What's The 'Cloud'? nothing more than one or more of three different types of distributed service, conceptually similar to any other service such as telephone or gas. These services provide Infrastructure, Software and platform. Buck Woody cuts a trail through the jungle of marketing verbiage to reveal the technology behind the Cloud..… Read more
The majority of companies that suffer a major data loss subsequently go out of business. Wesley David remembers vividly the day when the organisation he worked for found that they couldn't restore their data, and the subsequent struggles that ensued. Shoulda-woulda-coulda. … Read more
Having migrated the rest of our users and legacy resources across and started getting ready to decommission OCS 2007 R2, this final article in the series explains how to complete the migration, reconfigure the federation traffic, and remove the OCS 2007 R2 environment.… Read more
How do you select the hardware for your network, and connect it all together? How do you then test your network and ensure that it is secure? Our crash course for the reluctant tells you enough of the basics in simple language to get you started.… Read more
When a customer asks for an Exchange Server feature that you have no idea how to implement, and you just get one item coming up on Google, then you've got the blues. Antoine relates the struggle from that point to successful delivery of the feature.… Read more
Matt examines what it's like to design a network from the ground up, as well as dealing with an existing network that has been undocumented, by analyzing the relationships between the systems… Read more
When anyone mentions network masks and the 'seven layer model' we all nod wisely and hope not to be asked too many questions. No longer need we feel embarassed, as Matt Simmonds has produced the simple cribsheet for 'the rest of us'.… Read more
When one mailbox server in a Database Availability Group (DAG) is accidentally deleted, then it is supposedly easy to fix the problem, but if the DAG is not fully cleaned up, it can prove a little more complex.… Read more
Sean Duffy recently had an unwelcome encounter with Exchange Server Back Pressure, which cut off his message flow due to a lack of space on the server. To make sure it didn't happen again, he found a way to automatically monitor all his servers from afar, with a little PowerShell magic.… Read more
Having pierced the veil of confusion surrounding High Availability, Wesley David finds himself asked (and being asked) whether HA is worth the money it burns through. Perhaps it's more cost-effective to have a recovery process that moves like greased lightning?… Read more
Even in the short time that PCs have been signficantly networked, what it means to be a SysAdmin has changed dramatically. From the first LAN parties to the lumbering infrastructures of today, the role of SysAdmin has evolved and adapted to the shifting needs of users and corporations alike. Brien Posey has been on the front line of it all, and considers the future of this thus-far essential IT role.… Read more
APEX can be a great way to create an application rapidly on an Oracle Database. Although it is generally straightforward, there are just a couple of things you have to watch out for.… Read more
In the story so far, Johan has described how to check that the migration from your OCS to Lync is supported and how to determine the requirements for the new installation This was followed by a walk-through of the preparation the Active Directory and installation of the first Lync Front End Server with a Mediation Server co-located. Now Johan tackles the merging the OCS configuration, and connection to the outsode world, followed by testing, performing and then validating the migration.
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It isn't straightforward to design a database application that has to provide text data in several languages. There are several problems to overcome such as, for example, allowing the translation bureau to work independently, using their own specialised formats. Fortunately, Oracle Apex can, if you follow the advice in this article, do the hard work for you.
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In the average IT department, geek-credibility is bound up with the number of monitors you are simultaneously using. What about going one step further, and running them on several computers at once, with just one mouse and keyboard?… Read more
Having gotten us up and running with the basics of Office365, Jaap Wesselius now dives deeper, walking us through the setup process for Lync Online, the Office365 component which provides cloud-based Unified Communications. He even shows us how to integrate it with our on-premises systems in quick, easy steps.… Read more
VMWare VSphere is a virtualisation technology that is best learned by setting up, on a single PC, a VSphere cluster as a virtualisation lab. Once you have it, it will then be a useful tool in many ways. This doesn't need to be an expensive exercise, but can be daunting if you don't have a simple guide to talk you through the process. Here, Sean provides that simple guide
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Lync manages office communications such as voice calls, video calls, instant messages, meetings, and shared whiteboard sessions all from a single interface. If this sounds like OCS, then you're right, it is the new improved version. Johan explains the background, why it is better, and how you can get started with it.
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Security requires defense in depth. The cleverest intrusion detection system, combined with the best antivirus, won't help you if a malicious person can gain physical access to your PC or server. A routine job, helping to remove a malware infection, brings it home to Wesley just how easy it is to get a command prompt with SYSTEM access on any PC, and inspires him to give a warning about the consequences.… Read more
For PowerShell to provide specialised scripting, especially for administering server technologies, it can have the range of Cmdlets available to it extended by means of Snapins. With version 2 there is an easier and better method of extending PowerShell: the Module. These can be distributed with the application to be administered, and a wide range of Cmdlets are now available to the PowerShell user. PowerShell has grown up.… Read more
