General IT

It's that time of the year where analysts, vendors and other prognosticators share their IT trends for 2017. But do these IT trends actually mean anything to IT pros?

I had recently become a substitute teacher at a Boston-area high school and one morning not a single sophomore showed up for my sociology class. The French teacher in the classroom next to mine explained that MCAS season was upon us and educators in non-essential subjects are effectively ignored for the next three weeks while the students crammed like mad.

The final months of the year are often a time for housecleaning in IT which includes tasks like taking network inventory, confirming installed software is properly licensed, and prepping for compliance audits. Fortunately, these tasks are something a network monitoring solution can easily handle by gathering data and creating reports. Even better, you don't necessarily have to pay to get these tasks done.

When an operating system crashes, a server stops responding to ping, or a simple PowerShell DSC configuration needs to be debugged, where's the first place a sysadmin goes? The event log. The Windows event log records a wealth of information. Let's see how we can automate log reviews.

Wireless networks have become a requirement for most K-12 schools, and that presents a challenge for IT teams who need to maintain consistent access and performance for students and teachers alike.

Follow these steps and get yourself out of the server room and onto the beach.

In the early days of public education, and even in some rural areas today, multiple grades were taught in a single classroom. As challenging as that environment was for teachers, today's pedagogues find themselves in a similar situation, but now they're better equipped to handle it with the help of ed-tech tools. Teachers today may have classes full of kids with learning needs as diverse as the kids in the one-room schoolhouse, but with modern technology they can meet those needs and help children develop to their full potential.

Managing IT is an Olympian task. From looming deadlines to emerging threats, it's no wonder that more IT pros than ever are stressed out over performance and expectations. Effectively meeting the increasingly complex demands of executives and stakeholders with a minuscule budget and limited resources is, in itself, a Herculean feat of physical and mental prowess. With Rio 2016 just around the corner, maybe it's time for another look at the role of IT pros. What does technology at the Olympics look like this time around? And how do tech experts stack up against top athletes when it comes to work ethic and stamina?

Last Friday was Sysadmin Day (or, System Administrator Appreciation Day in full form), an annual day of recognition for hard working sysadmins. It was created by sysadmin Ted Kekatos in 2009 after being inspired by an HP ad promoting LaserJet 400 printers where a sysadmin was celebrated by colleagues. For context and the full story, check out this 2011 interview with Ted by Spicehead Nic Tolstoshev.

It's the last Friday in July which means it's the annual System Administrator Appreciation Day, also known as Sysadmin Day. It's kind of the Hallmark holiday of the IT world, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have any significance.

Love them, like them or loathe them, Microsoft applications and technologies are part of the IT landscape, and except for mobile, things aren't changing anytime soon. Managing the Microsoft cross-section of your organization's digital ecosystem is key to maintaining your sanity, if not improving your temperament.

As I watched Star Trek Beyond in the theater, I couldn’t help but relate working on an IT team to working on the USS Enterprise. All that they endure in this latest installment is metaphorical to everything IT does for a business. It’s easy for IT teams to fall apart when team members lose themselves, due to selfishness or burnout. It’s equally important for IT to keep the ship (or USS Enterprise) in running order. The movie evens starts with Kirk feeling bored and disassociated with his current job after being in space for 995 days, something which IT pros can all relate. "The grind", as we like to call it.

I work in the IT business, so when something as monumental as Pokémon GO is taking over headlines for more than a week I usually ask a few questions. The first thing folks with an IT background ask themselves is how this phenomenon will affect the network bandwidth of a business. It’s an important question to ask, but the answer in this instance is, “Not at all.”

Data archiving is an odd practice at times. When big data is focused on every last bit of information, the idea of relegating any amount of it to outdated media can seem like a waste of resources. Add the cloud and you begin to see how out of place this concept can be.

Data transfer has come a long way. From 110-baud modems from the late 1950s to 56-kbps technology used at the turn of the century — and finally more familiar broadband and Wi-Fi — one thing is clear: Speed is an obsession. And while Wi-Fi has enjoyed significant adoption even as telecom companies fight for top spot in the mobile device market, there's still a drive to find newer, faster ways to move data and increase connectivity.

The future of IT will be molded not just by technology, but also by changing expectations and attitudes toward support's role within the organization.

What's on your IT wish list?

The plotline for a data center's Big Data story is still being written, and already there is no lack of twists and turns. The Internet of Things (IoT) is just the latest in a multi-episode drama that'll spawn as many shark-jumping forecasts as processes.

IT is a pretty thankless job; long hours to deploy technology that's often invisible to the average user isn't exactly an ego boost as you leave work every night. But for every moment of sheer frustration — and they are many — there's a much lighter side to support, affectionately called "information technology humor." Cue canned laughter.

"The IT Crowd" (Image Credit: Channel 4 Television Corporation)