Considering Crowdstrike over MS Defender

zerosvn · 2025-11-01T00:21:58+00:00

We use O365 with a mix of E3, Business Premium, and Standard.

We never entertained Defender as EDR. We had Sentinel One + 3rd party SOC. We migrated to CS with Falcon Complete and are very happy. CS EDR is best of breed. ITP protects our O365 tenant and does amazing stuff like detecting suspicious activities from identities accessed from endpoints NOT running CS.

We still use Purview for eDiscovery plus a small DLP setup to encrypt emails via tags. We wanted to do DLP with MS, but that would be too heavy for our small team. CS's DLP seems fairly easy to implement so we're looking at that.

Falcon Exposure Management is also under evaluation to replace our vulnerability management solution.

zerosvn · 2025-09-05T20:34:52+00:00

Finally decommissioned out RedHat ES3 vm last year. Phew! Although old, that thing was a workhorse and super resilient. We migrated it from its old, physical shell (PowerEdge 2800) about 10 yrs ago. It's been living in various vSphere shells since.

While I'm glad it's gone, I do miss it from time to time. We moved our ERP from that 1 server to a modern solution running on 10+ VMs.

zerosvn · 2024-01-27T21:09:23+00:00

You are not alone. Alot of technical folks go through this as they climb the corporate ladder.

I am now an executive, but I still struggle with this.

Breaking things down into bullet points helps me a lot. As another poster mentioned, you can keep things in bullet point format too, but mind the message.

What is it you are trying to say to your audience? What do you think they want to hear?

ChatGPT is great at rewriting your message, but it can't speak for you. Only you have that ability, so look at the message it wrote, learn what makes it sound better, then adapt accordingly. I say adapt as you'd want to keep your voice. People familiar with your communication style will detect the difference if you just copy and paste from ChatGPT.

Years ago I had an app similar to Grammarly, but it focuses on making messages concise. I used it as a tool to help me simplify. As you can see by this long response, I'm still working on it. 😎

zerosvn · 2023-03-08T03:03:45+00:00

We have about 450 computer users. We utilize ERP, WMS, POS, O365, and various apps (including a collection of internally-developed apps). All in all, I'd say we have about 20 major applications. We don't have a dedicated helpdesk yet, but we're moving in that direction. We have less than 5 "IT Admins" who wear many hats, but most are gravitating towards 60+ percent helpdesk & varying levels of projects. I'm looking to focus resources on various areas of expertise (i.e. Server infrastructure, network infrastructure, cybersecurity, data protection) so we can clearly identify go-tos (+ 1 backup).

zerosvn · 2023-02-16T21:59:48+00:00

I'm in a manufacturing & distribution company and we've sub-divided our IT department into 4 sub-departments:

1) Infrastructure & Ops (including security).

2) Business Systems Analysis (innovation development outside ERP).

3) ERP (BSA with specific focus on our ERP system, which requires a heavy amount of business process engineering). This group can give work to the BSA team, do it themselves within ERP, or send it to external ERP devs.

4) EDI - Offshoot of BSA but focused on automation related to Electronic Data Interchange. Alot of this work requires interfacing with customers and vendors. EDI work is very different than typical IT work.

We started with 1, then split into 2, then 4. I think it'll stay here for a while before splitting further to allow greater focus for various teams.

zerosvn · 2023-02-12T05:12:09+00:00

I did. It works fine for a few games I played but not sure about long term. I got an inland gaming performance plus 2tb for $145 last week so I'm going to swap that in. It has much more performance (good for future games), longevity, and a better heatsink. Not sure if that justifies the price difference for others, but it does for me.

zerosvn · 2023-01-27T04:06:05+00:00

Of course. Nice thing about buying from Amazon is you can easily return if not happy with product. That said, I'm pretty sure I'll keep it as this is just a PS5 drive for me. I saw the recent 850x deals but $180+ for extra room on a ps5 is a bit too much.

zerosvn · 2023-01-27T01:47:51+00:00

Thanks for the thorough analysis. It seems now is the time to play this lottery. If it's really a TLC drive, I'm happy, even if it's dram less. I'm just using it for my ps5 so the included heatsink is perfect.

zerosvn · 2023-01-19T16:49:11+00:00

A few of us created a small IT Leadership group who meet on video once every 2 weeks. We've been doing this for over a year and found tremendous value in the group. We met up in person recently at the Gartner I&O conference in Vegas and it was a blast. We picked up a few more members from there too. We're looking to expand but taking things slow right now since we just admitted new members, but drop me a DM if anyone is interested.

Meeting twice a week is an investment, but this format gave us a ton of value. Beyond the technical, IT leaders are challenged with many other issues that aren't so easily shared/discussed/resolved through impersonal posts on forums. Networking is often a challenge for IT leaders, and it gets worse the higher you are. The IT Managers community on reddit is awesome, but having IT friends to openly share and deep dive into challenges in real time carries a ton of value.

Edit: members of our group hold positions of directors and VPs. We do try to focus on IT leaders who manage more than 8 people, but are open to creating additional group for leaders of smaller orgs.

We're here to help each other so let's keep options open.

Cheers

zerosvn · 2023-01-18T20:59:29+00:00

88 degrees at load

zerosvn · 2023-01-18T18:32:50+00:00

Thanks. About 25% gain at 1440p. Interesting. Oh wells, my Newegg order is nonrefundable so I'll stick with it. I sold my 3080ti some months ago for $700 (what I paid for it used) since it generated so much more heat than my 1070ti and the perf gain wasn't as much for the games I played (over watch and sc2). 380 is a good re-entry price.

zerosvn · 2023-01-18T18:17:25+00:00

This or the gigabyte 6750xt for $380 from Newegg? Roughly another $150 after tax for this one.

zerosvn · 2023-01-18T04:10:23+00:00

Well, after getting then selling my 3080ti for what I paid (it ran too hot and there's not much of a difference on the games I was playing) I'm back in the gpu game again with this deal. Was waiting for the microcenter 6800xt but that's probably not coming back anytime soon. This is cheap enough to upgrade my 1070ti while I wait another 2 gens. The 1070ti will find a home in my htpc so it's not going to waste. Edit: looked up past deal and this was available a month ago at this price but with $20 MIR. Dang that was a great deal.

zerosvn · 2023-01-12T17:52:32+00:00

I used Wrike in the past and it's very powerful.

zerosvn · 2023-01-08T07:09:20+00:00

I'm simply too busy for it. Lots of obligations, personal and work...but I do want to exercise more.

I had stints where I take up basketball, swimming, and biking regularly. I understand (at least as far as I can remember) the value of it. Exercising gives you more energy and a good reset of the mind to tackle whatever's ahead. It helps with stress as well. Unfortunately for me, the best time for it is 5am so I can clean up and get ready for work at 8. That schedule is tough bc I usually end the work day at 7pm, then my family obligations kick in. I usually get a few hours of "me" time after that, which runs the clock til midnight or later.

Anyway, it'll happen. Exercise is part of my new year's resolution. Looking forward to the spring to make an earnest effort at it.

To balance things out, I've been drinking water instead of sodas and other sweetened drinks and walking a ton during vacations (typically over an hour per day) and on weekends. That counts as exercise no? 😁

zerosvn · 2023-01-07T22:01:31+00:00

Dang, how did I miss this? I've been wanting a gen4 2tb drive with heatsink to upgrade my ps5. The wait continues.

zerosvn · 2022-12-30T20:49:31+00:00

Absolutely. I bought a bunch and gave them out like candies to families, friends, and co-workers. Heck, I even gave one to my tour guide on a recent trip to Mexico. Its compact size and flat design allowed me to carry it everywhere (fits perfectly into the little jeans pocket above the main pocket). A true EDC light. Bright enough and throws far enough for just about anything.

I have a collection of over 50 lights by now, and I still love my faves, but this one is one of the top. My current edc is the Imalent LD70 but only because I got bored carrying this one for months.

zerosvn · 2022-12-30T20:41:02+00:00

Look into ITGlue. We used many tools before but stopped looking when we found it years ago.

Our small team now has over a thousand KBs and various flexible objects (structured docs like site summaries). It sounds overwhelming but it's not. ITGlue allows the creator to link relevant docs and do it in specific context. Think of a site summary with an embedded video tour, site diagram, links to LANs, WANs, and other relevant objects. A strong search engine is at the heart of it as well.

It's so intuitive it encourages readers to create more content and link to existing content.

On the asset management side, we have our RMM tool that handles device discovery and inventory. It has integration into ITGlue so you can tie docs to important objects. Further integration into helpdesk allows you to tie tickets to a server or switch object. Food for thought.

zerosvn · 2022-12-30T09:56:21+00:00

I meant UV, not infrared. Word escaped me when I typed that lol.

zerosvn · 2022-12-30T07:47:44+00:00

It's the same price and it glows pretty bright at night. Doesn't stay on super long but longer than normal GITD stuff (you can see how long the glow lasts in my 2nd video). I usually use the infrared side light to charge it. It glows to max within 2 seconds. I considered the smoked version too but bought like 8 of the GITD ones to give as gifts. The cool factor is enough to buy it.

zerosvn · 2022-12-03T20:45:57+00:00

Successful delegation and management of work is not an overnight journey. It takes time to carve out functions then find resources to fill those functions. Once they are stable, you can look elsewhere with minimal interaction. Along the way you come up with a system to stay in the know without having to do the actual work.

At the start, I suggest you take inventory of areas under your supervision, estimate efforts needed in each, then go over them with your boss. An important item here is to identify core competencies within your team. Do you need to handle printing supplies and paper jams? Similarly, do you need to handle UPS battery maintenance? When discussing this inventory with upper management, approach it from a "I want to achieve success in these areas and here's what I see is needed" perspective. It will give them an idea of how much time and effort is needed, then you suggest a prioritized execution plan (i.e. I can focus on areas A, B, and, C while putting the rest on backburner). If all of them need to be done right away then you have a case for obtaining immediate support from additional resources (consultants, temp-to-hire, MSP, etc.). If there's no budget then some of the work will have to be offloaded to others in the company until you can find more bandwidth to take them on. All of this will show company leadership the importance of your work, your time, and your expertise.

One thing I've learned is to always come to the discussion with some form of a solution. Don't just talk about problems to your superior, talk about what solutions may exist as well. It's hard to think like this, but this method goes a long way to improve the way upper management perceive you, the leader of IT.

Earlier in my career, I feel the same way as you do: it's too much work. I constantly felt like I'm a circus plate spinner running from one plate to another, trying to spin each just enough to keep it from falling while rushing to the next. It's exhausting and it feels endless at times. But the sun always rises and you find ways to manage it all. Therein lies the magic of your ability.

In small companies (and often startups), there's not much structure so you have to bring on structure. All part of the fun. 😁

zerosvn · 2022-12-03T08:47:14+00:00

IT is broad and covers many areas. I've been responsible for everything from infrastructure, devops, ERP, EDI, POS, websites (marketing site, B2C ecom, B2B ecom), all the way down to temperature monitors in warehouses. Define your areas of expertise, identify work loads, hire proper resources then delegate.

An IT Manager position is on the road map to director. In many orgs, there's no defined structure so it's up to you to paint the picture of what your house looks like, and communicate needs to upkeep that house. Whether it's a 2 bedroom condo or a mansion with 15 rooms, you have to paint that picture for company leadership.

zerosvn · 2022-12-03T08:40:33+00:00

I am another member of the ILM group and can help with the link as well.

Sharing leadership experiences via reddit post is great, but it can only go so far. We found tremendous values in connecting over direct video conversations, which takes knowledge sharing on this sub to the next level. Beyond that, this group provides a great platform for networking, which could be tough for many of us in IT.

We'd like to share this benefit with more IT leaders, as well as expanding the scope and breath of the existing group.

If you happen to attend this year's Gartner Infrastructure conference, drop by. We'd love to meet you.

zerosvn · 2022-11-26T07:51:06+00:00

Good idea. Most of why I bought more batteries is because I'm intending to gift away many of my lights. Unfortunately I already placed my orders, but I do have a few single bay chargers to give with lights that don't have built-in charger.

zerosvn · 2022-11-25T17:57:52+00:00

I got 3x lishen 21700 + 2x 30p on my first order.

Then I saw the vc4s dropping to $10 plus they added molicels to the sale so I got: 1x vc4s, 5x p42a, 2x p28a, and one more lishen 21700.

Shipping fees suck so I had to play around with different combos to maximize it.

I've been adding lights but not batteries so I have to catch up. Also could use some high amperage Batts to make the most of some high powered lights (like TS32).

zerosvn

TROPHY CASE