Jerry Hodgen

Local access and rapid data delivery for new branch office locations continue to be a thorn in my side. In regard to local access, the local exchange carriers usually have a lock on it and there is typically no redundancy or diversity, lest one go to great expense to install a private Sonet ring. Rapid […]

This summer was eventful in the world of data security — lack thereof — if you have followed the press. The theft of a Veterans Administration laptop computer with the personal data of thousands of Veterans, including yours truly, is a good example of this. Luckily, the laptop was recovered and personal data was not […]

During the course of the past few of years, the deployment of patches and anti-virus signature files have challenged and humbled organizations with large distributed PC populations.Tools such as Windows Software Update Server (WSUS) and SMS, combined with strict organizational processes and policies, have resulted in most IT organizations being able to prevent or minimize […]

The Northeast is still drying out after record rainfall that caused major floods in several urban areas. For the most part, large corporate data centers were spared; however, there were a number of large corporation branch offices that were not. These branch offices incurred substantial flood damage and consequently a loss of business and revenue.In […]

Time flies when you are having fun. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was wrestling with a SDLC multi-drop network that spanned the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys. At the time, I thought this 42-drop network was modern. Then, Williams Telecomm introduced me to Frame Relay technology. It didn’t take much convincing to […]

The computing infrastructure that supports today’s large enterprise is constantly on the move due to changing business requirements and evolving technology.One wrong move or mistake can result in costly rework, and at worst, a significant loss of revenue if the error impacts customer-facing business applications. As a result, today’s technology infrastructure must be run with […]

A couple of months ago, I took my monthly sabbatical to one of our branch offices to see how the world outside of HQ gets by. As usual, my objective was to make life easier for those folks that deliver the services that bring in revenue. More often than not, IT departments spend an inordinate […]

Over the course of the past few months, my colleagues in the facilities section must have worn out at least two pairs of shoes traipsing up to my office to complain about the high cost of energy and how my data center and the user PCs are torpedoing their budget. My counterpart in facilities and […]

There has been a lot of press on VoIP recently; however, the jury is still out as to when this technology will become the business standard rather than the new kid on the block.There are a number of reasons but the primary one is the cost to move away from traditional and highly reliable analog […]

I have been in the technology business more years than I am willing to admit. However, I will say I do long for the good ol’ days when all one had to worry about were the 3270 green-screen terminals in the accounting department. Up until a couple of years ago, I was able to dodge […]