Year-end IT Cleanup

Ah, the holidays.  People are taking the last of their vacations, heading out of town, and juggling all the other obligations the holidays bring.  While people are handling all their holiday tasks, it’s pretty common for things at the office to slow down a bit.  This can be a great time to update and handle some of those network issues that have been nagging at you all year.  And with fewer people in the office, you’ll hear less complaining about the little bit of downtime the server may need.  Here’s a few things to consider as the end of the year approaches…

1. Backup.  Oh sure, the software says you got a good backup and it even says it’s been verified.  But when was the last time you actually restored data from your backup?  A test restore is never a bad idea.
2. Tapes.  Speaking of backup, tapes are still the most common backup media in use today.  When was the last time you bought new tapes?  Many tape manufacturers only guarantee their media for the first backup and although you’re not going to purchase new backup media after only one use, replacing them once a year is a good idea.
3. Network diagram.  Ah, the good ol’ network diagram.  It’s completely accurate, right? For most networks that’s true – as long as the year is 2001.  Pull it out, dust it off and update it.  You’ll be surprised at all the changes you’ve made to the network this past year – changes that required your hard work.  Those changes are certain to be recognized on your review, right?
4. Software licensing.  Yes, licensing is part of the job for IT professionals.  But isn’t it someone else’s responsibility to organize it?  I mean isn’t there an office clerk that does that type of thing?  Hmmmm…if your office is like most – probably not.  Take a few minutes (hours, days, etc.) to go through it.  It really can come in handy when the managing partner actually realizes that software compliance is important. 

So there you go.  There are a million more end-of-year tasks you could do, but it’s been my experience that these are the ones that are forgotten most often.  So when Bob from accounting asks why you’re rebooting the server now, just smile and be glad that Mike and Kelly and Mary aren’t asking you the same question.

Google Checkout

Google is once again rolling out a new service.  Called “Google Checkout,” it is meant to go head-to-head with Ebay’s favorite payment system, Paypal.

To make signup more tempting, Google is offering pretty nice discounts at a number of online vendors if you pay using Google’s checkout service.  Probably the most attractive is their deal with Buy.com.  If you’re unfamiliar with Buy.com, it is a relatively large online vendor that carries some of the same items as Amazon.com (lots of books, games, videos and electronics).

Google has been running the promotion for $10 off any $30 purchase for awhile.  Now they’ve added a $20 off any $50 purchase.  And to top it off, Buy.com has pretty competitive pricing on most items.  In fact, many books on Buy.com are cheaper than Amazon.  They also offer free shipping on orders over $25.

What does all this mean?  You’ll find deals like this one:

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=202743519

It’s a 1 gigabyte Kingston Secure Digital memory card.  Buy.com sells it for $50.  Using the $20 coupon will bring it down to $30 immediately.  There’s also a $30 rebate, so the final cost is $0.  Free shipping, no tax charged (at least in Wisconsin).

If you’re looking to pick up a few books, spend $50, use the $20 off to bring it down to $30.  Again, free shipping, no tax.  And, as I mentioned, their book prices are about the same as Amazon, so you’re already getting a great discount.

It’s easy to use Google Checkout.  On the vendors’ websites you’ll see the promotion to check out using Google.  When you click on it, the $20 will automatically be deducted at the Google checkout.  Also note that you can use this as many times as you’d like!  I’ve placed three orders using the system and have not run into any issues.

Another personal favorite of mine is Shop4Tech.com.  Despite the name, it is a reputable site that has been around for years.  Great deals on DVD media and memory.

For a list of all the stores using Google checkout at the moment, you may click on the link below:

http://www.google.com/checkout/holiday/merchants.html

If you have any questions, please feel free to shoot me an e-mail or post here.  The discount is supposedly a holiday promotion, so you’ll want to jump on any deals you find quickly.

Small Business Server 2003 R2 Release

Microsoft recently released the next revision for the SBS product.  Despite the mixup with the release causing delays, the new release adds some nice new functionality.  Although SBS 2003 is a solid product packed with features and the new feature set in R2 is not that extensive, Microsoft hit the nail on the head with the new features.  The new feature set includes green check of health, exchange changes, SQL server changes and expanded CAL rights.

The Green Check of Health is actually WSUS bundled with and integrated into SBS 2003 R2.  This is not like the typical free WSUS product you can download and administer yourself (and then never use) - instead you’ll access a feature in Server Management called Update Services.  This features solves the headache of manually making sure (or just hoping) all machines are updated with the latest patches.  Software updates for all of your connected systems are stored locally on the SBS server and issued according to schedule and administrator approval.  In addition there is a report showing the status of all computers on the network so you can see at a glance whether SBS and all its connected clients are up to date with the latest patches and security updates.

SBS R2 includes the 75GB mail store limit for Exchange (increasing from 16GB in previous versions).  Although you can manually change this on existing Exchange servers with Exchange SP2, installing SP2 is not the simplest task.  This is a blessing most people cannot appreciate.  Even in small businesses the 16GB limit may not be enough and setting up different storage groups or getting users to constantly clean their mailboxes and defragging the Exchange databases is a real hassle due to the insuffient size limit.

SQL Server 2000 Standard Edition has been replaced with SQL Server 2005 Workgroup Edition.  This has caused alot of controversy but in reality it benefits the customer.  In truth, SQL Server 2005 Workgroup edition is more closely matched in features to SQL Server 2000 Standard  than SQL Server 2005 Standard due to all of the changes in SQL Server 2005.  The inclusion of SQL Server 2005 Workgroup edition enabled Microsoft to price SBS 2003 R2 at a lower cost than its previous version which may allow for more customers to choose the Premium edition of SBS.

Previously, each user or device connecting to a SBS needed to have a CAL, but the CAL was only applicable to that one server.  So if a second server was added they would have to purchase additional CALs for any user or device that connected to the new server.  Microsoft has changed the CAL so that it covers an additional Windows Server.  So as a business grows and needs to offload functionality to a second server (SQL Server, Exchange…) additional CALs are not required saving the business money.

SBS server has proven to be a great product with its feature rich and easy to use environment.  With the release of SBS R2 Microsoft has only added to the continued success of the product.