Christian Wickham

176

Christian Wickham 's Posts

Assumptions are often made that if you have storage, you need to use RAID. If you have moving parts like fans, the assumption is that you need a hot spare (or at least the ability to hot replace the part), and then it goes on to redundant network connections, warm… Continue Reading The concept of redundancy – is it redundant?

In a recent discussion about network security, I had a [relatively inexperienced] network administrator make a comment that security between networks can be achieved with VLANs. As most of us know, VLANs do not equal network security – but it made me wonder why she came to that conclusion, after… Continue Reading VLANs do not equal network security

I often use the concept of RADIO (Redundant Array of Distributed Independent Objects) in my description of VSAN, as people need extra help in understanding why you don’t need RAID in a VMware Virtual SAN. It’s particularly applicable to storage, but the concept also applies to compute (CPU and RAM),… Continue Reading What is RADIO?

The definition of Converged Infrastructure (CI) can be categorised into different ‘flavours’. In summary, the term defines an approach where storage and compute are tightly coupled, and managed within a software-defined paradigm that offers policy driven provision of resources. Different vendors provide their own ‘flavour’ of CI, ranging from an… Continue Reading What is Converged Infrastructure?

You may think it is bold of me to forecast the impending decline of Infrastructure As A Service (IaaS) before it is even mainstream, but I expect that the takeup and consumption of IaaS offerings will decrease gradually from 2025, down to almost nothing in 2030. So, IaaS is dead.… Continue Reading Forecasting the demise of IaaS

Today I attended a Microsoft StorSimple 8000 series presentation at Microsoft’s offices here in Adelaide, South Australia. It’s a 2RU / 4RU device that provides primary storage through iSCSI, with inline block level automatic tiering, de-duplication and compression, where the final tier is Azure cloud storage. It incorporates volume-level snapshots “for… Continue Reading Microsoft StorSimple 8000 series review

For years we have been hearing that tablet sales are outstripping PC sales, and projections that the PC platform will die, leaving all of us using tablets for all our computing needs. There has been a rush by organisations to equip staff with mobile devices (or let them bring their… Continue Reading Why a virtual desktop is the solution to workforce mobility

I had a question from a company that had lots of small regional sites, asking “Is a single VM on a single host viable?”, in response to my query about why they were buying one or two servers for these sites. There was an assumption that it was only worthwhile… Continue Reading Is a Single VM on a Single Host viable?

Activity Based Working (ABW) is the term used for a change in work practices that focusses on creating collaboration based workspaces, instead of personally assigned desks or cubicles. To enable ABW, there needs to be a shift in tools used by staff, so that they are accessible from mobile devices.… Continue Reading Activity Based Working is not provided by IT

How many times have you encountered a “block” of a suggestion for improvement with a response of “That is what we have always done”? People are resistant to change, even in an innovative organisation dealing with the latest technologies. The reality is that the opportunities provided by technology and new tools are… Continue Reading That is what we have always done

How many passwords do you have? Do you remember them all? Do you use a password manager tool? Are your passwords complex and secure, or easy to guess dictionary words? What is your weakest point? I bet that last question threw you a bit. Your entire security and identity could… Continue Reading Password security in the age of Cloud

In today’s modern world, the task of threat and risk assessment is based on prior experience and history. It is human nature to be limited in our imagination by prior experience. When identifying the threats to your business and systems, you need to have an imagination on the possibilities that… Continue Reading Threat and risk assessment

One of the first steps in preparing for a Business Continuity Plan and developing a Disaster Recovery Plan is to first identify the impact that your business would experience as the result of a disaster. Engage with senior management (as this process takes up considerable time and needs focus and… Continue Reading Business Impact Analysis questionnaire template

Many organisations have allowed staff to bring in their own device for use at work – these are Bring Your Own Device policies (BYOD Policy). It’s becoming more common, but what are the bring your own device policy risks? In this article, when I refer to device, I include phones,… Continue Reading Bring Your Own Device policy risks

You may be one of the many people who ask what is the difference between BCP and DR – that is, what is the difference between a Business Continuity Plan and Disaster Recovery planning? First a little history – back in the pre-computing era, for most businesses, if they suffered… Continue Reading The difference between BCP and DR

Whilst defining your BYOD policy, you might miss some important requirements to producing a document that will help guide your employees when they use their own device for work purposes. More organisations around the world are now providing an allowance to employees to allow them to buy their own consumer… Continue Reading Tips for defining your BYOD policy

You may not know that VMware provides some online courses for free. All you need to do is register for a myLearn account and then you can register for – and complete – various foundation courses. Go to http://mylearn.vmware.com/portals/www/mL.cfm?menu=topfreecourses and you will see an up to date list of the available… Continue Reading Free training courses from VMware!