Introducing the Spotlight on IT Series

nic-spiceworks · 2011-06-24T10:14:45.000Z

[March 2019 Update: We are no longer accepting submissions for Spotlight on IT, but we are always looking for high-quality stories from SpiceHeads. Please submit your stories to News@spiceworks.com, and not to any of the locations noted below.]

A while back we had a request for a blog by SpiceHeads — somewhere for them to write articles about their experiences in the IT world. We tried the experiment of having a group just for this purpose, called From the Trenches of IT. The group activity dropped off, but led to this: the “Spotlight on IT” Series," where you can be in the limelight to show off your experience, opinion and expertise.

You might have seen this article by Kris talking about patch management, which was a pilot to test the waters. Since the article sparked a lot of discussion, we went ahead and officially launched the Spotlight series.

If you’d be interested in writing an article for this series please PM Eric and let him know you’d like a turn in the spotlight. Don’t feel like you are the strongest writer? Don’t let that hold you back! Our very own writing and editing talent is standing by ready to help you take what you know in your head, get it down into an article and polish it into a fine sheen that’ll make your mom proud.

Spotlight on IT Series:

Virtualization

Virtualization: What’s next for the enterprise? VDI, that’s what. by Spankmeister
Virtualization - my thoughts more than a year later by akp982
How to steal a VM in three easy steps by rmuniz9336
Size Shouldn’t Matter, Lessons from a Small IT Shop by LittleBobaFooFoo
Virtualization, how I finally bought into it by Derek_A
Virtualization, Non-Profits and Follow-Through (aka “If we only had do-overs”) by Don Whitehead
Are client hypervisors the future of desktop virtualization? by akp982
My (continued) route to virtualization by Peter
To VDI or not to VDI, that is the question. …by Scott696d
Under the hood: Spiceworks’ adventures in virtualization by David Babbitt
How I learned to stop worrying and love my virtualized desktops by John773
Virtualisation: Practice makes perfect by Anthony Sutcliffe
OMG! I’m spindle bound: Server virtualization and storage by Bob Abraham
Virtualization: It’s too easy not to by JustinCredible
Virtualized availability: Small is beautiful and perfectly formed by Mike Laverick
Seconds away, round three! Fighting for virtualization by Martin Peverley
Become the puppet master: Don’t be your virtual environment’s plaything by Robbie Wright
Tales from the deep end: Doing anything for nothing by Huw Davies
Commodore 64 to Server 2012: The 3 biggest issues with virtualization by Kenon @ Microsoft
Everybody’s working for the VM by Justin
Virtualization pains: Don’t get caught with your pants down by Brian Thorp
Let’s get virtual: The case for virtualizing SMB storage by David Fabritius
Getting my (virtual) feet wet: Building a test box on the cheap by A.J. Stringham
Business speak: Talking the talk to get dream tech projects funded by cjw33 (VMware)
My virtual nightmare… or it would have been if I slept by Digifox
Zombie VMs and the monitor everything mantra by Patrick Hubbard
A virtual balancing act: Big business features, SMB budget http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/295145 by Luigi The Cat
10 things to NOT do with your VMs http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/300684 by Rick Vanover (Veeam)
Plan A: What’s the reason not to virtualize? http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/306294 by Bob Beatty
How replication kept us going during Hurricane Sandy http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/311021 by Steve Rubin
Nothing goes sideways: Deep down the virtualization rabbit hole http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/316164 by TAC
The lone IT ranger: Are SANs and hypervisors just for the big boys? by Sean Donnelly
Calling in reinforcements: What happens after you get the greenlight? by Sean Donnelly
5 practical tips for upgrading to Windows Server 2012 by Rick Vanover (Veeam)
Eyeballing the server rack: There’s not enough money to do that! by COBen
VUI: Virtualizing under the influence by Christopher Knapp

Backup

Is there a better way to back up? by Justin.Davison
SMB Low Cost Backup Solution: Consider NAS by Paul Luciano
When a Backup is not a Backup by Kris
Tape is not dead, or dying. by DigitalBlacksmith
Disaster Planning for IT by rmuniz9336
Got Big Data? by Neal
Isn’t it about time backup became easier? by Jaguar
Backup to the Future by Stephen Manley
The Usual Suspects by John773
Backing up without breaking the bank by Bryan Doe
Stuck on tape: A decade of small business backup by Paul Luciano
Zero defects: Why backup is NOT necessary by Denis Kelley
Disaster recovery on the fly is a disaster waiting to happen by Nick Korte
Replicators, mount up! 5 reasons to reconsider replication by Joseph Hand
Not if, but when IT hits the fan by Paul Chiodo
Don’t derp your DR plan: Trust, but verify by Spankmeister
Data scatter: What do you do when your data is everywhere? by Andy K.
Graybeard backup wisdom: The basics make it “just” work by Kai Gray
Disaster preparedness and the storm of the century by BMoore
IT reflections on the superstorm by Mikko Peltoniemi
My worst first day: 24-hour blackout in Toronto http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/300637 by Frank8307
When Murphy comes knocking: Backup is still the last line of defense http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/310996 by Mike Resseler (Veeam)
Snapshots! Part Deux: Forgetting the basics http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/311139 by Paragraph
Burdened by too many backups? by Yasaf Burshan
Backup blues: Trapped by tape by Drew Dunkel
3 funny things users say about company data by Techie4Life
Schrödinger’s backup: When good documentation goes bad by Gary D Williams
Flooding in Calgary: 10 feet underwater but we still need email by molan
Get off of my cloud: My DIY backup alternative for cloud-loving clients by Indy’s Computer Geek

Storage

Selecting a Storage Solution: The 3 Factors to Consider by Scott Alan Miller
Avoiding SAN Pixie dust: Navigating the SAN industry’s promises and pitfalls by John773
Is it Time for Storage to Grow Up? by Scott C.
Getting to Know Your IOPs by Disk-n-Tape
Out of the Closet and into the Datacenter by PSX_Defector
Storage — Keepin’ it Simple by John White
Silent buzz: The state of solid-state drives by Jason McDonald
Planning to get what you need without going broke by Justin.Davison
SMB’s “Little-Big-Business Syndrome” and ever-expanding storage needs by Silverbreez
Leveling up your personal storage from DAS to NAS by Ranhalt
My big mouth: Learning how to NOT screw up a network by Marc92
Open source storage: 4 things to ask when looking to save by Boris Bondarenko
Storage wars: Finding middle ground in the tape/disk battle by Steve Weber
One Big RAID 10: The new standard in server storage by Scott Alan Miller
Pick your own storage adventure: ZFS and the quest for 100TB for $40k by jhuscott
Charting a course to storage bliss by Jerry Smith
Thin provisioning: When “enough” isn’t enough by JCantrell
It’s dangerous to go alone:How the Community helped me choose a storage solution by FLchris
Reliability vs. redundancy: Complexity is the enemy by Scott Alan Miller
Store free or die hard (drive) http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/318899 by Rob Fauls
Nightmares do come true: A world riding on RAID 5 by compnerd99
The Great Dropbacle: Personal cloud storage in the work environment by Virtualize This
Server stress: A minor panic attack in Amish Country by Travis5295
Don’t be fooled by the façade: From new guy to IT manager in six months by RyanAZ
It’s 3AM: Do you know where your data is? by John Nicholson
Giving up the ghost: Monday madness and an inherited server mess by Justin C

Security

9/11 & Physical IT Security by Jeff Gr
Security vs. the World by Roy DeSimone
Carefully Considering the Cloud by ITSlave
Risky Business by MFord66215
Competent Endpoint Security by Tino Todino
Social Engineering – The Elephant in the Room by Lawrie5252
Incompetent Big Business by Derek N
Angry ex-employee still has email access: Have we been hacked? by Jay6111
AV and PEBCAK: Sanitize your people or your systems? by Stewart Lacey
Are you going mobile? So is fraud. by Martin Yip
Puny passwords: Are you the weakest link? by RPMiller
Protecting IT with layers by JungleWill
Survey says: BYOD, unrestricted web access top security concerns by Scott Allee
Certifiably secure: Notes from the trenches by Martin Hepworth
When VMs get pwned: Real security in virtual environments by Corey Nachreiner
A patch for stupid: Are your users phish-proof? by Stu Sjouwerman
Is your aging endpoint security giving you gray hairs? by Darren Niller
GoDaddy goes down: Would you drop them? by lifegard2a
Spy games: User trust and surveillance by Marcin Ozga
A nomadic time bomb: Finding the hole by Owen (OpenDNS)
The happiest place on earth: How I recovered a stolen laptop by Chris2741
Passwords: The security tool that loves to be insecure by molan
Unsecured and unmanaged: Undoing a mobile endpoint dilemma by Bosparan
4 unsung weapons in the war against spam http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/306841 by Sean (SpamTitan)
Private eyes are watching you: Monitoring a fire http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/313383 by Bryce Katz
Suing the pope and Nigerian princes: How spammers target the most gullible users http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/317231 by Sean (SpamTitan)
Tightening security: I gave them some rope and they tied themselves up by Briser_fae_the_broch
How to fire a sys admin: When IT pros go rogue by rmuniz9336
Don’t panic: 6 steps to surviving your first breach by Conrad (AlienVault)
7 simple tricks every admin should know to stop spammers in their tracks by Sean (SpamTitan)
17 laptops: How I spotted a scam and stopped a fraud by Scott1010
The IT Bible: An angry ex-tech left me a world of hurt by Craigr1982
4 keys to lock down security through better user behavior by Sean (SpamTitan)
A Friday filled with fail: All’s fair in love and malware by GUIn00b
The eternal support guy: IP vs. analog video surveillance by Vince (Axis)
A fool’s errand: Rogue employee tries to take company data hostage by Shawn9726

IT Service Providers

How Spiceworks Helps an MSP Like Me Stack Up Among the Rest by AVI-NetworkGuy
Turning a “spark” of an idea into a Hybrid Service Provider Business by Jim Kubicek
The Business of ITs by NeighborhoodIT
Avoiding the Potholes in the Road to a Successful MSP Business by jwright37043
What training is right for System Administrators at an MSP? by philipmjr
6 Tips: Pack your Solution’s Pitch with a Punch by Pam Hege
Put a little bit of faith in your engineers by Paragraph
The big pink elephant: Can IT and MSPs coexist peacefully? by ITSlave
First things first: Starting your own business by Joseph Boren
Dealing with customers who don’t pay by Pam Hege
MSPs: Why are you in business? by Mike at SCA
Advertising law 101: What MSPs need to know by Pam Hege
Year one: My first days as an MSP by Alan B.
6 challenges for MSPs looking to manage mobile devices by Tony Thomas
90 days later: A more personal, agile and mobile MSP by John Hebert
Simplifying SEO: Getting in the golden triangle by Pam Hege
No ticket! The “managed” in managed services provider by Danielle M. Ralston
Clone wars: Standing out from the identical MSP masses by BaroanTech
MSP crossover: From bars to being bored to baptized by fire by Scott696d
When the goin’ gets busy: Process made us pros by Pierre Tapia (Anchor)
3 simple Spiceworks tricks for MSPs by Alex3031
A how-much-to-charge quandary: In the callback queue by Indy’s Computer Geek
My low-cost Internet failover by Owenmpk
MSP’s what-to-charge dilemma: The price is right (or is it?) by Ajay Jindal
Another brick in the firewall: The in-secure network by ThomasTrain

Networking

CAT6: Should I make the switch? by Bigfoot
IT policy: Give the paper tiger claws by Mel9484
Top 5 (mostly free) tools for monitoring bandwidth by Muhammad Bilal
Daisy chain: If you want IT done right by Steve Wykoff
Inheriting a nightmare network by Brandon Koehler
How to achieve minor IT deity status by Ridge
Calming the CFO: Ensuring GoDaddy-Gate never happens again by PSX_Defector
5 ways to simplify daily sysadmin duties by Josh Dunbar
The network is slow: The secret to diagnosing that oh-so common complaint by Jay6111
Greenfield to $75-million monster in three easy months by bperrin
IT mysteries: Deceptive users and other external influences by Ren2409
Cisco Live honeypot fun with CBQoS and NetFlow by Patrick Hubbard
The day of the DoS: Are we under attack from inside the office? http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/299014 by ittstock
A 5-layer dip to better (and free) network monitoring http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/308485 by Alex3031
Lights out: So much for 24/7 managed monitoring by Lewis D
NET ALERT: You left grandma at the airport http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/312013 by Patrick Hubbard
The best network ever crumbles without “the guy” by Chris Webber (Pertino)
How network bonding saved my sanity and made me an IT hero by Charles Carmichael
One is the loneliest number: Growing IT by Mikko Peltoniemi
Which do we need more — time or money? by Chris Webber (Pertino)
Tips and tricks for total control: The inner workings of Group Policy by Chris128
Correlation is not causation: Planes, trains and the smell of American cheese by Chris Webber (Pertino)
Blue screens of death: Finding the culprit by Chris128
Pointing fingers at IT: When CYA becomes CYPA by Chris Webber (Pertino)
The name game: From DNS ignorance to enlightenment by da Beast
Networking gone rogue: An inside attack? by Duffney

Mobile Computing

Application virtualization: BYOD’s unicorn and “easy” button by DigitalBlacksmith
Apple or Android: Who will rule the enterprise? by Justin Drakes
Why it’s wrong to write off Windows Phone in the workplace by Michael Cianchetti
The once and future king: Is BlackBerry still best for business? by Rafi Kharman
The new Apple for teacher: Insight into an iPad deployment by Mike Cook
The tablet: Toy or IT Swiss Army knife? by HaroldB
The decline of my desktop: Can a tablet really replace a PC? by molan
Mobile device management: An oxymoron at best? by DEngelhardt
A 200+ iPhone rollout: Lessons learned by ranhalt

DNS

Turn out the lights, the party’s over: What happens when your DNS quits on you by Kris Bushover
DNS at the local area network level by J.C. Alexandres
Down to business (and Twizzlers): DNS at the local area network level (Part 2) by J.C. Alexandres

Wireless

No rest for the wireless: My working vacation by Molan
Breaking boundaries: The promise of a cheap, plug and play network by slylabs13
Why, oh Wi-Fi? Planning for performance and security by Jason Baker
Dinky di: Looking for the real thing in wireless gear by Brad Joyce
Wireless issues: Is bloatware to blame? by El Emeno P
1 vs. 250: My one-man wireless mission by Jeff-VCS
The strain of BYOD on SMB by TanK203
Running with scissors: Why user education can’t solve wireless woes by Power Users
More APs, more problems: Why magic algorithms aren’t enough by cmn32480
8 keys to real wireless security by Joey D.
I’m lazy and I know it: The first good use for QR codes http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/307354 by gitrdone564
Rogue Wi-Fi: A user’s quest to circumvent IT http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/317277 by melloyellow
Making room for the big dogs: Personal devices on my network by JoeAlbergo
Of teachers and leechers: How I stopped giving the neighbors free Wi-Fi by John4120
Pipe dreams: Getting wireless to workers in the wilderness by Bigfoot
Mobile madness: Whose problem is it anyway? by JCantrell

Data center

Where to start: Following the cable trail to server room bliss by 2ndTimeDiver

Cloud and SaaS

ADFS 2.0 and the dos and don’ts of single sign-on for Office 365 by RunGMC
Takin’ care of business: Best practices of top Office 365 admins by Chris (MessageOps)
The top 7 Office 365 troubleshooting tools by Chris (MessageOps)
Getting ready for the end of life: Windows XP + Office 365 by Chris (MessageOps)
Blacklisted: What happens when your email hosting is compromised by Marcin Ozga

Printers

Highway to (printer) hell by Chris Bolin
Jam session: All our jobs are dust in the printer by Paragraph
30 seconds to more boring, drama-free printers by Bryan Doe
Printer picking: Between the devil and the deep blue sea by A.J. Stringham
As the rollers turn: Service provider, do you copy? by Nick Korte
Printers are friends; Or you know how to change the toner cartridge, don’t you? by Fialkor
A classic scam: A box and a bill by Josh_Cunning

VoIP

Battle plan: 11 things to consider when considering VoIP by peter
Clothing-optional phone setup: You down with VOIP? by A. Creswell
Changing a tire on a moving truck: The phones must never, ever go down by TeleFox

Email

Can you really afford to host your own email? The answer may surprise you! by ITSlave
Spam: Tasty treat to some, email annoyance to all by Matthew5406

Windows

Winpocalypse 2012: The corporatizing of consumerization by Sosipater

SQL Server

The database guy: Know the business you’re in by RandyVol
From newbie to database master: Learning the ways of SQL Server by JimmyD
Why compression in SQL Server is important by Robert L Davis

Manufacturing & ERP

Painless and payin’ less: Simplifying IT purchasing in manufacturing by Paul Chiodo

SpiceWorld

Buttery, bacon-y IT goodness: Why I never miss SpiceWorld by Spankmeister

*Do you see a topic that is not on the list but should be? Let Eric * know and we’ll consider adding you to the list!

eric-p-spiceworks · 2014-05-30T13:12:18.000Z

Hey gef — Thanks for the suggestion, and apologies that this page isn’t the easiest to navigate. We’ve had so many Spotlights now that we hit the max character count on this initial blog post. But, we’re exploring options for a better page or way to sort through all the Spotlights in one place.

gef · 2014-05-30T05:28:16.000Z

Couldn’t we just have 2 lists on this page, first by chrono, then by category?

brianlovett3407 · 2013-10-24T18:47:19.000Z

Is there a list of these in chronological order someplace?

nic-spiceworks · 2013-10-24T19:05:03.000Z

We don’t have a way to sort chronological right now, unfortunately, but maybe we’ll add that in the future.

briansteingraber · 2013-10-27T02:55:00.000Z

A chronological sorting would be really nice!

marko5 · 2014-03-12T08:31:31.000Z

Still no sorting in sight?

pbp · 2011-06-28T10:05:47.000Z

Groupmind at work again!

jacovanstaden · 2011-09-13T05:39:38.000Z

great idea

jamesreid6697 · 2011-06-26T23:21:31.000Z

Awesome Idea

Robert762 · 2011-06-27T05:56:05.000Z

Looking forward to it!

kelly · 2011-06-24T11:23:50.000Z

This is great. Now to see if I can find enough time (and desire) to write…

it-matt · 2011-06-24T10:28:03.000Z

I think this is a great idea and i look forward to seeing it progress. Thanks Guys!

doug · 2011-06-24T10:38:02.000Z

This is a great idea! Thanks SW!

nic-spiceworks · 2011-09-06T10:45:21.000Z

Eighth article in the series, from Kris is here:

When a Backup is not a Backup

maryhansen · 2011-06-30T06:44:25.000Z

Sounds great. I can’t wait. Groupwork is always worthwhile.

justin-e · 2011-06-24T12:39:52.000Z

This looks like a great idea!!!

nic-spiceworks · 2011-09-20T12:57:25.000Z

Tenth article in the series from akp982 is here:

Virtualization - my thoughts more than a year later

jim · 2011-06-24T11:49:14.000Z

Can hardly wait!

nic-spiceworks · 2011-06-27T13:01:02.000Z

Darren’s post is up now. See it here:

Virtualization: What’s next for the enterprise? VDI, that’s what.