https://smbitjournal.com/ The Information Technology Resource for Small Business en-us Sun, 14 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://smbitjournal.com/2023/01/why-quickbooks-cant-be-stored-on-google-drive-for-multiple-users/ https://smbitjournal.com/2023/01/why-quickbooks-cant-be-stored-on-google-drive-for-multiple-users/ Tue, 10 Jan 2023 08:00:00 +0000 Before we dig into specifics, it is important to understand that this is a general concept and we can actually distill this to “why can’t client/server or shared database file applications be stored on synced storage (e.g. Google Drive, DropBox, NextCloud, etc.) when access is not controlled to a single user?” QuickBooks uses a shared … Continue reading Why QuickBooks Can’t Be Stored on Google… https://smbitjournal.com/2017/07/the-risks-of-licensing/ https://smbitjournal.com/2017/07/the-risks-of-licensing/ Mon, 17 Jul 2017 08:00:00 +0000 There are so many kinds of risk that we address and must consider in IT systems it is easy to overlook risks that are non-technical, especially ones that we often do not address directly, such as licensing. But licensing carries risks, and costs, that must be considered in everything that we do in IT. As … Continue reading The Risks of Licensing → https://smbitjournal.com/2017/07/if-it-aint-broke-dont-fix-it/ https://smbitjournal.com/2017/07/if-it-aint-broke-dont-fix-it/ Mon, 10 Jul 2017 08:00:00 +0000 We’ve all heard that plenty, right? “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” People use it everywhere as a way to discourage improvements, modernization or refactoring. Many people say it and as with many phrases of this nature, on the surface it seems reasonable. But in application, it really is not or, at least, not … Continue reading If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It → https://smbitjournal.com/2017/07/the-social-contract-of-sales/ https://smbitjournal.com/2017/07/the-social-contract-of-sales/ Mon, 03 Jul 2017 08:00:00 +0000 Business of IT In IT we tend to deal with more sales scenarios than most business positions will do. An accountant, for example, is rarely in a position to buy equipment, software or products for their business, for example. Positions that do buy things regularly, such as the housekeeping department, tend to buy small ticket items like bleach, … Continue reading The Social Contract of Sales → https://smbitjournal.com/2017/06/virtualize-domain-controllers/ https://smbitjournal.com/2017/06/virtualize-domain-controllers/ Mon, 26 Jun 2017 08:00:00 +0000 One would think that the idea of virtualizing Active Directory Domain Controllers would not be a topic needing discussion, and yet I find that the question arises regularly as to whether or not AD DCs should be virtualized. In theory, there is no need to ask this question because we have far more general guidance … Continue reading Virtualize Domain Controllers → https://smbitjournal.com/2017/06/when-a-backup-is-not-a-backup/ https://smbitjournal.com/2017/06/when-a-backup-is-not-a-backup/ Mon, 19 Jun 2017 08:00:00 +0000 Storage Conceptually the idea of “backup” has become a murky area within IT. Everyone seems to have their own concepts of what a backup is and how they expect it to behave. This can be dangerous when the person supplying backup and the person consuming backup have a mismatch in expectations. I see this happen every … Continue reading When a Backup Is Not A Backup → https://smbitjournal.com/2017/06/hiring-it-speed-matters/ https://smbitjournal.com/2017/06/hiring-it-speed-matters/ Mon, 12 Jun 2017 08:00:00 +0000 After decades of IT hiring, something that I have learned is that companies serious about hiring top talent always make hiring decisions very quickly. They may spend months or even years looking for someone that is a right fit for the organization, but once they have found them they take action immediately. This happens for … Continue reading Hiring IT: Speed Matters → https://smbitjournal.com/2017/06/when-to-consider-high-availability/ https://smbitjournal.com/2017/06/when-to-consider-high-availability/ Sun, 04 Jun 2017 08:00:00 +0000 Best Practices “High Availability isn’t something you buy, it’s something that you do.” – John Nicholson Few things are more universally desired in IT than High Availability (HA) solutions. I mean really, say those words and any IT Pro will instantly say that they want that. HA for their servers, their apps, their storage and, of course, … Continue reading When to Consider High Availability? → https://smbitjournal.com/2017/04/its-most-needed-skills/ https://smbitjournal.com/2017/04/its-most-needed-skills/ Mon, 24 Apr 2017 08:00:00 +0000 Career IT does not exist in a bubble. IT is a business enabler, a way of taking an existing business and making it more efficient, cost effective, nimble and capable. Except for home hobbyist, and even there this isn’t quite true – IT is subject to the business that it supports. It has a goal, an … Continue reading IT’s Most Needed Skills → https://smbitjournal.com/2017/04/using-certifications-to-drive-education/ https://smbitjournal.com/2017/04/using-certifications-to-drive-education/ Fri, 21 Apr 2017 08:00:00 +0000 There is little denying that Information Technology is a field driven by certification. What other field is filled so completely with certifications for every approach, niche, vendor, product, revision and career path? Some industries, but relatively few, have broad certifications. Automotive repair being a key one to which we are often exposed where it is … Continue reading Using Certifications… https://smbitjournal.com/2017/04/rethinking-long-term-support-releases/ https://smbitjournal.com/2017/04/rethinking-long-term-support-releases/ Thu, 20 Apr 2017 08:00:00 +0000 Best Practices Traditionally Long Term Support operating system releases have been the bulwark of enterprise deployments. This is the model used by IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, Suse and Red Hat and has been the conventional thinking around operating systems since the beginning of support offerings many decades ago. It has been common in the past for both servers … Continue reading Rethinking Long Term Support… https://smbitjournal.com/2017/03/linux-distro-release-schedules/ https://smbitjournal.com/2017/03/linux-distro-release-schedules/ Fri, 24 Mar 2017 08:00:00 +0000 Linux One of the aspects of the Linux work compared to the Windows one is the variety and challenges of different release schedules. In the Windows world this is pretty simple, there is one product and it releases when it releases, which is roughly once every two years or so. Everyone working on Windows is very … Continue reading Linux Distro Release Schedules → https://smbitjournal.com/2017/03/the-high-cost-of-on-premises-infrastructure/ https://smbitjournal.com/2017/03/the-high-cost-of-on-premises-infrastructure/ Thu, 16 Mar 2017 08:00:00 +0000 IT Infrastructure is a challenge for any company and especially companies that are not large enough to implement their own, full scale datacenters. Like many things in IT, major challenges come in the form of lacking specific, seldom used expertise as well as lacking the scale to utilize singular resources effectively. This lack of scale … Continue reading The High Cost of On Premises… https://smbitjournal.com/2017/03/all-it-is-external/ https://smbitjournal.com/2017/03/all-it-is-external/ Tue, 07 Mar 2017 08:00:00 +0000 Business of IT In IT we often talk about internal and external IT, but this perspective is always one from that of the IT department itself rather than the one from the business and I feel that this is very misleading. Different departments within a company are generally seen and feel as if they are external to one … Continue reading All IT is External → https://smbitjournal.com/2017/02/titanic-project-management-comparison-with-software-projects/ https://smbitjournal.com/2017/02/titanic-project-management-comparison-with-software-projects/ Mon, 20 Feb 2017 08:00:00 +0000 Project Management Few projects have ever taken on the fame and notoriety of that achieved by the Titanic and her sister Olympic ships, the Olympic and the Britannic, which began design one hundred and ten years ago this year. There are, of course, many lessons that we can learn from the fate of the Olympic ships in … Continue reading Titanic Project Management & Comparison with Software Projects → https://smbitjournal.com/2017/01/standard-areas-discipline-within/ https://smbitjournal.com/2017/01/standard-areas-discipline-within/ Tue, 31 Jan 2017 08:00:00 +0000 Career Information Technology and Business Infrastructure are an enormous field filled with numerous and extremely varied career opportunities not just in the industries in which work is done, but also in the type of work that is done. Only rarely are any two IT jobs truly alike. The variety is incredible. However, certain standard career … Continue reading Standard Areas of Discipline Within IT → https://smbitjournal.com/2016/12/the-software-raid-inflection-point/ https://smbitjournal.com/2016/12/the-software-raid-inflection-point/ Sat, 31 Dec 2016 08:00:00 +0000 Storage In June, 2001 something amazing happened in the IT world: Intel released the Tualatin based Pentium IIIS 1.0 GHz processor. This was one of the first few Intel processors (IA32 architecture) to have crossed the 1 GHz clock barrier and the first of any significance. It was also special in that it had dual processor … Continue reading The Software RAID Inflection Point → https://smbitjournal.com/2016/12/legitimate-university-programs-are-not-certification-training/ https://smbitjournal.com/2016/12/legitimate-university-programs-are-not-certification-training/ Thu, 15 Dec 2016 08:00:00 +0000 Career The university educational process is one that is meant to broaden the mind, increase exposure to different areas, teach students to think outside of the box, encourage exploration, develop soft skills, and to make students better prepared to tackle more learning such as moving on to trade skills needed for specific fields. The university program, … Continue reading Legitimate University Programs… https://smbitjournal.com/2016/11/understanding-technical-debt/ https://smbitjournal.com/2016/11/understanding-technical-debt/ Wed, 16 Nov 2016 08:00:00 +0000 Business of IT From Wikipedia: “Technical debt (also known as design debt or code debt) is “a concept in programming that reflects the extra development work that arises when code that is easy to implement in the short run is used instead of applying the best overall solution”. Technical debt can be compared to monetary debt. If technical … Continue reading Understanding Technical Debt → https://smbitjournal.com/2016/11/new-hyperconvergence-old-storage/ https://smbitjournal.com/2016/11/new-hyperconvergence-old-storage/ Wed, 16 Nov 2016 08:00:00 +0000 Hyperconvergence We all dream of the day that we get to build a new infrastructure from the ground up without any existing technical debt to hold us back. A greenfield deployment where we pick what is best, roll it out fresh and enjoy. But most of us live in the real world where that is not … Continue reading New Hyperconvergence, Old Storage → https://smbitjournal.com/2016/10/you-cant-virtualize-that/ https://smbitjournal.com/2016/10/you-cant-virtualize-that/ Wed, 19 Oct 2016 08:00:00 +0000 Best Practices We get this all of the time in IT, a vendor tells us that a system cannot be virtualized. The reasons are numerous. On the IT side, we are always shocked that a vendor would make such an outrageous claim; and often we are just as shocked that a customer (or manager) believes them. Vendors … Continue reading You Can’t Virtualize That! → https://smbitjournal.com/2016/10/the-commoditization-of-architecture/ https://smbitjournal.com/2016/10/the-commoditization-of-architecture/ Wed, 19 Oct 2016 08:00:00 +0000 Architecture I often talk about the moving “commodity line”, this line affects essentially all technology, including designs. Essentially, when any new technology comes out it will start highly proprietary, complex and expensive. Over time the technology moves towards openness, simplicity and becomes inexpensive. At some point any given technology becomes goes so far in that direction … Continue reading The… https://smbitjournal.com/2016/10/no-one-ever-got-fired-for-buying/ https://smbitjournal.com/2016/10/no-one-ever-got-fired-for-buying/ Mon, 17 Oct 2016 08:00:00 +0000 Business of IT It was the 1980s when I first heard this phrase in IT and it was “no one ever got fired for buying IBM.” The idea was that IBM was so well known, trusted and reliable that it was the safe choice as a vendor for a technology decision maker to select. As long as you … Continue reading No One Ever Got Fired For Buying… → https://smbitjournal.com/2016/10/smbs-must-stop-looking-to-backblaze-for-guidance/ https://smbitjournal.com/2016/10/smbs-must-stop-looking-to-backblaze-for-guidance/ Sun, 09 Oct 2016 08:00:00 +0000 Storage I have to preface this article, because people often take these things out of context and react strongly to things that were never said, with the disclaimer that I think that BackBlaze does a great job, has brilliant people working for them and has done an awesome job of designing and leveraging technology that is … Continue reading SMBs Must Stop Looking to BackBlaze for Guidance → https://smbitjournal.com/2016/10/choosing-a-university-for-it-education/ https://smbitjournal.com/2016/10/choosing-a-university-for-it-education/ Thu, 06 Oct 2016 08:00:00 +0000 Career In previous articles I have tackled the questions around approaching university education and selecting a degree program but, thus far, I have not provided any guidance in selecting an institution at which to study. That will be rectified now. There are basically five categories of universities in the United States that we need to consider. … Continue reading Choosing a University for IT…