Backups are a big deal

How many times have we read a quick statistic that shows companies going out of business after a major data loss?  Too many times we hear the horror stories.  And all of these mishaps could have been prevented if there was a Disaster recovery plan in place. 

All Disaster Recovery plans have multiple layers of backup, combinations of local and offsite backup give a good balance of safety. 

Don’t be fooled into thinking that you are covered because you make copies of files to an external drive or even worse a small usb drive that fits in your hand.  And most people / companies never bother to test their backups so you are just wasting your time if you think you are covered.

So be smart, make the investment and make sure your data is backed up.

And one last time for the people in the back of the room, have multiple layers of backup and test them regularly.

John

Why do people think Mac is better?

Before anyone’s blood boils reading this article let me make one very important comment:   An Operating System is not a religion!

We have all heard the comments from various Mac users about why their computer is better.  

Until the recent release of Windows 7, you had to compare Mac against Windows XP, software that was developed 9 years ago!  Apple definitely had the advantage.

But now there is Windows 7 and the gap has drastically shrunk.

Here are some quick facts:

Apple says they are more secure. 

False, the real world answer is that Mac only accounts for 8% of all pc’s in the world.  Bad guys go for the money, why would they waste their time writing hacking software for 8% of the pc’s on the web.

Apple says that they don’t have a lot of bloatware on their pc’s.

Long answer coming…..  True and false.  There are 2 types of Windows machines sold.   Type 1:Consumer version.  The main reason why Pc’s at Best Buy and Costco are so cheap is that they are subsidized by the manufacturers of that bloatware.   They pay HP, Dell, Sony, Acer etc to put their software on your shiny new pc.  This lowers the cost to you but it then ends up adding undo headaches down the road. Type 2: The PC’s that are sold to businesses.  Businesses don’t want or need games, video editing or music playing junk on their company computers. They just want Windows!  They pay a little more for their computers but they will not accept anything less.

Apple on the other hand controls everything that goes on their computers.  So they don’t load them up with bloatware.  That is one of the reasons why Macs will always be more expensive than a pc.  So if you compare a consumer pc against a Mac yes, the PC has more bloatware.  BTW, we only sell Business computers.

Apple says they have better hardware

True and false, you really need to compare pc’s like cars.  There are cars of every make, model and price.  You can’t compare a Mercedes (Apple) against a Nissan Sentra (PC) and say all pc’s suck. What about Lexus, Infiniti, Acura and BMW?  Do they suck?  Of course not, but that is what happens most of the time when Mac people are comparing against another pc.

The Apple interface is better

Windows 7 has come a long way so it is a toss up now

So which one should you buy? 

That depends on lot on budget and career.  If you want a personal computer and money is not a concern Mac is the way to go.  If money is a concern I recommend the Dell Vostro or Latitude (Laptops) or Vostro / Optiplex lines for desktops.

Want to save money on your IT expenses?

To most business owners technology is seen as some kind of dark magic that costs them money every month.  Hopefully most of the time things just work and you focus on your daily tasks at the office.  But when “IT” hits the fan there can be all kinds of chaos, fire drills, stress, downtime and the inevitable bill to get things working again.  In the industry this is called “break/fix”.  It breaks, we come out and fix it.  This is called reactive support.  We start our day hoping something breaks at your company.

Let me tell you why this is a flawed way to pay for your technology support.  If you run a report on your IT expenses over the last 24 months take a look and see if you could actually predict a monthly budget for IT support.  Odds are you will have wild ups and downs from month to month and in the end it is too unpredictable.

You have a car right?  You pay insurance on that car?  Sure you do.  Well why not have insurance on the life blood of your company?  With a managed services contract you pay a flat rate every month that you can fit into your budget.  Predictable costs every month.

Why should I pay when everything is working fine you might ask?  Simple, with a managed services contract you get Pro Active support instead of reactive support.  Everything is monitored from laptops, pc’s, servers, email and Internet connection.  If something breaks you don’t get charged.  It’s all part of the plan. We start our day planning that nothing breaks at your company or we lose money.

So let’s say that in the previous 12 month period your expenses were 12K for your entire office on a managed services plan but the 12 months before that it was only 10k.  What did that extra 2k get you?  Your employees being able to work more often throughout the year, less stress and greater productivity out of everyone in the company.

Most business owners have never calculated how much downtime really costs their company.  Take a simple inventory of how much it costs per hr per employee.  Now add up all the hrs and that is how much it costs per hr.  So lets say you have 15 people working for you that cost approx $500 an hr for the entire office.  So every hr your network is down it is costing you $500 in addition to lost business or delays in getting a project or deal done.

So when you look at it from a cost benefit does that extra $167 a month sound like you are spending more or saving more?

Windows 7 is coming!!

Windows 7 Windows 7 Windows 7. 

You will be hearing a lot about the newest OS from Microsoft this month.  Oct 22nd is the official release date.  However, partners such as RNC have had Win 7 since early August.  :-)  This allows us to play with it and figure out all the great new things that come with it.

In short, this is by far the best release of Windows ever!  All the things that you typically hear from Microsoft whenever they release a new product are true regarding Windows 7.

It is faster, easier to use, great eye candy and a pleasure to work with.  We moved all of our desktops over to Win 7 the first week in August and have not looked back.  Install times are very fast so the total migration costs for clients will be reduced.

Laptop users are seeing definite improvements in battery life, speed and stability. Wireless connections are much easier and laptop users now never need to shutdown their laptops.  They just close the lid and let it go into sleep mode.  When they want to start using their laptop they just open the lid and BAM!  In under 2 seconds you are ready to start working.

Total game changer on using a laptop, no more 3 minute start times, no more dread in waiting to start working again.

Lastly, one of my favorite under the hood features is the new security feature called Bit Locker.  This came with Vista but only in the high end version.  It is now available in the Pro version of Win 7 and up.  This feature allows us to encrypt your entire hard drive.  What does this mean to you?  Ever wondered what would happen if you had your laptop stolen?  All your confidential emails and files were usually wide open for the bad guys to get access to.

Sure you have a login password but that is just a speed bump for any bad guy that wants in.  Bit Locker is another game changer when it comes to laptop security.  Now, if your laptop is stolen you can have peace of mind in knowing that all data on your laptop is super secure from the bad guys.

Want more info?  Take a look here: Windows 7 website