BrandPost: Three Automation Mistakes You Should Avoid

There has never been a more pressing need to automate data center operations—including the network, storage, compute, and apps. End-to-end data center automation might be the fastest route to delivering the on-demand IT services needed in today’s digital economy. As such, no organization can afford to stumble as it develops and deploys comprehensive automation strategies. Let’s take a look at three of the most common mistakes organizations make as they seek to automate their environments: taking on too much, focusing too heavily on a specific tool, and letting a vendor dictate their strategy.Mistake 1: Trying to boil the ocean. Trying to do too much, too soon, is often a recipe for disaster. When it comes to automation, this approach frequently results in unmet expectations as well as management’s diminished confidence in IT’s ability to deliver.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Disaster recovery: How is your business set up to survive an outage?

Asynchronous vs synchronous. Dark disaster recovery vs. active architecture. Active/active vs. active/passive. No setup is objectively better or worse than another. The best one for you primarily depends on your level of tolerance for what happens when the server goes down.Security experts say how individual companies choose to save their data in anticipation of an outage depends on how long they can survive before the “lights” are turned back on. What level of availability does your company need? Is the face of your company an ecommerce site where even a few minutes offline can cost an astronomical sum? Will the cost of an active-active system outweigh the potential loss of business from an outage?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Disaster recovery: How is your business set up to survive an outage?

Asynchronous vs synchronous. Dark disaster recovery vs. active architecture. Active/active vs. active/passive. No setup is objectively better or worse than another. The best one for you primarily depends on your level of tolerance for what happens when the server goes down.Security experts say how individual companies choose to save their data in anticipation of an outage depends on how long they can survive before the “lights” are turned back on. What level of availability does your company need? Is the face of your company an ecommerce site where even a few minutes offline can cost an astronomical sum? Will the cost of an active-active system outweigh the potential loss of business from an outage?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Augmented reality: Next-gen headsets show business promise

Technology entrepreneur Raven Zachary has seen things he has difficulty talking about.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Discover the power of Bash on Windows

Microsoft Windows may be the dominant player on the desktop, but the rapidly increasing open source software market—especially for admin and dev tools—clearly favors Linux. Not to mention the mobile market, where Android uses Linux variants. If you’re a developer on Windows, the drumbeat to get hip to Linux capabilities keeps getting louder.Over the years, Microsoft has introduced various workarounds for using Linux capabilities on Windows, such as PowerShell with SSH and Cygwin and MSYS. Running Linux inside a virtual machine is another option. But VMs consume a significant amount of resources and don’t provide a first-class Linux experience, as you can’t edit local files or get full access to local drives, for example.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Pivotal, Google team up for Kubernetes cloud management

Pivotal and Google have launched Project Kubo to apply Pivotal's Bosh tool for deploying and managing cloud software to Google's Kubernetes container orchestration platform.Currently in an alpha release stage, Kubo instantiates, deploys, and manages Kubernetes clusters on any cloud. Pivotal has been working on the project with members of the Google Cloud platform team.[ To the cloud! Real-world container migrations. | Dig into the the red-hot open source framework in InfoWorld's beginner's guide to Docker. ] Kubo can be used with existing production applications written in specific languages, and it can access platform primitives. Bosh, featured as part of Cloud Foundry, provides an open source tool chain for managing large-scale distributed services. It offers a combination of a virtual machine build tool, configuration and health management, and logging. Bosh has been used to build consistent, self-healing environments with zero downtime, Seroter said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Switching from Mac to PC: Choosing a laptop

I’m committed to switching from a Mac to a PC, and the next step is to start shopping. When you haven’t used anything but Macs for close to two decades, the sheer quantity and variety of Windows choices poses a challenge. So, while I researched which new Windows laptop would be a good fit for me, I spent some time experimenting with the first Windows computer I could get my hands on: my Mac.Easing into Windows via Bootcamp Most modern Apple computers come with Boot Camp Assistant—a program designed to help you turn your Apple computer into a machine that can dual-boot into Windows. A copy of Windows 10 Home can be had for $120 (or downloaded and used for free with limited options,) so using the OS with Boot Camp is a great way to see what Microsoft has to offer before you invest in a PC.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to remove ransomware: Use this battle plan to fight back

Ransomware doesn’t sneak into your PC like ordinary malware. It bursts in, points a gun at your data, and screams for cash—or else. And if you don’t learn to defend yourself, it could happen again and again.Armed gangs of digital thieves roaming the information superhighway sounds like an overwrought action movie, but the numbers say it’s true: Ransomware attacks rose from 3.8 million in 2015 to 638 million in 2016, an increase of 167 times year over year, according to Sonicwall—even as the number of malware attacks declined. Why steal data when you can simply demand cash?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to remove ransomware: Use this battle plan to fight back

Ransomware doesn’t sneak into your PC like ordinary malware. It bursts in, points a gun at your data, and screams for cash—or else. And if you don’t learn to defend yourself, it could happen again and again.Armed gangs of digital thieves roaming the information superhighway sounds like an overwrought action movie, but the numbers say it’s true: Ransomware attacks rose from 3.8 million in 2015 to 638 million in 2016, an increase of 167 times year over year, according to Sonicwall—even as the number of malware attacks declined. Why steal data when you can simply demand cash?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

10 cities where IT pros aren’t paid what they’re worth

(Insider Story)

Why GE is winning the war for tech talent

Hiring enough tech talent to facilitate digital transformations typically tops the list of challenges CIOs face. They could do worse than follow the blueprint crafted by 125-year-old General Electric.The company has lured top tech executives from Apple, Google and Microsoft by underscoring the huge role GE plans to play in the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution, an era defined more by software platforms and APIs than heavy metal. It has also overhauled a talent recruitment practice that was more suited for the industrial giant of yore by bringing in technical recruiters who offer the kind compensation packages pitched by Silicon Valley titans.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

15 Infrastructure Experts to See at Interop ITX

IDG Contributor Network: How to avoid falling for the W-2 phishing scam

While this blog is nominally mine, I don’t come up with ideas in a vacuum. This article on W-2 scams sprung from a conversation I had with my colleague Steve Williams, who ended up being my co-author. Check out more about him at the end of this piece.Multiple times each year, LinkedIn feeds and information security forums light up with examples of the latest and greatest versions of phishing attacks. Most recently the hot stories have been about a simple targeted request that avoids links, attachments, and malware, plays friendly with email filters, and appears extremely urgent to the recipient. This form of phishing is known as the W-2 scam.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: How to avoid falling for the W-2 phishing scam

While this blog is nominally mine, I don’t come up with ideas in a vacuum. This article on W-2 scams sprung from a conversation I had with my colleague Steve Williams, who ended up being my co-author. Check out more about him at the end of this piece.Multiple times each year, LinkedIn feeds and information security forums light up with examples of the latest and greatest versions of phishing attacks. Most recently the hot stories have been about a simple targeted request that avoids links, attachments, and malware, plays friendly with email filters, and appears extremely urgent to the recipient. This form of phishing is known as the W-2 scam.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Intelligent automation points the way to future economic growth

As someone deeply involved in technology strategy, I’m often asked about the impact of automation. Will automation—specifically, intelligent automation—create prosperity and growth, or will it create a dystopian future where workers are increasingly replaced by software robots?I always answer—and believe—that intelligent automation is a vast opportunity, not a threat. By working hand in hand with intelligent technology, we can achieve greater things. It frees us from mundane, repetitive activities—unleashing creativity and letting us build stronger, more productive working relationships. Intelligent automation makes us more human, not less.Unprecedented productivity gains That’s why McKinsey’s recent report, A Future That Works, is so fascinating. It predicts that automation will increase productivity by up to 1.4 percent per year over the next 50 years. By comparison, the steam engine only drove 0.3 percent annual increases, and the IT revolution only raised productivity growth by 0.4 percent.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Intelligent automation points the way to future economic growth

As someone deeply involved in technology strategy, I’m often asked about the impact of automation. Will automation—specifically, intelligent automation—create prosperity and growth, or will it create a dystopian future where workers are increasingly replaced by software robots?I always answer—and believe—that intelligent automation is a vast opportunity, not a threat. By working hand in hand with intelligent technology, we can achieve greater things. It frees us from mundane, repetitive activities—unleashing creativity and letting us build stronger, more productive working relationships. Intelligent automation makes us more human, not less.Unprecedented productivity gains That’s why McKinsey’s recent report, A Future That Works, is so fascinating. It predicts that automation will increase productivity by up to 1.4 percent per year over the next 50 years. By comparison, the steam engine only drove 0.3 percent annual increases, and the IT revolution only raised productivity growth by 0.4 percent.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: The definition of work is shifting—here’s what you need to know

Back in the late 1990s, when I started my career with a job helping to develop IBM’s first ecommerce payment product, the term “work” was rather strictly defined. For the most part, my colleagues and I conformed to regular office hours, stationed at our desks on site. But even so, it was impossible to ignore the signs portending how the workplace was poised to change. My Nokia handset offered an exciting new kind of 24/7 connectivity, audio conferencing was gaining in popularity, and “telecommuting” was on the rise (to name just a few).+ Also on Network World: A mobile-first strategy improves employee productivity, study finds + Fast forward to today, and it’s clear that the definition of work is continuing to morph, now even faster than before. Savvy employers realize there is little time to waste and that they must adapt to a variety of cultural and technological changes if they want to attract and retain talent, improve employee performance and maintain a competitive advantage. Here’s what you need to know about this shifting landscape:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Botnets: Is your network really protected?

The tech world moves at a tremendous pace, unleashing wave after wave of innovation intended to improve our everyday lives. Many new devices, from security cameras to fridges, or TVs to baby monitors, are now internet connected. This affords us remote access and facilitates the collection of data, which is ostensibly used to make our systems “smarter.”However, it also opens new doors into our offices and homes through which hackers can come uninvited.There were around 6.4 billion connected things in use worldwide in 2016, and that’s set to grow to 8.4 billion this year, according to Gartner. There’s no doubt that the Internet of Things (IoT) will bring many benefits, but it also brings greater risk.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Botnets: Is your network really protected?

The tech world moves at a tremendous pace, unleashing wave after wave of innovation intended to improve our everyday lives. Many new devices, from security cameras to fridges, or TVs to baby monitors, are now internet connected. This affords us remote access and facilitates the collection of data, which is ostensibly used to make our systems “smarter.”However, it also opens new doors into our offices and homes through which hackers can come uninvited.There were around 6.4 billion connected things in use worldwide in 2016, and that’s set to grow to 8.4 billion this year, according to Gartner. There’s no doubt that the Internet of Things (IoT) will bring many benefits, but it also brings greater risk.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Review: Slow Internet? Firebind can sniff out the problem

We found Firebind to be an effective tool for reaching into branch office networks to diagnose internet-based performance problems. Firebind has a simple agent installation procedure and uses email-based alerting, so network managers won’t find it a burden to install or operate.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)