IT systems management and monitoring
Learn about the tools and technologies that enable more visibility into IT infrastructure, integration between IT management tools, tailored alerts for IT professionals and new areas of performance monitoring and management.
Top Stories
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Tip
11 Jul 2024
LAMP stack vs. MEAN stack: Which is right for you?
LAMP and MEAN stacks are two options for application hosting. Their differences lie in the way you use and deploy them. Continue Reading
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Tutorial
08 Jul 2024
Follow these steps to optimize Hyper-V performance
Follow these best practices for Microsoft's virtualization platform to prevent unnecessary slowdowns with your VMs. Continue Reading
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Tip
12 Oct 2022
Combat ransomware with continuous backup software, strategy
No IT organization is safe from a ransomware attack, making backup maintenance critical. Learn the pros and cons of continuous backups in terms of costs, storage and recovery time. Continue Reading
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News
11 Oct 2022
Microsoft resolves Windows zero-day on October Patch Tuesday
The company released mitigation instructions for two Exchange Server zero-days discovered late last month but had no security updates to close the flaws on the email platform. Continue Reading
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News
06 Oct 2022
ServiceNow buys Era Software to unify observability strategy
ServiceNow's acquisition of Era Software looks to strengthen the company's position in the observability market and make digital transformation projects easier to implement. Continue Reading
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News
06 Oct 2022
Splunk suit claims Cribl built on stolen log management IP
Former Splunk employees and industry watchers reacted to a lawsuit filed by Splunk this week alleging that Cribl's business is based on stolen log management code. Continue Reading
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News
06 Oct 2022
Terraform Cloud continuous validation inches toward GitOps
Terraform is already part of the GitOps workflow for some enterprises, but a new continuous validation feature could increase its overlap with tools such as Argo CD and Flux. Continue Reading
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News
05 Oct 2022
HashiCorp cloud security evolves via Boundary, Consul, Vault
With the debut of Boundary on HashiCorp Cloud Platform, along with updates for Vault and Consul, the vendor lays the foundation for a long-term product strategy. Continue Reading
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Tip
04 Oct 2022
How to stop ransomware: 4 steps to ransomware containment
Even with the best security efforts, ransomware sometimes breaches organizations' defenses -- but IT teams can prevent a ransomware attack from escalating with these four steps. Continue Reading
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News
04 Oct 2022
Dynatrace overhauls AIOps back end, beefs up log analytics
The AIOps vendor unveiled a new approach to data management that has enterprise customers such as BT hopeful it could eliminate the need for separate log analytics products. Continue Reading
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Tip
03 Oct 2022
The basics, benefits and risks of cell-based architecture
Developers who work with microservices may find the concept familiar, but cell-based architecture takes its own spin on modularity to address large-scale system failover issues. Continue Reading
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Tip
03 Oct 2022
4 tips for network capacity planning and provisioning
To avoid network overprovisioning, teams should review baselines and roadmaps, assess limitations and consider business strategy changes when focusing on network capacity planning. Continue Reading
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Tip
30 Sep 2022
How to decide on what Office 365 add-on licenses to use
Missing certain functionality and want to supplement your subscription to Office 365 or Microsoft 365? Find out what extras make sense for your organization. Continue Reading
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News
29 Sep 2022
Cloud Custodian spans FinOps, SecOps cloud policies
Users such as Avalara and HBO Max use Cloud Custodian to manage cloud cost and security policies, as the project's founders prepare Kubernetes support to rival OPA and Kyverno. Continue Reading
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Tip
28 Sep 2022
Consider Azure AD group-based licensing for Office 365 users
Administrators who manage many users can go one step further toward streamlining license assignments by taking advantage of a new feature from Microsoft. Continue Reading
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Tip
28 Sep 2022
Creating an effective change management process for IT ops
Handling changes is challenging in complex virtualized environments with extensive automation and dependencies. Learn what IT teams need to know for effective change management. Continue Reading
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Definition
22 Sep 2022
non-uniform memory access (NUMA)
Non-uniform memory access, or NUMA, is a method of configuring a cluster of microprocessors in a multiprocessing system so they can share memory locally. Continue Reading
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News
20 Sep 2022
Aqua adds software supply chain security to DevSecOps mix
A new software supply chain security module for Aqua's platform correlates runtime security monitoring with pre-deployment scans as IT pros look to merge disparate tools. Continue Reading
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Feature
14 Sep 2022
5 distributed tracing tools to ease application monitoring
DevOps and IT teams can use distributed tracing to monitor microservices and ensure applications run smoothly. Explore five tools to help pinpoint any system issues. Continue Reading
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News
13 Sep 2022
Windows zero-day quashed for September Patch Tuesday
A relatively light patching workload awaits admins this month, but a "wormable" threat should increase the sense of urgency to rapidly deploy Microsoft's batch of fixes. Continue Reading
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Tip
09 Sep 2022
Help desk documentation: Best practices for DevOps teams
Creating accurate, up-to-date documentation for help desks is critical to software development and adoption -- but it also poses challenges for DevOps organizations. Continue Reading
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Tip
06 Sep 2022
Prepare for ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure
Prevention and protection are often the focus of ransomware discussions, but IT teams must understand ransomware's effects on operations and how to react in an attack scenario. Continue Reading
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Definition
01 Sep 2022
permittivity of free space
The permittivity of free space is a physical constant that reflects the ability of electrical fields to pass through a classical vacuum. Continue Reading
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Tutorial
30 Aug 2022
Learn to monitor group memberships with PowerShell
Use PowerShell automation to build reports in local group memberships on a server and security groups in Active Directory to keep tabs on any irregular behavior. Continue Reading
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News
30 Aug 2022
VMware Tanzu teases vSphere, PaaS tie-ins -- but doubts linger
VMware said enhanced Kubernetes integrations for vSphere and Cloud Foundry, some in the works for years, will ship soon, but the pending Broadcom deal gives some observers pause. Continue Reading
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Tip
30 Aug 2022
Learn to work with Microsoft's New Commerce Experience
With some extra effort in the planning stages, it's possible to control costs in Office 365 and Microsoft 365 with the new seat-based licensing model. Continue Reading
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Definition
26 Aug 2022
hierarchy
Generally speaking, hierarchy refers to an organizational structure in which items are ranked in a specific manner, usually according to levels of importance. Continue Reading
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Tip
26 Aug 2022
What IT admins should consider when licensing a VM
Licensing for virtual machines can be particularly tricky to navigate for IT admins, who must ensure proper licensing for hosts -- as well as software running inside VMs. Continue Reading
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Tutorial
25 Aug 2022
How to build a vulnerability scanner with PowerShell
What do you do if there's a zero-day threatening your organization? When you need to act fast, use PowerShell to uncover vulnerabilities hiding in your environment. Continue Reading
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Tip
25 Aug 2022
Emerging approaches to HCI for IT services
Hyper-converged infrastructure's increased support for containers, composability and hybrid cloud deployments has attracted IT teams with reduced costs and improved efficiency. Continue Reading
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Definition
12 Aug 2022
deprecated
In information technology (IT), deprecation means that although something is available or allowed, it is not recommended or that -- in the case where something must be used -- to say it is deprecated means that its failings are recognized. Continue Reading
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Opinion
12 Aug 2022
Why modern networks require AIOps
Distributed IT environments increasingly require automated networks, and AIOps can provide the answer for network operations teams dealing with increased complexity, starting now. Continue Reading
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News
11 Aug 2022
Sigstore co-creator talks GitHub, Kubernetes and next steps
Dan Lorenc reflects on a whirlwind year for his open source project, now officially incorporated into Kubernetes and GitHub's npm registry, and his plans for the year to come. Continue Reading
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News
10 Aug 2022
AWS, Splunk and more launch cybersecurity analytics standard
AWS and other IT vendors will start building connectors based on a new standard schema meant to streamline data sharing between cybersecurity tools. Continue Reading
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Tutorial
10 Aug 2022
Learn to perform a DNS backup and restore
DNS outages cause connectivity issues that prevent basic tasks from executing properly. Understand how to perform a restore for a DNS zone, which is not always intuitive. Continue Reading
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News
09 Aug 2022
DogWalk zero-day squashed on August Patch Tuesday
In addition to a long-simmering bug in the Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool, Microsoft corrects a sizeable number of flaws in its Azure Site Recovery product. Continue Reading
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Feature
04 Aug 2022
Explore the 2022 application performance monitoring market
APM helps organizations get a leg up with insight into customers and applications -- and the market is only going to grow bigger as technology advances and becomes more complex. Continue Reading
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Tutorial
04 Aug 2022
Step-by-step guide to working with Crossplane and Kubernetes
Crossplane is built to extend Kubernetes resources to and from external sources like databases, the cloud or the edge. Try out the tool, and learn its processes with this tutorial. Continue Reading
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Definition
01 Aug 2022
real user monitoring (RUM)
Real user monitoring (RUM) is a technology used by developers and network operators to gain real-world observability into web performance and service availability. Continue Reading
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Tip
01 Aug 2022
An introduction to SRE documentation best practices
SRE documentation stands distinct from other types of IT documentation, not least because it's a core responsibility for site reliability engineers. What else makes it distinct? Continue Reading
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News
28 Jul 2022
AWS adds Kubernetes security tie-ins amid SecOps tool sprawl
Amazon Detective pulls Kubernetes security data into a broader threat detection and CSPM context as IT pros at large orgs seek integrated multi-cloud security workflows. Continue Reading
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News
28 Jul 2022
How Zoom security incident response survived the pandemic
March 2020's influx of users meant the video conferencing company had to massively scale its incident response operation and the observability infrastructure that fed it, and fast. Continue Reading
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Definition
27 Jul 2022
most significant bit (MSB)
The most significant bit (MSB) is the bit in a multiple-bit binary number with the largest value. This is usually the bit farthest to the left, or the bit transmitted first in a sequence. Continue Reading
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Definition
27 Jul 2022
root cause analysis
Root cause analysis (RCA) is a method for understanding the underlying cause of an observed or experienced incident. Continue Reading
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Podcast
25 Jul 2022
The awkward state of the remote vs. in-person work debate
TechTarget senior news writer Beth Pariseau discusses return-to-work initiatives for IT pros and in-person tech conferences coming back onto the schedule. Continue Reading
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Tip
25 Jul 2022
Observability as code is key to the cloud operating model
Why is everything becoming 'as code'? Believe it or not, it's easier to manage and can save the headache of adopting a new, specialized tool. Use the tools you have for OaC. Continue Reading
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Tip
21 Jul 2022
Patching best practices IT ops and security can agree on
Patches are necessary for maintenance, but can often cause a rift between IT ops and security teams. Follow these best practices to unify expectations and keep tension at bay. Continue Reading
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Tip
21 Jul 2022
Top 12 application performance monitoring tools
Discover the basic capabilities to evaluate when choosing an APM tool, and then review a list of APM vendors to help you get started with your selection process. Continue Reading
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News
20 Jul 2022
CNCF, CISA address hurdles to SBOM for cloud security
Discussions in the tech industry about how to overcome cloud security challenges for SBOMs include an early-stage CNCF idea that uses a graph database to manage transitory metadata. Continue Reading
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Tip
18 Jul 2022
APM vs. observability: Key differences explained
If you're debating the use of application performance monitoring and observability to gather system data and improve the user experience, we break down the approaches. Continue Reading
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Tip
15 Jul 2022
Using AI and machine learning for APM
Discover how organizations can streamline operations and improve operational analytics by using AI and machine learning in their application performance monitoring environments. Continue Reading
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Answer
15 Jul 2022
The benefits and challenges of AI network monitoring
The benefits include simplified network monitoring and automation capabilities. The challenges include data quality questions and integration complexities. Continue Reading
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Opinion
13 Jul 2022
IRL: Cisco Live 2022 goes full-stack o11y
Observability, or o11y, looks more deeply and broadly into an IT environment than traditional IT monitoring. At Cisco Live in June, Cisco unveiled plans for full-stack o11y. Continue Reading
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Tip
11 Jul 2022
Adopt a zero-trust framework for a safer IT ecosystem
Zero trust sounds like opposition to DevOps' all-for-one culture model, but it's a safety model organizations should evaluate. Safeguard everything with identity authentication. Continue Reading
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Tip
07 Jul 2022
6 technical debt examples and how to solve them
Technical debt can be critical to an organization's success or failure -- and many don't even know it exists. Discover six examples of where it collects and how to eliminate it. Continue Reading
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Definition
07 Jul 2022
What is observability? A beginner's guide
Observability is a management strategy focused on keeping the most relevant, important and core issues at or near the top of an operations process flow. Continue Reading
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Tip
06 Jul 2022
These Azure Logic Apps examples assist with your admin needs
Admins can get some automated assistance with provisioning and monitoring by learning how to work with triggers in Microsoft's integration platform as a service. Continue Reading
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News
29 Jun 2022
ServiceNow ITSM users recharge workflows with familiar tools
Digital transformation hasn't required Flex and the city of Santa Monica to replace the IT service management system they already had, and a new IT ops workflow is on the way. Continue Reading
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Definition
29 Jun 2022
POSIX (Portable Operating System Interface)
POSIX (Portable Operating System Interface) is a set of standard operating system interfaces based on the Unix operating system. Continue Reading
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Tip
28 Jun 2022
Do you meet all the modern authentication requirements?
Microsoft's push to a more secure method for user authentication and authorization could catch some enterprises flat-footed if IT hasn't done its homework. Continue Reading
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Tutorial
27 Jun 2022
How to set up Exchange Online modern authentication
Microsoft plans to tighten up security on its hosted email platform to prevent attackers from gaining access to user credentials. Is your organization ready? Continue Reading
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Tip
24 Jun 2022
Send automated messages with this Azure Logic Apps tutorial
Learn to use the Microsoft cloud-based product to automatically send an email or a message from Microsoft Teams when you need to know if a task completed properly. Continue Reading
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Answer
24 Jun 2022
Do hypervisors limit vertical scalability?
Knowing hardware maximums and VM limits ensures you don't overload the system. Learn hypervisor scalability limits for Hyper-V, vSphere, ESXi and Red Hat Virtualization. Continue Reading
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Tip
17 Jun 2022
7 principles of observability in modern applications
Organizations must keep these seven principles top of mind when monitoring and organizing data to institute observability practices that resolve problems quickly. Continue Reading
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News
16 Jun 2022
Splunk AIOps development to be led by new 'hands-on' CEO
Splunk product development will be led by the company's new CEO following another high-ranking exec's departure, prompting speculation about the vendor's long-term priorities. Continue Reading
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Tip
16 Jun 2022
Observability vs. monitoring: What's the difference?
Although observability and monitoring are different concepts, they aren't mutually exclusive; both provide IT administrators with valuable insights on their systems. Continue Reading
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Tip
16 Jun 2022
How to set up automated log collection with PowerShell
Gathering logs from on-premises Windows Server systems or Office 365 cloud services is a necessary but tedious job. Try a PowerShell script to ease the pain. Continue Reading
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News
15 Jun 2022
Splunk Enterprise users push more data into DevSecOps
Splunk shops are expanding their collection of log and observability data to offer developer self-service, correlate ops with security alerts and consolidate edge management. Continue Reading
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Definition
15 Jun 2022
Windows Registry Editor (regedit)
The Windows Registry Editor (regedit) is a graphical tool in the Microsoft Windows operating system (OS) that enables authorized users to view the Windows registry and make changes. Continue Reading
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News
14 Jun 2022
Microsoft fixes Follina zero-day for June Patch Tuesday
A Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool flaw disclosed on May 30 and exploited in the wild gets resolved in this month's batch of security updates. Continue Reading
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Tip
13 Jun 2022
Common use cases for observability
These use cases for observability enable an organization to dig deeper into its systems monitoring and analysis to get ahead of potential issues and alert IT staff. Continue Reading
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Tip
10 Jun 2022
8 observability best practices
Observability enables organizations to analyze data on a continuous basis and act on it quickly. Learn best practices for implementing the technology. Continue Reading
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Tip
10 Jun 2022
Frameworks for an observability maturity model
Observability helps developers and IT operations teams identify and fix system issues. And with the right setup, it can improve on itself over time to catch potential problems. Continue Reading
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News
09 Jun 2022
OpenTelemetry inspires CDF's event-driven architecture plan
The CDEvents project and others like it aspire to standardize how CI/CD pipeline tools share data, filling a role similar to OpenTelemetry's in the observability realm. Continue Reading
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Tip
07 Jun 2022
The 3 pillars of observability: Logs, metrics and traces
Logs, metrics and traces offer their individual perspectives on system performance. When analyzed together, they provide a complete picture of your infrastructure. Continue Reading
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Tip
31 May 2022
How to track -- and measure -- technical debt
Technical debt can grow without an organization's knowledge or control -- unless they address it at the start. Here are different methods and tools to track and manage it. Continue Reading
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Tip
26 May 2022
Where the future of AIOps use cases will take IT ops
AIOps is poised for rapid growth and maturity as it becomes accepted in the market. Organizations should draw plans to integrate it into DevOps and systems management. Continue Reading
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Feature
26 May 2022
Whip up recipes with 'Elasticsearch 8.x Cookbook'
Elasticsearch is a powerful and potentially complicated tool. With 'Elasticsearch 8.x Cookbook,' users can split exercises into manageable bites. Continue Reading
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Tip
23 May 2022
Learn to work with the Office 365 unified audit log
Administrators who need to check on suspicious activities in the Office 365 platform can perform a unified audit log search to help with their investigation. Continue Reading
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Definition
20 May 2022
AMD (Advanced Micro Devices)
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is a semiconductor company, known for designing and developing computer processors and graphics technologies. Continue Reading
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Tip
19 May 2022
Reduce cloud waste with careful DevOps cost management
To keep up with swift business demands and managing the costs of the cloud, organizations can turn to DevOps. Follow these four principles to reduce waste. Continue Reading
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News
18 May 2022
Embattled New Relic cuts Kubernetes observability overhead
New Relic made its Kubernetes observability agent more efficient and added vulnerability management to its APM tool but is struggling financially as open source tools proliferate. Continue Reading
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Tip
17 May 2022
Proactive backup measures simplify virtual server recovery
Backups and CDP are two ways to prevent VM data loss. Backups can quickly restore data despite file recovery limits. CDP stores every piece of data in use but may lag in production. Continue Reading
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Tutorial
17 May 2022
Query event logs with PowerShell to find malicious activity
Every action on a Windows Server system gets recorded, so don't get caught by an avoidable security incident. Learn how to find potential security problems in event logs. Continue Reading
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Tip
17 May 2022
Demonstrate ROI in IT with these metrics
When IT ops teams must validate a project's worth to the business to receive funding, they have to look beyond general benefits. Here are several metrics that help prove ROI. Continue Reading
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Definition
13 May 2022
troubleshooting
Troubleshooting is a systematic approach to problem-solving that is often used to find and correct issues with complex machines, electronics, computers and software systems. Continue Reading
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News
12 May 2022
Red Hat CEO: We're going SaaS-first with OpenShift
Red Hat President and CEO Paul Cormier offers a glimpse into the OpenShift roadmap as IT reckons with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and hybrid work. Continue Reading
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News
12 May 2022
Red Hat CEO on IBM, VMware and hybrid cloud coopetition
Two years into his tenure as Red Hat CEO, Paul Cormier discusses his company's relationship with IBM and how it's competing with its own partners in hybrid cloud. Continue Reading
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News
10 May 2022
Microsoft corrects Windows zero-day for May Patch Tuesday
Administrators should plan on extra testing after deploying this month's patches due to the heavy concentration of fixes in three distinct areas of the Windows OS. Continue Reading
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Tip
10 May 2022
Brace IT ops teams for server end of life
The end of a server's life is rarely an enjoyable time. With it comes reevaluating applications and preparing for migrations. Here's what to keep in mind as the time approaches. Continue Reading
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Tip
10 May 2022
Microsoft modern authentication deadline looms over Exchange
Support for basic authentication will end this year, giving administrators who haven't switched to a newer authentication method little time to prepare for a smooth transition. Continue Reading
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Tip
09 May 2022
Why admins should learn how to use Azure Logic Apps
In an increasingly cloudy IT world, the iPaaS offering from Microsoft can bridge management gaps with automated workflows that require little technical expertise. Continue Reading
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Tip
03 May 2022
Data center cooling systems and technologies and how they work
Extreme heat and cold can keep equipment from operating at peak efficiency. Explore cost-efficient and cost-effective cooling technologies and smart options for your facility. Continue Reading
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News
03 May 2022
Atlassian cloud outage postmortem seeks to build back trust
A detailed post-incident analysis of Atlassian's cloud outage last month is prompting both the vendor and its customers to revise and expand their resiliency plans. Continue Reading
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Tip
29 Apr 2022
Data center temperature and humidity guidelines
ASHRAE maintains a recommended list of humidity and temperature level standards for data centers. Discover how to keep your data center environment in tiptop shape. Continue Reading
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Tutorial
28 Apr 2022
Avoid clock skew issues with external time source setup
Configure Active Directory domain controllers to use an external NTP server to avoid Kerberos authorization issues and other problems in your Windows environment. Continue Reading
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Tip
26 Apr 2022
Windows Server 2022 security hardening guide for admins
Emerging threats continue to target the Windows ecosystem, but there are multiple methods to make it tougher to be the victim of a malicious hack attempt. Continue Reading
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Tip
20 Apr 2022
Basic virsh network commands to know
It's helpful to know how to use virsh commands to manage VMs and virtual networks; some cloud providers don't support Ansible or VirtualBox. Get started with a few commands. Continue Reading
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Tip
19 Apr 2022
The future of OpenTelemetry for observability
To collect and analyze telemetry data from cloud-native apps, many organizations use OpenTelemetry for system observability. Discover its benefits and primary components. Continue Reading
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News
13 Apr 2022
IT pros lambaste Atlassian communication amid cloud outage
IT pros including affected Atlassian customers and prospective cloud users were critical of Atlassian's communications both publicly and privately during its ongoing SaaS outage. Continue Reading
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News
12 Apr 2022
Microsoft plugs Windows zero-day on April Patch Tuesday
Microsoft issues corrections for 117 unique vulnerabilities this month with a significant number of security updates resolving printer spooler and DNS server problems. Continue Reading
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Tip
12 Apr 2022
Use these PowerShell add-ons to supercharge your experience
These PowerShell new features and modules introduce several customization and functionality features to the popular automation tool to ease coding tasks for administrators. Continue Reading