scuff

Funny thing is you can buy Office 365 ProPlus without buying the other Cloud services (SharePoint Online, Exchange Online) which would give you per user licensing per month for the latest version of the desktop apps. Question is, would that be of any value missing the Cloud based features above? Maybe if you were still…

Strangely enough I can draw a parallel between that and iOS. Where my generation had to manually update a computer, click through screens to install software, configure dial up internet connections etc, the iOS generation are used to automatic everything and therefore have very little troubleshooting skills (reset it or…

I don't think you are alone, but it's interesting to see many of the technology leaders so focused on this capability. I agree, the mainstream adoption and acceptance has a way to go, with many people feeling the same way as you do. Then sometimes I meet someone who has automated & 'botted' their life so much it impresses…

*head/desk* What a time to schedule an outage!

Some managers have a LOT to answer for!

You're not alone in your frustrations. I think major changes are symptomatic of long release cycles. 2013-2016 for example has seen a lot of productivity innovations by others, so Microsoft has jumped in with a LOT of new features. I wonder if the new release cycle for updates (Office Pro Plus & Windows 10) will alleviate…

Can we clone your HR team? Do they have to manage any SaaS access? -SCuffy

Counting the number of cryptolocker infections in home computer - absolutely that would be great! I'm not if the home market appreciates being locked down though, and Microsoft has tended to leave protection from 'the bad stuff' to the AV and anti-malware vendors. Any plans for Windows 10 in your organization?

Not sure we would ever see a replacement of that (I come from a Banking background where mainframe=life). But I could be proven wrong!? Never say never.

I can see how say a Slack bot would be cool to integrate with a monitoring platform, but voice is just way cooler. What kinds of tasks would it automate? I immediately thought "reset my password" and then went "hang on, that's a bit risky!"

I think it depends on the environment. Typically our Exchange server support workload in small business has been low for on premise Exchange Server related issues (i.e. the service, message store, transport & delivery) anyway. Once you get a server wrangled under your control, it ticks along nicely. So we've not seen a…

You win! Thanks for the stroll down memory lane.

If they can learn how to generate their own power, we're in trouble. Even natural power sources like solar or wind need human mechanics to keep the machinery running ... for now.

Not being a developer, I love your no bug bonus!

You lost me at Java It's refreshing to see an organization that has a 'present timeframe' rollout plan. And I hear ya re the WSUS updates, branches and internal rings. Sounds good in theory but show me the technical documentation of how we set all that up so we can play! Are you using SCCM and/or MDT for the rollout?

I know a lot of people stress about which tool to choose. Has puppet met your expectations? What do you love about it, or wish it did that it doesn't?

Absolutely and I'll also really interested in the generational change in IT Pros. I was in a webinar for accountants the other day when a company of 10 staff declared "We're a team of millennials. when identifying technology solutions we cross off anything that has to be installed." They're just not interested. And the…

It's interesting to see Gartner has fallen out of favour with a lot of corporates. Or did it just have a reputation of being trusted?

So much this. And yet we still see frustrating scenes where a sensible person in IT has raised concerns, and gets told to "just do it". Sigh.

I am enjoying my Band 2, but I excluded it because it's really more a consumer device than something an Enterprise would consider rolling out. Cross platform is a big move for them though. So many people ask me what phone I use my Band with and I always answer them with "it's irrelevant".

If you really want to scare yourself, read Ready Player One.

Maybe normal is the wrong word. I think maybe 'expected' might be a better fit? Would you expect that an organization (maybe of a certain size) would have automated at least some of their standard IT Pro tasks? It's getting more common to see requirements in job vacancy ads for skill in automation tools.

I know many data center engineers and hardware techs are worried about companies moving to Infrastructure as a Service from the bigger players.

Ours is only 4 hours, but we only use ladders half the time.

There's another great side argument about whether you need a third party backup solution for Cloud services. SkyKick has just announced a backup product for Office 365 which does mailboxes, shared mailboxes, SharePoint online sites (eg document libraries) and OneDrive for business. The granular level of recovery is pretty…

You're welcome! Do you have any good ones that I've missed?

Daisy, daisy, give me your answer do.

That's a great use case. We're educating some smaller clients that they don't have to pay a provider an ongoing fee for Citrix/RDP access to a server for the odd occasion they use an older desktop product. We can chuck it in Azure and they can turn it on and off as needed, and only pay for it then.

So much this!! -SCuffy

Email is kind of my thing. Backup software is not my fav, but it's a necessary evil. Printers are at the top of my avoid list.