When you’re looking to measure output of telecommuters, creativity can’t be forgotten about. Remember that part of the quality of output that an employee can have is manifested in the creativity they bring to the job. Creativity isn’t just relegated to fields like advertising either. In IT, some of the best network designs come from creatively inclined folks.
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Telecommuting vs. Those That Don't Telecommute
Telecommuting is seen to many as a workplace sort of nirvana. However, it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be all the time. The lost “water cooler” aspect of working from home, the sometimes missing collaboration and the social withdrawal can all be negatives to telecommuting. But as more and more people from a specific business unit start to telecommute the people left in the office become more and more dissatisfied. It doesn’t help when those who telecommute rub in that they don’t have to drive an hour each way to work any more or that they’re sitting there in their underwear working. So keep in mind to be considerate…
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UMUC
The University of Maryland University College is now offering a remote degree on Computer Information Technology that, as a part of the curriculum, incorporates 3rd party certification preparation. No SATs needed and it can be done completely on-line.
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IT HR: Choosing the Right Person
Innovation requires motivation. Motivation also leads to increased productivity. If a person isn’t qualified for a job then they will be frustrated and while they may be productive they will not innovate the position. A person who is overqualified on the other hand will often be bored, not stimulated, demotivated and look for quick fixes that are not optimal. So choosing the right person often falls with finding someone who’s right there in the middle. Sometimes you might have found a candidate who’s perfect for your organization. But they’re either underqualified for what you’re looking for or overqualified. Instead of passing on them consider hiring them and shuffling your team…
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IT Surveys: Quantification vs. Qualification
I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal Information Technology (IT) is, by definition, a technical business. Professionals in the industry often use technology assets and their status as a basis for referencing the performance of an IT Department. Management and end-users judge the IT Department differently. This judgment is typically less quantifiable because it is based primarily on the perception of individuals not involved directly with IT. IT Departments are often doing better than their users think from a technical point of view. Determining the success level of an IT organization depends on identifying the positive and negative factors used to build users’ perceptions about an IT Department. A survey can…
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The TCO of Virtualization
It starts innocently enough: you start running virtual machines (VMs) for testing. Then you slowly get hooked. The next thing you start to do is put your VMs into production. Then you start buying only servers that have hypervisor built in. Then you start looking at SANs to leverage virtual clusters and virtualize your volumes. The next thing you know, you’re looking on vmware.com for a new virtual dog and banging your head on the keyboard when you can’t find one. At this point there are 8 VMs running on every laptop and handheld in your organization, there are sometimes 3 different applications running VMs on one host and often…
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Partner Programs
So I’ve been working on getting us into a bunch of new partner programs recently. Some companies get it, others not so much. Companies I rather like working with: Cisco, IBM, SonicWALL, CheckPoint, PGP
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Open Source and Development
I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal Developers of code have always been fairly open with their tips and tricks. New advancements in the websphere come fast and many of them come from the open source community. Led by people like Linus Torvalds, the original author of Linux, the open source ommunity has rewritten many of the most popular proprietary applications on the market and made them freely available to the world, asking only that if they don’t sell the code you don’t turn around and sell the code as well. This was the foundation for the web. Apache, the most popular web server in use, is a product of the…
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VoIP 101
I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal As the name implies, VoIP refers to voice or phone calls that traverse data networks using Internet Protocol (IP). This may mean that the calls are going over the Internet, or it may simply mean calls are traveling over privately managed data networks that are using IP to transport the calls from one location to the other. This represents a fundamental change or shift in transportation and routing of traditional voice services work over analog wires. With VoIP, the voice stream is broken down into data packets, compressed and sent to its destination using the Internet (as opposed to establishing a ‘permanent’ connection for…
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Cage Match: Retrospect vs. BRU
I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal Retrospect is the most historically respected backup package for Macs. After a lot of issues with the switch to OS X, Version 6 is a stable rendition of what Version 4.3 was for OS 9. The tried and true Retrospect interface is still used (just a little more soft around the edges). Retrospect 6 Server edition is capable of backing up server and client computers over the network and has increased backup performance dramatically. Tape loaders and libraries support has increased and barcode labeling of tapes is now supported. Retrospect 6 has also improved in the area of removable disc support, namely with CD…