In the 80s, shoulder pads were in, Cabbage Patch Kids were the country’s most popular toys, and Michael Jackson could be heard through the headphones of every Walkman in town. Computers, much less powerful than today’s, needed much more square footage to operate. Today, these are all considered vintage experiences, pieces of a decade that […]
Data center service provider contracts can be one of the most confusing, daunting pieces of the IT landscape. They generally come up for renewal every three to five years, and in many cases, companies just sign off without much renegotiating. It’s not their fault—licensing is a headache, only made more difficult by the lack of […]
People want information at their fingertips, faster and more immediately than ever before. Waiting around for pages or apps to load, come back online, or restore simply isn’t an option anymore. Technology needs to be fast, efficient, and reliable—24/7. A survey of more than 1,000 IT leaders showed that 69 percent believe that this kind of […]
Dell EMC World is one of the major IT conferences of the world—so it’s no surprise that it seems to have a pretty good handle on the concept of “digital transformation.” With so many companies defining themselves as tech companies first, with their products and services coming second, technology—specifically software-driven technology—is becoming more important than […]
School districts across the country just wrapped up the application process for the next round of E-Rate funding, while libraries still have a few weeks until the deadline. As the adoption of mobile devices, tablets, virtual reality, and 3D printers adds pressure to their wireless capabilities, many are planning to expand their networks through the E-Rate program. But […]
Belly had a fairly simple problem: Success. As its user base grew, so did its data, to the point that it outpaced the company’s available bandwidth. Belly’s loyalty platform allows businesses to create unique rewards for their customers. Small businesses can set up an iPad where customers scan a QR code in their Belly mobile app […]
Even the simplest IT environments can harbor complex challenges. And for some organizations, one simple fix only uncovers a new need. A public charter school in Washington, D.C. had exactly that kind of environment. The school has a fairly simple IT environment to support its more than 320 students from grades 6 to 12. An […]
This is the third post in a series about IT infrastructure design. We laid out what our hypothetical law firm needs in our last post. Today, we’ll focus our attention on the server, where the work actually gets done. Building the right server based on our needs Before we begin, we need to make some more assumptions about […]
When faced with bad choices, it’s sometimes easier to just do nothing, even if that inaction can lead to a new round of issues. Such was the situation for a children’s hospital in one U.S. city. The hospital had no disaster recovery (DR), and it was stuck with an impractical plan from a consultant – backup […]
Flashback to 2008: 88 percent of businesses preferred an on-premises server solution. Merely six years later, in 2014, the preference flipped: 87 percent of businesses wanted a cloud-based solution. The reasons are many: improved bandwidth infrastructure, lower pricing on subscription-based solutions, and convenience. Moving to the cloud just makes IT’s job easier. Before updating Enterprise Agreements […]