DDLS Blog

DDLS
Blog

Blog

Welcome to the DDLS Blog where you'll find some great articles from our team.

Aug 2017

Aug 15

ProcessASXHistory Using PowerShell

Every investor who trades in stocks and shares knows that timely information and accurate data is key to making smart investments. Whilst there are many websites that share recent ASX trading history data, a lot of the data is either in different file formats or has inconsistent layouts. Using a PowerShell script, you can aggregate all of the relevant data into one csv file in a format that works for you.

Aug 2

Microsoft Inspire 2017: New Light Through Old Windows?

That 1988 Chris Rea album title was too good not to use for the title of a post about my recent experience at Microsoft's flagship global partner conference. A conference that almost saw Windows cast in a supporting role.

Aug 1

The CEO's Corner: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Trainer

This year at the annual Microsoft Inspire Conference I attended the keynotes and sessions on Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Learning & Readiness and even learned how to air tap in a Hololens lens application!

Jul 2017

Jul 28

A Brief Introduction to Blockchain Technology

The first known example of blockchain technology was outlined in a November 2008 whitepaper written by an anonymous individual - or group of individuals - operating under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.

Jul 26

How to pass the ITIL® Foundation Exam

The main objective of our three day ITIL Foundation course is to equip you with a solid knowledge of the ITIL Framework with its lifecycle, processes and terminology. That said, a very immediate goal of the course is to PASS the ITIL Foundation Exam.

Jul 24

Find-LostItem Using PowerShell

Trying to find that one important file that you desperately need right now but can't remember for the life of you where you put it is a pain any computer operator can relate to. With the aid of PowerShell, you can map your local, USB and network drives all at the same time to find the file that you're looking for within minutes instead of hours.

Jul 4

Top tips for a stress-free inspired Inspire

This year Gary has been invited to talk at one of the sessions at the Microsoft Inspire conference. If you are going, look out for him on the Sunday pre-day leadership team session. As a veteran of many Microsoft conferences stretching back to 1999, Gary has compiled his top tips for getting the most out of the event.

Jul 3

Citrix Update - July 2017

There’s quite a bit to announce this month in the land of Citrix and what better way to do it than via one giant download!

Jun 2017

Jun 30

The CEO's Corner: A new destination

In the annual client survey, we always ask about obstacles to investing in training. One consistent feedback item that we receive is "Time out of the office" as a challenge to overcome when planning training.

Jun 28

The PRINCE2 2017 update – tailoring and other topics

Australia is one of the world’s more mature and biggest markets for PRINCE2 and programme and project management (PPM). For this reason alone, we would expect there to be more than a ripple of interest in the PRINCE2 2017 update.

Jun 28

Set/Remove-GodMode

While the usual method for configuring your computer is to use the Control Panel and Administrative tools, there is another access point to the utilities, called the 'God Mode'.

Jun 27

Cisco Learning Credits: Untapped Gold

It may be surprising to hear but many customers have CLCs (Cisco Learning Credits) which provide exactly that, just sitting in their company accounts waiting to be used.

Jun 20

Blog Entry: Process-InactiveUsers

A person I met at a social gathering and I started talking about PowerShell (I know it is not the usual social topic, but I am a geek and feel strongly about PowerShell). He described an issue he was having at work where the company policy is that when accounts become inactive the user’s object needed to be disabled, moved to a specific OU and annotated to identify the policy that required the processing.

Jun 7

Introducing the DDLS Advantages e-Card

Since the dawn of time, when our prehistoric forefathers first discovered fire and then set about booking themselves on a Change Management course, one problem has prevailed.

May 2017

May 31

The CEO's Corner: Uschedule

We have quite a bit of interest in courses that we have not yet scheduled so with advancements in our delivery capabilities, including DDLS Anywhere, I am delighted to launch our new service: Uschedule.

May 1

The CEO's Corner: Miss Universe and the Olympic Rugby Champions

WPC is on again this year, in July in Washington, DC, and no doubt there will be other awards. In some other award programs, for example, Miss Universe, I believe it is customary for the previous winner to present the new award and to comment on the experiences of the past year, so, even though I don’t think Microsoft operates their program like this, I couldn’t let the chance go by.

Apr 2017

Apr 4

Because no one likes a "do over"

Seems to me that you can't attend a seminar or presentation from any vendor or services company without the words "digital" and "disruption" featuring, often along with a slide reminding us that Uber is the largest taxi company in the world, with no taxis.

Mar 2017

Mar 31

Cisco Live 2017: Please stop being so disruptive

From the very early days swapping each second year between Melbourne and Brisbane, Cisco Live has now grown so large that only Jeff’s shed is big enough to accommodate the event and its participants.

Mar 30

Embrace technology and change

Kate Ellis, Shadow Minister – Early Childhood Education, recently stepped down from the Labour frontbench and also announced that she would retire from Parliament as she has made the difficult decision to prioritise her need to spend time with her family over her professional desire to play a key role at a Federal level.

Mar 27

The CEO's Corner: DDLS Webinar Series

Over the last year, DDLS has delivered a monthly webinar to our clients on our training and consulting offerings. We started this program to showcase our subject matter experts and to provide an update to our clients on new courses and offerings across our Technology, Process and People training and consulting services range.

Feb 2017

Feb 28

DDLS will add two additional Telepresence classrooms

This month, DDLS will add two new Telepresence rooms in Canberra, following the addition of a new Telepresence room in Brisbane in February. This will bring DDLS's total Telepresence classrooms to 20 in our training centres in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.

Feb 24

The one killer question I heard at Microsoft Ignite

DDLS was again an exhibitor at Ignite, this year strategically positioned in the expo hall next to the food. It is invaluable to talk to clients and potential clients alike about what they are and will be doing with Microsoft technology. Are businesses really going to the cloud and building line of business applications using drag and drop and a few curly brackets?

Feb 21

Six Things I Learned at Microsoft Ignite 2017

It was a last-minute decision but I got to attend this year's Microsoft Ignite Conference on the Gold Coast, along with 2500 other IT professionals. For those who are not aware Ignite is the re-incarnation of the old Microsoft TechEd, the last one of which I attended in 2013.

Feb 3

Top Tips for Microsoft Ignite

Gary Duffield says he's been lucky in his career to attend a lot of conferences, from business-focused events from Cisco and Microsoft, to more hands-on sessions such as Ignite. He shares some of the approaches he uses to get the most out of the upcoming Microsoft Ignite conference.

Jan 2017

Jan 31

Tales from the Certified Hacker: Mobile VPN Apps Dangers

A report just in from combined research by CSIRO, University of NSW and University of Berkeley highlights the dangers of not vetting VPN apps before using them.

Jan 16

2016: A year of surprises, Brexit, Trump and ITIL

Were you surprised by some of the epoch defining events of 2016: the UK making a call to leave the EU or the US electing controversial businessman Donald Trump to the White House? Are you surprised by the other defining event of 2016?

Jan 16

The CEO's Corner: Only 11 and a half months to go!

I would guess that many of us have started the year with a list of new resolutions and all sorts of aspirations about the great things that we will achieve in 2017. To help this along I have two tips for you; one that I know is best practice and one that is mine and works for me.

Jan 13

VMware vSphere v6.5 New Features

Melvin Porter has reviewed the new features of vSPhere V6.5 and has very kindly summarised them in this article.

Jan 11

Tales from the Certified Hacker: Sponsored Wi-Fi

Most of us know of the existence of George Orwell's book, "Nineteen Eighty-Four", often just written as "1984". If you haven't read this novel or seen the movie, it might be worthwhile reading/viewing it and comparing the story with life in 2017.

Dec 2016

Dec 1

The CEO's Corner: Unsung Heroes

My thoughts this month go out to the unsung heroes in our community. I have recently seen some outstanding examples of heroism in our community.

Nov 2016

Nov 18

Where are we now? Where do we want to be? How do we get there?

We don’t often take enough time to reflect on how things run. We kind of "just do it" because "that’s how we’ve always been doing it". If we did take a step back and reflect on how we run our IT shop would we be happy with it? Would we truly say we’re doing things per "best practice"?

Oct 2016

Oct 31

A letter to the Scrum-land citizens

I cannot believe it’s been 10 years since I officially migrated to Scrum-land. How fast time flies! People always looked at me funny when I used to say I was a “Scrum Master” and now I even teach what it means to be part of “Scrum-land”.

Oct 29

The CEO's Corner: Course Evaluation Score

DDLS just completed its FY2016 and I am delighted to advise that our average course evaluation score, that aggregates the feedback of the thousands of students that have attended our courses, is 7.8 out of 9 which is above our target.

Oct 25

Tales from the Certified Hacker: Time to update your Apple devices again

A series of blogs and updates from the DDLS Security Practice Trainers: iOS 10.1 and macOS 10.12.1 resolve a number of vulnerabilities which could previously be taken advantage with hidden malicious coding.

Oct 13

Tales from the Certified Hacker: You'll need physical access to hack Windows and OS X passwords in 13 seconds!

There are scary stories floating about a seemingly simple hack to gain passwords from Windows and OS X machines. The process is not as simple as some sites would have us believe, but it is possible with physical access to a PC.

Oct 4

Are your people and culture aligned to your organisational objectives?

Do your people have the skills to achieve your organisations goals and objectives? Do your team members have the skills to succeed as a 21st Century IT Professional?

Oct 3

The CEO's Corner: DDLS & The Smith Family

We are delighted to announce that DDLS has renewed our strategic partnership with the Smith Family for three more years and we very much look forward to the outcomes that our organisations can achieve through our dedication to education.

Sep 2016

Sep 27

Modernise, Rationalise, Simplify: The New MCSE

Microsoft have today released the new, streamlined Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) and Developer (MCSD) specialities.

Sep 27

Mindfulness meets IT: 4 practices to impact your day

Want to stress less at work? Different mindfulness techniques are easy to incorporate into your daily routine.

Sep 22

Tales from the Certified Hacker: How about a free USB drive? No, thanks!

Victorian Police have reported criminals have been dropping USB drives into letterboxes in Pakenham, Victoria. The USB key is a perfect Trojan Horse.

Sep 16

Tales from the Certified Hacker: Attacked by ransomware? There's help out there!

The “No-More-Ransom” an initiative to help victims of ransomware retrieve their encrypted data without having to pay the criminals.

Sep 14

Tales from the Certified Hacker: And now, TeLeScope can cause sleepless nights

A series of blogs and news updates from the DDLS Security Practice trainers: TeLeScope is a method to eavesdrop on TLS communications between a virtualised server and a client without leaving any forensic evidence behind.

Sep 8

EC-Council Authorised Training Centre Circle of Excellence Global Award

As we celebrate our prestigious EC-Council Circle of Excellence Global Award, it is an opportune time at look at why the Ethical Hacker course is so relevant to security professionals in Australia.

Sep 2

The CEO's Corner: Out with the old and in with the new

It may seem a little strange however September is the last month of DDLS’ financial year. A chance for us to review our plan and performance.

Sep 1

Tales from the Certified Hacker: Would you like free WiFi with that, sir?

A series of blogs and news updates from the DDLS Security Practice trainers. While it may be convenient to use a city, airport, shop or fast food restaurant's free WiFi system, beware of hackers!

Aug 2016

Aug 30

Tales from the Certified Hacker: Cyber War - ABC Four Corners

ABC Four Corners ran the documentary Cyber War: How hackers are threatening everything from your bank account to the nation's secrets. This is certainly worth a watch.

Aug 24

6 ways to maximise your team’s performance

Why the days of a performance management structure that relies on formal reviews or appraisals are coming to an end.

Aug 18

Stay Away from Bluetooth Home Locks

We should, for the time being at least, stick to mechanical locks for our homes and businesses. As with hacking car security systems, it is possible to hack so-called Smart Locks using a combination of a US$40 Raspberry Pi, a US$50 high-gain antenna, and a US$15 USB Bluetooth dongle.

Aug 17

Virtual Machine Memory Page Deduplication Hack

Memory page deduplication has been around for a number of years, and it is only now that security researchers from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam have found a way to abuse this feature where a virtual machine host has two virtual machines running side by side on it which are sharing memory pages.

Aug 2

Microsoft WPC16: Why I felt like an abacus salesman at a Casio conference

DDLS National Marketing and Vendor Director Gary Duffield provides us report from the trenches of this year's Microsoft WPC. As a regular attendee from 1999 onwards, this one rocked. Not least because DDLS won the Global Learning Award – the first time it has been to Australia.

Aug 2

Microsoft WPC16: Microsoft are preparing for a big FY17 and beyond

Having not been to a WPC for approximately five years I was interested to see how Microsoft had changed and what the partner community thought. By chance, on my flight from LA to Toronto, I was seated next to one of the organising committee members who told me this was the first WPC MS had ever sold out at 16,000 attendees and they had to put on an additional 15 hotels to cope.

Aug 1

Windows 10 utilisation is on the rise

Windows 10 utilisation is steadily increasing in the marketplace. Matt Coulter takes a look at some adoption statistics and what that means to Windows 10 in the enterprise and the journey towards successful implementation and adoption within the work place.

Aug 1

The CEO's Corner: Digital transformation keeping you up at night?

IT teams are under pressure to deliver the digital transformation that most organisations require to improve or to defend against disruption. My guess is that this is keeping some of us up at night: either worrying about which projects or programmes to invest scarce resources in, or working late on executing existing projects that are critical to our organisations.

Jul 2016

Jul 25

9 ways to unify your IT team

Top CIOs discuss the methods they use to unite people in their IT groups. Does your IT organisation operate as a team? We’ve been talking about how IT is divided from the rest of the organisation for some time and we’ve also recognised the need for IT to stop trying to align with the business and to operate as part of it.

Jul 18

JavaScript Object Notation Support in SQL Server 2016

“JavaScript Object Notation is a way to store a human-readable collection of data that we can access in a logical manner”. JSON is used for exchanging data in modern web and mobile applications. In addition, JSON is used for storing unstructured data in NoSQL databases like Microsoft Azure DocumentDB. It is the main format for exchanging data between web pages and web servers using AJAX calls. JSON is currently one of the most commonly used data exchange formats.

Jul 4

The value of PRINCE2® for the individual and the organisation

Recently AXELOS, the scheme owner of many best practice frameworks, surveyed more than 2,400 industry professionals with the main objective “to better understand who is gaining PRINCE2 certification, why they are gaining it and what value do they obtain from it”. Matt Coulter discusses the key findings.

Jun 2016

Jun 24

The Colours of Change - what change picture will you paint?

It's like deja vu!!! This week I'm teaching the APMG Change Management Certification at DDLS and yet I see another group with the same cries about how 'change' was/is handled badly at their organisations: "What communication?!?!?! Change is always sprung on us like a surprise!" "Managers don't care! We get told to suck it up or leave." "What's the point? It's going to fail anyway!" "There are so many mixed messages about the change I don't even know which one is true!" Time and time again organisations believe that they've completed 'change' just by ticking a box on a plan!

Jun 22

7 ways to move from a supplier to a partner

Here are 7 things you must do if you want to be more consultative with the business.

Jun 21

Data, our privacy and a little green dinosaur

My son's birthday was coming up and I had decided long ago that any technology we introduce to him would need to be heavily slanted towards education. He's turning six and so far we've managed to keep him away from tablets, gaming consoles and mobile phones. He's bright and has already realised that Mummy and Daddy's pitch about "learning is always fun" is just that: a pitch.

Jun 1

The CEO's Corner: 2016 Microsoft Learning Partner Award

DDLS has been awarded the 2016 Global Learning Partner of the Year award by Microsoft and I would like to share with you just one of the many stories that occurred to make this happen.

Jun 1

What should you do after your ITIL® Foundation training? Work out where to start

After attending an ITIL Foundation course, or any ITIL course for that matter, one of the difficulties when getting back into the office is “what now?”

May 2016

May 31

EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker pre-course requirements

Before you attend class on day one of the course, there are some very important pre-reading requirements that you should look at.

May 24

6 ways to show your emotional intelligence

The following tips will help you stay engaged with your logical brain as opposed to your emotional brain. The human side of the IT equation is more critical than ever before. Whether we are talking about engaging with the organisation, managing vendors effectively, achieving high customer service ratings, or building partner relationships, it all comes down to the universal trait of being able to deal with human interactions.

May 18

Why should you attend ITIL® training? To help keep your future in focus

Building a house is not a simple task. It requires a lot of people with a lot of different skill sets. Carpenters to do the woodwork, electricians for the power, plumbers, plasterers, painters, roofers, air conditioning experts, the list goes on. It also requires someone to coordinate this rabble of experts.

May 10

Why should you attend ITIL® training ? To deliver the services that will make the customer happy

Services: a single word which can cause many IT organisations to come undone. One day in 1980 or so, Dad came home from work with a big box (actually it was a few big boxes). He worked for a large accountancy firm who had decided “we all need to have computers”, so he got one. It was an Apple IIe (actually it was a cheap clone of an Apple IIe), top notch stuff. So we opened the boxes and plugged everything in, turned it on and a blinking cursor appeared in the top left hand corner of the screen.

May 3

Why should you attend ITIL® training? So you understand what outsourcers and tool vendors are talking about

The words ‘de facto standard’ are applied quite often when talking about ITIL. Just to set the record straight, ITIL is not a standard, it is a set of guidelines. More importantly, it is a set of guidelines which is used by every major tool vendor, outsourcer, and provider of IT services around the globe. Because of this, being comfortable with ITIL terminology and its concepts makes managing these third party outsourcers and service providers much less complicated, if you can speak the same language as them.

May 2

The CEO's Corner: Why?

After 25 years of trading the “Why?” already exists at DDLS, however as one book I read describes, not many companies are great at communicating it."Chapter One, by Daniel Flynn", is a wonderful story of a social enterprise called Thankyou, that has outstanding marketing innovations.

Apr 2016

Apr 29

Ransomware Primer

Australia was the number one target in the world in 2015 for ‘ransomware’ attacks. Due to our relative wealth and lax approach to security (she’ll be right mate) Australia is an attractive target.

Apr 29

Certified Ethical Hacker Certification - why is the exam so challenging?

In my recent conversations within the security community there has been much discussion around how hard the CEH exam is to pass - and it seems to be causing some consternation. Particularly since the course content has been updated to V9 and the exam is not versioned.

Apr 21

Nine Guiding Principles for the ITIL Practitioner

A service-oriented approach to IT is not something that can simply be ‘installed’ or ‘switched on’ but is instead a journey. At some point during this journey there must be a cultural shift of focus from technology to services. In other words, from what the technology is, to the outcomes that technology enables for the customer. In the recently published ITIL Practitioner Guidance (from Axelos) a set of nine ’guiding principles’ aimed at guiding organisations as a service management approach is adopted and followed.

Apr 19

4 key ways to create a culture of innovation

An element of freedom is required to innovate; it will not thrive in an environment that is entrenched in too much process. Innovation. We all know its importance and the vast majority of organisations include it as one of their core values but are we creating cultures and environments that foster its development? Or will it just remain a buzzword that sounds good and we don’t deliver on it?

Apr 15

New Content for CompTIA A+ Certifications

DDLS has just updated all A+ courses to the 900 series content. The A+ 900 series is a reflection of the current knowledge and skills needed by IT professionals.

Apr 4

Cisco Live 2016. Did you get what you came for…?

So another year has passed and we find ourselves at that time again when we review exactly what we achieved over the four days of excitement that is Cisco Live 2016. Some of the key messages to surface revolved around the ever-increasing importance of a secure network: Software Defined Networking will reach mainstream; and the Internet of Everything (IoE) is now a commercial reality. Digital Disruption was also a key discussion point and is something which will affect all businesses in the not-too-distant future. Cisco also reinforced their message around being software driven and why this will serve their customers well over the coming years.

Mar 2016

Mar 31

The CEO's Corner: DDLS' L&D Consulting Practice

As well as our renowned classroom training, DDLS has worked in the area of customised Learning and Development (L&D) Consulting for more than ten years.

Mar 31

The best features of Microsoft Next Gen 2016 releases

2016 brings in the next iteration of the big four Microsoft technologies, Server 2016, SQL 2016, SharePoint 2016 and Exchange 2016. We take a look at some of the best features anticipated in these latest versions.

Mar 31

Leading change: Compliance versus commitment

IT leaders get compliance rather than commitment from their target audience and often don’t realise it. Do your people truly believe in and feel compelled by change initiatives in your organisation or are they simply going along with it because it is mandated? To be effective in implementing sustained and effective change, it is first necessary to understand the difference between compliance and commitment.

Feb 2016

Feb 24

The CEO's Corner: iTnews CIO Benchmark Awards

I was delighted to represent DDLS at the recent 2016 iTnews CIO Benchmark Awards that celebrate the achievements of Australia’s technology leaders.

Feb 23

6 ways to create an organisational engagement strategy

How you can engage better with internal staff and external customers. Would you like an increased level of collaboration between IT and the rest of your organisation? Do you need to improve your ability to communicate the value that IT is bringing to the table? If you have answered yes to these questions, it might be the time to develop an organisational engagement strategy.

Feb 18

How the Internet of Things is driving a future knowledge revolution

It is now a widely accepted fact that the amount of information created globally is doubling roughly every two years. How much of that information you learn in year one of a four year degree is therefore still relevant by the time you’re attempting to enter the workforce?

Feb 4

The revised ISO Standards for Quality (ISO 9001) and Environmental (ISO 14001) – Stronger alignment to project and programme management processes

With the September 2015 release of the new revised ISO standards for Quality and Environmental Management Systems, we find a strong correlation to the main project and programme management methodologies like PRINCE2®, Agile and Managing Successful Programmes (MSP®). Where organisations are complying or wishing to comply with both ISO and process methodologies, change and business process managers can take this opportunity to integrate or dovetail between some or all of these processes.

Feb 2

EC-Council Membership Fees

Just over a year ago, EC-Council announced that they were going to introduce a membership fee from 1st January 2016.

Feb 1

The CEO's Corner: DDLS celebrates 25 years of operation

In 2016, DDLS celebrates our 25th year of operations. When we started our training business, the Internet had just opened up for commercial use, with about one million hosts and the first Web browser had been introduced.

Jan 2016

Jan 28

Leading your organisation up the IT Maturity Curve

There has never been a better time to be an IT Professional or Leader, learn how to start building, leading and developing your IT culture up the IT Maturity Curve

Jan 25

6 ways tech culture is being transformed in education

Senior IT execs at Australian universities discuss the top 6 ways the culture of their organisations is changing.

Jan 13

MVP's Corner: 12 Reasons to Certify

Why it is worth sitting the exam after you've completed your course.

Dec 2015

Dec 16

Split 5 day courses in March 2016

Important information for courses in March 2016

Dec 14

Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) - Version 9

The security landscape is constantly changing at a phenomenal rate. To reflect these changes in threats, technology and tools EC-Council has undertaken a significant revamp of its flagship course – Certified Ethical Hacker.

Dec 14

The CEO's Corner: Train from the location of your choice

For most of 2015 our NSW team has been planning and designing our new Sydney training centre at 477 Pitt Street which will open in January 2016. As well as being purpose-built for modern training in Technology, Process & People, our new facility is enabled for our distance education service that we call DDLS Anywhere.

Nov 2015

Nov 25

8 tips to manage difficult people and situations over the holidays

Manage your emotions, disagree without attacking, and importantly, relax and breathe

Nov 23

DDLS Sydney is moving!

It’s an exciting time for DDLS, with our 25 year anniversary in 2016 coinciding with our relocation to new premises early in the New Year.

Nov 19

Azure AD Domain Services

Azure AD is now a super set of Windows Server AD so you will now have a ton of new options, and also the opportunity for companies to go "cloud only" while still getting all the benefits of Azure AD and Windows Server AD.

Nov 4

The limitations of Cloud and why Fog Computing will play a key role in the Internet of Things

Discover why Fog computing will play a key role in the Internet of Things

Oct 2015

Oct 30

Winners of the PowerUp DDLS PowerShell Challenge

Are you a PowerUp DDLS PowerShell Challenge Winner?

Oct 26

Big Data and the unknown-unknowns

I’ve been following the rise and rise of Big Data and its associated buddies Data Analytics, Data Mining, Data Science, Data Value, etc. In laymen’s terms, it’s basically enormous amounts of digital information computationally analysed to produce value.

Oct 26

Should IT be described as innovation technology?

The role of IT has changed from providing technology solutions to now driving business outcomes and strategy through the use of technology. This means the way we think of and define IT must now also change.

Oct 13

An audience with... Gavin Tan, Windows 10 guru and all round Microsoft guy

Welcome to the first in an occasional series of conversations with some of the thought leaders in DDLS. This time, Gary Duffield, who heads up our partner relationships, chats to DDLS MCT Gavin Tan. Let’s meet Gavin.

Oct 12

Bees, dummies and why we should embrace change

Microchipped bees, the world’s first smart pacifier and why the Internet of Things (IoT) will be a key contributor to all this change.

Oct 12

The CEO's Corner: Introducing PRINCE2 Agile

Our Prime Minister has set the vision; we are going to be an agile nation! DDLS is helping the cause by offering Agile training courses. We are excited to announce that we have now added PRINCE2 Agile to our schedule.

Oct 7

How to schedule your Red Hat exams using the Red Hat Exam Kiosk

Red Hat is moving away from offering exams at the end of the course in class to using an exam kiosk system (exam centre). We take you through how to schedule your Red Hat exams using the Red Hat Exam Kiosk.

Sep 2015

Sep 30

Quick Tips - Save time and cut out repetition by using Building Blocks

Do you have content that you need to use again and again? If you're using Office 2010 or 2013, you can save it into your Building Blocks.

Sep 24

How to develop a leadership culture - 10 tips for empowering your people to lead

Are you fostering an environment that cultivates and empowers leadership from your team or are you stifling it? When we asked CIOs throughout Australia and the US to identify the top 12 skills that their people needed to succeed as an IT professional and leadership was one of them.

Sep 22

Installing Microsoft's Nano Server

Adrian Smith takes a look Microsoft's Nano Server which will be an option within the Server 2016 family.

Sep 21

Set/Remove-GodMode

While the usual method for configuring your computer is to use the Control Panel and Administrative tools, there is another access point to the utilities, called the 'God Mode'.

Sep 14

Process-InactiveUsers

Another handy tip from our PowerShell Expert Brent Challis.

Sep 14

Why documenting the business side of projects helps ensure no surprises or missed targets down the road

While many business projects are IT-related, more and more are being initiated and funded by lines of business, from marketing to finance and beyond. If you’ve ever dealt with new or conflicting requirements midway through a project—or even after the project was finished (or so you thought)—then you’ll quickly see the value of a good business requirements document.

Sep 11

EC-Council - How to keep currency on your valuable security certifications from EC-Council

EC-Council Continuing Education (ECE) credits can be earned in many ways.

Sep 8

Out-Speech

PowerShell provides access to all the elements of your computer system. One of these elements is the speech synthesis functionality of the operating system. The following cmdlet takes a string and outputs it via the speech synthesis engine.

Sep 7

User Stories and Use Cases go hand-in-hand - theatre isn’t the only place you’ll find actors

Whether it’s a software project or a marketing project, all projects have something to deliver. And all projects have users – people who will interact with that end solution, product, service, or other result you deliver. To define the requirements and get agreement on the deliverables, you’ll need the input of these users.

Sep 4

Changes to Microsoft certifications and exams

With Windows 10 courses and exams just around the corner there will be some changes to the existing certifications and exams from Microsoft.

Sep 1

Get-ReportObjects

The problem, the data needed is accessed from a web server as a web page with an HTML table holding the data of interest. By using the web request Cmdlet it is possible to retrieve the web page, access the table and therefore access the table headers and the table data.

Aug 2015

Aug 28

Quick Tips - Share an Office document in real time

If you have Lync 2010/2013 or Skype for Business then collaborate instantly using the Share command in Microsoft Office.

Aug 28

Get MSLink

Another handy tip from our PowerShell expert.

Aug 25

Developing your 21st century workforce

Technology chiefs need to build a strategy for talent management that helps their people and teams meet the new demands that are being placed on IT.

Aug 13

Convert To Trimmed String

A handy tip from our PowerShell expert.

Aug 11

CompTIA Storage+ Powered by SNIA - do you know about pending changes to the exam?

CompTIA and SNIA have announced that they will not be continuing with the renewal of their collaboration agreement which provided the CompTIA Storage+ Powered by SNIA certification examination.

Aug 5

The CEO's Corner: TelePresence comes to Brisbane

This month we are delighted to announce some news from one of our warmer locations, Brisbane. We have added a new TelePresence-enabled classroom to our training facility at 201 Charlotte Street. This gives us an extra classroom for more courses in Brisbane’s CBD and adds to our National TelePresence capability.

Jul 2015

Jul 30

Quick Tips - Quickly input data into Excel

Trying to quickly input common data into Excel from the column above? No need to type or copy and paste with this quick solution.

Jul 28

The five enablers of IT organisational excellence

Leading an IT organisation through a successful transformation can be quite a challenge. Once you’ve adapted your mindset to prepare for the transition, there are five organisational challenges that you’ll want to work through to reposition your business for success.

Jul 1

Quick Tips - Adding a second time zone to your Outlook calendar

Need to schedule a meeting with a colleague or client in another time zone? Outlook Calendar allows for two time zones to be displayed simultaneously in the calendar making it easier to set meetings with other locations.

Jun 2015

Jun 29

6 Mindsets of Culture Transformation

We spend time “putting out fires” but do we take the time to consider the source of the issues?

Jun 11

MVP's Corner: Step by Step - UEFI Boot Device

Have you noticed that new PCs and tablets seem to boot really, really quickly? Compared to your typical work desktop, these devices are up, running, and ready to logon in seconds!

Jun 9

Courageous Conversations

I spend a lot of time with clients helping them explore the distinction between delegation and accountability. They confuse delegation and accountability, some people use both terms interchangeably.

Jun 2

Common problems when testing Access Control Lists on Cisco Devices

While ACLs can be used to filter traffic going through a router, you need to be careful when testing the ACL.

Jun 1

Is your PRINCE2 accreditation due for renewal?

Often people forget that their PRINCE2 accreditation only has a certain registration period, so today we are going to provide some FAQs and answers to help you understand how this works, and what is needed to become re-registered.

May 2015

May 28

Quick Tips - Page Break Preview in Excel

Has your printed Excel spread sheet gone over to the next page? Quickly change the page break using Page Break Preview.

May 26

Becoming an innovative anticipator

Last month, I talked about why there was never a better time to be an IT professional as the IT maturity curve reaches a new level. The rules have changed and a new set of skills is required today. Successful IT organisations are now striving to move beyond what was once thought of as the end goal of being a ‘strategic partner’ with the business, and now aim to become an ‘innovative anticipator’, out in front of the business, driving initiatives that are progressing and enhancing company strategy.

May 14

PMP Exam - Do you know about the changes?

The five domains of practice for the PMP will remain the same. However, the tasks within each domain have been modified, added, or removed. To view all the changes in detail..

May 14

MVP's Corner: My boss gave me $1500!

Hang on, let me explain that in a just bit more detail.

Apr 2015

Apr 29

Quick Tips - Quickly convert handwritten notes on your touch device with OneNote

Are you taking quick handwritten notes on your touch device with OneNote? Did you know you can easily convert your notes to text? OneNote has excellent optical character recognition (OCR) embedded to quickly and easily convert your handwritten notes to text.

Apr 28

Creating a Self Signed Certificate for PowerShell

When signing a PowerShell script you need to have a code signing certificate. If you do not have a Certificate Authority or access to a suitable certificate you can create your own self signed certifcate.

Apr 21

IT maturity curve reaches a new level

There has never been a better time to be an IT professional or leader. Some may think that is a crazy statement with all the changes, challenges and adaptations that are required today, but it also provides for the greatest opportunities..

Apr 2

MVP's Corner: The Lone Server

The countdown is on! As I write this blog, it's only 72 days before support for Windows Server 2003 finishes.

Mar 2015

Mar 26

Quick Tips - Remove confidential notes from PowerPoint in a few easy clicks

Need to send a presentation without confidential notes included? PowerPoint has great built-in features to help users inspect documents before sending to others.

Mar 10

Social Engineering - how rude!

Have you ever felt too embarrassed to challenge a visitor to your building by questioning who they are and what they're doing in a certain area? Don't be..

Mar 5

Where to next with your ITIL Foundation certification?

Have you completed your ITIL® Foundation training and you're not quite sure what to do next?

Mar 3

Quick Tips - Breaking table rows across pages

Having problems with table rows breaking across pages? A tick box can fix this for you!

Feb 2015

Feb 25

MVP's Corner: LinkingIn your new Certification!

You've done it! After months of courses at DDLS, weeks of study, days of practice tests, and hours sitting in front of test centre computer screens ... that final green bar has popped up on your screen. Passed.

Feb 23

9 tips for building rapport with people

Understanding the human side of the IT equation is critical to the success of any IT professional. The ability to develop a feeling of connectedness and understanding is an important aspect of developing productive and trusted relationships.

Feb 3

Need some help justifying ITIL funding?

We've all had that problem... You're working so hard to improve your organisation, and then management say, "You want money for what?" Or worse still, "What is it you / your team actually do?"

Feb 1

MVP's Corner: The Road Not Taken

Almost every student DDLS gets on a course wants to know which way to go with their certifications. Which direction do they go?

Jan 2015

Jan 29

Leadership for performance. How do you inspire others to willingly do what needs to be done?

Is your team operating at its optimal level of performance? Are team members inspired? Motivated? Do they show up day to day in tune with a vision and purpose that they are excited about?

Jan 28

Quick Tips - Create your own Search Folders in a few simple clicks

Can’t find an email in Outlook, maybe it was moved to the wrong folder? Or do you need to find all your emails from one contact? Quickly create your own Search Folders in a few simple clicks!

Jan 21

MVP's Corner: Working smarter with SCCM 2012 R2

Working smarter, not harder, is a goal all Administrators should work toward. Administrators are being asked to do more, with less, and in increasingly shorter time frames.

Jan 19

Signing a PowerShell Script

An important element of the security model for Windows PowerShell is the ability to add digital signatures which can control the execution of the script as well as protecting the integrity of the script ensuring that the script is not altered.

Jan 2

MVP’s Corner: why corner a MVP .. wait, what is a MVP?

My first post for the year is to explain what a Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) is, and why we are worth cornering.

Dec 2014

Dec 4

AXELOS and their Portfolio of Best-Practice Frameworks

You may have heard of ITIL and PRINCE2 but are you aware that they originated as an IT systems standard for the UK Government?

Dec 4

MVP’s Corner: BYOD, CYOD, DWYOD, WIYOD?

Acronyms, love ‘em or hate ‘em the IT world revolves around them. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) are both a blessing and a curse for IT Administrators and Staff.

Dec 4

PowerShell can do EVERYTHING

The other day a colleague put his head into my classroom and said he had found something that PowerShell could not do!

Dec 2

Quick Tips - Time savers with OneNote

Need to copy something from a website but need to remember the source? If you use OneNote to copy and paste, it will automatically remember for you!

Nov 2014

Nov 15

MVP's Corner: A Handful of ACEs!

Great if you are playing a game of cards, particularly a high stakes poker game, not so great if you are trying to secure your corporate resources.

Nov 7

A Key Trait for Every IT Leader: Humility

The C in CIO Isn’t for Celebrity The best IT leaders have a powerful but rarely discussed trait: humility.

Oct 2014

Oct 29

Quick Tips – Create winning spreadsheets using Sparklines

Want a better way to help others quickly visualise data trends in Excel? Create winning spreadsheets with Sparklines!

Oct 27

The six mindsets of effective leadership

There are six mindset shifts that one must make to become an effective IT leader.

Oct 2

Quick Tips – Setting up Outlook Quick Steps

Want to join multiple steps together in Outlook to make everyday work quicker? Set up your Quick Steps.

Sep 2014

Sep 30

A Soft Return – It’s Not Hard

A quick fix for annoying line-spacing problems in Word. There are many useful features in Microsoft Word that can save you time and give your documents a professional edge.

Sep 25

To those about to exam, I salute you

I have been either training or taking Microsoft technical exams for the better part of ten years. Over that time, one of the most common questions is, "How do I pass my exam?"

Sep 25

6 Essential Steps for Managing Vendors

The model for successfully managing vendor partnerships consists of 6 steps.

Sep 22

PowerShell using ConvertTo-HTML to Produce Tables with Borders

I have found the ConvertTo-HTML cmdlet, usually followed by Out-File a very quick way to produce a record of information collected from earlier comdlets.

Sep 17

Automatically Maintaining SQL Server Reporting Services Folder Permissions Using PowerShell

I needed to automate setting the permissions of a “Sales” folder on our SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services.

Sep 17

Most SharePoint Implementations Fail?

SharePoint is a not just a website, it should be planned and implemented like a database!

Sep 8

Can you handle change?

Lou Markstrom is writing a series of articles for the CIO.com.au website

Aug 2014

Aug 25

Quick Tips - How do I become more efficient and productive in Office?

To teach the masses every single topic in Office would take me years, so how do I learn what’s in a new version of Office, and what do I recommend you do to become more proficient?

Jul 2014

Jul 31

Quick Tips - The Amazing F4

Need to repeat the same action over and over again in Excel, Word or PowerPoint?

Jul 31

How to negotiate and get what you want

DDLS's Professional Development specialist, Lou Markstrom, is writing a series of articles for the CIO.com.au website to concide with the release of his co-authored book, Unleashing the Power of IT.

Jul 4

COBIT and ITIL frameworks working together

To complement our exciting new IT management special of a combined COBIT® and ITIL® training package, learn how these two frameworks work together to produce a holistic approach to IT governance and service delivery in the two fantastic blogs featured below.

Jun 2014

Jun 23

#PSTip: Get DDLS Blog Posts Feed via Windows PowerShell

You've got to love Windows PowerShell, especially after its v3.o iteration. A lot of new Cmdlets, one of my favorite being Invoke-WebRequest.

Jun 20

Quick Tips: Key Tips Shortcuts

Don’t have a keyboard shortcut in Office for a favourite command? All commands can be accessed using the Key Tips shortcuts.

May 2014

May 29

Creating a PowerShell GUI Application

PowerShell is a very powerful command console that provides support for the management of systems and technologies. While the initial focus was on Microsoft technologies, there is growing support for non-Microsoft technologies as well.

May 26

Generation Y Certify

Are vendor certifications of any value in the real world to Gen Y. In an industry that now expects a degree as the entry point?

May 23

Key considerations for ITIL adoption

The make or break factors contributing to the successful implementation of the ITIL methodology are discussed in two great articles written by Paul Wilkinson and Stephen Mann.

May 23

Citrix certifications can make IT employees and businesses invaluable

Take a moment of your day to find out why Citrix sits in the leading quadrant of “in demand” skills for 2014.

May 20

Quick Tips: Need to chat with someone on Lync as soon as they are available?

Tag contacts in Lync 2010/2013 to receive an alert when a contact’s status changes to available.

May 20

Quick Tips: Outlook Keyboard Shortcuts

Do you know your Outlook Keyboard Shortcuts? Here are some of my favourite keyboard shortcuts that improve productivity in Outlook.

May 2

Quickly seeing an objects members in a GridView

I find that I frequently want to see the members of objects I am working with, and prefer to do this in a GridView. If, however, there are objects of different types in the collection there can be issues.

Apr 2014

Apr 29

Adding members to a SSAS Database Role using PowerShell

I needed to automate populating a "sales" role with sales people. However, we did not have any security groups in Active directory that I could use to simplify this.

Apr 29

How to use a PIVOT operator with dynamic values

Students have asked several times (every time) how to create a dynamic PIVOT query, to avoid having to hardcode the list of values.

Mar 2014

Mar 31

Is Better IT Service Management emerging from the Cloud?

With cloud computing becoming more prominent as an internal service delivery model we may ask ourselves, what has changed and is it any better?

Mar 21

Cloud Computing: Changing the Role and Relevance of IT Teams

This is Cisco’s view on Cloud Computing and how progressive IT departments are using the benefits of the cloud to transition from tactical systems administrators to strategic service brokers.

Mar 21

Quick Tips: Create a Chart with One Click

Need to quickly create a chart to visually view your data?

Mar 6

Quick Tips: Copying PowerPoint Slides

Trying to copy PowerPoint Slides into your presentation with mixed results? Reuse Slides gives you the ability to easily drop other presentation slides in where required, either with the source or destination formatting.

Feb 2014

Feb 24

Agile not for the faint of heart

This is an interesting read from IT News and shows how roles in IT cannot rely on IT skills alone, IT professionals require other non IT skills such as Business Analysis, Project Management, ITIL and Professional Development.

Feb 13

SCCM 2012 R2 – Start Using PowerShell

Import-Module ConfigurationManager ? Nope, won’t work, at least not without jumping through a few hoops. Looking at the helpful red hints (I get lots of these!), the module is not found in the default path.

Feb 12

Forget Thunderbirds, its Windows Integrated Scripting Environment to the Rescue

It’s becoming very hard these days to avoid PowerShell. And I have a confession to make – I have been sweeping it aside for a while now until I absolutely can’t avoid it. Well now you can’t avoid it!

Feb 4

Quick Tips: Do you know your mouse clicks & shortcuts?

Get to know some quick and easy ways, using your mouse and keyboard to select content easily.

Jan 2014

Jan 24

Using PowerShell to easily get those Microsoft fwlink/?Linkid= pages

As an MCT I often need to access reference documentation that is identified with URLs such as: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?Linkid=306142

Jan 20

Bring out your dead, bring out your dead… but I’m not dead – YET!

Microsoft will be retiring scores of exams in the near future. I’m sorry, but every time I hear about Microsoft retiring exams I think of Monty Python’s Spamalot "I am not yet dead" sketch.

Jan 14

More Power to You - new BI “power tools” that pack a punch

Business Intelligence (BI) in a very small nutshell is about getting the right information, in the right format, to the right person, at the right time, in order to make better business decisions. This is by no means a trivial exercise.

Dec 2013

Dec 19

What? You don’t run a server at home?

Many years ago I needed some dial-up settings (yes dial-up … I did say many years ago) from my ISP to get my Windows NT 4 Server connected to the intercontinental cyber-super highway – a.k.a. the Web.

Dec 4

T-shaped professionals working with HR to harness the true benefit of technology

With the role and influence of IT increasing in many organisations, there is a need for HR teams to help ICT employees..

Nov 2013

Nov 28

If you gotta go, you gotta … setting up a quick shutdown for Windows 8

Ever been in a situation where you just have to go… no ifs or buts, you gotta go! Well if you gotta go, then you gotta go!

Oct 2013

Oct 30

Virtual Machines: I’ll just build a new one, it’s so easy… look at me go… and another one and another one…

Following on from my previous blog “Virtualization saved my marriage…” - let’s go through the process of creating virtual machines and getting them connected.

Sep 2013

Sep 24

What PowerShell commands do I need to know?

These days understanding PowerShell is a necessary skill for a server or desktop administrator. Even though the number of administrators learning PowerShell is growing there are still a lot of people out there who struggle with this fabulous tool.

Sep 20

What are PowerShell Workflows?

PowerShell workflows are one of the most exciting PowerShell 3.0 features. It allows you to take more control of task execution such as: running commands in parallel or sequence or both; as well as handling interrupted activities like machine reboots.

Aug 2013

Aug 29

Help! How Can I Make Our ITIL® Processes Work Better?

So… you’re having trouble getting parts of ITIL (ITSM) up and running in your organisation… Don’t worry you’re not alone! So what’s the solution?

Aug 29

9 Tips for Developing Rapport and Relatedness

The ability to develop a feeling of connectedness and understanding is an important aspect of developing productive and trusted relationships.

Aug 29

Myths and Legends!

As a kid I really enjoyed reading the different culture’s myths and legends, in fact I still name my servers after Greek Gods and Goddesses - it’s quite a common naming scheme, much friendlier than GW01 or DC42.

Aug 29

2 Common Questions I regularly answered and discussed at Microsoft APC 2013

I’ve just come back from the Microsoft Australian Partner Conference where DDLS won the Microsoft Australian Learning Partner of the Year 2013.

Aug 29

Virtualization saved my marriage…

Many, many years ago I was a high school teacher, teaching biology, chemistry and mathematics to hormone infested pimply-face kids.

Aug 28

iOS 7 - Apple's Newly Designed Operating System

Apple will be holding a media event on September 10th where they are expected to announce the new iPhone model/s and announce iOS 7 - Apple's newly designed operating system.

Aug 27

System Centre Operations Manager RMS where are you?

System Centre has undergone some major revisions since the old days when it was MOM and SMS. Some of the functional changes have been quite large.

Aug 26

Talking To A Developer Part 00000001

These days Server administrators need to understand more about programming concepts and terminology than they have had to in the past. This could be due to the flexibility we now have in tailoring products to meet specific needs. SharePoint is a great example.

Aug 15

SharePoint 2013 Request Management

SharePoint 2013 introduces a very useful request handling tool called Request Management. Some people describe it as an upgrade of the request throttling tool that is available in SharePoint 2010.

Aug 9

How deep should your SharePoint design go?

The fact that you’re reading this post, and most likely you were attracted to it by its catchy title, means you’re not a superficial web surfer. You probably understand that there is more to a website than just flashy menus and appealing ads.

Jul 2013

Jul 30

How much TSQL should I know?

Quite often people find themselves being promoted from the ranks of server admins to a DBA role because the current DBA has left and was not replaced.

Jul 30

eBay Launches Training Course for Australian Sellers

So far there has been a distinct lack of training for online retail entrants in this country, but eBay’s new partnership with DDLS may change all of that.

Jul 26

A sample of SQL Statistics

Statistics in SQL refers to the information that the server collects about your data. This information is used to aid SQL Server when it needs to process a query. So the more information the server has the better it can handle your requests.

Jul 26

Something About Cursors

Most people who talk about cursors are generally trashing them and giving you unfair examples by comparing cursor execution to set-based logic.

Jun 2013

Jun 5

Back in 2001, Harry Potter got his first wand, and we got Windows XP. A lot has changed since then. Expecto patronum*!

Can you recall August 2001? Where you lived, the car you drove or the mobile phone you so proudly owned.

Jun 5

Quick Tips: Save time working on a document with Lync Collaboration

Need to update a document with a colleague and want to avoid issues with version control? Don’t have time to wait for each person to make their changes to a document?

Jun 5

7 Tips to Leading the Project Management Way

In today’s aggressive business environment; the key to being a business success, as a company or as an entrepreneur, is to be adept at project planning and executing. Many companies are learning this fact the hard way.

Jun 5

Leadership for Performance

Is your team operating at their optimal level of performance? Are they inspired? Motivated? Do they show up day to day in tune with a vision and purpose that they are excited about?

Mar 2013

Mar 8

Security Policy Enforcement: Is BYOD for me?

Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) introduces new productivity opportunities for many organisations, but also introduces new risks.

Mar 8

Well Planned is Half Complete

Do you work in an environment where the undertaking of multi-projects is an everyday occurrence? Do your team continue to make the same project execution mistakes? Is there a lack of consistency regarding how projects are being planned?

Feb 2013

Feb 25

Why end user BYOD training is essential for your business

With the increasing interest in bring-your-own-device (BYOD) can any company afford to ignore the usage (sanctioned or otherwise) of personal smart phones and tablet devices in the workplace?

Feb 25

What's your business doing about mobile BYOD?

Bring your own device (BYOD) is not a new concept. Since desktops and laptops have become a consumer item, organisations have been increasingly feeling the pressure to create policies detailing..

Jan 2013

Jan 25

Achieve your professional goals in 2013

It’s that time when we've made our new years resolutions, have reflected on our lives and have decided what we want for our futures.

Dec 2012

Dec 13

3 Useful Tips to Increase Your Productivity Using Outlook 2010

Did you know that in 2012, the typical corporate user sent and received about 115 messages a day? Here are three of my favourite ways you can be more productive in Outlook 2010.

Dec 13

Kick Stress Out of Your Holidays! 8 Time Management Tips To Help You De-Stress

The most festive time of the year can easily turn into one of the most stressful. Follow these time management tips to keep the fun and relaxation in your holidays this season and say NO to being overloaded and stressed.

Dec 13

‘Tis the season for giving – and Microsoft may have put free training under your tree

If it’s your job to purchase Microsoft software, you’ll know better than most that licensing can be a complex operation.

Dec 4

Donate to Children in Need this Holiday Season: National Toy Drive at DDLS Learning Centres

This holiday season each DDLS branch is hosting a toy and book drive to support the Smith Family in their mission to help disadvantaged children.

Nov 2012

Nov 21

Installing RSAT on Windows 8 Enterprise UK

An exercise in frustration, no errors reported, but NOTHING HAPPENS!

Nov 6

Useful Windows 8 keyboard shortcuts – for those without a touch screen!

For those of you who have installed Windows 8 on a PC without a touch screen, here are some useful keyboard shortcuts..

Nov 2

Add Courses to Your LinkedIn Profile in 3 Easy Steps

I think it goes without saying that LinkedIn is a valuable social media tool for business, but how many of us are using it to its full potential?

Oct 2012

Oct 26

The long road to Windows 8

Can you remember where you were when you first saw Microsoft Windows? I was a hardware engineer in the early 1980’s. Back then we would throw the 5.25 inch Windows install disks that shipped with new PCs into the bin.

Oct 12

Comparing the Nexus 5000 and Nexus 7000 Series Switches

Recently as I was looking at Cisco data centre switches, when one of our sales team members emailed to say:… “My client only has 5000 switches and wants to do a Nexus 5000 course. I think the DCUFI has some relevant Nexus 7000 content.

Oct 9

Why Office 2013 is worth the upgrade

By now you are probably vaguely aware that Windows 8 and Office 2013 are due for release by the end of this month. So what, you say?

Oct 7

How to ping a port with PowerShell

Here is a utility function that I wrote to ping a given port on a specified computer. I found it useful as an easier way to check to see if a particular service or function, such as SQl or IIS, is running.

Oct 3

PowerShell 3.0: Adding default values to parameters on existing cmdlets

When you write your own cmlets you can set the default values for the parameters that you use. However, if the cmdlet is to be used by several people the default value that works for you may not be appropriate for other users.

Sep 2012

Sep 20

PowerShell 3.0: Where Has the $_ gone?

One of the many improvements to the language in PowerShell 3.0 is to remove some of the dependence on identifying the object from the pipeline that we are processing when it should be obvious.

Sep 18

Back from TechEd 2012 on the Gold Coast

So many great sessions, so little time. I started with the AppFest before the conference.

Sep 13

Apple announces new iPhone 5

Apple announced the iPhone 5 last night and here’s what you’ll be getting.

Aug 2012

Aug 31

Do you want the doughnut or the hole?

I’ve come to realise over the last few years that it doesn’t matter what you know, what you learn, or what you endeavour to achieve, if you perceive the world through a pessimistic lens, you will never be truly happy…

Aug 29

Renaming Network Connections Using Powershell and WMI

We recently had an issue arise while building a virtual Windows Server environment for one of our VMware courses.

Jul 2012

Jul 31

Top Tips For Effective Listening

Whether you are looking to improve your professional or personal life, being an effective communicator is an essential skill. The number one barrier to being an effective communicator is “poor listening” skills. The following are a few fundamental Do’s and Don’ts to enhance your listening skills.

Jul 30

Ten things you need to know about Microsoft MCSA and MCSE Certifications

This month, we were over the moon to receive the Microsoft global award for learning, in front of nearly 16,000 people at Microsoft’s worldwide partner conference in Toronto.

Jun 2012

Jun 5

How do I get a black belt in Rugby?

Black Belt, Green Belt, Huddles and Scrums and what's this about keeping it Lean? Lean, Six Sigma and Agile appear to have a language of their own and occasionally perhaps this creates an air of mystery around them.

Jun 5

How to set up your own Test Lab

So, how do you setup a lab environment to duplicate the classroom environment?

Jun 5

Australian 4G iPad Explained. Why it won’t work

Apple’s iPad will only work on network’s running LTE on a 700 or 2100 MHz frequency. Telstra’s current LTE network works on 1800 MHz, Vodafone is testing LTE on a 1800 MHz frequency and although Optus has run tests on 700, 1800 and 2100 MHz - there is no set date that Optus will allow these networks for public use.

May 2012

May 27

PowerShell, select an item from a list

The attached file contains a function that accepts a collection of objects (such as the output of Get-Process) and provides a list to choose from.

May 10

SQL Server - Covering a Query

A query is considered covered when the result set is built by reading data from the leaf level of a non-clustered index rather than SQL Server having to read the data from the heap or the leaf level of a clustered index.

Apr 2012

Apr 18

SQL Server - Set Statistics Time On

In the Statistics IO article we looked at theSet Statistics IO On command. The information returned by this command shows us how SQL is retrieving the pages, is it finding the pages in memory or does it have to read the pages from disk?

Apr 12

You got to move it move it ... to R75!

R75 is the latest version of Check Point’s world class Firewall product. World class in that 100% of the Fortune 100 companies use Check Point to secure their networks.

Apr 10

SQL Server - Set Statistics IO On

There’s no single feature you can switch on or object you can create that will guarantee ongoing best performance for your queries.

Mar 2012

Mar 29

Logging in PowerShell

While it is possible to write to the Windows logs in PowerShell, I find that I often want to use a more utility specific approach to logging..

Mar 21

Table Partitioning with SQL Server

Everyday businesses build on their existing mountain of data and the more we add to that mountain the more creative we need to get with our database structures and storage.

Mar 12

Cisco Live 2012 - Everything You Want to Know About Cisco

As instructors, no matter who we are or how long we’ve played this game; few of us are able to provide the answer for everything that our students want to know about..

Feb 2012

Feb 29

SQL 2012 (Denali) - Columnstore Index Compression

Typical data warehousing workloads can involve filtering, grouping, aggregating or joining large amounts of data. There are existing SQL tools that we can use to improve performance for these operations, such as indexed views, OLAP cubes and pre-computed summary tables.

Feb 27

SQL 2012 (Denali) - sp_server_diagnostics

Sp_server_dianostics is a great procedure that comes with SQL 2012 that can help an administrator identify potential issues in a SQL Server instance

Feb 16

PowerShell function to provide a menu selection option for a list of values

The attached script (SelectItemFromList) is designed to show how .Net objects, in this case Forms and List Boxes, can be created and configured in PowerShell.

Feb 16

Why a great coffee machine is like a great (instructor led) course

We love our coffee machines here at DDLS. Ours are no ordinary machines, no instant coffee scorched with hot water in a plastic cup for our delegates, nope; our machines are state of the art pieces of precision coffee making engineering.

Feb 15

Powerful Communications Workshops: Improving your Productivity and Effectiveness

Improved communication skills lead to better results. Whether it’s in your professional or personal life, effective communications is the key to your success.

Feb 6

SQL 2012 (Denali) - With Result Sets

An issue that I have occasionally encountered when I have had to use someone else's procedure is that the datatypes and column names of the result set need to be converted or changed for my application.

Jan 2012

Jan 25

SQL Server 2012 (Denali) - Throw command

SQL Server has always provided the ability for a developer to create handy error traps. In earlier versions this was generally done using the @@ERROR and RAISERROR functions with an If block.

Jan 3

PowerShell ConvertTo Pdf

By utilising the functionality of Microsoft Word it is possible to convert a file that is readable by word into a PDF file.

Dec 2011

Dec 19

Tips for Surviving the Holiday Season

Whether it is with that one relative or the customer service rep that isn’t being too helpful, these eight tips are designed to keep your holiday season fun and exciting.

Dec 19

Santa Claus is coming to town, and this year he is bringing iPads, again

This is unquestionably the Christmas of the tablet. Ok, when we say tablet we mean iPad. A survey by Nielsen suggests that only 22% of the youth of today want a “ye olde worlde” PC or laptop this Christmas

Dec 16

SQL Server 2012 (Denali) Ad-Hoc Query Paging

The Ad-Hoc Paging feature allows you to write a query that returns a block data. For example the first execution of the query may return the first 5 records, the next execution returns the next 5 records and so on.

Dec 13

SQL 2012 (Denali) Sequence object

An identity attribute on a field is a great way to uniquely identify records in a table, however if we require the value to be unique across the database then we need to look at using GUIDs or a key table.

Dec 7

SQL 2012 (Denali) - Contained Databases

Contained databases are SQL server databases that contain all their settings and metadata required for the database. In short the database has no dependency on the SQL Server instance in which it is being hosted..

Nov 2011

Nov 23

PowerShell, a bridge to the .NET Framework

The initial level that PowerShell can be used at is as a collection of commands (or cmdlets as they are known) that provide tools to help manage and maintain systems. To see what cmdlets are available you can use the the cmdlet Get-Command.

Oct 2011

Oct 12

Tips for time travellers, and how to buy IE4 for $10 bucks

Unless it's just me, I think, inside every bloke of a certain age, there is a secret desire to pilot their very own Tardis. For those not on my torrent, a Tardis is a blue British police phone box that travels in time (and space).

Oct 12

Looking for files with long path/names

There are times when you want to move/copy files and subdirectories from one directory to another (generally a deeper directory structure - often for backup).

Sep 2011

Sep 22

Powershell Common Parameters - Part 2

Following up on how to use the Common Parameters with your own functions utilising the cmdlets such as Write-Verbose, this post looks at how to use the preference variables and to see how they react to the switches..

Sep 22

Powershell Common Parameters - Part 1

Many of the PowerShell cmdlets list <CommonParameters> in the help on the cmdlet. I have been exploring how to use the Common Parameter functionality in my own cmdlets.

Sep 22

Sharepoint 2010 - Useful references

This is a collection of links that I am finding useful as I research and work with SharePoint 2010:

Sep 22

Get-CommandByParameter

There are times when I have wanted to know what cmdlets use a particular parameter, such as ComputerName or PassThru, so I have added the following function to my profile:

Sep 22

Why training is the key to driving efficiencies (with unified comms and...)

A buzz phrase of the last year or so has been “Unified Communications” or UC. UC requires a bigger cultural shift for users than the demise of the floppy disk walkabout. UC is a genuinely useful solution..

Sep 6

Incorporating an Agile approach into a Waterfall Project

For many the move from Waterfall to Agile, however strong the motivation, is difficult due to a number of reasons. Common challenges include the structure of the organisation; a matrix structure is not always compatible with an Agile approach.

Aug 2011

Aug 25

Weather Report: Cloud, with more cloud coming!

Use your own Private Cloud, with help from Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7’s Direct Access.

Aug 25

PowerShell 1, 2 & 3

What is PowerShell? It’s Microsoft’s not so new task-based command-line shell and scripting language designed especially for system administration.

Aug 24

Is LinkedIn and Social Media the key to making your fortune in ICT?

LinkedIn takes the six degrees of separation principles and applies it to your business contacts. We are one step away from each person we know and therefore two steps away from each person they know..

Aug 20

Two things I took away from the itSMF conference in Perth today

As a veteran of many a conference over the years, there isn’t much that surprises me. OK there was the year I found myself stood next to some bloke called Bill Gates at a Microsoft event but other than that.

Aug 16

There is no Learning Without Reflection

We all know it’s important to learn and grow at work so that we perform better in our roles and responsibilities. When we first began our careers all we did was learn.

Aug 14

Happy birthday dear Personal Computer, are reports of your demise greatly exaggerated?

Amazingly, its 30 years this month since the IBM PC 5150, the computer that changed the way we work for ever, took its first tentative step into a new marketplace. But maybe the PCs days are numbered.

Aug 10

ITIL Do – The itSMF Conference 2011 - Service Delivered

I remember doing my ITIL examination like it was yesterday. A lot of my peers had attended the course and taken the examination and nobody had ever failed.

Aug 8

Demystify the Cloud over breakfast in Perth

Right now, it's hard to escape the marketing around 'Cloud". Is it really another paradigm shift, a major disturber technology, or clever marketing and packaging of existing technologies?

Aug 8

Cloud Computing - It’s as much about attitude as altitude

Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last 18 months you may have noticed that the whole IT world has apparently gone cloud crazy.

Aug 3

If a week is a long time in politics, 10 years is an evolution in IT

Cast your mind back ten years, maybe as far back as August 24, 2001. Do you remember what type of computer hardware you were buying for the home or office?