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Dealing with the PST Repair Headache

2011-11-24T14:29:00.001Z

Most administrators working with Outlook and Exchange are familiar with the PST repair process. The fact that Microsoft includes a PST repair tool, ScanPST, with every Outlook installation, could be taken as a sign that they recognize the fragility of the files.

Various circumstances can lead to PST file corruption. A sudden loss of power to a computer, a hard disk error, or a simple case of bad luck can all result in a network administrator needing to perform a PST repair. In cases where Outlook 2002 or an earlier version is still in use, PST corruption can occur simply due to a user storing too many messages in the file and exceeding the 2GB size limit.

Effective management of PST files is a difficult thing for IT departments to achieve as PST files are usually stored on local hard drives. In fact, some companies try to go around this issue by storing PST files on network shares - a practice Microsoft advises against. PST files on local hard drives present other challenges when it comes to backing up these files as users may not shut down Outlook effectively locking the file; or if using a laptop, it is not connected to the network during the backup window.

It can be a challenging exercise for administrators to retrieve data from a corrupt PST file and if the only copy of those emails is in that PST, the permanent loss of data could be problematic. All the admin can do is run the tool and hope, with no control over the level of success.

The best way to avoid having to think about PST repair is to completely eliminate the possibility of a corrupt PST file—by doing away with the files altogether.

The alternative to managing a set of cumbersome PST files it to implement a robust server-based email archiving solution. Eliminating stressful PST repair is just one of a host of benefits that this can provide.

Email archival brings the long-term storage of email messages back under control. A good solution will even adapt to legacy systems that used to store PST files on local drives. These advanced solutions will hunt down the plethora of PST files scattered across laptops, desktops and network shares, and pull all of the messages within them into a centrally managed database.

System users needn’t change their habits either, as a good archival system allows full access to the messages from the Outlook client—so users can manage them exactly as they managed their PST archives. However, a user taking a laptop home no longer takes the only copy of their archive with them, increasing the risk of data being lost or stolen.

It’s unlikely that any system administrator would be sad to see the back of PST files in their organization. Implementing email archiving means a much lower risk of data loss, no more PST repair, and no more PST headaches.

This guest post was provided by Ben Taylor on behalf of GFI Software Ltd. GFI is a leading software developer that provides a single source for network administrators to address their network security, content security and messaging needs. Read more on how to solve the PST repair issue.
All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

The cloud needs to be considered a strategic investment

2011-11-11T09:12:00.001Z

KPMG International:

“The cloud is transformative in that it is creating new business opportunities as companies harness its power to efficiently facilitate new revenue, services and businesses. It is breaking down barriers in the supply chain, creating more effective and timely interaction between clients and suppliers. It is delivering speed, agility and cost reduction to IT and other functional areas within the enterprise. The transformative impact of cloud can readily be seen across the enterprise in areas from HR, CRM, and IT infrastructure.”

Cloud projects often occur as tactical arrangements, either prompted by IT for greater access to tools and platforms, or by lines of business to acquire services or capabilities as needed, and often off-budget. The time has come, however, where cloud needs to be considered as a strategic investment.
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Plastics Company Reduces Costs and Improves Production with Hosted Services

2011-11-09T15:15:00.001Z

Overview

Country or Region: United States
Industry: Manufacturing

Customer Profile
Evco Plastics is a custom injection molder that designs and builds molds. Evco manufactures parts for everything from medical devices to large industrial parts. It employs 800 people.

Business Situation
Evco wanted a solution to help employees located at its plants in the United States, China, and Mexico work better together and improve productivity, without increasing the burden on its small IT teams.

Solution
Evco subscribed to Microsoft Office 365 to provide cloud-based solutions for communication, collaboration, and messaging that can help it reduce costs and improve production.
Benefits

Reduces costs
Speeds up production
Improves working relationships
Improves change management processes

"With videoconferencing and the HD cameras, customers can really see the product, so they can give us immediate go-ahead to start production."

Eric Lam, IS Manager, Evco Plastics

Evco Plastics, headquartered in DeForest, Wisconsin, is a global custom plastic injection molder that designs and builds molds for plastic parts. With 10 plants located in the United States, Mexico, and China, Evco needed to find a communication and collaboration solution to help its employees work better together across different time zones.

The company also required a solution that would not burden its local IT teams, who must focus on maintaining technical systems that help run production equipment. Evco decided to subscribe to Microsoft Office 365, which combines the familiar Office desktop with cloud-based communication and collaboration services. With the capabilities provided by these hosted services, the company realized it could reduce costs and help improve collaboration, in addition to reducing approval and production times to help keep customers satisfied.

Situation

Founded in 1964, Evco Plastics designs and molds plastic parts found in anything from refrigerators to boats to large industrial machinery. The company offers multi-shot molding, over-molding, and insert-molding processes, in addition to other services that include decoration and assembly. It serves a diverse market base, including medical, packaging, transportation, industrial, appliance, and consumer goods. Evco has five domestic plants in the United States, in addition to three in Mexico and two in China, and it operates 140 injection molding presses ranging from 28 to 3,300 tons. It has 800 employees and is headquartered in DeForest, Wisconsin.

Evco has customers around the world. In creating custom molds, the company works closely with its customers from the design phase all the way through to production. Employees are also dispersed across the company's 10 plants. With customers and employees located in different time zones, the company relied primarily on the phone or on email to communicate.

In the design phase of a project, engineers would email designs or other project data to customers. When samples were ready for customer review, the company would send samples via overnight mail, and then wait for the samples to be returned with an approval or with further instructions. With customers and plants in different time zones, customers would sometimes grow frustrated when they could not get immediate feedback from engineers.

"Customer care is a priority for us," says Eric Lam, IS Manager at Evco Plastics. "We realized we needed a way to provide critical updates or to respond quickly when customers have questions."

Another challenge the company faced was travel. It wanted to reduce travel costs overall, but it also faced a dilemma with its plant in Juarez, Mexico. Many employees were afraid to travel to the plant because of the violent crime in that city. “We were concerned because we felt the link between our employees in the U.S. and Mexico was weakening, and we wanted to make it better again,” explains Lam. “We needed a way to create a borderless environment for employees, regardless of where they work.”

To break down communication barriers and improve collaboration, Evco tried to use Skype for conferencing and instant messaging, but it believed that solution lacked capabilities the business required, such as the ability to record and archive instant messaging sessions for legal holds and searches. It also used AT&T for web conferencing, which worked well but was expensive and did not provide an option for instant meetings.

The company considered deploying on-premises solutions for collaboration and communication, but its small IT teams focus primarily on maintenance for its current solutions and technologies that support the industrial equipment. With on-premises solutions, it would need to hire additional employees. It was also concerned about its plants in China and Mexico, where the prices for support and consulting are high.

Solution

To provide robust communication and collaboration capabilities for employees without increasing the burden on IT teams, Evco decided to explore Microsoft Office 365, which combines the familiar Office desktop with cloud-based communication and collaboration services. The company will create online accounts for 50 employees. It also plans to enable federation in the cloud so that it can communicate more easily with customers, partners, and vendors who also use Microsoft products for communication and collaboration.
"What we like about Office 365 is that it is one cost for us across the board. The costs are fixed, and we do not have to worry about additional hardware, maintenance, or headcount."

Eric Lam, IS Manager, Evco Plastics
So that employees can communicate better with each other and with customers in real time, Evco will use Microsoft Lync Online, which provides presence, instant messaging, desktop and application sharing, and ad-hoc and online conferencing capabilities. By using Lync Online, federated customers can see presence indicators that let them know when engineers are available to answer questions or provide updates. Employees can escalate an instant messaging session to an audio conference or a desktop sharing session to discuss designs and samples. Evco can easily record and archive instant messaging sessions for legal searches or to review when customers have questions.

For videoconferencing, Evco will deploy high-definition (HD) cameras. "The high-resolution cameras are important for us because our plants in China and Mexico can use them to display samples for customers," explains Lam. With the HD image, the customers can review the sample in enough detail to be confident that it meets the design specifications.
Employees will use Microsoft SharePoint Online to manage documents and apply workflows to support the improvement of common business processes. Evco also plans to use SharePoint Online to create a site for product worksite engineers and customers to work together easily. By using SharePoint Online, customers can view project updates online and in real time instead of receiving them by email or the phone. “We used to have to wait for the engineers to push data to customers through email, which was hard on our email servers,” says Lam.

For email, Evco is also currently investigating Microsoft Exchange Online. With the interoperation between Lync Online, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, and Microsoft Office 2010—which Evco recently deployed—employees can view presence information for colleagues and customers or start a communication session—instant messaging, audio conferencing, or videoconferencing—from any screen.

Benefits

With Office 365, Evco can help bring employees and customers together in a way that helps make processes more efficient and people more productive. It can also help bring teams together, even if they are in different countries. “With the whole company on the Office 365 platform, people will have a more consistent experience, not only with the technology, but with each other,” says Lam.

Reduces Costs

Evco expects to reduce costs in several areas by using hosted services from Microsoft. It can greatly reduce international long distance costs, because employees at the Mexico and China plants can use Lync Online to communicate with team members in the United States. The company also plans to reduce travel costs because, with federation, employees can travel to customer sites less frequently and use instant messaging and conferencing instead.

They can also use videoconferencing with HD video cameras to display production samples for customers, which means Evco can reduce overnight shipping costs for transferring samples.
In addition to reducing costs, Evco will have more visibility into what it currently spends for services. “What we like about Office 365 is that it is one cost for us across the board,” says Lam. “The costs are fixed, and we do not have to worry about additional hardware, maintenance, or headcount.”

Speeds up Production

Evco believes that Lync Online and SharePoint Online will help it improve production uptimes. “With videoconferencing and the HD cameras, customers can really see the product, so they can give us immediate go-ahead to start production,” explains Lam. “We cannot begin to calculate how important that is to us. It gives our customers confidence in us, and it helps us differentiate ourselves.”
Customers will see real-time updates to project status through the SharePoint Online customer site. “Our customers and employees will have access anywhere, anytime, to project documents. With version tracking, they can see who made decisions, and because all the conversations can be recorded and archived, they can figure out why,” explains Lam.

Improves Working Relationships

With the instant communication that Lync Online provides, Evco can help strengthen ties to employees at its plant in Mexico. “Before, people were afraid to travel down there,” says Lam. “Now with Lync Online, employees can connect with people at other plants in a way that breaks down distance barriers.”

Local employees can also collaborate more easily. “We have three buildings on our main campus,” says Lam. “Instead of picking up the phone or walking across campus, we can see immediately if someone is available and start a conversation.”

Evco also expects that communication with its federated customers and partners will strengthen relationships. “Now, a customer can see if an engineer is available to answer a question or provide an update, instead of waiting for someone to return an email or voice mail,” says Lam.

Improves Change

Management Processes

With SharePoint Online, Evco will have a knowledge repository for all of its project information that it can review to help make its production processes more efficient. “Because we can capture everything, we can more easily review projects to see where we can eliminate extra steps or if we need to fill a gap,” says Lam.

Microsoft Office 365

Microsoft Office 365 brings together cloud versions of our most trusted communications and collaboration products—Microsoft SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, and Lync Online—with the latest version of our Office desktop suite and companion web applications for businesses of all sizes.
Office 365 helps save time and money, and it frees up valued resources. Simple to use and easy to administer, it is financially backed by a service level agreement that guarantees 99 percent reliability. Office 365 features robust security, IT-level phone support, geo-redundancy, disaster recovery, and the business-class privacy controls and standards that you expect from a world-class service provider.

Original source Plastics Company Reduces Costs and Improves Production with Hosted Services

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Design Firm Expands Business and Improves Communication with Hosted Services

2011-11-07T12:22:00.001Z

Overview

Country or Region: United States
Industry:

Professional services Customer Profile: Located in Gig Harbor, Washington, Allovus Design provides graphic design, user interface design, software development, and project management for businesses of all sizes. It has 70 employees.

Business Situation: With a distributed workforce that works on complex projects, Allovus Design needed a reliable, secure way for employees to communicate and share project data.
Solution: Allovus Design decided to subscribe to Microsoft Office 365 to provide cloud-based productivity tools to help workers communicate and collaborate more effectively in real time, no matter where they are located.
Benefits:

Expands the business
Enables communication from anywhere at any time
Reduces costs
Reduces IT administration

“SharePoint Online is the backbone of our business, and it is where we see our future.”

Rob Nichols, Director of Cloud Services and Development, Allovus Design

Allovus Design provides graphic design, user interface design, software development, and project management for businesses of all sizes. Its 70 employees generally work from customer sites or from home and rarely come into the office. Several years ago, Allovus subscribed to a hosted messaging service to help employees communicate, and it deployed collaboration software on-premises to help them manage projects. As the company added employees, it realized it needed a communications and collaboration solution to bring its dispersed workforce together and give them better insight into projects. Allovus subscribed to Microsoft Office 365, which combines the familiar Microsoft Office desktop suite with cloud-based communications and collaboration services. With Office 365, it can reduce costs and administration, improve productivity, and help the business expand.

Situation

Located in Gig Harbor, Washington, Allovus Design provides graphic and interactive design services; website and user interface development; software development; and program and project management for businesses of all sizes in various industries. Most of its 70 employees work from customer sites or from home, and they rarely visit the office. Project teams vary in size anywhere from three to ten members, so Allovus relies heavily on email and the phone to communicate. Projects can last anywhere from one week to a year and team members manage a large amount of data across several projects simultaneously.

As a small business, Allovus wanted to avoid the overhead costs and administration requirements that accompany on-premises solutions, but it wanted to provide a standardized messaging and collaboration platform for employees. Allovus subscribed to Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite, online versions of communications and collaboration services, to provide email services through Microsoft Exchange Online. To help project managers hold regular status meetings with development teams and customers, or for internal meetings, Allovus used web and video conferencing services through Microsoft Office Live Meeting.

For collaboration, document management, and development, Allovus deployed Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 on-premises, and later upgraded to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. “We wanted SharePoint Server onsite because we needed something secure and available that would allow us to work in one common place and that we could back up on a regular basis,” explains Rob Nichols, Director of Cloud Services and Development at Allovus Design. The company uses SharePoint Server to track projects internally and externally, and it provides customization and site development for customers who also use SharePoint Server.
To manage user accounts, Allovus had deployed two instances of Active Directory: one for its Microsoft Exchange Online and Office Live Meeting accounts and another for its SharePoint Server accounts. “Managing two Active Directory servers was fine when we started a few years ago,” says Nichols. “But in the last two years, we have grown from two to more than seventy people, so it was starting to be more of a burden.” Employees also disliked having two separate user accounts.

Allovus also realized it needed a standardized solution that would help people communicate better in real time as the number of employees increased and more people were distributed across customer sites and home offices. Even though team members could track and share up-to-date information through SharePoint Server, they still had to use email, the phone, or Office Live Meeting to conduct a large part of their day-to-day business.

Allovus was eager to centralize its messaging and collaboration solutions without additional administrative overhead and increased costs. “Our workforce is so distributed and our projects are so complex—we handle more than 10,000 pieces of data per client—that we needed a solution that people could access from anywhere at any time,” says Nichols.

“With Office 365, the importance of having a communication tool like Lync Online has become more obvious to us. When people sign on and see their team members online, they feel more connected.”

Rob Nichols, Director of Cloud Services and Development, Allovus Design

Solution

As a subscriber to Business Productivity Online Standard Suite, Allovus decided to join the Microsoft Rapid Deployment Program to pilot test Microsoft Office 365, the latest cloud-based services solution that brings together trusted business productivity, collaboration, and communications products. With Office 365, Allovus can continue to enjoy business-class messaging services through Exchange Online, which include the latest features of the Exchange Server platform. In addition, it can provide a more robust collaboration platform that employees can easily access from anywhere through Microsoft SharePoint Online.

Finally, the company can also provide a real-time communications solution for employees with Microsoft Lync Online, which offers presence, instant messaging (IM), desktop sharing, and ad hoc collaboration and online meetings.

To eliminate one of its Active Directory servers, Allovus will create online accounts and transition services for all 70 employees to Office 365. Allovus will maintain the other Active Directory server for employees who need access to Team Foundation Server and SharePoint Server 2010, which it plans to maintain as a test server environment. As the company grows, it will consider implementing Active Directory Federation Services to tie together its online services with its on-premises solutions, so that employees can maintain a single set of credentials in Active Directory for Office 365 and other on-premises solutions.

A Communication Network That Brings People Together

Because they can see each other’s presence information, employees can start an IM session, phone call, or an online meeting when they see someone is available. They can also send files instantly, or share an application or desktop to view information. Employees have been using Lync optimized devices for their voice communications to ensure high audio quality. They especially like using the Jabra Go 6470 headset. Hayley Nichols, the CEO at Allovus says, “With the Jabra Go headset, setup was easy and it had great sound quality. It’s so comfortable that I forgot I had it on after awhile.”

The small IT team is also able to take advantage of desktop sharing capabilities with Lync Online to help the company’s dispersed workforce. “Before we had Lync Online, our support guys had to drive a lot to help people, but with desktop sharing they can troubleshoot issues effectively from wherever they are,” says Nichols.

A Robust Collaboration Experience to Help Expand Business

Allovus plans to transition from its current on-premises SharePoint Server to SharePoint Online, both to develop solutions and services for customers and to track projects internally. “SharePoint Online is the backbone of our business, and it is where we see our future,” explains Nichols.

For customers, Allovus will use SharePoint Online to continue development projects such as building web parts, workflows, and site customizations, and to provide consulting services. However, it also sees an opportunity to expand its services by helping other businesses to define the services and applications they want to provide and helping them to transition into the cloud. “With Microsoft managing the infrastructure, we can continue to develop applications on top of SharePoint Online and manage the service for our customers,” explains Nichols.

“We do not have to worry about firewalls and other barriers to communication with Office 365.”
Rob Nichols, Director of Cloud Services and Development,

Allovus Design
For project management, employees can use the co-authoring feature to collaborate on documents simultaneously. They can also work offline with Microsoft SharePoint Workspace, and any edited documents or notes are automatically synchronized the next time they sign on to Office 365. More importantly, SharePoint Online interoperates with Lync Online, so employees can see presence information and start IM sessions or meetings from directly within the SharePoint Online interface.

A Familiar Messaging Experience with Extended Capabilities

Allovus believes that with Exchange Online in Office 365 it can ensure the same level of service that employees currently experience. “We have had Exchange Online for two years, so we are completely confident in Microsoft to manage our Exchange environment,” explains Nichols. For the Allovus IT team, the latest version of Exchange Online offers several capabilities that help ease the administration burden without sacrificing security. With the Role-Based Access Control feature, the IT team can manage user accounts and access, and delegate tasks such as creating distribution lists to employees. IT can also automate repetitive maintenance tasks and reporting through the Windows PowerShell command line interface. Another advantage Allovus sees in the latest version is support for Microsoft Outlook for Mac 2011 for employees who use Macintosh computers.

Benefits

With Office 365, Allovus can centralize its messaging, collaboration, and communications services without sacrificing stability and security. It can consolidate its on-premises solutions to reduce costs and administration, and it can also provide a more scalable solution that brings employees together and helps it to expand the business.

Expands the Business

Allovus sees that SharePoint Online will help its employees to expand its services to customers. In addition to building websites and workspaces for customers, it has the opportunity to develop applications and manage services for small businesses that need support. “We can extend the capabilities of SharePoint Online to help our customers be more productive,” says Nichols. Allovus can also provide more effective project management, because it can collaborate and communicate project status in real time.

Enables Communication from Anywhere at Anytime

With Lync Online, employees have a way to communicate with each other in real time, no matter where they are located. “With Office 365, the importance of having a communication tool like Lync Online has become more obvious to us,” says Nichols. “When people sign on and see their team members online, they feel more connected.”

With the interoperability between Lync Online and SharePoint Online, employees can also more easily start conversations and discuss projects, because they can see each other’s presence information. “We do not have to worry about firewalls and other barriers to communication with Office 365,” Nichols explains. “So people do not have to wonder if someone is available or wait until a colleague can return a call or email.”

Reduces Costs

Allovus expects to reduce costs in several areas by transitioning to Office 365 cloud-based services. With Microsoft Office Professional Plus included in its Office 365 subscription, Allovus can avoid a large upfront cost to upgrade to Microsoft Office 2010. It will also consider dropping several of the IP leases it currently uses for its on-premises SharePoint Server 2007 sites. Instead, it can transition those sites to SharePoint Online, and keep its on-premises deployment for testing. Allovus also avoided the cost of upgrades for its SharePoint Server deployment.

The company can also reduce travel costs. “We have one person on our IT team who travels wherever people are to provide support,” says Nichols. “Now he can use Lync Online to troubleshoot issues instead of driving from one location to another.”

Reduces IT Administration

The last thing Allovus wanted to do was increase its IT administration effort. By transitioning to Office 365 cloud-based services, it can focus on increasing user productivity, while relying on Microsoft to manage the infrastructure and ensure reliable service. "With all of the accounts in the cloud, we minimize our Active Directory deployment and spend less time managing accounts,” explains Nichols.

“With Office 365, we get the same tools and service as an enterprise business, but in a way that meets our needs as a small company,” says Nichols.

Microsoft Office 365

Microsoft Office 365 brings together cloud versions of our most trusted communications and collaboration products—Microsoft SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, and Lync Online—with the latest version of our Office desktop suite and companion web applications for businesses of all sizes.

Office 365 helps save time and money, and it frees up valued resources. Simple to use and easy to administer, it is financially backed by a service level agreement that guarantees 99 percent reliability. Office 365 features robust security, IT-level phone support, geo-redundancy, disaster recovery, and the business-class privacy controls and standards that you expect from a world-class service provider.

Original source Design Firm Expands Business and Improves Communication with Hosted Services Try Office 365

Green America : Building a Greener World

2011-11-05T14:30:00.001Z

“We show up every morning with the purpose of creating a more sustainable and just world filled with healthy robust communities and vibrant green businesses. Though we are a staff of only 35, our programs and message reach over 300,000 people every year. That requires us to be able to access member information, communicate with stakeholder, collaborate with one another and juggle 365 days a year.

“Thanks to Office 365, we are hoping to give our staff increased ability to work from anywhere without creating a headache for Pat (our IT guy). Less commuting means less stress and less impact on the environment. We are also looking forward to using SharePoint as a training and news-sharing center that staff can use to learn more about sustainability efforts and increase their computer skills. In addition, we are looking to run more online meetings and screen sharing with our fair trade and event partners around the U.S., as opposed to being stuck with only the boring conference call line.

“Over the years, we have been frustrated at the need to continuously maintain and upgrade our internal infrastructure. We would much rather save Pat some stress and dedicate more of the funds we manage to raise to the work of creating a greener and more just world. We are looking forward to the new possibilities of Office 365 and can’t wait to get started.”

Original source Green America : Building a Greener World

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PST Backup: a headache for administrators

2011-10-27T12:14:00.001+01:00

Developing a strategy for effective PST backup may not be at the top of an IT team’s to-do-list, but it should be given high priority. PST files contain very important company data, including historical contact with customers and records of decisions taken, and the last thing you need is to lose one or more emails contained in that PST file. This article outlines the PST backup process, the inherent problems, and an alternative system that will make an administrator’s life easier and keep employees more than happy.

On the face of it, PST backup isn’t particularly complicated. After all, it only involves backing up a file to another location. Yet, this ‘simple’ process becomes complicated as networks and email volumes increase in size.

Let’s explore the challenges of PST backup in a bit more detail. First, network administrators have to backup far more than just one file— users tend to have multiple PSTs on their local machine, in different folder locations and, often, somewhere else on a network share.

By default, Outlook places them on local hard disk drives, within a user’s profile. Even if the profile folders are redirected to a server share, they are still distributed over several folders. Furthermore, redirecting PSTs to a network share creates more problems. Accessing PSTs over the network isn’t a recommended configuration - read/write performance is poor and in the event that employees take their laptop home with them, the data cannot be accessed and backed up until they are back in the office and connected to the network.

The first major challenge when implementing a PST backup strategy is to find all the PST files for every employee across the company, and include them in the backup schedule. This will probably call for backup agents to be installed on client machines, and a time chosen when people are not going to be using Outlook.

And here is another problem. When Outlook is in use, PSTs are kept open, effectively locking the file and preventing it from being backed up. Unless some kind of open file agent is used, these files will be skipped.

As pointed out earlier, all computers must remain switched on and Outlook closed. If the employee has taken the laptop home, their PST files will not be backed up. Until that laptop is reconnected to the network and is available when the next scan is scheduled, the data in those PST files could be at risk should the files become corrupt or the laptop develops a hardware issue.

Some companies are fully aware of these challenges and opt for an online service to backup laptop PST files, but this is not the perfect solution. Few online backup services will be able to back up an open PST file, so it is down to each user to ensure Outlook is not running during the backup window. Online backup functionality is also dependent on the PC being powered up at the right time, so you need to rely on users to ensure laptops are on and connected to the Internet.

The problems with PST backup are due to the way PSTs work in the first place, so the best alternative is to eliminate the company’s dependency on PSTs by using email archiving.

Email archiving solutions can work in tandem with Exchange, storing and indexing all email sent/received in a central archive – making it far easier for users and administrators to find emails in case of compliance or to meet business needs, and ensuring that no email is lost.

With this in mind, perhaps the time spent devising a PST backup strategy would be better spent finding a way to not need one at all.

This guest post was provided by Ben Taylor on behalf of GFI Software Ltd. GFI is a leading software developer that provides a single source for network administrators to address their network security, content security and messaging needs. Read more on how to solve the PST Backup issue.
All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Breathe Hot Yoga : The Yin to Their Yang

2011-10-21T08:54:00.001+01:00

“My fiancé, Amber, and I own Breathe Hot Yoga a small hot yoga business located in Seattle, WA. Our first location opened in January 2010 in the South Lake Union neighbourhood. In May 2011 our second location will open in West Seattle. Amber and I are passionate about physical and mental well being both for ourselves and our customers.

“On weekends and evenings I work on our website … and think about how we can make our business processes more efficient and scalable. What is the best way for Amber to send me the teaching schedule so I can put it up on the website? How do we get on a common email system so staff can communicate more effectively? What recurring payment system should we adopt?

“At Breathe we know yoga and we know our customers. That’s the easy part. But for us to grow and compete in a growing market we must learn to leverage the right business productivity tools. I believe that Office 365 will help us to enable collaboration, communication and knowledge sharing between independent, freethinking people.

Original source Breathe Hot Yoga : The Yin to Their Yang

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How to speed up a slowing PC

2011-10-18T14:46:00.001+01:00

Steps to improve poor PC performance.

Assuming you have security software if not download Microsoft Essentials now (it’s free) install and run a full system scan.
Security software won’t pick up all the nasty's so think about installing Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool (it’s free). Install and run the application but be warned this software is through and depending upon how much data you have this can take a considerable time to complete. I usually run this software overnight.
If the software reports no viruses or malware the chances are you haven’t got a nasty on your computer. If you think you have read my article How to remove virus your PC security software says you don’t have?
The next step is to read Solution to sluggish PC. You could run Microsoft Msconfig to edit what programmes run in the background. Some of these background programmes you’re running you’re probably not using so you can turn them off at start up. You can still use these programmes they just won’t automatically start without you activating them. However you need some technical knowledge to use Msconfig.

Free up disk space

Next run Disk Clean-up (XP, Vista, Windows 7) read blog article Speed up your PC .
The Disk Cleanup tool helps you to free up space on your hard disk to improve the performance of your computer. The tool identifies files that you can safely delete and then enables you to choose whether you want to delete some or all of the identified files.
Use Disk Cleanup to:

Remove temporary Internet files.
Delete downloaded program files, such as Microsoft ActiveX controls and Java applets.
Empty the Recycle Bin.
Remove Windows temporary files, such as error reports.
Delete optional Windows components that you don't use.
Delete installed programs that you no longer use.
Remove unused restore points and shadow copies from System Restore.
Tip: Typically, temporary Internet files take the most amount of space because the browser caches each page you visit for faster access later.

Speed up access to data

Run Disk Defrag read my ebook pages 14-15 (XP, Vista, Windows 7).
Disk fragmentation slows the overall performance of your system. When files are fragmented, the computer must search the hard disk as a file is opened (to piece it back together). The response time can be significantly longer.
Disk Defragmenter (sometimes shortened to Defrag by users) is a Windows utility that consolidates fragmented files and folders on your computer's hard disk so that each occupies a single space on the disk. With your files stored neatly end to end, without fragmentation, reading and writing to the disk speeds up.
With the best will in the world you should automate Disk Defrag read blog article How to automate Disk Defragmenter why - your likely to be busy doing more important things. You should automate Disk Clean-up as well. Ideally schedule these tools to run once a week.

Detect and repair disk errors

In addition to running Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter to optimize the performance of your computer, you can check the integrity of the files stored on your hard disk by running the Error Checking utility.
As you use your hard drive, it can develop bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing (such as file saving) difficult or even impossible. The Error Checking utility scans the hard drive for bad sectors and scans for file system errors to see whether certain files or folders are misplaced.
If you use your computer daily, you should run this utility once a week to help prevent data loss.

Run the Error Checking utility:

Close all open files.
Click Start, and then click Computer.
In the Computer window (My Computer in Windows XP), right-click the hard disk you want to search for bad sectors, and then click Properties.
In the Properties dialog box, click the Tools tab.
Click the Check Now button.
In the Check Disk dialog box (called Error-checking in Windows 7), select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box, and then click Start.
If bad sectors are found, choose to fix them.
Tip: Only select the "Automatically fix file system errors" check box if you think that your disk contains bad sectors.

Summary

If you tried the above and your PC remains sluggish what options do you have?

Rebuild your PC
Purchase a new PC

Not sure what option is right for you?

Is your PC four years old (or older)? If it is, you’re probably better off buying a new PC.

A system rebuild is a significant undertaking so this choice shouldn’t be your first option. Having stated this all PC’s at some point during their working life will need a system rebuild. Read my article Why rebuild a PC?

Of course you can rebuild the PC for yourself however should you not wish to do so you can instruct someone else to do the work for you. Your decision will depend upon how important your time and data is to you. Assuming your time and data is of some importance to you then you should employ an experienced and qualified Microsoft certified engineer.

Why rebuild a PC?

2011-10-17T14:25:00.001+01:00

“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

Wilde, Oscar

Recently I received a telephone call from a perspective client. In this economic climate a rare event. Eager to find out the reason for the call I asked "what the problem was.” The prospect said “the computer is slow and it’s behaving erratically”. I replied “in order to better understand the problem I will need to ask some questions.” I could tell from the persons tone of voice this wasn’t exactly what they wanted to hear.

I ignored this and asked “how old is the computer?” The reply “five to six years old possibly eight years old.” I knew from the answer the computer was probably running Windows XP but I wanted to confirm my assumption as they may have chosen to upgrade so I asked “what Windows operating system are you using, Windows XP, Vista or 7?” “Don’t know.” This wasn’t going well. I went on to ask “have you installed new programmes?” “Not recently.” My next question “what security software installed?” “What’s that?” I replied “software to protect your computer from malicious software.” “Not sure I need it” I asked “do you use your computer to connect to the internet?” “Yes,” I replied “you need security software.” I then asked “has your computer ever been rebuilt?” “What do you mean rebuilt?” “A rebuild returns your PC to manufacturer original configuration.” “Never.” My next question “do you back up your data to an external disk drive?”

My question annoyed my perspective client “I can't store all my data to a USB stick, do I want the job or not?” I replied “I would very much like to help you but to do so I need to first understand if I can.” “Ok, my computer is slow how much to fix?” I replied “I really need to see the computer first. An analysis will take about five to ten minutes I can then tell you what the options are and leave you to decide.” My perspective client responded “given what I have told you, you should be able to quote for the work.” I responded by saying “given the age of the machine and without an onsite assessment I assume a system rebuild. I went on to say all computers at some point will need a system rebuild.”

“Why?” “Think of a new road to begin with the surface is smooth, rain drains to the side then off into drains consequently no floods, no potholes, the road markings and kerbs are in good condition so there’s nothing to inhibit you from moving swiftly on. However over time rain, salt the volume of traffic damages the road surface potholes develop slowing your progress. It's very similar to your PC. During general use your operating system your applications are updated, you amended your files consequently your data gets stored in various different locations. You remove, you add new applications. The result the hard disk becomes a bit of a patchwork quilt - or mended road. Windows maintains a central database called the registry. The registry holds system settings, hardware details and user preferences these settings are regularly updated and often such updates are interlinked with many other settings. Think of it this way, you reach a road junction your destination is the same as before but the road signs tell you to go another way. The next time you travel down the same road the signage has changed yet again so you forced to take a less efficient route. Your registry is key to your computer efficiency, a support engineer can fix the signage and potholes but only for so long. At a certain point it becomes better to rip up the tarmac and start again. It's the same with Windows PCs. There will be a point in time when its’ no longer sensibly to patch up a PC or the Windows Registry. Over time capacity will exceeded designed road traffic volume it becomes necessary to upgrade by adding additional lanes. Your computer is the same as you add new applications, more data, videos, application updates, your computer begins to slow as more system resources are required to run your applications. Often users don't notice how much more they are asking of the PC they bought 4 years ago - the workload has increased so slowly over that period that its increase catches users by surprise.”

My perspective client said “my explanation sounded plausible how much” I replied “it’s question of whether you are cash rich or time poor. If you have the time you can rebuild the system your self. If you prefer you can instruct me or someone else whoever you choose they will want to analysis your computer prior to providing a quote.” The perspective client said “I’m not interested in what you think how much.”

“If a system rebuild is required and assuming you want your PC returned ready for you to use for example word processing, spread sheets, presentations documents, emails, contacts etc. I will first need to check your data remove any viruses and malware then back up your data to an external device. There is no point restoring corrupt data to your newly rebuilt computer. This by itself can be very time consuming it really does depend upon how much data you have. I will require installation disks, I may need to recover product keys if lost. Some manufacturers partition the disk they create a recovery partition. This part of the hard disk is used to reformat the working part of the hard disk. If you have such a partition you won’t have installation disks but you may have recovery disks that you created after you installed your applications. These disks can be used to rebuild your computer and return the computer to the point in time you created the disks. If you don’t have these disks you might be able to purchase a copy from the manufacture failing this you will need to purchase a full copy of Windows assuming you wish to use Windows. Reformatting removes all your data. Once the disk is reformatted and the operating system is installed you need to configure your internet connection then proceed to install and configure a security application of your choice, your firewall settings, operating system patches and service packs then repeat for applications. Next reinstate your back up data. If you use Outlook setup your email accounts then using the pst file you created prior to rebuilding your computer use this file to reinstall your emails, calendar, contacts etc. Time wise to complete all these tasks can easily take you eighteen hours. Thankfully I don’t charge by the hour I charge a project fee and guarantee my work for three months. Some of my competitors will charge less they tend to leave you to install operating system patches, service packs, your applications plus updates and you will also have to restore your data, email accounts etc. Its a bare bones rebuild. However the purchase of a new computer might be the better option for you given the age of your PC and your likely evolving computing needs.”

I went on to mention “I did have a perspective client contact me not so long ago and he decided to reject my tender for a cheaper competitor. A few months later the perspective client contacted me again. This time he asked me to visit. The perspective client told me my fees shocked him so he went to a competitor initially his computer functioned well but now its worse than ever. I asked what they did, he showed me their invoice. The invoice quotes a system rebuild. Analysis revealed they installed a registry cleaner and installed a virus and malware tool. Seeing the registry cleaner I said I cannot help you its an automatic system rebuild. Registry cleaners are highly questionable especially when novices use such tools. I’m a qualified systems engineer and I will not use them. He replied his PC had already been rebuilt. I showed him Windows event logs these suggested his PC hadn’t in fact been rebuilt. He instructed me to rebuild his computer. A few months after the rebuild he contacted me again to say he now understood why my fees are higher than the average and he went on to ask me to rebuild his offices computers. In fact I only needed to rebuild one out of his ten computers.”

Of course I didn’t win this perspective client instruction. I knew I wouldn’t when I said ‘I will need to ask a few questions to understand what the problem was’ her tone of voice was enough. Given the persons level of IT knowledge plus her desire to not answer questions it was obvious she either already knew what was needed and wanted to confirm she had a good price or she really didn’t feel an experienced and qualified IT support engineer warrants a reasonable fee nevertheless like my client she may come to regret her decision.

The cloud needs to be considered a strategic investment

2011-10-06T10:47:00.001+01:00

KPMG International:

“The cloud is transformative in that it is creating new business opportunities as companies harness its power to efficiently facilitate new revenue, services and businesses. It is breaking down barriers in the supply chain, creating more effective and timely interaction between clients and suppliers. It is delivering speed, agility and cost reduction to IT and other functional areas within the enterprise. The transformative impact of cloud can readily be seen across the enterprise in areas from HR, CRM, and IT infrastructure.”

Why consider cloud technologies?

2011-10-03T13:22:00.001+01:00

It's not just about saving money it's more about distinctive competitive advantage without incurring corporate costs.

View more presentations from Christopher Bird

A Short Guide to Company Email Management

2011-09-26T14:08:00.001+01:00

Email management for modern companies involves far more than providing users with a mailbox to store their messages, and ensuring emails reliably reach their intended destinations. An effective email management strategy should provide for fast, consistent mail server performance, provide adequate storage space to meet current and future needs, easy access to email as well as making sure the business is compliant at all times with regulations or laws that regulate email use in the business.

This short guide gives four essential steps to ensure effective email management.

1. Manage the workload of the mail server

Heavy reliance on email means that system users are likely to need to store large amounts of historical messages. However, continually increasing Exchange quotas is not an effective way to manage this. Implement an archival policy, so that old messages can still be stored and easily accessible, but away from the main information stores. This will improve day-to-day email performance and reduce demands on the core mail server.

2. Avoid the use of PST files

Using PST files to archive email can be cumbersome at best, and a serious risk to company data at worst. When using Outlook’s default settings, mail archives can easily end up on local hard drives, at risk of permanent loss in the event of a single hard drive failure. Old data that ends up in these files can also be extremely difficult to track down when needed in the future.

3. Ensure business compliance

An electronic audit trail is often needed to show the history of business decisions, and some organizations are subject to specific regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley act, when it comes to archiving company data. This increasing burden of compliance means that it is essential to have instant access to historical mails. Email management solutions make it easier to comply with these regulations. Some, for example, provide network administrators with an easy way to search the entire company email archive, making it easy to locate an important “paper-trail” in the event of an audit.

4. Ensure ease-of-use

System users are unlikely to care about the technical reasons behind the need for good email management, archival and retention policies. They will just want fast access to all of their historical messages. Use an email management solution that fully integrates with the mail client, so that archived messages are accessible directly from the folder tree, even if they are not actually stored within the main Exchange database.

Implementing a dedicated software solution to assist with email management and archiving removes many of the daily worries associated with managing an Exchange email environment. Network administrators using these solutions do not have to worry about balancing ever-increasing storage requirements against the performance implications of the information store growing even larger.

A good email management solution keeps the whole messaging infrastructure within accessible databases, and, perhaps more importantly, within the full control of the IT team.

This guest post was provided by Ben Taylor on behalf of GFI Software Ltd. GFI is a leading software developer that provides a single source for network administrators to address their network security, content security and messaging needs. Read more on email management.

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

How web security software can help you deal with malware

2011-08-18T11:19:00.001+01:00

It is widely acknowledged that any responsible modern-day organization will strive to protect its network against malware attacks. Each day brings on a spawning of increasingly sophisticated viruses, worms, spyware, Trojans, and all other kinds of malicious software which can ultimately lead to an organization’s network being compromised or brought down. Private information can be inadvertently leaked, a company’s network can crash; whatever the outcome, poor security strategies could equal disaster. Having a network that is connected to the Internet leaves you vulnerable to attack, but Internet access is an absolute necessity for most organizations, so the wise thing to do would be to have a decent web security package installed on your machines, preferably at the gateway.

There are several antivirus engines on the market and each product has its own heuristics, and subsequently its own particular strengths and weaknesses. It’s impossible to claim any one as the best overall at any given time. It can never be predicted which antivirus lab will be the quickest to release an update providing protection against the next virus outbreak; it is often one company on one occasion and another one the next.

Web security can never be one hundred percent guaranteed at all times, but, there are ways to significantly minimize the risks. It is good and usual practice to use an antivirus engine to help protect your network, but it would naturally be much better to use several of them at once. Why is this? If, hypothetically speaking, your organization uses product A, and a new virus breaks out, it might be Lab A or Lab B, or any other antivirus lab, which releases an update the fastest. So the logical conclusion would be that, the more AV engines you make use of, the greater the likelihood of you nipping that attack in the bud.

This is one of the ways in which web security software can give you better peace of mind. Files which are downloaded on any of your company’s computers can each be scanned using several engines, rather than just one, which could significantly reduce the time it will take to obtain the latest virus signatures, therefore diminishing the risk to your site by each new attack.

Another plus side of web security software is that multiple download control policies can be set according to the individual organization’s security policies, which could be either user, group or IP-based, controlling the downloading of different file types such as JavaScript, MP3, MPEG, exe, and more by specific users/groups/IP addresses. Hazardous files like Trojan downloader programs very often appear disguised as harmless files in order to gain access to a system. A good web security solution will analyze and detect the real file types HTTP/FTP file downloads, making sure that files which are downloaded contain no viruses or malware.

The long and short of it is this: you want the best security possible for your network, but it’s not within anyone’s power to predict where the next patch will come from. Rather than playing Russian roulette by sticking to one AV engine, adopt a web security package that will enable you to use several of them.

This guest post was provided by Enrica Garroni on behalf of GFI Software Ltd. GFI is a leading software developer that provides a single source for network administrators to address their network security, content security and messaging needs. More information: GFI web security software.

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Is cloud computing all hype?

2011-08-02T09:28:00.002+01:00

For many cloud computing is a ominous revolution. In reality you’ve probably been using cloud computing for years. So what’s all the fuss about?

To attract uptake technology firms quote stunning return on investment figures and cloud computing isn’t an exception. Should you be cautious? Of course you should. There is no such thing as a silver bullet.

An IBM study suggests 81% of cloud pay back is achieved through hardware and labour savings. How a single organisation cannot replicate the economies of scale, in hardware, software and staffing.

Think of it this way a client server model requires

You to purchase servers, workstations. The hardware needs to be managed and maintained and powered. An average server electricity consumption is £800 a year.
Backup, tapes, disks need to be setup then run and checked then stored off site. If you use online storage you are using the cloud.
A disaster recovery solution. I hope you have one?
Software licensing.
Security software for servers, workstations.
Technical support staff.
VPN connection setup and maintained, laptops, tablets, mobile phones if you have remote work force.

A pure cloud solution means no servers, all you need are workstations with Internet connection. If you use Google Apps software licensing isn’t an issue although you should be aware it’s

not all free

. The downside no Internet connection you have no access to your work. If you are a start-up or you intend to remain small

Google Apps

maybe all you ever need but you should be aware

Google Apps

compatibility issues with Microsoft can effect

employee productivity

. You should study and understand Google’s

(TOS). Google's TOS is structured under an exception model. So the Google TOS is parent (the TOS calls it universal), and all others sub TOS are exceptions (like Google Docs). What this means is that unless the sub agreements (like Google Docs), explicitly except sections of the TOS, then the primary TOS applies. You need to look at both "functions" and the TOS that governs that function.

No Internet connection - No access to your work?

Microsoft Office 365 cloud solution can be either pure cloud or hybrid. Why hybrid Microsoft recognised they are times when you are unable to connect to the internet. If you have a PC Microsoft Office application installed you have a local copy of your work which means you can continue to amend documents and when an online connection is re-established your revised documents will automatically sync.

Hybrid can also mean on premise servers are retained for example a financial services firm maintains a bespoke client data base containing regulated data but uses Microsoft Office 365 for other administration purposes. Having stated this governments are revising the law to allow cloud solutions. Most cloud providers will ensure regulated data is managed in such a manner to enable their clients’ complicacy.

Can you test Microsoft cloud without signing up to Microsoft Office 365. Microsoft Office web apps is free but it isn’t a replacement for Microsoft Office 365. I suggest you use Google apps and Office web apps to learn if this technology is for you.

Google or Microsoft?

If you run an established business the chances are you own servers and workstations using Microsoft software. Provided there is a business case you can migrate servers to the cloud as and when a server replacement is required. You needn’t use Microsoft Office 365. You could consider a hosted server solution. A hosting company creates a virtual server installs the server software then migrates your data. Using a browser or Microsoft Terminal Services you can access your data. This solution is referred to as single tenancy (private cloud) usually used for bespoke application. Now fibre optic broadband is being rolled out this option is a serious replacement for on premise infrastructure.

Google Apps, Microsoft Office 365 are multi tenancy (public cloud) one copy of software used by many this doesn’t mean you can read or alter other organisations emails or work.

Google and Microsoft battle for market dominance has begun. Microsoft produced an entertaining

propaganda video that does make some good points but I urge you to keep an open mind. Google apps are a serious option and deserves your consideration in particular the total cost of ownership (TOC).

Typically security and data ownership questions are paramount

My blog Top five cloud security concerns discredited addresses many security concerns. Data ownership remains a contentious issue my blog article Legal issues to consider explains the current position. You should consider data compatibility if you wish to move between providers this might prove problematically. In time data standardisation will become the norm and customers will be able to easily move between providers in the same way you switch energy supplier.

Quick & dirty on premise Vs. cloud

2011-08-01T15:14:00.007+01:00

A while ago I attended a networking event. During one conversation I was asked to produce a back of an envelope cost benefit for a client server Vs. cloud. One person suggested I add to this to my blog. At the time I thought a good idea but inevitably I didn’t do so. A couple of days ago attending a different event I bumped in to two people I did the back of the envelope calculation for and was asked why I hadn’t posted the example. As requested below is a quick and dirty calculation.

Let’s consider the costs for a 30 user system

- £5,000 server cost (Low end server + SBS software + software licence)
- £3,000 installation cost

So at £5,000 , + 12 hours a month of management of server (or £399 under a 30 user MSP agreement for SBS). No off site backups for 30 users. (So either £399 or £455 maintenance cost - using a low £35 and hour rate).

I'll use the £399 in my example, and Office 365 - £4 per user x 30 = £120 per month cost.

1 year ROI for 30 users:
- Office 365 £120 per month
- SBS on site £1,065 per month ((server cost + installation cost) + (hours x hourly rate)) / months

2 year ROI for 30 users
- Office 365 £120 per month
- SBS on site £732 per month ((server cost + installation cost) + (hours x hourly rate) x years))) / months

3 year ROI for 30 users
- Office 365 £120 per month
- SBS on site £621 per month ((server cost + installation cost) + (hours x hourly rate) x years))) / months

If you have a fully loaded SBS server, my experience is that the server maintenance is greater than 12 hours per month (more like 20 hrs. £750 per month @ £35 per hour)

3 year ROI for 70 users - Office 365 £700 per month
- SBS on site £972 per month (which is low), more like £1,200 per month

The above equation suggests cloud computing is cheaper option than on premise client server model. I reiterate this is a quick and dirty calculation. There are other factors which should be considered on a case by case basis.

Cloud Notes by Scott Cameron: Why Move to the Cloud?

2011-08-01T09:49:00.001+01:00

Cloud Notes by Scott Cameron: Why Move to the Cloud?: "The primary reason most companies move operations in to the cloud is... MONEY . In the traditional way, a company needing a new e-mail serv..."

Your Digital Coach

Cloud Notes by Scott Cameron: Why Move to the Cloud?

2011-08-01T09:49:00.000+01:00

Malware & phishing threats 50% + go undetected and GROWING

2011-07-28T10:43:00.001+01:00

Cyveillance, February 2009 tested the best-of-breed anti-virus vendors and Web browser anti-phishing filters the report revealed an average of 37 per cent for malware and 42 per cent for phishing remain undetected even if your computer runs the most updated antivirus solution.

A shocking result nevertheless not surprising. Recent malware innovation is capable of pilfering your login credentials for online banking, brokerage, shopping, ecommerce, email, and social networking websites. Even if the site is deemed "secure", fraudsters can use your online account to execute unauthorised transactions, place orders, send emails, and much more.

How do they penetrate your security software.

More often than not you are the unwitting gateway. You visit a website you sign up and download, sometimes you don’t even need to do that just visiting the site is enough to install a cookie.

Most websites cookies are legitimate, for example your bank, may store cookies containing sensitive information in your browser. These cookies are required for the normal operation of the website. Using a variety of techniques, criminals can steal these cookies from your computer, then use them to take over your bank or other web accounts.

Why doesn’t your security software block this.

Your security software is reactive in other words to protect your computer your security software vendor has to implement a number of steps.

Identify the rogue software.
Write a definition code to first block then quarantine then remove malware.
Publish the update.
You have to download and install definition updates.

Usually security definition updates are automatically installed when you first start your computer. In the event the malware is already installed you will need to run a full scan to identify quarantine then delete. The problem is you unknowing installed the rogue cookie twenty four or more hours ago so you’re unlikely to run a scan besides the fraudster has the details they want.

Most damage occurs within the first twenty four hours of a fraudster publishing malware on to the internet. In reality criminals have a thirty day lead on signature based detection method invariably fraudsters update their malware software every twenty five to thirty days which bypasses your security software update.

What can you do.

Be proactive, ensure your operating system, application service packs, patches including security software are up to date. Run security software scans, ensure firewall software and hardware if you have a firewall hardware device are correctly configured. Considering installing Trusteer Rapport. This solution works as a standalone or alongside any desktop security solution. It hides your login credentials and web communication from malware and prevents unauthorised access to your accounts. You should install such software even if your computer runs the most updated antivirus solution. Most banks will provide a free DVD or links to their preferred software vendor. Good security software vendors have begun to integrate this capability and in recent years browser vendors have taken a more proactive stance towards security.

Third party software such as Trusteer Rapport can generally be seen and managed within your browser address bar. Trusteer Report comes preconfigured to protect you against certain websites (those working directly with Trusteer). For the majority of websites you will have to manually configure all sites that require you to enter your username and or password to access their website. You can easily do this by clicking the Trusteer icon in the address bar and in the drop down submenu select protect this website button.

Of course even this additional layer of security isn’t enough. No technology can resolve the weakest link unfortunately that's you and the criminal knows this so educate yourself remember the criminal is always one step ahead. Being aware of fraudsters utilisation of technology is your greatest strength to protecting yourself.

With the move to cloud software protecting your credentials is more important than ever.

The Future of Marketing

2011-07-17T10:16:00.001+01:00

Surfing the Internet for better ways to connect with customers I came across Social Local ads & Reach Local UK then I stubbed upon Larry Weber interview on the Pulse Network he suggests the future of marketing is going to be a combination of social, database, direct marketing, search, analytics and a little paid media to move you towards your destination.

I’ve always thought of search engine ‘pay for click’ advertising as another media platform for broadcast advertising. In other words you broadcast a message a perspective purchaser remains a needle in the hay stack. In other words nothing has really changed.

What Larry Weber, Seth Godin, ‘Permission Marketing’ are suggesting, sellers should listen, educate and inform not sell. Attractive and appropriate content attracts prospects to your proposition. The copy needs to empower prospects to self-qualify doing so removes your need to sell to your prospects.

Self-qualified prospects will convert themselves to customers as they believe you to be the expert i.e. the best solution to resolving their needs.

Are they right?

Enterprise Solutions for Anti-spam Control

2011-07-06T13:34:00.001+01:00

Spam has been an ongoing battle for businesses and individuals over the years. In 2007, Nucleus Research estimated that every year spam costs U.S. companies an average of $712 per employee, which overall adds up to tens of billions of dollars in lost productivity. Therefore, it's not surprising to know that companies invest a significant amount of time and money into efforts to stop spam from reaching their employees' inboxes.

Generally speaking, there are two main approaches that businesses take to control the flow of spam – in-house and cloud-based.

In-house anti-spam

Many businesses with sophisticated in-house or outsourced IT departments may have the resources to administer an in-house solution for limiting spam. A common approach is setting up a mail server that accepts all incoming email, filtering out the junk and sending only the legitimate messages to the recipient. In-house solutions come in two forms – software products and hardware appliances. When using an in-house solution, one should consider the cost of hardware, operating systems and anti-spam software, as well as continued maintenance and support. Since spam is constantly evolving, regular updates would be necessary to ensure that the system employed to manage the flow of spam is effectively doing so.

In-house solutions are often chosen by medium to large businesses, especially those who want total control over their email infrastructure, or are not comfortable with relaying the company’s emails through third parties. In general, in-house solutions give better granular control over the configuration of the anti-spam features in the product.

Cloud-based services

The modern method of spam control, that is both cost-effective and simple to set up, is using spam relay services. Spam relay services are offered by third-party providers as an alternative to in-house setups, which may be complicated for smaller organizations. The provider performing the spam filtering services maintains all updates and spam definitions, requiring little to no technical knowledge or maintenance from the customer. The service is generally set up simply by configuring incoming email to deliver to the provider's servers, which then filter the email and deliver it to the intended recipient. The initial cost of this service is minimal compared to in-house solutions – often paid per email address, as part of a monthly/yearly subscription package.

A common concern with off-site email relaying is security and privacy. While most providers in the practice are reputable companies, a business should always do appropriate research before putting the reliability of their email into someone else's hands. A reputable anti-spam relay service will usually offer logs for reviewing what emails were flagged as spam, as well as a place to access those emails in case a legitimate one was filtered out. The availability of email backups and data encryption, even at an additional cost, should also be a factor in this decision-making process.

The method of spam control that a company uses will largely depend on the company's size, budget, and email volume. These factors will often change as a company grows, and therefore demands more cost-effective options in relation to its size and available resources.

This guest post was provided by Vanessa Vasile on behalf of GFI Software Ltd. GFI is a leading software developer that provides a single source for network administrators to address their network security, content security and messaging needs. More information: GFI anti-spam filter solution.

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Could Microsoft Office 365 benefit you?

2011-07-05T10:17:00.004+01:00

Early last week a client rang me. My client has offices in the city of London he specialises in helicopter leasing contracts. Most of his clients have a triple A credit rating which makes formulating financial packages with banks straight forward. Unfortunately in today’s economic climate banks are focused upon rebuilding their balance sheets which means they not keen to lend to perspective clients’ perceived to be less credit worthy. For my client this can necessitate a great deal of traveling to arrange finance through government guarantees for example in one week Washington USA, Rome Italy, Paris France in four days. Naturally face to face meetings necessitates changes to PowerPoint presentations, Word proposals etc. To complicate matters further proposals are formulated by a number individuals with specialist knowledge. Inevitably documentation is passed around the project team for amendments, initially conference calls with documentation emailed to participants. Individuals work on their components and email back their updates. As you can imagine reassembly these parts can quickly become a nightmare particularly when it’s realised one participates amendments requires others input to be altered in unforeseen way. Further complications occur when further meeting changes the initial meeting findings.

What my client asked me is they a better way to coordinate workflows securely regardless of locality?

I suggested he review Microsoft Office 365 a replacement to Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite in particular Microsoft Lync™ Online (connect with others through instant messaging (IM), video calls and online meetings.), Microsoft SharePoint Online to share edit the same documents and Microsoft Office Professional Plus - links desktop Office applications to integrate with Office 365 cloud services.

Is cloud computing the future?

2011-07-02T15:30:00.003+01:00

You may think cloud computing isn't for you.

You maybe right. However I recall business owners saying they would never need a fax machine, a computer, email.

One way or another you are probably using cloud software now but you don't think you are.

If you blog use Gmail, Live mail, online banking, social networking sites, you are using cloud software. There is a real technology revolution happening right now. Ignore this upheaval and you could go out of business. Why previous computer innovations took years to establish themselves for example at the beginning of the 1990’s computers began to appear on workers desks by the end of decade few organisations didn’t use computers. Mobile phones in the eighties where large and heavy by the mid-nineties pocket size and most of the population owned one. Today many people own and use more than one mobile phone.

So what am I trying to say?

Previous revolutions you had the time to observe whether the technology would or would not be of benefit to you and your business. This time around the organisations that choose to use cloud technologies will be the ones to gain a competitive cost advantage against those that don't. Not to mention access to technology capabilities previously only available to corporates or government at a fraction of the cost. In this economic climate that could be the difference between bankruptcy and staying in business.

Is your future the cloud?

2011-06-28T13:04:00.014+01:00

Before you answer the question here are some factors for your consideration

New technologies can help to automate tasks which previously couldn’t be.
Faster systems mean more processing power, less customer wait time improved accuracy and speed which means less time dealing with errors or finding information.
Upgrading to the cloud gives businesses a unique opportunity to evaluate the company's weaknesses and strengths and then configure information systems to help improve and/or do more.
The clouds innovative technology is a great opportunity for a company to gain a competitive advantage both through strategy and differentiation advantages.
Not only can cloud systems increase efficiency and speed, the data drawn from modern systems can help make better managerial decision due to the clouds newer innovative powerful capabilities.
Authorised users can access organisational data remotely.
Staff can be redeployed to innovate to improve customer experiences.

The video below illustrates Microsoft cloud solutions. Of course there are other providers and I encourage you to investigate these. Having reviewed competitors product service I’m confident you’re wish to investigate Microsoft offering further.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

For many organisations the cloud is ‘much ado about nothing’ FOR NOW .
Why, talking to people for many the security question remains of paramount concern. Peoples second concern who owns their data the data centre or them. Usually there is one other question internet connection reliability. All of these questions and more must be answered before even considering a cloud trail. After all its not just your data you are entrusting to the cloud your time probably your greatest asset.

A Software as a Service (SaaS) return on investment (ROI) calculation benefit will depend upon whether you are a new business or an established business and your hardware and or software has reached it’s end of life cycle. As with any other investment, you have to put something into it in order to get something in return that is of value. In terms of computers and information systems, upgrading to more modern tools can end up saving the company a lot of money in the long run. Efficiency gains can be achieved if the right programs are purchased and or designed to meet the requirements of doing daily business and help improve competence. This could be through either reduction of tedious manual sorting or by automating other processes that computers can easily handle and, as a side benefit, improve the capabilities of the business. It is important though to consider the needs of the business, what upgrades are of value to one company may prove useless and costly for another.

Be cautious

Undertake a thorough business and systems analysis prior to purchasing any new a new technology solution. You should seek to understand your business' processes, goals and daily tasks before any upgrade process. Without a firm understanding of this, your upgrade may end up not providing you with the efficiency that it should, which in the end could be pretty costly.

When making business decisions evaluate and look at the benefits of discarding old legacy or just out-dated systems in favour of new ones, yes the upfront price will be costly, however in the long run the savings could be ten fold if planned strategically.

Gary Hamel: Reinventing the Technology of Human Accomplishment

2011-06-25T12:43:00.001+01:00

Gary Hamel video makes some excellent points. However is management changing because of the need to reduce organisation costs to compete with the rise of the East? The use of freelancers in theory increases organisational flexibility reduces head count and costs such as holiday, sick pay, national insurance etc. Historically as management numbers increased management understanding of front office activities degraded. If management numbers are reduced and those remaining in management are moved closer to operations this can only be a benefit. Management will be able to innovate more quickly simply because they are able to call upon real life experiences of how customers encounter their product/service offering. Above all management will have the authority to innovate and to be able to do so more rapidly because management will have developed employee relationships based upon shared experiences. Strong rapport can communicate the urgency the need for continuous innovation in turn commitment to implement.

Reduction of management numbers and moving those that remain close to the front line is possible with the right application of technology. Many functions traditionally carried out by management in the past can be moved to front line staff without impeding their main responsibilities. Senior management retain information flows necessary to direct and maintain organisational prosperity. The quality of information is probably improved as there are fewer filters.

The Cloud offers new horizons for SME’s

2011-06-15T14:04:00.005+01:00

FOR years businesses of all sizes have been told that the future of IT is moving in the direction of anyplace, anytime access to everything you want to know about your data. Enormous sums of money have been spent by multinational corporations in pursuit of this Holy Grail and the reality still fell way short, for the most part, of what could theoretically be delivered. Small to medium sized businesses, however. weren’t even able to scratch the surface of this dream, unless the business was small enough for the owner or director to carry most of the information around in his or her head anyway.

Developments over the last few years, in particular the strides made in server virtualisation and cloud computing, allied to the ever increasing power of mobile devices, have now (almost) made this vision practical and affordable for SMEs. So what is server virtualisation? Virtualisation simply means taking one large server and spitting it into, say, five virtual servers.

Each of these virtual servers is completely secure and private with none of the applications and data on that server being visible to, or accessible by, any of the other virtual servers. So instead of five physical servers, the SME can install one machine and have five virtual machines. Or, which is more exciting, the SME can have a solutions provider host the physical machine for them.

Of itself, server virtualisation is just the first step in the IT revolution that is transforming things for SMEs. But it is a crucial I first step. One of the problems SMEs have faced – and not just SMEs, but large organisations too, is that it is not a good idea to run multiple business applications on the same physical server, since they can each degrade the other’s performance.

This has led to servers breeding like rabbits, as it were, with even mid sized organisations finding themselves running ever larger numbers of servers as the number of applications in the organisation mushroomed.

A not insignificant cost is the cost of electricity for a single server this can run to £500 plus a year. Then there is all the maintenance work associated with applying all the operating system and application patches, which appear on a daily basis from providers, and all essential to keeping the system secure.

Plus there is a huge workload whenever the company decides to upgrade its operating system, say from Microsoft Vista to Microsoft Windows 7. Doing this just once instead of five or ten times, brings obvious time and resource savings.

However, virtualisation opens up far more than this. It is not just the servers that can be virtualised. The same ‘split and compartmentalise’ approach can create virtual desktops. So instead of everyone in the company having to have a PC on their desk loaded with all the applications they require, you can have a single instance of each application virtual server.

Each user then has a profile” which lists their entitlement to various applications and hey presto, they can have a desktop that can follow them wherever they are in the world. All they need is the ability to log on to the server remotely and they immediately have access to their desktop with all its applications. Best of all, the organisation doesn’t need to constantly upgrade its desktop PC fleet every few years since all the power and memory resides on the server or centrally on a storage network.

With desktop virtualisation, you are already into cloud computing, and not just cloud computing, but “private cloud computing. Wherever the user goes, they are surrounded by their own private cloud. unique and personal to them and completely secure. The point about the “cloud” part of cloud computing is that it emphasises that the actual applications can be hosted remotely from the user. The hardware can literally be “anywhere in the cloud” and the limits of the cloud are defined only by where your broadband connectivity reaches – i.e. globally.

Immediately, this opens the way for SMEs to buy “software-as-a-service” or SaaS, where instead of buying their own systems and running these from their offices, they simply rent applications on a per-seat basis, paying per month.

This does away with the need for up front capital costs and with the need for IT staff, but users should expect to have to pay a fee that will be roughly proportionate to what owning the kit outright will cost them. However, an SME buying SaaS will get vastly better and more robust business continuity from their provider than they could ever afford to create for themselves.

Many applications providers are moving their software to the “cloud” in a phased, module by module approach.

Today, what makes it particularly appealing for SMEs, is the cloud product can be customised to reflect a mid-sized company’s highly specific requirements, while still being easily updated every time a release an upgrade to the system is required.

This cuts down hugely on the company’s maintenance costs while still giving it access to a powerful suite of business software. the 80/20 rule, 80% of the business’s requirements out the box, and the other 20% to make the system an exact SME fit..

36% of U.S. SMEs need to access old emails every month

2011-05-11T13:25:00.001+01:00

With email being such an important business tool, GFI Software commissioned a survey on email archiving among US SMEs, to assess how these businesses approached email, archiving and storage. Some of the findings were illuminating to say the least!

One of the questions asked was “How often have you been required to search for old or deleted emails because of requests from end users, the need to meet compliance requirements, the need to provide copies of correspondence for a lawsuit or audit, or any other requirements?”

Below is a graph showing the results:

It may seem a trivial matter to search data archives for old emails, however it’s actually time-consuming, and in most cases an expensive, process. When time and resources are tight, businesses need to utilize their assets to provide the most productivity for the lowest cost. Expending time and money searching for old information isn’t it.

The 36% of businesses who have to perform this onerous duty on a monthly basis are set to see more requests if the latest trends are borne out. The IT sector predicts that e-discovery requests alone are set to increase by at least 20 percent in 2011, increasing further in 2012.

To add insult to injury, the same survey also found that 67% of the respondents have no idea what the regulatory compliance standards are with regard to email retention.

That’s a serious result, and one that could get many a viable business into trouble. Especially if the projected increases in e-discovery requests are borne out. That means a lot of fines, and a lot of businesses put under unnecessary pressure as they struggle to comply with these requests.

Businesses in the U.S. have to start looking seriously at email archiving if they are to avoid costly lawsuits and fines from non-compliance. The time of ignoring regulatory demands is over.

Those 49% of businesses who have never had to search for old emails might have been lucky so far, but if at some point their luck runs out and they would not have the email requested to meet compliance, then they would have to face some serious trouble.

For this reason, businesses should seriously start considering the deployment of email archiving software within their organization as an essential investment not an expense.

This guest post was provided by Jamie Kavanagh on behalf of GFI Software Ltd. GFI is a leading software developer that provides a single source for network administrators to address their network security, content security and messaging needs.

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners

CLIENTS RIGHTLY EXPECT RESULTS

2011-05-10T12:14:00.001+01:00

One of my clients provides national medical transcription services for the NHS. Visiting a foundation trust hospital in the midlands to train clinical, managers and medical secretaries to use transcription software we discovered fifteen secretaries cutting and pasting transcription data into three different databases.

Business analysis revealed each secretary spent an average of three working days over a five day period implementing this task. By writing a server applet this process was automated.

Improved workflow benefits

Patient record transposition errors completely eliminated.

Estimated yearly staff labour cost saving £99,750 (for that one unit).

Possible trust saving due to a patient taking legal action as a consequence of a patient record transposition error which may have lead to incorrect diagnosis and treatment plan being prescribed.

Leicestershire Cares

2011-05-10T11:58:00.001+01:00

Owns a variety of hardware and software. Their peer to peer network developed upon an immediate needs basis. Current configuration is prone to occasional failure and security preaches.

They want email, spam filtering, a shared internet connection with security firewall, a shared fax, printer. scanner and the ability to support remote access for email and home working plus ensure PC’s and server security up-to-dates are maintained.

Teams need to be able to share files and know they are working with the most up to date file version. All files must be stored in one place to make report preparation easier and to ensure data is automatically backed up. Document access must be on authorised basis.

To safeguard continued funding the charity needs to be able to generate statistical reports to reassure donors their funding reaches those in need.

Microsoft Small Business Server offers data security. messaging, reliable printing and faxing, file sharing, backup and remote working. Migration tools to analyse existing machines and pool all the data, enabling fast transfer from a standalone environment to a network environment

Exchange securely centralise email services. Web Access enables users to pass through the firewall to access their email from any location via the Internet.

Microsoft Windows SharePoint allows documents to be securely shared for example Excel files. Authorised users always work with an up to date file version which means at a touch of a button users can produce up to date donor reports.

Housecall Care

2011-05-10T11:45:00.001+01:00

Held back by open-source

Home care provides support services for the elderly. The company employs 220 staff, 24 administrative staff based at two sites with a total of 22 PC’s.

Senior management use Microsoft Office and staff use Open Source Office suite.

Theory suggests different application formats can be opened, edited, saved and shared. In practice many end users lack the knowledge, they simple not interested in technical wizardry. They simply want to do their job. The result one out of four email attachments has to be converted and sent again.

Most users will happily learn to use one application and will tolerate incremental upgrades as software evolves. The benefits of adopting a Microsoft solution

(1) customer support

(2) a reduced learning curve and

(3) reduced need for training.

Solution – SBS server to run email, central file storage and specialist staff rota software.

Using Microsoft Terminal server. House Call staff can securely access and use Microsoft Office applications from their satellite offices or from home. On the road staff are able to access their email, contacts, calendar and more from virtually anywhere, at any time using their Windows Mobile smart phones.

PST repair? Not an issue when you use email archiving

2011-04-15T08:44:00.001+01:00

If you’ve ever been in an Exchange environment with limited disk space, then you’ve probably dealt with PST files and you’ve probably had to attempt a PST repair. These personal storage units for email were never meant to be used in an enterprise environment but, with the cost of disk space on Exchange servers being high, administrators had to set quotas which led to users needing to save emails they might need for future reference in case of compliance or to meet business requirements and PSTs were the natural (if unintended) solution. Little did they know that the issue with storage space could be solved with an even better solution – email archiving.

The problem with PST files

Let us first understand why using PST files isn’t such a good idea. As PSTs grow, they reach size limits which, if exceeded, can lead to corruption. That means hours of painstaking work attempting PST repair. Whether you are trying to recover data from a PST with Microsoft’s PST repair tool or a third party solution, or just trying to save anything you can by truncating an overgrown PST, if the PST is corrupt the chances of losing unrecoverable data is fairly high.

Why put your company email at risk when there’s email archiving?

When you add email archiving software to your Exchange system, there will no longer be a reason for users to create PSTs. Remember: why do users create PSTs files in the first place? They are either running out of space and get a message that they are approaching their quota, or they are concerned that an automatic purge will delete old email that they may need someday, or because they are charged more for storage space on the Exchange server than on a file server. With email archiving software, all email is saved automatically in a central archive. This system provides a safe and secure way to maintain a copy of all email sent or received by your users, and can be accessed directly from their Outlook client or through a web browser. With search capabilities, they can find any email in the archive without having to sort through multiple PST files.

With the email archive in place, users no longer need to worry about what to do with older email, or that they are running out of space on the server; they can keep current email in their inbox, and refer to the archive if they ever need access to an older message. Attachments sent to multiple users are not a problem either as email archiving software can take advantage of single instance storage. How many corrupted PST repair jobs have been caused by files growing large because of attachments? How much duplicate data is on your network now because of attachments sent to multiple users, and then saved by them all to PSTs? With email archiving software in place, you can completely do away with PSTs. You can even push out a Group Policy that disables users’ ability to create PSTs, eliminating the risk of data loss that comes with a corrupt PST that cannot be repaired.

Email archiving software is a very efficient and cost-effective way to extend the capacity of your email system, ensure document retention policies are followed, reduce storage costs, eliminate risk of data loss from corrupt PST files, and avoid ever having to perform another PST repair. With the additional search capabilities, reduction of demand on Exchange servers’ resources, and compliance aspects, email archiving is proving to be a great solution for all concerned.

This guest post was provided by Ed Fisher on behalf of GFI Software Ltd. GFI is a
leading software developer that provides a single source for network
administrators to address their network security, content security and
messaging needs. More information: GFI email archiving.

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective
owners.

You really, really want to grow your business

2011-04-08T14:57:00.000+01:00

A few days ago I was approached to read a business book. Having completed a Master's In Business Administration (MBA) I really wasn't keen. I really thought I had read all I would ever want to about business. I was very, very wrong.

Ciaran's book 'How Companies Really Grow' will certainly challenge perceived thinking of academe and the business world. Essentially Ciaran thesis suggests business owners wishing to establish a growing business must first understand their customers, their behaviour, their wants, their needs and the things about your company that bug customers. This requires business owners and their employees to have on-going conversations with customers. If you choose to talk to enough customers a theme will arise. If you offer solutions to customer annoyances your profits increase.

Ciaran's book debunks business tools such as business plans, strengths weakness, threats and opportunities (SWOT), break even analysis, surveys etc. He suggests these tools are ineffective because more often than not they are based upon preconceived subjective judgements for example surveys frame questions to confirm or disprove hypotheses. Such tools ignore tacit nuances the speed the nature of how dynamic drivers influence culture, in turn people's motivations to buy. It's quite understandable as to why such tools are used its' believed formulation application mitigates risk in the minds of investors. In reality an investor will back the people in the business not the business plan. Ciaran very cleverly uses metaphors to explain complex dry issues. Doing so provides real insight for example you shouldn't compete on price; you should differentiate your offering to signal value to your customers. Every page is full of gems, above all practical advice.

If you wish to obtain a copy click here

How to remove virus your PC security software says you don’t have?

2011-03-31T13:05:00.001+01:00

Have you ever been in the situation you know your computer has a virus, yet your security software reports your computer as healthy?

Perhaps your security software successfully identified and removed the virus yet the problem persists?

After reading this blog you have a strategy to tackle and resolve the problem manually. However this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep your operating system, plus application software up-to-date and your security software definitions current. I include software and hardware firewall.

What’s a firewall? Its a term taken from the building industry, as the name implies, a firewall is a barrier between two things, in this case, your computer and the Internet, which prevents destruction (or other bad news) on one side of the wall from affecting things on the other. Many users seem unaware of the fact that most routers come with firewalls built in, as do computer operating systems, such as Windows XP, Vista, 7 and Apple OS X. Make sure these are turned on and set up properly (consult the documents for your router and operating system). If you prefer dedicated a hardware device consider Yoggie Gatekeeper or a Microsoft ISA server for most users a properly configured router and software firewall are more than sufficient.

I’m supposing you already know what safe mode is. If you don’t try pressing the F8 key some times when you start your computer. You have to do this when your computer is about to start the first windows components. If F8 fails to present you with a list of start-up modes try F2, F10 (depends on whether your motherboard is AMD or Intel). You may be thinking why do you need to access safe mode? Safe mode launches minimal services and most viruses won’t start in this mode.

Begin by starting your computer in safe mode.
If you know the location of the viruses then navigate to the folder then delete the executable file.
Open the registry and go to the keys below and add an : in front of the value of the string where you think the virus executable resides. For example if string value is "c:\virus.exe" change its value to ":c:\virus.exe". The : before the C deactivates the value (i.e. stops the file loading). But if you are confident its the virus delete the string.
Below are a list of registry keys you may wish to view:

The virus can start itself from some other locations such as win.ini. Locate files named win.ini and system.ini. Look for the ini extension look very carefully before disabling. If you have any doubt what ever disable the file rather than delete. Read and (I emphasis) understand the warning to be found at the bottom of this article.
Next look through your start-up folder located in your profile directory \Start Menu\Programs\Startup alternatively if XP Start>run type MSCONFIG if Vista or Windows 7 then Start>(Files Search Box) type MSCONFIG.
Search for executable virus files and disable.
Lastly look through the list of services your computer runs. Services can be located under control panel - administrative tools - services. After implementing these seven steps reboot your computer in normal mode. Does your computer start and run normally? If not go back to safe mode and identify and disable other suspects. If you are successfully go back and delete the disabled entries. Off course these seven steps will not work on every virus.

Most users won’t be happy to apply the above strategy. I wouldn’t blame you if you did think twice, I certainly would. So what alternatives are there. One, try a system restore. The second use security software there are free as well as paid versions. If you choose to seek a free antivirus software package consider Microsoft Essentials real-time protection or AVG Free. Free online virus software scanner try Microsoft Essentials. If you wish to pay for security then consider Microsoft Forefront, Symantec Norton, F-secure, MacAfee or AVG. Why pay, definition updates, tools and technical support to remove viruses. If you use Windows and you have a particularly nasty problem download Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool (its free). The downside to deploying Microsoft Malicious Software removal Tool is, it’s very thorough in other words it takes time to complete but more often than not it does resolve the problem.

There are many other tools like Hi-jack this - Spybot but you do need a little knowledge, incorrect changes to the registry will result in a system rebuild. Please note making incorrect changes to your registry can result in loss of user data. More often than not such data can be recovered NEVERTHELESS for your peace of mind up-to-date, data backups are essential. Just think about how many late nights, early mornings you’re have to work to replace your data.

Other resources

You certainly won’t be wasting your time reading this magnificent blog How to find and remove Spyware, Trojans and Viruses having read the blog there is excellent easy to follow step by step video to remove such nasty's at the bottom of the page. You need access to another computer to view and pause the video should you wish to view while implementing the recommended steps.

To prevent this happening again read How to boost your malware defence and protect your PC article.

Other blogs How Do I Clean Spyware Off My PC?- Pharming is what? & can you avoid it? - Phishing is what? Can I protect myself? (preventive articles rather than ‘how to solve’ after the event).

If the above strategy fails then a system rebuild is your best option. In my experience more often than not its the most cost effective client solution.

WARNING: Be careful when editing the registry you can cause serious damage to your system.

Preparing for the Migration

2011-03-30T09:37:00.001+01:00

Harvey’s LLP, a 35-person law firm, currently using Windows Small Business Server 2003 and has decided to upgrade to Windows SBS 2008. Because of the mission-critical functions that Windows Small Business Server 2003 performs (e-mail, remote access, file server), it is unacceptable to take the server offline. The migration should be performed with the least amount of interruption to users. Mail flow must remain constant; remote access to computers, Outlook Web Access, and syncing mobile devices should not be changed; and the migration should be as transparent as possible.

The management team has several questions, including the following:

What steps should Gregory (administrator) take to prepare the server running Windows Small Business Server 2003 prior to migration?
- To prepare the server running Windows Small Business Server 2003 for the migration, Gregory should complete the following tasks:
  - Update all services packs, hotfixes, and software for Windows Small Business Server 2003 (source server).
  - configure the server running Windows Small Business Server 2003 to use a single NIC, if required.
  - Run the Windows Small Business Server 2003 Best Practices Analyser to check the server health and the health of Exchange Server 2003.
  - Run the Migration Preparation tool on the source server.
Which IP address range should you configure for the router?
- Gregory should configure the router with an IP address of either 192.168.X.1 or 192.168.X.254 (where x is any subnet number from 1 to 254).
The administrator account used to raise the domain functional level must be a member of which security groups?
- The administrator account that raises the domain functional level must be a member of the Domain Admins or Enterprise Admins groups in Active Directory Domain Services, or the task must be delegated to the appropriate authority.
Gregory are concerned about migrating the Exchange Server mailboxes and loss of Internet mail connectivity. How can Gregory ensure that mail flow during the migration from the source server to the destination server is constant?
- Transfer of mall flow is automatically enabled between the source server and destination server when you install Windows Small Business Server 2008 in migration mode. Once the Internet Send connectors are removed from the source server, Windows Small Business Server 2008 becomes responsible for inbound and outbound Internet mail. Users continue to have access to their mailboxes, regardless of which server the mailboxes are on.
Gregory would like to take the opportunity during the migration to the new Windows SBS 2008 network to standardize user properties (group memberships, disk quotas, and so forth). How can Gregory accomplish this task?
- Gregory can use the Change A User Role Wizard during the migration to implement user role standards. Users do not have user roles assigned to them during the installation. This provides Gregory the opportunity to create new user roles prior to running the Migrate Users And Groups task (which contains the Change A User Role Wizard), and then assign user accounts to the appropriate user roles.

This is the last article in the series

Harvey’s LLP is fictitious firm. The presented case study is based on real world requirements.

Expanding the Small Business Infrastructure

2011-03-29T14:50:00.001+01:00

Harvey’s LLP is a 35-person law firm, expanding rapidly and is in need of a technology solution that will allow employees to access data and applications remotely. Currently, the company runs Windows SBS 2008 Standard edition. The company wants to ensure that employees have access to standard applications at any time from anywhere, even if the software is not installed on the client computer. This should be accomplished without requiring retraining of the staff. Documents are taking up storage space on the server, and the workload of accessing documents on the server should be offloaded. The law firm just bought a very expensive case management software application that is compatible only with the Windows Server 2003 32-bit operating system.

The management team has several questions, including the following:

What solution would I recommend for managing document growth that has the least impact on the network?
- Harvey’s can manage document growth by adding a member server to the firm’s network. They could purchase an upgrade to Windows SBS 2008 Premium but install the second server as a member server on additional physical hardware.
What solution would I suggest for enabling access anytime from anywhere and making applications available, but for selected staff only?
- Harvey’s can offer access from anywhere at any time by using Remote Web Workplace (RWW). Remote Web Workplace makes applications available to staff from remote locations. The firm could purchase Windows SBS 2008 Premium, install a second server as a member server, and enable Terminal Services. They could make the needed applications available to the selected group of staff by creating a new security group that is then placed in the Remote Desktop Users group on the terminal server.
How should the remote access be configured?
- Remote access can be configured using Remote Web Workplace. The firm can decide whether a full desktop should be made available or only certain applications. Either choice can be configured through RWW and without having to retrain the users other than to advise them to use the new link in RWW. To enable Terminal Services, the firm must purchase Terminal Services licenses separately from Windows SBS CALs.
What should be done about the case management software? The managing partners would be thrilled if it could be deployed for use in the firm.
- The case management software could be installed on a server running Windows Server 2003 in a virtual environment. This requires that the firm upgrade to Windows SBS 2008 Premium and install the second server as a member server with the Hyper-V role enabled. The Windows Server 2003 32-bit operating system can be installed as a virtual machine, and users will be able to access and use the software.
Will Harvey’s need to purchase additional licenses to run Windows Server 2003 in a virtual environment?
- Because the case management software requires a Windows Server 2003 32-bit operating system, it is not covered under the Windows SBS 2008 Premium license. (Only Windows Server 2008 32-bit or 64-bit operating system is part of the Premium license.) To run Windows Server 2003 in a virtual environment, the firm must purchase a license for Windows Server 2003 and one Windows SBS client access license for the server to access the server running Windows SBS 2008 and participate on the domain. The Windows SBS user CALs then cover access to Windows Server 2003 for users.
Harvey’s is considering opening a branch office. How could staff at the branch office stay connected and the technology be managed without adding hours to Gregory’s (the administrator) schedule?
- The firm could install and configure a server running Windows SBS 2008 Premium as a read-only domain controller (RODC), and then move it off-site to the new branch office. The server running Windows SBS 2008 as a primary server and the off-site server can be connected using a VPN, and the off-site server can be managed just as if it were located in the main office. Users can use RWW to access documents and Outlook Web Access or RPC over HTTP or their Outlook clients. This scenario does not require any additional administrative tasks the solution is in place.

Next article Preparing for the Migration

Harvey’s LLP is fictitious firm. The presented case study is based on real world requirements.

Managing SharePoint, CompanyWeb and Exchange

2011-03-28T11:31:00.001+01:00

Harvey’s LLP working hard to reduce costs and thinks that using remote workers can be a part of the solution. Harvey’s LLP CEO has asked the practice manager to investigate the capabilities of Windows SBS 2008 and report back to her with answers to the following questions:

The practice manager wants the following questions answered

How can Gregory (network administrator) manage, on a per-user basis, access to http://companyweb and any custom-created sites and libraries?
- SharePoint provides mechanisms for granular security at both the group and user level. To Settings. Choose People And Groups. On the People And Groups page, choose the users and groups that should have access to the site.
How does Gregory create new SharePoint sites and libraries that could be used to improve remote collaboration possibilities?
- Making sure to log in to SharePoint as a user with permissions to create new sites, go to Site Actions, then select Site Settings. Choose Sites And Workspaces and choose Create from the Sites And Workspaces page. Provide the requested information, including site name and address and decide what kind of site you want to create for example blog, team, Wiki etc.
Harvey’s does not want worker productivity to suffer because of technical issues related to the transition to a remote workforce. What steps can be taken to help remote workers perform their jobs using some of the native tools, such as Windows Explorer, with which they’re familiar?
- Use WebDAV to connect to a SharePoint library. On the client computer, open the Map Network Drive dialog box (from the Start menu right-click My Computer and select Map Network Drive). Choose the drive letter that you want to use for the Web folder. In the Folder Path box, type http://companyweb/<library name> (for example, type http://companyweb/Shared Documents). If you want this item to be remapped each time you restart, select the Reconnect At Logon option.
Outlook is widely considered to be the ultimate collaboration tool, and Harvey’s management does not want to lose this vital software simply because people are working remotely. What steps can you take to enable Outlook Anywhere?
- Before you get started configuring Outlook Anywhere, make sure you have installed the security certificate, I’ve explained how in a previous blog, “Implementing a Windows Small Business Server 2008 Solution.” Then, from the computer on which Outlook will run over HTTP (Outlook Anywhere), in Control Panel open the Mail item. Create an Outlook profile for the user using Exchange as the E-mail service. In the Exchange Server textbox, provide the name of the Exchange server to which to connect and, when asked, provide the credentials for the user that will be using the Outlook account. On the profile Connection tab, in the Outlook Anywhere section, choose Connect To My Exchange Mailbox Using HTTP. Click the Exchange Proxy Settings button and in the Use This URL To Connect To My Proxy Server For Exchange box, type the remote address for your server (for example remote.harvey.com). Verify that the Connect Using SSL Only option is selected. Under Proxy authentication settings, select Basic Authentication.
Some users will not use Outlook on a regular basis and will rely on the services provided by Outlook Web Access. How can you provide these users with access to the files that they might have stored on the Harvey’s file server?
- On the server running Windows Small Business Server 2008 open the Exchange Management Console and navigate to Server Configuration, and click Client Access. In the middle pane, select OWA (SBS Web Applications) and from the Actions pane, under OWA (Small Business Server Web Applications), click Properties. On the Properties page, three tabs are related to remote file access: Public Computer File Access, Private Computer File Access, and Remote File Servers. On the Public and Private computers tabs, make sure that the Enable Direct File Access option is enabled. Use the Windows File Shares option to allow Outlook Web Access users to access files located on the server running Windows Small Business Server 2008. Use the Windows SharePoint Services option to allow Outlook Web Access users to access files located in Windows SharePoint Services repositories. On the Remote File Servers list, make sure that your server running Windows Small Business Server 2008 is listed.
Because people will not be in a fixed location, Harvey’s management plans to provide each employee with a Windows Mobile-based phone. What’s necessary to enable these devices to communicate directly with the Harvey’s Exchange server?
- In order for a Windows Mobile device to communicate with a Windows Small Business Server 2008 system, each mobile device must have installed on it the server’s security certificate. Once the security certificate is installed, use the ActiveSync configuration tool on the mobile device to set up a user connection to the Windows Small Business Server 2008 system.

Next article Expanding the Small Business Infrastructure

Harvey’s LLP is fictitious firm. The presented case study is based on real world requirements.

Implementing a Windows Small Business 2008 Solution

2011-03-27T11:29:00.001+01:00

Harvey’s LLP, a 35-person law firm, has many employees working remotely. Employees must have the ability to store documents on the company server and pull documents from the from their remote remote laptops while traveling.

The firm uses third-party proprietary legal software that was designed to work with VPN access for remote access. The practice manager wants to know what must be implement to enable and support all access methods with the best security available based on the company budget (meaning use all free Windows Small Business Server security features).

With the above in mind the practice manager asks following questions.

What tasks must Gregory (network administrator) perform to ensure that all users have access to Remote Web Workplace?
- To access Remote Web Workplace, users must be members of the Remote Web Workplace Users or Domain Admins security groups. By default, all standard users are members of the Remote Web Workplace Users group. In this case, you would have to do nothing to ensure that all users have access to Remote Web Workplace. Gregory would, however, have to remove the access rights of users who should not have access to Remote Web Workplace.
What tasks must Gregory perform to enable virtual private network access and ensure that only employees that really need VPN access have permission to use it?
- Gregory can perform two tasks to enable remote access for individual users. First, in the Users And Groups tab, you can add or remove user accounts in the Windows SBS Virtual Private Network Users security group. Second, in the Network tab, click the Connectivity tab, and then click Virtual Private Network. Here Gregory can modify the properties of the Windows SBS Virtual Private Network Users security group.
What is the best way to deploy the self-issued certificate to remote users with non-domain-joined client computers?
- To install the self-issued certificate on remote clients or mobile devices, copy the Certificate Package.zip file to a USB storage device or removable media, and then attach the device to the remote client. If Gregory or a user is installing the certificate to a mobile device, ensure that the mobile device is physically connected to the remote client computer. Open the Certificate.exe file to install the certificate.
Not all users should have remote access to their office workstations through Remote Web Workplace. How can Gregory ensure this is the case?
- By default users are members of the Windows SBS Remote Web Workplace Users group. User accounts can be removed from this security group in two ways: In the Shared Folders And Web Sites tab, Gregory can modify membership in the security group, or in the user account properties Gregory can select or clear the User Can Access Remote Web Workplace option.
Some users need access to other office workstations besides their own. How can Gregory accomplish this?
- When users must have access to another workstation besides their own, either they must be added to the Remote Desktop Users group or they must be a member of the local administrators group on the client computer to which they need access. After Gregory has configured their access permissions, users can access the client computer through Remote Web Workplace. In the Connect To A Computer link, users will see their own computer shown as the default computer and are also able to expand the options and select another computer (for which they have access permissions) to connect to.
A managing partner wants to know whether a self-issued certificate is as safe as a third-party certificate. Why are there differences between the two types of certificates?
- In terms of security, self-issued certificates and third-party certificates both use the same encryption technology, so one does not provide stronger security than the other. The difference between the types of certificates is in the amount of effort required to administer them. Most third-party root certificates come already installed on mobile devices, whereas self-issued certificates must be deployed to and installed on each mobile device or remote client. In some situations, third-party certificates are required, such as when a mobile operator does not accept a self-issued certificate. In certain instances, using third-party certificates makes it easier for Gregory to manage the certificate.
How can Gregory bind third-party certificates to the default Windows Small Business Server Web sites?
- Gregory can use the Add A Trusted Certificate Wizard to bind a third-party certificate to the server running Windows Small Business Server. First, Gregory must import the third-party certificate using the native Windows Server 2008 Import Certificate Wizard or by following the vendor’s instructions. (Usually a third-party certificate vendor gives explicit instructions on how the certificate should be imported on the server.) When Gregory has imported the trusted certificate, Gregory can run the Add A Trusted Certificate Wizard from the Windows SBS Console to bind the imported trusted certificate to Windows SBS 2008.

Next article Managing SharePoint, CompanyWeb and Exchange

Harvey’s LLP is fictitious firm. The presented case study is based on real world requirements.

Managing Software Updates, Server Storage, Backup and Recovery

2011-03-26T13:00:00.001Z

Case Scenario 1: Managing Software Updates

The business at Hervey's LLP, is becoming a 24/7 operation with tightly controlled downtime. The practice manager is worried that the forthcoming Windows Vista Service Pack 2 will break a critical line-of-business application and has asked you to reconfigure system updates in a number of ways.

The practice manager wants the following questions answered

How can Gregory the administrator modify settings so that service packs are not automatically installed on any client computers and instead require manual administrator intervention prior to installation?
- Gregory can accomplish the first request in the Client Updates tab in the Software Update Settings dialog box. Change the update level to Medium. A Medium update level still automatically approves security and critical updates, but excludes service packs from automatic approval.
How can the administrator reconfigure server-side updates to take place during a newly defined maintenance window that starts at 1:30 am every Sunday morning rather than at the default time of 3:00 am every day?
- In the Software Update Settings dialog box, in the Schedule tab, change both the server and client computer schedules to Every Sunday at 2:00 AM. The update scheduler doesn’t work in half-hour increments.
How can the administrator exclude the practice manager’s computer from automatic updates until further notice?
- In the same dialog box, click Included Computers. In the Included pane, select the manager’s computer and click the Remove button.

Case Scenario 2: Managing Server Storage

Harvey’s LLP Windows Small Business Server system has been in production for a few months now and it’s running out of hard disk drive space. Users are e-mailing with great frequency and Gregory the administrator believes that Exchange Server data is consuming more than half of the system volume.

The practice manager wants the following questions answered

How can Gregory verify that Exchange Server is the primary culprit in this situation?
- By running a current Detailed Network Report, Gregory can see a mailbox list and determine whether the Exchange Server data is really taking up a lot of space. A Detailed Network Report lists every user mailbox along with the current mailbox size and the total number of messages sent and received on a per-user basis.
What is necessary for Gregory to move the Exchange Server data somewhere else?
- To move data on your server, Gregory needs a volume to which to move the data. If you have not added a second hard drive to your Windows Small Business Server system, Gregory must do so before Gregory can move data away from the default system volume.
How does Gregory go about actually moving the Exchange Server data?
- Windows Small Business Server includes a number of Move Data wizards that accomplish this task for Gregory. Alternatively, Gregory can use the Move-SBSDataStore Windows PowerShell command to move data to another volume. Make sure Gregory doesn’t forget to enable the command in Windows PowerShell by running Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutlons.SBS.Powershell.MoveData.

Case Scenario 3: Configuring Backup and Recovery

Recently, a number of users at Harvey’s LLP have called Gregory indicating that they’ve accidentally deleted files or folders from the network and they want your help to recover the data. Because of disk constraints, Gregory moved user data to a new server volume a few months ago. At the same time, the backups, which usually start at 5:00 am, have started running so long that employees arriving for the earliest shift are experiencing performance problems and can’t get their work done. The increase in backed-up data has also pushed the current backup units to capacity and they’re running out of backup space.

The practice manager wants the following questions answered

When attempting to help users recover accidentally deleted files, Gregory discovers that the Volume Shadow Copy Service isn’t enabled for the volume on which user data is stored. Why? How does Gregory enable it?
- Only volumes that were in the server when Windows Small Business Server was initially installed have the shadow copy feature enabled by default. Gregory must configure any volume that’s added after installation for shadow copies to work. To do so, on the server, go to Start, Computer, right-click the volume, and click Configure Shadow Copies. In the Shadow Copies dialog box, select the volume and enable the service.
What steps does Gregory need to take to change the time when backups run?
- In the Backup Schedule tab of the Server Backup Properties dialog box, change the backup time to a time earlier in the morning and also run the backup only once a day.
How does Gregory add another external hard drive to the backup pool?
- Connect the new drive to the server. (Gregory might need to use Server Manager to prepare the drive for use. To start Server Manger, on the Start menu, right-click Computer, click Manage, expand Storage, and then select Disk Management.) In the Backup Destination tab of the Backup Properties dialog box, click Add Or Remove Drives to add the new device for use with the backup utility.

Next article Implementing a Windows Small Business 2008 Solution

Harvey’s LLP is fictitious firm. The presented case study is based on real world requirements.

Resource Planning for a Windows Small Business Server 2008 Network

2011-03-25T10:09:00.001Z

Harvey’s LLP, a 35-person law firm, uses a peer-to-peer network and is experiencing several challenges with its network infrastructure. Staff keep company information on individual workstations, and there is no centralised storage location. Staff needs to be able to store documents in a centralised location but also have documents available when traveling with their laptops. Some staff should be able to access their office workstations from their computers at home. Currently, Harvey’s LLP uses a mix of Windows XP Home and Windows Vista Business operating systems on their office computers. A third-party proprietary legal software application should be available to everyone on all client computers at any time. The decision is made to implement a Windows SBS 2008 network.

The practice manager wants the following questions answered

What tasks must the Gregory Webster (administrator) perform to verify that all client computers will be able to participate on the Windows SBS 2008 network, and what minimum requirements must each client computer meet?
- The administrator should run the Windows SBS Client Advisor utility to check that all client computers meet the minimum requirements to participate on the Windows SBS 2008 network. All computers running Windows XP Home must be upgraded to run Windows XP Professional SP2 or Windows Vista. The client computers must have installed the Client for Microsoft Networks protocol and .NET Framework 2.0 or later; the client computers running Windows XP must have the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) software version 6.0 or later installed.
Which settings and policies should be enabled and configured prior to joining the client computers to the domain?
- At a minimum the folder redirection policy should be enabled to redirect all documents to a central storage location. This policy automatically enables offline file synchronisation so that users have a local cached copy on their client computers as well. The power management policy in Windows Vista should not be enabled so that users can access client computers remotely at any time. The default Windows SBS Group Policy settings automatically configure Windows Updates, the client computer’s firewall settings, and other basic configurations. making it easy for Gregory to implement the client computers on the new domain.
The third-party software should be installed on all client computers and available to all staff members, including when staff logs on to someone else’s client computer. How can this be accomplished?
- The administrator should create a network distribution point on the server with the appropriate permissions so that the software can be pulled and installed on any client computer by any user. The administrator can configure a Group Policy under Computer Configuration and assign the policy to all client computers on the Windows SBS 2008 network. This way, if the software is accidentally uninstalled or damaged, the software will be automatically reinstalled or repaired through the GPO settings.
Can end users join client computers to the Windows SBS 2008 domain?
- A client computer can be joined to the domain by typing http://connect in the address bar in the browser on the client computer and starting the Connect Computer Wizard, or the network administrator Gregory can copy the Connect Computer program to removable media and run the Launcher.exe file on each client computer.
When a standard user joins a client computer to the domain, which permissions are assigned to the user account on the client computer?
- When a standard user joins a client computer to the Windows SBS 2008 domain, the user account is automatically made a local administrator on the client computer. Gregory (administrator) can change this role in the Windows SBS Console under the computer account properties of the client computer.
All client computers at Harvey’s LLP run Windows XP Home and Windows Vista Business. The computers running Windows XP Home will be upgraded to Windows XP Professional SP2. Are there any special steps Gregory (administrator) must undertake to move the profile data, and if so, what has to be done?
- Because the client computers at Harvey’s LLP are on a peer-to-peer network, all computers have local profiles. The computers running Windows XP that are being upgraded will keep their profiles, and there is no special preparation necessary to migrate the local profiles from the computers running Windows XP Professional SP2 and Windows Vista Business to the Windows SBS 2008 domain. The Connect Computer Wizard migrates the existing local profiles during the join process.
Harvey’s LLP has 35 workstations in the office (one for each staff member and attorney) and an additional 12 laptops (one for each solicitor). Several solicitors would like to receive their e-mail on their mobile devices and some staff members expressed the desire to be able to work from home. What type of licensing scheme would be required and why?
- In this scenario, user client access licenses because most users will be using more than one device to access resources on the Windows SBS 2008 network. Essentially there two types of licences. One a client licence. Client licences are linked to the user (the user can use their work and or home computer). Two a device licence. A device licence is linked to a computer (any user can use the licenced computer).

Next article Managing Software Updates, Server Storage, Backup and Recovery

Harvey’s LLP is fictitious firm. The presented case study is based on real world requirements.

How does Small Business Server (SBS) 2008 manage users and computers

2011-03-24T13:54:00.002Z

The practice manager has the following requirements:

The managing partners should have no disk quota set for either shared folders or mailboxes. trainees should have a disk quota of 1 GB set for both shared folders and mailboxes. Other employees should have a disk quota set to the default value.

The managing partners should have access to the virtual private network (VPN - out of office access to work computers, files etc.) Other employees should not.

All employees except for the trainees should have access to a set of shared folders named Clients on the server.

A new large-format colour laser printer has been installed. Managing partners, other solicitors, and their receptionists should have access to the printer. Other employees and trainees should not.

All employees and trainees should have access to the other laser printers on the network. There are six other laser printers.

All employees and trainees should have access to the Windows SBS 2008 Fax service.

The practice manager wants the following questions answered

What new groups need to be created for SBS 2008 network to suit the preceding criteria?
- The following new groups need to be created: one group to control access to the large-format colour laser printer, six groups for each of the other six laser printers on the network, and one group for the Clients shared folder. Each of these groups should be assigned the appropriate level of access to the resources.

What new user roles should need to be created? How should they be configured to fulfil the above criteria?

Because managing partners and trainees need different rights than other employees, a user role for each of those needs be created. Because the Standard User user role is already in the Windows SBS Fax Users group (and because the new user roles are based on the Standard User user role), no additional configuration is necessary. Configuration user roles are shown below.

User Role Changes To Default Permission Changes to Group Membership Required
Managing Partners Disable disk quotas Grant access to VPN Add groups for six standard laser printers

Traninees Change disk quotas to 1GB Add group for shared Clients folder

Add group large-format colour laser printer
Remove group for shared clients folder

Next article Resource Planning for a Windows Small Business Server 2008 Network
Harvey’s LLP is fictitious firm. The presented case study is based on real world requirements.

Why deploy Microsoft Small Business Server 2008?

2011-03-23T16:00:00.003Z

Harvey’s LLP, is a 35-person law firm in London, specialising in real estate, wills and probate, civil litigation, family law, and personal injury lawsuits. The firm consists of four managing partners, eight additional solicitors, four articled clerks, two law costs draftsmen, two receptionists, eight clerical workers, and seven trainees. The firm has 35 computers in the office and a laptop for each solicitor (12 in total).
Most computers employ Microsoft Office Small Business, but a few also use a line-of-business billing application that relies on SQL Server. The firm would like to install SQL Server 2008. Harvey’s LLP has purchased two new servers and want’s SQL Server database to run on a separate server.

The practice manager wants the following questions answered:

What edition of Windows SBS 2008 does the firm require Standard or Premium? And Why?
- The firm requires Premium edition of Windows SBS 2008 because this edition includes SQL Server 2008 which means the second server can be used to run SQL Server 2008 in turn the billing application. Core applications, such as Exchange Server 2007, must run on the main server that runs Windows SBS 2008.
One of the firm’s employees, Gregory Webster, will be responsible for day to day network administration after installation. Gregory should be able to log on and start creating user accounts. How can these requirements be configured to enable Gregory to have the appropriate permissions?
- During setup of Windows SBS 2008, Gregory Webster credentials for the administrative account can be configured to replace the built-in Administrator account in Windows Server 2008.
Harvey’s LLP uses an outside service to host its web site and is happy with this arrangement. Harvey’s LLP is not interested in hosting their own web site or administering Domain Name System (DNS) records. How should the internal domain name for the firm be configured?
- By default setup appends the .local suffix to the internal domain name specified during setup. This is a private domain and does not require administration of public DNS records. You should choose a simple internal domain name based on the company name. For example, a good internal domain name for this exercise is HARVEY. The resulting Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) could be HARVEY.LOCAL.
Currently, Harvey’s LLP uses a business-class router/firewall to provide security and IP addressing for the network. What's required before Windows SBS 2008 can be installed?
- The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) service on the router/firewall will need to be disabled. Windows SBS 2008 includes its own DHCP service that is more powerful and better integrated than the service included in most separate routers/firewalls. Windows SBS 2008 shuts down its own DHCP service if it detects another service on the network. Because it is recommended that you use the Windows SBS 2008 DHCP service, you should disable any other DHCP service on the network prior to installation.

Next article How does Small Business Server (SBS) 2008 manage users and
computers

Harvey’s LLP is fictitious firm. The presented case study is based on real world requirements.

Network Environment and Business Success

2011-03-17T08:42:00.001Z

At times, organisations and their IT departments are at odds, both wanting to share in a common success, but often separated by seemingly conflicting roles and responsibilities. On one side, you have IT departments, tasked with ensuring an efficient, secure network environment. And on the other end of the spectrum are the business professionals who rely upon these systems to manage the critical business processes that foster revenue generation.

IT departments, then, are in the precarious position of balancing technical best practices with the needs of the business. Their challenge? To protect the company's data assets while being viewed as facilitators, not inhibitors. As both sides are critical to business success, the incentive to work together is clearly evident. And the key to building a synergistic relationship is communications.

A common complaint centres around the issue of linguistics. The technical terms, acronyms and other jargon common to IT can be seen as intimidating, but they needn't be.

One solution is to document a baseline set of terminology that can serve as an aid in discussions with co-workers and management. This document doesn't need to be overly complex, but should include basic hardware, software, and networking terms along with a brief explanation of how computers operate singularly as well as how they connect to the Internet.

The benefits of sharing this information are twofold. First, business professionals are better equipped to understand how their actions impact the network as a whole, which could have the unexpected benefit of tighter security. And IT will have the advantage of being able to more easily articulate the need for essential network infrastructure investments. Those services may include:

Security - Anti-virus & malware, password best practices, auditing, firewalls, and physical security.
Access rights & Permissions – Network and Internet access best practices.
Backups – Imaging, backups & restoration, disaster recovery.
Hardware – Proper budgeting, managing purchases, & external device connections, virtualization technology.

As cliché as it sounds, communication is the key to business success. What's most required is a willingness on both sides, to gain more understanding of their common business drivers. Long gone are the days when IT could function independently from other business units. This is especially evident in the growth of the role of the Project Manager – someone with a unique understanding of the business, combined with exceptional technical and communications skills.

The end result will be more IT savvy business professionals that understand how their actions can positively or negatively impact the business, and also a more business savvy IT staff that understands how to employ the use of technology toward the accomplishment of business goals and objectives.

Additional Readings:

Why You Should Invest in Spam Protection
14 online resources for email admins

3 Very Good Reasons to Monitor Internet Usage in the Workplace

This guest post was provided by Veronica Henry on behalf of GFI Software Ltd. GFI is a leading software developer that provides a single source for network administrators to address their network security, content security and messaging needs. More information: GFI business security software.

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

On-Premise VS. Cloud-Based Solutions

2011-03-16T13:42:00.004Z

Several small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) find it difficult to choose whether to opt for an on-premise or a Cloud-based solution. Before reaching a final decision, organizations must first assess their business needs and infrastructure. Not all solutions work best on-premise or in the cloud, and the decision usually requires a trade between costs and security. What do they involve?Computing capacity has reached a point where instead of going through the trouble of setting up costly IT departments, companies can now opt for IT/business application services on a pay-per-use or rental basis.

Cloud-based solutions have become an attractive option for SMEs seeking to make the most of the technology available today at lower costs – they do not need to invest in software or hardware and more IT personnel, licensing and renewal costs are low, total cost of ownership is reduced as they only pay for what they use. Despite these advantages however, some organizations are concerned about the confidential data that is being handled by third parties, what would happen if the solution provider fails, whether customization and integration with custom systems could be an issue, and the lack of full control over data and processes.

On the other hand, an on-premise solution requires dedicated IT staff for maintenance and support, not to mention that the initial investment is generally high. Yet over time these expenses pay off, and administrators can have peace of mind knowing the corporate data is stored and handled internally and that they have full control over all systems.

The best of both worlds: a Hybrid Solution
In a hybrid approach, the vendor allows customers to maximize the benefits of both Cloud-based and on-premise solutions. Below are some points outlining the benefits of applying a hybrid solution:

The organization can run remote management software in the Cloud as well as monitor and manage all its systems in its remote offices. This prevents possible issues as it detects them before they can become a problem.

In situations where the organization may suffer downtime or the email server would require maintenance, employees can still access email through the Cloud archives.

When it comes to anti-spam and anti-virus, applying a hosted email security solution as a first line of defense, before using an on-premise solution, improves server performance – traffic to the email server is eased and the impact on bandwidth and server performance is reduced.

The organization can maintain a high level of redundancy by offloading old data and having it archived in the Cloud. This can put their mind at rest that the data is kept safe, accessible for compliance purposes while the on-premise storage space will not run out.

Whether they opt for a Cloud, on-premise or hybrid delivery model, SMEs not only need to understand what they really need and why, but they should also keep in mind that applications and services should be run where they are most efficient and not just because cost is the most attractive option.

Additional Reading:
Unified communications, cloud-based services and SMBs
On-Premise Vs. Cloud-Based Solutions
This guest post was provided by Ed Fischer on behalf of GFI Software Ltd. GFI is a leading software developer that provides a single source for network administrators to address their network security, content security and messaging needs. More information: GFI Business security software.
All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Jiving to the social networking beat

2011-03-16T13:42:00.000Z

Having two left feet and no sense of rhythm I sway from one side to the other in a feeble attempt to dance with some dignity. I never quite understand how to dance, I’m just bewilder by the whole ritual. Social media is the same for me the technology isn’t the problem that’s has never been easier I find like dancing the people equation throws me. If asked to describe myself Penny Power video series ‘social media training’ describes me perfectly, a iMA, high red.

Watching the presentation I kept saying ‘come on; let’s move on to the facts’. The social niceties what’s often referred to as interpersonal skills are my weakness. I just want to get to the root of the problem and solve it. Of course in the real world people are rightly reluctant to say “I’m suffering a number of problems right now, can you help me.” It’s totally understandable our culture discourages individuals from being open.

Thomas Power describes this perfectly “closed, selective and controlling.” To craft an opening you need to create trust. To achieve this you need to be actively engaged. The number of interactions you have determines how serendipity will reward you. The buzz you generate helps build human capital (trust) in your offering. In other words what you say you can deliver, you can. Your objective is to minimise the risk your client has in their minds when they reach out to you for help. They mustn’t feel aggrieved in their choice. If they feel hurt they will tell others and in a connected world this diminishes your human capital.

An illustrative example of human capital. Tony Blair pre Iraq could virtually do what he wished. Tony chose to invest his human capital in Iraq rightly or wrongly but after Iraq his ability to have his actions go unquestioned was much reduced. Your buzz should prequalify your perspective client removing the need to sell. Your activities mustn’t sell, your interactions should educate, entertain and above all, inform. The buzz you engender should empower your client and you to visualise how their future will look after your clients problems have been solved. For a high red absolute heaven, move straight to problem solving.

To me Thomas and Penny can be described as evangelical and they need to be. It’s like listening to a sermon when you hear phrases like “the world is changing you need to be open random and supportive.” I know deep down there are right. Just look at Obama presidential campaign, Tunisia and Egyptian revolution. Social media played a key role in changing the status quo. It’s astonishing how quickly and powerful social media has become. There is a dark side to social networking ‘time disappears.’ You start your day with a list of tasks and before you know it your whole day has gone. To a high red seeking, ‘return on investment (ROI)’ an absolute disaster. The culture shift away from systematically working through daily tasks to an open and accepting environment is terrifying nevertheless one to be embraced despite the challenge.

So do you want to make social media work for you? If you do begin by watching Ecademy’s social media training videos. Coming from a technical background I assumed I had the knowledge I was soon enlightened. I understood the principals of the technology but as always it’s how people use applications that determines success. The most important message from the videos, engage in life you cannot separate you’re working and social life don’t broadcast become a communicator like Bill Clinton, Barack Obama. For me, being a dyslexia an enormous challenge just think of George Brush a fellow dyslexia he suffered communication troubles.

If I was to recommend just one principal from watching these videos shift from a transactional mind set to engaging and sharing philosophy. A rather spiritual conviction I know and certainly contradicting to a high red but as Penny states our traits have blue, green and yellow elements as well and I have been suppressing my spiritual side for a long, long time. Besides tapping my blue traits just might help me to jive.

Troublesome DVD’s

2011-02-11T10:03:00.001Z

What to do when things go wrong! I’ll explain how to best clean your DVDs.

The trouble with CDROM and DVD discs is that they are unprotected and because of this they get scratched and dirty. The laser in the DVD drive can cope with small scratches but it has more trouble with reading through grease.

Unfortunately grease occurs naturally on our fingers, we need it keep our skin supple. The act of putting the disc into the drive can cause a build-up of grease over time. One grease spot can stop a CD/DVD from loading or if the disc does load it can stop the file stored under it from reading. Removing the grease spot is easy, you don’t need to pay tor any special DVD cleaning fluid as plan old soap will do the trick. If however if you have the misfortune to get a scratch that stops the disc being read, there are specialist disc rescue services. These services can polish out the scratch so long as it’s not too deep. You can even buy scratch removing gadgets at your local supermarket, however these will only deal with minor scratches.

Dirt can also make it’s way into the disc drive itself. Don’t be tempted to go poking around with a cotton wool bud, as the lens of the drive is very delicate. You can clean the drive using DVD cleaner kits which consist of a cleaning disc and some cleaning fluid, always invest in a DVD cleaning kit to clean the disc itself.

Discs now come in many formats. CDROM, CDR, CDRW, DVD, DVD + RW, DVD –RW, Blue ray and dual layer. They all have several things in common.

They all have a read surface that can be scratched
They all have a pigment surface used to record the information.
They all have a top surface

To prevent scratches always hold the disc with your fingers around the circumference and do not touch the surface. Always put your disc in its storage case as soon as you have finished with it. Never write on the top surface with a hard pen, only ever use specially designed pens. Any scratching of the top surface, no matter how small will cause permanent damage. This is because the recording pigment is on the other side of the top surface.

Cleaning a disc – Washing a disc is simple isn’t it? Well no, it could do more damage if not done correctly. It is however worth doing if you are having trouble mounting a drive. Make sure you don’t use water that is too hot as this can cause damage to the disc. If you can put your hand in the water, it’s fine.

Soap & Rinse – Don’t apply soap directly to the disc surface as it could scratch it. Rinse the soap off the disc thoroughly Run the disc under the cold tap to make sure all traces of soap are removed. Finally dry off with a soft cloth of kitchen towel.

Tip - I suggest you back up your disks and use the back up copy for every day use.

3 Facts about Email Archiving You Must Know

2011-02-09T10:03:00.001Z

The demand for email archiving is constantly growing – so much so it is believed that the total email archiving market, comprising both on-premise and hosted email archiving solutions, will grow from nearly $2.1 billion in 2009, to over $5.1 billion in 2013. Has your organization invested in an email archiving solution or are you still dealing with cumbersome PST files and storage issues on your email server, not to mention problems retrieving old or deleted emails? And if you have invested in an archiving solution, are you sure you’re using the right technology?

If your answer to any of these two questions is ‘no’ or ‘not sure’, have a look at these three facts concerning email archiving below:

i. Email archiving solves issues with storage and PST files: With a good email archiving solution, you would be giving each employee near ‘unlimited’ mailbox storage – extracting email contents and attachments from both incoming and outgoing emails, indexing them, and then storing them in a read-only format in a separate database off the email server.

This means that issues to related email storage are over as employees do not need to worry about saving emails in PST files to abide by the email quota and they do not have to worry about deleting potentially important emails. By solving the problem with storage space and PST files you would be improving the server’s performance and reducing the help desk calls and costs

ii. It helps you meet compliance and legal requirements: Organizations may need to keep copies of all electronic correspondence for a certain period – varying from country to country – in case these are required for legal or eDiscovery reasons or to meet industry standards. If such records are not kept, your organization may receive a considerable fine and, in the event of court action, suffer damage to its reputation.

In email archiving, all email sent and received from every workstation would be centralized and accessible for both users and administrators. In this way, the risk of accidental or intentional deletion of email is decreased. Furthermore, email archiving speeds up the search for specific archives whenever litigation support is requested as administrators can retrieve the data efficiently from a single, centralized source. Although access to archived email is open to all employees, email that has been archived cannot be deleted, thus maintaining integrity of all communications.

iii. Know which type of technology to go for – Your archiving solution’s efficiency also depends on the technology you decide to apply. Microsoft does not recommend the use of stubbing as it can cause problems when it comes to performance. This is in contrast to journaling which does not need any additional software to be installed on the server, saves email in a secure scalable database and does all archiving actions on a system separate from the server.

When choosing an email archiving solution it is important that this issue is addressed to avoid storage and performance problems at a later stage.

Once you chose the email archiving solution that is best suited for your organization’s needs, you will realize how the burden on the administrator will ease considerably. Employees will also notice the difference and have little need for administrator support when and if they need to retrieve old or deleted emails.

Additional Reading:

How to Choose an E-mail Archiving Solution

10 Email Archival Best Practices and Considerations

Who needs to archive email messages?

This guest post was provided by Christina Goggi on behalf of GFI Software, a leading software developer that produces network and messaging security solutions for SMBs. More information: GFI email archiving solution.

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Despatches - Tabloids' Dirty Secrets

2011-02-08T12:48:00.001Z

In the wake of the resignation of the Downing Street's head of communications Andy Coulson, Dispatches looked into the world of the dark arts.’ I assume if you saw the programme you thought all rather entertaining but really doesn't apply to you.

Let me ask you a few questions.

Do you use email? Do you use free email services?

Do you use a mobile phone?

Do you own a Netbook or Tablet or Smart phone? If so, I guess you use public Wi-Fi?

Do you use wireless Internet connection at home? Is your router secure?

Most of us will answer yes to all-of-the above, if you cannot answer yes to all then may be a few. If you connect to Internet using a wired connection you are still a target for those with ill intent.

You may be surprised to learn many hacking tools are freely available on the Internet. Often you don’t need software tools at all. A practitioner of no tech hacking techniques can find your address, telephone number, mother’s maiden name, your date of birth, whether you own your home a picture of your home, were you work all in a matter of hours.

Those with hacking knowledge can use tools like Magic Lantern. Essentially Magic Lantern is a keystroke tool and once installed on your computer even encrypted files are open to the hacker’s assessment. A hacker may be viewing your activities from the other side of the world at this very minute.

How do you protect yourself, to be absolutely honest with difficulty? Why, not one of us can put our hand on heart and say we are on guard twenty four hours a day. We all have lapses of concentration those moments make us susceptible to someone contacting us in person or by telephone then asking innocent sounding questions and then ending the contact amicably. You will probably think no more about the incident. However that person has enough to begin their nasty intent. Alternatively you open a web page or you open your email either source may contain embedded code. The software code self installs and you will probably never notice your computer is infected. In other words we ourselves are the weakest link.

You can minimise the possibilities of becoming a victim by correctly configuring security options for your devices. The second step is the toughest challenge and please don’t become paranoid but do become suspicious of unsolicited meetings, telephone calls, emails. Don’t think this won’t happen to you. This type of activity is the fastest growing area of crime. Why because those who practice the dark arts are unlikely to be caught. We are all targets it’s a question of when not if. Don’t believe me, conduct an online search for identity theft, online crime, look at the UK office of national statistics website, read The Guardian etc. all these sources suggest this sort of activity is more prevalent than you might think.

Why is Cloud computing all the rage?

2011-02-08T11:41:00.002Z

While potential risks and drawbacks must always be considered, the use of Cloud-based or hosted services can be very beneficial to an organization. Here are three primary benefits:

Cloud providers offer better technology for startups and small businesses – While larger organizations may be apprehensive about security and redundancy of their data when relying on a cloud-based service run by a third party, smaller businesses or startups may actually get a higher level of protection in the cloud. First, a service provider can invest more in security than a small business could – the latter operates multiple backup locations, 24/7 monitoring, physical security onsite, redundancy systems and many other measures. Secondly, when a cloud provider patches a security vulnerability, customers are immediately protected, as opposed to a company with its own IT systems having to apply the patches itself – a process which often takes time and opens up a window of opportunity for a possible breach or attack.

Using Cloud-based services reduces Costs – There are several reasons for this:
- Low expenditure on infrastructure – The organization can save a lot of money becase it does not have to invest heavily in an IT infrastructure – purchasing hardware, software licenses, staff training and so on. Cloud services also make it much easier for the consumer to test new applications and business ideas with greater efficiency yet without first having to spend money on a setup that may not be suitable or require additional investment.
- Reduces the need to hire IT staff – Depending on the nature of the business and the size of the organization, some businesses can obtain full IT services using Cloud-based service providers, thus limiting the need to invest in an IT department initially. This would allow the business to put the money to use elsewhere.
- Organizations only pay for what they use –With hosted services, a company only pays for what it uses, for as long as it uses it – for startups this is an excellent approach to building their IT services, it eliminates a hefty capital outlay on systems yet gives them the services they require to do business.

Cloud Computing can be a huge Time Saver – It can provide almost instant access to hardware resources and services which could otherwise have taken weeks or months to deploy in-house. Using a hosted service also gives businesses greater choice and flexibility to choose between systems and providers without having to purchase and deploy the required infrastructure. It cannot be left unsaid, however, that security and compliance issues may arise here regarding the data being stored and managed by an outside source. The kind of data an organization moves to the cloud, and the way it is secured once there, is an important consideration.

Cloud-based services can be the perfect choice for SMEs so long as they keep a few key points in mind. They need to choose a provider that has been in business for some time, that has proven itself in the marketplace, that has solid ownership and management, that provides an aggressive SLA, and that has been committed to cloud services for the long-term. Once these are all ticked off the list, then the hosted services option could be a great choice for their organization.

Additional Readings:

Small Business Guide to Cloud Computing
What is Cloud Computing — and Why Should You Care?
Cloud Computing still a mystery to SMEs – Report

This guest post was provided by Christina Goggi on behalf of GFI Software, a leading software developer that produces network and messaging security solutions for SMBs. More information: GFI business cloud solutions
All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Hard Drives Explained

2011-02-08T09:19:00.001Z

A big, fast reliable hard drive is a must for a modern PC. In this article I expand on my blog article Can you tell if your hard drive is in good shape? In this article I look at how they work and how to keep them in tip top condition.

The primary storage solution for any PC is the trusty hard disk. Hard disks come in various sizes from the now entry level 250Gb to 500GB with the top-of-the-range 1 to 2 Tb models. The difference here is difficult to know how much space you really need.

The very large hard drives would really only be useful to someone who is doing either video or music editing or using their computer as a personal video recorder.A 250Gb drive would be a good size for the average user to start with; it will allow you to install a large amount of applications and games and still have room to archive your MP3’s and digital camera snaps. However, the price difference between a 250Gb and a 500Gb drive is now very small – for just a few pounds extra you can buy yourself the extra space,

One possible use for having an oversized hard disk is to partition it. Creating an extra partition will produce a second virtual drive, which Windows will consider to be a separate piece of hardware. The advantage with a partitioned drive is that you can back up your hard disk using a program like Norton Ghost but there are other programs available. What Ghost does is to create an image file of everything on your hard disk, so that if something catastrophic happens a restore from the image will take just a few minutes rather than hours. Just remember that a partition is not a separate piece of hardware and that if the drive itself breaks all the data will be lost. Ideally a disk image should be stored on a secondary disk.

Cleaning up

It won’t matter how large your hard drive, is you will fill it eventually. When you do your computer will slow down and you will find it difficult run your programs. So what can you do, buy an external USB disk and move data to this new disk, delete applications, files using Windows wizard called Cleanup this will help you remove the clutter safely from your hard drive. When you run out of space this cleanup wizard will be started automatically by Windows to help you out. My blog article Speed up your PC covers disk Cleanup.

What to do when things go wrong

We all assume hard drives are indestructible and we trust our most precious data to them. DON’T they are not indestructible. You must assume your computers hard drive is going to fail one day and you must be prepared for the day when it happens! Hard disks were developed in1950’s they are essentially mechanic technology therefore liable to failure.

There are many problems that may require you to seek a recovery service. These examples are just some of the most common problems:

Computer won’t boot, formatted hard drive, applications that are unable to run or load data, malicious data loss, file saved but cannot be located, power surges, hard drive/media surface contamination and damage, hard disk drive component failure, accidental deletion of data, virus attack, clicking/whirring noises, hard drive seen in the BIOS but not recognised in Windows, accidental reformatting of partitions or hard drive, fire or water damage to hard drive or media. The majority of data loss situations are recoverable. If the drive has simply stopped functioning or has completely crashed – a data recovery company can get the data back. These services are not cheap, so if your hard drive fails in the middle of a big project you will have to decide how much your data worth to get it back.

Hard drives are so cheap these days we recommend you specify the biggest one you can afford when buying a new PC. If you have an older PC you should look into getting an upgrade to a bigger drive. Fitting a new drive is not difficult, but if you don’t feel confident many local dealers offer an upgrade service. I recommend you use at least a 500GB 7200 rpm 64 MB cache hard drive, you need a high access speed as video can be demanding. When you have finished a project get it burnt to DVD as soon as possible. I suggest you make several copies to make sure you can always lay your hands on a working copy.

How Hard drives Work

A series of read/write heads extend into the drive like the arm on a record player. These heads can either add data by changing the polarity of the particles on the disk or simply read what is already there.

The data on the disk Is structured in a series of concentric circles called tracks.

These are split up Into pie-shaped sections called sectors; the final index Is the side of disk being written to. You may have seen errors where a side X sector X track X error is mentioned in the text.

This is because the view you normally have of the disk is carefully constructed to be easy to use and won’t necessarily represent the storage on the disk. A hard drive stores data magnetically – this means that it changes the magnetic polarity of particles on the disk to either positive or negative values.

This Is considered by the read head as a stream of binary bits, i.e. either 0 or 1. The Inside of a hard disk consists of a series of magnetic disks, usually two or three, which are connected to a central spindle and spun round at high speed by an electric motor .

Data recovery Do’s and Don’ts

Do backup your data before a problem occurs

Do make sure you check your backup works.

Do turn the computer off immediately if you hear clicking or wiring noises coming from the hard drive and contact a data recovery company.

Do stay calm and get help there is a very good chance your data will be recovered. More files could be lost through panic measures than anything else.

Don’t start up the hard disk drive again as this will cause more damage.

Don’t use your computer in extreme hot or cold environments.

Don’t use your computer in a high humidity/wet environment.

Don’t be tempted to shake a drive with problems, any lose heads or debris will damage the record surface.

Don’t attempt to format your drive or change the partitions when you are unable to access your files.

Mata Hari emails

2011-02-07T12:23:00.002Z

The other day a client forward me an email (copy below) asking the question is this information correct?

FOUR THINGS YOU PROBABLY NEVER KNEW YOUR MOBILE PHONE COULD DO !!!

There are a few things that can be done in times of grave emergencies. Your mobile phone can actually be a life saver or an emergency tool for survival. Check out the things that you can do with it:

FIRST Emergency

The Emergency Number worldwide for all Mobile Phones is 112. If you find yourself out of the coverage area of your mobile network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and your mobile will search any existing network in your area to establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly this number 112 can be dialled even if the keypad is locked. This works on all phones worldwide and is free. It is the equivalent of 000.

SECOND

Have you locked your keys in the car?
Does your car have remote keyless entry?

This may come in handy someday. Good reason to own a cell phone: If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their mobile phone from your cell phone.

Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. Your car will unlock. Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be thousands of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other 'remote' for your car, you can
unlock the doors (or the trunk).

Editor's Note: I didn’t believe this when I heard about it! I rang my daughter in Sydney from Perth when we went on holiday. She had the spare car key. We tried it out and it unlocked our car over a mobile phone!'

THIRD

Hidden Battery Power
To activate, press the keys *3370# (remember the asterisk). Do this when the phone is almost dead. Your mobile will restart in a special way with this new reserve and the instrument will show a 50% increase in battery life. This reserve will get re charged when you charge your mobile next time. This secret is in the fine print in most phone manuals. Most people however skip this information without realising.

FOURTH

How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone?
To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits on your phone: * # 0 6 # Ensure you put an asterisk BEFORE the #06# sequence. A 15 digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep it somewhere safe. If your phone ever get stolen, you can phone your service provider and give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even if the thief changes the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless. You probably won't get your phone back, but at least you know that whoever stole it can't use/sell it either. If everybody done this, there would be no point in people stealing mobile phones.

This secret is also in the fine print of most mobile phone manuals. It was created for the very purpose of trying to prevent phones from being stolen.

Also -ATM PIN Number Reversal - Good to Know !!
If you should ever be forced by a robber to withdraw money from an ATM machine, you can notify the police by entering your PIN # in reverse. For example, if your pin number is 1234, then you would put in 4321. The ATM system recognizes that your PIN number is backwards from the ATM card you placed in the machine. The machine will still give you the money you requested, but unknown to the robber, the police will be immediately dispatched to the location.

All ATM’s carry this emergency sequencer by law.

This information was recently broadcast on by Crime Stoppers however it is seldom used because people just don't know about it.

Please pass this along to everyone. This is the kind of information people don't mind receiving, so pass it on to your family and friends

My immediate concern regardless of whether the tips are correct or not was the numerous email recipients listed (a chain email). These sorts of emails can contain embedded code for example key logging software, spyware to name two or automated links to download and install nasty's. What is key logging software it's freely available and put simply they allow someone you don't know to monitor every key you press then transmit the data to a remote location. Essentially the criminal knows who you correspond with, which websites you visit and if bank online the banks you bank with plus your log on details.

I immediately rang my client and asked them to delete this email and empty their Outlook recycle bin. Next manually update their security software, then run a full scan. To minimise the chances their preferred security software hadn't identified the nasty's that may or may not be present on their system I recommended they ran Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool. Thank fully this email didn't have any malicious embedded code.

What sort of emails should you watch out for?

Emails with graphics or attachments may have hidden code. Personally if I don’t know who sent the email I delete without opening.

To answer my clients request as to whether their email tips really work I referred to Microsoft Bing and found a blog Urban legends and passed on the link to my client.

How to clone DVD’s

2011-02-07T12:21:00.002Z

WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO COPY A DVD ITS ILLEGAL ISN’T IT? WELL IT DEPENDS ON WHAT YOU’RE COPYING AND WHY.

Why would anyone want to copy a DVD?

I you listened to the entertainment industry they would say it’s theft! While this could well be true there is another much bigger reason to backup your data. Whether your data is your family photographs, your digital camcorder family photographs, your digital camcorder movies, a backup of your PC data or simply to keep your documents safe, these are all legitimate reasons to copy DVDs. As we all know DVDs are vulnerable to scuffs and scratches, dirt, dust and definitely grease. So what’s the solution to all these attackers ready to stop your precious DVD working? The answer is to create safety copies. In this guide I will get you started and explain the basics of the process and explain why you can’t just drag the contents of a DVD to your hard drive. Let’s start with a movie DVD. The process of copying a movie includes several tasks; one of which is circumvention of copy protection and this is illegal if you break copyright laws. I strongly urge, advise you to make sure you are not violating any law. Sometimes its just easier to buy another copy.

So you still want to copy those files!

In an ideal world you would expect it to be as easy as copying these files to a folder on your hard disk and then burning them to a recordable DVD, but unfortunately in the real world it’s not that easy. The files copied will be packed with useless data and your copy will not work. DVD movies files are protected with the Content Scrambling System (CSS), a protection developed and adopted by the Hollywood Studios and it’s there to stop pirates making illegal copies to sell. This copy protection encrypts the data on a DVD and requires a special key to decrypt it. All DVD players (such as the one under your TV) have software that uses that key unlock and read the DVD files. However it is now common knowledge that the copy protection has been cracked and there are now many applications capable of copying these protected files. But be warned; if you do this you’re are breaking the law. Removing the DeCSS protection and getting the movies to another disc or drive is mainly referred to as ripping. Besides CSS, DVD’s and Video tape sometimes contain protection developed by Macrovision .This layer of software can be easily removed as well.

The next problem is that you will need to record it to a recordable DVD, it simply won’t fit. This is because recordable DVDs can only contain about 4.7 GB of data. Movies nearly always have files totalling much more than 4.7 GB, and some movies can contain as much as 9 GB of data.

Remove, Shrink, Split?

So what are the options? First you could remove all the unnecessary data. Many DVDs include bonus extras removing these will significantly drop the space needed. There are applications available that allow you to select which sections of the DVD movie disc to copy to a DVD recordable. On rare occasions this will be enough to get the total file size lower than 4.7Gb and you can burn it to your recordable DVD. Option 2 involves adding a higher compression rate to the movie files. This can result in losing the original quality but in many cases it would be acceptable. Shrinking is the most popular way of getting the data smaller than 4.7Gb; there is software available that is able to compress this data. These software packages are called remuxers, transcoders or encoders. Recompression of a movie disc can take hours and hours and some may argue that it’s simply much less trouble to simply buy a al backup copy of your movie. However backing up your own video using this method is always worth doing. Finally you could split the data and put it on two DVDs. Some software is also able to split the movie to several discs; I would not recommend this as it has the disadvantage that you will have to change the discs while watching.

Burn!

Once you have a set of files that occupy less than 4.7GB of data you will need to burn your movie to a DVD recordable to complete the backup. There are several free and commercial packages that simplify the job of burning your disc. When done you will have a perfect backup copy of your favourite movie.

What about the media?

Does your DVD recorder utilise DVD+R(W) or DVD-R(W) media? Today many record on both! A little tip to give a try is write your’ DVD copy to some rewriteable media the first time you burn your disc. That way if something goes wrong you haven’t wasted a disc as you can simply use the RW again.

The right software:

Understanding the process of making a DVD backup might seem easy, but so far we’ve only discussed the basics. If you are a casual home user you will be able to create a backup this way. If you are a demanding user you might want to search for more in depth information on all subjects. Probably the easiest way to get to know how to create DVD backups is by trying some of the software around. This way you will be able to find out what gives you the best quality and the best settings. Below you will find a variety of software packages that you might wish to try.

All in one solutions

These software packages are recommended for those who just want to make a backup of their movie, and don’t want to fiddle around with settings and spend a lot of time learning.
Note; it Is illegal to use any of the following programs to remove copy protection. DVD X Copy Gold, DVD Cloner.

The original DVDXGold Is used by thousands of people around the world. It allows you to either transcode a movie, split the movie to multiple discs and/or remove content. The software also rips the protection from the movie DVD (please note my earlier warnings), then you can burn the movie to a DVD recordable with this software. This Is an all in one s and no other software Is needed. DVD Copy Suite – DCS is the complete package for best quality in copying. Your remedy for frumpy Video-CDs, for your daily frustration with conversions and plain stereo audio. Copy your DVDs in DVD or near-DVD quality; it’s also an all in one solution that does not require any third party tools.

Ripping

For ripping there are currently three utilities that are very popular.

Note it is illegal to use any of the following programs to remove copy protection.

DVDFab Decrypted is a simple version of DVDFab Express. It copies entire DVD movies to hard disk, and removes all the protections (CSS, RC, RCE, APS, UOPs and Sony ARccOS) while copying.

Any DVD AnyDVD works in the background to automatically remove the copy protection of a DVD movie as soon as it’s inserted into the drive, allowing you then to backup the movie using a DVD backup tool such as CloneDVD and CloneDVD mobile. You can also remove the RPC region code, thereby making the movie region free and viewable on any DVD player and with any DVD player software.

SmartRipper SmartRipper is a DVD VOB file extractor The program can split chapters of VOB files. It also displays statistics such as length, size, and max/min/average bitrate for every chapter and active selection.

DVD Cloner The user interface is intuitive the software removes RPC region coding and copies one to one DVD you won’t need any other software.

Transcoding:

Recoding software will shrink files by adding more compression.There are several good titles both commercial and freeware.

DVD Shrink This free software does a good job in transcoding and is also able to rip the contents of the DVD. DVD Shrink is software to backup DVD discs. You can use this software in conjunction with DVD burning software of your choice, to make a backup copy of any DVD video disc. DVD Shrink will also burn your backup DVD, if you have installed the latest version of Nero. If you already possess alternative burning software and prefer to stick with it, then you can still use DVD Shrink. The output from DVD Shrink can be saved as files on your hard drive, which you can then burn with software of your choice.

DVD2One This was the first transcoding engine available on the internet and is still considered as one of the best. With DVD2one you can make a movie-only or full disk copy of your DVD for personal use on a single DVD-Recordable.

DVD95Copy With Dvd95Copy you can backup your DVDs to one DVD±R(W)(DL) without the need to split it. Even episodic DVDs and those containing a full and widescreen version can be backed up to one recordable.

Transcoding + Burning:

The following applications don’t have the capability to remove copy protection; so the following methods of copying DVD’s is legal.

CloneDVD This software has been developed by Elby, the developers of CloneCD. Has one of the best looking user interfaces. CloneDVD 2 will compress your movie using a high quality transcoding technology.

Pinnacle Instant Copy – This is a slick commercial package that looks good is easy to use and has one of the best transcoding engines around. Pinnacle updated version can be found here.
Nero Digital The best in Audio and Video Compression, Nero Digital is a complete audio/video codec solution, based on the MPEG-4 standard, but engineered to a level that breaks all previously seen quality and speed barriers. It delivers DVD-quality at a compression rate far greater than MPEG-2.

Burning:

Your spoilt for choice when it comes to burning software but the daddy of them all is Nero.
With Nero, you can store, manage and edit all of your digital photos with ease. In addition to that, you can turn your photos and videos into slideshows, add transitions and music, burn them to DVD, and then give them to friends and family to watch on their DVD players or PCs.
Roxio Easy DVD This software lets you quickly copy movies to DVD, create custom DVD or DivX movie compilations, play Hollywood DVDs on your PC, copy music CDs, and more! Plus, design and print disc labels – even directly on disc with new LightScribe-supported printers and burners.

Recordnow Max Everything you need to burn music CDs and Backup DVD Data it uses Drag & Drop technology and is fast, easy to use and reliable.

DVD Maker Jargon buster

The Vob File. This is a MPEG-2 (& 4) encoded file. MPEG-2 (& 4) are methods of compressing movie files sound and pictures. just like MP3 files are compressed sound. Basically it’s the next generation of MP3 for moving pictures. VOB files also contain subtitles and multiple camera angles.

The IFO File. The .IFO files are the information files, used by your DVD playing device. It gives the DVD player information on the order to load .VOB files. For example what order to play the captures of a movie.

BUP The .BUP files are just a backup of the IFO files, they will only be used when .IFO files become unreadable. Most DVDs don’t contain these files.

Spoof emails

2011-02-04T08:31:00.002Z

Almost certainly you would have received spam emails you wished you hadn't.

The type of email copy I have in mind will read along the lines 'My father recently died and left a legacy or my father's a government minister who wishes to assign a large government contract' please send your bank details.

Naturally you delete such emails. An alternative amusing strategy pursued by one person The Bob Servant Emails I found highly entertaining. I hope you do.

Is a Digital Coach a fad

2011-02-03T13:07:00.000Z

Recently I visited two City of London clients to resolve some IT issues. They asked me, what is a digital coach? I asked them what does, a digital coach imply to them. They concluded it’s another way to market an IT consultant. ‘Essentially, a here today, gone tomorrow fad’. I suppose I should state my clients do not market their companies or use social media. They do not have too. Their personal networks determine success. I should add they are very successful they trade globally and should you require their aviation or financial, services you would have to find them.

They feel they have no need to develop their IT skills and should they suffer an IT problem they themselves are unable to resolve they call someone in. Obviously for them developing a competitive edge using online networking, enhancing IT skills to streamline back office and market their company is an irreverent need.

However for many organisations just to stay in business these day’s ever available resource has to be fully utilised.

So why do so many organisational leaders simply think there is no value reviewing how administration is undertaken and whether online networking can add value to their operations.

I acknowledge many will perceive the expense of doing so outweighs any possible saving that may or may not be achieved. For those of us that remember how the world functioned prior to computerisation, I ask do you think back and ask yourself, could your business afford to operate how you did then in today’s world. Most of us would probably answer no nevertheless I’m amazed how many people reject change given Britain innovative past. After all, innovation made Britain a leading economic power.

So ask yourself can you be more productive, profitable by knowing how to better use technology?

As a nation can Britain afford to standby waiting for competitors to show UK businesses the way forward?

Or does it come down to personal networks, and will it always be so?

I’m guessing personal networks will determine personal success as it always has. But can organisations continue to ignore the effects of globalisation after all even a one band competes globally these days. I’ve personally worked with software developers in India, and a small business in Sutton (Surrey, UK) who chose to use an IT support firm based in South Africa.

Does UK Plc. have to wait for the next generation to take over? If we do it might be too late.

What are your thoughts?

Software as a Service checklist

2011-02-03T07:57:00.001Z

Questions to ask any SaaS vendor

After finding the SaaS application that meets functional requirements, an organisation should check that the supplier’s legal, pricing and support arrangements are acceptable before committing to use the system. As the acronym implies, SaaS is a ‘service’ and the supplier is responsible for delivery, ongoing support and maintaining your data.

The checklist below is not a list of functional requirements, but it should provide a useful sanity check after a suitable SaaS solution has been found and before an organisation commits business to that vendor. It is approximately in the sequence of importance. Unsatisfactory answers higher up the list are more serious than those lower down.

Cost

Do you price per named user, live user, system, simultaneous user?
Do you offer a guarantee that the cost will not be increased, and for how long?
What is the cancellation notice required?
How long do I have to commit for?
Payable by invoice, standing order, direct debit, credit card?

Data loading

How can I move my existing data to the new system?
How much will this cost?
Legal and compliance
Where is the data physically held? Is it outside the EU?
Who owns the data?
How do I get the data back? Can I get it back after my subscription lapses? Is there a cost?
How often is the data backed up? Are the backups held off site?
Who has access to my data and what policies do you have for staff access?
What format is the data in?

Continuity

What unscheduled downtime have you had in the last 12 months?
Do you have a standby system if the main data centre fails, and is it located sufficiently away from the main system?
Do you have a Service Level Agreement, and what happens if you don’t meet it?

Vendor viability

How many users/seats? How long have you been in business’
Can I talk to reference customers?
Is the company profitable? Well funded?
How many solicitors’ letters have you received from customers over the last 12 months?

Technical

Do you support all the main browsers (e.g. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Chrome)?
Do you need any local software installed?
Is all communication between the client and server encrypted using SSL?
Can the service be accessed via mobile telephone, PDA, Blackberry?

Customisation

If I want a feature that is not part of the standard product, can it be added?How do you charge? Data interfaces Text file import/export?
Web services APIs? Integration with other vendor’s products? Which ones?

Limitations

The number of transactions/records?
What is the cost of adding additional storage or users etc.?
Emails sent?
Document storage?
Users?

Support

What are your support hours? Support for all UK business days?
Is support available through email, telephone and/or a web form?
What is the average time for a support request to be answered?
Is the post-sale support team the same as the pre-sale support team

Training and set up

Is set-up included in the subscription cost? If not what should I expect to send?
Is training needed? If so for how long and how much?
What online help is provided?

Evaluation

Free trial? For how long?
Can the trial system then become the live system, or do I start again?

Development plan

Do you intend to continually add to and improve the product?
What new features were released in the last six months?
What new features are planned for the next six months?

Conclusion

Software as a Service, or SaaS, is an increasingly popular way to deliver software capabilities to organisations. It remotely hosts and manages the software and data associated with particular applications. And it delivers its services across the internet directly to any device that can run a web browser. This means that people can work on applications from any location that has internet access.

Not only this, but it places very little upfront financial demand on its customers. They pay for what they use as they go along. Capital expenditure on hardware and software is replaced with a monthly fee which scales according to usage.

Because SaaS is a service, it would be relatively easy for customers to turn off the tap unless they were satisfied with their provider. This, more than anything else, keeps the SaaS vendors on their toes, always doing their best to support and enhance the product while keeping it easy to use.

SaaS isn’t for everyone and for all circumstances but, where an application need can be satisfied in a fairly standard way, where the customer is content with having their data held by a third party, where they are keen to keep costs under control and where they would like a fairly rapid time to results, then SaaS has to be taken seriously.

Hopefully the checklists linked to this webpage, including legal considerations and questions to ask prospective vendors, will serve as good guides and help you navigate the hype that currently surrounds SaaS and avoid any potential pitfalls.

Legal issues to consider

2011-02-02T08:52:00.001Z

No-one should overlook legal issues. The SaaS business model is relatively new, but most of the legal considerations are well recognised, albeit that some aspects have developed from consumer services, which were far less likely to be challenged by the customers.

The table below identifies some of the principal legal issues that you should consider.

Method of contracting If the contract value is significant for your organisation then you should ensure that the terms and conditions proposed by the vendor are fully reviewed by a suitably qualified solicitor, and ensure that non-authorised employees do not commit the organisation to services, or service terms, you do not want to be bound to.
The vendor will offer a hard copy agreement or website terms and conditions. If the latter be sure that the terms are easily accessible early on in the sign up process and, ideally, expressly accepted.
Software licensing Licensing practices vary. Some SaaS vendors do not grant the customer a license to the software at all, as the customer receives a service where it has the right to access software. Other models grant a license to access and use the software for the purpose of receiving the service.
Ensure the licence, or grant of access rights, are wide enough for your requirements in purchasing SaaS (including any jurisdictional requirements). Additionally, consider whether an intellectual property rights indemnity should be sought against intellectual property rights infringement by the vendor (including patent infringement and copyright infringement).
Service levels You need to be clear as to exactly what service levels (if any) are being offered by the vendor and the potential remedies for failure. Matters to consider include: how availability will be measured and over what period; whether availability should apply to all applications comprising a SaaS offering or just individual components; system response times; service response times; and helpdesk response times. One feature of SaaS is the ability to rapidly scale up and down the level of usage – ensure that all relevant metrics and limits are clearly agreed. Customers should seek regular and transparent reports.
Service credits Service credits will generally be offered as the customer’s primary or sole financial remedy for the vendor’s failure to meet its service levels. Note that the wording of service credit clauses can have a significant bearing on whether service credits are seen by a court as ‘liquidated damages’ for breach of contract or a contractual mechanism setting out a price payable for a particular level of service.
You should consider whether the service credits on offer are adequate and whether an exclusive remedy provision is acceptable. You also need to consider including a right to terminate for consistently poor service or a major outage.
Your vendor should be aware that attempts to limit the customer’s remedy to just service credits in a standard form terms of business agreement will need to be ‘reasonable’ under the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977.
Business continuity Both parties need to consider what contingency plans are offered or should be sought in the event of a disaster or the vendor’s insolvency. You also need to consider back up arrangements for your data. It is unusual for escrow solutions to be offered in pure SaaS contracts.
Security It is important that any security requirements are clearly set out in the contract.
The vendor should additionally include acceptable use, user password provisions and additions on each party’s liability in relation to the introduction of viruses/harmful code. Vendors will be looking for liability limitations and exclusions for failure to achieve specified security requirements (e.g. loss of data). In particular they will be considering whether to exclude consequential losses and include an overall cap on liability in the contract.
You need to consider encryption of data prior to transmission, customer-specific hardware, specified levels of security at the vendor’s physical premises, minimum-vetting requirements for vendor personnel that have access to infrastructure, and back up requirements.
Data protection If the SaaS is hosted in the UK or EU the customer (as data controller) will need to comply with the Data Protection Act 1998 if any of the customer’s personal data is to be transferred to the vendor’s servers. The vendor typically acts as data processor and contractual provisions must be included to comply with the Data Protection Act. Your compliance obligations will include ensuring that the vendor provides appropriate technological measures against unauthorised disclosure of personal data.
Additional factors will apply if the SaaS is hosted outside of the EEA, particularly if sensitive personal data is to be transferred.
Ownership of data You should seek an express provision that all data (and rights in such data) belong to your organisation. Also consider what rights, if any, the vendor has to such data.
Other regulatory issues You may have additional regulatory concerns (such as compliance with MIFID, the material outsourcer provisions in the FSA handbook), that should be raised as necessary with vendors to ensure that the vendor is able to comply.
Exit/migration Most SaaS contracts do not contain detailed exit provisions in certain circumstances, eg, where data access and migration is necessary. You need to know what’s involved before committing your organisation’s data to the service.
Other clauses For the sake of contractual certainty both parties should ensure that contracts contain choice of law and jurisdiction provisions (with local law advice being sought as necessary), clearly drafted payment provisions (and mechanism for working out cost), and provisions dealing with third party rights, waiver, severance, duration and termination rights for each party.
You should also consider seeking a right to terminate on the change of control of a vendor.

Next article Software as a Service checklist After finding the SaaS application that meets functional requirements, an organisation should check that the supplier's legal, pricing and support arrangements are acceptable before committing to use the system...

Data security and risk

2011-02-01T08:36:00.000Z

Traditional installed software is hosted and managed internally. Applications run on the customer’s computers and the data is stored on the customer’s infrastructure, which is managed by the organisation’s IT department.

With SaaS, the software is hosted on, and accessed via, the internet. All of the customer’s data is stored on infrastructure within the service provider’s data centre. In some instances, the SaaS vendor will outsource the hosting to a specialist data centre. It is of paramount importance to the customer that data confidentiality, integrity and availability (CIA) is maintained wherever the data is hosted or accessed.

While the SaaS model offers significant advantages over on-premise, it does carry potential risks that must also be considered. The SaaS user needs to know that all possible steps are being taken to safeguard customers data. The SaaS provider needs to reassure customers that their data is in safe hands and can be retrieved in a useable format when required.

SaaS can be a daunting prospect from a security perspective but the issues cannot be ignored. Organisations looking to adopt SaaS applications will need to examine their appetite for risk in the context of their other business drivers and data security requirements applicable to its industry, particularly FSA requirements for regulated financial services business. The potential for the involvement of a number of different organisations in delivering the service brings with it increased loss of control data. SaaS providers will be required to take adequate steps to ensure the protection of client data. For SaaS providers this is mission critical and is generally taken very seriously to the point where data security is as important, if not more so, than the SaaS product itself.

At the moment SaaS vendors have no common security standard to sign up to other than ISQ 27001. This internationally recognised security management standard helps providers implement a security management system in their organisation. However, this standard revolves around a risk assessment carried out by the organisation itself. It is not a guarantee of security, and if your provider has a high appetite for risk, then greater risks to data will remain. The onus is on the customer to assess how safe their information is and to obtain suitable contractual guarantees on the location processing and protection of its data.

Backup and failover

The SaaS vendor should back customer data up at least once a day, preferably more often, and then move and store a backup of that data safely elsewhere, out of their data centre. The length of time that the backup should be stored will depend on the value of the data, and on legal and regulatory requirements applicable to the customers. Should the SaaS vendor’s data centre be destroyed, or simply go off line for a while, there should be another data centre on standby, not with just the replicated data but also the capacity to run the application so that your business is not disrupted.

Communications

Communication between your workstations and the system should be encrypted so that data travelling over the public internet cannot be intercepted and read. This is normally done using a technology called SSL (secure socket layer) between your browser and the application.

Confidentiality

Customers need to be sure data is not accessed by anybody other than those in your organisation who are authorised to do so, and that the obligations of confidentiality with customers, prospects and suppliers whose details you hold are not breached. A written procedure should cover who in the SaaS vendor’s organisation can access customer data and what they are able to do with it. General safeguards should be in place to protect its security.

Putting it in perspective

Although a reputable SaaS vendor should provide all of the above, it is worth contrasting this with your in-house security and compliance before becoming unnecessarily worried about storing your data outside your organisation. If the server with your in-house system fails then most companies, not having standby facilities, will be without that application for a day or more. Has anyone checked that your backup system is working by attempting to restore the data kept in-house? Are backups taken every few hours? It is widely accepted that most data theft originates from within an organisation, often by disgruntled employees, and most SaaS systems do not hold data locally on laptops that can be left in taxis. For most organisations a reputable SaaS vendor may well protect their data better than that kept in-house.

Finally questions you should ask a SaaS vendor should you wish to end the contract who owns the data? Can you transfer, download to in house servers? Do you have the software to make use of your data? If you move from one vendor to another will the vendor losing the contract assist with transfer? Will your data format be compatible i.e. be in a format the new vendor application recognises?

Next article Legal issues to consider The SaaS business model is relatively new, but most of the legal considerations are well recognised, albeit that some aspects have developed from consumer services, which were far less likely to be challenged by the customers...

How to backup Outlook 2010, 2007, 2003

2011-01-31T12:12:00.000Z

These are the instructions for creating a .pst file in Outlook 2010.

Creating a .pst file allows users to free up space in their mailbox by archiving old email messages and filing them accordingly. Just as importantly in the event your PC hard disk fails and provided you stored a pst file on an external drive you can rebuild your Outlook database.

Click on the Home tab and choose the New Items > More Items > Outlook Data File option.

Now browse and choose the location to place the data file and specify the name of the data file here.

Method two
Click on the File tab and choose the Open > Import> option

Click on Export to a file

Select and click Outlook Data File (.pst)

Click Personal folder, tick include subfolders.

Browse to where you would like to store your PST file. I suggest a removable drive. In the event your PC hard disk fails you can use the file to put back your Outlook data.

If you store your pst data file to an external drive I recommend you add a password.

When you see the dialog box below the pst is being created.

These are the instructions for creating a .pst file in Outlook 2007.

On the File menu, point to New, and then click Outlook Data File.

In the Types of storage area, click Office Outlook Personal Folders File (.pst) to create a new Outlook 2007 .pst file. Click Outlook 97-2002 Personal Folders File (.pst) to create a new Outlook .pst file that is compatible with earlier versions of Outlook. Once you decide which type of storage area you would like to use, click OK.

Use the default Outlook folder location, or you can locate a different folder location. In the File name box, type a name for the new .pst file, or you can use the default name. Click OK.

In the Name box, type a title for the .pst file, or you can use the default title of Personal Folders. The title that you enter in the Name box is the name that is used on the Outlook 2007 All Mail Folders list, and it is applied to any shortcuts that are made for the .pst file on the Outlook Bar. I suggest that you name the file according to its purpose to help with filing, whether it be chronological, special-purpose or otherwise. You can also set a password for the .pst file. After you select the settings that you want, click OK.

Note: Microsoft suggests the you do not save the file to a shared drive such as the G: and H: drives.

The new .pst file is added to the Outlook 2007 All Mail Folders list. To view the Folder List, simply locate the newly created folder from the list in the left-pane.

Method two – refer to Outlook 2010 method two.

These are the instructions for creating a .pst file in Outlook 2003.

On the File menu, point to New, and then click Outlook Data File.

In the Types of storage area, click Office Outlook Personal Folders File (.pst) to create a new Outlook 2003 .pst file. Click Outlook 97-2002 Personal Folders File (.pst) to create a new Outlook .pst file that is compatible with earlier versions of Outlook. Once you decide which type of storage area you would like to use, click OK.

Use the default Outlook folder location, or you can locate a different folder location. In the File name box, type a name for the new .pst file, or you can use the default name. Click OK.

In the Name box, type a title for the .pst file, or you can use the default title of Personal Folders. The title that you enter in the Name box is the name that is used on the Outlook 2003 All Mail Folders list, and it is applied to any shortcuts that are made for the .pst file on the Outlook Bar. I suggest that you name the file according to its purpose to help with filing, whether it be chronological, special-purpose or otherwise. You can also select an encryption setting and a password for the .pst file. After you select the settings that you want, click OK
.
Note: Microsoft suggests the you do not save the file to a shared drive such as the G: and H: drives. Also, you cannot change the encryption setting after you create the .pst file.

The new .pst file is added to the Outlook 2003 All Mail Folders list. To view the Folder List, simply locate the newly created folder from the list in the left-pane.

Method two – refer to Outlook 2010 method two.

Solution to sluggish PC's

2011-01-31T09:40:00.001Z

Soluto - Anti Frustration Software from Soluto on Vimeo.

Soluto - How to use Soluto Beta from Soluto on Vimeo.

Your Windows operating system offers a tool called MSCONFIG this tool enables you to do what Soluto does. The reason users choose not to use MSCONFIG are varied. Essentially the reason comes down to knowledge. Soluto solution provides an excellent safe user interface enabling users to better understand why their PC is slow.

Now users don’t need to call an IT consultant to fix their sluggish PC and if things go wrong users can revert back.

A word of caution please watch Soluto videos. Changing operating system load applications does require knowledge having said that Soluto provides excellent easy to understand advice, as to which applications should load and which ones can pause or manually load or not at all.

Note: The PC may have other issues affecting performance for example, insufficient RAM memory, failing hard disk, a large number of temp files (application shadow copies, system restore points, cookies etc.), spyware, viruses. To remedy these issues you may need help.

If you are frustrated with sluggish PC then Soluto is a magnificent easy to use tool to remedy your PC startup frustrations.

Cost differentiations

2011-01-31T08:11:00.000Z

Traditional installed software is typified by:

Upfront license fees.
Higher implementation costs.
Lengthy implementation timescales and processes.
Access issues by a mobile workforce.
On-going upgrade costs.
High on-going support costs.
Significant internal infrastructure. Hardware, software and support costs.
Future infrastructure upgrade costs not part of the initial contract and so adds risk.

Direct cost savings of SaaS

No upfront costs; the investment is operational expenditure (opex) not capital expenditures (capex).
Rapid speed to implementation improves business agility and flexibility.
Pay-as-you-go, which increases or decreases as you need to.
Apart from web access, no infrastructure requirement as the vendor hosts the data externally.
The customer does not need to worry about internal IT support, security, backups, Storage and such like.
Quick implementation typified by a simple ‘subscribe and use’ approach.
All staff can use the application no matter how mobile they are, just as long as they have access to the internet and an adequate browser.

Indirect cost savings of SaaS

Most SaaS applications are easy to use and, as such, enable good productivity with little investment in training.
Upgrades and enhancements are made in smaller, more frequent, releases which enables learning in a more digestible manner than the traditional three to four year upgrade.
Applications support is taken care of by the SaaS vendor so the customer does not need internal or outsourced IT staff for this.
Low monthly costs minimises the cost of a wrong decision because there are few upfront costs and, often, no fixed/minimum contract term.

Economies of scale are achieved by having a single version of the software, bugs and small enhancements are fixed quickly and for all.

SaaS users can work from anywhere, especially the home. This means the customer can save on physical offices, premises and commuting costs.
Single instance of the software means no differing versions, making support easier.
By hosting several customers’ data in one place, SaaS solutions can take advantage of network effects. The vendors can make use of the metadata of all the customers to assist in decisions about how to improve the application, resulting in better applications innovation over shorter time periods.
Vendors can integrate with other applications via web services-based API’s, thus saving integration, testing and customisation costs for customers.

Next article Data security and risk It is of paramount importance to the customer that data confidentiality, integrity and availability (CIA) is maintained wherever the data is hosted or accessed...

Implementation process

2011-01-29T10:47:00.001Z

This section provides an example of the procurement process and implementation of a SaaS product. One of the factors that provides better total cost of ownership for SaaS solutions compared to traditional installed solutions is the cost and time of implementation. SaaS solutions are characterised by their ease of implementation and quicker time to market or to value with deployments generally available instantly compared to a month or more with traditional software.

Customers don’t have to spend time and money installing or maintaining additional servers, networking equipment, security products, or other hardware. SaaS providers generally offer a free trial period but, in any case, the ‘pay-as-you-go’ pricing lends itself to a small pilot with a few users that can start almost immediately to prove the system. Once proven, the focus of the rollout is on end-user training and acceptance. Depending on the complexity of the applications involved, the implementation consultancy for a SaaS solution can be a fraction of that needed for traditional software.

Evaluation

An advantage of many SaaS products is that a free of charge evaluation period is available. This allows you to test the software using a small volume of data. For small business, this allows a solution to be tested on an almost instant basis. For larger business, an evaluation will only be meaningful if planned and, where necessary, configured for the customer’s business. The ability to scale up and down is assumed with SaaS services but, if in doubt, be sure to ask for reference customers.

Contract consideration

Most SaaS services offer a standard contract or Terms and Conditions – the ‘click to accept’ model. However, some businesses, especially larger ones, will insist on changes to these fixed terms in order to protect their financial and security interests. See Data security and risk.

Configuration

It may be possible to configure the SaaS application to suit a particular organisation’s needs. In general terms such customisation will be limited but it should be explored to ensure the best fit for the customer.

User access

As in any multi-user system, access rights need to be considered, set up and administered.

Data loading

Depending on the particular service, a significant volume of data may need to be loaded. The SaaS vendor usually provides data input or migration tools to help with this, or other third parties may specialise in providing data conversion services.

Testing or user acceptance testing

Testing may be carried out as part of the evaluation process or, if the risk is low, once the customer has subscribed to the service. The testing ensures that the organisation specific configuration is correct and that the service is working as a harmonious part of internal business processes. For many SMEs the testing phase may well be a simple 2-3 month pilot of using the software in parallel with existing systems. User acceptance is crucial for large organisations using mission-critical applications. SaaS vendors often build a database of test data that all of their customers can use and, if they wish, add to.

Training

An often underestimated aspect of any system implementation is training. A good SaaS vendor will provide adequate training; the key difference is that most SaaS products are intuitive and training can generally be provided as the user unlocks the different parts of the application. Fitting with their need for a scalable business, most SaaS vendors will offer a mix of self-service tools, online help and training that can be done at the user’s desk.

Support

It is important to review the support elements of the service. SaaS vendors will generally provide total support to the user. The IT department, if there is one, should therefore have less day-to-day involvement. Remember that SaaS is a ‘service’ and not just another method of technology provision. Having said that, customers need to be clear about what support is on offer and whether they need to incorporate further support within the organisation.

Pathway to ‘Go Live’

A SaaS product, depending on its particular service, can be implemented in many ways. The table below provides a generic comparison of the SaaS selection and implementation process with that of traditional software. Customers’ specific requirements may vary but this should provide a useful guide.

	SaaS	On Premise Implementation
Business Assurance	Global vendors ensure the product meets local compliance and regulatory rules regarding data protection and privacy.
Costs	Based on Operating Cost: Subscription fee usually based on system usage or number of users. Other costs are data preparation, site configuration, business change and training.	Based on Capital Cost: Requires a large upfront investment in software licences and hardware to support the application. Other costs include internal IT, data preparation, configuration, application modification, business change and training.
Data	Quality/quantity of data is controlled within the SaaS application. The data is still owned by the customer although the data will be outside the organisations physical boundaries.	The business and IT are responsible for data ownership, cleaning, loading, and governance.
Evaluation	The evaluation is performed by configuring and using the application to test how the services can be integrated with the IT involvement is only normally IT involvement is only normally needed to ensure users can access the SaaS website or if integration with other systems is required.	The evaluation process is mainly a paper-based comparison of stated requirements and available features to establish the percentage fit. Extensive checking of each package is made followed by demonstrations by each potential supplier. IT is heavily involved to evaluate requirements for servers, network and PCs.
Implementation	The software is already installed and running but will usually require user security and company specific data fields. Minimal requirement for Minimal requirement for IT resources unless integration with other software is required.	Implementation is a large part of the total project often involving the installation of new servers and PCs as well as both server-based and PC-based software. Software modifications may also need to be developed and tested.
Integration	Most SaaS suppliers provide Standard ‘web service’ interfaces to allow integration with other software.	Some packages have standard ‘web service’ interfaces but many have limited interfaces for integration or require bespoke code to be written.
Maintenance and updates	The service is updated frequently (usually monthly) so the organisation is always using the last version.	New releases are less frequent (often 12 months apart) and must be installed by IT.

	SaaS	On Premise Implementation
Performance	Performance levels are agreed within the terms of a service level agreement.	Internal IT as well as the internal IT as well as the performance of the application supplier.
Requirements specification	Usually a high level list of minimum requirements is made with the knowledge that the SaaS provides standard offering cannot be changed.	At the lower end of the market the situation with standard packages is similar to SaaS. But for larger projects, a detailed requirements specification is produced to determine whether a standard package can meet the needs or whether a ‘bespoke’ solution is needed.
Risk	As an organisation can test and pilot use of the software during a free trial period or by committing only to a short term subscription risk is very low.	Risk is high as most of the costs and most of the effort are expended upfront before the users are able to acceptance test the system.
Support	Predominantly provided by the service provider with little, if any, support needed from IT.	Usually support is handled in two levels: 1. IT to determine if it is an IT or functional issue. 2. The application provider.
Training	As the software is designed for ease of use to fit a ‘sign up and go’ model, training needs are significantly reduced. Most vendors will offer online training that can be done at the user’s desk.	Training is generally carried out in a classroom setting. Training is also required for IT so it can install and support the product.
User testing and pilot running	The project is primarily to ensure that the organisation can adopt the software within its business processes.	The testing phase is generally much longer than with SaaS as the users have not had ‘hands on’ experience of the software during evaluation. Both functional and business process testing is required

Next article Cost differentiations A return on Investment (ROI) comparison will probably work out to be similar. However pay back over a 3 – 5 year calculation requires your business needs to remain static. For many organisations over such a time period their IT requirements change. Consequently your ROI calculation becomes invalid. A SaaS solution can evolve users can be added or reduced as required...

How is Software as a Service different?

2011-01-28T08:51:00.015Z

How is SaaS different from traditional software implementations?

Some off the points have been made already but, for completeness, I repeat them here.
With installed software you often need to be sitting at a computer in the office where it is installed. With SaaS, customers have access from anywhere in the world via an internet‐connected device. This includes laptops, netbooks and mobile phones at the office, at home or anywhere else that has internet coverage.
SaaS requires only a standard browser, or a minimal amount of small software downloads, such as Java, to be installed on the user’s computer. IT management issues such as backup, recovery and network management are provided by the vendor, The typically high levels of security and protection against interruption provided by SaaS vendors would be very expensive for customers to provide for themselves. With installed software, the customer installs and manages the software on their own computer or servers. They are responsible for all the IT management issues including backups, upgrades, recovery, etc.
SaaS is much easier to use than conventional on ‐premise software think of providers like Amazon or Flickr. “You don’t need too do any training or read any manuals to work out how to order products from Amazon, or upload photos to Flick.”
The software is always up to date because there is a single instance of the software which is updated regularly. Not only do you not have to wait for software developer and/or the IT department to schedule the update and apply the update before customers can instantly benefit from innovative new features.
SaaS solutions can be more innovative they know if they are to retrain your custom they need to keep pace with the latest web based tools that people make use of.
The SaaS business model is based on a steadily increasing and recurring revenue stream with an emphasis on good quality product and support services to ensure customer satisfaction, recommendation and repeat payment. It is typified by rapid adoption through word of mouth and low sales and marketing spend, with more resource being devoted to application development and support services.
SaaS brings the user back into the purchasing equation. See Software as a Service checklist below.
Finally, remember that SaaS vendors are service providers, driven by their customers, compared with software producers which are product‐led organisations with a high focus on selling.

	SaaS	On Premise Comparison
Access	Connect through the internet. If no internet connection is available, or the capacity or bandwidth are small, the application may not be accessible, though some services may provide a separately installed local version of the application.	Connect via customer’s internal network. Remote access outside the office may not be possible or needs internal network to be extended via dial-up or over the internet.
Browsers	All major browsers are supported. (e.g. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Chrome).	Traditional Windows/Mac application.
Code	Code executes on the SaaS provider’s server, apart from minor functions that may be downloaded to the browser such as Java applets, ActiveX components or Flash.	Each customer has an individual copy of the code even if it is the same code.
Code location	A code executes on the SaaS provider’s server apart from minor functions that may be downloaded to the browser such as Java applets, ActiveX components or Flash.	Code executes locally on customer’s clients and servers.
Data	Held on SaaS provider’s servers.	Held on customer’s own servers.
Data ownership and compliance	Whilst primary responsibility for data protection and compliance remains with the user, a SaaS provider may have an offering to assist with the demonstration of compliance, or the services of an independent third party auditor may be called upon.	Customer has data on site and owns the data. The user is responsible for data protection compliance.
Ease of use, training	Less training needed, products typically leverage users’ familiarity with web sites and provide self-service tools and help.	Anything from a day to three days ‘or average users, a week for administrators.
Evaluations	SaaS providers typically offer a free trial.	Usually limited to a trial without specific set-up requirements.
Failover	SaaS provider may have redundant data centre for fast fail over.	Customer may have disaster recovery plan; most don’t. Few can recover from a fail over in 20 minutes.
Installation	No installation needed, just a browser. Can include some locally installed applets, (Java).	Installation needed on servers and/ or on client servers.
Interfaces	Most SaaS products have data import routines plus APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that run over the internet for lower level integration.	Most products have data import/ export routines, plus APIs to local software. Interfacing to local applications is sometimes possible; interfacing to web sites and SaaS systems may be problematic.
Implementation	Anything from instant to five days or more. Normally done by customer or provided by SaaS vendor.	Anything from a day to a month or more. Normally provided by a paid consultant.
IT Maintenance	Application updates/upgrades, data backups, platform availability all the responsibility of SaaS provider.	Customer applies updates/ upgrades, is responsible for backups and IT infrastructure.
IT Maintenance	Application updates/upgrades, data backups, platform availability all the responsibility of SaaS provider.	Customer applies updates/ upgrades, is responsible for backups and IT infrastructure.
Payment model	Subscription: per year, per month or per use etc.	Software license purchased upfront, plus annual maintenance payments.
Support	Support desk can access customer’s system directly to help with configuration.	Support desk can talk customer through the system or provide online help, but can’t make changes without a site visit or remote access.
Updates and upgrades	Continual or quarterly updates and upgrades.	Six monthly or annual update cycle. Enhancements upgrades can be included as part of a maintenance contract.

Next article Implementation process Procurement process and implementation of a SaaS product...

What are the business benefits of Software as a Service?

2011-01-27T08:10:00.004Z

It’s not suitable for all applications in all situations. In fact, for most initially the cloud will be a hybrid one, here’s a list of the key potential business benefits of SaaS.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
The total cost of ownership can be lower than a traditional installation, if you take into account infrastructure, on‐going maintenance, support costs and implementation costs. The SaaS vendor shares the cost of hardware capacity, support and business continuity across the whole community of customers. Implementation costs are lower. The periodic payments mean lower or zero upfront investment, and the applications tend to be designed with ease of use and lower training requirements, so they are like consumer service providers such as Amazon or Flickr. This also reduces risk by allowing a low cost pilot implementation, moving to a full scale roll out only when satisfied.

No Capex
SaaS does not incur high upfront costs for software licenses and hardware. The ‘ pay‐as you‐go’ subscription model makes the typical SaaS implementation an operational expense item, not a capital investment.

Lower risk
Conventional software projects are often cost justified on a 3‐5 year pay back. But with no up front licence and infrastructure costs and the pay‐‐as‐you‐go model, if circumstances or business requirements change, the SaaS approach makes it easier and less costly to turn off the service or switch too an alternate service.

Supplier relationship
SaaS fosters closer relationships between suppliers and clients, and changes the balance of risk from the customer to the software vendor. Because the service is paid for on a subscription basis, the vendor needs to provide continuing value to the customer each month, not simply at the point of purchase. Equally, the supplier can monitor more directly how the client is using the software, where the pinch points are etc. This ensures better products and usability for customers as opposed to just effective sales and marketing pitches.

Flexible access
SaaS provides more flexibility than most installed software, because you can access the system from any internet‐connected PC, Mac or mobile device. This means easy access for customers, subcontractors, partners and employees, even when they are away from their normal office and PC. SaaS can provide access to software applications in the same way that the mobile phone has provided access to voice communications.

Next article How is Software as a Service different? Here I'm going to spell out exactly how SaaS is different...

What is this cloud and what is SaaS?

2011-01-26T07:53:00.006Z

Introduction

You are no doubt familiar with banking, booking trips or buying goods through an internet connection. In each case, the vendor is exposing its application to you as a web-based service. As long as the device you are using can run one of the popular browsers, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a Macintosh, a PC, a netbook or a mobile phone.

It’s a short jump from such bespoke services to the idea of a standardised service which could be used by many companies or individuals. Among individuals, standardised services for photo sharing, blogging, social networking and many others are already very popular. You may have heard of Flickr, Wordpress and Facebook, for example. Users can tweak the way their pages are laid out and which options are activated but these services are essentially fixed in their scope, but subject to continuous improvement, usually in the light of user feedback.

You will find parallels and overlaps in the business world where the delivered services have a more professional intent, but they are more or less equal in philosophy. You may have heard of salesforce.com, one of the best known and most successful examples of what is called Software as a Service, or SaaS.

Conclusion

To win your business I take the time to coach you to get the most out of your system

2011-01-25T16:46:00.002Z

A client experience — Visiting a potential customer I was asked if there was a way for staff to be notified of events happening within the company and integrated into a holiday calendar.

My perspective clients implied the budget would be found if I came up with the right solution.

They owned a Small Business Server so I spent ten minutes showing them some of the features. How to retrieve accidentally deleted files and in particular SharePoint.

What amazed them they already had the tools to achieve an objective long sort and in just ten minutes.

The company who installed and maintained their system were reliable, technically good and charged less than me.

But they didn’t show their clients how to use their system.

My competitors oversight was not giving that little bit extra.

I walked away with a twelve month premium support contract and an order for new hardware and configuration of their SharePoint intranet.

Which Windows 7 version–Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate?

2011-01-24T09:07:00.003Z

Quite rightly you want the best version to suit your needs.

Let me ask you some questions.

Do you work from home?

Do you require files to be encrypted?

Do you need to remotely access files from servers, organisational PC’s?

Do you need to run bespoke Windows XP business applications?

Create workgroups or join a domain?

Do you need to switch between languages?

They are many more questions to ask. Essentially If you wish to connect your computer to work server or you work with organisational files you should buy professional or ultimate versions of Windows. These versions have a number of tools you need to connect and manage a work network connection. A home version won’t stop you using your PC for work purposes but you will find using a home windows version a greater challenge. You can use third party technologies to connect and secure documents. A Virtual Private Network connection is possible but many work servers will simply prevent you connecting a windows home version to a organisational network. Principal reason security and networking tools are not included in the Windows 7 starter and home versions.

Windows Home Premium is great version if your principal use for a PC is purely for home use. I say this because many clients are frustrated and extremely angry when they discover they have to buy an upgrade to connect to a work network and or work with organisational files securely at home. A comparison list of Windows 7 versions can be found by clicking here

Before you buy a new PC take the time to understand what you require from your PC then decide which version suits your needs. It really is cheaper both in time and money if you do.

An alternative to upgrading your home operating system is to use a cloud solution but you will need to agree this with your organisation. Shortly I shall be publishing a series of blogs covering what you need to think about prior to using cloud solution, known as Software As A Service (SAAS).

Method of contracting	If the contract value is significant for your organisation then you should ensure that the terms and conditions proposed by the vendor are fully reviewed by a suitably qualified solicitor, and ensure that non-authorised employees do not commit the organisation to services, or service terms, you do not want to be bound to. The vendor will offer a hard copy agreement or website terms and conditions. If the latter be sure that the terms are easily accessible early on in the sign up process and, ideally, expressly accepted.
Software licensing	Licensing practices vary. Some SaaS vendors do not grant the customer a license to the software at all, as the customer receives a service where it has the right to access software. Other models grant a license to access and use the software for the purpose of receiving the service. Ensure the licence, or grant of access rights, are wide enough for your requirements in purchasing SaaS (including any jurisdictional requirements). Additionally, consider whether an intellectual property rights indemnity should be sought against intellectual property rights infringement by the vendor (including patent infringement and copyright infringement).
Service levels	You need to be clear as to exactly what service levels (if any) are being offered by the vendor and the potential remedies for failure. Matters to consider include: how availability will be measured and over what period; whether availability should apply to all applications comprising a SaaS offering or just individual components; system response times; service response times; and helpdesk response times. One feature of SaaS is the ability to rapidly scale up and down the level of usage – ensure that all relevant metrics and limits are clearly agreed. Customers should seek regular and transparent reports.
Service credits	Service credits will generally be offered as the customer’s primary or sole financial remedy for the vendor’s failure to meet its service levels. Note that the wording of service credit clauses can have a significant bearing on whether service credits are seen by a court as ‘liquidated damages’ for breach of contract or a contractual mechanism setting out a price payable for a particular level of service. You should consider whether the service credits on offer are adequate and whether an exclusive remedy provision is acceptable. You also need to consider including a right to terminate for consistently poor service or a major outage. Your vendor should be aware that attempts to limit the customer’s remedy to just service credits in a standard form terms of business agreement will need to be ‘reasonable’ under the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977.
Business continuity	Both parties need to consider what contingency plans are offered or should be sought in the event of a disaster or the vendor’s insolvency. You also need to consider back up arrangements for your data. It is unusual for escrow solutions to be offered in pure SaaS contracts.
Security	It is important that any security requirements are clearly set out in the contract. The vendor should additionally include acceptable use, user password provisions and additions on each party’s liability in relation to the introduction of viruses/harmful code. Vendors will be looking for liability limitations and exclusions for failure to achieve specified security requirements (e.g. loss of data). In particular they will be considering whether to exclude consequential losses and include an overall cap on liability in the contract. You need to consider encryption of data prior to transmission, customer-specific hardware, specified levels of security at the vendor’s physical premises, minimum-vetting requirements for vendor personnel that have access to infrastructure, and back up requirements.
Data protection	If the SaaS is hosted in the UK or EU the customer (as data controller) will need to comply with the Data Protection Act 1998 if any of the customer’s personal data is to be transferred to the vendor’s servers. The vendor typically acts as data processor and contractual provisions must be included to comply with the Data Protection Act. Your compliance obligations will include ensuring that the vendor provides appropriate technological measures against unauthorised disclosure of personal data. Additional factors will apply if the SaaS is hosted outside of the EEA, particularly if sensitive personal data is to be transferred.
Ownership of data	You should seek an express provision that all data (and rights in such data) belong to your organisation. Also consider what rights, if any, the vendor has to such data.
Other regulatory issues	You may have additional regulatory concerns (such as compliance with MIFID, the material outsourcer provisions in the FSA handbook), that should be raised as necessary with vendors to ensure that the vendor is able to comply.
Exit/migration	Most SaaS contracts do not contain detailed exit provisions in certain circumstances, eg, where data access and migration is necessary. You need to know what’s involved before committing your organisation’s data to the service.
Other clauses	For the sake of contractual certainty both parties should ensure that contracts contain choice of law and jurisdiction provisions (with local law advice being sought as necessary), clearly drafted payment provisions (and mechanism for working out cost), and provisions dealing with third party rights, waiver, severance, duration and termination rights for each party. You should also consider seeking a right to terminate on the change of control of a vendor.