Ask the Experts

Ask the Experts

• Paravirtualization advantages, disadvantages and use cases

  Despite a promising start, paravirtualization comes with significant disadvantages that limit the number of use cases that make sense for enterprise IT, but it still has its place.  Continue Reading

• Do ops skills fall into an IT engineering job description?

  What are some ways to level up from an IT operations or administration role into an IT engineering one? Will my experience in IT operations translate into engineering tasks?  Continue Reading

• Configure NIC teaming with different modes in Hyper-V

  The switch independent mode uses different switches and can support both active/active and active/standby operation, while the dependent mode only uses one switch.  Continue Reading

• Are there IT jobs in cloud capacity management?

  If a company moves only 30% of workloads from its data center to the public cloud, that will reduce IT ops demand. Is there still a role for the ops engineer?  Continue Reading

• Should I allow SSH tunneling connections through the firewall?

  Allowing users to tunnel through a firewall to access any site creates a security risk. How big of a risk is it? It depends on how much you trust your users.  Continue Reading

• How is runtime as a service different from PaaS or IaaS?

  What is runtime as a service and how does it differ from platform as a service and infrastructure as a service?  Continue Reading

• How do I size capacity for VMware oversubscription?

  What best practices and tools can I use to allocate the right resources in an oversubscribed virtualization deployment?  Continue Reading

• How can active-active clustering use load balancers?

  Active-active clustering and cloud services enable IT workload resilience or redundancy in the enterprise. How does load balancing influence these setups?  Continue Reading

• Hardware vs. software load balancer: Which is better for an enterprise?

  Can a software load balancer perform with the same capabilities as a hardware load balancer? Decide which aides enterprise the best in this hardware vs. software load balancer comparison.  Continue Reading

• How do I set up a file sharing server for three clients?

  If I want to share files between three client machines and a Windows server, what are my options?  Continue Reading

• What works for daily event log monitoring?

  I have 80 Windows servers in the data center. What can I use for daily event log monitoring?  Continue Reading

• What's the effect of network switch buffer in a data center?

  What's causing buffer? How much buffer should ideally be available in a network switch? Is there any standard available for buffer?  Continue Reading

• How do I use SR-IOV for Hyper-V VMs?

  Single Root I/O Virtualization, or SR-IOV, can help reduce latency and increase I/O throughput when enabled for Hyper-V VMs.  Continue Reading

• Can you verify software compatibility on IT systems?

  If you're thinking about deploying an application software package, how do you know if it is compatible with your particular systems and hardware?  Continue Reading

• What do you need to roll out application containerization?

  Containers have a significant following these days, thanks to Docker. Find out how containers can help and what you need to get started.  Continue Reading

• Virtual security tactics for Type 1 and Type 2 hypervisors

  It's no surprise that Type 1 and Type 2 hypervisors require different security considerations, but we asked an expert to clarify.  Continue Reading

• How KVM over IP makes remote systems management easier

  Remote systems management using KVM over IP is helping businesses avoid the costs associated with travel while improving support response times.  Continue Reading

• Best practices for naming VMware virtual machines

  Are you naming your VMware virtual machines in a way that will help you keep track of where they are and what they do? If not, you must read this expert response by Andrew Kutz.  Continue Reading