In this episode, Sean and Crystal explore the complex and rapidly evolving landscape of AI, data center impacts, regulation challenges, and societal implications. They discuss the urgency of establishing standards…
Data Centers: More or Less — SolarWinds TechPod 111
What Practitioners Really Want from an AI Agent in IT
TL; DR Practitioners don’t want “AI for AI’s sake”—they want an agent that can explain complex incidents clearly with concise, contextual issue summaries. Root cause assist is critical because it…
Help Desk vs. Service Desk: Understanding the Key Differences and Why a Service Desk is the Future
Originally published Sept. 10, 2024, and updated July 25, 2026. IT support isn’t one-size-fits-all — here’s how to know which model fits your team. In IT support, “help desk” and…
SAP HANA Under Pressure, Part 2: How to Tune Queries and Resolve Blocking
Learn how to prioritize SAP HANA query tuning, resolve blocking, and validate performance improvements with SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer.
The Phantom Pilot and the Myth of the Average User
“We must design for the way people behave, not for how we would wish them to behave.” — Donald A. Norman, Living with Complexity The U.S. military had a problem…
How THWACK Missions Turn Database Community Engagement Into Product Learning
Noun – thwack (plural thwacks)
- An act of hitting hard, especially with a flat implement or a stick; a whack; also, a powerful stroke involved in such hitting; a blow, a strike.
Noun – mission (countable and uncountable, plural missions)
- (countable) A set of tasks that fulfills a purpose or duty; an assignment set by an employer, or by oneself.
Building the Next Phase of Observability Around Openness, Context, and Action
Observability is entering a new phase. AI is reshaping how teams detect and resolve issues, OpenTelemetry means open standards are the default expectation, and there is growing pressure to connect…
SAP HANA Under Pressure, Part 1: How to Diagnose Slowdowns with Wait-Based Analysis
SAP HANA slowdowns are easy to misread when teams start with infrastructure symptoms alone. Learn how wait-based analysis can help database teams identify where delay is building, what changed, and which SQL, blocking, plan, or resource context matters most.
Why SAP HANA Performance Is an Application Owner Problem, Not Just a DBA Problem
When SAP HANA performance drops, the impact doesn’t stay in the database team. Application owners are often left managing escalations without enough visibility to explain what’s wrong. Here’s why that gap matters and how shared database insight can help.
ITSM for Healthcare: Compliance, Assets, and the Help Desk You Actually Need
Healthcare IT teams operate under a different kind of pressure. They are supporting clinicians, protecting sensitive patient data, managing distributed assets, and keeping critical systems available across hospitals, clinics, labs,…