Management

Look Before You Leap

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Ryan Petersen has worked in publishing for more than two decades, most of it spent creating award-winning content and strategy for CDW’s family of tech magazine brands. As editor-in-chief, he works with his team to develop compelling and useful industry-focused stories to share with the technology world. Outside of work, Ryan enjoys spending time with his children, traveling, online gaming, and following Iowa Hawkeye sports and Cubs baseball.

It’s safe to say that your agency has had to make some tough decisions over the past few months. Projects, budgets and possibly even staff members have come under intense scrutiny. The true test of whether your organization can ride out the storm and be stronger tomorrow depends on how you go about making those choices today.

No matter the size or scope of the project, do your homework and use the information to make the most educated decision possible. If a budget is facing the chopping block, know what’s at stake before coming to a conclusion. If you don’t think you can afford that new server, are there more affordable options, such as virtualization, that you can turn to instead?

Yuma County, Ariz., has been using server virtualization for the past few years. To learn about its set of best practices to maximize return on investment, turn to “Making the Most of Virtualization,” on Page 42.

Having to justify all your projects and the costs associated with them will make you more knowledgeable about what your state or local government is doing and how it’s allocating its resources. You can use this knowledge to make better decisions to help your agency run more efficiently.

Hold On Tight

Has one of your IT projects ever made you feel like you’re riding a roller coaster because of the unpredictable changes in speed and the extreme highs and lows? Westchester County, N.Y., knows this feeling all too well. The county, which owns and operates Playland Park, is embarking on a complete network overhaul to reduce costs and add flexibility.

Lennox Harris, the county’s manager of network engineering, concedes the process of converting some 6,000 nodes can be daunting. In the article “On Track,” on Page 28, Harris and other IT leaders share advice for formulating and carrying out a phased deployment strategy that makes sense from a financial standpoint and serves users.

A solid infrastructure through which to back up and protect data is a key aspect of continuity of operations planning. In “Sharing Across Sites,” on Page 33, you’ll learn how government organizations such as Sno-Isle Libraries in Washington state have strengthened their disaster recovery stance by deploying technologies such as disk backup, data deduplication, continuous data protection, storage virtualization and uninterruptible power supplies.