Drew Bird

Many IT organizations today are scratching their heads debating whether the advantages of implementing a SAN solution justify the associated costs. Others are trying to get a handle on today’s storage options and whether SAN is simply Network Attached Storage spelled backwards. In this article, I introduce the basic purpose and function of a SAN […]

It’s hard to find any e-mail user that isn’t tired of battling spam. The seemingly endless influx of junk e-mail has corporations and individuals alike looking for new and ever more-effective ways to block unwelcome spammers. But while the war on spam moves along at a slow but steady pace, a potentially more disruptive form […]

You may know that IT certifications can boost your resume and make you more desirable to hiring managers, but which certifications will help you the most? And which ones should you avoid? In a time when industry analysts say IT hiring is about to pick up, these may be critical questions to answer correctly. Back […]

As recently as three years ago, if you were looking for an IT job and had Web development listed on your resume, you were almost guaranteed a well-paying position with some emerging dotcom. At the peak of the skills shortage, it almost seemed that if it were mentioned that you once sat next to a […]

This week, InstantMessagingPlanet is going back to the basics. We’re pleased to bring you a series of articles covering the fundamentals of enterprise instant messaging and what you need to know as an IT decision-maker: on what exactly enterprise IM is, why and how best to leverage it, ideas for purchasing an enterprise IM solution, […]

This week, InstantMessagingPlanet is going back to the basics. We’re pleased to bring you a series of articles covering the fundamentals of enterprise instant messaging and what you need to know as an IT decision-maker: on what exactly enterprise IM is, why and how best to leverage it, ideas for purchasing an enterprise IM solution, […]

Some time ago, for our sister site CrossNodes, I wrote an article about the availability of used networking equipment and how you (or your company) could save thousands of dollars by buying ‘not quite new’ equipment left over from the dot com bust. Although the dust has settled from that little implosion, not too much […]

Recently I got a call from a friend who had just escaped the latest round of layoffs where he works. His company, like many others, has fallen foul of a shrinking economy and an uncertain financial future. What surprised me about the call was not that his company, a wealthy law firm with offices all […]

Of all the tasks related to PC desktop support, frequently the province of the network management team, by far the most time consuming is dealing with issues created by users. Some of these issues are minor and easily corrected, whereas others such as when a user unwittingly launches a virus are a little more time […]

Quite why Microsoft considers the release of the next version of Windows worthy of a Y2K style countdown is unclear. What is clear is that once again we are faced with same question that has surfaced many times: What, if anything, is to be gained by upgrading to a new version? Most software companies, not […]