Sunday, December 29, 2013
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Monday, September 30, 2013
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Friday, September 20, 2013
Friday, September 13, 2013
Backup and ...........Disaster Recovery?
This week I had an interesting experience. I'm working with a new client who is coming on board. Before we agreed to work together we had extensive conversations about their backup. They were using one of the popular cloud backup solutions. Their then current IT vendor had told them they were covered. Their biggest concern was that their email/email server was being backed up. Their IT firm said they had it covered.
I'm always cautious when we are going into a new environment. We do a lot of talking and scanning up front but there are always some items that are just hidden. We call this finding snakes in the grass. It's a normal part of our business. The snake we found was a backup solution that was not adequately protecting my client. We found that, while the files on their server were being backed up, the most recent email backup was a month old. So.... in the event of a disaster they would have their files but no emails.
What I always find amazing is that some IT providers will gloss over things thinking that they are saving the customer the pain of having to spend money. What would the pain have been if my client had a crash and then found they had no backup. It's also strange to me because it is less expensive than most people think to solve the problem.
My policy is to explain the circumstances and then give my client the choice. The happy ending is that we found the problem and the client agreed to move forward with a solution that will keep them protected.
Thanks for reading. I'd love your comments or questions.
I'm always cautious when we are going into a new environment. We do a lot of talking and scanning up front but there are always some items that are just hidden. We call this finding snakes in the grass. It's a normal part of our business. The snake we found was a backup solution that was not adequately protecting my client. We found that, while the files on their server were being backed up, the most recent email backup was a month old. So.... in the event of a disaster they would have their files but no emails.
What I always find amazing is that some IT providers will gloss over things thinking that they are saving the customer the pain of having to spend money. What would the pain have been if my client had a crash and then found they had no backup. It's also strange to me because it is less expensive than most people think to solve the problem.
My policy is to explain the circumstances and then give my client the choice. The happy ending is that we found the problem and the client agreed to move forward with a solution that will keep them protected.
Thanks for reading. I'd love your comments or questions.
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Apple iPhone 5S - Smartphones - CNET Reviews
I'm stoked that Apple is continuing to pave new ground. It's exciting to have a 64 bit phone on the market.
Apple iPhone 5S - Smartphones - CNET Reviews
Apple iPhone 5S - Smartphones - CNET Reviews
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Tech changing things again.
Personally I think it is good to be forced to adapt to your crazy college roommate. I love experiences that force you to grow. Im sure not everyone shares this point of view. Please share your thoughts.
How Facebook is banishing roommate horror stories from the dorm
Friday, August 30, 2013
Lync Lessons
Lync is the Unified Communication tool from Microsoft. It is picking up speed quickly because it provides a private secure Instant Messaging platform for SMB's (Small and Medium Businesses).. The extra cool thing is that video conferencing works great along with screen sharing and application sharing. I now have several customers who our company has helped with the move to Microsoft Lync.
So what lessons do I have to share regarding Lync implementations. The good news is that there is nothing huge or scary about this product. Once it is set up correctly it is really quite intuitive. These are really just a few ideas to consider.
1. Be ready to purchase cameras, microphones and monitors.
2. Embrace seeing yourself on the big screen.
3. Plan on working with a professional provider.
4. What about your VoIP solution
First, thing you need to know is that once you start working with this technology you will find yourself needing to purchase the equipment that makes audio and video possible. Whats great is that this technology has really evolved and is much less expensive. Most laptops today ship with a camera and mic built in. I was very surprised at the excellent quality in my basic built in mic and camera built in to my Lenovo laptop. If you have a conference room you may find you want to set up group conferences with Lync. That works great! Of course you'll need a large monitor and PC with camera and microphon connected in order to do these conferences. I recommend Mondopad . http://www.infocus.com/mondopad this is an affordable quality all in one solution that we use and recommend to our customers.
Next, I noticed it is kind of scary the first time you see yourself on the screen. Even though this is the case the other people want to see you. So be ready to make an appearance. I think this is one of the key's to effective video conferencing. Don't turn off the video. You may not like to look at yourself but others do.
Third.........I'm not sure I need to say much about this. Lync does need some configuration, work with a professional provider who can save you time and get you up and running quick and you will be much happier. I would suggest a Microsoft Gold partner or higher.
Lastly, once you get Lync set up you will realize there is one thing missing. How do you make a call to the outside world? This is where your VoIP (Voice over IP) solution comes into play. Essentially your phone system which is your connection to the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) needs to talk to Lync. Some phone systems easily accomplish this while others have no integration available. Many companies operate without ever setting up this last piece but to some it is essential. If it is for your company you'll want to keep this in mind.
Good luck Lync'n up
So what lessons do I have to share regarding Lync implementations. The good news is that there is nothing huge or scary about this product. Once it is set up correctly it is really quite intuitive. These are really just a few ideas to consider.
1. Be ready to purchase cameras, microphones and monitors.
2. Embrace seeing yourself on the big screen.
3. Plan on working with a professional provider.
4. What about your VoIP solution
First, thing you need to know is that once you start working with this technology you will find yourself needing to purchase the equipment that makes audio and video possible. Whats great is that this technology has really evolved and is much less expensive. Most laptops today ship with a camera and mic built in. I was very surprised at the excellent quality in my basic built in mic and camera built in to my Lenovo laptop. If you have a conference room you may find you want to set up group conferences with Lync. That works great! Of course you'll need a large monitor and PC with camera and microphon connected in order to do these conferences. I recommend Mondopad . http://www.infocus.com/mondopad this is an affordable quality all in one solution that we use and recommend to our customers.
Next, I noticed it is kind of scary the first time you see yourself on the screen. Even though this is the case the other people want to see you. So be ready to make an appearance. I think this is one of the key's to effective video conferencing. Don't turn off the video. You may not like to look at yourself but others do.
Third.........I'm not sure I need to say much about this. Lync does need some configuration, work with a professional provider who can save you time and get you up and running quick and you will be much happier. I would suggest a Microsoft Gold partner or higher.
Lastly, once you get Lync set up you will realize there is one thing missing. How do you make a call to the outside world? This is where your VoIP (Voice over IP) solution comes into play. Essentially your phone system which is your connection to the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) needs to talk to Lync. Some phone systems easily accomplish this while others have no integration available. Many companies operate without ever setting up this last piece but to some it is essential. If it is for your company you'll want to keep this in mind.
Good luck Lync'n up
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Great story!
I really like this story. Even though Ballmer's time is ending I'm encouraged by what he and Gates have accomplished.
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Friday, August 16, 2013
Ordering Microsoft Office 365? a couple of things to keep in mind.
First of all..... you may not know what Microsoft Office 365 is. This is the new office and email platform from Microsoft. The reason my customers are moving to it is because it allows them to outsource their email to the cloud while still receiving the high level of functionality they have come to know and love from their on premise exchange environment (Microsoft mail server). The next big reason why they are moving is that they each user gets licensed for up to 5 devices for the latest version of MS office (the current version is office 2013). Finally they get Microsoft Lync and Sharepoint which are 2 very powerful tools from Microsoft.
So what should someone keep in mind when ordering Office 365? First of all I highly recommend working with a firm like mine (Shameless plug www.veracitytech.com) that are certified subject matter experts in Microsoft. You don't pay any more for the product and have local experts to help you out. I'm working with several customers now who are transitioning their environments to Office 365. I'm hoping you can learn from my challenges and avoid some frustration. The amount of care you will need to put into the ordering process is really related to the size and complexity of the organization you work for. If you are a home user no worries. If you have a small business with simple technology requirements you are pretty safe as well. The customers of mine that have had challenge have been technology dependent customers with multiple systems and processes in place to run their business. The smallest of these customers having only 5 employees the largest having over 100 employees.
Considerations:
So what should someone keep in mind when ordering Office 365? First of all I highly recommend working with a firm like mine (Shameless plug www.veracitytech.com) that are certified subject matter experts in Microsoft. You don't pay any more for the product and have local experts to help you out. I'm working with several customers now who are transitioning their environments to Office 365. I'm hoping you can learn from my challenges and avoid some frustration. The amount of care you will need to put into the ordering process is really related to the size and complexity of the organization you work for. If you are a home user no worries. If you have a small business with simple technology requirements you are pretty safe as well. The customers of mine that have had challenge have been technology dependent customers with multiple systems and processes in place to run their business. The smallest of these customers having only 5 employees the largest having over 100 employees.
Considerations:
- Does your company have applications that currently use your email server to communicate or output transactions?
- If so, what level of integration is required?
- How many MS Office users do you have VS email only?
- How many employees do you plan on having within the next 3-5 years?
- What type of email compliance (SEC or otherwise) is required by your industry?
- What requirements do you have for an email disclaimer? (that legal stuff on the bottom of some peoples emails)
There are many different versions of MS365 that you can order. Some versions, once ordered, are difficult to upgrade once you have moved your mail to the Microsoft cloud. It comes down to taking the time up front to understand your requirements and picking the right product. All of the above mentioned considerations have solutions but need to be reviewed before you pick a product. The functionality may be available in O365 but may look different or require a third party provider (like a journal solution in the financial industry). Some versions have a limit to the maximum number of users and then require an upgrade. This can cause your company to invest in consulting time to rebuild your environment. Please feel free to email me with your questions Pzubert@veracitytech.com.
Thanks
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Friday, August 9, 2013
Microsoft cuts Surface Pro tablet prices by $100 | Microsoft - CNET News
The Surface Pro seems to be a great value. If you are willing to invest in a few peripherals this can easily replace your laptop. They guy who sits next to me has his set up with dual external monitors. This is really only possilbe because the surface has nearly all the features and power of a laptop. Also it runs the full Windows 8 operating system. So, you can run all the apps you'd normally run. Pretty cool. The One warning is that the print on the screen is small so if you're eyes are not so good like mine, plan on investing in external monitors and the device to connect them to the Surface Pro.
Microsoft cuts Surface Pro tablet prices by $100 | Microsoft - CNET News
Microsoft cuts Surface Pro tablet prices by $100 | Microsoft - CNET News
Friday, August 2, 2013
Interesting development in mobile phones
I have been enjoying giving voice commands to my phone for a while now. This is an interesting developement in th A I. That drives our phones.
INNOVATION? - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bianca-bosker/moto-x-covers-phone_b_3696048.html
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Nokia Lumia 1020 | Windows Phone (United States)
I'm fascinated by this phone. The camera in the phone has become such a novelty. I'm not satisfied with my HTC One camera. Having an awesome camera in the phone could be a real game changer.
Nokia Lumia 1020 | Windows Phone (United States)
Nokia Lumia 1020 | Windows Phone (United States)
Monday, July 29, 2013
Microsoft readies IE 11 for Windows 7, too | Microsoft - CNET News
I hope Microsoft continues to make headway with their browser. It would be nice to use only one browser but the truth is that Chrome rocks!. It is super fast and easy to use. I'm excited to see the progression.
Microsoft readies IE 11 for Windows 7, too | Microsoft - CNET News
Microsoft readies IE 11 for Windows 7, too | Microsoft - CNET News
Five Android apps that prolong your smartphone's battery life | Android Atlas - CNET Reviews
Had to share this. I don't really know if anything can help but maybe these can be helpful. I plan on giving them a try. My wife's phone is always out of power. What a pain. Good luck. I'll let you know what my results are.
Five Android apps that prolong your smartphone's battery life | Android Atlas - CNET Reviews
Five Android apps that prolong your smartphone's battery life | Android Atlas - CNET Reviews
Monday, July 22, 2013
Funky Friday: More than $32 billion in Microsoft stock value wiped out | Microsoft - CNET News
Investors are fickle. I think the long term prospects for the latest move by Microsoft are great!
Funky Friday: More than $32 billion in Microsoft stock value wiped out | Microsoft - CNET News
Monday, July 15, 2013
Gangnam Style Is One Year Old, And Music Is Forever Different | Underwire | Wired.com
I've been big into music my whole life. I was just going through my old cassette tapes this weekend and marveling about how it did not seem too long ago that I was recording all of my friends CD's. This article talks about how much things have changed. While at first it was a scary time for the music industry and musicians now there are new doors opening for musicians. They can post a song and get lots of attention without having to have all the right political or business connections. I think that is great! This technology makes everyone step up their game. I think that is a good thing.
Gangnam Style Is One Year Old, And Music Is Forever Different | Underwire | Wired.com
Gangnam Style Is One Year Old, And Music Is Forever Different | Underwire | Wired.com
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Monday, July 1, 2013
Best storage devices - CNET Reviews
I think this is a helpful article. There are so many of these types of devices out there. I've personally had great luck with Buffalo so I'm glad to see they are mentioned. It's important to remember that these devices can fail. So, if you can afford it and it is going to sit on your desk, buy one with a redundant drive. If you are going portable the SSD drive is the best because it has no moving parts. That said, I have a Buffalo portable drive I've had for 5 years and it still works great!
Best storage devices - CNET Reviews
Best storage devices - CNET Reviews
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Monday, May 20, 2013
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Friday, April 19, 2013
I Love this App!!!!
Turning 40 is kind of a strange thing. You feel smarter and have a better sense of who you are and how you want to spend your days ....... and then you realize time is short and you'd better get at it. Just as I had this realization my body started hurting and I started feeling older. Enter...1.CPAP getting more sleep 2. more exercise 3. Eating healthy 4. Drinking less alcohol. WOW! I have been having a tough time on it all. It boils down to changing lifelong habits and education on what is good and what is not. Noom is an app that I discovered to give me a big boost. There are lots of tools to monitor your caloric intake and exercise. What I love about this app is that it provides meaningful pointed education on nutrition, exercise and all of those crazy question that go rattling through your head as you are trying to make a change like this. I'm sure in the next 30 days I'll be upgrading to the pro version. check it out!
Home - Noom, Inc.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Microsoft Office 2013----Best Office yet!
I love the new MS Office 2013. Why? The best way to describe it is ease of use. everything just works better. The product interface is intuitive and the controls are where you think they should be. When you click on file you get a full page of options that represent all the things you would want to do with the document- Print, convert to PDF, Share, Export. On the same page they've nicely integrated Skydrive (this is the Microsoft storage cloud). Everything just fits. I'm kind of a car junkie so the best way I can describe it is like when you get in a car and all the controls are in the right place at the right time. Then you turn the key and the gears shift at the right time. The engine has the right amount of power. The seats hold you just right and the car holds the road.
What else? The flat interface and ribbon make it easy to discover new features. The product seems like it is more fun to explore. Of course, as usual, there are many more features than most people will ever use. However, when you know they will be easier to find you are more likely to try them out.
Check out this link on new features http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/fp142390.aspx
Onenote. This is part of office that I've experimented with in the past and not had much luck. This has now revolutionized the way I work. It is fully integrated with Skydrive. This means that I create a notepad on my computer that I have access to no matter where I am. Big Deal? The cool part is that it is a shared note book that I work off of cooperatively with others. We all have access to it. again Big Deal? The kicker? It is part of my Microsoft Server infrastructure completely secure and controlled by the Microsoft domain security model.
Try it out! head to our company website for a free trial http://www.veracitytech.com/
What else? The flat interface and ribbon make it easy to discover new features. The product seems like it is more fun to explore. Of course, as usual, there are many more features than most people will ever use. However, when you know they will be easier to find you are more likely to try them out.
Check out this link on new features http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/fp142390.aspx
Onenote. This is part of office that I've experimented with in the past and not had much luck. This has now revolutionized the way I work. It is fully integrated with Skydrive. This means that I create a notepad on my computer that I have access to no matter where I am. Big Deal? The cool part is that it is a shared note book that I work off of cooperatively with others. We all have access to it. again Big Deal? The kicker? It is part of my Microsoft Server infrastructure completely secure and controlled by the Microsoft domain security model.
Try it out! head to our company website for a free trial http://www.veracitytech.com/
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Cool article about big data
Keeping You Safe: Using Big Data to Secure Big Data - http://huff.to/11ia36C
Friday, March 15, 2013
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Interesting development
I'll be interested to see what kind of advance business functionality this IPO could spawn.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Cool new phone.
I have the current version of this phone and I think it is still one of the coolest designs. I hope HTC starts winning. The world needs their competition.
Nemo Blizzard: Datto CEO Tackles Unforeseen BDR Challenge | MSPmentor
I'm proud to say that Datto is one of the backup solutions that we provide at Veracity. The true test of a disaster recovery solution is keeping a customer up and running when there is an actual disaster. We'be had a great experience with this product.
Nemo Blizzard: Datto CEO Tackles Unforeseen BDR Challenge | MSPmentor
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Friday, January 25, 2013
The death of the t1
Everyone wants more bandwidth. Why? because the cloud is getting bigger and bigger. For a long time the most reliable way to get to the internet has been through overpriced T1's. They deliver 1.544 Meg abits Per second (Mbps) of download and upload speed. By comparison a not as reliable cable connection can deliver approximately 100 Mega Bits Per Second (Mbps) of download speed and 20 Mbps of upload speed. That's right 100 times faster download and 20 times faster upload. So....why stay with T1? well its been about stability. See the T1 providers offer what is called a Service level Agreement or (SLA). That means they guarantee up time and response time. The cable companies product was way less expensive for way more bandwidth so they did not feel they had to offer the SLA. Many businesses have switched to cable internet and it has worked well. However, there are also businesses where their connection to the internet is the most critical connection so they can't live with the undefined response time of the cable companies.
2 things have happened to change the options. 1 the cable companies have started offering a serious business level product which includes and SLA. 2 there is a new product that rides a similar infrastructure and has the same reliability as T1 but it offers much higher levels of bandwidth. Its called Ethernet over Copper or some just call it Ethernet. I'm happy to see the Telco's rolling out this product to the business community in Minneapolis. For my customers in the financial and manufacturing sector who are heavily reliant on their connections they have cost effective high bandwidth options that also are highly reliable.
Good by T1.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
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