Active Directory is often compared to the central nervous system of the human body.

 

The central nervous system consists of the brain, spinal cord, and nerves running throughout the body. Just as the central nervous system coordinates and influences every activity of all parts of the human body, Active Directory is a database that coordinates the servers, client computers, printers, shared files, and other resources, as well as securing network resources in a Microsoft Windows network. Active Directory accomplishes these tasks by providing a hierarchy of management elements enabling administrators to organize resources, advertise these resources accordingly, and control the users who access them.
Medical doctors suggest a checkup or physical at least once a year, as well as personal monitoring of your health. Even if you are healthy, the purpose of these visits is to screen for diseases, asses risk of future medical problems, encourage a healthy lifestyle, update vaccinations, and maintain a relationship with doctors in case of an illness.
The comparison to Active Directory here can also be made. Proper monitoring and periodic checkups can keep the database functioning smoothly and without issues. It can definitely benefit from checkups, or health checks. (Download our free infographic to see what questions you can ask to see if your Active Directory could use a health check!)

Should You Engage in a Zunesis Network Health Check?

 

The purpose of an Active Directory health check could be for the same reasons listed above:

Screen for Diseases

• Verify trust relationships
• View replication failures between domain controllers
• View queued replication events between domain controllers
• Display replication partners and results of replication events
• Provide a summary of the replication state and health of the forest
• Analyze the state of all domain controllers in the forest and report problems
• Review results of Microsoft Best Practice Analyzer on domain controllers

 

Asses Risk of Future Medical Problems

• Discuss Microsoft Server Roadmap. Are you using the latest version? When will the next version be released? When will the oldest version no longer be supported?
• Meet with Active Directory stakeholders. Will the layout and design of database be affected by any projects or applications in the future?

 

Encourage a Healthy Lifestyle

• Discuss current administrative practices surrounding Active Directory. What is the process to add, change, or delete users or resources, etc.?
• Discuss and recommend monitoring strategies around Active Directory
• Discuss and recommend auditing strategies of Active Directory
• Review objects (users, computers, etc.) to check for stale/out-of-date resources, or illegal objects

 

Update Vaccinations

• Validate patch levels on domain controllers
• Validate anti-virus/malware on domain controllers
• Discuss security around the database

 

Maintain a Relationship with Doctors in Case of an Illness

• Good to have a relationship with an infrastructure provider, like Zunesis, when issues arise and advanced assistance is needed
• Good to have an independent third-party, like Zunesis, doing the health checks. You aren’t allowed to prescribe your own medication, are you?

 

Just like the human body, proper monitoring and care can assist in keeping Active Directory healthy. Active Directory and the Windows network can only benefit from these periodic “doctor” visits. The Zunesis Active Directory Health Check will assess your current Active Directory Infrastructure and deliver a report providing a third-party review, validation, and recommendations for improvement of the current database design and implementation, based on Microsoft best practices. The assessment can also be used as a template by which you can provide your own regularly scheduled “checks” of the environment.

 

Many of our customers have their dreams of an expansive and fully-loaded (or, in some cases, just upgraded to the necessities) data center dashed by lack of funding. For some clients, applying for grants is one potential path to acquiring the additional funds needed to maintain and improve their IT environments.

However, writing grant proposals is an extremely challenging process. In this blog, I’m going to focus on some of the things I learned in my years of writing these proposals. Like any other skill, it takes passion, preparation, credibility, and perseverance.

 

If you are writing your 1st (or 20th) grant proposal, it is extremely important you remember the following key factors:

1. Read your Grant Guidelines (this is a must). Make a list of all “fatal flaws” and keep that in mind as you construct your application.
2. Create an outline of your project, including all required elements from the Grant Guidelines.
3. Build your budget, understanding fully budget limitations on indirect costs, equipment, operating costs, etc.
4. Write your organization’s story: Whether it be a school, hospital, or state facility, the story behind your needs is compelling.
5. Paint a vivid picture for the reviewers, summarizing your project and laying out your needs as well as your intent for the project. Make sure your goals are measureable.
6. Develop a graphic depiction of the relationships between resources, activities, outputs, and outcomes of your program.
7. Incorporate case studies when available to demonstrate the work you’ve been doing and its efficacy.
8. Reference research on similarly implemented programs to demonstrate.
9. Complete your Grant application with a Project Summary.

Superior grants are well-prepared and demonstrate strong attention to detail. Grant proposals should be viewed as business plans designed to make the funding partner confident in the success of your project. Your proposal must convey the overall impact of resolving difficult problems for your organization, as well as the importance of befitting the student/constituents/member that you serve. At the same time, your submission must be passionate as you have to convince the reviewees that your proposal matters by addressing the impact, the “so what” question, and the paradigm shift you will make in the field.

At the end of the day, superior grants are a product of preparation, preparation, and more preparation. Once you are prepared, credibility, attention to detail, passion, and conviction will enthuse – and ultimately convince your donors.

 

Checklist for Success:

 

• Prior to even drafting the proposal, research the grant-making organization’s mission and funding interests thoroughly. Look for key phrases and try to integrate these into the text of your proposal.
• Check the organization’s website to see if there’s an archive of previous winners. See how well your idea lines up with what’s been funded in the past.
• Pay very close attention to the guidelines. Make sure to look into any internal requirements or deadlines for the opportunity.
• Get as much feedback as you possibly can. Give yourself enough time to write multiple drafts of your proposal.

 

Best of luck to you!

November 12, 2016, will be a night of celebration for Zunesis, their partners, and a very special family.

 

Denver, CO (PRWEB) August 02, 2016

 

Zunesis is excited to announce Saturday, November 12, 2016, as the date for their fifth annual Night of Miracles. The Night of Miracles is an evening to celebrate having raised the funds to build a Habitat for Humanity home for a hard-working family in Denver, and it has become an annual tradition at Zunesis. The event, which will be held at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, will feature Zunesis’ 2016 Habitat partner family, who will receive the keys to their new home during the event. To keynote the event, Zunesis is bringing back international speaker and 9-time New York Times bestselling author, Don Yeager.

 

For nearly a decade, Zunesis has partnered with Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver in numerous ways, from donating time at corporate build days on Habitat construction sites, to financial donations, to spearheading their own fundraising efforts. The last of these was the original idea behind the Night of Miracles. Zunesis wanted to do more than support Habitat for Humanity on their own; they wanted to provide an avenue for their valued business partners to join them in giving back to the community.

 

“At Zunesis, we believe that we’re all stronger when we work together. That’s why we wanted to create a way for those who partner with us in business to also partner with us in making a positive impact on our community,” said Zunesis CEO, Steve Shaffer. Over the years, the Night of Miracles has become an event where multiple businesses work together to achieve one goal: raising enough money to build a home for a family in their community.

 

The evening itself will be a black tie event consisting of cocktails and dinner. Guests will enjoy access to select museum exhibits as well as an inspiring keynote. Most importantly, they will witness just how impactful their donations are as a family’s life is changed forever when they receive the keys to their new home.

 

For more information about the Night of Miracles, please reference the attached documents.

 

About Zunesis
Zunesis is a leading IT solution provider with locations in Colorado and Nevada. Our vision centers around an intense focus on serving our customers and bringing value to their business through strategic IT solutions. In 2015, Zunesis was added to the CRN Next-Gen 250 list, recognizing them for their innovation and forward-thinking in the industry. Later, in March 2016, Zunesis was named to the CRN TechElite 250 for the 7th consecutive year as a best-of-breed solution provider with deep technical expertise and premier certifications. For more information, visit our website, the Zunesis Blog; or follow us on LinkedIn.

You need to be doing research beyond your computer screen.

 

The Zunesis demo lab is fully-equipped with the latest technologies, allowing you to try before you buy.

 

From white papers and data sheets to infographics and eBooks (and the list goes on and on), there is no shortage of information about the different technologies on the market. All you have to do is type the name of a new product into the Google search bar, and voila! Your screen is populated with more than you could ever possibly need to know about the given topic. Right? Wrong!

 

While the internet is a fabulous source for doing research and learning about the different technologies on the market, it has its limitations. Primarily, that it’s all on your screen. Why is this a problem? Because any marketer from any technology company can tell you anything they want about their product (as well as anything they want about their competitors’ products). So, while it’s a no-brainer that the internet is the best place to start your research, eventually you’re going to need to go further.

 

That’s exactly why Zunesis has invested heavily in a fully-functional, on-site demo lab. And here is why you need to take some time out of your day to come use it:

 

1. 1. Learn how it works: Sure, your IT staff is stacked with smart and capable people. But let’s be honest, IT can be difficult (and not always intuitive). Our Zunesis solution architects have built our lab, and they are well-versed in the speeds, feeds, and quirks of the various technologies. Save yourself and your staff time by allowing our team to show you how to run and manage the different products.
   2. See it in action: YouTube is the world’s second most popular search engine because people learn best when they see something done. A “How To” video is much more helpful for the average Joe than an instruction manual. In our lab, you get to see the technologies you’re considering purchasing. You can see with your own eyes how different platforms work, how they work together, and even how they don’t work.
   3. Test drive it: You wouldn’t buy a new car without taking it for a test drive, so why would you invest in a new technology platform without doing the same? Our lab allows you and your team a hands-on opportunity to test products before you buy them. Sure, that white paper you downloaded told you everything you need to know about Storage Platform X, but I’m willing to bet there’s something new for you to learn when you actually try that platform out for yourself.

 

 

Below, I’ve listed the technologies we currently have available for demo in our lab. We are consistently expanding our lab, so expect this list to grow as time progresses.

 

• HPE
  • 3PAR
  • OneView
  • StoreVirtual
  • Hyper-Converged 250
  • Moonshot
  • Blades
• Zerto
• CommVault
• Veeam
• Microsoft Hyper-V
• VMware
  • vSOM (vRealize)
  • vVols

 

 

On Tuesday, July 19^th, the Zunesis team joined with Habitat of Metro Denver to work on the construction of the home for this year’s partner family.

 

DENVER, CO: Zunesis, an IT solution provider headquartered in Englewood, CO, has partnered with Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver since 2008. Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit organization that partners with hard-working families to provide affordable and safe housing. Through this long-term partnership, Zunesis and Habitat have been able to fund and build a total of seven – and counting – homes in the Denver community.

 

Habitat for Humanity makes an incredible difference in the lives of their partner families. As a non-profit, they rely heavily on the partnership of the surrounding community to provide both the necessary funds and volunteer hours to build their homes.

 

Zunesis is a regular financial sponsor, and even hosts their own annual gala, the Night of Miracles, to raise funds for Habitat. However, the Zunesis team believes strongly in going above and beyond, so they do not stop with a financial donation. Each year, the entire company joins the Habitat construction crews to put in physical labor to help build homes.

 

“Writing a company check is great. I’m glad we do it,” noted Zunesis Marketing Manager, Megan Shaffer. “However, it doesn’t feel personal because it’s the company’s money. Getting out there, swinging a hammer, and meeting our partner family – that makes it personal. That makes us each feel like we’re investing in our community together.”

 

To add to that, Zunesis CEO Steve Shaffer commented, “This is one of my favorite days of the year. We believe so strongly in what Habitat does that it doesn’t even seem like we’re the ones donating anything. It’s truly our honor to be able to partner with this organization.”

 

As stated in the Zunesis Company Core Values, they believe strongly in two things:

 

1. Building a strong team culture
2. Making a positive impact on their community.

 

The annual build day with Habitat is a testament to these values, and each year, the company’s commitment to these values grows as the lives of both employees and home recipients are changed through partnership with Habitat for Humanity.

 

About Zunesis

 

Zunesis is a leading IT solution provider with locations in Colorado and Nevada. Our vision centers around an intense focus on serving our customers and bringing value to their business through strategic IT solutions. In 2015, Zunesis was added to the CRN Next-Gen 250 list, recognizing them for their innovation and forward-thinking in the industry. Later, in March 2016, Zunesis was named to the CRN TechElite 250 for the 7^th consecutive year as a best-of-breed solution provider with deep technical expertise and premier certifications. For more information visit www.zunesis.com, the Zunesis Blog; or follow us on LinkedIn.