Mike's Ark: Finding the Right Boatwright

Oooh fancy old word, Boatwright, eh?  Just means boat-builder.   Now since I started with the Data Deluge, I'm sticking with this motif of IT as Noah's Ark.  In this case it's MY Ark...since I'm doing the writing. :)

Finding the Right Boatwright is not about finding the right IT person who will do whatever his bosses tell him.  If you wanted a robot you'd build one...wait, what do you mean you can't build your own robot?  Seriously, what a company needs is not a guy who does what people need him to do, he does what is best for the company.  Those who are the best Boatwrights plan their boats out...even if they have a small one to start with, they know it's going to have to be bigger...and plan for it.

So, for the IT person, that means that yea, you're going to need to start planning for the long game.  Even if you're doing crazy amounts of break-fix, as-needed work, you have to plan a way out of that continuing to be the norm where you are.  If your boards on your ship are warping continually, you don't keep fixing them and complaining that they break or warp more a week or two later.  You get good wood to make sure you have a quality ship!

"Well Mike, I don't know how to make a sail properly...all of my boats have been rowboats before this...guess I'll have to buy a manual to figure this out."  No, you don't!  Here's what I am driving at...you don' t know everything, and neither do I.  When you want something done right, you hire a consultant to get it done right.  This is what I and PCM excel at every day...helping you find the solutions you need...and if not a product you can install, a person to help you plan & execute it.  If we were talking and you told me that you knew nothing about Sails (Cloud Backup) but you know that it's the wave of the future and you want to get into it soon, I'd say, "Well Fred, one of my good friends at Barracuda is an expert on that and we can help you get done what you want to do."  That should make you quite happy that I know who to talk to for you, right?

That's a part of being a good Shipwright for your IT Vessel.  Knowing who to talk to, so you can get the help you want and need.  So start thinking of me as your ship foreman, and let me help you get this going!

New Networking Webinar!

Howdy folks!

A nice little event for you to take a look at.  Dell Sonicwall has a history of great products, and hearing what they have to say is worth your time. :)

Mike's Ark: The Data Deluge

Two years ago, I received a message from a client that read, "Mike, dammit man, we need to build some kind of Data Ark!  I was measuring out our data increases, and by 2013, we'll be growing 80% a year!!"

Goofy yes...but that's  how that client is.  He had a serious point, the "Data Deluge" that I'm talking about and that Robert Scheier over at Computerworld is talking about (he reminded me of that email) is starting.  With businesses growing at a rate of 50-80% a year, and having to save that data for nearly forever, storage space is at a premium.

Even with data deduplication, some organizations that store video, graphics or music, still have massive amounts of data to store...don't even get me started on email.  (My PST file is currently 5 gb and growing...AND I use a data vault program too! lol)  Now is the time for you and your company to take a look at how your data is being backed up and stored.  Sometimes the old way with Tape will work, but the restoration time will cause your beard/leg hairs to grow out to gigantic proportions.  Cloud backup really has earned a place too...backup your data onsite, and pay someone else to maintain and store the rest of your data too, right?

I've had a lot of good experiences with Barracuda and their device/cloud backup plan.  These start as low as 200gb, go up to 40TB, and also the ability to purchase an unlimited amount of storage online. (Or by amounts of 200gb.)  You can see those products here, and a datasheet here.  Now there are others like Mozy, Druva and Symantec's device backup...but personally I think what Barracuda has is what growing businesses need.

Let me know what you think...I"m always open to hearing your thoughts on these kinds of issues.  What have you done?  What do you want to do?  Can I use my industry contacts to help you?  (Um yes, yes I can.)

Let's chat. :)

 

Meraki: Detecting and Containing Rogue DCHP

Oooooh...sounds technical right?  It is. :)

So rather than explain it myself, I'd like for you guys to jump over to the most recent Meraki blog to take a look see.  Right...pretty technical yet important.   Now for those of you who don't have the ambulative power to click a link, in the immortal words of Inigo Montoya from Princess Bride..."Let me 'splain...no, too difficult...let me sum up."

Basically your DCHP controls who gets what IP address when logging into a network.  If that process is ever corrupted, that can cause all kinds of networking/internet/information relay issues for those on the network.  Then if a rogue device gets itself hooked into your network at that level, the phrase "security breach" will seem like a eyedropper amount of water spilled.

With Meraki's tools, you're easily able to spot intruders like this, and contain them with a few clicks.  Nice eh?  Wait, you haven't tried using their products?  Did you know if you take a webinar with them, you can have a free enterprise wireless unit to check out how their products work...yes, you get to keep it.

Ionic Liquids and the Future

I had to read this article a couple of times when I first saw it.  While I am not a scientist, I do have an understanding of how microchips are made, and how they operate.  This article is not for everyone, but it DOES show us a glimpse into the future.

The Future, you say?   Yes...understand this: In years to come, we are going to have to move away from silicon products for computers...because of Moore's Law.  We will have to make things smaller and smaller...and this ionic liquid will enable us to change a material's state from conductive to insulating...on a microscopic level.  Scary and exciting stuff.

While this is only research for now, the potentials are amazing to think about.

New Printer Deals up on Dragontech!

Howdy folks!  Have some new printer deals from our partner (and my good buddy Arturo there) up here at Dragontech.  HUGE price drops for you (the prices are cheaper on the deals page), and a win for you to save money on needed printers!  Here are some pictures, but you need to jump over to the deals page and check out what's available!

R.I.P Google Reader...what's next?

I think many of us were a little traumatized by the eventual loss of Google Reader, which is coming when Google does their annual "Spring Cleaning" of apps that aren't making them any money or marketshare...aka July 1.

There are those who call RSS an outdated service, but many blogs and other websites exist off of it (including this one).  I still have sites and webcomics who are aggregated through Google Reader (since Google pushed the RSS deal back in the day)...and I feel like that guy who just lost his apartment, living out of his car...when it comes to this.

What's on the horizon you ask?  Well there is a way to pull your feed list from Reader and then take it to another free service.  Or there is my new favorite way to get news, Feedly.  A great little app and site that lets me take what I am interested in and manage those newsfeeds much like you manage items on Flipboard.  A more graphical service yes...but this is what happens when you have to pander to the lowest common denominator.  I don't say that to be mean, but the average person has little concept of what a newsreader still is, and wouldn't know what to do with one if they had it.  However, with Windows 8 news app, and the various news apps on iOS and Android, they already have one for one service.

What can I use if I don't want to move forward in time?  Well Caveman Sam, here's what you can do.  Mashable has a good list which includes my favorite Feedly as well.   You can also check out Netvibes, which you'll have to fiddle with a bit to get where you want it to be, but it looks good too.

OR...you can play with the new Google Keep.  You know...a notebook.  (I already have Evernote...do we need this?)

CA ARCserve - now supporting...

What?  I'm not going to give it all away in the subject line!  What kind of expository writer do you think I am?  I cut my teeth in fiction and dagnabbit, I'm going to make this a little more dramatic if I can! :)

Ok you're still reading, that's good. :)

So now CA ARCserve now supports MS Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8!  See...that was worth the hyperbole and wait.  CA ARCserve r16.5 expands virtual server data protection & disaster recovery capabilities.  Now with Windows 8 and MS Server 2012 under their belt, combined with other enahncements across their file backup, image backup, replication and high availability products, they have an even stronger award-winning product to protect your data.

Enough of the fluff right?  Basically what I find great about ARCserve is its ability to reduce system downtime...because while being able to restore is great, it's that frustratingly large restore window that kills you.  Their remote virtual standby is great as well...which for lack of a time to explain it all, creates remote policies that has recovery points from either D2D or Host Based VM Backup, which can automatically be replicated across a WAN or LAN and then converted into virtual machines within Hyper-V or VMware hypervisors.

Alright...that was a mouthful.  But if you're interested, let's have a chat about it! :)

 

 

 

Mondopad - King of Conference Rooms

You all know me...I almost never goggle over products.  Then today our awesome InFocus rep happened to be in the office showing off their Mondopad.  I heard him say it, and chuckled at the name, but went over to his table for a look-see.  Total jaw-dropping surprise.  Not only is this an amazing conference room tool...but this is exactly what we have been wanting in offices and homes for 50 years of technology.  Note there is a 55" model and a 70" model. Wow!

What is it?  My words will not do it justice...take a look at this video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bgY-mBXZsDA

Everything you have in a PC and tablet, in a conference room screen.  Heck, these can be controlled by laptops and tablets too!  So now the nuts and bolts of the specs...

Aspect Ratio (Supported)	4:3, 5:4, 16:9, 16:10
Resolution (Native)	1080p (1920 x 1080)
Picture-in-Picture	SBS/4 Quadrant PiP
Refresh Rate	60 Hz
Touch Screen	Multi-touch touch screen system with support for 2 touch and Windows 7 gesturing; Glass protection overlay for LCD surface
Active Area (h x w)	47.6 x 26.8 in. (1209 x 681 mm)
Diagonal Size	55" LCD
Number of Colors	1.07 billion
Projection Presets	Presentation, Video, Bright, User
Split Screen	Yes
Surface Treatment	Anti-Glare Coating
Aspect Ratio (Native)	16:9
Viewing Angle (h / v)	89° / 89°
Video Compatibility	Full NTSC, 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p (60, 30, 24Hz)

Pretty amazing stuff right?  What's the price you ask?  Well retail pricing is a little over $6000.  However, if you're interested in this, call your rep here...we can bring that price down. :)

Any questions?

New DragonTech Deals today!

I have updated the Deals Page with new deals for March.

More to come when I have more time! :)

PCM/NSPI ranked #3 in Managed Services

Good morning!

According to MSPmentor, the ultimate guide to managed services, PCM (NSPI is our managed services division internal) is ranked #3 out of the top 200 managed services in North America.

You can see it right here.

I've had some experience with PCM's managed services division, and these folks know how to take care of your service needs.  Whether it be email hosting/migration, data center hosting in our SAS70 Type 2 data centers, new Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings that include Microsoft Hosted Communication Services plus Technology-as-a-Service (TaaS) solutions for virtual servers, storage and network services to help reduce up-front capital costs and provide flexibility as your business needs evolve.

Pretty neat eh?   So, how can we help you with your hosting needs? :)

 

(With thanks to my friend George Franklin in PCM's Montreal offices.)

Amazing mouse! :D

This is a repost of information as this product nears the end of it's Kickstart.  You should join in now! :)

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Normally we really focus on what will affect your lives in IT.  It could be new software or server tech...down to how to better manage your networking time (coughMERAKIcough).  This time around, I was jumping around on Kickstarter this past week looking for new game projects to help fund, and I found this amazing thing:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DpcQlkbZUM&w=560&h=315]

Tell me that doesn't look amazing.  I think the jury is out on if it will help us carpal tunnel sufferers, but the ability to not have to move back and forth from the keyboard to the mouse so much just SCREAMS productivity.

Right now you can help Kickstart the project, for $79 and receive one of the units after the kickstarter goes through and they get them made.  Worth it.  I think this one is coming out of my bonus money. :)

Leads me to ask...what kind of innovations are you all interested in seeing?

EU Fines Microsoft $730 million!

No other way to say it...OUCH.  Today the European Union fined Microsoft $730 million for breaking a 2009 anti-trust agreement.  What that means is that back in 2009, Microsoft agreed to put a "browser ballot box" in every copy of Windows, so nobody was forced to use Internet Explorer.  (Because you know, it is SO difficult to find Firefox, Chrome, Opera or that Apple stuff.)

Due to a technical error, the service pack for Win 7 removed that option back in July, putting MS out of compliance with the regulation.  I find it pretty ironic that one of the largest companies chasing down people out of compliance with its software regulations was in the same boat for a change.  However, $730 million dollars is only 3% of Microsoft's profit for 2012, so I don't think they're worried. ;)

 

Doh!

Hard to be a one man band...

Hi folks!  Sorry it's been so long since my last post.  I didn't forget everyone...but my clients who need things kinda have to come first...and last month was quite busy at the end.  Thanks to many of our readers here, I had the best and busiest month here at PCM since I started back in 2008. :)

I will get us back on track starting today, and I"m going to do a better job of backlogging articles to make sure we get at least 3-4 posts up a week.  I may even bring in some guest bloggers, so if you're interested in commenting on technology today, let me know...we'd love to have you help out. :)

Look for some more today and tomorrow!