Have you ever wondered why your IT environment seems to be excessively chaotic? Are you reactively putting out fires becuase you just don't seem to have the time to fix things properly? What are the key secrets to getting an environment from reactive to proactive?

Those are the central questions that I tackle in my Windows Insider column for this month's Redmond Magazine. I talk about how the problem of getting from reactive to proactive is in many ways a time and effort problem. The problem with making the cultural change to get there is that there is initially a lot more work involved before you can reap the benefits. That extra work is involved with learning scripting, automated software installation and packaging, and the other critical automation skills necessary.

The bad part is that for you and yours to get to proactive, that process will involve a lot of extra work at the outset.

Read the article to learn more. I don't provide any silver bullets towards the solution, but definitely outline where you need to focus your energies to get you started.