As some of you may know, I've started writing the weekly Tip Sheet column for MCPMag.com. It's a short column with just enough room to get a tip or suggestion out. There's not nearly enough room to explain my reasoning for the tip so I thought I'd jot down some thoughts about my goals and philosophy of the Tip Sheet column.
First of all the tip needs to be easy to implement. Ideally it can be accomplished using native Windows functionality. If not, it should be free. I know from all my years of consulting that many IT shops are run on the tightest of budgets. Sure, there are plenty of third party vendor supplied tools that can make administering a server or network easier, but they come at a price. I'm always thinking about the overworked administrator who can barely drink a cup of coffee in the morning before the first fire erupts. I want to publish little tips that make it easier to get the job done.
Occassionally, some tips are shortcuts and may fly in the face of IT best practices. We all know you should monitor disk usage so that user's don't fill it with non-business files. However, this takes time which I've already determined may be in short supply. It's a sad fact that scheduled maintenance tasks and best practices often fall to the wayside given the contraints of time and money. So if you see a tip that appears to contradict a best practice or some assumed standard of system administration, be thankful you are in a position where you don't need to take advantage of the tip. I'm always open to feedback on my columns but think about the men and women who may be running a shop similar in size to yours but with half the budget and resources. What would their job be like on a daily basis? What would yours?
My goal is to help make that job a little easier, one small tip at a time.
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