RunAs Radio

So what is a reporting ecosystem? Richard chats with David Pless about the modern Microsoft reporting ecosystem, which can involve SQL Server Reporting Servers, Excel and the new Power BI tools. David talks about how you can work from the space you're most familiar with, and still be able to move data and reports between the different tools. But they aren't the same - different tools for different purposes. Power BI is the relative new comer and brings the power of the cloud to reporting, but the latest offerings are also available on-premises as well. Lots of reporting choices!

Turn off SMB1! Richard talks to Ned Pyle about the ongoing battle to retire SMB1, a 30-year-old file transfer protocol at the heart of recent malware attacks. While there are patches to eliminate the vulnerability, the best patch is removing the protocol entirely. Already on the schedule for deprecation, Ned talks about how ransomware like WannaCry has accelerated the process. Windows hasn't depended on SMB1 since 2006, the challenge other devices and software - some are current. Patch your systems, be safe and turn off SMB1!

Azure is growing, and Azure Stack is taking orders! Richard chats with Aidan Finn about his work with companies implementing Azure and looking at Azure Stack. Azure Stack is Azure, but it's your own private Azure - you run it where you want. What you don't choose is what hardware (just how much) and any of the configuration, since that is handled by Microsoft. You're always patched at the same level that public Azure is. Does Azure Stack make sense for you? Aidan digs into the various reasons why you might need your own private hybrid cloud!

Lots of news around NanoServer - what's it all mean? Richard chats with Jason Helmick about NanoServer - but first, a quick discussion around a comment from a listener on the ongoing evolution of PowerShell. This ties nicely into the broader topic of Microsoft getting opinionated about how NanoServer should be used, which is to say, designed for containers. Jason talks about containers being light-weight virtual machines with configuration-as-code at their core. Microsoft is picking containers as a key approach to delivering services, does it make sense for you to jump aboard?

Windows 10 has been out for two years now, are you ready to move? Richard chats with Steve Thomas about the latest tools Microsoft provides to help you migrate your clients over to Windows 10. Steve talks about the Windows Upgrade Readiness tools that are part of Operations Management Suite. Not using OMS? Don't worry, there's a free version available for Windows Readiness. OMS brings your readiness evaluation to the cloud, checking against all sorts of hardware configurations and the organization's software library. But as always, it's the homegrown apps that represent the biggest challenge - and there are an array of options for solving that!

Change is scary, how do you keep people from resisting? While at the DevOps Enterprise Summit in London, Richard sat down with fellow Kiwi Rob England to talk about his experiences bringing DevOps practices to very conservative organizations - like the New Zealand government! The conversation starts out with the idea that DevOps is not just for unicorns, that is, companies that are all about leading edge technologies. DevOps works for horses too, it just has to be approached the right way.

Ready to go off the IT rails? Mark Minasi is back! Richard chats with Mark about his favorite subject at the moment - automated vehicles. Mark takes a humorous poke at the role of computing, cloud and sensors that should bring automated driving to fruition. Are we really ready for this tech? That's a big shift in the workforce, a change in the cost of technology and a change in how we all travel. What comes next? Meantime, Mark's life is changing too, what's next for him?

DevOps for Mainframes? Really? Yes really! While at DevOps Enterprise Summit in London, Richard sat down with Rosalind Radcliffe and David Rizzo to talk about how mainframes can be part of a DevOps practice! The conversation starts out with Rosalind talking about the modern mainframe, which in IBM parlance is all about z/OS operating system and hardware. It's not just CICS anymore; Java runs there too! And with z/OS available for IBM Linux, you can run the same operating system setup on traditional PC hardware as well. This leads to all sorts of options in the modern DevOps practice with mainframes!

How can PowerShell improve your help desk? Richard chats with David das Neves about his work improving the efficiency of a help desk by writing PowerShell scripts. Not the most obvious role for PowerShell, but David walks through the process of finding common tech support requests that can benefit significantly from automation, rather than mouse click - like uninstalling and reinstalling Java! This leads to a conversation about creating mature, shareable and maintainable PowerShell scripts that multiple people can use reliably and safely. Think bigger with PowerShell!

ITIL and DevOps together? Yes! While at the DevOps Enterprise Summit in London, Richard sat down with Akshay Ananad and Kaimar Karu of AXELOS to talk about how the DevOps practices apply to service management. ITIL was born in a slower time for IT, but the core axioms are still relevant - you just need to focus on service rather than technology. The conversation also goes to including your service management folks in the conversations around software, the same way that operations, infosec and bizdev need to be involved. Devops is all about service, and so is ITIL!