Windows Server 2008 Launch

There has been much talk about the launching of Windows Server 2008. The server operating system finally hit the streets in early March after more than a year of beta testing and plenty of anticipation created by rave reviews of early versions.

Originally called Longhorn (we like that in Austin, don’t we?), this OS is distinguished by the addition of significant new functionality across the board.

Windows Server 2008 enables IT professionals and small business owners to increase the reliability of their networks while decreasing support and maintenance costs.

New virtualization tools and security enhancements help save time, reduce costs and provide a platform for a dynamic and optimized network. Virtualization in Windows 2008 allows multiple systems to operate on a single server with no incremental licensing costs. This can insulate networks against software failure and data corruption. Advanced security and reliability enhancements harden the operating system and protect the server environment to provide a solid foundation on which to build a business.

The new operating system allows for installations of only necessary components to fit a specific server role, rather than a large, default installation that takes up many more server resources. Not only is the install much lighter, but the smaller footprint also means a whittled down attack surface for the always dreaded malware.

The release of Windows Server 2008 has an immediate impact on all server purchases. GCS is extremely excited about the enhancements included in Windows Server 2008. We recommend that, unlike Windows Vista, this product be adopted as soon as Service Pack 1 is released.

There are a few key points when considering the OS for the needs of your business, including the fact that with Windows Server 2008 new pricing equates to spending more for more features, new virtualization licensing dramatically reduces virtualized server costs and that terminal server improvements compete with Citrix in the SMB market.

Windows Server 2008 also includes new disaster recovery features that dramatically reduce the cost of offsite server failover. And the operating system’s Terminal Server features enable remote access to individual applications without presenting a full desktop.

Remember, too, that with this release you can no longer purchase Windows Server 2003. You can, however, downgrade to Server 2003 with purchase of an Open Business or Open Volume Server 2008 license.

Windows Server 2008 is the mid-point of Microsoft’s current Dynamic IT strategy. Dynamic IT is a 10-year plan to drive down the cost of network maintenance and support by 75 percent while making it significantly cheaper to deploy new technologies.

The next step in this plan will be the launching of Windows Small Business Server 2008 (no release date has been set), which has been expanded to cover organizations up to 150 employees.

If you are considering moving to Windows Server 2008 or any major technology upgrade, call us – we can help you decide if it’s the right step for you and your business. Since 2000, GCS Technologies, Inc. has provided outstanding technology solutions to hundreds of satisfied clients. Our technology experts understand the unique problems faced by small and mid-sized businesses. We’ve helped them, and we can help you, too.

A business should not use online backup services!

Many small businesses have been enticed to dump their pain-in-the-neck tape backup system for a no-hassle online backup service. Though the internet based system may appear better, the tape backup actually provides a better, cheaper backup solution.

First let me define what I mean by "internet based backup service." That is any backup system that installs on your network and automatically uploads your data to an offsite location. These systems have several faults which should eliminate them from consideration by all but the smallest companies. Consider the following weaknesses:

It takes too long to get your data: When you have a data loss its helpful to recover from that loss quickly. Many internet based systems can take up to 48 hours for large data recoveries. The internet is just not fast enough to move large amounts of data (25GB+). They are much slower than a restore from a tape.

A single lost email can take 12 hours to recover: If a user erases a folder or an email from Outlook it is a nightmare to get back with most online backup services. Their recovery process would take a skilled technician 10-12 hours and require extra software and hardware to complete. it takes only minutes with the typical system configured by GCS using an external drive and tapes!

Internet based services are too expensive: The cost of an internet based service is usually much higher than GCS' typical system. A robust "normal" backup system with an LTO2 tape drive, 10 tapes, a cleaning tape, an external hard drive and Symantec Backup Exec would be cheaper than a comparable internet-based service in as few as 18 months. The expected lifetime of GCS' typical system is about 3 years!

Annual Archival: Everyone has a set of files they need rarely. What if they weren't there? If you use an online backup service and these files were lost more than a few weeks ago they are lost forever. You can prevent this with an annual archival. At the end of each year make a full backup to tape and NEVER reuse those tapes. A tape can last 30 years!

When it comes to backup systems you're much better off with a typical tape-based system. It is the lowest cost, fastest to restore, and most reliable system available. It is also a BIG PAIN IN THE NECK! As soon as a better solution is invented I'll be the first to post it here.

Settling For Less - The Off-the-shelf Solution

You've been searching the internet for months. "There must be some software for this," you think. Time after time the product you find fails to meet your needs. It lacks the right feature, costs too much, or requires a major network upgrade. When you finally give up hope a friendly stranger shows up. He can build that for you. He used to do that at Dell, Microsoft, or Oracle. "Nothing to it" he tells you.

After several months and tens of thousands of dollars you've start referring to the project as "the train wreck." Why did you think you should build it from scratch? Where did it all go wrong?

The greatest technology mistake a small business can make is to build anything from scratch. The last business you want to be in is software development. It's extremely expensive, high risk, and requires a skill set you don't have. Every year thousands of business owners make the same bad decision. A forensic analysis of each project would show the following basic mistakes:

You don't really know what you want. In software development there is an expression - "build the first one to throw it away." Until you've built the product you won't have thought through all the details. It might take several versions before you've figured out what you really wanted to build. In the meantime you've spent more than you can afford on the entire project and have nothing to show for it.

He doesn't know how to build it anyway. Many developers from large software teams have a skewed understanding of software development. They are isolated from 70% of the development process including design, testing, and implementation. They assume you will provide all of these services to them.

You can't afford a quality solution. You, your employees, and you clients are used to products like Microsoft Word and Quickbooks. These products function well 99.99% of the time and are fairly easy to use. These products also took dozens of versions and millions of dollars to produce. Though you may be able to overlook some deficiences in your custom product, your clients and employees will not.

The temptation to build what you need can be too great for many businesses. Unfortunately the technology service market, with its low barriers to entry, will always have new providers willing to take any job. If you settle for an off-the-shelf product you'll be much better off. Learn to live with its deficiencies and wait for the next version. By doing so you will save yourself tens of thousands of dollars and more than a few grey hairs.

Is Your Wireless Network Out of Date?

If you offer wireless network services to clients, you may have already been asked about Wireless N. Could it be that your investment in a wireless network is already worthless? Luckily that is not the case. You still have plenty of life left in your “old“ 802.11G wireless network. Though some early adopters may be asking for N based networks, there are few benefits that a Wireless N network will provide.

Wireless N is the latest and greatest wireless technology. It’s faster and further reaching. It is also not ready yet. The international standards committee in charge of such matters doesn’t anticipate approving Wireless N until late 2008. That hasn’t stopped numerous manufacturers from offering “Pre-N” products. This happens because a standard like Wireless N is reviewed for years before final approval. At this late stage it is unlikely to change significantly before final approval is granted. However it is possible that if you buy “Pre-N” equipment today it will not work with Wireless N cards released next year.

The new wireless will be several times faster and reach about twice as far. That is good news for owners of wireless networks. Your next network should require fewer access points. Don’t be fooled by claims of faster speeds. Though the claims are accurate the bottleneck in speed is not your wireless network. Existing wireless networks are between 5 and 25 times faster than their internet connection. Unless you upgrade your internet connection, your users will probably not see a significant speed increase from Wireless N.

For wireless sensitive consumers like business travelers, Wireless N offers attractive benefits. The improved wireless experience they are expecting will require a complete network upgrade and a significant internet connection upgrade.

The End of Passwords

Are you still requiring passwords on your wireless network? Why? They frustrate users and provide only limited security benefits to you. There are alternatives. Cisco, Sonicwall, and other wireless vendors make it easy to provide alternate login methods. Instead of requesting a password you should be directing all traffic to a secure website. At this website you can collect valuable user information such as email addresses or payment information. Once the user completes the information form they are granted access to the web.

Wireless Cell Phones

Many cell phones are now equipped with the same wireless network cards used in full sized computers. When in range of a wireless network the phone will use the wireless internet connection for all data traffic. This is a much faster connection than even the best cellular internet connections. Microsoft and others are promoting the use of wireless networks to send the call in addition to internet traffic. This can provide the user with many more call features at a lower cost. It will also provide the wireless network owner with yet another set of reasons to upset the user. Most wireless networks are not able to transmit calls without serious loss of quality.

It should come as no surprise that the traffic on your wireless is constantly increasing. Year after year your wireless network will have to support more devices using more bandwidth with increasing quality. Your wireless network investment will require constant upkeep to attract high value clients.

First Look at Microsoft's Phone System

A dramatic change is looming in the phone system market. Your next phone system will not be a system at all. It will be a piece of software installed on a server. You'll probably purchase it from the same company that sells you servers and network equipment. If you want a phone on your desk, you will have a small computer with phone-like features (a handset, a hold button, etc) provided by phone software. Many of you are already operating this way.

I flew to Houston this week for my first look at Microsoft's Response Point phone system. Response Point is Microsoft's first complete phone system including dedicated hardware, handsets, and voicemail. Microsoft's goal is to introduce a system that looks and feels like a standard phone system but sets the stage for a huge transition. The transition to a software based phone system. The idea is nothing new, vendors such as Cisco and I3 have been selling systems like these for years.

Response Point is unique in that it is designed and priced for small businesses with basic phone needs. It provides an amazing voice recognition system that removes the complexity of basic phone usage. Do you want to call a coworker? Just speak their name. Pick up a call on park? Just say the "magic" words. The quality is remarkable. You won't have to repeat yourself often.

The phone system, for now, is pre-installed on a dedicated hardware platform. There are two manufacturers that will offer a product under the Response Point name - Quanta and D-Link. Quanta has a superior feature set including Power over Ethernet support on the phones (translation: lower total costs) and remote gateway support which will allow phones at your home or remote office (technology trap: If you try this, you will have voice quality issues).

The system really shines in the areas of configuration, voice recognition, and compression. Setup is FAR easier than any other phone system I've seen. A low end IT technician or advanced non-technical user could setup a new user, move a phone, or change a voicemail password without any training. The voice recognition features are amazing. Microsoft has really mastered that technology. In addition the compression of voicemails is incredible - about 100KB per minute. My Avaya IP Office cranks out about 1MB per minute of voicemail. Have you tried opening your emailed voicemail with your Blackberry? Even a 1 minute voicemail isn't worth the trouble.

As you should expect in a version 1.0 product the system has crippling weaknesses. Backups are a manual process and can only be automated through a Scheduled Task (translation: too much trouble). There is no Call History on the desktop application unlike almost all of its competition. Want to set a specialized holiday greeting to inform client's of your hours? Only possible manually. Forwarding a voicemail to another user? Not without email access. These are only a few of the features that Response Point lacks. The system has a long way to go.

At $2500 with either 4 or 5 phones (varies for Quanta vs DLink) and about $160 for each additional phone, it is an attractively priced solution. However it will not compete well against low-end Samsung or Panasonic systems that provide many more features with less baggage. My recommendation is to wait until at least Version 2.0 before proceeding. Avoid the normal startup bugs and let Microsoft bring the feature set up to a competitive level.

As a business owner you need to start familiarizing yourself with the concept of a phone system as software. If you can do that you will get a remarkable number of new features on your phone system and save a substantial amount of money.

Executive Technology Briefing - November 2007

I hope this inaugural edition of the Executive Technology Briefing finds you well. This newsletter’s goal is to give you insight into your technology purchases. I will examine the costs, options, and value of business technology systems. I promise to keep it brief and packed with valuable information.

How can you reduce your technology spending next year?

If the budget is looking tight, there are a number of ways to minimize your technology spending. Here are a few ideas:

· Rely on remote support: GCS’ remote support technologies can cut onsite service trips dramatically. Most GCS clients already use this extensively. You can certainly use it more. Let us know you need to reduce costs. We’ll rely more heavily on remote support.

· Proactively replace server hardware: Waiting until a server fails can double or triple the service costs of replacement.

· Lease the necessary upgrades: With our extensive leasing options you can spread payments over a three or four year term including all service, hardware, and software. Also ask your CPA about important tax benefits of equipment leasing.

· Qualify for Microsoft discounts: When you purchase 5 Microsoft products at any one time, you qualify for steep discounts on all additional purchases for a 2 year period. Email me for more information.

· Provide employee training: Why do some users require hours of support per month while others require none? Support costs are much lower for users with greater technical skills. Even a little training can have a big impact

Is your fiscal year end approaching?

I hope you are burdened with excess profits! If so now is a great time to upgrade your 3 or 4 year old desktops or notebooks. Windows XP will become much more difficult to acquire in the near future. The benefits of Windows Vista do not outweigh the learning curve for the majority of users. I strongly suggest upgrading your aging desktops and keeping Windows XP while you still can. Most clients will want to skip the Vista operating system altogether. Unfortunately most current copies of Windows XP cannot be transferred to a new PC – they are forever tied to one computer. You will have to buy another copy with your next PC. Call or email me for a quote on your computer upgrades.

Help with building an accurate IT budget.

Many of my clients struggle when creating a technology budget. Here are some simple rules that will dramatically increase your accuracy. If you need more detail I’m happy to help with annual budgets or 3-5 year technology plans. I can even provide itemized estimates for planned upgrades or replacements.

· All equipment has a limited life span and will be replaced every 4 years.

Computer: $1200
Laptop: $1500
Server: $3000-$7500
Printer: $150 - $5000

· Every employee change (hire, fire, desk move, etc) will require 1 to 4 service hours

· A new employee will cost at least $2000 in new technology

Computer: $1200
Microsoft Office:$400
Setup: $300
Phone: $200

· On average an employee will cost about $50 per month in technical support services

· Subscription services such as virus scanning, warranties, etc can add up to thousands of dollars per year.

o Virus scanner annual costs: $25 per user
o 1 Year Service Contract(Warranty) on Network Equipment: $350
o Internet connection should be $200 - $600 per month
o Phone Service – between $200 and $1000 per month for 5 to 45 lines. If you’re still paying more than $600 per month for a PRI – let me know.