Once upon a time, desktop support was the entry-level echelon of the IT infrastructure ladder. The mapping of drives, checking of cables, and maintenance of printers was considered to be the perfect area for junior staff to cut their information technology teeth. Career progression moved you further towards the “back” … Read More
Is Application Virtualization Now a Necessity?
Microsoft’s move to Windows 10 and Server 2016 puts enterprises into a state of “perpetual migration” that brings a whole raft of challenges to enterprise IT departments, including taking into account whether Application Virtualization is now a necessity. In a previous article, I discussed this state, and some of the … Read More
Windows 10 Migration – Dealing with the Paradox of “Perpetual Migration”
When planning your Windows 10 migration, it is crucial to understand the new concept of “servicing branches”. Most Windows 10 clients without complicated application sets are intended to be serviced by Current Branch for Business (CBB). Essentially, CBB allows a single deferral of new versions, resulting in an eight-to-twelve month … Read More
Managing Office 365 performance issues
Office 365 has been upon us for a while and represents one of Microsoft’s big pushes (alongside Azure) towards their “cloud first, mobile first” model. Most of us haven’t gone for full-fat Office 365 just yet, because of a few Office 365 performance issues with the web-based versions such as missing functionality, … Read More
Is Microsoft’s Windows Cloud Strategy a Case of Azure-based Frog Boiling?
Microsoft has said that they’re a “mobile-first, cloud-first” company these days. Windows 10 represents the first wave of the new world, and already there are signs that a cloud strategy lies firmly underneath some of the more questionable aspects of the operating system. There are approximately five billion desktops in … Read More
Windows 10 Servicing Branches
Windows 10 is looming large on the horizon for many enterprises as they look to refresh their desktop estates. Understanding what is new in Microsoft’s flagship operating system is vital to making the correct deployment decisions. Unfortunately, as with Microsoft’s arcane licensing terms, understanding the new “servicing branches” in Windows … Read More
Application Analysis and End-User Experience part #2 – picking your poison
In the first part of this article, we discussed the reasoning behind the rise in popularity of client-side metrics, application analysis tools and quantification of the user experience. User expectations are changing, and the focus of monitoring should be equally divided between client and server, rather than weighted towards the … Read More
Application Analysis and End-User Experience part #1 – why should I care?
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Attributed to Winston Churchill, this quote has a particular resonance for IT projects. Over the past fifteen years or so, near enough every project I have worked from has suffered from the same problem – that there is … Read More
How web browsing is crippling your infrastructure & compromising security
Ask anyone what the most resource-intensive applications on their end-user devices are, and you will normally receive a laundry list of software with heavy graphical or number-crunching output. ArcGIS, Solidworks, Google Earth, AutoCAD – these are normally the sorts of culprits one would normally expect a systems administrator to name … Read More