tallyrich · Network Engineer Senior · ✭✭✭✭✭

I just installed SAM today. Really looking forward to the new look.

Your steps is a great idea, unfortunately so often some person or department will go ahead and purchase something and IT gets handed - make it work. I'm a big fan of policies and procedures and really feel that a properly functioning organization will stand by them and be able to say no (or at least lets work through the…

The Beta we've been testing is excellent, really looking forward to the next revision. The look is really clean.

I'm now working for an Engineering firm as a consultant to several companies and government agencies. I see a lot of products in use (most partially). Where possible I recommend SolarWinds - but in a staged way. I generally recommend starting with NPM and building a list of all of their devices and the basic metrics for…

So many think of disaster recovery and business continuity as the same, or very similar. Disaster recovery is the ability to get back to functioning after a disaster, intrusion, failure, etc. Business continuity is the ability to function as a business during and right after that disaster, intrusion, failure, etc. I've…

Another good mission, thanks for the efforts you put into this.

"GDPR will likely require organizations to implement new policies, procedures, controls, and technologies" I've been in IT for many years and those that do the work - for a long time - have felt like policies and procedures are just "red tape." I've come to realize that we should really look at them as best practices and…

Nice article. I hadn't looked into NBAR since we are not a "Cisco shop"

Congratulations to the winners. It's great to see how participation has grown for these missions.

Years ago I worked in sales and was told once something very valuable. Speaking to your audience is more than just getting understanding, but also buy-in. In sales the buy in is closing the sale. The example was that you can show a user how easy a computer is to use and if you are speaking to a "non-techie" that will get…

Oh, yes, you asked favorite habit. I try to spend at least 15 minutes a day on Thwack interacting with the community. It has been extremely valuable to my position and company.

We are in a data driven world and for the most part it's good. It begins to get a little scary when you think about the patterns that emerge and the possibility of abuse of such data. I remember when burglars would stake out a house to determine when people would be away for an extended period of time in order to freely…

I have more respect for those that do actual coding rather than those that just use a tool to drag a box from one side of the screen to another and let the software build it's "spaghetti code" in the background. Now I know both methods take skill and discipline, but . . .

Good information - as every auditor ever has always said - if it's not documented you aren't doing it. Policies and procedures, while not fun and often tedious, are critical to successful business - in the long term. We've all heard cases of businesses making it great initially with a "cowboy" just "get r dun" attitude.…

Nice jumping right in!

I'm thankful for my Team! I've worked in several different environments and so far this is the best as far as teamwork goes. We all have each others 6 and always jump in to fill gaps, assist, etc. Not to make others envious, but a team like this is rare!

So you are a managing manager, what a radical thought. I'm currently struggling with leadership to go away from a "everybody" does everything model and get into something more "auditor friendly." Not just because it is auditor friendly, but because it makes sense and provides better service and accountability.

Nice article, made me re-think some things.

I've worked with churches having premises exchange, google and office 365. All have their plus and minus. Microsoft has really stepped up to the plate with their latest pricing and with all of the above the "branding" of the email address can represent the church name or website address. Google is free for most things but…

Most companies trust their employees, which they should - if you can't trust the person they should not be a part of your company. However, we are human and make mistakes - and then there are those that get upset and seek revenge. It's critical that every organization protect themselves for these possibilities. That's why…

Like so many other areas of life IT does seem skewed toward failure as that's what people tend to remember. We work in an industry where it things are going well no one notices - which is really what we want. So how do we approach that to keep ourselves "on top?" * Celebrate the victories - make sure that wins are…

Very helpful, I love NTA, but without a good understanding it can just appear to be a bunch of numbers.

I've never played D&D, but can certainly see the potential for learning life skills through the practice.

SolarWinds has gotten better about monitoring new products and technologies as they come along. SDN is a game changer - at least according to the sales teams, seemingly everywhere. It's good to see this not just on the road map, but implemented.

I've been in this field for a long time - I remember storage on cassette tapes - and as with most operations we are understaffed and so often putting out fires. So, goal setting generally comes from above us as far as projects are concerned. I try to keep a list of short term things that I want to accomplish, but not much…

Agreed. Alphabetical is ok when you only have a handful of items, but I'm pushing to have SolarWinds as my "single point of truth." So I have a ton of custom properties.

Well written with very valid points. We can push back against audits or we can use it as a chance to improve.

“Not all viruses are bad, right?” - B.r.a.d. AKA Bonzi Buddy!

This is helpful in understanding how things "work" together.

Follow the bandwagon nothing - Jump on, we'll make a party of it.