a continuation from last weeks post, 6-10 of the top 10 IT focus areas for 2013…   6) Virtualization. The days of having an actual hardware server for each business function (file storage, database, email) are over, you can now run multiple ‘virtual’ machines on one server. Virtualization is a big topic, suffice it to say you need to research

  It’s the new year, and like everyone else I’m thinking about goals and new years resolutions. I thought it a good time to give you-gentle reader-my list of things to do for your systems in ’13.   1) Move backups to a disk based system, that allows the duplication of that data offsite. This past year many improvements have been

  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

  Recently one of our clients asked us why his laptop didn’t work as well at his iPad. Ok he didn’t say it that nice, but that was the intent. And while we’ve had iPads from the beginning, it gave us pause to think about using an iPad for everything.   So for the last 2 weeks we’ve been working from

  When I tell people what I do, they invariably respond…I get it you fix computers. Nothing could be further from the truth. While we do, in the course of a normal day, ‘fix’ peoples computers (which encompasses servers, desktops, laptops, network equipment, etc.) our real purpose is to NOT have to fix them, ever. The more you have to ‘fix’

  …you have backups in place, right? Lets start with some simple questions to refine your answer.   1) do you get a report daily that shows that your backups worked? 2) do you check to ensure your backups include the data you need backed up? 3) do you retrieve data from your backups to ensure you can use them?  

  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