SolarWinds TechPod

About this podcast

Join the brightest SolarWinds minds and IT industry influencers, as they cut through the jargon and give you the tools you need to grow and keep your tech knowledge razor-sharp. Come with questions—leave with actionable steps and practical insights. Have ideas for future episodes or topics? Tweet us @ SolarWinds using #TechPod.

SolarWinds TechPod

Episodes

2021
Secure by Design | Our Plan for a Safer SolarWinds and Customer Community
Companies must change the way they operate to combat increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks across ever-expanding attack surfaces. What we learn from one attack can help us protect against the next. Because the next attack is always on the horizon. What should you do to raise your defenses? SolarWinds President and CEO Sudhakar Ramakrishna and cybersecurity expert and Krebs Stamos Group Founding Partner Alex Stamos discuss our plan for a safer SolarWinds and customer community – grounded in principles you can follow to secure your enterprise. Sudhakar addresses the steps SolarWinds is taking to: Further secure our internal environment Enhance our product development environment Ensure the security and integrity of our software Part of that work is drawing on the experience of cybersecurity experts like Alex – founder of the Stanford Internet Observatory, and recognized security technologist – who led security teams at Facebook and Yahoo through significant security challenges and continues to do so for companies like Zoom and SolarWinds. Alex details what you can learn from this most recent cyberattack – and others like it – to change how your organization operates. • Learn to audit your cloud trust relationships • Learn to build for code integrity • Learn to centralize your monitoring to accelerate detection and speed response • Learn to document network dependencies to better control access • Learn to enhance permission rules and risk-based authentication
February 17, 2021
52 min
The Case for Upgrading
The relationship IT professionals have with upgrades can sometimes only be described as “fraught.” Reasons range from the cost in terms of time and lost opportunity to “nothing in that update seems very exciting.” Of course, the benefit often exceeds the effort needed. In this episode, Head Geeks® Chrystal Taylor and Leon Adato are joined by SolarWinds® Sales Engineering Manager Mike Driskell to make the case for upgrading regularly. This podcast is provided for informational purposes only. © 2020 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
February 2, 2021
30 min
2020
IT Pros: The Next Generation
Last month we celebrated IT Pro Day, a holiday designed to recognize tech pros and the work they do. As everyone was challenged with navigating 2020’s evolving landscape, IT pros kept users and teams afloat. Much like the changes evidenced this year, we also added a new twist to IT Pro Day’s festivities – awards! Beyond the well-deserved nominations and celebrations, we wanted to learn more about the experiences that shaped our participants. In this TechPod SolarWinds Head Geek Liz Beavers will be joined by IT Pro Day winner, Meka Egwuekwe, IT Mentor of the Year. Listen as Liz and Meka reflect on the importance of mentorship in the IT community, how he navigated the pandemic, and the lessons he’s carrying into the future. This podcast is provided for informational purposes only. © 2020 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
November 17, 2020
54 min
Cybersecurity in the New Different
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Although this adage holds much truth, it’s important to understand how it applies to the digital transformation we’ve witnessed this year. We’re in what’s truly a new normal. In this episode, SolarWinds Vice President of Security, Tim Brown—joined by Christopher Kissel, research director, Security and Trust Products at IDC—will walk listeners through the new era, what to expect when it comes to digital shifts impacting security, and how to properly address and embrace these changes for success. This episode of TechPod is brought to you by SolarWinds in honor of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, as we explore what digital transformation means to security best practices. Check out the SolarWinds Trust Center for lots of good information on security including our sponsored research, compliance and certification links, product information, and more. Visit www.solarwinds.com/trust-center This podcast is provided for informational purposes only. © 2020 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
October 13, 2020
43 min
IT Pro Day 2020: You Were Built for This
Every year, on the third Tuesday of September, we celebrate IT Pro Day – a day set aside to recognize all tech pros and the work they do. For some obvious reasons, this year we ran a survey to find out how IT folks are holding up. The answers we got back were by turns insightful, funny, and touching. In this episode of SolarWinds® TechPod, Head Geeks™ Chrystal Taylor, Liz Beavers, and Leon Adato look at what those answers reveal—and share some of their own thoughts about the questions as well. This podcast is provided for informational purposes only. © 2020 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
September 22, 2020
54 min
Back to School in the New Different
For campus IT, “back to school” holds an entirely different meaning for the Fall 2020 semester. On this episode of SolarWinds® TechPod™, Head Geek™ Liz Beavers is joined by Jenny Reeves, operations program manager for a K-12 school in Atlanta. They’ll recount the Spring journey as schools pivoted mid-semester to virtual classrooms, applying lessons learned as many schools currently face moving targets for re-opening and/or virtual learning. Join Liz and Jenny as they help IT leaders in education navigate the new different. This podcast is provided for informational purposes only. © 2020 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved
September 8, 2020
50 min
Security Operations and IT Operations—Better Together
Security operations and IT operations have a lot of differences, but more similarities than you may think, especially as their worlds are merging more quickly than ever before. This presentation will delve into research driven by in-depth conversations with professionals from both groups, examining some of the biggest challenges they see separately—and in working together more effectively. Going beyond traditional surveys, the findings will provide deeper insights into what’s needed to overcome these challenges. Supportive quantitative data will also be highlighted. You’ll hear directly from SolarWinds® Vice President of Security, Tim Brown and IDC Research Director of Security & Trust Products, Christopher Kissel. They’ll take you through the research and leave you with some actionable steps to accelerate the transformation of your IT and security operational collaboration. This episode of TechPod is brought to you “Accelerating Transformation With Security and Operations Collaboration Best Practices"—a new research info brief from IDC, sponsored by SolarWinds. Hear about the latest research highlighting how to transform your security operations and IT operations for better collaboration. This podcast is provided for informational purposes only. © 2020 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
August 25, 2020
49 min
Managing Desktop Devices at Scale
What do IT managers and managed service providers (MSPs) have in common? They both manage a sea of desktop devices. Join the SolarWinds MSP™ Head Nerds while they discuss the challenges and successes of deploying, managing and securing the multitude of desktop devices in various environments. This episode of SolarWinds TechPod is brought to you by SolarWinds N-central® remote monitoring and management platform. N-central can manage from 100 desktops to tens of thousands. Keep devices patched, secured, and backed-up while also providing quick and easy access for remote support. This podcast is provided for informational purposes only. © 2020 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
July 21, 2020
38 min
Return to Work: The New Different
For many people, February 2020 marked the point when everything changed: When schools, stores, religious institutions, and businesses began to shutter their physical locations and we all began grappling with ways to turn our homes into multi-purpose office, gym, schoolhouse, and pet centers. But that was then, and the challenge businesses now face is the inverse—people coming back to the office. How are organizations planning to un-ring the work-from-home bell? More to the point, how are IT departments helping their organization craft a successful Return-to-Office (RTO) plan and ensure disruption to both the business and the IT team itself is minimized. This episode of TechPod is brought to you by the SolarWinds IT Trends Report 2020: The Universal Language of IT. Explore the priority areas tech pros manage in a world where roles have converged, and the reality of how it's affecting skill sets across IT departments and non-technical areas. Visit it-trends.solarwinds.com. This podcast is provided for informational purposes only. © 2020 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
June 23, 2020
46 min
SolarWinds IT Trends Report Insights With Keith Townsend
The SolarWinds® IT Trends Report 2020 explores the evolving role of technology in business and the tech pros in charge of driving business performance. This year shows there’s less focus on emerging technologies like AI and edge and more focus on cloud computing, hybrid IT, and security. Tech pros also report increased responsibilities but decreased resources. In this episode of TechPod™, Head Geeks™ Chrystal Taylor and Leon Adato are joined by The CTO Advisor himself, Keith Townsend, to explore what this latest survey means to IT professionals and the businesses they help support. The focus transition from physical infrastructure to cloud based apps and services is expected to continue to increase with a skill focus on APM and security and compliance rising in tandem. In addition, tech pros are expected to develop non-technical skills to operate within cross-functioning teams where business-level communication is critical. This episode of TechPod is brought to you by the SolarWinds IT Trends Report 2020: The Universal Language of IT. Explore the priority areas tech pros manage in a world where roles have converged, and the reality of how it's affecting skill sets across IT departments and non-technical areas. Visit it-trends.solarwinds.com. This podcast is provided for informational purposes only. © 2020 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
May 19, 2020
32 min
Powering Business Operations Through “Work From Home”
As COVID-19 forces employees out of the office in masses, many IT departments have been tasked with keeping productivity high and entire organizations operational. How are IT leaders preparing, both long-term and short-term? What challenges are popping up in supporting employees as they work from home? And how can the IT service desk smooth the transition and manage the influx of unfamiliar tickets as organizations adjust? Azunna Anyanwu, IT Director at Aronson LLC, joins Chris McManus to discuss the ways his team prepared to support remote work through the service desk, and some of the unanticipated challenges working from home has presented. This episode of SolarWinds® TechPod™ is brought to you by SolarWinds Service Desk, an ITSM solution built for more than just tickets. Request a demo of Service Desk and start connecting employees to IT support through live chat and a requester mobile app. SolarWinds Service Desk—IT just got a new reputation. Visit SolarWinds.com/service-desk This podcast is provided for informational purposes only. © 2020 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
April 21, 2020
43 min
“Cloud Confessions” Uncover Changing APM Realities for Tech Pros
The SolarWinds® Cloud Confessions 2020 survey explores how extensively technology professionals are using APM tools, whether on-premises or for SaaS-based application management, and how they monitor these environments. One of the things the survey revealed this year was the introspection our colleagues in tech are doing about the changing nature of tech work; the relationship of IT to the business; and how our experience should have taught us by now to expect disruption in these moments significant change—no matter how carefully we try to formulate our plans. Head Geek™ Leon Adato and guest Adam “the Automator” Bertram discuss the survey and changing APM realities for Tech Pros. This episode is brought to you by the SolarWinds® APM Suite. Simplify your full-stack monitoring for hybrid, Azure, AWS, and other cloud-native IT environments and gain valuable performance insights across user experience, applications, services, and infrastructure. Visit https://www.solarwinds.com/apmsuite. This podcast is provided for informational purposes only. © 2020 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
April 7, 2020
28 min
Exploring APM “Cloud Confessions” With Adam Bertram
The SolarWinds® Cloud Confessions 2020 survey explores how extensively technology professionals are using APM tools, whether on-premises or for SaaS-based application management, and how they monitor these environments. This year’s survey shows most tech pros are using APM tools in a troubleshooting capacity and not as part of proactive APM strategies to achieve optimization. Head Geek™ Leon Adato and guest Adam “the Automator” Bertram discuss what's holding companies, teams, and individual contributors back from integrating their APM solutions into their environment. This episode is brought to you by the SolarWinds® APM Suite. Simplify your full-stack monitoring for hybrid, Azure, AWS, and other cloud-native IT environments and gain valuable performance insights across user experience, applications, services, and infrastructure. Visit https://www.solarwinds.com/apmsuite. This podcast is provided for informational purposes only. © 2020 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
March 31, 2020
43 min
Assessing Risk – The Key to IT Security
When it comes to IT security, it can feel overwhelming. What needs securing and at what level? How do you prioritize? But when considering risk, this is very different conversation. Changing the conversation from security to risk helps shape an informed and balanced approach. Tim Brown discusses how to apply a risk-based model for security success and how to balance convenience with security to avoid slowing productivity or creating obstacles. This episode of SolarWinds® TechPod™ is brought to you by SolarWinds Security Event Manager. Improve your security posture and quickly demonstrate compliance with our lightweight, ready-to-use, and affordable security information and event management solution. This podcast is provided for informational purposes only. © 2020 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
February 18, 2020
32 min
IT: The Employee Engagement Department
What is employee engagement and what does it have to do with IT? Andrew Eardley-Day, ITSM system administrator for Betfred and Joey Brown, product manager for SolarWinds ITSM join episode host Chris McManus to discuss the importance of versatile service desk engagement methods for employees, including how IT can offer omni-channel engagement, ways ITSM can learn from consumer product support, and how IT bears more responsibility than ever for the overall employee experience. This episode of SolarWinds® TechPod™ is brought to you by SolarWinds Service Desk, an ITSM solution built for more than just tickets. Request a demo of Service Desk and start connecting employees to IT support through chat and a requester mobile app. SolarWinds Service Desk—IT just got a new reputation. Visit solarwinds.com/service-desk. This podcast is provided for informational purposes only. © 2020 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
January 28, 2020
41 min
2019
[De]Constructing Cloud With Mike Pfeiffer
On this episode of SolarWinds TechPod, our host Patrick Hubbard, SolarWinds Head Geek, is joined by Mike Pfeiffer, a twenty-year tech industry veteran who’s worked for some of the largest technology companies in the world, including Microsoft and Amazon Web Services (AWS). We'll help you make sense of cloud and application performance management (APM), starting with which cloud provider is best for your needs, spanning multi-cloud strategies and the rise of custom applications, and ultimately, how tech pros should be managing all this added complexity with APM. This episode of SolarWinds® TechPod™ is brought to you by the SolarWinds APM Suite. Simplify your full-stack monitoring for hybrid, Azure, AWS, and other cloud-native IT environments, and gain valuable performance insights across user experience, applications, services, and infrastructure. Visit https://www.solarwinds.com/apmsuite. Comments about this episode? Have ideas for future topics? Tweet us @SolarWinds using #TechPod This podcast is provided for informational purposes only. © 2019 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
December 17, 2019
37 min
Account Takeover IS Your Problem
Phishing and malware are scary enough, but the number one tactic used by bad actors to get access to and take over accounts is something different: using compromised credentials. Why? Because it’s so easy! Data breaches happen almost constantly, and credentials get leaked. At the same time, people are prone to reuse the same few passwords across all their accounts. These two facts spell trouble, as it’s almost impossible for an IT professional to know if working credentials to their company email or CRM are floating around the dark web. Almost impossible that is, until now. SolarWinds TechPod™ episode host Brandon Shopp, VP of product strategy, security, compliance, and tools discusses the threat landscape and what can we do about it, with Chris LaConte, chief strategy officer at SpyCloud. Related Links Check your breach exposure with SolarWinds Identity Monitor Verizon Breach Report SolarWinds More SolarWinds TechPod Episodes This episode is brought to you by SolarWinds® Identity Monitor. Check whether your credentials have been found in a data breach and get notified about any future breach exposure. Visit solarwinds.com/identity-monitor. Comments about this episode? Have ideas for future topics? Tweet us @SolarWinds using #TechPod Who is behind this TechPod episode? Rene Lego (production/engineering), Alyssa Garza (co-producer), Brandon Shopp (host), Chris LaConte (guest). This podcast is provided for informational purposes only. © 2019 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
October 29, 2019
30 min
SolarWinds Tech Pod: Tech Talks – Part II: Futureproofing. Your other full-time job. – Episode 019
Futureproofing. It’s a buzzword you hear a lot these days, but it can mean quite a few things if you’re an IT professional. Forecasting your next round of hardware upgrades? Sure. Migrating to the cloud, adopting the next whatever as a service, building out long-range budgets? Yup. Or maybe your current role now necessitates leveling-up IT skills for an evolving job title? The list goes on. At the end of the day, futureproofing has really become a larger exercise in adaptability and how you as an IT professional, your IT department, and your company navigate the endless change we’re all challenged with in this business. Join this SolarWinds TechPod episode host Kevin Sparenberg as he delves into part two of futureproofing with Jez Marsh, Founder of Silverback Systems, Ltd., and Brad Cline, Director of IT for SolarWinds. Related Links: More Future-Proofing THWACKcamp SolarWinds More SolarWinds TechPod Episodes This episode of SolarWinds TechPod is brought to you by THWACKcamp, a worldwide virtual IT event. Register for free at THWACKcamp.com. Comments about this episode? Have ideas for future topics? Tweet us @SolarWinds using the #TechPod This podcast is provided for informational purposes only. © 2019 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
September 17, 2019
30 min
Part I: Futureproofing. Your other full-time job.
Future-proofing. It’s a buzzword you hear a lot these days, but it can mean quite a few things if you’re an IT professional. Forecasting your next round of hardware upgrades? Sure. Migrating to the cloud, adopting the next whatever as a service, building out long-range budgets? Yup. Or maybe your current role now necessitates leveling-up IT skills for an evolving job title? The list goes on. At the end of the day, future-proofing has really become a larger exercise in adaptability and how you as an IT professional, your IT department, and your company navigate the endless change we’re all challenged with in this business. Join this SolarWinds TechPod episode host Kevin M. Sparenberg as he delves into all things future-proofing with Jez Marsh, Founder of Silverback Systems, Ltd., and Brad Cline, Director of IT for SolarWinds. This episode of SolarWinds® TechPod™ is brought to you by THWACKcamp™, a worldwide virtual IT event. Register for free at THWACKcamp.com. Related Links: More Future-Proofing THWACKcamp SolarWinds More SolarWinds TechPod Episodes Comments about this episode? Have ideas for future topics? Tweet us @SolarWinds using #TechPod. This podcast is provided for informational purposes only. © 2019 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
September 13, 2019
29 min
Building a Complete Picture of IT Assets
This episode of SolarWinds® TechPod™ is brought to you by SolarWinds Service Desk, an ITSM solution built for more than just tickets. Try SolarWinds Discovery to manage and identify all your IT assets and bring that data into your service management strategy. Learn more at SolarWinds.com/service-desk. Related Links: ITSM Free Trial SolarWinds MSP SolarWinds More SolarWinds TechPod Episodes Comments about this episode? Have ideas for future topics? Tweet us @SolarWinds using #TechPod. This podcast is provided for informational purposes only. © 2019 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
August 9, 2019
17 min

SolarWinds TechPod

About this podcast

Categories

About this podcast

Categories

SolarWinds TechPod

Episodes

Secure by Design | Our Plan for a Safer SolarWinds and Customer Community

The Case for Upgrading

IT Pros: The Next Generation

Cybersecurity in the New Different

IT Pro Day 2020: You Were Built for This

Back to School in the New Different

Security Operations and IT Operations—Better Together

Managing Desktop Devices at Scale

Return to Work: The New Different

SolarWinds IT Trends Report Insights With Keith Townsend

Powering Business Operations Through “Work From Home”

“Cloud Confessions” Uncover Changing APM Realities for Tech Pros

Exploring APM “Cloud Confessions” With Adam Bertram

Assessing Risk – The Key to IT Security

IT: The Employee Engagement Department

[De]Constructing Cloud With Mike Pfeiffer

Account Takeover IS Your Problem

SolarWinds Tech Pod: Tech Talks – Part II: Futureproofing. Your other full-time job. – Episode 019

Part I: Futureproofing. Your other full-time job.

Building a Complete Picture of IT Assets