Conference Presentations

Best Practices for Nonprofit and SMB IT Infrastructures, SpiceWorld 2020
Free registration is required to view the session.



Getting Started with Hyper-V, SpiceWorld 2019

Frugal IT for Nonprofits, SpiceWorld 2018

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VMware vs Hyper-V

When it comes to virtualization, VMware and Hyper-V are probably the two industry leaders. While VMware is one of the oldest and has been around for over two decades, Hyper-V has greatly improved since its initial release with Windows Server 2008 R2. I've had the experience of working with both platforms at work and in my personal home server, so I want to share some of my experience of the pros and cons of each platform.
VMware VMware was founded in 1998 and is currently owned by Dell, Inc. Their main virtualization platform is vSphere which is a suite of products including, most notably, ESXi and vCenter. ESXi is the actual virtualization platform that runs on the host, and vCenter is the management platform that runs on a VM and allows the administrator to control all the VMware features via a web interface. Aside from the usual virtualization of servers, VMware has a number of advanced features including vMotion which allows live migration of virtual servers from one host to a…
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Cloud vs on-prem is no longer an either/or scenario

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"Fluffly Cloud 12"by CL0UDYDAY is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Cloud computing has become a standard in the industry with a wide range of solutions now being offered by large cash cows like AWS and Azure and many other smaller startup companies. However, recent data seems to indicate that some CIOs are having buyer's remorse. A survey by Nutanix, a cloud software company, found that a number of companies were migrating away from cloud back to on-premises solutions. One of the biggest reasons for this was that the long-term costs of operating a purely cloud environment were actually more expensive than an on-premises environment, even with the discounts that were offered by the cloud vendor.
This situation is not a huge surprise to me because on-premises hardware is a one-time capital expense (aside from support and utility costs) while cloud solutions require ongoing costs to maintain the subscription. Another potential difficulty with cloud arises when companies wish to mov…
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Work-from-home (WFH) options for companies during the coronavirus outbreak

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"Home office" by MONOCHROME BUREAU is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0
The coronavirus outbreak has forced many companies to have their employees work remotely in accordance with the CDC's prevention recommendation. This has presented some challenges for companies that did not have existing telework solutions in place. Companies are also asking their IT administrators to provide the means for remote access within a short period of time. Fortunately, there are several solutions that meet this need. This article will address some options in remote access and communication tools. Remote Access Two of the most used options for remotely accessing the corporate network are remote desktop (RDP) and VPN. Each has its areas of strength which make it suitable for different use cases.
RDP A remote desktop connection provides a user with direct access to the desktop of their work PC. The advantage of this tool is that it provides the user with virtually the same UI experience they would …
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