Windows IT Solutions

Yes, it's true, I admit it; I'm a habitual learner. It's a real character flaw, and it drives my wife nuts. As an individual afflicted with this interesting little mental defect, I suppose it's understandable that technology should excite me so much. After all, there's always a new product or standard coming down the line, and this offers endless opportunities to learn new things. Most of the IT pros that I talk with every day feel the same way.

I've also been a huge believer in technical academics. The way I look at it, a technical degree or certification demonstrates an established measure of learning -- an... More...

In the rush to consolidate servers and save precious data center space, many companies are turning to virtualization. By consolidating a data center's physical servers into virtualized servers, the enterprise can experience higher server utilization and increased operational efficiency.

Although virtualization brings lots of benefits and features, it is important to keep in mind that virtualization is not the Holy Grail and may not be appropriate for every situation or environment. It does come with some drawbacks. These drawbacks may not be deal breakers, but you should be aware of them... More...

What is a JAD session? This term is referred to often in job postings and seems like some kind of brainstorm you carry out with a client to define IT specification/requirements. What does it stand for? And what does it mean? JAD stands for Joint Application Development. It's one of those software engineering techniques that some folks with lots of time on their hands sat around and dreamed up. You've summed it up in your question. All the design methodologies like this are complicated... More...

SharePoint administrators often make good use of the included tools when backing up and restoring SharePoint-related SQL Server databases. However, these tools cannot be used to restore a full SQL Server installation to the point of failure. To overcome this obstacle, SharePoint administrators should be aware of the following SQL Server elements: SQL...

Not everyone has the luxury of learning the basics of IT at the start of his or her career, and that's OK. But at some point, you need to learn, or learn more about, a few essentials in order to get ahead.

Many people I know focus on one area of IT -- be it Microsoft Exchange, the AS/400 or database administration. Often these people were former accountants, English majors or blue...

SearchWinIT.com: Is there motivation today for Windows administrators to become certified in Vista?

Yes, there is some motivation, but it primarily comes from three somewhat specialized or narrow groups:

Those who develop for and thus must work with Vista, who basically lead the way to new software and hardware that many of us will someday use with Vista. Those who train or support Vista users, who usually start down the road earlier than most so they can be ready to handle questions and solve problems by the time the vast bulk of the market starts migrating. Early adopters who, either by choice or out of insatiable curiosity, decide to jump into Vista as soon as it becomes available. Otherwise, there really is no immediate motivation at present. I've read many pundits who claim that people really won't consider the upgrade until it's time to buy new hardware because Vista makes so many more demands on desktop machines than does XP.
Which Vista certification exams are currently available?

They're just starting to show up on the Microsoft training and certification/learning pages. So far, you've got: 70-620: TS: Configuring Windows Vista Client
70-621: Upgrading MCDST to Windows Vista and Office 12 -- Enterprise
70-622: Pro: Microsoft Desktop Support -- Enterprise
70-624: TS: Deploying and Maintaining Vista Client and Office System 2007 Desktops People can stay up to date on this by checking Web pages on certification exams by number or certifications by title from the Exam Guides page on Microsoft's Web site.
Microsoft recently made some revisions to three Vista certification exams. How does this affect those preparing for Vista certification?

Not much, because none of those exams has been out long enough for much supporting infrastructure to have developed just yet. [All of them came out in December 2006 or January 2007.] People should study whatever materials and information they can find, and they should be OK. Post-release adjustments usually are more for [Microsoft] quality control rather than content control anyway.
How does the Windows Vista certification track affect those going for MCSA (Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator) and MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) certs?

That track won't really be in full flower until late 2007 or early 2008 after Longhorn Server makes its debut and the attendant exams are released. Until then, MCSA/MCSE on 2003/XP are really the only choices, but after that it will be time for current MCSA/MCSE holders to start thinking about moving up to TS [technical specialist] and IT Professional level certs.

By 2009, the old guard will be waning, and the new crop will be taking over the world. I'd advise someone who is working on a certification now to keep going and plan on upgrading about 12 to 18 months after Longhorn goes commercial. That will keep you close enough to the leading edge and make you as employable as certified Microsoft professionals get nowadays
Why did Microsoft decide to expire the MCSE certifications? Is MCSE useless to have at this point?

Microsoft does not expire certifications per se. They just become passé when the versions to which they're tied fall out of use. [There is a good discussion regarding what happens to current certifications on Microsoft's Certification FAQ page.]

Thus, the MCSE is by no means useless and will retain usefulness as long as employers continue to use Windows 2000 and XP and Server 2003 -- which will probably be quite a bit through 2010 through 2011. Basically, those with MCSE shouldn't worry. They should be OK.
Which certifications are in the highest demand? Do you expect to see any changes in this over the course of the year?

The best way to get answers to this is to check the highly desirable certs that CertCities publishes every December/January and to check their annual salary surveys, along with those at Certification magazine. Microsoft certs are neither at the top of this heap nor are they too close to the bottom. This stuff changes every year as economic conditions and industry boom or bust cycles bring some things up and take other ones down. So yes, I expect this to keep changing as it always has in the years ahead, just as it's done in previous years.

Ed Tittel is a long-time follower of the IT certification market, who usually keeps at least one eye on what Microsoft is doing. Among other things, Ed created (and edited) the Exam Cram cert prep book series from 1997 through 2005; he's also a contributing editor for Certification Magazine.
With so many companies yet to adopt Windows Vista, what is the motivation for people to pursue Vista certification exams right now? What will Microsoft's revisions mean for those who have already taken them?

Certification expert Ed Tittel keeps track of all the latest trends in Microsoft certifications, including why Windows administrators might want to opt for certification and how to check which certifications are most in demand. Tittel updated SearchWinIT.com about the current state of Vista certifications.

More...

How does ITIL affect a data center relocation?

Having implemented the concept of ITIL will make [an organization] far more mature and ready to take on this type of project. Change management and configuration management are two of the key processes in ITIL service support and those are two things that most customers don't do really well.
Why is change management key?

Use any example you want, say e-mail. E-mail is made up of many components on the backend from an IT perspective -- everything from the Outlook client to servers and storage and network and people that support it.

Do I know what all those components on the back end are? Do I have them stored somewhere that can be maintained for process? Do I understand the interrelationship between all of them? The configuration management is the storing and maintaining of all that information. So now when I do change management, when I do the risk and impact analysis of implementing that change, I have that information at my fingertips to do that effectively.

Most organizations don't have that information stored. They may have a spreadsheet of all their components, but the real value is how they interrelate, how changing one impacts another. Those concepts are so critical to doing something successful, whether it's a data center move or any other major change. If they're not very good at change and configuration management, it's going to be hard -- the move is harder to make successful and they should improve on those processes, before, during and after a move.
Could you give an example of the repercussions of being under prepared?

The customer that does not have a good understanding of the interrelationships of the assets to the business can make mistakes. They'll take a server down, and they don't understand the impact to one business area. They think it primarily supports finance but, lo and behold, manufacturing needs some of that information. They bring that down during a time where finance perhaps has an ability to have an outage, but manufacturing is still running. Or it could be something more complex. They mistakenly take a piece of the infrastructure down that supports all of their systems. Maybe it's a DNS [domain name server], maybe it's something in the monitoring and management system. Understanding the multiple layers of IT, how they fit together and how they all correlate is really a critical, critical piece of this.
Do you find there's much of a difference between industries, or does it depend more on individual data centers?

I do believe there's a layer of commonality across all industries for IT, and that's what ITIL is really about; best practices, the best way to run regardless of the industry. By taking that up a layer, there are special requirements. If you're in the pharmaceutical industry, that's highly regulated by the FDA, you have to go through very special processes to ensure no changes have been made to any systems that are related to the manufacture or distribution of drugs.

In the financial industry, or anybody that deals with public information, there has been an increased level of scrutiny as far as security of data during relocation. Who has access? How do you ensure that you don't lose data? During these types of projects, you're going to be bringing in a significant number of people that generally are not on site that have access to your systems. There's a lot of diligence that needs to be played. Making sure there's traceability of everything throughout the entire event. All the way down to, in some cases, applying special seals to the trucks to make sure that we can prove that the doors were not opened and nothing could have been touched.
What are some common mistakes or factors people might overlook more than others?

It comes to communication, inevitably. A customer will have one phase of a plan that was used for the electricians to layout a data center. Subsequently, rack locations have changed, things move around, there's no communication. Moving day comes, everybody gets there, everything's put in place, they go to plug in and the connector is six feet short from where the plug is. That effective communication, change management of a project and attention to detail comes into play. The same thing occurs with networking. It's all about preplanning.

Another thing that bites people is logistics. Not understanding that there are inherent choke points in an environment. Like 'Wow, hey, if I bring a lot of people in to do this work, we can get it done a lot faster.' But then they don't understand you can't have all the cabinets open at the same time and have all these people in the same rows. If you don't take things out in a proper sequence, it's like a Tetris game.
How do you keep the momentum after the move?

You need sponsorship and support, and defining it as a project, laying out a plan. If you can start that before and during the process, then once you go through this event, you are going to have a wonderful set of perspectives on your environment, up to date documentation about your assets and how they're interrelated, everything about how you physically set this environment up. Don't fall in the trap of not maintaining that.

Let us know what you think about the story; e-mail: Joe Spurr, News Writer

This article originally appeared on SearchDataCenter.com.
Moving your data center inevitably demands vigorous infrastructure scrutiny beforehand to ensure a smooth swap. But don't let such a mammoth task be valued only as a means to relocate, said Fred Latala, director of data center relocation services at Forsythe Solutions Group, which aids moves with partners such as EMC Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM, StorageTek, and Sun Microsystems Inc. Latala, a consultant during relocations involving plenty of potentially messy IT scenarios, says using the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) can help turn a relocation event into an opportunity to improve your network and ability to manage. Since the mid-90s, ITIL, a customizable framework of best practices that's "more descriptive than prescriptive," has been promoted as a standard and is generally considered the most widely accepted approach to IT Service Management. When it comes to relocation, Latala says, you're putting in the work anyway -- why not take the opportunity to make it repeatable? More...

What will be the main message of your presentation at the RSA Security conference?

The main point I'll make is that it's not enough to protect the perimeter. Firewalls are becoming less effective because enterprises are using a growing number of applications. Those applications are becoming so integrated in financial institutions and other companies. Many are built using complicated frameworks. When something complicated is implemented, problems can occur later. My concern is that there is so much integration using complex tools that it's diluting the effectiveness of the firewalls.
Give an example of how this becomes a problem.

In Finland, if a company wants to fetch credit card invoices electronically for accounting purposes, it's fetched using a .NET-based protocol. Every major enterprise in the country is supposed to use that protocol. .NET [and] Java-based frameworks are the main ones used to integrate. If there was a virus using .NET to spread -- using a bug in the framework -- it could spread to credit card company servers and servers of enterprises all over the country.
The SANS Institute has warned that attacks are moving away from the perimeter and targeting application flaws. Do you agree?

Yes. Application attacks are a growing trend. My real concern is that this integration of applications, combined with the potential for fast-spreading viruses, could cause major problems, something that would be truly upsetting to society.
What's the answer?

We must be more careful in what we integrate and how we design the protocols. We must hold back on integration and leave gaps between systems. It would only take one very bad thing to be exploited and it'll be years before we fully recover. We need to learn to hold back a bit. We can also build defenses in-depth so if it's possible for something to get inside, we can defend against the attack. You need internal boundaries so if something comes through integrated avenues, its reach is still limited and there are multiple lines of defense.
What level of user intervention would be required in that type of defense paradigm?

Whatever is done must be done automatically. You can't shut everything down. So whatever you do, plan it out in advance. Don't have things you don't need running. As a general rule, don't have all the applications and protocols running all the time. Just have the things you really need. It's very critical to protect the database passwords as well as the data transferred between database server and application server. Multiple defenses and comprehensive backup recovery plans are a must.
How does user behavior factor into all this?

It's important to educate users on how social engineering works and what the threats are, such as automated attack systems like worms. They've become quite sophisticated. But it's not realistic to educate the user on the deeper aspects of security. When all is said and done, protection must be built into the back-end systems. Something must be built into the infrastructure -- encryption, authentications. Mostly, it must be invisible to the users.
Secure Shell has been around for 10 years. Are you satisfied that it is accomplishing what you had envisioned?

The protocol has been quite stable. Many cryptographers have gone through it and analyzed it. I don't necessarily see the technology changing, but I see a change in how it is used.
How so?

It is increasingly used to protect applications. Recent versions now make it possible to automate, so one can effectively add encryption to applications without modifying the applications. People are using SSH for things it wasn't written for, but it seems to be working well. One customer uses it to secure digital archiving. It's not so much how we develop the product to meet the need. People are figuring out ways on their own to use it in nontraditional ways to secure themselves.
Based on user feedback, where has there been room for improvement?

Before, if someone asked what a drawback of SSH was, it was that it's hard to implement in large environments. Deployments would take years. We've been working on those issues with [the Tectia product line] for the last three years. SSH Tectia Manager was our answer to the changing way in which SSH is being used to deal with today's threats. You can centrally manage the Tectia environment and have audit logs, change policy and restrict users.

Originally, my goal was to make it very easy for administrators to use on a small network of machines. Now we have to make it work well within a larger organization with integrated security policies. That has been our focus.

This article originally appreared on SearchSecurity.com.
Tatu Ylönen, founder of Helsinki, Finland-based SSH Communications Security Corp., developed the Secure Shell protocol in 1995. Today, millions worldwide use it for secure remote logins and data transfers over the Internet.

At next week's RSA Security conference, he'll give a presentation on how the growing use of integrated, complex applications has made cyberspace more dangerous, blunting the effectiveness of perimeter security. (The session is Feb. 14, 3:25 p.m., in SJCC Room J2 at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center.)

In this Q&A, Ylönen explains how attacks against integrated applications could cause widespread damage, and how the program he created is being used to counter the threat today. More...

Microsoft business customers, and the VARs supporting them, are seething over an online licensing snafu that kept them from downloading and using their software.

At issue was Microsoft's Volume Licensing Service Center, which was taken offline for an upgrade in December. Subsequent efforts to launch the site were met with a series of problems. Microsoft apologized for the issues in a blog post Monday. Several users and VARs said they were unable to access the site for a few weeks in December, but that they appeared to be back in business this week.

"It was a nuisance," said the IT director of a large New England hospital, who declined to be identified. "When Microsoft got [the site] running again, our account information fell back to a state that was more than eight years old. The only person that could approve access to the account was the former director who retired more than seven years ago," he said in an email. The hospital's account rep fixed the problem, but it took quite some time, he said.

Dave Driggers, an IT manager at Energen, an energy company based in Birmingham, Ala., said the problem had him "sweating bullets" in December. He could not see the company's licensing keys, which meant he could not download and deploy software for end users. He said the site appears to be up and running as of this week.

Part of the rationale for the work Microsoft did on the site was to give customers and their third-party resellers access to the same system. Both customers and partners might have been routed to different websites depending on the type of licensing they used. Microsoft has been integrating its websites to make it easier to track and manage license info.

Microsoft's blog post acknowledged that while most of the issues have been resolved, some customers and partners may still be affected.

Microsoft said it has mostly fixed a botched upgrade to its Volume Licensing Service Center. The problem kept enterprise customers and partners from accessing their software. More...

Lost files are a drag for users -- even more so when IT can't recover the documents quickly and easily.

Ensuring document recoverability is a given in most companies, but the realization that some files aren't easily recoverable can sneak up on an IT shop when a technology selected for one purpose ends up getting adopted for others as well. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server is often a case in point when it's brought into a company as an employee portal or for team collaboration but then morphs quickly into a repository for all sorts of corporate data.

In the absence of upfront backup and recovery planning, finding lost Microsoft SharePoint Server files can be troublesome.

Denver Health, a healthcare system in Denver, felt the recovery pain as its SharePoint use grew and the system changed from a nice-to-have platform to a critical corporate platform.

From intranet to file store

Coincident with the availability of the 2003 version, Denver Health selected Microsoft SharePoint to create an intranet portal for its 5,500 employees -- business users as well as clinicians, said Paul Nath, webmaster and BizTalk administrator for the organization. Once the organization upgraded to SharePoint Server 2007 in July 2007, use of the platform ballooned, he said.

Denver Health's portal, called The Pulse, now houses 1,161 SharePoint sites. All administrative and clinical areas, 141 in total, have their own departmental sites, for example.

While everybody uses SharePoint at least once a year to take an employee survey, update personal information and participate in performance reviews, about 40% of employees use SharePoint regularly during the week. The number of personal My Sites has hit 5,621, Nath said.

Of the My Site users, most have started treating that destination as a home drive rather than relying on a network file share. "This gives them the ability to easily get documents to other people without having to provide access to a particular file share. It streamlines the opportunity for collaboration across our environment," he explained.

In addition, since implementing SharePoint 2007, Denver Health has started using every piece of the product lineup, including Microsoft Office Project Server (106 sites) and PerformancePoint Server, Nath said. Recently, it integrated SQL Server Reporting Services and now uses SharePoint as a central reporting hub, he said.

Recovery rethink

As SharePoint's use grew, Denver Health needed to adjust how it thought about backing up and recovering data in the system. Initially, the company approached its SharePoint servers along with the rest of the IT environment, from a disaster recovery viewpoint -- a "what would happen if the data center went down" perspective, Nath said.

"But with SharePoint housing so much of our data now," he said, "having to cherry-pick and restore a particular Excel file or a list item out of a database ended up being very time-consuming."

Recovering a lost SharePoint file would entail restoring a database to nonproduction servers and initiating recovery from there. Technicians emailed recovered files to users.

If the lost document was financial- or patient-impacting, the recoverability mandate was four hours and required a "drop everything," coordinated effort among the database, server and SharePoint teams. On the other hand, recovering standard Word documents could take up to two weeks, Nath said.

Initially, Nath's team didn't field too many SharePoint recovery tickets because most lost files could be found in the system's recycling bin. After 30 days, however, those files became unavailable and lately the number of recovery requests went from one to five a quarter to eight in the last three months, Nath said.

"That might not seem like too many, but when we saw this happening over and over, we knew demand would only keep growing," he added. And, since Denver Health was encouraging employees to use SharePoint rather than file servers, Nath said he figured "we better have a proactive data recovery plan."

The importance of compression

As part of that plan, Nath wanted to implement backup and recovery software designed for SharePoint. To save on server space, being able to compress the data was critical. "We were looking for a compression ratio of 4- or 5-to-1," he said.

Idera's backup and recovery software gave Denver Health what it needed. "Right now, we have 150 gigabytes of data in our SharePoint environment, and we've compressed that into a 100 GB data store," Nath said. "That's phenomenal for us."

Each night, Denver Health backs up its servers to tape for shipping offsite—and later moves it into long-term archiving for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act compliance. In addition, it keeps about two months worth of compressed SharePoint data -- the 100 GB -- onsite on active disk.

"Saving space with our SharePoint backups is huge," Nath said. "If we had to keep 150 GB active for weekly backups over two months, we're talking about having to have 2 or 3 terabytes of drive space."

Denver Health's backup storage requirements are particularly large since it maintains active-active data centers. In other words, the organization is really storing 200 GB of SharePoint backups on active disk, one set at each data center.

On top of this, Idera provides a self-service capability from which Denver Health is reaping unplanned financial benefits, Nath said. If a clinician needs to recover a file, a site collections administrator can pull the backup from the active disk without enlisting the aid of a help desk technician.

"All of a sudden, we saw a cost-savings in reduced help desk tickets that we hadn't anticipated," Nath said. "Plus, we're empowering users to do their jobs better and get the information they need more quickly."

Beth Schultz is a freelance IT writer in Chicago. You can reach her at bschultz5824@gmail.com. In the absence of upfront backup and recovery planning, finding lost Microsoft SharePoint Server files can be troublesome. Specialized backup and recovery software helps assure lost files don't go missing forever. More...

Hardware, software and managed hosting price cuts and contest giveaways are commonplace this time of year – but you must act before the New Year.

VMwareTips.com's creator Rick Scherer, a virtualization expert, kicked off a Dec. 15 giveaway for NAS server and virtualization management software. All entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. PST on Sunday, Jan. 3, 2010.

A grand prize winner will receive an iomega StorCenter ix4-100 4TB NAS Server, a second place winner will receive a six-processor Veeam Management Suite bundle and the third place winner will receive a two-processor Veeam Backup and Replication license. For more info, check out Scherer's site.

Novell Inc. and two Canadian firms are running a "Free the Penguin" desktop virtualization giveaway program through Dec. 31.

Two Canadian companies, software manufacturer Userful Corp., of Calgary, and systems integrator Omni Technology Solutions Inc., of Edmonton, are offering any nonprofit school or university up to three Linux-based Userful Multiplier virtualization systems apiece for free. Each Multiplier virtualization system subdivides the hard drive of a single PC, so up to 10 people can use an individual workspace on the same computer by connecting multiple keyboards and monitors to the shared PC. Additional information is available on the Omni website.

Intel Corp. has deals for server and desktop processors, some of which expire Dec. 25 and others run through January. For example, you can purchase up to two Intel Ethernet 10 Gb adapters from an Intel Authorized Distributor before Dec. 31, 2010, and get a discount of up to 50%. All of the promos can be found on Intel's website.

Patton Electronics Co. , an Ethernet extender manufacturer of routers and other IP telephony equipment, is offering a two-for-one discount on its SmartNode T1/PRI and Multi-Port FXS VoIP routers now through Dec. 31.

Also, check out VMware's holiday store promotions, including a 30% discount when you buy two licenses of VMware Fusion 3, Workstation 7 or both. Microsoft's online store has discounts on certain items and free ground shipping; and Apple's online store offers free shipping on everything in its "Gift Guide."

Managed hosting deals are all over the Web. For instance, Versaweb, a Las Vegas dedicated server provider, has a holiday blowout sale that includes six months free on some dedicated server plans until Dec. 31 or while supplies last. For more info, visit Versaweb's website or email sales at versaweb.com and request the holiday promo credit.

San Antonio-based RackSpace Inc.'s The RackSpace Cloud is offering a $25 discount on Cloud Sites and a $10 discount on Cloud Servers via a promo code, and other hosting provider holiday deals from companies such as Dedicated Now can be found on the WebHosting Talk blog.

Let us know what you think about the story; email Bridget Botelho, News Writer

No flat screen TVs or iPhones, but IT pros might want to check out holiday contests, plus software, hardware and hosting deals. More...

IT pros typically don't get a lot of time to read, but if a few moments of downtime pop up this holiday season, here are some peer book recommendations ranging from mainstream fun to super geeky.

David Reynolds, a systems manager with the Rhode Island Blood Center and a certified ethical hacker said one of his favorite IT security books is The Art of Intrusion: The Real Stories Behind the Exploits of Hackers, Intruders and Deceivers. It is basically a collection of stories from all sorts of people who have exploited vulnerabilities in systems, written by "one of the most celebrated and nefarious computer hackers of our time," Kevin Mitnick.

"The readers will find themselves intrigued at times and amazed at other times at the intricacies of these exploits," Reynolds said. "I would recommend this book, especially to anyone who works in the IT management realm, just to give you an idea of the capabilities of people who have a little bit of intellectual curiosity mixed with the time and the means to accomplish these feats."

Colin Dean, a programmer/developer and IT consultant, said one of his favorite books is Mythical Man Month by Fred Brooks. The book on software engineering and project management was originally published in 1975 and is based on the premise that throwing more people or resources at a problem is rarely an intelligent solution, Dean said.

"Understanding and accepting this concept is an important thing, especially for nontechnical managers who don't understand how programming or IT problem diagnosis works," Dean said. "These managers are generally concerned only with raw performance metrics and the cost to the company, not the efficiency of getting it done or the accuracy of a worker's estimates."

For open source aficionados, The Cathedral and the Bazaar is a collection of essays by Eric S. Raymond, who is considered the de facto historian of the open source software community, Dean said. It includes essays Homesteading the Noosphere and The Magic Cauldron on open source dynamics, which can also be applied to teams with large proprietary software companies, he said.

Michael Keen, a Des Moines, Iowa-based writer and analyst, said Financial Intelligence for IT Professionals is a must read for everyone in IT, from administrator to manager.

"It amazes me that [IT pros] don't understand how to read a common financial statement as it pertains to their company, or if their company doesn't make that available, they don't know how the company makes money or who their customers are," Keen said. "This is what gives IT the reputation as a bunch of "bit twiddlers" that don't understand the business and can't talk intelligently about what is going on with the company."

Keen is also a fan of the book fruition: Creating the Ultimate Corporate Strategy for Information Technology, which he calls "one of the best books on the next generation of IT and business relationships and the elevation of the CIO to a more strategic role."

"Businesses are looking to IT for better value creation, and the majority of IT organizations today don't know how to do that. Chris Potts is one of the thought leaders in this industry on how to get IT and business more tightly integrated," Keen said.

Patrick Hynds, an IT manager, engineer and president of Nashua, N.H.-based Critical Sites Inc., said Essential SilverLight 3 by Ashraf Michail is a great resource for SilverLight users.

"It is written by one of the people who actually developed SilverLight for Microsoft. He covers the best ways to get the most out of the engine and even points out things that work better than others and why," Hynds said. "Lots of inside information, which is exactly what I need."

To escape work-related topics, you can't go wrong with Dan Brown, said Chad Znoj, a senior systems administrator with a large hospital in Providence, R.I.. Brown's latest book, The Lost Symbol (originally titled The Solomon Key), is on a lot of lists right now; it was ranked second on The New York Times best seller list for hardcover fiction on December 15.

Znoj said the story was a bit predictable, but that doesn't take away from the reading experience.

"[Dan Brown] uses [his books] as a way to get his own brand of information out there and to get people thinking. I constantly find myself Googling for things while reading his books. That's why I like them," Znoj said. "I would certainly recommend it -- or any of Brown's books."

And if you want funny, Roger Prata, a systems administrator for a major jewelry retailer in Cranston, R.I., suggests I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell by Tucker Max."It is hilarious, but slightly off-color, as is Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential."

Let us know what you think about the story; email Bridget Botelho, News Writer

IT pros offer book recommendations ranging from mainstream to super geeky. More...