Tips & TricksCategory

DNS is the fundamental signpost of the Internet. Your ISP or internal IT systems will provide DNS services to allow your computer to resolve names to IP addresses. Even though your DNS services may be enough to meet your needs, there are potential problems that may drive you to want… Continue Reading Alternative DNS resolvers

We learn more from our mistakes than we do from our successes, but it is better to learn from other’s mistakes, because you don’t need to suffer. In many encounters during my career, I have learnt from the failures that occur during disasters. The disasters in disaster recovery may not… Continue Reading Disasters in disaster recovery

If you have a smartphone, you may know that if you have the OneDrive app installed, it can automatically upload your photos to OneDrive. However, the app does not allow you to upload photos automatically to OneDrive for Business. It has been an annoyance for many that Microsoft have decided… Continue Reading Copy Photos to OneDrive for Business

Disaster Recovery is the process by which an organisation recovers its business operations after a disaster. It often is a focus of the IT department, however it is a business responsibility. Business Continuity Plans are the ability for an organisation to know how they will continue to provide business operations… Continue Reading Disaster Recovery Planning – How To

You may know about ToR, top-of-rack (for) switches. It’s the practice of placing a physical switch within each rack, so that the network switching for the rack is close to the servers or devices that need to connect to it. The ToR switches will allow servers to communicate with each… Continue Reading Top of Rack switch placement in a rack – not at the Top!

If you are new to using the cloud, or are now deciding to move more workloads to the cloud – here are my top 10 tips for cloud adoption 1. Switch off dev/test when not using it Probably the biggest advice I can give is to understand the differences between… Continue Reading Top 10 tips for cloud adoption

Who defines how your business operations are performed? How does your business operate? Is it based on a definition of what is best for your business and customers, or is it because that is the process that came out of a shrink wrapped application? Shrink Wrapped Applications vs. Custom Build… Continue Reading Shrink wrapped applications

VMware are often focussing on the latest and greatest features and capabilities offered by their newest software. Of course, they are always driving forward and the next version’s enhancements and benefits are forefront of their minds – but there are still some people out there who are just starting on… Continue Reading Benefits of VMware – the uneven cluster

You have probably heard the analogy of trying to guide or coordinate people who have their own agenda or views – that it is like herding cats. It’s often a battle dealing with people who think that they already have the right answer (or those who stick to, and defend,… Continue Reading Herding cats? Use catfood

In describing myself as an IT Architect in a social gathering recently, the gentleman who I was speaking to suddenly burst into a frustrated tirade that he was a real architect, and he was horrified that I could call myself an architect. To become a construction architect, it takes 8… Continue Reading The difference between an IT Architect and a construction architect

In my travels as a consultant and adviser, I have come to find that middle management is holding back innovation. Allow me to explain this dramatic assumption. I have found that there are three types of employee – the leader, the worker and the middle-manager. The leaders In industry, government… Continue Reading Middle management – holding back innovation

The focus needs to change. People need to stop fighting today’s problems with yesterday’s answers, and instead, focus on finding solutions to tomorrow’s challenges. I see this time and again from organisations large and small, from both experienced and newly educated people – a focus on the problems that have… Continue Reading Stop fighting today’s problems with yesterday’s answers

I always recommend to create a dedicated management cluster for your vSphere virtual environment, but what is a dedicated management cluster, and why is it so important to have one? Not only is it best practice, there are real reasons why you should choose to do this. What is a… Continue Reading Dedicated Management Cluster

Businesses are running headlong into automation as a useful way to improve consistency, flexibility and speed, and decrease costs. However, there is a need for businesses to reconsider what is being automated, and more importantly why automation is being used. Implementation of automation requires a change in paradigm, similar to… Continue Reading Automation requires a change in paradigm

You may know about ToR, top-of-rack (for) switches. It’s the practice of placing a physical switch within each rack, so that the network switching for the rack is close to the servers or devices that need to connect to it. The ToR switches will allow servers to communicate with each… Continue Reading ToR switch placement – not at the top!

I recently read an article (published August 2013), listing all the reasons not to virtualise certain systems. It got me thinking about some of those people who still think that virtualization is new, not stable and more complicated. Why Virtualize? There are hundreds of articles about why virtualisation is good… Continue Reading Why bother to virtualize?

Are you new to computers, or do you always have strange little problems with your computer? Are you scared of using your computer / tablet / device because things seem to go wrong – you press the “wrong” button? Do you want to fix your computer problems yourself? As a bit… Continue Reading The 6 Rs to fix computer problems yourself

In a recent discussion about network security, I had a [relatively inexperienced] network administrator make a comment that security between networks can be achieved with VLANs. As most of us know, VLANs do not equal network security – but it made me wonder why she came to that conclusion, after… Continue Reading VLANs do not equal network security

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