You might know what a virtual private network (VPN) is, but the odds of you actually using one are low. You really should be using a VPN — ultimately, you may end up seeing it as just as vital as your internet connection. We'll tell you why, explain how to choose a VPN provider and list five that are worth considering.

It's a familiar refrain — IT should serve business, not the other way around. How can you actually make that happen? These five simple hints should help.

A 24-year old Central Coast IT pro has been identified as the self-proclaimed leader of online hacking group LulzSec and charged with hacking offences by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) after being arrested at hs workplace last night. While full details of the case won't emerge until he appears in court in May, the AFP used the arrest to remind businesses of the basic principles they should follow to avoid similar attacks.

Hello LH, I'm a young accountant working at a small-medium enterprise (SME). I manage a bunch of finance, admin and sales staff along with my finance duties. My manager is leaving for greener pastures and the flow-on restructure will result in me becoming the IT co-ordinator and officer managing the department.

It's the advice everyone proffers: if you want to make your workplace IT more efficient and cheaper to run, you have to simplify it. But how can you go about doing that? A report from Boston Consulting Group suggests six broad approaches that can be useful.

In the cloud computing era, effectively managing servers and systems is more important than ever. Follow these basic principles to ensure that your workplace systems run smoothly (and advance your own career in the process).

Our Best Of 2012 series continues. Today, we're highlighting our IT pro content: the hints and tips that help you manage tech at work and advance your career.

Dear Lifehacker, I've been acting in a senior role for four months, and I've just been extended until February next year. The position has not been advertised (the last person in the job retired) but I have the feeling it will be sometime early next year. What can I do to help secure the job full-time? It would be a big pay rise from my previous job, and I have managed some good wins in the last four months. Any advice? Thanks, Please Promote Me

The benefits of cloud computing are obvious — high availability, improved flexibility, reduced costs — but that doesn't mean that shifting from a conventional server architecture to a cloud environment is easy. What roadblocks stand in the way of companies shifting to the cloud, and what can be done about them?

Dear Lifehacker, We're moving office in about eight months' time, and it's a good opportunity to smarten up our outdated internal technology. Any tips on what to avoid/embrace in an office fit-out? I'm mainly concerned with making the space feel shiny for staff and customers whilst not getting locked in to one vendor or looking dated in three years with plasma screens when everyone else has holographic displays and telepathy.

Bring your own device (BYOD) poses support and finance challenges for any organisation, but those challenges are magnified when your "workers" are school students who sometimes treat laptops as if they were footballs. How does the education sector deal with the BYOD trend?

Work in IT and want to know what your boss will be spending money on next year? A recent survey suggests security will be at the top of the pile.

Existing cloud options for running Windows Server 2012 instances include local operator Ninefold and integrating it with Windows Azure Services. Amazon Web Services (AWS) has now entered the fray, offering the ability to deploy Windows Server 2012 instances.

Maximising your earning potential in IT means developing the right skills. "Big data" — identifying trends from the masses of data that are created by everything we do online — remains a highly in-demand area, with Gartner suggesting that demand for those roles will far outstrip supply over the next few years.

A job interview isn't just your chance to make a good impression — it also gives you a chance to scope out a workplace to see if you'll be a good fit. To that end, Forbes recommends you pay close attention to the environment and the personnel.

Fancy an evening networking with your peers, beer, food, trivia and prizes? Thanks to the Microsoft Windows Server 2012 team, we're hosting a one-off Lifehacker meetup for IT professionals in Sydney on Thursday November 15.

Whether you freelance on the side or you're a full-time contractor, working out what to charge can be a challenging question. Your Rate is a webapp that asks three simple questions: how much you want to make every month, how many hours you want to work each week, and how many weeks of holiday you want to take each year. Fill those in and it calculates a suggested hourly rate.

Dear Lifehacker, Earlier in the year I did 14 weeks of jury duty. Now I'm looking for a job, I have a huge gap in my employment history. Should I mention this on my resume to help clarify the reason for the gap? Thanks, Time Served

In large organisations, contacting the help desk for support or new services is rarely a pleasant experience. Is consumerisation via tablet apps the way to solve that problem? Only if you also have the right resources.