On Friday 7th October, I sat and passed the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Certified Solution Architect exam. I passed the exam, but I probably would have achieved a higher score if I had actually used AWS before. I started studying for the exam without any prior exposure to the technology,… Continue Reading Amazon Certified Solution Architect

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

Running release R minus 1? What about release R plus 45 days? We all know the Patch Tuesday update cycle where Microsoft releases their updates. It is common practice for risk-averse companies to not run the very latest release of software, instead having a policy of running “R-1” – which… Continue Reading R-1 is dead, long live R+45

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

DIY is dead. The time when you could “do it yourself” is no longer relevant for IT Infrastructure. It may take a while for it to happen, but it has happened before – to desktop PCs. Approximately 20 years ago, it was both cheaper and easier (if you knew how) to… Continue Reading The era of infrastructure DIY is dead

I was once in a conversation about capital investment in IT, where the financial manager posited that IT projects can be treated in the same way as an asset – it has an inherent value throughout the lifespan of the system. The belief was that IT CAPEX investments had a… Continue Reading Capital investment in IT – an oxymoron?

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

Ring, ring. “Hello, is that the IT Manager? Can I ask you a few questions for a survey? <preamble here to build a relationship and feeling of trust, like complimenting the company or asking what the company does, saying that it’s impressive or hard work>. Can you tell me what… Continue Reading Information disclosure as a security risk

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!

We have all been conditioned. We have been indoctrinated through years of advice and needing to follow requirements – but perhaps we need to reconsider passwords in the Internet age? What is wrong with password policies? For years, we have been told that you need to have passwords that are a… Continue Reading Passwords in the Internet Age

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?

As you read this, there are no more VCP 4 certified people. VMware have introduced a controversial new policy to make VCP certifications expire after 2 years, and March 10th marks the date that the VCP Expiry takes place. VCP Expiry The qualification of VCP was in three stages –… Continue Reading There are no more VCP4s in the world

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

Assumptions are often made that if you have storage, you need to use RAID. If you have moving parts like fans, the assumption is that you need a hot spare (or at least the ability to hot replace the part), and then it goes on to redundant network connections, warm… Continue Reading The concept of redundancy – is it redundant?

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

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?