Posts made by MikeSmithsBrain

What would you do if your management team told you that the company's growth was so strong that according to forecasts, they needed to double IT infrastructure... but they didn't have the budget to increase cap-ex or monthly spend?

"Impossible" was their first thought.

In this episode, United Layer sales engineer, Saad Saleem, tells a story of an IT team that faced this dilemma six months ago. He details how they pulled it off... and were applauded and viewed as heroes by their management team.

Cloud Therapy: EP 016 - Growing Infrastructure without Money Creates IT Heroes

Ethan Banks from the famed Packet Pushers podcast, joins me to discuss his love for Subaru... and several other awesome stories about his journey in IT, including one "data center down" incident that still haunts him but has a cool take-away about "incident response."

Cloud Therapy E015: Packet Pushers' Ethan Banks' Journey in IT. From Subaru, to Data Center Down, To SharePoint and More...

I've known Rich for a few years and every time we talk, he teaches me something new. This day was no different.

Like many of you, Rich Erickson learned IT in the military and then took his skills to the private sector, holding rolls like Sys Admin, Network Admin, IT Director and is now the Director of Sales Engineering for a high-end cloud service provider, Matrix IBS.

He's one of those sales engineers that we (as salespeople), love to bring into customer meetings because we've learned that when he speaks, our credibility grows. He's also just a nice guy.

Listen to Rich school me on several ways I can increase our company's cloud performance, at the local level.

Cloud Therapy: Episode 14 - Local Fixes for Cloud Latency

Cloud Therapy Podcast: EP 013: SIP Faxing Best Practices

If your company is moving to SIP or VoIP, don't forget about the faxes!

Faxing is a little boring to discuss but it is commonly overlooked and therefore, often a post-install thorn that is a pain for the IT team.

You may or may not want to keep the faxes on analog (POTS) lines but it has to do with things like T.30 vs. T.38, provider support and a few other things. Listen to Level 3's long-time voice engineer, Rich Prohaska, review the best practices for faxing when converting your voice over to SIP.

If your company's voice contracts are coming up in the next year, avoid the urge to procrastinate diving into this non-comfort-zone topic. Instead, listen to this podcast so you can "own it."

I've met hundreds of IT professionals like yourself, and (for the vast majority), telecom is a necessary evil that is not their forte but has been thrown on their plate of "things I'm in charge of." So I figured I'd offer some basic info. on how to navigate voice tech., so you're no longer a fish out of water when your next agreement expires.

In this info-packed Episode, I share the basic non-provider-biased questions our telecom brokerage reviews with IT Departments, in order to drill down to "best fit," for both technology (i.e. SIP, PRI, Hosted VoIP, Lines, etc.), and service provider.

Cloud Therapy - Episode 12: The Best Business Phone Service

@scottalanmiller Agreed. Tolerance for an occasional voice glitch has to be there if going over public Internet. I think the debate is whether or not with 30+ users, the likelihood of issues increases relatively, which puts a heavier burden on IT support.

Does your company have 30+ users on-site and you're using SIP?

If so, what kind of access are you using? 3rd party Internet or a dedicated circuit from your SIP service provider? How's it working?

This topic came up in a recent podcast where, Fusion's sales engineer, gave many wise yet little-known tips on how to transition to SIP without a hitch.

This is a hotly debated topic within the industry so I'd like to hear from the source... IT Pro's that are actually deploying SIP today, in an office with more than 30 users.

Cloud Therapy with AeroComInc.com E010: SIP Security Tips with Bill Bollinger

VoIP pioneer and co-founder of Appia, Bill Bollinger sees thousands of hack attempts every day. In this episode, he tells Mike his tips on how your company can avoid having their SIP service hacked. He also tells a story of a company that could've done something very simple to avoid getting hacked and paying $10k in fraudulent calls.

@JaredBusch Agreed. But if they don't... ya gotta take matters into your own hands until you find a better boss.

@aaron that's a smart way to do it if your boss doesn't have a weekly one-on-one in the schedule (like @jyates said), which I believe they should.

@wirestyle22 I agree... and I like that better than the usual "you look like Anthony Michael Hall."

In IT, your work can easily go unnoticed (since many bosses barely understand what you do), but we all know that is a career killer if you want promotions and raises.

Do you have any strategies that you use to get your boss to see your great work, without sounding boastful?

This discussion idea came to me because in this Podcast with Brian Gracely from The Cloudcast, he tells a story of a time where he strategically had his direct reports attend meetings and present a summary of the projects they've completed... which resulted in a good experience for his direct report, as well as an opportunity for his boss to see Brian's great work without him having to brag about it.

Cloud Therapy Podcast, Episode 008

Steve Tarver, Principal Engineer at CenturyLink discusses several ways IT professionals and Sys Admins can “Level Up,” and become an extremely valued and sought-after professional, through using automation and shifting to a Dev Ops mindset.

Want to hear more Cloud Therapy? Find us on iTunes and Stitcher!

Cloud Therapy Podcast: E005

Listen to Evolve IP‘s Manager of Sales Engineering, Raj Palat, outline his unique and insightful “Data Center Diamond” approach to cloud implementation. It’s a holistic strategy of evaluating your cloud decision from every angle, which is exactly what your boss will love to see.

Raj also tells a hilarious story of when he witnessed a customer giving the boot to a telecom rep, mid-meeting.... and it was all over semantics.

For more episodes, find us on iTunes and Stitcher.

If you're getting bored of using the big guys for your company's Cloud VM's, here is a fun infographic with some ideas on how to find non "Big 3" provider that might be a better fit.

As you can see, I try to have fun with these otherwise semi-boring topics... so I hope you like it and find it at least a little useful.

Cloud Therapy with AeroComInc.com: E004: 7 Questions for Public Cloud Providers
I review 7 questions that will help you do a great job shopping Cloud VM service providers for your company.

Cloud Therapy Podcast - E003

So you’ve decided to move to SDWAN. What should your IT department do to make sure you have a smooth installation?

To answer these questions, we invited an expert SDWAN engineer, Jack Dolan from Aryaka, to speak with us. Aryaka has been doing SDWAN as long as anyone so they absolutely know what needs to be done!

Jack explains 5 specific tactical items that IT Departments need to do in order to transition from SDWAN from MPLS or any other type of business WAN… flawlessly!

For more episodes, find Cloud Therapy on iTunes!

Here is a snazzy infographic I made, walking you through some questions that will help you choose which WAN technology is the best fit for your company.

I'm new at the infographic thing so it took me forever but I'm pleased with how it came out.

I hope you find it useful.

Cloud Therapy has a new podcast episode! E002: Questions for finding the right WAN provider... faster.

About Cloud Therapy
Cloud Therapy with AeroComInc.com is a podcast, bringing IT professionals enlightening information on the latest business cloud technology that will elevate your career. Every week, we bring in experienced engineers and experts to discuss tactical tips that you can use to improve your company's tech... through the cloud. From VoIP to IaaS to WAN, this show will give you the information that you never have time to learn... and that your boss wants to hear.