SolarWinds TechPod

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Although this adage holds much truth, it’s important to understand how it applies to the digital transformation we’ve witnessed this year.  We’re in what’s truly a new normal. In this episode, SolarWinds Vice President of Security, Tim Brown—joined by Christopher Kissel, research director, Security and Trust Products at IDC—will walk listeners through the new era, what to expect when it comes to digital shifts impacting security, and how to properly address and embrace these changes for success. 

This podcast is provided for informational purposes only. © 2020 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved. 

Every year, on the third Tuesday of September, we celebrate IT Pro Day – a day set aside to recognize all tech pros and the work they do. For some obvious reasons, this year we ran a survey to find out how IT folks are holding up. The answers we got back were by turns insightful, funny, and touching.

In this episode of SolarWinds® TechPod, Head Geeks™ Chrystal Taylor, Liz Beavers, and Leon Adato look at what those answers reveal—and share some of their own thoughts about the questions as well. 

This podcast is provided for informational purposes only. © 2020 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved. 

For campus IT, “back to school” holds an entirely different meaning for the Fall 2020 semester. On this episode of SolarWinds® TechPod™, Head Geek™ Liz Beavers is joined by Jenny Reeves, operations program manager for a K-12 school in Atlanta. They’ll recount the Spring journey as schools pivoted mid-semester to virtual classrooms, applying lessons learned as many schools currently face moving targets for re-opening and/or virtual learning. Join Liz and Jenny as they help IT leaders in education navigate the new different. 

This podcast is provided for informational purposes only.© 2020 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

Security operations and IT operations have a lot of differences, but more similarities than you may think, especially as their worlds are merging more quickly than ever before. This presentation will delve into research driven by in-depth conversations with professionals from both groups, examining some of the biggest challenges they see separately—and in working together more effectively. Going beyond traditional surveys, the findings will provide deeper insights into what’s needed to overcome these challenges. Supportive quantitative data will also be highlighted.  

You’ll hear directly from SolarWinds® Vice President of Security, Tim Brown and IDC Research Director of Security & Trust Products, Christopher Kissel. They’ll take you through the research and leave you with some actionable steps to accelerate the transformation of your IT and security operational collaboration. 

What do IT managers and managed service providers (MSPs) have in common? They both manage a sea of desktop devices. Join the SolarWinds MSP™ Head Nerds while they discuss the challenges and successes of deploying, managing and securing the multitude of desktop devices in various environments.

For many people, February 2020 marked the point when everything changed: When schools, stores, religious institutions, and businesses began to shutter their physical locations and we all began grappling with ways to turn our homes into multi-purpose office, gym, schoolhouse, and pet centers. But that was then, and the challenge businesses now face is the inverse—people coming back to the office. How are organizations planning to un-ring the work-from-home bell? More to the point, how are IT departments helping their organization craft a successful Return-to-Office (RTO) plan and ensure disruption to both the business and the IT team itself is minimized.  

This episode of TechPod is brought to you by the SolarWinds IT Trends Report 2020: The Universal Language of IT. Explore the priority areas tech pros manage in a world where roles have converged, and the reality of how it's affecting skill sets across IT departments and non-technical areas. Visit it-trends.solarwinds.com. This podcast is provided for informational purposes only. © 2020 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

The SolarWinds® IT Trends Report 2020 explores the evolving role of technology in business and the tech pros in charge of driving business performance. This year shows there’s less focus on emerging technologies like AI and edge and more focus on cloud computing, hybrid IT, and security. Tech pros also report increased responsibilities but decreased resources. In this episode of TechPod, Head Geeks™ Chrystal Taylor and Leon Adato are joined by The CTO Advisor himself, Keith Townsend, to explore what this latest survey means to IT professionals and the businesses they help support. 

The focus transition from physical infrastructure to cloud based apps and services is expected to continue to increase with a skill focus on APM and security and compliance rising in tandem. In addition, tech pros are expected to develop non-technical skills to operate within cross-functioning teams where business-level communication is critical. 

This podcast is provided for informational purposes only. © 2020 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

As COVID-19 forces employees out of the office in masses, many IT departments have been tasked with keeping productivity high and entire organizations operational. How are IT leaders preparing, both long-term and short-term? What challenges are popping up in supporting employees as they work from home? And how can the IT service desk smooth the transition and manage the influx of unfamiliar tickets as organizations adjust?

Azunna Anyanwu, IT Director at Aronson LLC, joins Chris McManus to discuss the ways his team prepared to support remote work through the service desk, and some of the unanticipated challenges working from home has presented. 

This podcast is provided for informational purposes only. © 2020 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

The SolarWinds® Cloud Confessions 2020 survey explores how extensively technology professionals are using APM tools, whether on-premises or for SaaS-based application management, and how they monitor these environments. One of the things the survey revealed this year was the introspection our colleagues in tech are doing about the changing nature of tech work; the relationship of IT to the business; and how our experience should have taught us by now to expect disruption in these moments  significant change—no matter how carefully we try to formulate our plans. 

Head Geek™ Leon Adato and guest Adam “the Automator” Bertram discuss the survey and changing APM realities for Tech Pros.

This podcast is provided for informational purposes only.© 2020 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

The SolarWinds® Cloud Confessions 2020 survey explores how extensively technology professionals are using APM tools, whether on-premises or for SaaS-based application management, and how they monitor these environments. This year’s survey shows most tech pros are using APM tools in a troubleshooting capacity and not as part of proactive APM strategies to achieve optimization. Head Geek™ Leon Adato and guest Adam “the Automator” Bertram discuss what's holding companies, teams, and individual contributors back from integrating their APM solutions into their environment. 

This podcast is provided for informational purposes only.© 2020 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.