Operations | Monitoring | ITSM | DevOps | Cloud

June 2022

Is ITIL for Everyone? Pros and Cons of ITIL

ITIL is probably the most used framework in the IT world right now. But it's easy to start taking it as undisputed truth, and something we don’t always ask ourselves is whether the ITIL framework works in every single scenario and for every industry. And, while we’re not shy about singing its praises, we also like to keep things real. Therefore, let’s take a look at the ITIL framework and ask ourselves: what are some of the pros and cons of ITIL?

How to Locate a Device Using a MAC Address

Every device on a network has a unique address called IP address, which helps identify the device and enables other devices to communicate with it. “IP” stands for Internet Protocol. The purpose of an IP address is to handle the connection between devices that send and receive information across a network. Without an IP there is no way to establish that connection. Each IP address is a series of characters, such as “192.168.1.1”.

Software License Monitoring: Keeping Costs Down Through Vigilance

Software license monitoring is often viewed as a preventative measure against compliance failures and subsequent penalties. However, if we take a look at the statistics, this notion might be brought into question. Some reports suggest that organizations stand to save a lot of resources with a robust software license management strategy. For instance, the global spending on enterprise software is expected to be around $US 672 billion, an 11% increase compared to the previous year.

High Availability vs Disaster Recovery: What's the Difference?

Continual service delivery is key to a great customer experience and to building a good reputation. Service interruptions - besides affecting the customer experience - can be costly to the business. In a 2025 survey, 25% of respondents said that the hourly cost of a server outage for them was somewhere between $301,000 and $400,000. Besides this, failure of critical systems can bring businesses to a halt and can even cost lives.

5 Essential ITAM KPIs You Should Be Tracking

In any organization, IT Asset Management (ITAM) is one of the key processes necessary to ensure the continued delivery of IT services. Efficient asset management ensures that both hardware and software assets are available at the least cost to the organization. Through routine updates and upgrades, asset management ensures that the assets don’t face unnecessary or unexpected downtime. You can also reduce IT security risk with asset management.

All About the SNMPwalk: What It Is, How to Run It

As we know, asset management is one of the crucial elements in IT service management. To deliver services consistently and ensure a high quality of services, it is important to keep the devices and the IT infrastructure running smoothly. Failures in critical devices can cause costly service disruptions and therefore it is important to constantly monitor device parameters and maintain them regularly.

Beyond Theory: Five Real-World Applications of ITIL Processes

ITIL processes have been used for decades to streamline IT service management in organizations across the world. The processes ensure the highest quality of IT services and customer satisfaction without overstraining the resources or budget. Even then, reading about ITIL processes can be a bit daunting; the processes appear too complicated and difficult to implement. But the fact is, ITIL is a set of guidelines, not a set of rules or standards.

The Cost of Downtime: How Much Does an IT Outage Cost Your Business?

Life in the world of managed IT services is not without its pleasant surprises. Although we’re an industry of system builders dedicated to facilitating the smoothest of operations possible, downtime still happens. An unexpected system or network failure is not uncommon. In fact, it's inevitable. Even some of the world’s biggest companies can’t get away without painful outages.

How to Test for Packet Loss: A Complete Guide

Among all the inconveniences endemic to living in the 21st century, there are few as common as a faulty internet connection. Most everyone with internet access is familiar with the experience but perhaps less so with the reason why. There are several, but chief among them is packet loss. In this article, we’ll explore what packet loss is and show you some of the first steps to conducting a packet loss test. But first, let’s briefly review what a packet is.

Aaron Davenport on How to Create a Long-term Software Asset Management Strategy

Software Asset Management (SAM) is a topic that is seldom discussed in conversations about the importance of IT Asset Management. And yet it's a crucial part of every company's organizational efforts. This is because software is more than just installations.

What is SCP Protocol? A Complete Guide

When transferring data between systems, it's extremely important to preserve integrity and confidentiality. There are protocols and procedures to do so. One of them is the Secure Copy Protocol (SCP); which is a method designed to securely pass on digital information. The SCP protocol helps transferring files from a local to a remote host or between two remote hosts.

Asset Management vs. Configuration Management, Simplified

Two of the most important ITSM practices in today’s IT managerial landscape are asset management and configuration management. Since software and hardware components are at the heart of the service a company provides, understanding how these components work is vital in IT service management. It might sound tricky since management has so many branches that extend anywhere from a company’s resources to its partners, its data, processes, and suppliers.

What are CIS Controls, and Why Are They Important?

Way back in the early days of the Internet, having an antivirus was the end-all-be-all of cybersecurity. These were admittedly wilder times but in a way, only a few bad actors had the tools and knowledge to threaten and breach corporate IT infrastructures. Times have changed and thanks to the dissemination of information and widespread accessibility to more hacking technology, cyber-attacks have become a very real and tangible menace with potentially devastating consequences.

The Basics of Enterprise OEM Software Licensing

For a long time, businesses have been using enterprise OEM software licensing to sell their products faster as well as to enhance the features and functionalities of their solutions. These solutions empower companies to provide more value to their customers without bringing in significant investments. And they present a huge portion of the global software market. In the age of the digital workplace, it's advantageous to have a full understanding of how these software agreements work.

DevOps Explained

DevOps is not just one thing, but rather a set of tools and practices that, well, everyone is following, or should be. But, for all of its ever-increasing popularity, few can really explain what DevOps is about without tangling themselves up in jargon. With this guide, we’ll help you navigate the DevOps maze in a way that’s easy, fun, and will hopefully get you going in the quest for more—and better—implementation. Without further ado, here’s DevOps explained!

What Are SSH Keys? An Introduction

SSH or Secure Shell is one of the oldest protocols used in networking for secure encrypted communication between two systems and to remotely manage servers and other systems. Ever since its introduction, they have been adopted by IT teams in organizations all over the world to manage their assets. And SSH keys continue to play a significant role in granting secure access to computer systems, and with the cloud computing boom, they’re playing even more important roles. So what are SSH keys?