As we tip over from the mad rush of December and prepare to ease into another year, I like to take a minute to appreciate the hush and calm that comes after the rush and bustle of various holidays.
This week after New Year I like to take a few moments to pause and regroup before diving into the new year. A chance to take stock, reflect, and think.
And so I’ve held off until now to officially promote the fruit of a few of my 2015 labors. If your resolutions for 2016 include making time to do some reading that doesn’t break your stretched-too-far-after-all-those-gifts budget, I want you to know that I’ve got a few eBook recommendations for the busy IT Pro. Each is available for Kindle (on Amazon) and also as a free PDF download.
Monitoring 101
Despite the relatively maturity of monitoring and systems management as a discrete IT discipline, I am asked – year after year and job after job – to give an overview of what monitoring is.
This book is my attempt to address that question in a more structured form, published with the assistance of the amazing folks at SolarWinds.
Intended as guide to help bring new team members (often fresh out of college or a technical program) up to speed with monitoring concepts quickly, this ebook (or portions of it) can serve as a good introduction for a variety of audiences.
Click here for the Kindle Edition | Click here for the PDF version
“Technically, These Are Some Random Thoughts”
Around September every year, Jews all over the world celebrate Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. However, it’s not – to put it in business terms – a year-end review. It’s a job interview. the month before Rosh Hashana (called “Elul” in Hebrew) is the time for getting one’s balance sheet in order. To help with that, a bunch of folks from all walks of life participate in #BlogElul: A daily prompt provides the theme and people riff on that – sometimes a few hundred words, sometimes an image, sometimes a poem or just a single sentence. It’s something I’ve done for a few years now. I thought I’d add a twist and also do an I.T. Professional’s version of #BlogElul and post the essays on my technology-specific blog: https://www.adatosystems.com. A reflection on each of the daily prompts and what they mean in an I.T. context. You’re probably thinking “Leon, this is a Jewish thing and completely outside the scope of my experience or interest as an I.T. Professional.” To which I emphatically reply: Yes and no. If you have worked in I.T. for more than 15 minutes, you’ve likely been involved in a large development project, system roll-out, or upgrade. And as the date for the big cut-over approaches, there are usually daily status updates. Consider this the notes from my status updates before the roll-out of “TheWorld v.5776”.
Click here for the Kindle Edition | Click here for the Nook Edition | Click here for the PDF version