@Hubtech said:
I setup GFI Service Desk last night....i'm not really feeling it. It doesn't seem to have a spot that you can create a new project unless i'm blind. come on ya'll sling me some crm/proj management ideas
Have you looked at Autotask lately? It handles CRM, tickets, and projects.
Whatever you do, don't open up RDP from the Internet at large to the XP box. As future vulnerabilities get patched on Vista and newer, they won't be on XP, leaving that system prone to attack.
@Hubtech said:
i need the discipline to use it
Or the greed to use it. If you're trying to move on everything and keep stuff from slipping between the cracks, the greed will eventually motivate you. At some point, it'll hit you when you realize that using CRM to track your leads could have landed you that x thousand dollar gig. it'll also give you the visibility to realize that the lead you're chasing isn't nearly as hot as some of the other opportunities you have in the fire.
For those considering XenApp, try RDS first. You'll get most of the same functionality, but without the extra cost and overhead. If you're going to set up an RDS gateway, also toss in Remote Desktop Web Access so that your users have a web portal to go to and connect via. It'll launch their session for them and configure the RDS gateway if needed. It's also where you can publish RemoteApp, for those that have company computers already, but only need RDS for a certain application.
Disclosure: Among a few hats, I'm a VDI architect. What I'm about to say may be slanted a bit, but should be useful to some folks:
VDI often does have a business need driving it. Sometimes, it's even financially motivated. Here's a few of instances where VDI really shines:
You have many people doing the same thing. Places like call centers have bunches of people running the same programs the same way all the time. This is even more applicable if it's shift work where employees don't have an assigned cube to work in and rather just grab any one that's available. Now, they can log into their VDI session and get a crisp, clean desktop image and have their profile connected to it as a separate disk. The desktop image has been refined and perfectly tweaked by IT to have everything they need the way they need it, with very little fluff added. The user's data and customizations are still there, and they can pick up just like they were at their very own desktop PC. When they're done for the day/shift, they logoff, the data disk is disassociated and stored for later, and the VM is deleted.
There's an important or very complex resource somewhere else. Companies are starting to realize that using colos and hosted facilities (or if they have the infrastructure, internal datacenters) leads to more solid uptime and consistent experiences. Naturally, they'll want to safeguard these systems, such as LOB applications, by putting them out there. Often times, these systems are more traffic-heavy than other applications and perform better when on the same network instead of trying to move data across the WAN. Placing VDI in the same environment not only increases the reliability and uptime of the desktop environment, but it also allows the client sessions to work with the servers at LAN speed.
From a financial standpoint, VDI becomes attractive when it's time for large hardware refreshes. With VMware Horizon View, for example, VDI clients pretty much can run on tin cans. Instead of getting a new batch of desktops, get a batch of solid-state thin clients, or even reload the desktops with Linux and a PCoIP client and replace them through attrition. That alone doesn't save much money. What does, however, is the drop in the desktop support headcount (or gains by freeing up desktop support to help with other roles). Almost all basic support issues can be resolved with 1 of 4 things:
Need to support BYOD? Users can access their corporate desktops from nearly any kind of device while keeping corporate data off of those devices.
I'm seeing a sub-thread developing here. Outsourcing supplies procurement's the way to go. There's companies that'll handle everything from TP to trash bags to toner and paper, and send a rep by to make sure your stock levels are holding. All you need to do is train users on how to change toner, and you'll never deal with the procurement and replacement process again.
@PSX_Defector said:
a call from someone from a place that shall not be named
Crap, I didn't know AOL still did telemarketing calls!
@Mike-Ralston said:
Windows 8 seems to the problematic bit
The only things I have on this PC that aren't stock is Steam with some games, Minecraft, and a few emulators. It's a personal PC that I put together. When I get my second rig to breathe life, this will become my work-only rig, and will have little to no personal software on it.
Are those emus clean? It sounds like they may be dirty, if that's the only thing you're doing. No web surfing at all? What are you using for AV?
If I started a "Nara's Tips for Saving Money for IT Pros" periodic series of threads, would it get deleted?
@JaredBusch said:
@Dashrender said:
@JaredBusch said:
@Dashrender said:
As far as Spiceworks is concerned, why are you using relaying? I have an account setup on my Exchange server that SW logs into just like my outlook clients do.
It is logging in now, I was thinking to change that. I do not need to keep an O365 mailbox just for a product that I only use a little.
I thought you could have service accounts with O365? no?
You can, just was aiming for one less is all.
Unless you have service accounts that need to retrieve mail, you could make a "Companyname Email" [email protected] service account and have everything use that.
That was possibly me mentioning the 500 limit? That's the maximum amount of outbound messages an Office 365 user can send per day.
For a quick and easy internal relay, add the Windows Server SMTP service, configure the IP addresses of the devices you want to relay, then add the authentication components. Just make sure the from: address is set the same as the account the relay's using to authenticate.
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Nara said:
I figure that I'd need about $3.1M to retire.
That's a more reasonable number.
For a couple, yeah 3.1M at 4% assuming you don't want to eat into the base would probably be enough - assuming you have no other debt. Damn, saving $3k/month to get there, Ouch!
Don't forget inflation! 3.1's good for one person to lead a comfortable yet not very active lifestyle in about 30 years or so.
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
CacheCade is a cache, it decides what stays there in the same way that the RAID cache has always decided that and in the same way that the OS decides what to cache.
Awww.. Thanks for that! CacheCade is Dell, what does HP have?
Up to 4GB on-controller Flash-Backed Write Cache (FBWC) - unless I'm doing some extremely large data moves, it feels like I'm writing to flash, even under typical VM workloads.
@Dashrender said:
Wow.. Windows 8 is only 18 months old - this does seem kind of quick to me. But yeah when you consider that Windows 7 is 5 years old this year I suppose it makes sense.
And @scottalanmiller who, besides you and NTG, Truely buys into the Windows vision? No company large or small I know of stays anywhere near on top of things like Windows versions. LOL a thought question, not a real one.
I'm very much into the Windows ecosystem. With the exception of Hyper-V and the now-defunct TMG, the MS platform is an amazing dynamo of interoperability and centralized management.
You may want to consider looking for "Infrastructure Specialist" roles. Typically those are the server/networking/desktop admin type of jobs, with less management and less helpdesk. It's not a specialized role per se, but does prune certain aspects away. You'll typically find them in companies with IT teams of 3-5 people or so.
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
Are towers always cheaper?
I can't say always, but in my experience with HP's they have been.
The lower-end towers are relatively inexpensive.
@Dashrender said:
Does the newer OWA handle access to other people's Calendars as easy as Outlook does? I'm more than a bit behind on the Exchange curve (Exchange 2010, no SP).
It does!
Apple tends to not support old stuff. In the Windows lifespan, 8 is still new. From an Apple perspective, it's mature. From an Apple perspective, 7's graying.
Oh, I forgot - get a decent controller cache. That'll go a long way to help your IOPS.
You could get two hosts with lots of smaller drives and just replicate the VMs between them. It'll give you the IOPS you need, but the fault tolerance of two hosts. Alternatively, you could run 3 hosts with vSAN, but that would be a bit overkill (though not overkill to the extent of buying a SAN).
