Blogs, YouTube and forums I use as an MSP

I keep up to date with IT and MSP news and information & I thought I would share with you some of the places on the internet that I hang out, either watching videos, reading blogs or gathering information.

I thought I would share these resources with the world so you can see where I learn & what I am watching to keep up to date with things.

R/MSP

https://www.reddit.com/r/msp/

Reddit. The MSP subreddit is a great place to hang out on the internet. It has people who work in and own MSP businesses (If you do not know MSP is Managed Service Providers, or outsourced IT Providers). People are often sharing scripts, best practices and problems they are facing.

I really enjoy getting involved on this sub reddit, I honestly didn’t really use reddit until I found the MSP subreddit. Now I am on there most days reading and interacting with people on there.

CyberDrain.com

https://www.cyberdrain.com/

Cyberdrain is ran by Kelvin Tegelaar who is CTO of Lime Networks. Kelvin shares mostly (if not only) powershell scripts for MSP and IT Service Providers.

There are some really great scripts on here and Kelvin must be a really smart cookie as he has some really great resources. If you are working in an MSP I cannot recommend Kelvin’s blog enought, there are some things on there that I have implemented into our MSP and also has given me inspiration to create my own monitoring scripts.

Honestly reading and and implementing some of these scripts has really helped me up my PowerShell game and has made practicle improvements into the MSP business that I work in.

The monitoring with PowerShell that Kelvin puts out on here is AWSOME!!. You can also find Kelvin on reddit as Lime-TeGek.

Lawrence Systems

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHkYOD-3fZbuGhwsADBd9ZQ

Now Tom Lawence, he is running weekly livestreams that are interesting and entertaining.

Tom puts out a lot of info on UniFi and also other networking and security.

I watch most of the Lawrence Systems videos mostly for entertainment but also because I like the stuff that he talks about, a lot of it is freestyle and he just discusses topics that he is interested in.

Eli The Computer Guy

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD4EOyXKjfDUhCI6jlOZZYQ

Listen on spotify

Eli’s earlier videos really helped me learn IT, when I was back in TAFE (Australia’s trade scholl system) I used Eli’s videos to learn practicle skills that helped me gain employment in the IT industry. I really liked the Windows Server videos and the networking videos that he put out.

Eli used to have an outsourced techology company before the global recession (not corona, the one that was caused by the financial crisis) and then he got onto youtube and started making videos.

Now most of his stuff is just him talking about stuff that is in the news and looking at it from the view of a technology professional.

If your just getting into IT his older catalogue is still relevent and will help you get a firm grasp on network and server administration. I give his videos to new techs who are starting with us so they can learn as well.

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Now hopefully we all know the importance of a solid and tested backup for all business data. If you think it will be OK, I don’t need to backup my server it is only a month old and showing no signs that it will fall over YOU ARE WRONG.

You fill your computers and servers full of important data: pictures, financial information, client information and all other sorts of important data.

Backups Protect You From Disaster

What would you do if your business or home caught on fire or was affected by flood. Would all of your financial information be burned away in your computer because you didn’t have a proper backup.

Backups stored offsite are essential in protecting your data when the worst happens.

Backups Protect Against Accidental Deletion

In my job I cant event count the amount of times clients have said, “Some files missing from the server, could you restore them from the backup?” Basically this means somehow(usually a user) the files have been deleted.

With a strong backup system you will easily be able to restore the files from a previous backup.

Backups Protect After Theft or Break In

Theft and break ins do happen regularly, if your system is stolen or vandalized you have the risk of losing all of your data unless properly backed up.

This is one of the reasons you should always keep a copy of your backup offsite.

Backups Protect Against Malware and Viruses

Viruses can destroy your operating system and delete or destroy your data as we seen with the CryptoLocker virus which encrypted many people files.

Backups Protect Against Hardware Failure

Hardware failure does happen. You can lose your data when Hard drives fail, but if you have a solid backup process you will have a recent copy of your data to restore back after repair or a new system.

 

Now you know why you should do regular backups please ensure that you put one in place. Also some advise is to make sure that you store your backup somewhere offsite in case of a disaster.

 

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