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How LANDesk Can Help With PC Security

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Now LANDesk Security Suite allows you to minimize network downtime and protect critical data, by almost instantaneously implementing security patches by using its active single console security management system. Utilize antivirus enforcement, quarantine, threat remediation, computer access restriction and more, to take complete control of endpoint security.

Stop Unprotected and or Infected Systems from Connecting

Now you can stop unprotected and or infected systems from connecting to your network system and also simultaneously provide protection for your business resources from connected systems that become infected while using your systems by way of “Trusted Access Technology” by LANDesk.

Patented Gateway Technology Only With LANDesk Solutions

You will only find Management Gateway Technology with LANDesk solutions. With this patented technology you can effectively manage your systems security on the Internet and by the way, this also includes users outside the parameters of your firewall in remote locations on the Internet. It allows you to quickly and expediently execute antivirus enforcement, patch antispyware and perform security threat management and block applications.

Easy and Simple Internet Connection

What’s more, virtually all Gateway technology contained in LANDesk is implemented by way of an easy and simple Internet connection. Understand that this means that no VIP or dedicated lease line is required. It really doesn’t get more simple and effective than that.

But Wait! – There’s Even More

Also high frequency and standard vulnerability scanning allows you to expediently identify application patch, OS and antivirus needs contingent entirely on your on your own level of needs and detail. A threat analyzer allows you to accurately identify configuration risks. Also custom scans allow users to define the exact conditions that were scanned for.

Gourd Your Systems in Real Time

With LANDesk Security Suites antispyware you can guard your systems in real time and it’s the result of the LANDesk data-base of key loggers, Trojans and other various malware. LANDesk technology also allows you to contain access to your network only to IP addresses, authorized networks and block communication with specific networks and controlled access to disc drives, ports and modems and communication channels.

Contained Antivirus Measures

Contained anti-virus measures allow you to manage your McAfee, Sophos, Norton, Trend-Micro or Symantec antivirus solution directly from your LANDesk Security Suite console. Additionally, you also have the option of enabling and configuring an XP 2 firewall from the console as well.

Assess Patch Needs and OS Applications

Assess patch needs and OS applications with the assistance of LANDesk Security Suites extended patch management. Also expediently research automatic patch distribution and maintenance. Also Targeted Multicast technology contained allows you to expedite patch deployments to multiple targets, while at the same time minimizing bandwidth required for total network traffic. All this with no required router or hardware reconfiguration.

Maintain Perfect & Secure Configurations

Keep and maintain perfect secure configurations with LANDesk Suite’s roll based policy based and administration tools. With them it is only you and you alone who can change your corporate security guidelines and policies with baseline configuration capabilities. Its reporting capabilities also include spyware reports, security policy and trend graphs. Also the LANDesk Executive Dashboard allows IT executives a clear and simple graphic perspective of all that is important in a business.

Chris Tyrrell writes for Pangea Systems Ltd who offer Landesk security suite solutions to business throughout the world. Visit the website for more details.

Great Plains Version 10.0: Advancing Microsoft Dynamics Gp Integration With Office & Vista

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If you have just implemented Microsoft Great Plains 10.0, you probably got it as something coming naturally with the ERP product. For users, who are familiar and using Great Plains since earlier versions, such as 6.0, 7.0, 7.5, 8.0 and even 9.0 – change in user interface is visible and probably significant. If you are using newest version of Microsoft Office 2007 or Vista OS – then you can recognize GP interface similarities, when for old version user learning curve is expected. Let’s take a look at some examples:

1. Forward & Backward buttons. Look at Home, Financial, Purchasing, Sales series on the left side of the navigation pane – if you click on one of those then Backward button will become available to go back. These are Vista and MS Office 2007 features and looks like Microsoft is deploying similar design in Microsoft Dynamics family of MRP products

2. No Toolbar, only drop down menus. Old good days Great Plains had concept of Toolbar, which was just below menu line. Versions 10,0 and 9.0 do not have it anymore and you will use drop down menu instead

3. Challenge for GP Dexterity programmer. If you are Microsoft Dexterity programmer, this might mean nightmare for you to imitate GP 10.0 graphical interface, however you always have the alternative to appeal to old GP interface without modern graphic to give your GP users workable custom logic. You should also imagine how much work was done by Microsoft Business Solutions Dexterity Development and GP new version creation team to make these changes happen

4. Microsoft Outlook plug-in. It might be something raising questions – why do we need Outlook to be incorporated in GP interface directly as we could have it with our Workstations? Seriously, we expect real work around to be considered when you deploy Citrix server or servers farm, where MS Office plug-in is probably not overly desirable

5. GP Reporting. If you are using old-good-days SOP blank invoice form to print our your sales invoices, you can relax and feel comfortable as RerpotWriter Dex reports are still and so far and maybe longer there and available. Besides Report Writer, you should get the trend that custom reports might be created in Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services or SRS module

6. Upgrading to GP 10.0 or currently latest version as of January 2008. If you are on GP 8.0 or 9.0, you should apply GP 10.0 Service Pack 1, released in mid-November 2007, prior to launching Great Plains Utilities to do upgrade work

7. GP 10.0 new security model. Security was redesigned from scratch in 10.0 and it is not compatible with earlier versions, including 9.0. If you plan to upgrade GP from earlier versions you should consider security rights reimplementation, and as temporary solution you could rely on security migration procedure. Known issue here – you should eliminate spaces from the location of GP 10.0 workstation directory

Andrew Karasev, Alba Spectrum Group, http://www.albaspectrum.com help@albaspectrum.com 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918. Serving GP customers in Illinois, Texas, California, Florida, Wisconsin, New York, Michigan and USA and Canada nation wide via remote support. Our service is popular in USA country side, where you do not expect local consultants to be available and we cover the whole country with travel onside with initial user training – then we typically save your budget by convenient remote support, as we already are familiar with your key IT and accounting personnel. Local service is available in Chicago, Houston, Naperville, Oakbrook, Wheaton, Joliet, Plainfield, Aurora, Elgin, Springfield, Morris, Ottawa, LaSalle, Channahon, Brookfield, Villa Park, Downers Grove, Lisle, Hinsdale, Lincolnwood, Zion, Kankakee, Braidwood, Niles.

Boosting Your Career With Microsoft Office

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It’s difficult to remember a time when the workplace was not dominated by the desktop computer. With 90% of the world’s computers now installed with Microsoft Office many employers require at least a basic familiarity with this suite of software packages, so whether you are using Word, Excel or PowerPoint for the first time or thinking about enhancing your current skills in Access or Outlook, exploring Microsoft Office as much as possible adds immense value to your career prospects.


The Microsoft Office collection of software packages presents the user with a daunting array of tools which can bewilder the beginner but still surprise the advanced user with a new shortcut or easier way of doing things.


Whatever your ability, a taught course can vastly improve your awareness of these tools and equip you with marketable skills that will make you a valuable asset in the workplace and give you a competitive advantage in the job market. For example, learning how to reformat a PowerPoint presentation according to a company style not only asserts the company brand but makes an immediate aesthetic impact on a client; often the icing on the cake to sealing an important deal. Similarly, typing your first CV in Word and knowing how to apply one of the built-in templates will make your work look consistently professional, illustrate your technical skills and thereby impress a potential employer, adding to your chances of an interview.


Microsoft Office is an extensive toolkit allowing you to create bespoke solutions to almost any project you can think of. You simply have to know where the tools are kept and how to use them.


Email is now an essential communication tool throughout the world and the Microsoft Office email client – Outlook – is widely used. Even if you have only vaguely heard of email and never sent one, or you are able to set rules in Outlook to filter messages into different folders, Microsoft Office is always evolving and there is always something new to learn.


Whether building corporate presentations in PowerPoint, running queries in Access, designing scenarios in Excel or learning how to use tabs in Word, a greater familiarity with these packages increases your productivity, enables you to manage your workload more effectively and makes you a more valuable asset to your employer. At the same time your organisational skills will improve by the calendar facilities and task priority flags in Outlook while knowing how to forward your work emails and access them from home will allow you to respond more swiftly to developing situations than others.


Simply put, the reliance on Microsoft Office these days is such that the more you know the more valuable an employee you are.


So whether you are exploring Microsoft Office for the first time, trying to devise a solution to a specific problem or simply wanting to get the most you can out of these individual software packages, a taught course in any of these packages at a level to suit you is an excellent investment in your career. Microsoft Office has transformed the workplace and it can transform your career as well.

Author is a trainer with a Microsoft training company, the market leader in its industry. For more information Microsoft Office training courses, please visit http://www.microsofttraining.net

Getting A Job With Help From Microsoft Office

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Getting a new job can often be just as challenging and stressful as being employed! When job hunting, you have a large number of contacts to keep track of, CVs and covering letters to write, interviews to prepare for and appointments to keep. Learning how to use Microsoft Office applications to improve this process will help you become more organised and well prepared, giving you a real advantage over other applicants.


Job Applications

If you use Microsoft Word, creating your CV and covering letters need not be a time consuming task. Template documents can be quickly and easily prepared, and these can then be simply amended for specific job applications. The array of formatting options available can be used to give your documents an individual and professional look. Basic templates for these documents are available so that you can avoid the daunting prospect of having to start with a blank page.


Microsoft Outlook has far more to offer than its main use as an e-mail application. The calendar, task and contact management parts of the program enable the contact details of prospective employers, together with details of any appointments and interviews that have been arranged, to be stored and managed in one central location.


Interviews

It is increasingly common to be required to undertake some sort of presentation as part of the interview process. The nature of such presentations and the amount of research and preparation required will vary depending on the nature of the job. In all cases the quality with which the information is presented will be key. Hand drawn overhead projector slides or typed out handouts are no longer acceptable. Having knowledge of Microsoft PowerPoint allows you to create clear, easy to read slides that can include charts, photos and graphics. Not only will these be a great aid in getting your message across but they demonstrate your professionalism and make you stand out from the crowd.

However, remember to keep it simple. Nobody likes ‘death by powerpoint’.


Demonstrating Skills

Acquiring and developing new skills is a great way to make your CV shine above others. Most people will say they have some knowledge of the various Microsoft Office applications but providing proof of your proficiency demonstrates this fact. The Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certification is an internationally recognised qualification that provides proof of the user’s competency in a range of Microsoft Office skills. Obtaining such qualifications makes you much more marketable.


Conclusion

Using the various Microsoft Office applications can be of great help throughout the process of applying for and obtaining the job you are seeking. By aiding and improving the management of contact details and information, combined with improved quality of submitted or presented material, Microsoft Office simplifies the process and greatly increases your chances of success.


These skills can be obtained by taking online E-learning courses or by attending instructor-led Microsoft training courses offered by certified companies.

Author is a MS Office trainer with a Microsoft Office training company, the market leader in its industry. For more information on Microsoft Office training courses and MOS examinations, please visit www.microsofttraining.net

Improve Cash Management Capabilities With Microsoft Dynamics Gp 10.0

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Better cash management is a key driver of better financial outcomes and a condition of survival for small and growing companies. In today’s demanding economic environment, powerful and adaptable business finance software is a necessary tool for managing business outcomes, and an outgrown accounting system is a dangerous liability.

Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 Financial Management module provides a flexible and functionally rich cash management capability that saves time and money and is fully integrated with the GP 10.0 platform. It lets financial managers make decisions that are based on information that is accurate, complete, and current. The application’s high adaptability makes it possible to proactively manage critical areas of cash management, including cash flow, collections, bank reconciliation, receivables, and payables.

Cash Flow Management enables timely monitoring of inflows and outflows on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis in user-friendly, calendar-based interface. GP integration with other Microsoft accounting and office software makes it possible to:

• Access business-critical information quickly, with clear, customizable views and extensive drill-down capabilities;

• Optimize ?nancial decision making with forecasts based on what-if scenarios that can incorporate information from other integrated Microsoft GP applications, posted and unposted transactions, and different opening balances; and

• Predict and understand anticipated cash ?ow to identify any shortfalls and surpluses, make smarter investment decisions, and improve day-to-day ?nancial planning.

Collections Management improves cash ?ow and reduces bad debt expense with centralized customer information management, automated tracking for overdue payments, and targeted delivery of collections notices that reach the right customers at the right time. It enables the company to

• Reduce bad debt expense by centralizing customer contact and collection functions and targeting overdue accounts;

• Minimize administrative workload for collections by automating correspondence, e-mail, statements, and invoices for customers, freeing staff resources for other tasks;

• Increase sales productivity by feeding collection contact notes and other customer details back to the sales force; and

• Improve cash ?ow with streamlined, customizable, and highly ef?cient collections
activities.

Bank Reconciliation is enhanced by managing banking transactions through a single, automated intersection. All bank-related activities for the business ?ow back to Bank Reconciliation from across the Microsoft accounting software, making it easy to maintain tight control of mission-critical financial information and processes. GP 10 integration provides a system to:

• Reduce administrative costs and improve ROI with streamlined processes and
intuitive tools for reconciling multiple accounts on a regular basis;
• Speed up transaction entry and processing with ?exible defaults, customizable views, and intuitive tools for reconciling multiple accounts on a regular basis; and

• Help ensure accountability with complete transaction tracking, “point-in time” checkbook balance inquiries, and full audit trail reports.

Receivables Management helps maintain tight control over Accounts Receivable by providing the capabilities to easily and quickly track invoices, process receipts, and analyze customer activity to manage sales more effectively and achieve lower overhead costs. This component of GP 10 business finance software offers a flexible and integrated approach to:

• Improve cash flow by providing access to vital information needed to make more effective business decisions using comprehensive reporting capabilities and straightforward customer account and sales performance tracking;

• Enhance customer service levels and increase retention with customized information history, and notes that are easily accessible when working with customers; and

• Reduce administrative costs and increase office productivity with automated receipt processing and posting, and personalized statement cycles that fit the company’s customers and business.

Payables Management provides significantly improved control over payables and the ability to manage expenses more effectively with comprehensive vendor information, payment scheduling and tracking, and up-to-the-minute answers to current cash flow status questions. Its versatility enables the payables function to:

• Manage vendors effectively, save time, and improve efficiency by streamlining vendor information for instant recall of billing, payment discounts, and other information any time it is needed;

• Enhance productivity by reducing overhead costs and empowering employees with automated
payment vouchers and scheduling, customized documents, and intuitive transaction entry;

• Keep vital information accessible by finding the information needed to make better business decisions with easy-to-use inquiry tools and windows, along with a comprehensive
suite of reports that make it possible to accurately analyze accounts payable activities; and

• Simplify expense allocation by deferring payments or costs over multiple periods with
automatically managed calculations and journal entries customized to fit business needs.

With its rich functionality, high adaptability, and innovative design, Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 and its Cash Management module bring to growing businesses a powerful time and money saving business finance software tool that does it all. The GP10 integrated approach to linking with other Microsoft accounting and office software provides financial managers the means to ensure that the right people are getting the right information at the right time to meet business goals.

About Integrity Partners
At Integrity Partners we believe that the success of your accounting software solution begins with choosing a knowledgeable partner. Our expertise extends way beyond the implementation phase of a new solution. We are so committed to providing the highest level of quality service to our customers that the owners of Integrity Partners are “hands on” managers of every project. Allow us to share our enterprise resource planning (ERP) expertise with you. For more information on Microsoft Dynamics-GP 10.0, please visit Integrity Partners online at https://www.integritymbs.com or call 888.869.4090 ext 701.

At Integrity Partners we believe that the success of your accounting software solution begins with choosing a knowledgeable partner. Our expertise extends way beyond the implementation phase of a new solution. We are so committed to providing the highest level of quality service to our customers that the owners of Integrity Partners are “hands on” managers of every project. Allow us to share our enterprise resource planning (ERP) expertise with you. For more information on Microsoft Dynamics-GP 10.0, please visit Integrity Partners online at https://www.integritymbs.com” target=”_blank”>www.integritymbs.com”>https://www.integritymbs.com or call 888.869.4090 ext 701.

Microsoft Plans Surgical Strike on the E-space With Its New Browser Plugin

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Microsoft is yet again toying with the idea of surrogate marketing, by launching the Silverlight (SL), the medium they exploited to topple Netscape in the 1990’s with the Internet Explorer browser. Silverlight is a browser plugin or software for playing media files and other Web applications that work on Windows and Macintosh with Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari browsers. SL will be able to display interactive animations, graphics, audio and video streaming within a fixed window of the particular Web browser display.

Microsoft had tied up with National Broadcasting Company (NBC) to provide hours and hours of free video streaming of recently concluded Olympic events live from China. The new offering of Silverlight after two years of testing is shoved upon to every user who came online to watch the live coverage of the event. Though there are some initial glitches like prompting the user to re- install SL who already have had it in the system, Microsoft’s intentions are wide and clear.

Even though live coverage is confined to the US web users currently, when it becomes available for everyone, it is likely to cause serious damage to the competitors. With the new offering many of the less popular events were available free to watch, but popular and higher viewership events had been with a price tag attached to it. However, the sidelined events by the television channels got better exposure as it was free of charge. With higher bit rate streaming effects, the Olympics were made a visual treat for web users even while working in their offices.

Even if someone is not intend on using Silverlight or not yet installed it can use Windows Media Player (WMP) for non-live viewing. A partnership with Novell will offer a version for Linux users as well. In the near future, one can even expect mobile version of the SL in Windows Mobile and Nokia Smart phones.

But the market analysts view these developments differently; they are rather reminded of the federal anti-trust legal battle in which Microsoft was penalized for misusing its market spread unscrupulously to promote its own browser developer to gain control over the Web world. During early 1990’s Netscape Navigator had the monopoly over the browsing world, but in 1995, Microsoft annihilated Netscape by packing free Internet Explorer browser with its Windows Operating System.

In real time, Microsoft is understood to have plans of upsetting the apple cart of Adobe who has the most popular and sophisticated Flash media player which is widely used for streaming interactive content, video and audio files. It is common knowledge that majority of internet surfers use Flash to stream videos and other related files. Currently, WMP of Microsoft and Quicktime from Apple have negligible presence in the e-space in terms of usage and application. This is the space, Microsoft is eying through its latest offering of media player. At a glance, Silverlight seemed to be a clone of Flash, yet insiders argue, it’s still early days to be judgmental about the plugin, and Microsoft’s intentions.


But prima facie, if Microsoft were to project SL in its forthcoming version of operating system, it would definitely position the company to topple yet another software giant Adobe in the months to come. Nevertheless, Microsoft countered the argument by stating that it was part of company’s continued effort and commitment to provide innovative and compatible products to their operating system.

 

Want to read more International Business News? Visit the b2b directory at http://www.toboc.com

Learn the Top Reasons Behind Poor Performance & Availability With Microsoft Exchange

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As a professional, your clients know they can depend on you, and that you are there for them. But what happens when your technology is not there for you? Imagine you are on the phone with your client, telling him with great pride that at long last the document he has been waiting for is complete. While you chat, you attach the document to an email, send it off…and wait.

And wait. The email is no longer in your outbox and not in his inbox. You double-check the email address, and as the conversation becomes more and more awkward, you assure the client that the document really does exist and there really was an email sent. He is frustrated and you are at a complete loss. You decide you cannot wait any longer and switch to your personal Hotmail account to resend the document, which may or may not work immediately either. The result is wasted time, and if you switched email systems, you no longer have a cohesive record of the exchange.

Your system administrator will list a number of reasons why this incident happened, reasons that are beyond his control:

  • Junk mail folders

  • Anti-virus systems

  • User errors

  • Bottlenecks in the Internet that day

The real reasons may actually run much deeper, which means that this lost email will not be an isolated incident.

Lost Emails Mean Lost Opportunities

Consumers, accustomed to fast responses through websites, are quickly losing their tolerance for slow email responses. Evidence of this can be seen through a recent study by the WAV Group, who claims in the real estate industry, the first agent to respond to a customer email inquiry has a 73% chance of securing the business. The third to respond has virtually no chance.[1] Similarly, a study conducted by Vodafone released in December of 2008 estimates that lost opportunities due to failures to reply promptly to email messages cost businesses approximately $27,000 a year.[2]

What about email that goes missing entirely? This summer Apple Corp admitted to “losing” 10% of their MobileMe subscribers email between July 16th and July 18th.[3] A wave of blog posts have popped up as a result of this problem, with subscribers making claims of everything from lost job opportunities to lost business. We tend to view email as a low cost service, yet clearly when it fails, the costs can be startling. Apple would only remark that the problem was due to a “serious issue.” So what exactly does happen to these wayward email messages, delayed or lost?

The truth is there are dozens of potential reasons for email delivery delays and errors. With complex business-grade email systems, like Microsoft® Exchange and Lotus Notes, there are many ways to build and configure a system. Some conform to the highest standards, while others barely meet the minimum requirements. With very little effort, you can determine whether your system had been adequately configured to suit your needs.

High Availability

As the name implies, High Availability is a system or network that is operational, or available, with a high degree of certainty and frequency. Ceryx, a Hosted Exchange provider, has made high-availability one of their primary focuses. With data centers in New York and Toronto, they have developed various technologies to replicate all messaging data in real-time and can fail over to the secondary facility in the event of catastrophe, allowing them to provide a real 100% SLA. While most providers tend to choose between high availability and high performance, all of Ceryx’s Microsoft Exchange deployments have been built to meet the highest standard of availability uptime without sacrificing performance.

One benchmark for testing an application provider’s performance is to log in to the webmail application and switch from the email view to the calendar view. Pick a folder with lots of messages in it and try sorting by “sender” and then clicking through the various pages. If there is a noticeable delay between these actions then your application provider’s performance may not be adequate.

A system’s availability is determined by numerous factors, each of which is examined below.

Architecture

Delays are often a result of high server RPC latency. RPC, or Remote Procedure Call, is how the Outlook client or the Outlook Web Access client (OWA) communicates with the Exchanger servers. RPC latency refers to the delay between initiating a request and its completion. RPC latency, as seen from the client, is a combination of networking latency and server latency. For good performance, the Microsoft guideline is 50ms average latency on the mailbox servers.[4] If mailbox server RPC latency averages much higher than this, the desktop user can experience “pop-ups” and warnings about problems with the connection from Outlook to the Exchange server. In the background, inbound and outbound email is not being processed as the system tries to catch up with other requests. Excessive “pop-ups” can become more than just an irritant; they can slow down a PC to the point of being unusable while Outlook tries to establish a connection to the server.

Ceryx aims to maintain an RPC rate 20ms or less. To do this, they have avoided the tendency of many providers who built their systems with less expensive virtualized environments and network attached storage. Instead Ceryx has invested in server clusters and high-end SANs (Storage Area Networks) at each of their data centers. SANs provide disk access performance, as well as redundancy through RAID configurations and fibre channel connectivity to the mailbox servers.

Many providers, in an effort to reduce costs, combine the Client Access Server and the Hub Transport Server (servers used to facilitate email delivery) on a single physical machine. This dual role can introduce latency at times of peak usage and throttle the ability to handle large outbound mail queues. Ceryx has engineered the Hub Transport role to ensure message queues can be quickly cleared even during periods of heavy load. By combining multiple, dedicated physical Hub Transport servers with the built-in round-robin load balancing capabilities of Exchange 2007, messages are quickly distributed to their destination on the internet. For legitimate email, hardware load balancing is used to ensure optimal performance of the critical Hub Transport role, which processes every single message that passes through the system.

Monitoring

Most hardware load balancing configurations can achieve both high performance and high availability; however, to sustain high performance and high availability – with a dynamic system like a Hosted Exchange deployment, where usage and load can vary dramatically – you must have an advanced monitoring system and the processes in place to scale the system in response to constantly changing variables.

Some providers install generic monitoring packages that tend to monitor every single metric available, whether the metrics provide meaningful insight to system performance or not. With Ceryx, every aspect of the environment from key metrics around SAN queue length through to standard metrics like CPU utilization and memory usage are closely monitored, trended, and understood. This information is used to develop highly accurate forecasting and scheduled system scaling. Any provider who has not invested in such monitoring tools and resources will just react to spikes in usage and load. Ceryx plans for them.

Breathing Room

Another major reason for email delays and poor performance can again be attributed to basic economics. A “store” is the unique databases for storing messaging data. With Microsoft Exchange 2007 Enterprise, there is a limit of 50 stores per server, with a Microsoft recommended limit of 200 GB for each store. Some providers will try to maximize the number of customers they can support by pushing these limits. Ceryx does the opposite. Ceryx maintains a maximum of 50 GB per store – one quarter of the maximum – in order to deliver the best raw database performance and protect against data corruption, common with larger stores. With these hard restrictions in place, it’s difficult to imagine how some providers – who offer mailboxes up to 4GB – are able to run a sustainable business and maintain high performance and availability.

IOPS

Economics may also drive another cause of poor performance: IOPS, a measurement of the number of times data can be written and read to disk per second, can vary widely per system. With Microsoft Exchange, IOPS capacity is directly related to performance and a heavy user can use up to 1 IOPS under certain circumstances. Each disk has a maximum number of IOPS it can support, so a careful ratio of users per array of disks is essential to maintain decent performance.

Ceryx is careful to maintain a generous ratio of IOPS per user based on real-world metrics monitored from its large user base, taking into consideration peak activities times and not just daily averages.

Routing Issues

To be fair, email delays and errors may occur outside your environment. In the scenario where your colleague was eagerly sitting and waiting for an email to arrive, it may have got stuck somewhere “in the cloud” – somewhere in between both of your email environments.

On a pre-sales and support level, Ceryx has developed a number of troubleshooting tools to help identify potential routing issues. As with any application “hosted in the cloud,” bandwidth is an important consideration when trying to ensure a positive end-users experience. Microsoft Exchange, which consumes 3 KB of a client’s internet connection per active user, is no different. Ceryx has developed a tool that simulates a series of network connections to determine if the client has adequate bandwidth to support their user base. Through this exercise they have discovered that – with any client moving from an on-premise environment to a hosted environment – any increase in bandwidth required is partially offset by decommissioning and offloading SMTP traffic, external connections spam traffic and attacks.

Spam/Anti-Virus

Of course the most notorious place a message gets “stuck” or delayed is in a provider’s anti-virus and spam filtering system. Ceryx runs seven different anti-virus products in its environment to ensure system health and email hygiene. That level of protection could potentially cripple an ordinary system that wasn’t built for high performance; however, Ceryx has not only sized their solution with the performance hit associated with anti-virus scanning in mind, but also closely monitors its environment to ensure email delivery is never compromised by spam and anti-virus filtering.

Beware of any provider who either ignores this potential performance hit or, worse yet, removes backend anti-virus all together. Removing anti-virus may appear to be a good way to control costs, as high-end solutions can be very expensive, but removing them allows viruses in, and once in, are often hard to then find, never mind remove. Ceryx’s system scans incoming and outgoing messages as well as messages in the store on a scheduled basis. A regular scan of mailbox databases is just as important as gateway anti-virus to reduce the instance of catastrophic failure.

Mobility

The benefits and usability of the Ceryx architecture can be measured not only on the desktop level but for mobile users as well, who share the same highly optimized and redundant environment. Ceryx also maintains fully-replicated BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Servers) in both its environments to maintain maximum mobility uptime as well. Forum Oilfield Services, out of Houston Texas, currently has 600 employees using the Ceryx Hosted Exchange solution, with almost 100 mobile users.

Beware of “Bargains”

Unfortunately the market is crowded with Hosted Exchange providers who are not as concerned about delivering a dependable and resilient solution as they are about keeping their costs low and selling high volumes of mailboxes. Providers that offer 3 or 4 GB mailboxes are ignoring the commonly held understanding that mailboxes of this size do not perform well and are highly susceptible to data corruption. That corruption is not limited to just the user in question, but can impact all users on that store, potentially even the entire server.

These providers can only offer mailboxes of this size at a bargain price if they compromise on some other expense – dedicated servers, SANs, anti-virus solutions or a fully redundant architecture. Of course the much greater expense is the lost productivity and opportunity that results from using a solution that was designed with the primary goal of meeting the lowest possible price point to compete with free solutions in the market, and not delivering Enterprise performance and availability.

Ask all potential vendors for the following:

  • Customer references
    (Quiz the references about any down-time they may have experienced)

  • The SLA
    Have a close look at the financial penalties if high availability is not maintained. Professional hosting providers, confident in their systems ability to maintain high availability, will include clearly worded conditions in their SLA around the exact fees that will be paid to a customer should they not maintain an acceptable level of up-time.

How Do You Measure Up?

A lost or delayed email could be viewed as a nuisance or as a warning. Purchasing decisions need to be fiscally responsible, but often, seemingly bargain solutions can have a devastating and costly effect in the long run.

So how does your system measure up? Using Ceryx as a control, measure the speed, versatility, and resilience of your system.

Ceryx

SLA: 100%
Latency: < 20 ms
GB / Store: 50 GB / Store
IOPS per User: High
Bandwidth Sizing Tools: Yes
Spam / Anti-Virus: Gateway + Mailbox Server, Integrated
Mobile Device Access: Redundant BlackBerry, ActiveSync
 
Ceryx customers share the belief that their data is their companies most valued asset. As the most used collaboration tool in business, an individual Microsoft Exchange account typically contains a blueprint of an employee’s tenure: their schedule, correspondence (and commitments), contacts, contracts and much more. Ceryx customers trust that this real-time journal is safe, available and always accessible.

Footnotes:
[1] The Wav Group: Gaining an Edge in Real Estate with Smartphones http://wavgroup.com
[2] The Open Press: http://www.theopenpress.com/index.php?a=press&id=42004
[3] Apple Support Forum: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1953
[4] Microsoft Exchange Team Blog: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2005/09/28/411674.aspx
[5] Microsoft TechNet: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb738147.aspx

Executive with North American hosting companies for over 15 years.

Inspire Smart Solutions Partners With Microsoft to Provide Enterprise Resource Planning Tool, Microsoft Dynamics Nav

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Denver, CO – August 26, 2008 – Inspire Smart Solutions announced today they are offering a new adaptable business management solution for their clients with  Microsoft Dynamics NAV, an enterprise resource planning tool (ERP).

As a Microsoft partner, Inspire Smart Solutions offers Microsoft Dynamics NAV, one of the top five ERP systems in the world for small to mid-sized businesses.

Inspire Smart Solutions’ rationale for offering Microsoft Dynamics NAV to their clients was simple: It is a powerful solution designed to help growing organizations streamline their processes, reduce operational costs, manage compliance and drive informed decision-making.

Subodh Gupta, President of Inspire Smart Solutions says, “We saw many of our clients going through internal struggles as they grew and we wanted to help them solve their growing pains. We believe Microsoft Dynamics NAV is that answer – it’s the best solution for the growth-related challenges small to mid-sized businesses face.”

Specifically, Inspire Smart Solutions offers Microsoft Dynamics NAV because it provides:

  • Improved effectiveness in all branches of business

  • Customized processes to meet any industry needs

  • Expanded capabilities as companies grow

  • Reduced operational costs within an organization

  • Efficiently managed inventory and overhead

“We saw immense value in offering Microsoft Dynamics NAV as an integrated business service to help our clients successfully take their businesses to the next level,” says Gupta, President of Inspire Smart Solutions.

As a certified Microsoft partner, Inspire Smart Solutions utilizes Microsoft Dynamics NAV to help their clients accelerate growth through customized processes such as manufacturing, distribution, financial management, sales and marketing, human resources, warehouse management, customer relationship and much more. 

As a leading business solutions provider, Microsoft Dynamics NAV is the most recent technology-based service Inspire Smart Solutions has made available for their clients.

For more information please visit www.inspiresmart.com

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About Inspire Smart Solutions

InspireSmart Solutions is a premiere business solutions provider offering cutting-edge, customized and affordable web-based services and IT solutions for small to mid-sized businesses in all industries around the globe.

About Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics is a line of financial, customer relationship and supply chain management solutions that helps businesses work more effectively. Delivered through a network of channel partners providing specialized services, these integrated, adaptable business management solutions work like and with familiar Microsoft software to streamline processes across an entire business.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

A Better Xbox Experience With the Xbox Network Adapter

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If you feel like becoming an even better gaming wizard, you could try to invest in an Xbox network adapter. Having an Xbox network adapter means being able to add high speed wireless access to your game console. With the Xbox network adapter, you can play with the console on a TV screen with maximum wireless security. It comes with a very easy installation process so you will be able to configure your Xbox network adapter on both an 802.11g or a 802.11b wireless networks.

The Xbox network adapter comes with several great features you will probably be impressed with. You can get breakthrough performance with the high speed features of the Xbox network adapter. Aside from speed, the 802.11g wireless can also offer freedom and flexibility in gaming thanks to its state of the art function.

The Xbox network adapter has a very swift 54 mbps speed which gives you up to five times the speed of regular networks. This already gives the Xbox network adapter an edge over all the other types of network adapters on the market. The unit of the Xbox network adapter also has both internal as well as external antennas which provide a wider range of signals. With this, your Xbox network adapter assures you of better service even if you are far away from the unit. Play better with wireless services when you use the Xbox network adapter as well as the combined in package service of Xbox Live Admin which you can access any time you have an Internet connection. Additionally, the Xbox network adapter allows you to connect several Xbox consoles together so you can fulfill your ultimate multiplayer needs. Think that is all the Xbox network adapter can provide you? More features include wireless freedom for better music playing and video showing any time, anywhere.

The Xbox network adapter also comes with high security features to assure the protection of your system. You can guard your data from theft or corruption thanks to the string wireless security that comes with the WEP access (or the Wired Equivalent Privacy). Furthermore, your Xbox network adapter can adapt very well to the future thanks to the upgradeable features that allow better security updates now and in the future. For unparalleled easy networking, you can trust the Xbox network adapter to submit to your whims.

The Xbox network adapter comes with a nifty broadband networking tool for Microsoft with its own intuitive Dashboard interface for the Xbox. With the Xbox network adapter, you can also be sure that it is fully compatible with all sorts of Wi-Fi networks as well. And of course, should you find just the teensy bit of difficulty with the Xbox network adapter, you have some in-box help as well. In the package of the Xbox network adapter you will find a step by step guide for installing it. This handy booklet will guide you through the entire Xbox network adapter installation process. You can install, configure and connect your Xbox network adapter with no problem at all.

Connect to Xbox LIVE anywhere in your home with Xbox Network Adapter from Microsoft designed specifically for Xbox and Xbox 360! Visit http://www.gamebay.com