byrona ✭✭✭✭✭

I often get asked how I have managed to work at the same company for nearly 17 years now despite all of the challenges and drama. We do have drama and challenges but I think that is every company. I tell them one of my keys to not getting stressed out in this relatively stressful field of work is by taking a very pragmatic…

We used Pingdom years ago but I haven't really used any of these tools recently. I would love to but I haven't yet had a good use case for them.

Heck, even if there was some "mini-poller" widget or agent that I could install on any node in the DMZ to allow it to scan those IP's would work.

I think it's important to build a tools platform or framework. Once you have that in place it makes it easier for evaluating new tools going forward as you can look for things that will fit well in your established framework. It helps to have one person or team responsible for the management of said tools while making sure…

I am not sure the "nerd knobs" will ever go away, I think they will just change and be in different places for different things. As much as I see things change I also see them stay the same in a certain type of way. Another thing that comes to mind while we talk about where technology is and going I still work with clients…

I think flowcharts are great, the problem I have had is actually getting people to use and follow them. We once had a person that worked at my company that would make amazing flowcharts for our different business processes; however, nobody would ever look at them or follow them. When people would ask about a process they…

I love that you point out that DevOps isn't a team! Unfortunately the foundation or core of DevOps seems lost on most people and organizations. I think you are absolutely right in that it needs to be at the core of your culture. Very nice way to end the series!

Helping clients move into a Hybrid solution that includes security and complain is something we specialize in; budget can definitely be a challenge but we have been able to successfully worth with clients on that component as well. My advice to any company looking to do this would be to find a good partner that understands…

I really appreciate you taking the time to write about this, it's been a great read!

goodzhere​ I always like the idea of Spunk, when ever I use it I end up remembering that I hate it.

I have recently had the opportunity to change my role at our company and work as a InfoSec Admin directly with our very experienced CISSO. We have been starting at the basic block & tackle level and working our way up with regard to security and compliance and it's been a very educational process. This isn't to say we…

We are a managed hybrid cloud service provider and the points in this post couldn't be more true. The one I most agree with is the point about moving beyond your comfort zone to learn new things and new ways of deploying and running your infrastructure. 

We use NetApp; however, we also use Pure storage for some of our solid state deployments as it has better performance and is easier to manage.

Our BYOD policy is currently rather simple; however, I suspect it is going to change very soon for the worse... Currently we provide company PC's to most employees which has approved and supported software installed on it. We have an internal wireless network that can be used to attach those devices. If you bring devices…

I would even be cool with the Microsoft model where I get a "Tech Net" like subscription for a small annual fee that gives me access to install small lab (while still 100% functional) versions of all the SolarWinds software that I have licensed. 

The article on the Commodore 64 really brought me back as that was my first computer where I learned to program in Basic 2.0. It's probably because of that system that I work in this industry today.

<shameless sales plug> We have 3 data centers we operate and all of them have colocation space available and we also have local private cloud based hosting as well, both options have this same level of connectivity. </shameless sales plug>

For anybody that might think the Hypervisor is a commodity, I think Microsoft (assuming they play their cards right) stands to shake the very foundation of how we view a hypervisor. With the push for Azure Stack they are creating a true hybrid design that will allow seamless movement of workloads from private cloud…

This is awesome! Great work and my personal thanks to the entire team. Is this going to be the main source of documentation going forward or are the .PDF's going to continue to get maintained as well? For what it's worth, I like this new system much better than the .PDF's or the old Web version.

Thanks for sharing all of the details on your trip adatole​, I am glad you had such an awesome and safe trip!

We use BMC Client Management (formerly known as Footprints Asset Core) and it's a great stand-alone (doesn't require WSUS, or underlying tools) patching product that is incredibly scalable and easy to manage. You should check it out and consider adding it to your list.

I think our biggest Ah Ha! moment was when we setup the new App Insight for SQL on a customer database that was experiencing problems. Immediately we saw severe index fragmentation and some queries that were taking forever to run. It didn't take long to fix the problems and some serious performance improvements were seen.

I have to say that I have been really impressed with Microsoft lately. I feel like they are firing on all cylinders and have become a completely different type of company with both a great vision and the means to make it happen.

I use Bing also, mostly because I hate Google.

Yeah, Dez​ has clearly put a lot of thought into this. It's almost like this has maybe happened to her before? 

So what you are saying is that some people slip through the cracks in the factory and never get a moral compass installed? Sorry, I couldn't help myself on this one, it was the first think that came to mind when I read this.

I for one can't wait to help usher in a new WebUI for Orion! I think the theme should be "sometimes less is more"

Jfrazier​, I totally agree! This whole automation thing isn't anything new. The whole point of computers was to automate tasks that had previously been done manually by people. I find it odd that we are treating this like it's some new thing that is going to revolutionize our industry when this has already been happening…

I completely agree that you need good tools to manage a virtual environment; I really don't think you can be very successful without them. On the flip side, I also need to agree with Jfrazier in that the tools themselves can suffer from many of the problems as your virtual environment; tool sprawl, different teams using…

That would be awesome, he would need to follow it with a "how to pick locks" so can can unchain myself.