This week’s Actuator comes to you from my home, again.

Here’s an interesting article by my colleague Brandon Shopp discussing strategies for securing the tactical edge with suggestions such as network segmentation, working with device vendors for device data, and end user education.

I hope you all had a safe and restful holiday weekend. Summer is finally upon us, and parts of our world are reopening.

I really liked this piece by SolarWinds VP of Product Strategy Brandon Shopp. It reviews mobile security threats and tips for combating evolving threats, improving endpoint security and access rights management, educating end users, and enforcing mobile policies.

The latest release of the Orion^® platform now scales to 1,000,000 elements, loads pages quicker, and adds faster and remote upgrades via the web UI. But have you ever wondered how many releases and feature additions there have been since version 10.5? Is there something you might have missed in a README? What's the difference between the Orion platform and Network Performance Monitor (NPM)? Head Geek Patrick Hubbard pulls up a chair for SolarWinds story time and an info graphic.

Here’s an interesting article by my colleague Brandon Shopp discussing details about improving endpoint security to protect school networks and data.

I don’t want to alarm you, but Memorial Day is this coming Monday.

Show of hands: who thinks “hybrid IT” is new, shiny, and filled with wonderful possibilities? Judging by fresh survey data and ongoing conversations on THWACK, not many of you. We’re now years into an era marked by hybrid IT, where on-premises, cloud infrastructures, and SaaS occasionally live in harmony if the tech pros in charge of those environments have enough time and resources to manage them successfully.

Here’s an interesting article by my colleague Brandon Shopp where he reviews the DOD cloud strategy and how they plan to use artificial intelligence and machine learning for Information Dominance.

Our local Starbucks reopened this past Thursday. Mobile orders only and only one person at a time is allowed inside to pick up their order. It felt almost normal to visit the shop.

Here’s an interesting article by my colleague Brandon Shopp discussing the Federal Government’s cloud smart strategy with suggestions on how to achieve needed improvements.

I know the calendar says May, but it feels more like March still. March 67th, in fact. We are well into what I’m going to call the Lost Spring. Here’s hoping it won’t also be a Lost Summer.

Here’s an interesting article by my colleague Jim Hansen reviewing some of the security issues involved with government contractors. We also discuss findings from last year’s cyber survey about what agencies are doing to reduce these threats.

A long time ago in a reality far, far away…

SolarWinds User Groups (SWUGs) are pretty cool. There’s free food, and more. Much more.

Planning and delivering a SWUG requires a huge investment, not just financial.
A relatively small team is involved in the planning: basically Danielle, Kevin, and some experienced folks from our events team. By the way, those are the people who use magic in the background to make sure there are enough t-shirts and swag at events and conferences we attend.

Finding a location is very time-consuming. First, we check your feedback in spaces like here. And while most SWUGs take place in the U.S., we did our fair share of travel. We’re not Iron Maiden, with their own 747, but shipping a few people around the globe isn’t always easy.

Once we agree on a city, we start looking into various hotel options. This process contains basic questions, like “Do you have enough space for 150 people?” up to the really important ones, like “Show us your catering menu.”

Also don’t forget we need to ship some swag. A lot!

A lot of thinking goes into the schedule. What content could be interesting? Are there new releases worth mentioning? Who is the best person to deliver it? Does their personal schedule allow travel? Do we need 20 minutes for a session or a full hour? The content itself is created by the individual contributors who are presenting it later, and the process requires a significant amount of time.

In a nutshell, a SWUG costs a lot of time, effort, and money. And we finalized everything for our next European tour to visit London, Berlin, and Munich. Done and dusted, safe and sound.

And now we’re here, in May 2020, sitting at home and not going anywhere.

But we thought, “Hey, let’s do something. Anything is better than nothing.” So, we came up with the idea to virtualize it. A virtual SWUG, a vSWUG—catchy, isn’t it?

Instead of a 1-to 2-day event, it’s now four Wednesday afternoons during May. Let me define afternoon: the events start at 01:10 pm CEST, Central European Summer Time. You know what, let me just call it 13:00 Berlin time. Bingo.

For some speakers it means they must get up very early, as it’s 06:00 in the morning in Austin.
Bad luck guys, but hey, it’s an EMEA event, after all. 😊

It’s a completely new thing for us. Many things can go wrong—some surely will—but let’s give it a try.

Our fantastic video team helps us delivering it, and while they are experienced with all the SolarWinds Labs and THWACKcamp events, this time it’s different, as it’s live, and remote. Erik (with a K) was asking for a challenge.

All details, the registration, and the agenda are available here. Join us, have a cup of coffee or an early afternoon tea, and let’s have fun in the chat.

We are into our seventh week of containment here, and one thing I have noticed is how much slower the world has become. 

Here’s an interesting article by my colleague Brandon Shopp discussing the fed’s effective use of frameworks and how this methodology can be adopted by other organizations.

Thanks to everyone’s efforts these past six weeks, I’m hopeful we’re on the other side of the curve now. Perhaps we’ll resume normal activities in a few weeks, although I think “normal” will be refined a bit. I look forward to the day where I don’t spend 30 minutes wiping down my groceries.

Here’s an interesting article by my colleague Mav Turner with specific suggestions on improving security for the internet of things. Containment and visibility are key, and so is taking action when needed.

I hope everyone was able to enjoy this past holiday weekend. We had decent enough weather here, allowing us to set up an egg hunt for the kids on Sunday afternoon. I also kept our annual tradition of burning the Christmas tree on Easter. In related news, the fire circle is officially open for the season.

Here’s an interesting article by my colleague Brandon Shopp with specific suggestions on building a team to meet agency cybersecurity demands.

We’re calling this the “mostly un-necessary summary” because, if the previous 11 posts haven’t given you the information you needed, odds are you won’t find it here. Because this post isn’t about information, it’s about encouragement.

As you might imagine, there are a lot of resources popping up as other companies and individuals come up to speed on the WFH process. A few that caught our eye are included in this post.

This week’s Actuator comes to you from Week 4 of N, as there’s no end in sight to our current situation. Everyone here is adjusting as best as possible. I hope you and your family are healthy and well. Keep washing your hands and stay home!

We want to address actual pieces of tech to improve your remote working experience. After all, this IS THWACK. It was inevitable before we finished this series, we’d dig into the bits and bytes; the wires and gear; and the programs and protocols of all this.

Here’s an interesting article by my colleague Craig McDonald reviewing cloud and software-defined data center adoption across government. Everything seems to be trending towards software-defined these days.

“Can you hear me now?” is funny until you’re in an important meeting and they really can’t hear you. Here are our tips and advice for dealing with signal issues and (minor)security touches.

Some folks are natural communicators regardless of the medium. Most of us—especially those who are new to remote work—may take some time to find their communication groove.

A lot of the tips in this series are predicated on the idea that the work we do is largely individual contributions. But the truth is at SolarWinds (and probably where you work, too), we do a lot of brainstorming, whiteboarding, and even four-hands-one-keyboard-ing. How can we continue to work together when we’re not actually together.

This may seem like one of the nitty-gritty questions for new remote workers, but it’s really simple: for the most part, you’ll get work done at home the same way you did in the office. 

This week’s Actuator comes to you from the middle of week 3 of 7, as our schools are closed until May the Fourth (Be With You). Here in Massachusetts, we’re entering the beginning of the curve, as testing becomes readily available. Wash your hands and stay home, people.