Pretty much every day I do some system administration on one of our many Linux servers that we support as part of our managed IT services. It occurred to me that I use a bunch of utilities and tools within Linux to make my job easier and wanted to share my top 5 Unix...
Data Engineering
3 Real World vSphere Situations to Avoid
Almost a year ago, I wrote about 10 Pitfalls that Can Impact VMware Performance. I thought I’d revisit this topic, provide some specific situations I've encountered over the past year, and explain what I've learned from them. You may have already taken the advice of...
Keep Track of Passwords with Pleasant Solutions
When involved in IT strategy consulting services, you need a way to keep track of passwords in a safe and accessible manner. There are a number of different options out there ranging from single machine managers to cloud-based services. The one I found to be a great...
Automatic Processing of Content on SolidWorks Workgroup PDM Server
One of the powerful features of a full enterprise product lifecycle management (PLM) system is being able to post process content uploaded to it. For example, adding a watermark, or changing a revision of a document automatically. The idea behind Solidworks Workgroup...
A Quick Start Guide to Installing Ceph
This seems to be the age of “Big Data”. Every sector seems to have a need for it -- from biotechs doing genome sequencing, to financial providers mining market data. For many, the ability to store massive amounts of structured or unstructured data is the key to...
Streamline Business Communication with Google Forms
Have you ever sent out an email with a bunch of important questions and received a reply that began with "my answers are in blue". Have you then found yourself combing through your large email searching for those answers only to discover that your email provider...
How To Upgrade the Feature Level in IBM Rational ClearQuest
Sometimes finding the information you want for IBM Rational ClearQuest can be a challenge -- and when you find something, it can be that the level of detail needed is not present. That's why we at SPK and Associates started this series of technical how to guides to...
Troubleshooting PTC Creo Elements Pro/Engineer Performance Using Procmon.exe
Everyone knows that troubleshooting “slow performance” is one of the most challenging tasks we have as IT services providers, but is also one of the best ways to improve productivity (and morale!). Although replacing hardware and buying more expensive computers can...
Medical Device Interoperability: A $30B opportunity?
Greater medical device interoperability and the adoption of commonly accepted standards could save the US in excess of $30B, suggests a West Health Institute report published in March. Lack of device interoperability creates significant waste and risk to patient...
Tackling Email Archiving Regulations
Whether or not your in a heavily regulated industry, having a solid email archiving solution is an absolute necessity. Email’s importance in the workplace for the past decade-and-a-half is similar to the need of having a dial tone in years past. In addition, email is...
Keeping your Ego in check to Maximize your Toolbox.
I don't usually read autobiographies, but recently a close friend of mine suggested that I read "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman!" Being bored with the book I was currently reading, I decided to give it a go. In it there is a chapter title "A Different Box of...
PLM in the Cloud: Computer System Validation in FDA Regulated Industries
Product lifecycle management (PLM) systems have evolved from being custom-built, on-premise applications to cloud-based, off-the-shelf solutions. As adoption for PLM in the cloud increases, system validation approaches in FDA/GXP regulated industries have had to...