Happy Friday!

Congrats, you made it through another week of closing tickets and explaining why using the open Wi-Fi at the neighborhood Starbucks is a data security worst practice.

We’re thinking about how to write a remote work policy based on technical guardrails instead of wishful thinking, given the number of rogue café Wi-Fi logins we deal with every week. Then we’re delving into the eternal IT career debate: chasing management titles versus building skills in our current niche.

Over in the community, AMD’s big pivot to becoming a "data center-first" company is the talk of the town, but it’s not all work: from our weekly collective gaslighting fest to contemplating a world where USB never became the industry standard for connectors, we’re kicking off the weekend right. And if you’re at SpiceWorld 2026, don’t forget to share pics on the photo thread!

Before you dive in, test yourself in today’s Daily Challenge: it’s all about Windows rejections and reservations!

Let's keep IT spicy going into the weekend!

SpiceRex Spiceworks Community

Security

Writing a remote work policy IT can actually enforce

Most remote work policies look great in an employee handbook, until someone connects to an unencrypted café hotspot using a personal tablet and calls the help desk when VPN routing breaks. A security policy that relies entirely on end-user willpower is a breach waiting to happen.

To protect distributed endpoints without driving employees to shadow IT workarounds, your rules have to pair clear expectations with automated technical guardrails. Shelby Green discusses how to draft a remote work policy backed by real-world device management, MFA, and zero-trust controls.

IT Careers

Climb the corporate ladder or find your IT niche?

Sooner or later, every IT pro comes to a fork in their career path: do you take the management track toward Director and VP titles, or double down on deep technical specialization as a principal engineer, security architect, or niche systems guru?

Budget allocation and executive meetings aren’t for everyone—but staying purely hands-on comes with its own ceiling if you don’t position your expertise strategically. Peter Tsai weighs the real-world trade-offs of leadership versus specialization so that you can figure out which path fits your goals.

Which road will you travel? »

Hardware

AMD is now a "data center-first" company: Smart pivot or risky bet?

For decades, AMD built its reputation in consumer devices, but now Team Red is making its priorities crystal clear. AMD officially declared itself a "data center-first" company, signaling that enterprise server silicon, EPYC processors, and AI accelerators are taking top billing over consumer hardware.

On one hand, chasing high-margin enterprise racks makes business sense; on the other, abandoning or sidelining the PC enthusiasts who kept them alive during lean years is a bold gamble. Does this shift mean better enterprise server competition and pricing for sysadmins, or should desktop buyers be worried?

Is AMD betting on the wrong horse? »

Unanswered Questions

Answering the call to solve IT dilemmas

We spotlight questions in every newsletter, offering you the chance to step up, share your expertise, and make a difference.

It's not just about solving IT dilemmas; it's an opportunity to connect, collaborate, and earn some well-deserved points and badges along the way.

Help fellow IT pros by sharing your expertise »

Wrong Answers Only

Unpacking the horror of the RAID

Every sysadmin knows the cold sweat of watching a degraded array rebuild at 2% per hour over a holiday weekend.

So how do you explain what RAID stands for in words that truly communicate the painful IT reality: Randomly Annoying IT Department? Rapidly Aging Infrastructure Disaster? Ducks or mosquitoes—or something else?

What does RAID mean to you? »

Water Cooler

Kick off your weekend in the Water Cooler

IT is serious work. This isn’t. Our Water Cooler is packed with the funniest, quirkiest, and most "only in IT" moments from around the Community.

Perfect for a breather before the weekend, and a reminder that no matter how weird your day was, someone in IT has probably seen worse.

Join the party before the weekend starts »

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