A Maori proverb says, “What is the most important thing in the world? It is the people, it is the people, it is the people.” At New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE), a government-owned business development agency responsible for supporting exporters from more than 50 countries, we live by that proverb, keeping people at the center of everything we do. Our aim is to promote a productive, sustainable, and inclusive economy in New Zealand and the world.

July 30 is System Administrator Appreciation Day. We honor all 33,000 ServiceNow system administrators who help make the world of work better for people. From overseeing instance security updates and critical configurations to proactively maintaining instance health, you are critical to the success of ServiceNow projects. Thank you. To show our appreciation, we want to ensure you know how to prepare for every stage of the system administrator journey.

It’s no secret that the past year and a half has been challenging for all departments across organizations. One unsung hero? IT. IT is quite literally responsible for keeping the lights on in a work environment that has shifted primarily online.

Covid made the hypothetical necessity of IT risk planning a reality. Many organizations responded to the immediate need for remote workforces by adding more VPN licenses. But while adding more VPN capacity solved the problem of resource access, it also led to network bottlenecks and application latencies.

Patch compliance indicates the number of compliant devices in your network. This means the number of computers that have been patched or remediated against security threats effectively. The distribution and deployment of patches accomplish nothing if your devices are not compliant. So to establish a good patch management strategy, it is important to pay attention to the effectiveness and reach of your patch deployment activities.