Articles by Hunter Willis
IBM Cloudability on AWS: New Features & Roadmap — Video Series Summary (August 2026)
As cloud cost management continues to evolve, IBM Cloudability providing customers with new AI-powered features, governance enhancements, and advanced container cost capabilities. In this blog post , Ryan Niksch (AWS) and Hunter Willis (IBM) walk through everything that’s new and coming soon in 2026 H2. Below is a summary of each session with links to the full videos.
The Potential Benefits of a Scalable Approach to Bond Ladders
Sponsored by Most advisors recognize that constructing bond portfolios with individual bonds rather than mutual funds or ETFs can be beneficial for high-net-worth individuals and families that require a more sophisticated cash flow approach. Fixed income ladders can be a great tool to satisfy the individualized needs of those investors while providing a structured framework to portfolio construction.
The Potential Benefits of a Scalable Approach to Bond Ladders
New technology allows advisors to create more personalized and efficient bond portfolios. Hunter Willis and Ye Tao Sponsored by Most advisors recognize that constructing bond portfolios with individual bonds rather than mutual funds or ETFs can be beneficial for high-net-worth individuals and families that require a more sophisticated cash flow approach.
Why advisors should consider direct indexing over active management
The information, analysis and opinions expressed herein are for informational purposes only and do not necessarily reflect the views of Envestnet. These views reflect the judgment of the author as of the date of writing and are subject to change at any time without notice. Nothing contained in this piece is intended to constitute legal, tax, accounting, securities, or investment advice, nor an opinion regarding the appropriateness of any investment, nor a solicitation of any type.
Regular trash pickup resumes for Mayfield residents
.Heavy rain is expected to continue to develop and expand across the area from now through the middle of the afternoon ahead of a strong cold front working slowly southeast across the area. With soil moisture relatively high, runoff from this rainfall will continue to fill small ditches and streams to bankfull in a short period of time, leading to overland and road flooding. ...FLOOD WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 515 PM CST THIS AFTERNOON...
Local pastor plans to return to church after a year, despite winter weather
UNION CITY, TN — Northwest Tennessee was the last to get winter weather in our viewing area. As of 6 p.m., the precipitation in that area was mostly sleet on Thursday but the roads were still slick. At Crosswind Church off of U.S. 51, the slick conditions could impact the comeback of a community leader. Jeremy Powell is pastor at Crosswind Church. Exactly one year ago, Powell found out he had fungal meningitis in his spine.
Man hospitalized in Mayfield candle factory collapse celebrates discharge from hospital
Hunter Willis, WPSD PADUCAH — After weeks in Paducah hospitals, a local tornado survivor is going home. Jim Douglas first spoke to us from a hospital bed inside Baptist Health Paducah on Dec. 16, just days after the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory collapsed with him inside. The factory collapsed the night of Dec. 10 when an EF-4 tornado struck Mayfield, Kentucky. Douglas says he was trapped under the collapsed building for more than five hours, sustaining crush injuries and nerve damage.
Reassess the State of Your Digital Collaboration
PHOTO: NASA We've all gone through a great deal of change over the past year. IT teams having to deal with rapidly accelerated digital transformation is just one of many examples. Now, one full year after the initial COVID-19 lockdowns pushed many to work from home, organizations are now reassessing their digital workplace strategy. The shift to working from home impacted organizations in different ways.
4 Keys to Sustainable Growth for MSPs a Year Into COVID-19
Develop service offerings, be a strategic partner and help clients maximize investments. According to a recent McKinsey study, the pandemic advanced the digitization of internal operations by three to four years. And as we saw last March, many businesses were able to adapt so quickly because of the help of managed service providers handling digital transformation and migration efforts.
So Many Security Breaches, So Little Proactive Action
PHOTO: AlphonseLeong.Photos | adobe stock As we all know, the COVID-19 crisis accelerated digital transformation, and with it, a collective shift to the cloud. But with that increased access to data storage and collaboration services has come a steep increase in individual users with the (potentially ungoverned) ability to upload and share all kinds of data. Applications like Microsoft Teams make it so easy to share information that end users can accidentally overshare.
What's Your Microsoft 365 Content Security Plan? Original
Microsoft 365 has a wide variety of applications, all with their own security implications. Microsoft Teams integrates the applications of Microsoft 365 into an easy to use chat platform that simplifies collaboration for even the most inexperienced user. Through Teams, employees can share files, application data, email, calendars and planner information with the click of a button.
Governance Measures to Tame Your Collaboration Complexity Original
Over the past few years, the software that organizations use to create content and collaborate has grown in complexity, as have the corresponding compliance and privacy regulations. Gone are the days of attaching a file to an email and sending it off without another thought. That’s marks an important evolution in security, data loss prevention, and privacy — but it puts a burden on both end users and IT.
Security and Digital Collaboration in the Age of COVID 19 Original
We’ve all been continuing to work under the unique challenges COVID-19 has presented since March. For most organizations, this means most if not all of their workforce is still working from the safety of their homes, forcing a digital transformation around the globe the likes of which we have never seen.
What IT Can Do to Keep Productivity High in a WFH World Original
With remote working now the norm, the pressure is on IT teams to keep workers productive and informed. Technology now serves as the lifeline to keep businesses operational and IT teams must pivot from being reactive to proactive as a result. Help Employees Get Work Done With Contextual Communication The change starts with communication.
Top 5 Microsoft 365 Security and Compliance Center Features and Tricks
The Security and Compliance Center in Microsoft 365 has tons of great tools to find sensitive information and help you make your environment more secure. There’s a LOT of features and admin tools in the Security and Compliance interface though, and it can be confusing to know where to begin! To help you with enforcing security in Microsoft 365, I’ve compiled some tips and tricks below to help simplify securing you collaboration information.
Does Your Add-On Solution Only Add More Work? Original
Almost every organization uses third-party/add-on/partner applications to enhance the native capabilities of their main cloud collaboration platform. In fact, all of the main technology players — Microsoft, Google, AWS — see their partner and add-on solution ecosystems as a competitive advantage and have made significant investments in cultivating them. But developing a strategy for tracking and administering third-party subscriptions can get complicated.
Securing Sensitive Information in the Cloud Comes Down to Access Management Original
PHOTO: Michael Dziedzic Cloud-based platforms saw a major boost in adoption as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with many organizations moving collaboration entirely to the cloud via platforms like Microsoft Teams. Adopting new cloud platforms and methods of collaboration means it's time for organizations to create a plan for securing sensitive information.
The Time to Reel in Ad-Hoc Collaboration Is Now
PHOTO: stephen momot Working from home has been a trending topic not only in the tech world, but through most of our society lately. News reports have highlighted the security breaches and outages from various chat platforms. Feature comparisons for chat tools and recommendations for work from home life have dominated tech sector discussions.
What IT Teams Can Do to Help Their Organizations Today
PHOTO: Ioana Cristiana Organizations across the globe are adapting to this stressful and difficult time, with many asking workers to work from home for the first time. While working from home may be the norm for some, for most workers, remote work is an occasional perk or something they have little to no experience with.
The Digital Transformation Struggle Is Real
PHOTO: Logan Fisher Time and time again we see organizations invest heavily in both the cloud and new technologies, yet fail to see significant increases in productivity. The phenomena is widely acknowledged, but we can’t put a finger on why it keeps happening. Let’s explore some of the common stumbling blocks — and more importantly, ways to avoid them — and find ways to increase productivity, while also getting the return on investment (ROI) out of digital transformation.
The Real Secret to Digital Transformation Success
PHOTO: Sai De Silva Countless SaaS platforms, collaboration tools, security solutions and technologies offer ROI in productivity and promise growth — and many of them can help organizations actually accomplish what they promise in startling ways. Yet, as I touch on in almost everything I write, all of this requires planning and significant efforts in change management.
The Real Secret to Digital Transformation Success
Countless SaaS platforms, collaboration tools, security solutions and technologies offer ROI in productivity and promise growth — and many of them can help organizations actually accomplish what they promise in startling ways. Yet, as I touch on in almost everything I write, all of this requires planning and significant efforts in change management.
Digital Transformation: So Many Buzzwords, So Little Time
PHOTO: Dmitry Ratushny The software solutions landscape can be difficult to navigate, especially with all the buzzwords that have become associated with digital transformation. To help those on their digital transformation journey navigate the waters of procurement more pragmatically, outlined below are some of those buzzwords, what they refer to, and some things to keep and mind to further question claims.
Using Microsoft Teams to Increase Productivity
PHOTO: Andreas Klassen Many companies are in the midst of a digital transformation shift, adopting new services to increase employee productivity and eliminate clunky manual processes. At the same time, these companies are slowly weighing their options and restricting access to many features that have the power to add efficiencies in the workplace.
How to Get Started Managing Risk in the Cloud
PHOTO: Eun-Kwang Bae It’s impossible to completely eliminate risk. This holds true in any situation, including managing data and collaboration in the cloud. However, every organization must do whatever it can to reduce risk to the furthest extent possible, especially as security and privacy incidents rise in frequency and severity.
Everyone Is Drinking from the Firehose: Invest In and Expand Your IT Teams
PHOTO: Phil Goodwin Last month, I discussed how rapid changes in technological advancements — especially in the cloud — are posing different challenges to small and large organizations alike. As these changes continue to progress, however, organizations must keep one thing in mind: It’s time to invest in and expand IT teams.
Everyone Is Drinking from the Firehose: Change Management and the Future of IT
PHOTO: CAVORT / Shutterstock More changes are happening in the world of technology than ever before, and at a faster pace to boot. The rate of technological advancement is affecting all industries and the day-to-day lives of most people. New generations of employees are entering the workforce, expecting to use technology that is as efficient as the technology they use in their personal lives.
Building vs. Buying an Office 365 Provisioning Tool: 5 Things to Consider
PHOTO: Saad Salim As more organizations adopt Office 365, identifying and implementing a provisioning tool that helps govern all of its applications is key. While there isn't a one-size-fits-all approach for IT admins looking to build or buy their own tool, they should consider a few questions to choose the right option for their organization. 1. How much time and effort will building a tool cost?
7 Strategies to Stop Shadow IT in Its Tracks
PHOTO: Nadine Shaabana When employees use unauthorized applications to get work done, it’s commonly known as “shadow IT.” Shadow IT is becoming an increasingly pressing issue as the cloud has provided easy access to SaaS tools, many of which are offered as freemium models.
5 Tips for a Smooth Transition From Skype to Microsoft Teams
PHOTO: Zane Lee Microsoft Teams has amazing adoption rates in part because it offers much more than just calls and chats. The Teams application provides new ways to integrate file and document management, task management and all of the applications of Office 365 into one simple interface. Essentially, it pairs the traditional collaboration capabilities of applications like SharePoint with an easy-to-use, easy-to-organize and persistent chat interface.
10 Keys to Microsoft Teams Governance Success
PHOTO: Chunlea Ju A multi-function communication platform like Microsoft Teams is an essential tool for today’s work environment — not just a fancy piece of tech. Nearly three-quarters (70 percent) of professionals globally telecommute at least one day a week, while 43 percent of U.S. employees do so on occasion. These workers, and their teams, require seamless 24/7 access to the same information to remain successful.
Who Owns Office 365 Deployment? Most Organizations Don’t Know
Posted on February 7, 2019 by Hunter Willis in Office, and Office 365 If you read the press releases and attend the industry conferences, you might believe that every organization has moved to – and is successfully operating in – the cloud. But having advised customers of all sizes across multiple industries, we can report that like every transition in the past, cloud adoption and the process of digital transformation has caused an industry-wide operational struggle.
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