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Question

Computer Books for non-technical background

Apr 21, 2015 1:04AM PDT

Hello. I'm a sales rep for a company selling IT hardware. I'm interested in technology, but I don't have a technical background.

I'm looking to bone up on enterprise IT, so that I can understand the way IT works at any given company, and provide better solutions to my customers.

Do you intelligent people have any recommendations for books that deal with enterprise/business IT at a high or mid level, and would be more or less accessible to someone with a BA in liberal arts, not computer science?

Some books I've read that I've liked have been "Computer: A History of the Information Machine" Campbell-Kelly and Aspray, and "The Innovators" by Isaacson.

Those were good for computer history, but now I'm looking for books on enterprise IT.

Any help/guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
How about the Office for Dummies books?
Apr 21, 2015 1:22AM PDT

Amazon and other places have several inexpensive books about MS Office that might be of benefit. You should also inquire at your local library. You could also ask some of your customers.

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Answer
Re: enterprise/business IT
Apr 21, 2015 1:44AM PDT

That's a rather wide field.

Ranges from "why do I use the cloud' and "how can I use social media to get in contact with my customers" to "what to do if they launch a DSoS attack at my company", not to speak of "What's the best ERP-system for my business".

Better be somewhat more specific.

Kees

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Thanks, and more specifics
Apr 21, 2015 3:01AM PDT

Thank you! I appreciate the response. As someone else mentioned, I should be more specific. I'm comfortable with the entire MS office suite and the basics of computer construction (i.e. how they're made, what makes one better than the other, etc.)

I'm looking for information on the practice of implementing IT in a modern, large business. 1000 end-users and up. I'd like to start with the basics before getting into the new (at least new to me) concepts of cloud and the like.

What I mean by basics is: how to select server(s), set up a network, which server applications to download, why a company might use MS Server over Linux. Whether or not to engage companies like Red Hat.

I'm also really curious about datacenters of all kinds. Books about the basics of datacenter setup, installations and administration would be helpful, and how to run a software-defined datacenter.

Also, how to roll out client devices (notebook/desktop) to EU, and what kinds of software should come with it (LanDesk, WinMagic, etc.); should the machines be imaged? What kinds of things might an imaging project entail?

Very business focused, but with a bit of technical. Imagine that there's a college course called "Enterprise IT for Large Corporations." What's the textbook for that course?

Thank you.

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Answer
The thing is, all this changed.
Apr 21, 2015 3:17AM PDT

Enterprise IT for Large Corporations has changed so much in the last decade that there would be a new book every other year. You can't guess which system your Enterprise would subscribe to given how much has changed.

We have the old mainframe and terminal systems out there still. And we have the new everything on a web page using BYOD systems. As to servers those used to be something that looked like your desktop PC and that changed to racks and then blades on racks and that changed to "sleds."
Read http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/07/how-facebook-is-killing-the-hardware-business-as-we-know-it/ to see a sled system.

This is why there is no single textbook on this. Better to take a wide view and then pick a solution for your enterprise?
Bob