On April 8, 2013 Hewlett-Packard took a fairly dramatic departure from traditional server designs with the release of the Moonshot Server.

Moonshot uses low-power smartphone style processors to optimize data center servers.  Although, Moonshot looks traditional, the Moonshot 1500 Chassis contains shared power, cooling, networking, storage and 45 pluggable servers.  There are several chipsets available.

Instead of putting together another server that requires intense power and cooling, HP reconstructed the server design.  Moonshot provides a vast amount of resources such as scalability while reducing the use of physical space, cooling and power.

Many companies partnered with HP on the Moonshot Project including:  AMD, Intel, ARM, Citrix, Cloudera, Redhat, SUSE and many others.

Disadvantages for the Moonshot server could range from an unenthusiastic entrance to the risk of a minimal hardware component failure that could bring down 45 critical servers because an entire rack of servers are set in one box.

If you are looking to purchase new equipment please contact us at (856) 745-9990.

Takeaway:  Understanding Cloud Computing for technological infrastructures.

Cloud computing is the delivery of computing resources as a service over the Internet.  The varieties of services offered are Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS) Desktop as a Service (DaaS) and Network as a Service (NaaS).

Scalability, fast provisioning and agility help all organizations, big and small, reach monetary growth.  

There are a few major misunderstandings associated with joining the Cloud Computing revolution, such as:

It’s A Trend:

Cloud computing is a credible and efficient tool with longevity.  If you use social media, eBay, Gmail or Online Banking, you are already using Cloud Computing.

It’s not as Secure:

Cloud computing is a significantly safe way to store, share and secure your data.  Client’s are highly recommended to use the Cloud’s host-based firewall.  Also available are host-based intrusion protection programs specialized for virtual machines and Cloud Clients

(Example –  Trend Micro Deep Security or Symantec O3). 

It’s Costly:

Even with the move to the cloud and monthly costs, organizations could save money long term on IT Management Services.

It’s Complicated:

There are many different types of Cloud Computing to choose from that should make executing hassle-free.

It’s only for Large Organizations:

The Cloud is not reserved for Large Organizations only.  Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (SaaS or DaaS) can be a cost-effective solution for organizations of any size. 

Changes are not strategic:

Plans are setup to acquire full benefits offered by Cloud Computing by integrating corporate strategy and technology with the advantage of using internal resources.

Cloud is inoperable if the Internet goes down:

Having another provider with a secondary connection is a logical setup for all companies.  Most organizations already operate with a connectivity “safety net”.

To migrate your business to Cloud Computing, please visit BigBeagle.com

The ten most popular Microsoft Office tips

Takeaway:  Susan Harkins lists ten most popular Office tips published in the Windows and Office Blog, and the now inactive Office Blog.

When considering tips to share, think about ease-of-use and efficiency. A few naturally rise to the top as your favorites. For your commemoration, here are 10 of 2012’s most popular posts from both the Office Blog, which was deactivated in mid-2012, and the current Windows and Office Blog. Thank you for reading, and thank you for sharing your thoughts and enhancements with one another throughout the year.

1: A quick Word trick for typing text into a scanned document

The response to this limited technique surprised me. It’s something only a few will use, but if you’re one of those few, it can be a big help! I was pleasantly surprised at the positive response it received and the way readers enhanced the technique.

2: Use Word macros to save your place in a document

These two short macros make quick work of bookmarking work areas in a Word document. When the built-in navigation techniques just don’t get the job done for you, consider these macros or one of the alternative methods that readers shared.

3: A quick and dirty way to compare columns of Excel data

This quick Go To comparison solution is great for a one-time task. Comparing Excel data is a common task, and I receive frequent questions for solutions. This solution is a great one to add to your bag of tricks.

4: Demystify Excel’s PivotTable feature with this simple method

Sometimes a great tip doesn’t offer a specific solution, but rather guides you to using a feature more efficiently and effectively. Users tend to ignore Excel’s pivot table feature because they don’t really understand it – hence this blog post offers some quick insight into how to use this feature without mind-bending tricks.

5: Create a dynamic Excel chart and make your own dashboard

This blog post is one of my favorites. I enjoyed sharing the technique, but more than that, I loved the way the readers jumped in to help one another with a step I accidentally omitted in the instructions. TechRepublic readers rock!

6: A quick Excel keyboard trick for selecting large ranges

This technique uses Go To ([F5]) in an unusual way – to anchor two cells, creating a range. The ensuing conversation shared a number of great selection tips!

7: Three tips for rounding Excel time values

Using the right function can help you round up your rounding woes. Excel offers three rounding functions and knowing them all will round out your skills nicely. (Okay, I promise to stop that.)

8: Three things you must do when you inherit an Excel workbook

I review a lot of workbooks, so this blog was one of my favorites to write. In my experience, performing these three quick tasks when inheriting a workbook can speed up your troubleshooting time. Fortunately, it sparked some insightful conversation into what others do.

9: Launch Word with the most recently used document

Reader response sometimes surprises me, as it did for this easy technique. I hadn’t expected so many great alternatives from the readers.

10: Run a list of rolling credits at the end of your PowerPoint presentation

I’m glad a PowerPoint technique made the top list, but it wasn’t because the readers loved my technique. Mostly, the conversation centered on the typo I missed, and then my lack of proper contrition for said typo. It was fun while it lasted.

Takeaway:  Risks with staying with Windows XP after April 8, 2014.

Since being release worldwide on October 25, 2001, Windows XP has become one of the most popular versions of Windows.  OEM and retail sales of Windows XP ended in June 2008, while smaller OEMs continued to sell the Operating System until January of 2009.

On April 10, 2012, Microsoft officially announced that as of April 8, 2014 they will end extended support for Windows XP and Office 2003, after which no new bug fixes or patches will be issued.

Organizations may be taking a spontaneous risk and assume that Window’s XP’s prolonged life means major vulnerabilities have been acknowledged and dealt with.  If XP were secure, there still might be application-level vulnerabilities.  Even the ranges of security breaches are inadequate to persuade some organizations that are still using Windows XP to upgrade.  The dynamics that have safeguarded XP’s success are now working against the organizations that stuck by the operating system.

A major aspect attackers assess during their investigation is the operating system and the applications used within an organization.  With Microsoft ending their support, the vendors for applications running on it will most likely end support.

On the other hand, those preparing to continue using XP after the cut-off date, are going to be in a unpleasant situation trying to protect their intellectual property, but can take certain steps to limit exposure to risk.  There are specific technologies you could deploy that will permit you to remain using legacy systems.  Mitigating technologies like Host-Based Intrusion Protection will be able to identify that a vulnerability exists and make that vulnerability difficult/impossible to exploit by applying a virtual patch to those non-supported environments.

However, XP’s acceptance is down to the technology itself and an operating system format that people are content with.  The significant changes with Windows Vista, Windows 7 and especially Windows 8 are the reason people are resistant to change.

To protect and upgrade your home or business

 please contact us 856-745-9990

Takeaway:  Alternative options for mail client’s that are not as costly as Outlook but offer the same features.

Outlook is one of the most widely used email clients in the business world.  For smaller companies, there are email clients that provide cost-effective solutions.  Other email clients offer a variety of features that are comparable to Outlook.  The most significant means of communication in the office is email; communication will suffer if the email client does not work well with the organizations requirements. 

Opera Mail

Opera Mail is free and offered for Windows, Mac and Linux.  This e-mail client supports POP, IMAP (no Exchange support), newsgroups, RSS, and Atom feed.  Opera mail has a fast and simple user interface, thread views, spam protection and allows you to browse websites.

Dreammail

Dreammail is free and offered for Windows XP/Vista/7.  This e-mail client supports POP3, RSS, and ESMTP/Google/Yahoo.  Dreammail has multiple accounts and multiple-users setup, templates, signature options, anti-spam, address book, message filtering and a web-mail tool.

iScribe

iScribe is free and offered for Windows and Linux.  This e-mail client supports POP3 and IMAP, as well as international standards.  iScribe has built-in baysian span filter, frequent updates and can be used from a portable drive.

Postbox

Postbox is $9.95 per license and offered for Windows and Mac.  This e-mail client is best for Gmail but it also supports POP and IMAP.  Postbox has native Gmail label support, fast access to your favorite accounts, social networking integration and you can add Dropbox services.

Evolution Mail

Evolution is free and offered for Linux (open source).  This e-mail client supports POP, IMAP and Exchange.  Evolution has calendar, tasks, contacts, memos, LDAP compatibility, folder search, encryption, multiple accounts, server support, default plugins, as well as, additional plugins.

The innovative plan for Windows 8 was to connect the mature personal computer generation with the prospering one of smartphones and tablets.

Many users are finding difficulty with adapting to the new Operating System.  Two major requests for Windows 8.1 (code-named “Blue”) is to bring back the Start button and boot-to-desktop feature.  Currently, the Start button is located in “Charms” which is a secondary taskbar set on the right-side of the screen.  The initial boot screen has much larger icons with live tiles.  Live tiles are software widgets that present dynamic content.

Microsoft is considering allowing users to restore the Start button and initially boot to the traditional desktop with Windows 8.1 (code-named “Blue”).

If Microsoft decides to add the Start button or boot-to-desktop feature to Blue, it will not be the first time a Windows Operating System has changed the user interface backwards to satisfy the users.

Microsoft has still not announced a release date for Windows Blue.  Likely, more information will arise from the Microsoft Build Developer Conference on June 26 – 28, 2013.

Takeaway:  Specifications break down of the top four prominent smartphones.

In the United States the top four smartphones are Samsung Galaxy SIII, iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy Note II and Motorola Razr Maxx HD.  The chart compares mobile carriers, platform, hardware, networks/ Wi-Fi, display, camera and battery for all four leading phones.

If you’re thinking about buying a new smartphone, the chart below will be a quick guide with the necessary feature-to-feature comparisons to make a worthy choice.

Takeaway: Microsoft Office is not the only game in town; South Jersey Techies suggests some suitable alternatives for Microsoft Office.

Although Microsoft Office is one of the most popular productivity suites available, it is far from being the only choice available. Here are five alternatives to Microsoft Office that you might consider the next time you are looking to purchase an office suite.

1. Google Docs

Google Docs is a cloud based productivity suite that lets you create word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and drawings. Because Google Docs is a browser based application, it isn’t quite as full featured as some of the other productivity suites. Even so, Google Docs is free, and there is nothing to install on your computer. The interface is completely intuitive and Google Docs can be used to create and edit Microsoft Office documents.

2. LibreOffice

LibreOffice is a free productivity suite that is designed to act as an alternative to Microsoft Office.  Like Apache Open Office, Libre Office offers a word processor, a spreadsheet, a presentation application, a drawing tool, and a database application. In fact, the launch screen is nearly identical to that of Apache Open Office. The reason for this is that in 2010 some of the OpenOffice developers broke away from OpenOffice and created LibreOffice. As such, there are a lot of similarities between the two suites. LibreOffice even supports the use of OpenOffice documents.

3. Kingsoft Office Suite Free 2012

Kingsoft Office Suite Free 2012 is, as the name implies, a free office suite. The free version includes a word processor, a spreadsheet, and a presentation application. These applications look and feel like Office 2010 applications, and the software fully supports the use of Office documents in addition to its own native file format. Also supported are standard file types such as RTF, TXT, and HTML.

4. Apache Open Office

Apache Open Office is a free office suite that can trace its roots back for well over a decade. This open source suite contains utilities for creating text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, and formulas. Open Office should be easy to use for anyone who is familiar with Office 2010. The word processor and spreadsheet look a lot like Word and Excel. The presentation application looks different than PowerPoint, but contains familiar controls. The suite is capable of opening (and saving) Microsoft Office documents and other common file formats.

5. Office Web App

The Microsoft Office Web Apps are an alternative to an on-premise Microsoft Office deployment. This free suite of cloud apps includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. Furthermore, you get 7 GB of free storage space on SkyDrive, which is useful for storing your Office Web App documents. Office Web App that isn’t quite as full featured as Office 2010 or Office 2013, but Microsoft does have the basics covered. Besides, it is hard to argue with the price, which is free.

Takeaway: When equipment reaches the end of its useful life, IT must either dispose of it or find it a new home. Here are several good ways to handle the situation.

Few companies amortize their computing equipment for more than three years of useful life. So once computing assets reach the end of the line, what do you do with them? In 2013, some best practice answers remain the same, but others are new. Here’s a checklist for dealing with old IT equipment.

1: Meet Your Green Requirements

In some industries and geographical areas, companies are now required to demonstrate adherence to green standards and environmental sustainability. One way to show compliance is by having environmentally effective policies for disposing of old computing equipment. In doing so, you also contribute to corporate sustainability compliance. There is value in that.

2: Work with Local Schools

Corporate IT can partner with local schools by donating good but used equipment that they can use for technology projects. Some companies take this goodwill effort even further by partnering with schools in tech development programs that include student internships with the company. “Proven” interns from these programs can make excellent IT hires. The company also develops a great reputation in the community.

3: Use Older Equipment for Training and Testing

Especially in thin client application environments that don’t depend on compute-in-the-box (think cloud), older equipment is ideal for training, which historically operates on thin budgets and is always looking for a resource infusion.

You can also use older equipment for testing purposes, as long as your test results will accurately emulate the production environment they are targeted for.

4: Cannibalize

Some older equipment can be used as spare part sources if there is enough version compatibility between the old and the new equipment. Replacement disk drives are a great example.

5: Work your Trade-ins (lease/buy)

Never underestimate your ability to trade up to new equipment by turning in your old equipment. You can secure a discount that may be as much as one-third of your new equipment retail price. If you lease equipment instead of buying it, a mechanism in the lease contract allows you to get credit for older equipment on the lease that you are exchanging for new.

6: Sell to the Third-party Market

Especially for power servers, mainframes, and disk drives, you can usually find a third-party reseller of older equipment that will buy it from you (only to resell it to another company). However, to qualify your equipment for this market, you must first recertify it with its original vendor. In the equipment re-certification process, the vendor examines and (if necessary) repairs the equipment to make sure it is production-ready.

7: Cycle Down Older Equipment to Low Power Users

In most companies, the high power users are in areas like finance and engineering. Users requiring desktop or laptop computers with fewer bells and whistles might be in the warehouse, the factory, or in work locations where there is a lot of environmental interference (dust, etc.), which you don’t want to subject your newest equipment to. Many companies have a downward rotation cycle they apply to desktop and laptop computers that cycles these assets into lower-power user groups after a certain time frame. By using this strategy, companies can often extend the life cycles of these assets for two or more years.

8: Sell or Auction Older Equipment to Employee

Many employees look for inexpensive laptops that they and their children can use at home or at school. If they can purchase a nice computer that might not be the latest and greatest but that still works and fits their budgets, they are happy to take an older piece of equipment off your hands.

9: Donate to Charities

Charities are always looking for free computing equipment that can run their operations. However, never approach them with an eye toward dumping off equipment that is so antiquated it won’t support Internet or run a current word processor or spreadsheet program. In fact, many charities have wised up to the old “dump it” approach and now set minimum standards for accepting older equipment (e.g., “must at least run a Windows 7 operating system”).

10: Sell for Scrap

Companies used to give away old equipment to recycling.  But in today’s lucrative scrap metal market, the goal instead should be to sell this equipment to scrappers.

If you are looking to purchase new equipment please contact us at (856) 745-9990. 

Takeaway: From diagnostic tools to antivirus to backup utilities, this list of freebies will help you do more with less.

If you’re trying to stretch a thin IT budget, you probably can’t afford a lot of pricey tools. Luckily, a number of highly useful tools are available for free. Some of them even work better and are more efficient than their costlier alternatives.

1: ComboFix

When the standard antivirus/malware software can’t seem to find the problem, ComboFix almost always does. It also looks for and removes most rootkits and Trojans. To use this tool, you must completely disable all antivirus solutions (and you should completely remove AVG). Caution: If ComboFix is not used properly, it can wreak havoc on the machine you’re trying to fix.

2: ProduKey

ProduKey will help you get product keys from installed applications so that when you need to migrate to a new machine, you can continue using those costly licenses. ProduKey will recover keys from more than 1,000 software titles, including Microsoft Office, Adobe, and Symantec. When you use this tool, you will have both the product ID and the product key; the ID is important because it will tell you which version of the software is installed.

3: Hiren’s BootCD

Hiren’s BootCD is a one-stop-shop Linux boot disk that can help you pull off a number of small miracles. Its tools include Antivir, ClamWin, ComboFix, Clonedisk, Image for Windows, BIOS Cracker, 7-Zip, Bulk Rename, Mini Windows XP, CCleaner, and Notepad++, among others. This single bootable disk could easily be the only tool you need.

4: Microsoft Security Essentials

Microsoft Security Essentials is one of the better free antivirus tools available. Its tagline, “The anti-annoying, anti-expensive, anti-virus program,” is true. When the firm I work with was looking for a new free solution, we tested Microsoft Security Essentials against AVG Free and Avast Free and found Microsoft Security Essentials to be superior, less intrusive, and less resource intensive.

Note: Microsoft Security Essentials can be used for free for up to 10 PCs. Beyond that, you can purchase the business version, System Center Endpoint Protection.

5: WinDirStat

WinDirStat is the program you need when you must know what is taking up the space on a hard drive. When C drives begin to fill up, performance degrades rapidly. It’s essential to have a tool to help you discern what is gobbling up the precious space on a machine, and WinDirStat is the foremost app for getting this information quickly.

6: CCleaner

CCleaner gets rid of temporary files and Windows Registry problems faster than any other tool. When a machine is having problems, this is almost always the tool I use first. CCleaner also helps ensure privacy by getting rid of traces left behind (such as cookies) by Web browsers.

Note: It is legal to use CCleaner Free for business use. However, CCleaner Business Editioncomes with a few more features (including one-click cleaning) than the free version.

7: Defraggler

Defraggler blows away the defragmenting application in all Windows operating systems. It’s faster, more reliable, and more flexible than the built-in tools. With Defraggler, you can defrag a single file or an entire drive. Defraggler supports NTFS and FAT32 systems.

8: 7-Zip

7-Zip is the best file archiver/compression tool (outside of Linux command-line tools). It’s open source and works on multiple platforms. Once you install it, you will find 7-Zip has Explorer support and a simple GUI tool that any level of user can manage.

9: SyncBack

SyncBack is a reliable, easy-to-use backup utility. No, you won’t be recovering from bare metal, but you can save your precious data. SyncBack can synchronize data to the same drive, a different drive or medium (CDRW, CompactFlash, etc.), an FTP server, a network, or a zip archive.

10: FileZilla

FileZilla reminds you that the cloud has not made FTP useless. There are plenty of reasons you might need FTP, so why not use one of the best and most cost effective FTP clients? And if you need an easy-to-use FTP server to slap up on your Windows machines, FileZilla has one.