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More signs that you have to be READY for anything.

Submitted by admin on Thu, 06/02/2011 - 17:16

Be Prepared. It's more than just the Boy Scout motto. It can be critical to saving your business in the time of an emergency. People in Massachusetts are familiar with rough storms. Major Snowfalls and a good ole Nor'easter are common place enough. But I wonder how many people had tornados on their list for their Business Continuity plan? How many took it seriously? Now this is a serious issue so I'm not going to make light of it. Coverage of the tornados and their destruction can be found at CNN via http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/06/01/massachusetts.tornado/index.html.

Has the weather just gone CRAZY?

Submitted by admin on Thu, 05/26/2011 - 12:57

OK so first I want to let everyone from the affected areas know you are in my thoughts. The recent weather events in Alabama, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Missouri, Louisianna, Tennessee, etc. are incredible. Flooding and Tornados as well as Severe Thunderstorms are running rampant over the country. So what can one small firm do to help out the situation? Aside from support the humanitarian efforts of the Red Cross and participating in Habitat for Humanity efforts in New Orleans which is STILL recovering from Hurricane Katrina, there is always the following.

New SERVICES Offering: Data Life Cycle Mentoring

Submitted by admin on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 15:41

While engaging with several clients in the last year we have noticed that their data volumes continue to grow exponentially. Data inside organizations is growing at a rate of 125% per year. This has two negative effects: Slower response times on applications and higher infrastructure costs for storage and server horsepower. One of the downfalls of our culture, think about your grandparent's basement, attic and/or garage, is that we NEVER want to throw anything away.

Enterprise Functions for SMB Clients

Submitted by admin on Wed, 01/26/2011 - 19:00

In working with several of our clients over the last 6 months we have come across several Cloud based applications that fulfill necessary functions for our SMB Clients. These clients may be SMB today but are growing in both revenue and stature. At the same time in this economy people are taking a second (and sometimes third) look at utilizing less expensive cloud based applications to fulfill necessary business functions without spending Enterprise dollars to get it.

SMB: What constitutes a Disaster? #in

Submitted by admin on Tue, 12/28/2010 - 11:28

In this economy, the line between success and failure in the SMB business sector has gotten razor thin. A few days of delayed shipments, a few days of non-production on the line, a few days of no one in the office to take orders - any one of these can lead to a disaster month and reduced cash flow. So what constitutes a Disaster?

SMB: Do I need to have someone audit my firm's DR Test?

Submitted by admin on Mon, 12/27/2010 - 10:21

First off every firm should have an IT Disaster Recovery (DR) plan. No ifs, ands, or buts. Even if you are a small accounting or legal firm your records or data must be stored somewhere off-site and access to that data, aka thru the applications used by your firm, must be available in a timely manner. Your DR plan may be quite complex or very simplistic, but it must match your risk tolerance and your unique situation.

SMB: Saving money and headaches by moving to a homogenius infrastructure platform

Submitted by admin on Wed, 12/22/2010 - 12:20

So what do I mean by moving to a "Homogenius Infrastructure Platform". Simply put by moving off of a vast mix of different Server Vendors, Operating Systems, database platforms and consolidating onto 1 or 2 different solutions for each. Now saying that, ans my apologies to Microsoft, IBM and everyone else, no ONE solution is right for everything. So the best method is to take an audit or assessment of where your IT Infrastructure is NOW, call it Current State, and take a serious look at what low hanging fruit exist in your environment today.

High Availability for SMB Sector - The Goldilocks Sizing Principle

Submitted by admin on Tue, 12/21/2010 - 11:41

So I am a FIRM believer that the SMB sector needs every bit of the same functionality and flexibility in their IT organization as the BIG Corportations. But I also am a realist that not everyone can afford all the bells and whistles that they would like to have. IT magazines have been pushing High Availability (HA) for years typically calling for Five 9's of availability. By definition this means your systems are available 99.999% of the time requested. I believe that the TRUE meaning of 5 9's gets lost in the equation.

Is SNOW a Disaster? Minor vs. Major Disruptions Require Business Continuity Planning

Submitted by admin on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 09:51

So as many of us in the Midwest have been experiencing SNOW can be a fairly big hassle. OK so we don't have to worry about hurricanes like Florida does, or earthquakes, wild fires and mudslides like our friends in California but every year we have MINOR disruptions in our business by Mother Nature in the form of the fluffy white stuff. These disruptions can last up to several days if the snow and ice affect electrical service or they could cause a longer disruption of activities, see the Metrodome story from this weekend as an example.

Connected in a Digital World - A commentary

Submitted by admin on Fri, 12/10/2010 - 15:07

So as a veteran of almost 30 years of working in the Information Technology (IT) industry you would think that I've seen it all and embrace it all. And for the most part you would be right. My only two main caveats are a) being expected to be in 24x7 contact with my email and b) using social media as a business tool. Let's start with the second one first. I have nothing against social media. I personally have a Facebook acount, initially to track my teenagers but I admit it is a great way to find and keep in touch with old friends.