Break out your buzzword bingo cards, it’s time to talk about SASE or Secure Access Service Edge. Pronounced “sassy,” SASE has become one of the hottest topics in networking and security over the last three years. The basic idea is great: all your security and network services are on one platform. The problem comes when you get into the specifics. When does a set of services go from “not SASE” to “SASE”?

Computers double in power every couple of years, according to Moore’s Law. That’s good news for companies and their people—continually faster and smarter gear can power higher productivity. But there’s also a downside to Moore’s Law: devices go obsolete quickly. The average server lifespan is only two to four years. And network switches often last just three to five years before breakdowns become a common concern.

In a perfect world, understanding how to manage a network would be a breeze. On your first day of managing a network, you’d find tons of documentation on the IT infrastructure waiting for you. Login credentials would be securely recorded and ready for review. Sadly, we don’t live in a perfect world. That’s why managing a new network can be tough—especially if you’re joining a brand new IT team or taking on a new client and aren’t sure what’s been done before.

When something goes wrong in your network, you often don’t find out about it until your users are affected, and you’re left scrambling to identify the issue and understand its root cause. The faster you find out about a network issue and why it’s happening, the quicker you can implement the right fix and spare your network users from unnecessary downtime.

Outsourcing is a common business practice, and the IT industry is no exception. It shouldn’t be a surprise that companies are turning to IT outsourcing, considering the shortage of skilled talent. According to a CodinGame survey, 65% of the surveyed recruiters will hire at least 11 developers in the next year, while 22% are looking to employ more than 100.

What is network automation software? It’s something we’re going to be seeing a lot of in the near future. Networks worldwide continue to grow at astonishing rates to supply organizations with the access and bandwidth they need to operate. But in a survey by Oracle, 76% of respondents said network complexity was one of management’s biggest challenges. As network growth increases—and complexity along with it—we’ll need efficient and scalable ways to handle it.

Sustainable technology has become a hot topic in the tech world over the past few years. From the escalating environmental impact of heat and water-intensive activities like crypto mining and chip production to carbon taxes to sustainability becoming a pillar in the AWS Well-Architected Framework, there’s plenty of issues to talk about, but conversations become marked quieter when you shift to discussing solutions.

As a managed service provider, your success depends largely on the satisfaction of your customers. If they’re happy, they’ll stay with you and recommend you to others. But if they’re not, they’ll take their business elsewhere. Sometimes, some customers are never satisfied no matter how hard you try. Instead, they’re always finding something to complain about, which can be frustrating.

The idea of a VLAN, or Virtual Local Area Network, is simple enough, right? It’s hard to imagine any work in a modern networking/IT space without having encountered, set up, or managed a VLAN. Well if that’s all you needed to know about VLANs, we’d be done here, but there’s a bit more to it. To cover our bases: In most modern networks the primary purpose of the LAN is to provide connectivity to a wider network, most notably the internet.

At some point in your IT career, you’re going to be involved in a project. Whether you’re planning it or executing it, a project needs to be guided to ensure it achieves its goal. It’s easy to start, but without IT project management, deadlines can slip, costs can skyrocket, and things might never move forward. We’re here to help! We’ve enlisted the help of two of our Auvik experts that specialize in IT project management to pass along some of their hard-won tips and tricks.