All IT departments, large and small, are under financial pressure.   Executives are asking for more from a frozen or reduced IT budget, at the same time as increasing pressure to embrace new technologies. So, the Head of IT is looking around to see what can be done to ease the pressure, both on and in […]

IT Infrastructure is critical to operations in many spheres nowadays.  The financial and commercial sectors, Government and parastatal organisations, and even home networking depend on a solid and reliable IT infrastructure.   IT Security is a key skill in all areas. Cyber Threats – the Current Landscape The scope, frequency and ferocity of cyber-attacks have increased […]

The effects of the pandemic have meant in many cases a move to a cloud server that supports working from home and remote access. This transformation needs to be accomplished at little cost. One option is to use server virtualisation technology to use capacity in the existing infrastructure, or to move to a cloud server […]

Managed Server Providers (‘MSP’) and in-house IT departments see Server Monitoring as a key function to be carried out continuously. Many already have monitoring programmes in place to maintain service levels and keep an eye out for hardware or software issues. Clearly, aiming for best practice will help achieve optimal service provision, and here are […]

A well-configured, performant network is essential to all organisations. In the new world of companies relying on e-commerce as their prime source of income, having IT networking systems available and responsive to customers is an absolute necessity. Linux is the most used IT networking environment with between 80% and 90% of all internet servers running […]

Artificial Intelligence is finding its way into many corners of the IT world. In particular, it is making a name for itself in operations.  The ability of Artificial Intelligence to monitor and make sense of data streams makes it a natural tool to use in monitoring and managing IT environments. How does AIOps fit in? […]

Back in the day, network management was a resource-hungry tedious process.  Network topology and equipment configuration was manual, usually through a command-line interface.  Today, with ever-more complex networks supporting more types of traffic, there isn’t the luxury of time for box-by-box network configuration and management. The current move to Software-Defined Networks (“SDN”), with the ultimate […]

One of the more exciting developments in the normally staid world of networking has been the Internet of Things. (“IoT”) means different things to different people, but in essence, is the prospect of connecting everything digital to everything else digital.  A digital representation of Jung’s collective subconscious perhaps. The number of devices has been growing […]

Recently, WiFi has moved from large corporate environments to implementation of home networks for home and small business offices, domestic internet connections and other IP based applications such as home security and CCTV. Network designers need to keep some practical issues in mind when designing WiFi implementations. There are no real shortcuts to a good […]

At the heart of every network is a router.  It’s a bit like a traffic policeman, making sure that inbound and outbound traffic ends up on the correct network and regulating the traffic flow so it conforms with Quality of Service and maximises traffic flow. An incorrectly configured router can seriously affect network performance and, […]