The Open-Source Technology Series for Network/IT Admin – BEGINS

 

If you don’t want to read the articles (for this open-source network/IT tools series), you could see or listen to the Youtube presentation/podcast. Youtube short-link: http://youtu.be/nKUfUtFI82k

What’s this SERIES ABOUT?

This is an INTRODUCTORY post to intimate y’all about the SERIES of posts on OPEN-SOURCE TOOLS/TECHNOLOGIES for NETWORK/IT administrators, that will be appearing in this blog on a WEEKLY basis (well, mostly).

These articles will help you IDENTIFY and get FAMILIAR with various open-source applications/tools – you can understand the PURPOSE of each tool and what YOU can DO with them.

Why should YOU CARE about this?

There are many open-source tools and software applications (mostly free of cost) that can help CIOs, IT/Network Managers & Administrators DO THEIR JOB BETTER. In this open-source era, these open-source tools enable administrators to be IN-CHARGE and IN-CONTROL of their network.

Not everyone has access to enterprise IT budgets – and commercial products may not do everything that you might want. You’ll be surprised at the SHEER NUMBER of open-source tools available for administrators and the VARIOUS things that they CAN DO. Even if you don’t use any of these applications immediately, you should still be AWARE of them – that will enable you to make informed decisions, whenever required.

Besides, open-source tools give you a free platform to TEST and EVALUATE technologies in order to find out how useful they might be in your environment. Even students and entry-level professionals can download, execute and learn the features and functioning of these enterprise technologies.

LEARNING is an INTEGRAL part of everyone’s job – If you are not already allocating sometime for it every week, YOU SHOULD.

Am I AGAINST Commercial applications?

FAR from it. In fact, many open source applications have commercial implementation and support packages associated with them.

Commercial packages are popular in the enterprise segment due to the big brands & companies involved with them, and the support they might be able to provide. Also, large companies can allocate a lot of money for marketing.

But, MANY good open-source projects are often AS GOOD or EVEN BETTER. Most of them don’t get the VISIBILITY they DESERVE. These articles are aimed to inspire users to TRY and IMPLEMENT some of these open-source technologies in their companies.

Who knows, you might even end up participating in the development of a few open-source projects – the learning from such endeavors will be beneficial to everyone, ESPECIALLY TO YOU.

Is this going to be BORING?

Well, learning new things is NEVER boring and I’ll try to make these posts as interesting as possible. But yes, technical topics can be a bit DRY and it may be slightly difficult for you to read a HUGE CHUNK of text.

Hence, I have decided to create AUDIO-VISUAL PRESENTATIONS for each post in this series – which will be uploaded to Youtube and will be EMBEDDED in the beginning of EACH article. If your eyes are tired and you don’t feel like reading, you can always SEE AND LISTEN to this Youtube podcast – I guess that should be easier.

For example, have a look at the presentation I have created for this introductory post (embedded at the beginning). You can even listen to these podcasts from your mobile-phones/tablets, on the way to work (if you are not driving).

Disclaimer: I have no prior experience creating such podcasts/presentations and hence THEY WILL BE UNPROFESSIONAL 🙂 I speak English as a second-language and that will be evident from my voice/pronunciation – Hopefully, things will improve as we go on. I may stop creating these presentations anytime or I may use alternate visual medium like pictures/animations, as I see fit, for each post. 

Suggestions and feedback are always welcome. If you want me to present a particular open-source technology that you have found very useful or have been involved with, please let me know. I already have a huge list of applications, but I am open to include more.

ARE YOU READY? Just wait until the next week for the first article 🙂

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