Cloud Computing

With more and more cloud computing / SaaS offerings becoming available to us, just who is promoting them?

Hunter Richards, a Market Analyst in the field of accounting has a poll on the SoftwareAdvice.com site asking “Are accountants recommending the cloud yet?” That is a great question, unfortunately there was only a “Yes” or “No” answer. If there had been a “Sometimes” option, I would have selected it.

In our experience we have seen a couple clients move to cloud based solutions based on suggestions from their accountants. One of them seems to be happy, and another is currently not happy, but mainly due to a bandwidth issue which may be cleared up soon for them. We have another one that it has been suggested to, however they have not made the move.

What holds accountants in particular back from suggesting cloud solutions to their clients I can’t tell you, but here are some reasons I have heard from our own clients for not accepting the technology:

• Fear of the unknown (Fear of change)
• Potential for internet outage and data being unreachable
• The recurring financial burden
• Possible requirement to increase their bandwidth (and in turn recurring costs)
• Loss of control of  data (applies mainly to system admins)
• Security concerns (compliance, breaches, etc)
• No urgency to make a change (what they use works fine)
• Don’t wish to learn how to use a new system
• Fear that the online provider could fold
• Fear that once using the online system, rates may not remain stable
• Nobody they know is using online solutions
• Waiting for cloud computing to become more mature

While some of these reasons may seem minor, the one that comes up more than any other is not about expense, but concern that an internet outage would put them out of business. With the turmoil in the Middle East and Egypt effectively shutting down the internet for several DAYS, this may be of even more concern to certain industries, even though we are told to rest assured that the Internet Kill Switch would never be used here in the US.

When we are consulting with our Greenville and Upstate SC based small and medium business clients regarding a move to a cloud based solution, we have to offer the good, the bad and the ugly sides of the technology to them as we do not wish to leave any stone unturned. We are striving to provide a reliable network and have the “big picture” in mind. On the other hand, an accountant could find that suggesting SaaS results in recurring revenue for them, but if the service is not up to their clients expectations, they could ultimately lose a client. So that may be why more accountants are not actually steering their clients towards cloud computing.

It is my suggestion that a business contemplating the switch to a cloud based solution as recommended by their accountant also get their IT service professionals involved during the planning stages in order to avoid any pitfalls.

Should you wish to discuss a similar move for your business, or if you are an accountant that is interested in discovering more about cloud computing or want to team with a local IT provider, please call 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com

Motion CL900 Windows 7 Tablet

I can hardly contain myself! One of our favorite vendors, Seneca Data, just announced a new line of ruggedized tablet computers that they will be offering in the coming months!

The Android and iPad tablet wars are going full strength, but it looks like Microsoft’s Windows 7 isn’t out of the running just yet.

Oh I already hear what you are saying, “Why Windows!??!?!”  The Samsung Galaxy S tablet running Google’s Android OS, the well established Apple iPad and coming 2nd generation iPad are all fun machines, but fall flat when it comes to business applications. Don’t get me wrong, there ARE people using them for business, and there are a growing number of applications for both platforms. However, Microsoft Windows 7 is the cock of the walk when it comes to business use. Over 90% of the applications our clients use are written specifically for Windows, with no support for Apple Mac OS X or mobile / tablet operating systems at all. Most of these Windows applications do not even have comparable or competing applications on other platforms.

That brings us to just why I am excited about the Seneca Data Motion CL900. ALL these Windows applications will run on it because it is running a full Windows 7 Professional OS. That means, our clients who have legal, medical or other proprietary software will no longer have to use a remote desktop application to run the program on a server, they can run it directly on their tablet.

While you would not want to use this type of device for AV editing (I would say Photoshop is out for sure…) it should offer plenty of power to run typical suites of applications, from Microsoft Office, to Prevail, and certainly all cloud computing / SaaS solutions.

Possibly of more importance to many people, this tablet, unlike the current Android and iPad devices, is a ruggedized! It can survive a 4 foot drop as well as being water, dust and splash resistant!

The CL900 allows the use of optional external devices. Currently, the list of devices includes a magnetic stripe readers and a biometric / finger print reader that mount securely to the side of the unit to expand the capabilities.

There is also an optional docking station that permits easy docking for charging, and more comfortable desktop usage…

Some specifications of the CL900 are:

• Intel Atom 1.2Ghz processor designed for tablet computers
• Connectivity via Mobile Broadband, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS
• Ruggedized case. Display features Corning Gorilla Glass
• 10.1” screen featuring HD 1366 X 768 resolution
• Multitouch & active stylus capable
• 10.9″ x 7.06″ x 0.61″
• 2.1 lbs
• Up to 8 hours battery life
• Expandable
• Quick charging

We should have one in our hot little hands to test as soon as it is available and will report back here our thoughts. Until then, we will hang back and wait.

If you would like more information or would like to be notified when the Motion CL900 becomes available, you can reply to this post, or email info@homelandsecureit.com

Microsoft has announced a Service Update for January 2011 which includes new features and enhancements to improve the service experience for both administrators and users.

Many of these changes have been requested by BPOS users, so it will be a pleasant surprise for those for sure…

This is from the bulletin released on January 5th, 2010:

All service upgrades in this Service Update will be performed on your behalf. These changes are a mandatory upgrade for all users, so it is important that you are aware of them and understand how they may impact you.
The following features and capabilities are included in this Service Update:

Microsoft Online Services Blackberry Administration Console Enhancements
Two enhancements have been introduced to the Microsoft Online Services Blackberry Administration Console (MOSBAC). These enhancements are relevant for customers who subscribe to the Microsoft Online Services multi-tenant Hosted Blackberry service.

User Search
Hosted Blackberry administrators can now search for users in the Microsoft Online Services Blackberry Administration Console. The new search function is similar to the user search function in the Microsoft Online Administration Center (MOAC).

Management of Users with Different UPN and SMTP Address
Customers can now use the Microsoft Online Services Blackberry Administration Console to manage users whose UPN is different from their STMP address.

Administration Console Localization
The Microsoft Online Services Blackberry Administration Console has been localized into the following 19 languages: Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian (Bokmal), Polish, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish

PowerShell Self-Service Administration for Forwarding Rules and POP Access
New commandlets have been added to Microsoft Online Services PowerShell capabilities to allow administrators to modify email forwarding rules and grant or remove POP email connectivity for users. Additionally, a link to Microsoft Online PowerShell documentation has been added to the Microsoft Online Administration Center.

Updated Versions of Live Meeting Client and Outlook Add-In
The Office Live Meeting November Client and Add-in is now available. It includes several administrative and back-end updates including improvements to reading of uploaded PPT files, and German localization. Also includes option to encourage “Exit and End” session behavior. Please refer to this Live Meeting General Discussion forum post for details.

Messaging Records Management
To provide the best service experience for Exchange Online users, Microsoft utilizes Messaging Records Management (MRM) to manage mailbox item counts in critical path folders in Outlook.

Microsoft recommends the following maximum item counts for critical path folders:

• Inbox: 20,000 items
• Sent items: 20,000 items
• Deleted items: 20,000 items
• Calendar: 5,000 items
• Contacts: 5,000 items

MRM helps your users manage the number of items in critical path folders and improves the performance of their mailbox as well as the performance of Exchange for others in your organization. Read this FAQ for information about MRM, how it is applied to users’ mailboxes. The FAQ also includes Powershell commands for determining item counts in your users’ mailboxes. You can also contact Microsoft Online Services Technical Support for a list of high item count mailboxes in your organization.

Service Update Timeline
Deployment of this Service Update into production data centers has started, with deployment to all regions anticipated to be complete by the middle of January, 2011.

The deployment schedule is subject to change. Updates to the deployment schedule will be announced via the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog.

Additional Information
If you have additional questions, there are several resources at your disposal. The Microsoft Online Services Customer Portal provides information about how to contact Microsoft Online Services Support. You can also read the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog for the latest news about the Service Update, participate in technical discussions on the Microsoft Online Services TechNet Forums, or follow the Microsoft Online Services Twitter account.

Sincerely,
Microsoft Online Services

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If you would like more information about BPOS or other SaaS / Cloud Computing Solutions, we are partners with Microsoft and Google and would love to assist you! Please call 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com. You can also try Microsoft BPOS out today by clicking the Free Trial link above…

Word travels fast on Twitter!  And word was that there were outages affecting some Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite customers over the past few weeks…  In light of that, Microsoft has stepped up to the plate with their Online Services Health Dashboard and made it available to all customers and partners in all regions.

This is direct from their newsletter:

Introducing the Microsoft Online Services Health Dashboard
Microsoft Online Services is pleased to make the new Microsoft Online Services Health Dashboard available to all customers and partners in all regions.

The Health Dashboard is a step forward in our efforts to continuously improve our ability to provide customers and partners with up-to-date, accurate, and complete information about our dynamic services. It provides a greater level of transparency into the status of all Microsoft Online services and tools with detailed current and historical information for our three regions: Americas, serving customers in North America and Latin America (NOAM); Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA); and Asia Pacific (APAC).

For more information on the Health Dashboard, please refer to the Public Announcement on the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog.

If you would like to see what all the hubbub is about regarding Software As A Service (SaaS), In-The-Cloud, or Cloud Computing, you can try Microsoft BPOS for free with a no obligation trial.

You get a virtual Microsoft Exchange server which you can use with Outlook Web Access, or your own Outlook, shared calendars, Microsoft SharePoint, and more!

Homeland Secure IT offers both Google Apps and Microsoft BPOS and can help you decide which is best for your application. Please email info@homelandsecureit.com, call 864.990.4748 or visit HERE for more information….

Microsoft Office Outlook 2010 With BPOS Goodness

So you are setup with a FREE trial of Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite and are enjoying all the online apps but something is missing, you don’t want to use web apps, you want to use all the features of Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 or 2010 that you have already paid for and know your way around.

Well it is possible to have your cake and eat it too! *IF* you signed up for the BPOS Standard trial instead of the “Deskless Worker” trial, then you can configure your Outlook to view the same Exchange data you see with Outlook Web Access. You will see the same emails, the same contacts, the same tasks, folders, public folders, calendars etc!

Wait, you didn’t get the Standard version of the BPOS demo? That’s okay, you can log back into the portal and activate the Standard version, then deactivate the Deskless Worker product and not even lose your configuration. YOU MAY lose your emails though and have to start over, but hey, it’s just a demo, you didn’t have that much anyway!

Okay, so back to task at hand, getting Outlook configured. It’s EASY, relatively speaking to accomplish this. First you log into your online mail app (OWA) at http://mail.microsoft.com and once in there, click on OPTIONS at the upper right hand corner, then, select ABOUT from the left hand menu. You will see something that looks like this:

Data to gather from OWA to setup Outlook

The important information for you to gather will be the “Outlook Web Access host name”, and the “Mailbox server name”.

Now, close out Outlook on your desktop and go to START/Control Panel and select Mail (If using Win 7 64 bit, once you open Control Panel, type “mail” in the Search Control Panel input at the top right hand side and select “Mail (32-Bit)”).

Select “Show Profiles” and add a new one… Let’s call it “BPOS”.  Next, select the checkbox for “Manually configure server settings or additional server types” then hit “Next >”. Select “Microsoft Exchange or compatible service” and hit “Next >”.

In the “Server:” field, put the information you gathered from Outlook Web Access for the Mailbox Server Name… (Ex: A3DIAXVS251.RED001.local). For “User Name:” enter your email address, then select “More Settings”. Don’t bother hitting “Check Name” as it will not function (yet)…

Select the “Connection” tab, at the bottom, select “Connect to Microsoft Exchange using HTTP” and then hit the button “Exchange Proxy Settings…”, for “Use this URL to connect to my proxy server for Exchange:”, you need to enter the Outlook Web Access hostname from OWA (Ex: red001.mail.microsoftonline.com) and do not include the “https://” or the “/owa” here, just the hostname.

You can select to “Only connect to proxy servers that have this principal name in their certificate” if you wish, but not necessary.

DO select both of the checkboxes at the bottom for “On xxxx networks, connect using HTTP first, then connect using TCP/IP”, and set the proxy authentication settings to “NTLM Authentication”.

Click OKAY and apply those settings and now try to open Outlook… You should be prompted with a login.

Sounds complicated? Kinda-sorta, but it works well, and you only have to do it once. You can also use the Microsoft single signon client if you wish, which will remember your login and password and allow you to open Outlook without any issue, but some company policies may not allow you to install additional software, or automatic login applications so the above should work for you.

If you get stuck, please reply here or shoot me an email at info@homelandsecureit.com and I will try to give you a hand.

Just saw where another computer user in Greenville could have avoided a nightmare. They posted their computer was toast. Bad hard drive according to some geeky type people that looked at it. The computer is back to running, but their data is GONE.

Homeland Secure IT offers many backup solutions that can protect you from this scenario, but our favorite is Servosity Online Backup, which runs on your computer, regardless of the operating system of that computer (Server, Workstation, Notebook, etc) and quietly backs up your data to a secure server located “in the cloud”.

It is affordable, it is reliable, and the president of Servosity is an Upstate SC native. What more could you ask for?

If you would like to try this awesome online backup service, we offer a FREE trial, just call 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com for additional details or get setup for a trial.

Please do it before it is too late. Losing your pictures, music, documents, etc is a painful experience, and potentially devastating. The cost of recovering hard drives can be in the thousands!

Servosity - Now with continuous data protection goodness!

I’ve heard every excuse in the book for not backing up data. Too much trouble, too expensive, too time consuming, slows the computer down while the backup is running, etc.  Until today.

I actually had a discussion in which the individual told me that backups were useless because they were not real-time, and that using a backup program like Symantec’s Backup Exec or even an online backup solution like Servosity was a scheduled backup and data had potential to be lost between the time you saved it, and the time it was backed up to the media or remote server.

Then, I dropped the bombshell…  There is such a thing as “Continuous Backup Protection”. Symantec offers it of course, but this person was totally against a hardware solution that was on premise, so I told him about Servosity’s offering. Where you can have a regular backup taking place after hours, but for critical data, you could have that backup immediately when you save it! And, if you wanted, you could set it up to backup the entire system in near real-time! Kind of a mirror of your data, on a remote, secure server where each file that is saved or modified is synced with the remote system.

This is where cloud computing, or Software as a Service (SaaS) really shines! If you backup instantly, to a remote location, and a horrific incident occurs, say a tornado, fire, flood, or even theft of your equipment, you have access to it over the internet! A perfect solution for business continuity plans.

Servosity can protect a single workstation or a thousand, a fleet of mobile computers, your Mac OS X, Windows Servers, Exchange, SQL, Linux, and so much more!

If you would like more information about Servosity or other Continuous Backup solutions, please call us at 864-990-4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com

ASK ABOUT OUR FREE TRIAL OF SERVOSITY!

Apple iPad being used more and more for business

My initial reaction to the iPad was that it was cute little toy, but then immediately after its release it became apparent that people wanted to use them for business as well as pleasure. First was the use of Remote Desktop (Terminal Services), which I wrote about and has been finding extreme popularity, then of course was Microsoft Exchange integration to get corporate mail and with that came ways to get connectivity without buying the 3G version of the iPad, using a MiFi from Verizon, and ultimately, hacking the iPad itself and putting a MiFi inside the iPad.

Now that some time has passed since the release of the iPad, we see that many companies and even government organizations have adopted them for real business use. Case in point, the Ontario, CA City Council has begun using the tablet computers and that alone shows how a new technology is changing the way we do business.

I’m seeing more and more interest in these highly portable devices from business users and as more manufacturers develop and release their products, we may see a tablet computing revolution, where the day planners, notebooks, notepads, and even post-it notes go in the trash in favor of this digital ink. And the SaaS (Software as a Service) model will make a lot of providers wealthy.

Businesses who want to get in on this phenomenon should talk to their IT provider to see how easily this technology can be integrated into their networks. Your computer service provider can help you get your pad /tablet computer linked to your corporate Microsoft Exchange mail, setup clients that allow you to remote to your Microsoft Server and much more!

If we can be of any assistance in the Greenville / Upstate area, please call us at 864-990-4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com

Time to replace that old computer? Wanting the latest and greatest? Bigger (or smaller), faster, cooler? Are you just looking for a good excuse to treat yourself? I know I am! Late Father’s Day gift to yourself? Early Christmas? How about an Independence Day gift? That sounds good!

In any case, if you are planning on buying a new notebook or desktop computer, don’t forget to protect that investment with the purchase of these items:

Anti-Virus / Anti-Malware:There is no way you can survive these days without proper anti-virus on your computer! Regardless of your platform, you need this protection. Our favorite is Trend Micro Anti-Virus, which we sell and install. However, if you are truly replacing your computer and not just adding another one, you may already own current anti-virus software. If you do, then you can download and install on the new computer, using the same activation code. Getting a Mac and think you can run “bareback” because they are immune to viruses, trojans, etc… Think again. More and more malicious software is targeting Apple Mac OS X.

Uninterruptable Power Supply / UPS: You are buying an expensive piece of hardware, and then trusting that the power company is going to deliver a good clean source of power to your system. A surge protector can help, but an UPS will not only protect the hardware, it will keep you from losing documents you are working on should the power go out. Our favorite brands of power protection products are APC and Eaton. They make an UPS for every situation, whether you need to protect a single computer, a complete system with monitor, modem, printer, etc or you have to protect a server or a data center.

Backup Solution: You now have an awesome system, with lots of room to download music and store thousands or tens of thousands of photos, movies, etc… What happens in the event of a hard drive failure? These days, you can use online backup solutions such as our Servosity service which will automatically backup your data to the cloud (the internet) in a safe and secure (encrypted) data center. You can then restore your data in the event of a loss. We also offer physical backup solutions, such as USB drives, tape backup systems, Symantec Backup Exec, and we do work with other backup providers as well.

Insurance Rider: Your insurance policy may not cover an expensive computer system. Check with your insurance carrier to make sure you are properly covered in the event of a loss to fire, flood, theft, lightning strike, etc. Many times a rider can be added to your policy for only a few dollars a month that will protect your hardware, and even software.

If you have any questions about these solutions and what may be right for you, please do not hesitate to call us, we can provide computer repair, consultation and sales.  We are authorized resellers for APC & Eaton power protection products, Trend Micro anti-virus / anti-malware, Servosity, Mozy & Symantec backup solutions and more! Call us at 864-990-4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com to find out how we can help you in the Greenville / Upstate SC area…

Backup your Mac using our online backup solution!

Not a week goes by that I am not reminded of how devastating it can be for someone to lose their data. Yesterday a nice guy called about his Macbook that had a drive failure and he took it all the way to Charlotte to have the Mac Store look at it. They are replacing the drive under warranty, however, the data was lost. The fella had a backup – from February – on an external USB drive, but unfortunately, he had run out of space on the drive during the backup and it had corrupted the data that was on there. I had him leave the USB drive with us and we ran our data recovery software on it and was able to recover ~104k files (about 100gb) but probably not nearly all of his data because the original backup did not complete.

This story repeats itself all too frequently. Then we hear the inevitable comment, “If only I had…” just about every single time it happens….    You know, “If only I had backed up”, “If only the drive didn’t fail”, “If only the external USB drive worked” and “If only I had 1000 dollars to recover my data from the shredded hard drive”….

As sad as it is, there are ways to avoid this and far too many of us are aware of them and STILL don’t do anything about it. WHY? Because it is too much trouble, too complicated, too costly, too time consuming, etc.

We have the answer to all those excuses! We offer an awesome online backup solution that can help you protect your data with absolutely no interaction at all. You set it, and forget it (I bet that is a trademarked term and some lawyer will now call me)…. Yes, you install it, configure it, and stop worrying about your data because it is stored “in the cloud”. Not on a fragile USB drive. Or heck, you can double-up and backup to USB drives and this great online backup both. You simply can not have too much insurance against data loss!

This online backup solution is called Servosity, and we provide a free trial to let you see if you like it, and if so, we will bill you monthly for only the data you are backing up. It is not just for Microsoft Windows, as Servosity is designed for multiple operating systems, including Apple Mac OS X! Other operating systems are: RedHat Linux, Novell Netware, Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, most every Linux and Unix distribution and platforms that support Java2 SDK standard edition v1.3.1 or later. Of course it works with Microsoft Windows (Just about every flavor) and can backup Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL, MySQL, Oracle, etc, etc, etc!

It runs unattended, in the background, without consuming all your resources, and the only requirement is that your machine be online during the backup window…  The backup window can be set to any time of day you wish…  The Pro version of this offering can also provide a continuous backup if so configured and desired.

My wife and our clients love getting an email every day that says their data has been backed up successfully. It gives them peace of mind, and in some cases, it can save a job, because if you are in charge of important data and it becomes lost or damaged, your employer may find a way to help you become lost, or damaged…

If you want to experience peace of mind with your data, give us a call at 990-4748 or email johnh@homelandsecureit.com and I’ll be glad to tell you all about the benefits of Servosity and set you up for a free trial! If you are in the Greenville / Upstate, SC area and would like a free evaluation of your computer network service and backup needs, just let us know!