In the last two weeks I had 6 conversations with our current and prospect clients who discussed their challenges when hiring an IT Consultant. There was one clear theme. They all 'interviewed' the submitted Contractor candidates for technical skills, focusing on the technical nuts and bolts. But 5 out of 6 had poor experiences with the performance after the consultant was on-boarded on the project. Does this sound like you?


You've screened them for Technical, Business and Interpersonal skills. But are you done? There are many other steps you should be considering, including

1 - Do you check how many layers of vendors are there between you (the client) and the actual individual who will be performing services for you. I feel the number should be 1 or 2. I've heard some of my clients voice that the number should only be 1, to which I disagree. No one vendor has access to all Consultant resources, and they frequently work with subcontractors with certain niche skill sets. These vendors have invested time and resources into building a realtionship with, and screening from a large pool of subcontractors. So if you believe that the layer number should be only 1, you may be missing out on a larger talent pool available through the vendor's subcontractor network.

2 - Did you do only conduct Phone interview? We've heard stories of "Bait and Switch" i.e. a client interviews a candidate on the phone, hires the candidate, but a different candidate shows up on their first day. I understand that there are issues interviewing candidates who are located on the opposite side of the country. My in my experience, video interviews using free technology like Skype has proven beneficial. You may use Skype video + telephone simulataneously (disable Skype audio, or putting your PC speakers down), to improve the interview experience. There are other 'pay for' solutions available for video interviews. Which one you use is less important than using one.


3 - Did you give them an Online Technical Test - Again, I have heard stories of "Bait and Switch". One candidate takes the online test, and a different candidate shows on their first day. Considering the scenario that the candidate may be located on the opposite side of the country, what are you supposed to do? I personally like interviewing candidates and asking them questions for which there are no online tests. I talk to them about my project, and explain to them one particular issue I may be having. I look for their thought process, mastery of overall subject. I give them points even if the answer to the problem is incorrect, as long as they show their mastery of the subject matter. Why? I feel anyone can Google any question, and find the correct answer. What I am looking for is not the correct syntax for a line of code, but their ability to understand a problem, and then their thought process on their approach to solving the problem
 
4 - There have been some projects where my needs were to screen candidates for the 'syntax'. In this case, Id did a screen share with them - and showed them our code. And them I let them control my PC. What I was looking for was to see how quickly they can grasp the code. Then I asked them for suggestions on improving the code. I felt this process assessed their critical thinking, and problem solving skills.

5 - Where's their immediate family / spouse / children etc. Does their spouse work? What I learnt was most of us are not single and have some attachments to some people in our lives. I've noticed that when you remove people from these attachments, and the distance is large, there is turnover. So this is something I am always curious about

6 - Don't waste time on Reference checks - I feel 7 out of 10 candidates give references of people who will give them good references. So if you want to ask a reference "How were they at their job" expect an answer "Great". While I still see a value of reference checks, but getting accurate references can sometimes be very difficult. Sometimes insisting on this has resulted in me loosing some good candidates, where my competition hired that resource before I could finish reference checks. So if I have a need to check references, and I absolutely can't do without it, I would look at employers/projects where a candidate may have worked, and do my independent investigation on the candidate, calling people from my personal network, rather than relying on a reference provided by a candidate.

7 - Impose minimum wage rate to the actual assigned personnel working on your site. If the vendor tells you a bill rate of $100/hr. but is paying the assigned personnel $25/hr., you can bet that you will not have that candidate working at your site for too long. The candidate will soon find another opportunity that pays them a fair market value. Most consultants are fairly well educated about their market value, but sometimes circumstances lead them to 'accept' your assignment, only to see them leave within a couple of months. So I like to see in my contracts that the assigned personnel is getting paid a fair market value, which could vary between 40% to 80% of the bill rate (depending on layers, and whether you are hiring a Deloitte consultant or an IIT Consultant). I wouldn't impose on vendors a number like 80%, but different vendors have different costs. But sometimes I do ask them about their costs, and what percent of bill rate goes to the assigned personnel. My vendors work hard, and they deserve to make a living, and as long as I get a fair rate, I just want them not to abuse the assigned personnel.

8 - Ask candidates if they have any planned time off / vacations. This area is sometimes overlooked. Imagine hiring a consultant, who has a wedding planned right when you have your major roll out planned.

9 - Honestly identify who you 'really' are - Is  your company a Tier-1 player, Tier-2 player etc... hire a consultant at the same level as you.. Lets say you are Google or Apple, then you can afford to hire a Tier-1 consultant. But if you are not, and want longevity in assigned personnel, get realistic about your expectations. I feel you can hire mediocre people, put them in a good environment with excellent processes, and receive 'superior' work. So invest in your process, culture and environment, and hire personnel that are a good fit. And in many circumstances, superstars are not a good fit in various environments.

10 - Don't hire friends / family / close referrals.. They are hard to fire.. I don't think I need to comment more on this subject

11 - Give interviewed candidate a takeaway question, and ask them to email you back with a response (don't propose a deadline) (see how soon they respond, and look at quality of their written and their analytical skills further)




I am sure there are many other ideas out there, to improve this process further. Do you have one?

Upgrading to a new operating system is a major undertaking for the enterprises. While IT managers are concerned with deployment and integration, rolling out Windows 8 in the enterprise comes with its own challenges. While the underlying code on Windows 8 is inherited from its predecessor Windows 7 architecture, Windows 8 presents a significantly revised user interface demonstrating Microsoft’s push to make its platforms relevant on mobile devices.

From an end user perspective, IT managers need to be concerned about training end users on the new interface, as well as delivering an improved user experience for best adoption of the new platforms.

This article focuses on improving user experience, via improved performance at the desktop level.

 

Windows 7 was an operating system that provided a significant increase in performance over previous Windows iterations. Windows 8, the successor to Windows 7, has been designed to provide an even bigger increase in performance due to efficient memory and CPU management. However, you will not see much of a boost in performance if you are running Windows 8 on a low-end computer or laptop. Fortunately, you can make Windows 8 run much faster by tweaking certain aspects of the operating system.

Windows 8 has let go of a number of visual effects that were found in Windows 7, but it still has enough effects left to cause a major strain on memory and processing power. If you are experiencing screen tearing and lag when opening, closing or moving applications around the screen, your computer may not have the resources available to run the default user interface normally. This issue can be remedied by using a built-in configuration tool named Performance Options. To open Performance Options, go to “Search” on the Charms Bar, select “Settings” and then enter “Performance Tools” into the search box. Now select “Performance and Information Tools” to open Performance Options. Next, select the “Visual Effects” tab, then click the radio button next to “Adjust for best performance.” Click “Apply” to save the changes. Applications will now start to run faster due to the freed up memory and processing power that were previously dedicated for visual effects.

Defragmenting your hard drive using a disk defragmenter is another great way to make Windows 8 run faster on older hardware. Grouping together file fragments makes it easier for the hard drive to access data, therefore speeding up data transfer rates considerably. Windows 8 comes with a built-in disk defragmenter that has the ability to defragment select partitions. To get to the disk defragmenter, open File Explorer and click “Computer” on the left-side navigation pane. Right click the partition that contains the Windows 8 installation and select “Properties.” Now select the “Tools” tab and click “Optimize.” Once again, select the Windows 8 partition on the “Optimize Drives” window and click “Optimize” to defragment the partition.

If you had used Windows 8 for some time, you would have noticed the User Account Control notifications that pop up whenever you make changes to applications or important system files. These notifications are accompanied by a dimming effect that taxes the resources on older hardware. Fortunately, you can lower the amount of UAC notifications that show up by changing the UAC security level. First, open the “Charms Bar” and select “Search.” Click “Settings” and type “User Account Control” into the search box. Now press “Enter” to open the User Account Control Settings window. Move the slider to a level below the default security level and click “OK.”

Running your computer on the latest drivers available can also create a huge impact on performance. Using the latest drivers for your video card and motherboard not only increases your computer’s performance, but also fixes issues that were present in older drivers. Windows 8 comes included with drivers for most hardware devices, but using latest drivers downloaded directly from a device manufacturer’s website provides additional configuration tools that you can use get the maximum performance from each device.

 

Disclaimer: This article and other articles provided on this electronic medium is not intended to be an advise of any kind, and provided by IIT Inc. as a value to our readers in a form of information and discussion. We recommend verifying this information, and performing your own analysis prior to using any information provided herein.

Hackers are constantly discovering ways to gain access to Web servers to send spam, launch synchronized attacks on other servers, steal personal information and deface websites. Because Apache is the most commonly used Web server software, hackers focus many of their efforts on trying to discover vulnerabilities they can leverage on an Apache server. After you install Apache from the default APT package on Debian or Ubuntu, or from the default Yum package on Red Hat, CentOS or Fedora, you can strengthen the security of your installation with these seven tips to harden your Apache Web server.

 

1.      Keep Your OS Updated. The Apache community is very active and alert to security issues. Make sure that you frequently apply patches for your operating system, which will include security patches for Apache. Update your installation with either Apt or Yum:

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade (Debian/Ubuntu)

yum update (RHEL/CentOS/Fedora)

             

2.      Suppress OS Information When Errors Occur. When an error occurs, the default behavior in Apache is to display the Apache version and the operating system flavor and version, for example, "Apache2/2.22 (Debian) Server at 10.16.2.100 Port 80." This gives hackers valuable information they don't need to know. To suppress this information, edit your Apache configuration file:

           /etc/apache2/apache2.conf (Debian/Ubuntu)

           /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf (RHEL/CentOS/Fedora)




Add the following two settings:

           ServerSignature Off

           ServerTokens Prod

 

And restart your server:

           /etc/init.d/apache2 restart (Debian/Ubuntu)

           service httpd restart (RHEL/CentOS/Fedora)

               3.      Turn Off Directory Listings. If a visitor navigates to a Web page that doesn't have an index.html, index.php or other valid index file, Apache displays a list of all files in the directory to the visitor. The visitor who can click to open each file and use the listing to navigate the file system on the server. Disable this option using an Options directive in your Apache configuration file:

           <Directory /var/www>

     Options -Indexes

           </Directory>

             4.      Disable the Trace HTTP Request. In a cross-site scripting attack, a hacker can trick the HTTP Trace request into displaying the HTTP cookies to steal the session. Disable the option by editing your Apache configuration file:

           /etc/apache2/apache2.conf (Debian/Ubuntu)

           /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf (RHEL/CentOS/Fedora)

    Add the following setting:

           TraceEnable Off

 

  And restart your server:

           /etc/init.d/apache2 restart (Debian/Ubuntu)

           service httpd restart (RHEL/CentOS/Fedora)

               5.      Protect Your Root Directory. A website visitor should never have access to your root directory. If a hacker finds his way there, protect the directory with the Order option:

           <Directory />

                 AllowOverride None

                 Order deny,allow

                 Deny from all

           </Directory>

 

6.      Disable unnecessary modules. More modules mean more ways for a hacker to exploit your system. Generate a list of modules that are enabled:            cat /etc/apache2/mods-enabled (Debian/Ubuntu)

           grep LoadModule /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf (RHEL/CentOS/Fedora)

  Disable the modules you don't need:

           unlink /etc/apache/mods-enabled/<module>.so (Debian/Ubuntu)

           vim /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf and prefix the LoadModule line with a "#" (RHEL/CentOS/Fedora)

  Then restart your server:

           /etc/init.d/apache2 restart (Debian/Ubuntu)

           service httpd restart (RHEL/CentOS/Fedora)

 

Some modules you might not need include autoindex, include, imap, info, suexec, and userdir.   


7.      Limit outgoing connections. An Apache server should have very few instances where it needs to initiate a connection. Use IPTABLES to place Apache output connections in a specific chain, and only accept the connections on valid ports. For example, to reject all outgoing connections except outgoing email on ports 25 and 143 use the following iptables configuration:

 

            iptables --new-chain apache2_out

            iptables --append OUTPUT -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT

            iptables --append OUTPUT -m owner --uid-owner <user> -j apache2_out

            iptables --append apache2_out -p tcp --syn -d 127.0.0.1 --dport 25 -j RETURN

            iptables --append apache2_out -p tcp --syn -d 127.0.0.1 --dport 143 -j RETURN

            iptables --append apache2_out -j REJECT

 

Substitute www-data for <user> on Debian/Ubuntu or nobody for <user> on RHEL/CentOS/Fedora.

 

Then restart IPTABLES:

           /etc/init.d/iptables restart (Debian/Ubuntu)

           service iptables restart (RHEL/CentOS/Fedora)

 

 

Disclaimer: This article and other articles provided on this electronic medium is not intended to be an advise of any kind, and provided by IIT Inc. as a value to our readers in a form of information and discussion. We recommend verifying this information, and performing your own analysis prior to using any information provided herein.  

Net Neutrality means that the ISP gives identical access to each packet of information (those little bits and bytes) travelling on the Internet backbone, disregarding the origin of the packet. That means ISP does not interfere whether the information originated from Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, your Corporate Servers or Netflix.

Various Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are pushing to take control of the internet traffic, and manipulate it as they see fit.  

Since ISPs are the last segment on various hops information and data takes, from its origination, before getting to the end customer (you), the ISPs want to control how fast they deliver the information to you, depending on information's origin and information type. 

According to some reports, video and other streaming services, like the ones offered by NetFlix, Amazon and Youtube, consume a third of total available internet bandwidth. This fluctuates depending on time of the day (more streaming traffic during evenings), slowing down other users not streaming videos etc. There have been some news that an ISP took efforts to slow down video streaming, causing 'buffering' errors when the end users were trying to watch online videos. This manipulation by ISP created a debate, whether ISPs have the right to create special fast lanes or slow lanes on the information highway.

 

While I have my opinions, I can see both sides of the argument. Let’s use some analogies to discuss this argument.

• One example that comes to mind is E-ZPass (those electronic devices installed in our cars, that allow us to go through faster lanes on a highway). I recall when E-ZPass was first rolled out, drivers paid less to go thru toll lanes with E-ZPass. Drivers saved money as well as the toll collectors, as they needed to deploy less personnel to collect those tolls. That seemed to be a win-win scenario, which also laid the ground work for a fast adoption of the E-ZPass technology. Then the toll collectors got smart. They started charging the same toll, whether you paid cash or whether use you used E-ZPass. Drivers still continued using these devices as they were hooked on the convenience factor. Is there some parallel between E-ZPass and Net Neutrality? 

 

• Another example I can think of is equivalent of “Fast Pass” used in Amusement Parks like Six Flags and Disney’s attractions in Florida. These parks offer regular tickets, where customers have to stand in long lines before entering an attraction. They also offer, for an additional cost, “Fast Pass”. These are frequently more than the actual price of the admission to the park. There are customers for both – customers who buy regular priced tickets and choose to stand in long lines, as well as “Fast Pass” customers who are willing to pay extra, for the convenience of standing in much shorter lines, thereby improving their experience of the “day at the park”. Is there some parallel between Fast-Pass and Net Neutrality?

 

One difference I can see between above examples and Net Neutrality is that Internet was founded and promoted “initially” by US Government, whereas above examples involve “initial” services from the private sector. While private sector has certain amount of freedom on how it charges its customers, and “menu” of services it chooses to offer its customers, public sector domain is frequently bound by laws. However, while the internet may have been a gift from the public sector, it would be an understatement to say that the private sector commercial enterprises dictate the functioning of the internet as it exists today.

 

A couple of related comments below from Wikipedia

• “Neutrality proponents claim that telecom companies seek to impose a tiered service model in order to control the pipeline and thereby remove competition, create artificial scarcity, and oblige subscribers to buy their otherwise uncompetitive services”
  
  
• “Opponents of net neutrality claim that broadband service providers have no plans to block content or degrade network performance. Despite this claim, there has been a single case where an Internet service provider, Comcast, intentionally slowed peer-to-peer (P2P) communications. Still, other companies have begun to use deep packet inspection to discriminate against P2P, FTP, and online games, instituting a cell-phone style billing system of overages, free-to-telecom "value added" services, and bundling”
  
  

 

While I will restrict my opinions on the issue itself, I feel confident to say that “Attorneys from commercial enterprises will keep fighting this issue until they win. There is too much money at stake. Net neutrality will be a thing of the past. I give it three years.”

 

What do you think?