Small Business IT Services: Save Money with Third-Parties

Hiring Third-Party IT Services

There are four key reasons why small businesses are hiring third-party IT support services providers right now.

1. Cost-Savings

Hiring outside IT services is often much less expensive than hiring a full-time IT staff member. With outside service providers you get to choose exactly what IT programs your company size and workload needs. That means you can decide whether you want to pay for network management, help desk support, systems security elements, server support and on-going maintenance or just a subset of these. With an IT consulting firm you get what you need when you need it and can avoid the high overhead cost of paying an employee.

2. High-Quality Service

Professional IT providers often offer a much higher quality of work than a single IT employee. A good IT consulting firm hires fully trained IT professions that are able to design and implement competitive IT systems, analyze server, desktop, and network vulnerability, and provide desktop and network support. This kind of comprehensive analysis is often more than a entry level IT manager can handle.

3. Improved Network Security

By hiring an outside IT service provider, small businesses can utilize the critical and objective assessment of an unbiased, diligent professional. Outside IT providers are often asked to thoroughly examine threats that exist outside the company and implement technologies that help protect the business from these threats. These companies' main objective is to stay on top of the latest network and system threats to make sure they are on top of securing the systems. That takes time and work that most business owners don't have on their own.

4. Peace of Mind

Probably the most honest and simplest reason small business owners are seeking out outside IT service providers is the peace of mind it can bring. An IT service provider with years of proven experience in the field and access to state-of-the-art tools will undoubtedly do a better job than an employee with a basic knowledge of internet trends and technologies. Knowing that the IT components are taken care of allows small businesses with limited resources to focus their energy on sales, customer service, project management and other income generating work.

Small business owners in any industry can find value in researching IT support services for their company. It is not vital that they understand all the components for a secure and functioning server and systems network. It is important for them to take time to find someone who does. There are professional services out there willing to help cut costs and save you time.

Source: goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=1288137

Layer Zero Server Management

It's kind of surprising in this day and age how rudimentary server management can be. Far too many IT organizations are still using pen and paper trying to keep track of which servers are attached to what applications. In short, they are using the most basic of manual processes to keep track of the equipment we use to automate every other aspect of the business environment.

The good news is that the discipline of IT service management is maturing quickly. A lot of internal IT departments are taking a page from professional IT services organizations by starting to manage their own operations like a service company. We have all kinds of IT automation tools available today to help accomplish that, but the first step along that journey is to start figuring out what server equipment is actually in place.

Turns out that may be a seemingly obvious thing to do but you might be surprised that there are not that many tools focused on the physical management of servers. In fact, Hewlett-Packard just expanded its portfolio of systems management tools to include Vista server management and monitoring tools from Aperture, which makes a set of tools that company officials say address the often overlooked "Layer Zero" aspect of server support services management.

The other side of this equation is that in this economy IT organizations are likely to find they are going to be short-handed when it comes to data center personnel. That means they need more tools to proactively monitor data center environments that are becoming more complex in the wake of virtualization and data center consolidation projects.

With the advent of blade servers and multicore processors, the challenges associated with managing servers are only going to get more difficult. But you can't really manage what you don't really know you have. And when you're dealing with hundreds of servers.

Source: blogs.eweek.com

Microsoft Rolls Out New Small Business Server Options

Microsoft has announced new server software that it said provides small and medium businesses with enterprise-quality capabilities while helping them to save money, increase productivity and grow their businesses.

While designed specifically for small and midsized companies, Windows Small Business Server 2008 (SBS 2008) and Windows Essential Business Server 2008 (EBS 2008) include Microsoft's high-end server technologies delivered in a way that smaller companies can make the most of them.

“Around the world, small and midsize businesses are the engine that drives economic growth and opportunity,” Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, said in a company statement. “To help these businesses succeed, Microsoft has focused on creating integrated, affordable server solutions that are optimized to meet the needs of companies with limited IT resources. Small Business Server and Essential Business Server deliver a comprehensive set of capabilities that will help small and midsize business thrive and grow.”

Designed for small companies with up to 75 people/computers, SBS 2008 server software integrates a variety of Windows functions to help small businesses better secure data and increase employee productivity regardless of location.

Based on Windows Server 2008 Standard technology, SBS 2008 incorporates

• Exchange Server 2007 Standard Edition for messaging and collaboration
• SharePoint Services 3.0 for online collaboration workspace and productivity tools
• Forefront Security for Exchange Server to handle e-mail security
• Windows Server Update Services 3.0 for network updates and protection
• Windows Live OneCare for Server to manage viruses, hackers and other digital threats
• Microsoft Office Live Small Business to help take your business online
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Standard for Small Business, a database available in the Premium edition

The server software offers a range of features including anytime/anywhere access to your PC and its data, including e-mail, files, business applications, and more. It's also designed to let your employees share Internet access, printers, fax machines and other network resources. Click here for SBS 2008 pricing information.

Microsoft designed EBS 2008 for midsized companies with up to 300 people or computers. It's meant to simplify and automate common IT tasks, and a unified administration console gives IT managers more control over an integrated network infrastructure.

Windows Essential Business Server 2008 also incorporates the applications found in SBS 2008, and Microsoft said it provides the following features:

• Significant costs savings compared to buying stand-alone products.
• Remote access, anti-spam, antivirus protection and improved messaging technologies improve productivity both in and away from the office
• An integrated setup saves time and reduces installation steps from days to hours Simplified licensing with a single server license and Client Access for all included products.

Steven VanRoekel, senior director of the Windows Server product group, noted that both server products help small and mid-sized companies compete in tough economic times.

"Small companies have the same needs and face the same challenges as big business, but they lack the staff, resources and time to manage IT environments," VanRoekel said. "The new EBS 2008 and SBS 2008 products are an integrated, affordable, enterprise-quality solution that can help small and midsized companies become more productive, cut costs and be more competitive." Click here for EBS 2008 pricing information

The company said that Dell, HP and IBM will offer hardware configurations that have been optimized for running SBS 2008. HP, IBM and Intel will offer blade servers designed and priced for midsized companies. The more common rack-and-tower server configurations will also be available in a range of sizes from companies such as IBM, Dell, HP and Sun Microsystems.

On the software side, Microsoft's ISVs (independent software vendors) will support both SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 with a variety of applications ranging from backup and recovery, security, business management, systems management and more.

Via: http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/biztools/article.php/3784851

Printer Server Management Options in Windows Server 2008

Windows Server 2008's print server role offers a new Print Management console. (An earlier form of the console was part of Windows Server 2003 R2.)

The Windows Server 2008 version, which is provided to the server when the print server role is added, allows you to retrieve information and the state of printers and other print servers. For clean installations, you can also use the Print Management console to install printers to client systems via Group Policy.

After installing the print server role, the Print Management console appears and offers a central view for the printers and print servers.



The Print Management console is one of the stronger features for Windows Server 2008 simply because of the deployment options of printers through Group Policy. For a printer deployed through Group Policy, the corresponding Group Policy Management configuration is shown in Figure.

As with other Group Policy configurations, it can be applied to User or Computer objects. This flexibility can avoid risky scripts or inconsistent driver situations that can result from haphazard printer deployment.

You can apply the Print Management console to a permission model for delegated control so a help desk technician could clear a queue or even deploy the printer to a client. Printer drivers can also be managed within the Print Management console, avoiding issues where unnecessary printing features complicate the support of the solution.

Source:zdnetasia.com/techguide/windows/0,39044904,62048326,00.htm

Secure Remote Desktop and Application Publishing Solution

SecureIDA delivers remote users and branch offices highly secure access to servers, applications, and desktops over economical public Internet connections – and all traffic is encrypted. This is accomplished in minutes, with near-zero complexity and rock-solid security. The SecureIDA portal provides an uncomplicated and intuitive way to add systems to the network, control who has access to these corporate resources, and for end users to instantly and effortlessly access those same resources. Systems go online instantly, and there is near-zero impact on your IT staff, and none on your users.

Unlike hardware solutions that require significant network expertise and large commitments of capital, SecureIDA is a low-cost and low-risk alternative. Beyond secure remote networking, we extend applications that were once confined to the office to anywhere on the planet, without extra software licenses or IT administration. SecureIDA can also connect mobile workers to their office desktops, keeping them continually productive. All this is accomplished without additional hardware, and without having to install any client software. You can effectively budget secure networking while meeting your internal and regulatory requirements, all without impacting your staff.

Click here to download the "Secure Remote Desktop and Application Publishing Solution"

Source: dabcc.com/downloadfile.aspx?id=328

Windows HPC Server 2008 Launched By Microsoft

Microsoft India has recently introduced its latest offering in the High Performance Computing (HPC) segment with the Release to Manufacture (RTM) of Windows HPC Server 2008. The product aims to provide an easy-to-deploy, cost-effective and scalable high-performance computing solution combining its rich, out-of-the-box functionality with the capabilities of the Windows Server platform to help enhance productivity and reduce complexity of any given HPC environment.

“The success achieved by Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 in the last few years is a strong testament of our value proposition in the High Performance Computing market. We are confident that as the successor, Windows HPC Server 2008 will help us further build on this momentum by offering an easy to deploy, cost effective and scalable HPC solution for firms to leverage their existing resources and scale from workstation to cluster, all in a familiar Windows environment,” said Pallavi Kathuria, Director, Server Business Group, Microsoft India.

Based on Windows Server 2008, the solution is designed to deliver improved productivity of systems administration and cluster interoperability by dramatically simplifying the overall deployment, administration and management over the entire system lifetime while ensuring interoperability with existing systems infrastructure.

The product will enable rapid HPC application development through integration with Visual Studio 2008 with its parallel programming environment. In addition to supporting standard interfaces such as OpenMP, multiprocessor interconnect (MPI) and Web services, the solution will also support third-party numerical library providers, performance optimizers, compilers and debugging toolkits.

In India specifically, apart from the academic space, the company has experienced a great rise in the adoption curve of its HPC solutions in commercial scenarios such as Manufacturing, BFSI and Media & Entertainment.

The HPC solution will be available to Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and computer manufacturers for final distribution. Evaluation copies of Windows HPC Server 2008 are now available for download on the company’s website.

Via:networkcomputing.in/Server-018Nov008-Microsoft-Introduces-the-Windows-HPC-Server-008.aspx

Can Windows 7 overcome Vista driver woes?

Microsoft has revealed some staggering figures showing how often driver installations fail in Vista.

Microsoft is hoping for zero hardware install problems when Windows 7 finally hits the market, but is that really realistic when more than 10% of printer drivers for Vista are still failing to work properly?

However, Microsoft's own internal evidence shows that not everything is working that well in Vista. In a presentation on how to build drivers more effectively in collaboration with Microsoft, senior program manager lead Chris Matichuk disclosed rarely-seen figures from Microsoft's own internal systems that collect data on how Vista performs, principally its Online Crash Analysis and Customer Experience Improvement Program schemes. The data, which covers attempted driver installations for Vista SP1 users during September 2008, shows that in many categories, a significant number of users are still having problems even getting their hardware to work properly.



The biggest embarrassment category is printers, where more than 10% of installations failed. For Windows 7, Microsoft is hoping its new integrated approach in Windows 7 to device management will allow more successful installations of multi-function printers, which in Vista often show up as multiple devices. However, if a tenth of them don't show up at all, there's clearly some more fundamental work to be done.

Modems, though utilised by far fewer people, were also a major source of problems, with 8.64% failing to install. (I'd hazard a guess that 3G broadband modems, which are notoriously fickle under Vista, are a big part of the problem here.)

"Typically, anything above 3% is not good," Matichuk conceded. "If you look at printers for example, we've got some gaps we need to work through."

Another major challenge for Microsoft is getting more 64-bit drivers released. 64-bit versions of Vista now account for 25% of new system sales in the US, though the global figures are much lower. The performance improvements of the 64-bit version have been somewhat offset by a lack of drivers. Microsoft's own research suggests that while 92% of 32-bit Vista systems could find core drivers in the OS or online, for 64-bit systems the figure is just 83%.

Getting vendors to agree to make drivers available through Windows Update had also proved a time consuming process, and one that doesn't always succeed. Currently for Vista, there are more than 8,000 messages in place in Windows Update pointing users to third-party sources because the drivers can't be incorporated into Microsoft's own update technology. "We're continuing to add approximately 50 a week," Matichuk said.

Despite those challenges, Matichuk remains hopeful that driver nirvana can be reached. "Imagine that once the OS gets released right out of the box, devices just work. We need to nail this for Windows 7."

The most crucial moment for achieving that goal may have already passed, though. Matichuk suggested that drivers included as part of Microsoft's Inbox program, and thus in the core OS at installation, would already need to be present in the pre-beta in order to ensure widespread compatibility. "Ultimately, you need those drivers into the beta build." Other device manufacturers could ensure a successful installation by making their drivers online via Windows Update, he said.

Source: apcmag.com/can_windows_7_overcome_vista_driver_woes.htm