HD Technologies Tech Blog

Cloud Backups

2011-08-01T23:22:47Z

It's Sunday, and I'm looking outside at the gray 'June gloom' day in California, and I'm thinking about clouds. Why not talk about 'cloud' backups? Firstly, a quick update on the cloud. The term gets bandy about a lot these days, but mostly its a marketing term, that sounds better than 'other's servers hosted on the internet and you paying a monthly fee to use them'. Which is really what 'cloud' pertains to. Anyway for backups cloud refers to the ability to backup your data locally and then push that data continuously up to the cloud. For those of you using tape systems you accomplish close to the same thing by taking home tapes, or sending them to a storage facility like iron mountain. The difference is that unlike tapes, which may get taken offsite once a day 'if you're really on it' cloud based backups are nearly continuous and this means all your data is up to the cloud throughout each and everyday. We use two products that work very well, Replay by a company called Appsense, and Sirus by a company called Datto. Both products work well and utilize the cloud fully. Next time I'll discuss cloud backups and virtualization and the differentiation between backups and continuity.

Voicemail on steroids-Phonetag

2011-08-01T23:21:44Z

Do you ever have the problem where you get a voicemail in a setting that makes it impossible to respond immediately? You know the situation. You're in the marathon quarterly marketing meeting for 6 hours with no breaks, and to put the phone to your ear would be frowned upon.

What to do? Get Phonetag. What Phonetag does is take those pesky audio based voicemails and transcribe them into text that gets emailed to you. You can hold the phone below the table and read your voicemail and then respond via email!

The phonetag email also has an attached wav file that you can listen to later. Man that sounds cool, but cool means expensive right? Wrong. Phonetag is only $30/month. This tool saves a huge amount of time and you'll get the $30 back the first week of every month. Happy voicemailing.

Here's a link with a free 30 day offer. https://apps.simulscribe.com/signup/r/305825

5623438756@messaging.cbeyond.net

iPads continue dominance-can they be used for everything?

2011-07-18T23:46:37Z

using the iPad for everything

Microsoft moving to outsourced IT model

2010-04-30T15:07:00Z

Microsoft recently announced that it has forged a deal with Infosys Technologies to manage all of its IT operations. This is a tremendous confirmation for the effectiveness of the outsourced IT model.

A large, well known, technology company like Microsoft would only make a shift like this if it made sense for their business. Per a Microsoft rep:

As you know, we have had a concentrated effort to be more efficient and save money. This was a major area where we could do this.

There a clear method to managing technology. IT workers are no longer a bunch of cowboys riding around the countryside saving PCs in distress. There is a theory, technique, and workflow to managing IT for business.

When you have a team of technicians that manage multiple IT departments they gain a level of experience and unique breadth of knowledge. And they are motivated and incentivized to leverage those benefits across all their customers.

Infosys makes this point themselves when they refer to their deal with Microsoft as

..a unique opportunity to partner with Microsoft IT and gain deep and early expertise in the implementation and management of the latest Microsoft technologies, and thus enhancing Infosys capabilities to help other customers leverage Microsoft’s innovation and adopt these technologies...

Done right it can help you save money, be more effective, and keep your technology on top.

Source: Microsoft outsourcing IT services in three-year, global deal (http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2010/04/microsoft_outsources_its_own_it.html) by Todd Bishop

squeak or scream?

2010-04-26T19:00:55Z

fixing computers proactively

backups, backups, backups

2010-04-24T16:21:00Z

backups-do you have them? do they work?

Is it time for new PCs?

2010-04-22T23:37:43Z

We've all seen it somewhere… the PC that's been at the company longer than any of the employees. Its’ clumsy, beige case sticks out against the new, sleek black models. Employees give sympathetic nods to whoever gets stuck behind its keyboard. And although that PC may seem like a badge of honor for resiliency and cost savings, it can actually be costing you money.

At the CeBIT Global Conference (March 2010) in Hannover Germany, Intel VP and CIO Diane M. Bryant spoke about Intel’s PC replacement schedule. She noted that based on their data collection, after 4 years support costs on machines rise dramatically. This includes hardware maintenance and IT support. There is also a productivity cost in that a task generally takes 50% longer on an old PC than on a new one.

Computers are now THE tool that employees use to run your business operation. Don’t get them confused with the ones at home that you use for Facebook and printing photos. These machines help you make money and stay in business. Can you afford to wait until hardware failure for replacement? If you wait until your hardware kicks the bucket, expect to deal these additional costs:

Financial Impact: Nothing speaks to business owners more than money. Waiting until hardware fails before replacing it causes unexpected spikes in your budget and cash flow problems. Even worse prevents effectively budgeting to know what it costs to run your business. Computers are no longer a luxury, they are a necessary tool for business with a finite usable life cycle.
Lost Productivity: When a machine goes down a user's productivity immediately goes to 0. When you talk about this conversationally it does not seem that bad. You think, “We could make it work.” We can tell you from years of IT consulting it is never as easy as you think it is. Stress levels always increase in the office. What if the PC that failed processes payroll? Processes credit cards? Runs one of your business machines? Other employees are usually affected as computer time is split thereby reducing another person’s productivity. Installing new PC's for office staff is also an easy way to increase morale and productivity.
Technology Sacrifices: When crashed PCs intersect with unprepared budgets, priorities shift. Purchasing priorities move from what is the best replacement to what can we get for fewest dollars. This can lead to machines with shorter lifecycles as older technology is purchased for lower cost. Over time this can lower your ability to take advantage of new technologies if all your PCs are underpowered.

      For these reasons we recommend having IT and financial departments work together to schedule PC replacements.

      It’s actually quite a simple task, more legwork than rocket science. The easiest way is to run a report of all your hardware with serial numbers and purchase dates and look at the time in service. If you are on a TCO contract with HD Tech, a yearly budget review is included as part of our service.

      If your PCs are not managed you can do it the old fashioned way with a clipboard, some paper, and a walk around the office. Machines are coming up on their 3 and 4 year anniversaries should be earmarked for replacement and you can set a schedule for the rest for the next 3-4 years.

      Once your schedule is in place you can start talking about budgets, look at the technology available, and determine what will help your company do business better. Good use of technology always equals better workflow and better profits.

P.S. You can catch a 3 minute video of Bryant discussing PC replacement from CeBIT by clicking here.