Operations | Monitoring | ITSM | DevOps | Cloud

How many monitoring tools do you have? Chances are at least 2-3. One tool usually does not cover all cases, and it’s usually a combination of self-managed and managed tools. Self-managed gives you more control over custom configurations and cost. Managed ones take away the headache of running it yourself. Prometheus is the de-facto standard for monitoring these days if you have a modern application stack and you want to manage your own monitoring.

What is an Edge Computing Platform and Why Your Business Needs It Edge computing is a vital part of today's business function. With more people choosing to work remotely and office spaces dispersed across the nation, having edge network compatibility is an essential component of any digital infrastructure. Edge allows users in remote locations to access and manage data from the network's Edge, ensuring security and integrity for your data no matter where people choose to use it.

Let me start by saying that spanning tree is a Good Thing. It saves you from loops, which will completely shut down a network. But it has to be configured properly to work properly. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had a client call me, desperate with a terribly broken network, and I’ve responded, “Sounds like a spanning tree problem.” There are many ways things can go wrong with spanning tree. In this article, I’ve collected six of the recurring themes.

This month, I want to address a question I was sent from one of our MSP partners. As a smaller MSP looking to grow, they were wondering what they should focus on first: Marketing and lead gen to fill their sales pipeline? Or strategies to improve their organizational and operational efficiencies? They recognized that both areas are currently a source of weakness for their business.

For new networkers, Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) can be an intimidating topic. Many old-timers speak of spanning-tree in ominous tones, recounting the time when a “spanning-tree loop” brought down the network. Some managers strictly forbid anyone from changing anything related to the spanning tree, fearing a resulting service interruption. Some of the fear surrounding spanning trees is likely based on bad experiences, but some are based on ignorance—at least partly.

Is that a bird’s nest or is it spaghetti? Have you ever asked that question when looking into a IT wiring closet? At some point in your tenure as a network manager, you’ve likely been asked to inventory a network and create a network topology diagram.

The TCP/IP protocol sometimes shows its age. It was invented in an era when networks were very slow and packet loss was high. So one of the main considerations in early protocol design was reliability. The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) has built-in mechanisms for reliability that include validating a checksum on every packet, as well as detection and retransmission of dropped or out-of-order packets.

In May I mostly took the time to plan out the rest of the year, as well as one big feature to make OnlineOrNot's incident management more realistic.

Today, network operations teams encounter significant hurdles due to shortages of skilled personnel and fragmented toolsets. Despite consolidation efforts, it's common for teams to manage up to 15 different monitoring products. Research suggests that network professionals believe they could potentially resolve 53% of network issues by implementing improved network management tools.

Incident response is a structured approach to addressing and managing the aftermath of a security breach or cyberattack, also referred to as an IT incident, computer incident, or security incident. The goal is to handle the situation in a way that limits damage and reduces recovery time and costs. Additionally, it aims to improve strategies and solutions to prevent future security incidents.