Tool Reviews

As business technology and security systems continue to evolve, so do the tactics used by cybercriminals. In 2018, businesses worldwide lost $2.7 billion because of cybercrime, and research shows this number will continue to grow every year. These losses include ransoms paid to cyberattackers, fines, money paid for updates and repairs, and the costs associated…

Network Magic was a program delivered by Cisco Systems. It was a popular tool for network computer management and monitoring, liked especially for its added security features, which included robust intrusion prevention and parent monitoring capacities. But when Cisco came out with its Smart Wi-Fi routers, the Network Magic program was discontinued—to the frustration of…

The performance of your applications can have a significant impact on your brand reputation, revenue, and credibility in the digital marketplace. While many companies may still prefer to adopt a manual approach to application performance, doing so becomes increasingly challenging as your organization grows. As an alternative, many companies choose to adopt automated solutions for…

If you’re an IT admin responsible for managing your organization’s critical assets in an enterprise network, Active Directory (AD) should be your number one tool. Whether you’re running a small network or a large one, managing a slew of assets, users, and permissions can be a tedious ordeal. AD facilitates and streamlines this process. A…

Keeping track of everything happening on your operating systems may sound daunting, but the right software allows you to monitor and manage every element and layer of your IT environment. Managing large enterprises and systems means sometimes things just get overloaded and fail. It’s impossible to prevent errors or issues, but you can keep a…

All businesses need a way to detect vulnerabilities on their networks. This is especially true for larger businesses and those with sensitive data—banking, government, finance, law, health care, and education are all industries in which safeguarding network data and infrastructure is paramount. But smaller businesses must also ensure their information is secure, without pouring all…

Network troubleshooting is a tricky process, and even if you’ve done it many times before, problems can arise in new ways anytime the network changes, a new device is added, or devices interact in a new way. Figuring out exactly where in the network the problem is and how to fix it can be difficult…

One of the most frustrating things when working on a laptop or other computer device is when the Wi-Fi won’t connect. Employees may end up walking around the office, seeing the number of bars go up and down. At home, these issues can be annoying, but at work they can lead to large amounts of…

The sheer volume of applications and devices on the market, paired with the rise of social media, has led to a flood of network traffic, putting network performance in jeopardy. As a result, IT departments are bombarded with service requests regarding pesky delays, broken images, dropped calls, and fragmented video conferences, all of which bring…

Virtual machines, or VMs, are becoming increasingly common in enterprise infrastructures, joining physical computers, printers, and database servers on the network. Their uses include application development and testing, storage, operating system flexibility, and workspace duplication. The challenges when dealing with VMs are complex, as they can use resources in different ways than physical machines and…

In modern computing environments, the use of virtual machines (VMs) is increasingly widespread. Having the appropriate systems and setups in place to manage and monitor your VMs is crucial. If a virtual machine has an issue or a collection of virtual machines stops working, you can lose large amounts of data or functionality. One key…

Safeguarding the security of your IT infrastructure is no easy task. There are so many components to protect, and no firewall is entirely foolproof. Cyberattacks are constantly evolving, with the express intention of breaching your defenses and compromising your systems, and more come to light every day. Keeping pace with these developments requires your security…

Virtualization can be useful everywhere, whether for home office and small business use, or in large enterprises and data centers. Using appropriate software to manage those virtualizations is important—if you aren’t using the right tools, your virtual environment can be messy and ineffective at best, or buggy and non-functional at worst. In this guide, I’ll…

Software deployment tools are an IT professional’s best friend. They elevate existing update services, automate deployment tasks, put security best practices in place, and monitor user activity and application functioning. Without these tools, IT teams spend hours manually deploying and tracking rollouts. This takes time and resources away from other important tasks. With so many…

To successfully manage virtual machines (VMs), organizations have relied on virtualization technology, or hypervisors. Virtualization allows IT professionals to set up multiple virtual machines on the same hardware. These tools allow users to create self-contained virtual environments designed to mimic a discrete piece of hardware, often a server. By doing so, users can operate multiple…

Network design is a crucial aspect of any enterprise-grade network. The way a network is designed impacts your network monitoring capabilities and your overall system performance, making it as important a factor as the infrastructure itself. Your topology structure will be the foundation for conducting quality of service monitoring and troubleshooting, so having a strong…

Website users have higher expectations now than ever before, and many companies find they must adopt new technologies to stay competitive in our digital world. Because of this, user experience testing and optimizing website user experience has become an increasingly important part of developing and maintaining a website or web application. This guide lists the…

Networks are growing in size and complexity. For many, this growth is being driven by the Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, Cloud, and even Software Defined Networking (SDN). As these trends, and the many changes they bring, impact your network, the big question you need to answer is this: Do I have the network configuration…

You might be asking yourself, what is an audit log and how do I use it? Understanding how a log audit operates and why an admin might want to audit their logs is crucial to business success. In fact, effective audit log management supports compliance, accountability, and security. Audit log management often goes overlooked in…

VLAN configuration and management involves maintaining and organizing all the data associated with your network. This information is crucial when a network needs to be repaired, modified, upgraded, or expanded. The main role of network configuration management is to replace a device’s operations if a failure occurs, but different devices save and store configurations in…

When managing a large enterprise network, having a clear overview of your entire network infrastructure and connections is critical for both troubleshooting and performance. One crucial piece of the puzzle is using a network graphing tool, or network topology tool. Network graphs show you your network’s physical and logical connections and allow you to have…