Category Archives: Server

VMs on RAID save Bacon

I was recently computing happily along, not suspecting anything, when suddenly things began to go terribly wrong. Web pages stopped loading. My email connections timed out. I could not remotely access my clients’ networks. The situation was serious. Then my wife told me that she could not get to any web sites. The situation had…

The Keys to the Kingdom

One of my clients recently mentioned to me that they are preparing for an annual inspection required by the regulations that govern their industry. One of the issues that they are dealing with is an expanded scope of due diligence with regard to their vendors; they are now being required to formally vet any vendors…

Core i7 VirtualBox Server: Why Virtualization?

When I’ve talked to a small business owners about using virtualization in their IT infrastructure, one of the most consistent questions I’ve gotten – well, after “what’s that” – amounts to “why – what’s the advantage?” This is certainly a valid question, and it’s one I had to think about in order to articulate the…

Core i7 VirtualBox Server

I’ve been using virtualization technology for several years now – first with VMWare (Workstation, Server, and Player), and then with VirtualBox.  I tried Xen very briefly while looking at OpenSUSE, but never did use it on a day-to-day basis.  Until now, I had only ever used desktop OSes (operating systems) (mostly Linux, but some Windows…

Preventing the Heartbreak of Lost Data

One of the questions I hear most often from my residential clients as they drop off an ailing PC is, “will I lose all of my pictures?”  In many cases, I am able to save most, if not all, of the data on their hard drives (pictures, emails, addresses, browser bookmarks, etc.)  My commercial clients…