Another Look at Linux – Not Just for Geeks

For a long time Linux has been viewed as the operating system for the socially awkward – or at least one that wasn’t valued significantly within the business community.  However, I think 2011 will be a turning point where Linux is utilized more and more within the business community.  In particular, I think using Linux as the operating system for desktop users will become more prevalent.  Realistically many users only need access to email, Internet, and desktop publishing applications.  While Microsoft and Apple provide some very nice Operating System options for those needs, both of those Operating Systems include a significant total cost of ownership (TCO).  In comparison, Linux Operating systems have a much lower TCO and are much less vulnerable to spyware and viruses, as well.  Linux has also always had an “App Store” called repositories.

I was working with one of our Linux based clients last week load testing some servers handling high volumes of live phone calls.  At 100 calls the linux server had not yet crossed 1% utilization.  In comparison, Windows Systems use more than that processing power just supporting an open browser.  Often the response I hear when I mention the efficiency of Linux is: “OK Linux is more efficient but I can’t use it…”

Well. let’s take a look at Unity Desktop as a part of Ubuntu:

Does not look too bad does it?  Graphical interface, Icon-based dock, a program menu, and Firefox or Chrome for browsers.  Basically, it includes everything necessary for most businesses and it boots in seconds.  Furthermore it requires little to no upkeep and its all free.

Keep in mind that no one at Google has Windows or Mac OS X.  They have Google’s own flavor of Linux called Goobuntu.  These large enterprises are going to start filtering down their desktop environments as popularity grows.  That, mixed with the growing number of hosted applications, means that a web browser is all remote workers may need.  Once all our apps run from the web, value will probably be driven by the most efficient webOS.

That all being said Linux desktops have 1% market share.  I use all 3 operating systems in one day but my wife surfs the web on an Ubuntu based laptop.  Facebook at light speed…

Product Spotlight – McAfee SaaS Web Protection

More and more businesses are looking for a good way to protect themselves against the litany of harmful viruses, spyware, and other malware that comes from the web.  In my article Web & Spyware Defense I cover some of the technologies that are effective at defending your business from web-based threats.  Here, I’d like to focus on the one of the products we believe balances effectiveness with cost, the best.

McAfee SaaS Web Protection  is a service provided by McAfee (formerly MX Logic) that effectively “scrubs” incoming and outgoing web traffic to ensure web threats don’t get in or out of your network.  It also provides options for limiting access to certain sites and can generate some valuable reports on web activity (by user, device, site, etc.).  Additionally, it includes a simple, straight forward user interface and has a price point under $3 per device per month.

How it works

The architecture of the solution is very simple: your company’s Internet/web traffic is routed through McAfee SaaS’ servers and scrubbed for harmful software.  Basically, it is a standard, cloud-based solution.

Effectiveness

We have deployed this solution for a number of our clients and it simply works.  There is no substitution for seeing how a product or service works in an actual production environment and this is one that lives up to the hype.

Note: Cloud solutions are often incredibly valuable solutions, but like any technology, they aren’t for every business.  At ITP we always recommend reviewing technology solutions within the context of your specific business goals, culture, processes and people.  Of course, if you need some help with that we’ve got some great people here at ITP that can help.

Random Thoughts – Avoid Spyware by Managing your Internet Traffic

So let’s start with a bold statement: If you’re not managing your Internet traffic you’re throwing money out the window.  A pretty strong statement, I know, but hear me out before you pass judgment…

For most small & medium-sized businesses the two areas of their technology that cost the most are:

1. Managing and supporting desktops
2. Internal IT staff members and/or IT consulting

Spyware, which is more malicious and prevalent than ever these days, affects both the functionality of your desktops and the efficiency of your IT staff or consultant.  Hence, it’s a hard hit on your bottom line.  In fact, I believe that if most businesses ran the numbers on what spyware really costs them, they would be mortified.  The good news is that there are technologies available that do a great job protecting you from spyware and other threats (see my article, Web & Spyware Defense  for more).  The bad news is that it takes more than just your antivirus software.

But keep in mind that the management of your Internet traffic can do much more than defend against incoming threats – it can also help you increase productivity and reduce HR risks. 

Remember when you were deciding whether spam protection was necessary for your business?  Well, managing your Internet traffic is the same discussion, only it’s a more costly one.

What’s New…….

ITP, in a joint effort with our partner, Converged, is holding an event on February 11^th at the Chophouse in Madison that will display two of today’s most valuable technologies for business.  If you want to understand more about how you can guarantee network availability for your business; or how unified communications are changing the way businesses communicate with their customers, then you should attend this event.  Featuring live demonstrations of Stratus Avance high availability software and Shoretel VOIP phone systems, you will see how you can drive business through innovative, always available communications.

Who Owns the Cloud?

When computers were first invented, history dictates that there were some, perhaps many, who scoffed and refused to accept that they would change our lives in the incalculable ways that they have.

When the internet came out, many could not understand why they would want to connect other computers to their own or the purpose of such a tool.

The reasons for such rejection and speculation of technological advancements are many, including but-not-limited-to: lack of detail, misinformation, contentment in already-working systems, and fear of the unknown. While I do not believe fear to be as culpable a reason when it comes to computer technology as compared to, say, nuclear technology or what your five-year-old cooked you for breakfast, I do believe the three former reasons to be legitimate.

The first two reasons, lack of detail and misinformation, are directly related. Although the name “the cloud” is fitting, it can also downplay the fact that the cloud is a real and working system, albeit a very large and multi-faceted one. Microsoft’s commercials that present a problem, then a savvy cloud user announcing “To the cloud,” then their problem solved by the cloud, show glimpses of what the cloud is capable of that could make it appealing to an everyday user, like remote desktop access and video conferencing.

These commercials show the most basic examples of cloud computing, but do not really explain what the cloud is or how to jump onboard. In addition, Microsoft must be careful not to make it appear that the cloud is a Microsoft invention but, rather, that they are one of many companies that is making use of the cloud. It may encourage utilization of the cloud by making known to more people that the cloud is not one company’s brainchild, but rather a fruit of the digital and internet age that all of us, users and developers, have helped bring about.

Regarding the contentment in already-working systems, the cloud is merely a way of connecting all of those systems and streamlining availability, scalability and synergy, which are useful both at home and in the workplace. The cloud possesses currently incomprehensible potential to shape how we handle information and, thus, our businesses and our lives. 

Like so many leaps forward, it will take some time for people to understand what the cloud is and how useful it can be, and how much smaller it is making the world, by putting in reach what we need, thanks to digitalization and the vast interconnectedness and availability of the internet. The important hope we have as the cloud moves forward is that it remains as open as it is today and that no company attempts to build legal or digital fences around what they believe to be their property within the cloud.

E-mail

E-mail is a business tool that may very well be more important to most businesses than phones these days.  It is so critical to business operations not only because of the direct communication it provides with customers and internally, but for many companies, it also provides calendaring, task management, and time management tools.  With the critical nature of e-mail to business operations, it’s no wonder that e-mail was one of the first technologies to be delivered through “cloud” technologies.  Gmail, ymail, and others are all cloud-driven e-mail systems.  So how does this translate to value for your business?  To see the value cloud-based e-mail provides, it may be a good idea to compare traditional onsite e-mail with its cloud-based counterpart.

Traditional onsite e-mail

For the purpose of this article, let’s assume we have a business that has 35 staff members.  The business is considering deploying an e-mail server onsite that is powered by Microsoft Exchange.  This is quality solution that many businesses use today and it’s one that I’ve recommended often.  If we take this solution and compare it to a similar cloud-based solution, we can see the operational differences between the two…

For any technology, (e-mail included), there are hard costs and soft costs that we bear, and for those costs we receive operational value (oversimplified a bit, but sufficient to derive the comparative value between on-premise e-mail and cloud-based e-mail). As is the case with nearly all cloud solutions, the overall cost of a cloud solution is going to be greater over time than its onsite counterpart.  However, there are some definitive and tangible benefits for this greater cost.

Benefits of Cloud-based E-mail

• Administration – there is still some internal administration necessary in a cloud-based environment because internal resources are used to access your e-mail (Internet, desktops, etc.), but the bulk of the administration burden is transferred to the hosting company.  This reduces risk in many cases and reduces internal administration costs
• Accessibility – The very nature of cloud solutions require them to be highly accessible.
• Availability – Most cloud solutions, including e-mail, are hosted at a data center, often with a second data center available for failover, which gives you a much higher level of e-mail uptime over an onsite solution.  Additionally, most cloud-based e-mail providers will give you an SLA, stating their uptime requirements
• Initial Investment – though nearly all cloud solutions will cost more over time, there upfront cost is far lower than an onsite solution.

There are also drawbacks to cloud-based e-mail, as well:

• Cost – greater cost over time
• Integration – many software programs today interface directly with your e-mail system to capture messages, calendar data, and so forth.  Most of these programs won’t be able to integrate with cloud-based e-mail.
• Speed – Almost every program that is hosted remotely (or in the cloud) is going to respond just a little slower than if that program is running onsite.
• Control – whenever you move functionality offsite, you lose some degree of control of that function. 
• Backup - The frequency, type, and depth of your e-mail backup is something that needs to be redeveloped when you operate your e-mail from the cloud.

Ultimately, cloud-based e-mail is something that is becoming a better option for businesses, though admittedly, it isn’t for everyone.  Yet, there are some undeniable operational advantages that will only grow as time passes.  Either way, for many businesses, it’s probably evolved to the point that it is an option worth looking into.

Automated Offsite Backup

There is no question that the secure, reliable retention of data is absolutely critical to good business operations – and, of course, that includes the ability to recover your data in the event of a disaster.  Consequently, more businesses are prioritizing their data backup procedures including regular verification of data integrity and disciplined off-site storage of backup media.  Yet, businesses are finding that even with rock solid procedures, there are still many areas of concern.  Here are a few  of the most prominent concerns:

Traditional Onsite Backup Issues

• Media (tapes or drives) must be tested regularly to ensure data integrity
• Reliability – most onsite backup systems (software & hardware) fail to backup all of your data.  Often a few corrupt files, or an open database connection can derail the backup process
• Lifespan – a quality backup system will last between 2 and 4 years depending on the quality
• Maintenance – In order to have confidence in the backup system it needs to be maintained regularly.
• Security – For any given onsite backup solution, there needs to be an off-site option.  Often, this amounts to an employee taking the backup media home with them.  Obviously, this presents significant data security concerns – especially if the employee needs to be terminated at some point.

Make no mistake, onsite backup is a good thing – it’s just that there are some undeniable drawbacks.  Consequently, more businesses are turning to automated offsite backup as a solution (i.e. backing up to the cloud).   The one notable drawback is that you have an ongoing monthly cost, yet the advantages often outweigh the concerns about ongoing cost – especially considering the fact that costs have fallen significantly over the past 12 to 18 months.  And the operational benefits are undeniable:

Benefits of Offsite Backup

• Security – Encrypted data transfer means that automated offsite backup is often far more secure the traditional onsite backup
• Automation – No switching tapes, drives, or transporting backup media to other locations
• Reliability – Today’s online backup systems are highly reliable.
• Retention – retaining data for more than two weeks is easy to accomplish, and for even longer retention periods, offsite backup is significantly less expensive than onsite data storage

Like all technologies, backing data up to the cloud isn’t for everyone.  And even if you do decide to invest in cloud-based backup, it doesn’t mean you need to abandon your onsite backup.  In fact, having some onsite backup never hurts because when it comes to your data, you have to be 100% certain that you can recover what you need when you need to recover it.

How to Switch from WordPerfect to Word

Though WordPerfect isn’t prevalent within most industries, it is still relatively common within the legal community.  Many of these firms would like to switch to Word, but don’t want to eat the software, lost productivity, and training costs.  Very understandable.  But the reasons for moving to Word are growing by the day.  As such (and since ITP works with so many law firms) I thought it might be valuable to post a recipe for switching from WordPerfect to Word that many firms have found successful…

Recommended Process

Though every firm is different, ITP recommends the following general process for moving from WordPerfect to Word.  The transition is rarely seamless due to the inherent differences between the two programs, but following the process below can be instrumental in minimizing downtime and lost productivity.

1. Assemble a project team or lead person that will manage the transition.
2. Identify your key documents – Forms, templates, and other routinely-accessed documents are critical to your firm’s productivity.  Ensuring they are available and functional immediately following the move to Word is key to keeping production high and limiting user frustration.
3. Identify other document automation tools – besides forms and templates, macros, other software, and user-defined tools such as keyboard shortcuts and mail merges are also important to identify.
4. Review options – There are always new software and tools that hit the market every year. Review your document automation options and decide upon the best tool (or mix of tools) for your firm.
5. Planning & communication – develop a plan and timeline and then communicate that to your staff.
6. Convert documents – Convert your forms and templates into Word format and test.
7. Develop your training schedule – review your needs and the capabilities of your staff, and then develop a training plan specific to your needs.
8. Purchase quick reference guides – No matter how much you invest in training, your staff won’t be able to retain all of it when they begin using Word.  Quick reference guides can be a great tool for keeping productivity high and reducing user frustration.
9. Training – Unless your staff is particularly familiar with Word, investing in at least two training sessions for each staff member (1 basic & 1 intermediate session) is recommended.  Training sessions should be kept to 90 minutes or less in duration.  Hands-on training is best for retention, but classroom-style training is often used because it is far less expensive and far less disruptive to operations.
10. Walk-around Support – Schedule some time for supporting staff members with their specific problems.  This can be scheduled as onsite or remote service.
11. Remove WordPerfect from your systems – This step isn’t always necessary, and often WordPerfect can only be removed after some time has passed, but in most cases if staff members have access to WordPerfect, they will continue to use it.

Web & Spyware Defense

There are few IT issues that are more pervasive or costly for businesses these days than spyware.  Spyware not only affects the system it infects, but also tries to distribute itself to other systems.  Additionally, it can be incredibly difficult to “clean” the infected system, often requiring the system to be rebuilt. Worse yet, standard methods of protection often fall short because users can easily circumvent them and click on a link or advertisement that invites spyware into their system by accident.  Much like spam defense solutions, deployment of onsite devices have become more popular, and to some extent those devices are effective.  But the significant upfront costs and the maintenance required to support the devices have both become detractors from these solutions.  Consequently, cloud-based solutions have been growing in popularity. 

In essence cloud-based web defense solutions provide:

• Protection against harmful links, sites, and spyware
• Granular control of the websites staff members can access
• Integrated reporting showing web activity for staff members
• Low-cost, zero maintenance solution

As always, this solution should be reviewed in context of your specific business needs and goals, but cloud-based protection against spyware have proven to be quite effective.  And with the additional control you get for managing your outgoing web traffic, cloud-based spyware protection is quite a powerful solution.

Spam defense

It’s generally accepted that spam protection, is a requirement for the productive use of e-mail these days.  Traditionally, businesses have used software to filter out the volumes of spam, but more recently, the use of local hardware appliances have become popular.  Yet, there are drawbacks to both these solutions that have opened the door for more seamless solutions like cloud-based e-mail defense.  In short, traditional solutions, whether hardware or software-based, allow spam to get to your network, using up your valuable bandwidth along the way. 

Additionally, most (but not all) of these traditional solutions don’t:

• Provide e-mail continuity (retain e-mail when your e-mail server is unavailable)
• Provide the ability to securely view e-mails without downloading them
• Include the ability to send & respond e-mail if your mail server is down. 

In essence, these are some of the greatest advantages of cloud-based spam protection.  But there are other, less acute advantages, as well:

• Almost no upfront costs
• Zero internal costs for managing or administering the system
• Little to no training required
• Seamless deployment
• Integrated reporting

Like any technology, isn’t a perfect solution for every business and should be analyzed within the scope of your specific business needs, goals, and operations.  However, the advantages are compelling enough that it’s worth taking a close look.