Over 400,000 IT Pros share their best practices in the Spiceworks community. In this presentation we've condensed the lessons learned on topics relating to running a sound IT shop.

1. Running A Sound IT Shop
Best Practices From
The Spiceworks IT Network
September 2008

2. What We’ll Cover
I. What is Spiceworks?
II. Where do these best practices come from?
III. Running a sound SMB IT Shop

3. What is Spiceworks?
 Spiceworks answers:
 What do I have?
 Is it all working?
 What do I have to do?
Free Network Management Software For SMB
www.spiceworks.com

4. Who Uses Spiceworks?
and 400,000 other SMB IT Pros...

5. The Value of the IT Network
 What do others like me do?
 What should I avoid?
 Will it work in my industry?
 How do I convince my boss?
 What if I don’t have the budget?

6. A Tour of the Community
Home Page

7. Spiceworks Community
 275+ Groups
 Technology,
Industry, Best
Practices, and just
for fun!

8. Conversations

9. SpiceLists

10. Ratings and Reviews

11. Running A Sound IT Shop
 Best Practices from the Spiceworks community
 Options not prescriptions
 Distilled from:
 Discussions
 Ratings and Reviews
 SpiceLists
 See for yourself and join the conversation
community.spiceworks.com

12. Sound SMB IT Shop
I. Setting Up Your Network
II. Setting Up Messaging
III. Maintaining Your Shop
IV. Supporting Your Users
V. Documentation

13. Part I: Setting Up Your Network
 Design Your Network
 Select a topology
 Select an addressing scheme
 Select a machine naming convention
 Server Rooms and Closets
 Power / HVAC / Fire Supression / Running Cable
 Connecting To The Internet
 Security
 Firewalls / VPN / User Access Control

14. Part I: Naming Your PCs
 Department-port number
 Roomname-number
 Asset Number
 Username + model
 Site-Device-OS-asset tag
 Airport Code - OS Type
 School type-teacher-room-id
 User Initials
 Department - Job Title

15. Part I: Setting Up Your Network
 Design Your Network
 Select a topology
 Select an addressing scheme
 Select a machine naming convention
 Server Rooms and Closets
 Power / HVAC / Fire Supression / Running Cable
 Connecting To The Internet
 Security
 Firewalls / VPN / User Access Control

16. Part I: Network Closets
How does your
network closet look?

17. Part I: Network Closets
We asked....

18. Part I: Running Cable
 Label both ends
 Number (jack #)
 Purpose (WAN / Router / AD Server, etc)
 Color code cables
 (Servers - blue, etc)
 Label Voice and Data separately

19. Part I: Designing A Server Room
 Raised Floor
 Proper Grounding
 Fire supression
 Physical Security
 Check door size
 Cooling
 Temperature Monitoring

20. Part I: Setting Up Your Network
 Design Your Network
 Select a topology
 Select an addressing scheme
 Select a machine naming convention
 Server Rooms and Closets
 Power / HVAC / Fire Supression / Running Cable
 Connecting To The Internet
 Security
 Firewalls / VPN / User Access Control

21. Part I: Connecting To The Internet
 Determining Capacity Needs
 Selecting an ISP
 Price / Performance / Reputation
 Service Level Agreements
 Document outages

22. Part I: Setting Up Your Network
 Design Your Network
 Select a topology
 Select an addressing scheme
 Select a machine naming convention
 Server Rooms and Closets
 Power / HVAC / Fire Supression / Running Cable
 Connecting To The Internet
 Security
 Firewalls / VPN / User Access Control

23. Part I: User Access Control
 Authentication
 Active Directory
 OpenLDAP
 User Name / Password schemes
 Policies

24. Part I: User Name Schemes
Plan For Growth. Avoid Problems Later
First Initial Last Name jsmith
First Initial, Middle Initial, First 5 characters of last name jhsmith
First 5 chars of last name, 2 chars of first name smithjo
First Name.Last Name John.Smith
First char of First Name First 2 chars of Last Name JSM / JS2 / JS3
Department, machine type, initials, computer # DeLaJS01

25. Sound SMB IT Shop
I. Setting Up Your Network
II. Setting Up Email
III. Maintaining Your Shop
IV. Supporting Your Users
V. Documentation

26. Part II: Setting Up Email
 Hosted vs Internal
 Email Server Software
 Anti-Spam
 Hosted vs Internal

27. Part II: Hosted vs Internal
 Why?
 Features
 Cost
 Why Not?
 Privacy
 Bandwidth
Buying Guide / Reviews

28. Part II: Setting Up Messaging
 Hosted vs Internal
 Email Server Software
 Anti-Spam
 Hosted vs Internal

29. Part II: Email Server Software
Popular Email Servers
 Exchange Other
26%
 MDaemon
 Lotus Notes Kerio
5%
Exchange
52%
Zimbra
 Zimbra 5%
Lotus Notes
5%
MDaemon
 Kerio 8%
 and 25 others...

30. Part II: Setting Up Messaging
 Hosted vs Internal
 Email Server Software
 Anti-Spam
 Hosted vs Internal

31. Part II: Anti-Spam Solutions
SpiceList
Buying Guide / Reviews

32. Sound SMB IT Shop
I. Setting Up Your Network
II. Setting Up Messaging
III. Maintaining Your Shop
IV. Supporting Your Users
V. Documentation

33. Part III: Maintaining Your Shop
 Backup
 Hosted vs internal backup
 Backup software
 Monitoring your network

34. Part III: Backup Strategy
 Select a backup strategy
 Determine systems that need protection
 Determine RTO
 Set up backup schedules
 Perform, monitor, and test backups

35. Part II: Online Storage
Cable Contest Submission
Product Pages / Comparisons

36. Part III: Maintaining Your Shop
 Hosted vs internal backup
 Backup software
 Monitoring your network

37. Part II: Backup Software
Favorite Backup Software
Acronis True Image
Enterprise Server
Others
26%
“Best investment we ever made, easiest and most BackupExec
reliable way to backup and restore servers or even 40%
migrate to VMware... “
EMC Retrospect
2%
CA Brightstor
JB 5%
SyncBack SE
7%
Mozy NT Backup
“Awesome for recovery and can be used for 3% Acronis 4%
incrementals to mount image to pull just one file.Easier 12%
than ghost! “
adamroof

38. Sound SMB IT Shop
I. Setting Up Your Network
II. Setting Up Messaging
III. Maintaining Your Shop
IV. Supporting Your Users
V. Documentation

39. Part IV: Supporting Your Users
 Why Use A Help Desk?
 Centralized
 Communication
 Reporting
 How Do You Get Your Users To Use A Help Desk!

40. Part IV: Help Desk Adoption
 Create shortcuts and bookmarks
 Priority for help desk tickets
 New user orientation
 Management support
 Tough Love

41. User Avoidance Techniques

42. Sound SMB IT Shop
I. Setting Up Your Network
II. Setting Up Messaging
III. Maintaining Your Shop
IV. Supporting Your Users
V. Documentation

43. Part V: Documentation
 Developing a Runbook
 How everything works on your network
 Keep it up to date
 Version control
 Keep it secure

44. Part V: Documentation

45. Join The Conversation
community.spiceworks.com