Microsoft has recently identified and developed a patch for several vulnerabilities found in ASP.NET. The patch is considered to be a necessity and can easily be downloaded from the Microsoft’s Security TechCenter. These vulnerabilities could cause a DoS attack on any machine with the .NET framework installed.
We highly recommend updating your PCs and Servers if you have .NET installed. If you have any questions please feel free to contact our help desk and they will be happy to help you.
Recently, I’ve noticed that many of my conversations with organizations regarding SharePoint included a growing amount of time around remote and mobile access. Why? You probably already know the answer; users are relying more and more on their mobile devices. Continue reading
Two weeks ago we looked at what managed services are and how they can be a benefit for you and your company. This week I want to talk about what you can expect from those services.
To help you understand Managed Services, you need to understand the traditional model of consulting services. Traditionally consultants work on a time and materials basis, under this construct the worse off your infrastructure is, the better it is for the consultant. The consultant will only do what you approve and all the work completed will typically be to restore services to their prior state. Very little will be done to improve the configuration or the general health of the network. The issue here is not that the consultant is uncaring, but that you only call on him at the worst possible time and you only have resources to put out the current fire.
Often an organization will see the value of the consultant and want him to spend more time on their network so as sort of an intermediate step between Managed Services and ‘time and materials,’ they buy ‘Block Time’ from the consultant. Usually this Block Time is used to put out fires during the first part of the month and start pet projects during the last part of the month. Most Block Time contracts are a use it or lose it model, resulting in project work being pushed out when crises occur. The most attractive part of Block Time for most organizations is the fixed budget – easier to predict. Most of the pet projects born at the last part of the month take too long to complete or simply die because of the amount of time that elapses from month to month.
Well, let’s say you have 5 servers and contract a consultant firm to manage them for you. The first thing that will happen is the consultant firm will take a good look at the hardware and associated warrantees. They’ll look at the Operating Systems of the servers and the patch levels. Based on the age of the hardware and software and current stability, the consultant firm will determine the level of risk they would have to assume in order to manage the server(s). The older the hardware and software the higher the cost will be for them to assume the risk. The cost is based on actuarial tables just like those used by insurance companies to determine the premium for life insurance. In the end it might be more cost effective to upgrade a server rather than pay the premium for an old server.
You can expect a substantial amount of contact from the consultant firm upfront as they onboard the servers and make them stable; this contact is then reduced as the server is stabilized and monitoring is implemented. You will know exactly what your monthly budget will be from the consulting firm.
In the end, you can expect your servers to perform better and more consistant than before, and what’s even better, if anything were to happen, you will have immediate attention, and at NO additional cost.
Pinnacle has recently decided to offer a Managed Services solution for businesses. If you are interested there will be an informal class offered at the Pinnacle offices. The cost is free, and lunch will be provided we just need you to sign up. Hope to see you there.
Getting the most for your money is at the forefront of every organization’s thoughts these days. In the past few years the economy has forced many to operate on a skeleton crew with a limited budget in order to survive. Out of this need many have turned to managed services to help them keep their IT infrastructure and budget under control. So what are Managed Services?
Managed services allow an organization to keep critical services up and running and keep budgets in the black. I’m sure you’re wondering what kind of magic would tame your budget and keep critical services up and running. Believe it or not, a well-structured managed services plan can do this for you.
We’ll talk about the different types of IT consultant services in the future, but managed services is a departure from Time and Materials or Block Time because the consultant firm takes on the risk to keep your services running. The consultant group fixes all issues with the services, bring them up to date with patches and then monitor to make sure nothing changes. Should issues arise the consultant has a proper system in place to respond.
When a consultant firm first starts to manage a new service or set of services they will put a lot of time into getting the service stable and patched and set up to monitor it. There is a lot of upfront hard work that goes into making a service stable and keeping it stable; however there’s a great payoff in the end because something that is stable and monitored requires much less work to keep it that way.
Next week we’ll talk about how consultant groups, including Pinnacle, work with clients’ IT infrastructures and how those systems and models can break down over time.
Microsoft has released Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Microsoft Exchange Server.
New Features/Updates include:
Exchange Server 2010 SP1 can be downloaded here.
If you have any questions about the latest release, or need assistance updating your Exchange Server, feel free to contact us at 574-235-8100.
I’ll never forget my first true IT disaster. The IT department had just finished migrating an entire department onto a new computer system. Everything had gone extremely well, and I was congratulating the team when I received a call the staff could not access the new program. The IT department soon informed me the new storage system had failed and we would be down for several hours while they restored the data from backup.
The real problem started when the IT Director came to my office and said one of the few things you never want to hear from the technology department, “The last backup we can find is…”, proceeding to explain the only available backup was the manual backup taken when the system was first installed; the backup system had not been updated to include the database for the new application and all of the newly entered data had been lost. Five thousand dollars, two weeks, and four temporary workers later, the data was re-entered and the system was up and running again.
Unplanned equipment failures and failed backups no longer top the list of risks associated with technology, nor are the risks isolated to job related technologies.
The wide-spread use of technology in all sectors of our lives increasingly adds personal and business issues to the list of things you never want to hear from IT.
#8. “Do you have a copy of your password…” – ever wondered what you would do if you could not remember that Internet password and security question? My sister found out – she had to register for a new email account, delaying her online certification program required for her teaching position.
#7: “The system was not protected by a….” – lightning and down power lines can render systems unusable unless protected by a working UPS.
#6: “Your warranty expired last….” – one of the best protections against unexpected costs associated with hardware failures is an up to date warranty.
#5: “The AV system stopped updating last…” – email and the Internet are now the most used distribution methods for viruses and malware. Installed and up-to-date Anti-Virus and Malware solutions are the best protection against these threats.
#4: “When was the last time you backed up…” or “The last backup we can find is…” – tape backup is becoming increasingly impractical as the amount of data stored increases and disk-to-disk solutions with offline Internet copies are becoming more affordable. But remember, it isn’t the backup that is important, it is the restore.
#3: “How many times have you used that password….” – Internet banking, online payments, eBay, Amazon, Facebook, email. Shared passwords across systems increase the risk, and cost, that may be incurred if your password is stolen.
#2: “PII data is missing….” – Personally Identifiable Information: credit card data, social security numbers, medical records, and address lists are only a few of the types of data that can be lost through that laptop or backup tape left in the car for a few minutes. The U.S. Department of Veteran’s affairs spent a reported $160.5 million monitoring credit for 17.5 million veterans after a laptop was stolen from a single employee.
#1: ” Hackers got in through…” – ever wonder what hacking can cost? T.J. Maxx spent an estimated $20 million dollars investigating, notifying customers, and hiring lawyers when 45 million customer records were lost to a hacker attack starting from an unprotected wireless network.
Traditionally, businesses purchase hardware & software to have them available physically onsite, with all software running on company-owned machines. In the ‘traditional’ model of business, where most business was done ‘onsite,’ this worked fine. Now, with companies becoming more mobile, and with more employees and executives working out of the office, organizations are reaching toward new technologies to adapt to the more mobile environment. This is where cloud computing steps in.
So, what is Cloud Computing anyway? Cloud Computing is where both hardware & software runs on the Internet.
You may not know it, but you could very well already be using Cloud Computing. What are some ways you could already be using the cloud?
What Cloud Computing brings to the table: