Tips

Tips

• Idempotent configuration management sets things right -- no matter what

  Idempotency ensures a system won't stray from its designated desired state, sending alerts to systems administrators if a requested change would cause a disruption.  Continue Reading

• Release management best practices for every IT team

  No one likes an app that implodes once it reaches production. IT operations teams can save themselves some headaches by implementing release management from the initial design on.  Continue Reading

• The wrong tool for the job ruins DevOps on cloud plans

  Selecting DevOps tools to support cloud applications requires planning and expertise around the app architecture and the deployment model -- one provider, hybrid or multicloud -- supporting it.  Continue Reading

• Simplify your platform with IT systems management tools

  So much effort goes into simply keeping an IT infrastructure up and running. Imagine what more could be accomplished once you automate some of those tasks with IT systems management tools.  Continue Reading

• A SaltStack tutorial to start mastering data center minions

  With a basic understanding of SaltStack minions, modules, grains and other concepts, IT administrators have the power to scale up configurations.  Continue Reading

• Ways to make the application deployment process clear and flexible

  The application deployment manual must be flexible, and short enough to actually follow. A process that can't change with the evolving IT system isn't of much use to anyone.  Continue Reading

• Salt minions and grains facilitate deployment at scale

  A tiered management setup and finely grained monitoring capabilities make SaltStack's configuration management tool worth considering.  Continue Reading

• The right place to jump in with a DevOps methodology

  The potential changes that come with DevOps can scare operations personnel. But a good starting point to introduce the methodology will mitigate those fears.  Continue Reading

• Five approaches to IT resiliency that don't need new hardware

  With new application architectures, snapshots, containerization and other technologies, IT resiliency goes up while the server count stays the same.  Continue Reading

• Virtualization lightens IT application management load

  With very few exceptions, applications can -- and should -- go on virtual machines. IT admins benefit from better application management and increased automation.  Continue Reading

• Secure Jenkins for fast and safe app delivery

  Enterprises evaluating a migration to Jenkins continuous integration for quick and agile software development should keep security in the forefront of their decision.  Continue Reading

• Manage disk image files wisely in the face of DevOps sprawl

  There are strategies to prevent obsolete disk images from clogging up valuable space, especially in a rapid-change DevOps shop. However, not all VMs will benefit from the same plan.  Continue Reading

• Know how to handle IT incident management to avoid chaos

  When an important application goes down, you'd better have the right IT incident management processes and procedures in place to fix it.  Continue Reading

• Mimic production with the right staging environment

  With public or private cloud templates, it becomes easy to copy your production IT environment for staging new code as often as development needs it.  Continue Reading

• IT service delivery model uses BPM to translate ops to biz

  A business process management structure for IT service delivery can bridge the gap between IT and the rest of the business, allowing IT leaders to sit at the table for important decisions.  Continue Reading

• Conduct an honest IT performance review in problem areas

  There are many common signs that the IT estate is unhealthy. These are a few indicators of trouble, with potential changes to consider.  Continue Reading

• Secure Docker on Linux or Windows platforms

  With Docker appearing in businesses of all shapes and sizes, security is a concern for many IT admins. Here's how to secure Docker on the container or the host machine.  Continue Reading

• Improve application rollout planning with advanced options

  Enterprise IT teams have several advanced options for deploying application updates. The right one depends on what makes the most sense for the business, available IT infrastructure and your confidence in the update.  Continue Reading

• Script management technology adds safety to scripting's power

  Script management is a necessity to maintain an IT deployment. The canny organization will choose the right tools that give power to the sys admin, while protecting against accidents.  Continue Reading

• How application scalability works in event-driven vs. IaaS computing

  Event-driven computing saves IT admins' time and helps application scalability, compared to managing traditional cloud infrastructure. But IaaS and event-driven computing aren't exclusive.  Continue Reading

• Patch servers the right way without wasting time

  Apply these server patching best practices to save time, reduce complexity, and build an optimal schedule and toolkit.  Continue Reading

• Stay safe with free IT tools on live systems

  Sometimes you just need any help to fix the problem in your IT deployment. It's okay to download free IT troubleshooting tools, as long as you think through and monitor the choice.  Continue Reading

• Master microservices management on IT resources

  Deploying and managing microservices is a hard, continuous process. Proper resource planning and automation tools help realize the benefits of cloud and virtualization.  Continue Reading

• Working with event-driven compute resources

  Businesses can unshackle themselves from the woes of traditional IT surrounding applications, and provide on-demand resources from the cloud.  Continue Reading

• Create a DevOps infrastructure with code -- it's easier than you think

  Infrastructure as code allows DevOps teams to control their infrastructure like devs do application development while maintaining robust virtual server and networks in the cloud.  Continue Reading

• Five hybrid IT infrastructure breaking points

  A hybrid deployment of infrastructure as a service, virtualized dedicated servers, software as a service and other resources is good for the business -- and tough on IT.  Continue Reading

• Cloud load-balancing difficulties bog down hybrid-deployed apps

  Cloud load balancing frees application server instances and provide enterprise IT with better overall performance, but current conditions make it hard in a hybrid IT environment.  Continue Reading

• Hadoop workflow automation lets IT pros go with the flow

  Hadoop workflow managers are not just resource schedulers. They handle intricate tasks and service handoffs that are essential for managing big data services.  Continue Reading

• I can't get no IT end-user satisfaction

  IT jobs require a certain amount of finesse and patience. Balancing the needs of application owners and workers while communicating effectively is a difficult, yet manageable, task.  Continue Reading

• Implications of microservices and containers on enterprise IT

  Adopting containers and microservices allows your enterprise to be more modern, agile and event-driven. These steps prevent inefficiencies from bogging down infrastructure.  Continue Reading

• The new wave of application load balancing

  Achieve balance and keep app teams happy with sophisticated application delivery control technologies.  Continue Reading

• Adding a DevOps DBA saves business-critical apps

  A DevOps approach could warrant a front-end and a back-end database administrator.  Continue Reading

• Create a cloud development environment for on-premises apps

  With built-in tools from many of the mature public cloud services and a well-planned deployment strategy, IT teams can -- and should -- move test/dev to public cloud.  Continue Reading

• US 2016 IT conferences about modern operations

  We've compiled the top 2016 IT conferences for SysOps pros to attend in the U.S. Here is your one-stop shop for IT conferences this year.  Continue Reading

• Application maintenance keeps legacy systems serviceable

  IT operations needs tools to ensure that it can manage old -- maybe ancient -- applications while deploying new apps with different structures.  Continue Reading

• Ensure virtualization containers' security in an app world

  Both containers and VMs offer different ways of meeting an organization's application deployment requirements. And virtualization containers present different security challenges than VMs.  Continue Reading

• Red Hat admins await an Ansible vs. Puppet showdown

  IT organizations, especially large ones with multiple deployment types, should monitor Red Hat's open source configuration management roadmap following the Ansible acquisition.  Continue Reading

• DevOps implementation success starts and ends with change

  When rolling out DevOps, organizations should resist the urge to force-fit legacy development tools and processes into their new environment.  Continue Reading

• Tailor these open source IT tools for sys, cloud management

  Like how open source system management software is flexible and saves money, but worried about security or customization? GitHub forking allows you to bring that software in-house.  Continue Reading

• Three DevOps challenges all IT teams face

  DevOps is all the rage, but because it's new, businesses are making the same mistakes over and over again. Learn from these DevOps challenges to make your project a success.  Continue Reading

• Docker instances redefine containers, but have drawbacks

  Docker's service-centric approach to container-based virtualization takes virtualization technology to a whole new level, but still has some serious drawbacks.  Continue Reading

• Diversify your DevOps tools list for best results

  Compile a comprehensive DevOps tools list that cherry-picks the best platforms for each task.  Continue Reading

• Conduct an impartial DevOps assessment for your organization

  These five questions will start an organization off assessing the improvements or hindrances that a DevOps methodology would yield in the software development and deployment process.  Continue Reading

• Use GitHub for open source data center automation ideas

  GitHub, a bastion of software developers, also offers automation scripts and open source collaboration for data center administrators.  Continue Reading

• Virtualization containers force server architecture to grow up

  Much like the advent of hypervisor virtualization, container-based virtualization requires updates to server architectures for better security alongside high performance.  Continue Reading

• Getting the most out of a server load balancer

  A server load balancer stabilizes and scales workloads in enterprise applications. Look for these features and capabilities when choosing a software or hardware load balancer.  Continue Reading

• Microservices-based architecture powers apps in AWS

  Developers can upgrade applications more efficiently and adapt to uneven workflows by ditching a monolithic architecture and switching to microservices.  Continue Reading

• Why your DevOps process should have security baked in

  To minimize risks to your cloud applications, make sure your security strategy accounts for each phase of a DevOps project.  Continue Reading

• It's an OS. It's a container. No, it's unikernel!

  Unikernels improve application performance and security by getting the OS down to a smaller footprint with no waste. But this new invention in the OS field isn't for every app.  Continue Reading

• Showback reduces costs and exposes resource hogs on your IT platform

  IT showback reduces costs better than a chargeback system by allowing companies to compare and optimize resource usage across their business units.  Continue Reading

• Data center pros dabbling more with API systems, less with wires

  Systems are becoming less hardware-centric and more software-focused. IT pros should focus less on physical wiring and more on making software connections via APIs.  Continue Reading

• Server patch management for multi-OS data centers

  If you have a multi-OS data center, you know the struggle that is server patch management. Don't fret, the right combination of tools and human intuition can alleviate the pain.  Continue Reading

• OpenStack Heat template sets private IaaS in motion

  Understanding how the OpenStack Heat template works is key in the deployment of your private IaaS.  Continue Reading

• Securing Docker containers should top IT's to-do list

  Docker containers may be all the rage in enterprise IT today, but they also present unique security challenges. Tools like Docker Content Trust can help with securing containers.  Continue Reading

• Building a DevOps environment with microservices and containers

  Offering increased agility and flexibility, microservices and containers can be an ideal complement to an enterprise's DevOps environment.  Continue Reading

• Proper CMDB tools to guide data center projects

  Properly implemented and supported CMDB tools are key to business success. But which tools should you use to maximize the success of your change management projects?  Continue Reading

• Prepare developers for these microservices pros and cons

  Applications that use microservices can deliver big benefits to an enterprise -- especially those using cloud. But they aren't without their drawbacks.  Continue Reading

• Mending the DevOps culture clash

  Companies need to tread lightly as they try to speed up application development.  Continue Reading

• Application development models evolve in face of cloud

  Continuous app development is an emerging trend in cloud. But before adoption, organizations should know how it differs from waterfall, agile and DevOps models.  Continue Reading

• Use a rugged DevOps approach to boost cloud app security

  To make sure their cloud applications are secure, IT teams should prioritize security early on in the DevOps process -- a model known as rugged DevOps.  Continue Reading

• Container orchestration tools, strategies for success

  As more and more IT pros start to adopt container technology, orchestration tools like Docker Swarm will play a key role.  Continue Reading

• Create a change management system to tame data center chaos

  Data center change is constant, thanks to new systems, upgrades, user changes and macro trends like the introduction of mobile devices for business purposes.  Continue Reading

• Survive the server orchestration takeover

  The tenets of traditional IT -- well-tended data center hardware, owned software deployments -- are falling away in the cloud era of standardization and orchestration.  Continue Reading

• Data centers define DCIM, not the other way around

  The right DCIM tool isn't the one with the most data points, but rather the one that best synthesizes data into useful information for IT, ops and facilities teams.  Continue Reading

• Enterprise data security best practices mean IT teamwork

  Data center managers take on the burden of protecting the business's data assets. Discover the best strategies to deploy firewalls, encryption and other tactics.  Continue Reading

• Top tools, techniques to scale container technology

  Despite their many benefits, containers also present a challenge for some IT pros -- especially around scalability. Here are tools and tips to help.  Continue Reading

• Track down the right IT asset management system

  Virtualization, rapid refreshes and shadow IT make it harder for IT departments to really know -- and properly license and support -- what they have. You need an IT asset management system to show you.  Continue Reading

• How to future-proof your cloud app development process

  As cloud computing evolves, users won't just move their apps to the cloud -- they'll design them to take advantage of cloud's scale and resiliency.  Continue Reading

• Secure a job on these DevOps interview questions

  Practice answering these questions to highlight your broad scope of experience, wide knowledge of tools, and multidisciplinary DevOps savvy during an interview.  Continue Reading

• Blaze a trail to Docker containers in five basic steps

  Containers are gaining steam in the cloud market with Docker leading the pack. To steer your application to containers, follow these five steps.  Continue Reading

• Ensure a successful IT infrastructure monitoring tools integration

  Data center tool integration projects don't end when you finish linking up systems. Without testing and regular maintenance, integrations quickly fall apart.  Continue Reading

• How to integrate IT infrastructure monitoring tools

  When done successfully, performance monitoring tool integrations enhance administrative insight and productivity across a busy data center.  Continue Reading

• Container deployment stunted by app, management challenges

  Not every enterprise needs containers yet, and with the challenges facing deployment and management, it's OK to hold off.  Continue Reading

• Two ways to manage different server operating systems

  Several tools and techniques let data center systems administrators work with multiple server OSes on one host system, and manage it effectively.  Continue Reading

• Next-gen DCIM software holds insights for data center groups

  From its roots in power and cooling, DCIM has emerged to provide IT, facilities and business leaders with unified monitoring of an entire technology infrastructure.  Continue Reading

• Migratory apps shape future of cloud application models

  With the ability to run anywhere, migratory apps maximize the value of hybrid cloud. But management and security hurdles must first be overcome.  Continue Reading

• Three apps in which Docker containers really shine

  Docker containers offer a variety of benefits. But apply the software to these three application types to get the biggest bang for your buck.  Continue Reading

• The evolution of DevOps in the cloud

  Tools like Puppet and Chef have helped enable DevOps in the cloud, but hurdles remain when it comes to managing and analyzing cloud-based apps.  Continue Reading

• An Opscode Chef tutorial for beginners

  To use Chef in the data center, you'll find your administrator mind-set gradually opening up to the developer way of thinking. These tips and resources will accelerate the process.  Continue Reading

• Explore DCIM vendors thoroughly before deploying a tool

  DCIM is susceptible to change: The technology, the vendors and business needs all influence purchasing decisions. Investigate thoroughly before spending your money.  Continue Reading

• How to pick data center infrastructure management tools

  The rash of ever-changing DCIM vendors, the IT/facilities rift and other roadblocks make implementing DCIM a challenge. These tips get DCIM working in a real data center.  Continue Reading

• Network provisioning finally joins the automation game

  Network administrators get a taste of the automated provisioning and configuration that Chef and similar tools serve up to the compute team.  Continue Reading

• Know your data center monitoring system

  You can't depend on a building system to run the data center. Implement a BMS and a DCIM tool to monitor and predict system changes, tighten security and more.  Continue Reading

• How to write server documentation

  A data center should be prepared for the worst, but try to avoid that at all costs. Appropriate system documentation helps avoid critical errors.  Continue Reading

• How workflow automation tools trump human intervention

  Workflow automation tools speed routine tasks and ensure that these tasks execute in a standardized, error-free way. But adopting an automation tool can add complexity and learning curves to the existing environment.  Continue Reading

• Component cloud model powers agile application development

  In the future, IT pros see cloud as a place to spin up applications to respond to problems on the fly. The component cloud model is just step one.  Continue Reading

• Automation + IT sprawl = Failure waiting to happen

  Let automation be your guide -- as long as it doesn't lead you into a major outage and uncontrolled IT sprawl.  Continue Reading

• DevOps overhauls app dev scripts

  Applications don't run in a vacuum. Operations -- the last step of app development and maintenance -- actually belongs in every stage of the cycle.  Continue Reading

• Traditional IT silos face a hostile software-defined environment

  Think you got rid of data center silos when you adopted virtualization? Not so fast. Software-defined data center tools promise more silo-busting.  Continue Reading

• How to build an enterprise private cloud that looks better than AWS

  Clouds that enterprises build rarely stack up to AWS and its ilk in a public cloud. Follow these steps if you want a viable private cloud for users.  Continue Reading

• IT asset management best practices for any data center

  Choosing a data center asset management tool depends on how the infrastructure functions, the mix of hardware and software in action and more factors.  Continue Reading

• Scale up vs. scale out: Debate evolves over how to upgrade data centers

  Pick sides on whether to scale up vs. scale out servers. It will establish what method to enhance server performance makes sense for your data center.  Continue Reading

• Automating data center environmental monitoring with RFID tags

  Slapping an RFID tag on every server rack in an enterprise data center isn't a small endeavor, but the payoffs in security and DCIM data are big.  Continue Reading

• Five tips for selecting system management tools

  Too much granularity? Not enough? Need alerts? Maybe not. There are five considerations for systems management tools -- and cost isn't one of them.  Continue Reading

• Tips and tricks to improve memory paging on servers

  Memory paging helps virtual machines share a server's memory resources nicely, but can throttle performance. A few simple tricks will optimize paging.  Continue Reading

• How and when to enable hardware-based TPM security on servers

  Most servers include a Trusted Platform Module, but you only want to turn it on and manage TPM when the server handles high-value encrypted workloads.  Continue Reading

• How to write your IT automation wish list

  IT automation is great, unless complicated, underperforming products that hog resources, time and money overwhelm IT staff.  Continue Reading

• Reshaping IT organizations to fulfill a DevOps strategy

  DevOps IT delivery requires a lot of up-front investment and time. It's a difficult project for even the most committed IT organizations.  Continue Reading

• Agile exploratory software testing: Why IT inefficiency pays off

  Agile exploratory software testing is inefficient by traditional IT standards. Which is why it belongs in modern, end-user-centric IT strategies.  Continue Reading

• Frequently asked questions about server automation tools

  Server automation tools save time and reduce errors. But what should tools offer, and are point systems or suites the way to go? Find out in this FAQ.  Continue Reading