Providing expert commentary on Cloud, SaaS, Virtualization and general IT management topics and challenges as well as reactive commentary to articles or current hot topics being discussed in the industry.
Being acquired by VMware has brought many exciting changes to Shavlik. With the integration in full swing, we are busy incorporating the Shavlik products into VMware and changing our branding. Continuing our strategy of offering SMBs simplified IT management, the current Shavlik product line is being enhanced and expanded upon, leveraging the sophisticated technology offered by VMware and at the same time extending VMware’s offering to the SMB market.
As a first step, we announced a new release of VMware Go and VMware Go Pro on October 18th, taking cloud-based IT management to the next level by adding additional functionality and …
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IT administrators shouldn’t have to worry about having enough time to secure their networks, however we all know this isn’t the case. Maintaining security needs to be easy, fast and effortless while still being affordable. As an IT administrator, you may already know the importance of patching your network, and not just the operating system. Minimizing exposure to vulnerabilities includes patching: Microsoft applications, operating systems, legacy applications, and third-party applications (i.e. Adobe, Java, etc…). However, most administrators just don’t have the time or resources to handle this daunting task. Some may be using WSUS to handle their Microsoft vulnerabilities but …
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No matter where in the world a small or mid-sized business is located, it’s probably safe to assume that one of the biggest headaches – and largest cost not associated with driving revenues – is associated with managing software and other IT needs. These businesses often don’t have the in-house expertise to manage the IT infrastructure, or they cannot afford to purchase the edgy, high-end, productivity enhancing solutions with which large companies have the luxury to experiment.
Enter software-as-a-service – or SaaS – which can level the proverbial “playing field” and enable SMBs to focus on their mission of growing revenue …
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Financial institutions have an immense responsibility to ensure that their networks are secure, and that their customers’ data is properly protected. The larger banks have sizable IT departments and considerable resources dedicated to addressing vulnerabilities and maintaining network operations. However, small and mid-sized banks have to meet the very same IT network requirements, but often don’t have enough sufficient resources, making IT management an enormous challenge. However, it can be done. By implementing automated, cloud-based solutions to proactively manage some of the vital, but mundane and time-consuming tasks, IT staff can be freed up to focus on more important projects.
In …
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If there’s one upside to the dire global economy over the last few years, it’s that there’s been a greater desire to save money and make better use of the existing resources (human and capital) by companies around the world. And that business trend has led to greater adoption of software-as-a-service (SaaS) by businesses in the U.S. and around the world. The facts support this trend: Analyst firm Gartner estimated that virtual IT delivery was going to be about a $9.6 billion industry in 2010, quickly growing to $16 billion a few years in the future.
Virtualization and SaaS make sense …
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For small or mid-sized banks, patch management is a vital part of ensuring that their networks are secure, customer data is protected and they comply with regulatory requirements. Having the resources dedicated to making sure it’s done right is another issue altogether. Just ask Matthew Hildebrandt, Assistant Vice President of IT at Integrity First Bank, a single location bank in Wausau, WI.
As the lone IT person at the bank, Matthew was spending way too much time fixated on his “sneaker net,” which consisted of 40 personal computers and four servers. “It’s not an overly complex environment,” he said. “But being …
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Today the number of virtual machines (VMs) being introduced into the enterprise IT environment is proliferating and SMBs are beginning to evaluate how they too can benefit from bringing VMs into their environments. For SMBs the benefits can include: more agile and high available environments, lower total cost of ownership, and reduced downtime of critical servers.
However, as the level of virtualization adoption continues to increase at a very rapid pace there is a rising concern about the ever increasing number of “unidentified risks” that accompany this growth. Companies large and small are moving to implement some form of virtualization, but …
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VMware has rolled out VMware Go Pro™ 2.1 to help small and midsized businesses (SMBs) manage their IT environments. VMware Go Pro, developed by Shavlik for VMware, is a comprehensive cloud-based service that enables SMBs to consolidate, control, and secure their physical and virtual IT infrastructure. With the latest release of VMware Go Pro, it is even easier to use with added functionality and simpler navigation. This online service not only guides users of any expertise level through the installation and configuration of VMware vSphere™ Hypervisor, but now offers many new features that can help a user easily manage their …
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This week, in my hotel in New York, I flipped on the television to see an advertisement from Microsoft around “To the Cloud” and shortly after that commercial, up popped another commercial with someone clicking away on their iPad to access their documents in the cloud. If that wasn’t enough, I fired up my laptop to read one of my favorite industry blogs, and who is on the side ad? – Salesforce.com. Two minutes later, I clicked out to another blog, and Symantec.Cloud popped up. It was enough to make me go crazy.
How many of us remember the early days …
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If you have not already heard, Shavlik has released a new version of IT.Shavlik that includes our latest engine
enhancements. (For all you NetChk Protect users you are getting the new engine in NetChk Protect 7.8.)
This includes archive file support. Along with support for more products we are finally going to wave
goodbye to painful support issues introduced by Apple installers back in Apple iTunes 9 and Apple QuickTime
7.6.4. For more details on the issue you can read up on a previous post regarding the changes Apple made to
their installers. I am going to walk you …
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