OpinionCategory

I often use the concept of RADIO (Redundant Array of Distributed Independent Objects) in my description of VSAN, as people need extra help in understanding why you don’t need RAID in a VMware Virtual SAN. It’s particularly applicable to storage, but the concept also applies to compute (CPU and RAM),… Continue Reading What is RADIO?

The definition of Converged Infrastructure (CI) can be categorised into different ‘flavours’. In summary, the term defines an approach where storage and compute are tightly coupled, and managed within a software-defined paradigm that offers policy driven provision of resources. Different vendors provide their own ‘flavour’ of CI, ranging from an… Continue Reading What is Converged Infrastructure?

You may think it is bold of me to forecast the impending decline of Infrastructure As A Service (IaaS) before it is even mainstream, but I expect that the takeup and consumption of IaaS offerings will decrease gradually from 2025, down to almost nothing in 2030. So, IaaS is dead.… Continue Reading Forecasting the demise of IaaS

Today I attended a Microsoft StorSimple 8000 series presentation at Microsoft’s offices here in Adelaide, South Australia. It’s a 2RU / 4RU device that provides primary storage through iSCSI, with inline block level automatic tiering, de-duplication and compression, where the final tier is Azure cloud storage. It incorporates volume-level snapshots “for… Continue Reading Microsoft StorSimple 8000 series review

For years we have been hearing that tablet sales are outstripping PC sales, and projections that the PC platform will die, leaving all of us using tablets for all our computing needs. There has been a rush by organisations to equip staff with mobile devices (or let them bring their… Continue Reading Why a virtual desktop is the solution to workforce mobility

I had a question from a company that had lots of small regional sites, asking “Is a single VM on a single host viable?”, in response to my query about why they were buying one or two servers for these sites. There was an assumption that it was only worthwhile… Continue Reading Is a Single VM on a Single Host viable?

Activity Based Working (ABW) is the term used for a change in work practices that focusses on creating collaboration based workspaces, instead of personally assigned desks or cubicles. To enable ABW, there needs to be a shift in tools used by staff, so that they are accessible from mobile devices.… Continue Reading Activity Based Working is not provided by IT

How many times have you encountered a “block” of a suggestion for improvement with a response of “That is what we have always done”? People are resistant to change, even in an innovative organisation dealing with the latest technologies. The reality is that the opportunities provided by technology and new tools are… Continue Reading That is what we have always done

How many passwords do you have? Do you remember them all? Do you use a password manager tool? Are your passwords complex and secure, or easy to guess dictionary words? What is your weakest point? I bet that last question threw you a bit. Your entire security and identity could… Continue Reading Password security in the age of Cloud

In today’s modern world, the task of threat and risk assessment is based on prior experience and history. It is human nature to be limited in our imagination by prior experience. When identifying the threats to your business and systems, you need to have an imagination on the possibilities that… Continue Reading Threat and risk assessment

Many organisations have allowed staff to bring in their own device for use at work – these are Bring Your Own Device policies (BYOD Policy). It’s becoming more common, but what are the bring your own device policy risks? In this article, when I refer to device, I include phones,… Continue Reading Bring Your Own Device policy risks

You may be one of the many people who ask what is the difference between BCP and DR – that is, what is the difference between a Business Continuity Plan and Disaster Recovery planning? First a little history – back in the pre-computing era, for most businesses, if they suffered… Continue Reading The difference between BCP and DR

Whilst defining your BYOD policy, you might miss some important requirements to producing a document that will help guide your employees when they use their own device for work purposes. More organisations around the world are now providing an allowance to employees to allow them to buy their own consumer… Continue Reading Tips for defining your BYOD policy

If you’ve been in IT for a while, you may stick by the rule that with Windows, you should put your pagefile on it’s own disk. Originally, this was when computers had little RAM, and to optimise performance of the pagefile it was advised to use FAT instead of incurring… Continue Reading Put your pagefile on it’s own disk

Many of us have to give directions; it might be in a project, when managing a team, instructions for someone to pick something up for you from a shop, defining a business strategy – but the way to give directions is important. What is wrong with the way people are… Continue Reading The only way to give directions

Some people will just jump straight into Disaster Recovery Planning, without considering what they are planning for – how do you categorise a disaster? Who  decides, and what information do they need to make a decision? What parts of your business can continue to operate using other means – that… Continue Reading Disaster Recovery planning to do before the planning

What is the difference between DR and BCP? For that matter, what is the difference between Backup, Disaster Avoidance, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity? It’s a mistake to consider all of these as lumped into the same concept, as that leads to further mistakes such as skipping steps. Mistake 1:… Continue Reading 9 big mistakes in disaster recovery planning (DRP)