Resource Library

One of the most significant new features in Microsoft Windows Server 2012 is the Hyper-V Replica (HVR) capability. Whether you are considering this for your own organization or just prepping for your Windows Server 2012 MCSA, this white paper presents the essentials of deploying this disaster recovery feature.

Discover how the enhanced performance and reliability of Amazon Aurora will help AWS customers reduce performance bottlenecks in their applications. The relatively low cost of Aurora will tempt many customers to migrate workloads to this implementation of RDS.

Mobile payment systems have solid promise to become the dominant means of financial transactions, but there are some hurdles to overcome. Apple Pay might be the dominant force today, but Google Wallet and others are not far behind. The year 2014 was when digital and mobile payment systems became known to a wide range of the general population, while only techno-enthusiasts were aware of the options in the four to five years prior. Thus, mobile payment systems are not new, but customers and merchants are quickly adopting them now that they have become popular. It still remains your responsibility to thoroughly research any mobile payment option before implementing it. It is your money and you have the burden of ensuring that it has the best protection possible.

Through the use of automation, compliance, self-service portal, and standardization, Microsoft's System Center Service Manager can support the best practices found in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) and the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF). Service Manager also has built-in processes for Incident and Problem management, Change and Configuration management as well as Asset Lifecycle Management.

There are two types of virtual switches available using vSphere, the vSphere Standard Switch and the vSphere Distributed Switch. The vSphere Standard Switch (vSwitch or vSS) resides in and is manually configured and administered on each ESXi host. The vSphere Distributed Switch (dvSwitch or vDS) provides similar functionality but is centralized to vCenter Server and is more featured. This white paper will cover the vDS architecture as well as an overview of many of the different features that are exclusive to the vSphere Distributed Switch.

Virtual storage area network (VSAN) and VMware View can offer cost savings and performance benefits compared to traditional SAN implementations for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). If you are starting a new desktop virtualization project, it would be wise for you to take the time to explore your options and compare VSAN to other options.

While there are differences between the IP Multicast configuration in the IOS and the Nexus OS, the Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) protocol remains fundamentally the same. If you feel comfortable configuring Multicast in the IOS, you should be able to acclimate fairly easily to the changes in the Nexus OS.

Multicast Sparse Mode and its derivatives are supported in the Nexus OS. This white paper explains how it has been implemented in the Nexus platform to provide optimum performance in both virtual PortChannel and FabricPath environments.

Like it or not, Internet of Things (IoT) is upon us. There are a number of factors that will impact its adoption rate, and the inevitable privacy (or lack of) discussions will likely happen sooner than later. This is going to change the world as we know it, in many cases for the better. But we will need to keep an eye on the extent to which it invades our personal lives if it is going to be the positive force it has the potential to be.

This paper covers the configuration of IP Multicast with Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) including the basics of Multicast with the Group Encrypted Transport VPN (GETVPN).

A Dynamic Multipoint Virtual Private Network (DMVPN) can be used with other networks like Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), but streaming multicast is accomplished quite well using "Default" and "Data" Multicast Distribution Trees (MDTs) with MPLS.

Cisco Unified Computing Solution (UCS) is a very popular and powerful solution. Cisco continues to provide updated UCS management options for the full range of data center installations.

The first big push toward implementation of IPv6 was mobile devices. Now, one of the driving forces is the Internet of Things. As the name implies, this means everything, including machine to machine communication (M2M).

This paper explains uplink strategies for traffic coming in and out of a Cisco Unified Computing Solution (UCS) chassis. An uplink can be Ethernet, Fibre Channel, or FCoE and is a physical connection on the FI that leaves the UCS domain directed away from the B Chassis.

The tools described in this white paper are essential PM tools. Tools that will best be used, regardless of the project, are the WBS, communication model, and the precedence diagram. The other tools will be needed depending on the project.

Good global project managers develop their own competencies, and those of their team members. We can use technology to bridge distance, but also focus on the human aspects of culture, work habits, management style, English as a mandated language, communication, and uncertainty. Perform a self-assessment and assess your team members, then look for on-the-job and other improvement opportunities. A good way to learn more about how to overcome these challenges is to become involved in the international community.

AWS is an incredibly rich ecosystem of services and tools, some of which have security aspects baked in (like S3 SSE), and others that provide overarching security capabilities (like IAM and VPC) that apply to many services. With regard to data storage, operating system, and applications, security functions largely the same in the cloud or on-premises software. Customers can and should continue to follow best practices that have served them well in their own data centers.

Unless you know the meanings of the five symbols regularly used in PowerShell, they can obscure the purpose and actions of a PowerShell script. There will always be new cmdlets to decipher. Each new operating system release and application version will include new and useful cmdlets along with new parameters for existing cmdlets. You can't memorize them all, but with the basic knowledge of these particular symbols, you should be well equipped to follow the logic of many scripts.

A range of factors can influence the data center you choose. You should consider all of the factors listed in this white paper before deciding where to place your servers.

IT architecture is undergoing a period of rapid change and evolution. With this change comes enormous opportunity for professionals who are not just deep in a single technology but deeply conversant in several and who can join these technologies together to meet the needs of today's enterprise. The Red Hat Certified Architect program provides a credential that represents these skills and knowledge. Through a combination of flexible requirements and recommended concentrations, Red Hat is providing a path for professionals to advance their careers and for its subscription customers to find the right architect.

Most project team members report to a functional manager who controls their assignments, performance appraisals, raises, bonuses, etc. Until recently, project managers (PMs) had little input into any of these processes. In this paper, learn how a PM working in a functional or matrix organizational structure can get team members to perform.

Avaya introduced IP Office Manager Release 9.1 on December 22, 2014. As we all know from working with IP Office Manager, every new release brings changes to its GUI. Use this white paper to help you prepare to install and administer IP Office Manager 9.1.

In this paper, we explore the basic usage of PowerShell in the pursuit of automating the management of Hyper-V deployments. This paper is targeted to IT professionals who have been "GUI-bound" to their management interfaces and have been working with or are embarking on the journey of Hyper-V administration. We'll explore the usage of Hyper-V specific cmdlets with the intent of ultimately being able to include multiple cmdlets in a "script" to allow for pushing one button and accomplishing the combined actions of many multiple mouse clicks in the GUI. No more repetitive tasks!

Switches play a vital role in moving data from one device to another. Specifically, switches greatly improve network performance, compared to hubs, by providing dedicated bandwidth to each end device, supporting full-duplex connectivity, utilizing the MAC address table to make forwarding decisions, and utilizing ASICs and CAM tables to increase the rate at which frames can be processed.

This paper provides an overview of how to judge the rigor of one's decision making. It describes how anyone can make better (higher quality) decisions, in any situation.

On February 17, 2015, Cisco announced changes to the existing voice and video certifications and detailed the new collaboration certification portfolio. This white paper provides an overview of the changes to Cisco certifications with respect to voice and video, outlining dates, and deadlines that may affect your certification process.

The network forensics market is set to dramatically expand as increasing numbers of organizations become the victims of malware attacks. Limiting the damage from these incursions, and avoiding potentially crippling losses, are key motivators for businesses of any size. And network forensics offers a powerful set of tools to help companies achieve those goals.

When properly utilized, VLANs and trunks provide flexibility, stability and ease of troubleshooting. This paper provides technical details about VLANs and trunks, along with design options at a basic to intermediate level. Recommendations and commands are included throughout.

Microsoft Office 365 has a vast array of features to explore. A rich administration interface, streamlined security, and versatile migration options make this one of the most interesting products when it comes to an SaaS public cloud solution.

In this white paper, you'll discover what SAP BusinessObjects and Web Intelligence can deliver. When it comes to accessing large amounts of data and then creating customized and sophisticated analytical reports, you'll see why Web Intelligence is a wise choice.

Security attacks have become more advanced; therefore, security solutions have needed to evolve to deal with those threats. Cisco's acquisition of Sourcefire brings a new paradigm to the security landscape. No longer is security a one-time, instantaneous event. Security now is threat based, network cognizant, and continuous. All organizations, public and private, need to be aware not only of the constantly changing threat environment, but must be prepared to respond in kind.

Cisco Collaboration Systems Release (CSR) 10.6, along with CUCM 10.5(2), enhances the user and administrator experiences and interactions. In many cases, a change to one product may necessitate changes to other products. For example, where the deployment options for video conference control changed to place all control behind the Telepresence Conductor, Cisco Prime Collaboration management tools had to be updated to reflect this new deployment approach. As new endpoints are added, CUCM and Prime Collaboration both needed to be updated to reflect the new endpoints.

We build requirements at a quantum level to connect the vital elements, which are needed to realize a requirement. As we consider the relationships between the behaviors, actions, and responses, we begin to identify and associate the characteristics and conditions, which will drive and constrain the behaviors. Realizing a requirement means joining these elements together and noting them as elements of the requirement.

This white paper describes a technique for defining processes called SIPOC (Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, and Customers). SIPOC provides a structured way to define the key elements of any process. SIPOC can be used as a means of defining any of the service management processes presented in ITIL® best practices. Furthermore, SIPOC can be used as the preliminary input into the more formal documentation of a process in one of many process design tools.

Cloud computing is a big force in IT today, and it isn't going away. In fact, cloud adoption is going up geometrically, both for end users (think apps on your phone or tablet) as well as for organizations of all sizes. In fact, many smaller organizations may not have any on-premises infrastructure at all, other than networking infrastructure to get connected to the cloud. With this transformation in IT, it behooves all of us in the industry to understand it and adapt or risk being out of a job, like punch card operators.

Change is the order of the day, and if anything, the pace of business and technology change is accelerating. The business and customers are looking to IT service providers to be more responsive, delivering more frequent service changes with higher quality-resulting in services that deliver more value to the business. In order to continue to be relevant and of high value, ITIL must continue to benefit from other complementary best-practices for IT. DevOps, an approach that encourages improved communication, collaboration, and teamwork across development and operations, can have a positive influence in improving ITIL processes across the service life-cycle.

PowerShell is the perfect tool for capturing the best practices that your IT staff already implements manually, and transforms that with scripting. It provides the ability to cross-reference information from a variety of different sources, and apply custom solutions that marshal your unique resources to solve the problems you face. The tool is easy to learn, included for free with all your Windows OSs, and provides enormously rich possibilities to grow skills over time.

The cloud revolution is truly a revolution - the way we work, learn and even play is very different now than it was just 10 or 15 years and will probably be a lot more different in 10 or 15 years. With this in mind, let's look at 10 ways the cloud will (and to a large degree already has) changed the world.

Discover why healthcare organizations must take an immediate active role in securing their data. It is much more costly, monetarily as well as with regard to reputation, for an organization to react to a breach rather than plan for it.

Managing the change of DataStage components can often become a test of wills. Picture fitting a square peg in a round hole, and you might start to get the idea. The complexity of what is required to promote components from one environment to another during the development, testing, and eventual implementation in the production environments, should be and is often a controlled activity.