar Frosted Choco-Bombs in my lap, cartoons on TV, and hour after hour of joyful opportunity spread out in front of me. However, in the years since I was 8, I have learned a few things: *…
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On the road again: Microsoft Convergence Barcelona
2015 is the year of the road trip for me. On the downside I know the insides of DFW, ORD, SFO, LHR, LGA and PHX airports way more than I’d like to. But on the plus side is the reason I still like getting out on the road after many years in technology: getting to speak with other die-hard IT professionals. I’m headed to…
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What does it mean to be a “Head Geek”?
I talk (“brag”) a lot about being a SolarWinds Head Geek. Everyone on the Head Geek team (Patrick Hubbard, Thomas LaRock, Kong Yang, Don Jacob, and Praveen Manohar) often gushes about how we feel this is the best job in the world. But what does being a Head Geek really mean? Is it all tweets about bacon, sci-fi references…