Alaska Communications is an internet service provider (ISP) supporting communications infrastructure in Alaska. Their team provides critical network services to customers—oftentimes, in remote locations. The company was in the midst of developing plans for a new site—one which was located on a mountaintop. With this remote site, they knew they were in for an uphill battle...

Ad hoc queries and reports are the bane of many IT departments. The need to churn out frequent, one-off, "must have" data queries for users can be a significant drain on developers' time. Users can't be blamed for the numerous impromptu requests. Customer service, continuous improvement, and the maintenance of competitive advantage demand that business people regularly look at...