Lawrence Garvin

Lawrence Garvin is Head Geek and technical product marketing manager at SolarWinds, a Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP), and an eight-time consecutive recipient of the Microsoft MVP award in recognition for his contributions to the Microsoft TechNet WSUS forum. He has been working with Microsoft Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) and Software Update Services (SUS) since the release of SUS SP1 in 2003, and update management, generally, since the creation of Windows Update in 1998. Prior to joining EminentWare (now part of SolarWinds) in 2009, Lawrence offered Windows Server Update Services expertise, including deployment, implementation, and troubleshooting advice to companies worldwide as Principal/CTO of Onsite Technology Solutions.

Strategies For Implementing Hybrid Cloud Solutions

Use a thorough, planned approach for success.

Lawrence Garvin

January 26, 2015

Transitioning portions of IT applications and services into the cloud is something that’s starting to emerge in the minds of IT professionals across organizations of all sizes.

Lessons We Should All Learn From 2014

It’s all about security, security, security.

Lawrence Garvin

December 31, 2014

As the saying widely attributed (correctly or incorrectly, you be the judge) to the great Albert Einstein goes, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”

Is it Time to Outsource Your Shopping Cart?

Evaluate the security risk when making the decision.

Lawrence Garvin

December 11, 2014

Considering the ongoing onslaught of payment system breaches, one of the things that operators of online shopping systems might want to evaluate is the security of their own shopping cart software.

Converged Infrastructure: Good, Bad, Or Somewhere In Between?

And the promise of the software defined data center.

Lawrence Garvin

November 24, 2014

Perhaps one of the more notable evolutionary developments in technology is converged infrastructure.

A (Somewhat) Belated VMworld Recap

Cloud and SDN were hot topics.

Lawrence Garvin

September 29, 2014

Following my return from TechEd and Cisco Live! in June, I promised a recap of my experiences and impressions from VMworld, which was held late last month in San Francisco.

App-Centric IT: The Proof Is In The Pudding

Survey results shed light on the new IT landscape.

Lawrence Garvin

August 28, 2014

Last month, I outlined the need to move towards a more application-centric approach to IT monitoring, but what I didn’t specifically discuss is how the enduser fits into the equation.

The Need For Application-Centric Monitoring

Break free of the us vs. them mentality.

Lawrence Garvin

July 30, 2014

As the world of technology continues to evolve around us and the boundaries between network and systems become less defined, systems administrators and network administrators need to evolve their monitoring practices to take on a more application-centered focus, rather than the traditional silos of systems monitoring or network monitoring.

Software Won’t Make You Compliant, But It Can Help

It is but one step in the process.

Lawrence Garvin

July 11, 2014

Quite often, I encounter prospective software buyers who ask the question, “Is this product pick-your-regulation compliant?”

TechEd and Cisco Live and VMworld! Oh my!

A brief recap of the topics discussed.

Lawrence Garvin

June 16, 2014

This past month saw the annual trade shows of two out of the three major vendors who affect almost every data center in existence.

Help! I Just Inherited A System And It’s A Nightmare

First, don't panic.

Lawrence Garvin

May 26, 2014

Hardly a day goes by in my travels and discourses that I don’t encounter an IT pro new to an organization that discovers they’ve inherited some server, application, service, etc. that doesn’t make sense in its current implementation.

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