Blog

Blog

The #1 Step Before Automation

An up-to-date and comprehensive runbook won't win you any awards. But when you get the green light to implement a workload automation tool, documentation is your lifeline. Unfortunately, most runbooks aren’t up to snuff.
Blog

Service Level Management

While IT managers agree that service level management (SLM) is critical to their organizations, many also find it intimidating. It need not be. An SLM program is what you make it - it can be formal or informal, all-encompassing or focused on key services. The point is to document required service levels for services provided to the business by the IT organization. Service-level requirements are...
Blog

Top 15 Vendors in Capacity Management Software

Where TeamQuest (now part of Fortra) Capacity Management Stands TeamQuest, a global leader in capacity management and predictive analytic modeling, has made the Top 5 Vendors list by Research in Action’s 2016 Capacity Management SaaS and Software Report. Called “the most important focused player in capacity management,” TeamQuest (now part of Fortra) scored higher in customer satisfaction and...
Blog

What Is Queuing Theory?

Queuing theory is the study of queues, otherwise known as waiting lines. It sounds straightforward. But unless you have an advanced math degree, queuing theory can be difficult to understand. That’s why we’re clarifying queuing theory basics.
Blog

IT Cost Optimization

Optimize IT efficiency and drive business value. No business today can thrive without a solid technology base to support it — that means IT cost optimization should really be about business optimization.
Vulnerability Research

Finding the Solarwinds Flaw

Several months back I was updating our vulnerability scanner checks for various Solarwinds products. As I added a detection script for a product called Log and Event Manager (LEM), I realized that there were really no significant publicly disclosed vulnerabilities for it. This spurred me to download their trial, which comes as a virtual appliance, and look for some flaws. After initially setting...
Vulnerability Research

DDIVRT-2015-55 SolarWinds Log and Event Manager Remote Command Execution

Title: DDIVRT-2015-55 SolarWinds Log and Event Manager Remote Command ExecutionSeverity: HighDate Discovered: August 15, 2015Discovered By: Chris Graham @cgrahamsevenVulnerability Description:SolarWinds Log and Event Manager (LEM) is vulnerable to an Extensible Markup Language (XML) external entity injection through the agent message processing service. This service listens on TCP port 37891....