Category Archives: IT Management
Backups: Tape vs. Replication
I’ve been asked this question enough since this site started, so I’ve finally decided to take the time and write the article. What are my thoughts on the relatively new debate on Tape Backus versus replicating the data off-site. You’ll find many people taking up sides in this debate, but in my opinion no one…
System Admin’s Vacation Checklist
Now that we are officially in summer, there are a lot of administrators that are planning their vacation. The problem is that many of them will have to still be tethered to the office solving problems. I’ve been in that situation, where while on vacation, I’ve gotten the phone call about a small problem that…
IT Manager: How to Motivate your Employees
A while ago I had heard the fact that 85% of people in the work force today are either unhappy with their job or completely hate their jobs. One of the first things Most managers will tell you that an unhappy employee can cause havoc on their productivity. In IT you can run into even…
Q&A Monday: Upgrade vs Fresh Install
Question: Hi Jim, I am a new System Administrator, and the first thing that is assigned to me was to plan our upgrading our operating systems to Windows 7. Our environment is a mix of Windows Vista and Windows XP, and I’m not sure if we should just use the upgrade option or complete…
Consultants and deadlines
I’ve spent some time consulting for a small and medium sized companies and I’ve seen many consultants make many errors and one of the worse for you clients is blowing deadlines. Now for me to say that you’ll never run into a situation where your project is incomplete when the deadline comes would just be…
Virtualization Planning
When deciding you need to virtualize your network there are some things you need to consider prior to doing so.