There were many decisions to make when a medium-sized screw machine manufacturing firm in Elyria, Ohio, who manufacturers steel parts for companies around the globe, decided to expand its operations. Where would a new plant be located? How many machines would it need to house? How many employees would it have, and on how many shifts?

What kind of networking capabilities would be required? How costly would it be to support computer systems at the new site? How fast would the network connections at the new site need to be?

Working with this firm’s manager of information technology, Best Technology developed a thin-client solution that allowed for deployment of ten workstations at the new site in a three-day period, including complete virtualization and backup. By leveraging a combination of solutions produced by Microsoft, Dell, and Wyse, Best Technology engineers Ted Wallingford, Buck Trnavsky, and Jeff Anderson were able to create a highly-manageable, high-speed virtual computing solution for the firm.

The advantages of the thin-client/virtualized approach are:

• The manager of I.T. doesn’t need to worry about application with compatibility or a trojan taking down his terminal servers, because there are no terminal servers.
• Immediate restore to default configuration is possible and easy on all workstations using VM snapshots.
• Compatibility with accessory hardware like freight scales and punch clocks was enabled using Wyse thin client driver software.
• The entire environment can be managed from Elyria, where the main office is located.
• Because the virtual workstations run Windows 7 Professional, the end-user experience is the same as a more expensive (and less energy efficient) PC workstation.

Talk to Best Technology about your next expansion project–virtualization can save you time, money, and headaches.

The answer, to many, is solar power. Clean, silent, low-maintenance, and largely emissions-free. But science tells us today that solar farms aren’t efficient. Based on their figures, I decided to extrapolate a few solar farm scenarios based on the parameters of the new solar-powered data centers built by Facebook in Oregon and Apple in N. Carolina.

Facebook’s data center is a 100-megawatt giant, and its solar array, which spans acres and acres in the Oregon outback, puts out a just 0.05 megawatts at a typical energy conversion efficiency of about 14%. Apple’s planned N.C. solar farm will fill 180 acres of land and will put out 3.5 megawatts at typical efficiency (Apple will drive a 70 megawatt load on a slow day at their N.C. data center). Using those ratios, and keeping in mind that these are the best, most efficient solar generators on the planet, we could estimate that:

* A typical .3 kw household would require 0.154 acre of this top-of-the-line solar technology. That would fill a typical suburban lot, and leave no room for the house.

* A typical 3.5 acre city block, containing 16 households, would require 2.5 acres of solar array, or two and a half football fields.

* New York City, some 325 square miles in size, if it were filled only with these houses, would require a solar array the size of Chicago, which weighs in at about 250 square miles.

* The USA would require about three states the size of Texas filled only with solar farms and nothing else to fulfill its electricity needs. The distribution system for this electricity (power lines, AC turbines, etc.) would require a further two states the size of Colorado.

My conclusions:

* Mass-market electrical consumption cannot be serviced by solar generation without regulated rationing.
* The current industry focus on solar energy has much more to do with applied research as it does with near-term ROI.
* Data centers should concentrate, if they want to save money, or if they believe fossil and nuclear power generation are harmful, on reducing their consumption.

Best Technology’s Managed Technology Plan allows data center managers to better understand their power consumption and make informed decisions to affect change in the power requirements of their hardware and software systems.

In recent years, the need for complex passwords, PIN numbers, user names, email addresses, etc. has become more important than ever. Unfortunately, many users use the same generic, easily guessed passwords or phrases for most, if not all, of their accounts. Recent studies have shown just how basic user passwords really are, as demonstrated by this list of the top 5 commonly used passwords:

• 123456
• password
• iloveyou
• 654321
• abc123

From a security standpoint, unique passwords are very important in keeping information private and secure. However, from a user prospective, unique passwords are seen as a time consuming headache.

In order to improve password security, let us first address what makes a password “strong”. A strong password includes at least one upper case letter, one lower case letter, one number, and one special character.  A great example of a strong password is “P@ssw0rd” as using numbers and special characters in place of normal letters is a great way to make the password more unique yet easy to remember.

While it is easy to create a memorable strong password, how can users create these passwords AND remember them for every user account and service they access? Solutions like a written password list or an Excel spreadsheet list, while popular, are not secure and are easily lost. Listed below are free password management solutions which fill the needs of both password tracking and security:

KeePass
http://keepass.info/

Password Safe
http://sourceforge.net/projects/passwordsafe/

FlyBit Password Keeper
http://www.pwkeeper.com/

With the above programs, the files which contain the password list are securely encrypted. If the password list is compromised, a hacker will have a very difficult time breaking the encryption in order to gain access to the password database. An added benefit of these programs is the inclusion of a random password generator. This function will create a password for a new account using strong password requirements. All a user needs to remember is the master password for their password list, so randomly generated passwords are much easier to work with.

The Best Technology team are experts on enforcing password security on a business network scale through tools such as Active Directory and Managed Services. Give one of  our Business Technology Consultants a call today at 440-471-0344 to discuss how Best Technology can bring your business password security peace of mind.

Related article: Make Your Password A Needle In A Haystack For Hackers

• Maybe it’s time to start doing issue tracking or helpdesk ticketing.
• Maybe we should start covering more hours with our helpdesk.
• We don’t really know how to handle our helpdesk overflow.
• Maybe it’s time to invest in a system monitoring solution to reduce helpdesk calls.
• Maybe it’s time to add second-level and third-level support to our helpdesk staff.

Any one of these propositions can be daunting–and pricey–to a small I.T. department.  The cost of implementing ticket tracking and system monitoring alone is extremely high ($15,000 or more for many of the smallest businesses), to say nothing of trying to implement overflow schedules to handle high call volumes or add pricey third-level skillsets to the team.

The problem is, the “let me at ‘em” attitude that pervades most in-house I.T. departments is a phenomenon, which, while admirable, is often at odds with the objectives of the business.  I.T. managers often try to learn how to build a proper helpdesk outfit with ticketing, service level agreements, and issue escalation, by choosing from a variety of pricey software components to accomplish each.  Worse still, sometimes I.T. outfits will attempt to develop the software components themselves, wasting time and resources.

The end-result is a helpdesk practice that fails to meet industry best practices and serves to reinvent the wheel in a very costly fashion.

With Best Technology’s Managed Helpdesk, there’s a better way. Out local-sourced helpdesk service includes:

• Hotline service
• Optional system monitoring via MTP
• Second-level and third-level support escalation
• Cradle-to-grave issue tracking
• Macro-reporting on service delivery
• Hot-spot reporting
• Automated ticketing with container-based security, so end-users can’t see each other’s tickets, but dept. managers can.
• Optional second and third shift availability
• 24×7 always-on web based issue reporting

As you consider how best to implement ticketing and issue tracking in your company’s I.T. department, consider Best Technology.  As always, we’re here to help.

What I’ve discovered over seven years of consulting and nineteen years in data processing technology is quite axiomatic: my own success is inexorably tied to my customers’ success.   This is why I cheer when my customers grow, and why I worry when they undergo turmoil–because those experiences are, to a degree, reflections upon the work of my team and I.

And as Best Technology approaches the conclusion of its sixth year in business, I’ve learned that this rule addresses something even deeper than achievement.  This rule addresses purpose.  As such, I’ve realize that the purpose of our company isn’t just repairing computer systems and networking equipment.  It isn’t just management consulting.  It isn’t content publishing or mobile applications.  Those are all just means.

Our purpose is to support–and sometimes to cause–our customers’ success.  What a wonderful thing that our purpose in business is so noble.  We help people succeed, and the measure of their success is also the measure of our own.

RECENT PAGES:
I first experienced this feature in IE7 and was hooked right away. IE added a small down arrow next to the Forward Button that would show you a list of recent pages you’ve been to. This became useful when I would surf through pages, and then decide I wanted to go 4 steps back. Now instead of clicking the back button 4 times I could choose that page from the list. This also helped if the page I was on used redirects to get me there. Most of us have had the issue where we hit the back button, which takes us back to the redirect page, which then sends us right back to the page we were just on. Now I could choose the page I wanted right from the list. AMAZING!!

Now this feature has either been worked into or already existed in the other 3 browsers, though with IE and Firefox being the two I primarily used, i didn’t notice if Chrome or Safari had the feature. When IE9 came out, the drop down button no longer existed on the screen anymore, and try though I may, I couldn’t find it’s new location. So I bid a sad farewell to the feature, but was happy knowing I still could use it in FireFox.

I have recently acquired a tablet and through it’s utilization I have gotten used to the idea of a single tap to do an action, and a long press on certain things to get additional options. I decided to take that idea onto my laptop and did a long press on the IE9 back button. There it was, my old friend Recent Pages, hiding behind a long press. I then checked Safari and Chrome and found that they also used the long press on the back button to show recent pages, and with Firefox, the feature was still the small down arrow.

So no matter which of these browsers you choose, this feature is there for you to take advantage of.

Favorites/Bookmarks Bar

This feature I first noticed in IE8 and liked the idea of having a toolbar that had my most used favorites in it. With a click of the “add to favorites bar” button I had a page that  I frequented without needing to constantly go into my favorites, or type in the address bar. You can also left click and drag the icon of the web page in the address bar right into the favorites bar to add a shortcut.

All four of the browsers allow you to drag the Page from the address bar. Once the shortcut is there you can right click to rename, delete, and check properties. You can drag the shortcuts around the bar so that they are in the order that you like. My problem was that over time, I added more shortcuts than I had space for.

The other three browsers have a simple solution for this. You can right click on the favorites/bookmark bar and create folders that you can then sort and drop bookmarks into. Each folders acts as a drop-down menu. The problem with IE was that this feature didn’t work the same. Right clicking on the bar only gave the IE menu to turn various bars on and off. IE’s solution is to go to your favorites and select “Organize Favorites”. A new window comes up with your favorites listed, the “Favorites Bar” is in the list as a folder. When you expand that folder, all of your shortcuts in the bar are listed. From here you can right click on the Favorites bar folder and create sub-folders that will show up in the bar. You can then group and arrange the shortcuts as you wish.

So there they are, two features that I use daily to make my browsing experience a little easier, faster, and customized.

Questions Answered, Problems Solved, Life Made Easier, check back for future Tech Tidbits, AND Give us a call to find out how Best Technology can be there for you and your business 24/7.

Regardless, iOS5 drastically improves Apple’s mobile operating system in an age where mobile Internet computing is as critical as desktop computing was fifteen years earlier. Many of iOS5′s improvements improve the iPhone and iPad as business productivity devices. Let’s take a look at how some of those changes benefit the business user.

Messages
Designed to helpyou manage email on the go, iPhone users have long had the Messages app, but it was purely for sending and receiving text messages as part of your cell plan. With iOS5, Apple introduced iMessage, their answer to the Blackberry Messenger service. Now any iOS user, regardless of what device they use, can communicate with other iOS users.

The service is free and only requires an Apple ID, something which every iOS user already has in order to install apps on their device. This will come in very handy for traveling consultants and sales people who find themselves needing to contact a fellow employee fast but are without a cell signal or using a device which is wi-fi only.  Even better, iMessages don’t count as text messages on the phone bill.

Calendar
iOS5 makes it much easier for users to manipulate their calendar and keep track of where they need to be with who at what time. On the iPhone and iPod Touch, rotating into landscape view will now bring up the ability to see multiple days on the screen. The view is basically a week view which the user can scroll through from left to right and back. The big change for all iOS users, however, is the ability to drag and drop appointments both within and between days. Just tap and hold an event on the calendar and it will appear to lift up off the calendar “page”. The user can then move the event to a different time or, if in landscape view, across to a different day.

Reminders
This is a new app in iOS5, but it may be the biggest and best addition to the operating system since the App Store. Reminders is Apple’s task management app. The app, along with mail, calendar, and contacts, syncs over the air with an Exchange account, now giving users access to their Outlook tasks. Adding and editing tasks are simple processes and the tasks appear as if they were written on notebook paper with a check box by each task for when they are completed. The reminder part comes from the ability to have the device remind the user when a task needs to be completed, but reminders also have the ability to send an alert based on location. For example, a user can enter a reminder to write a client visit report when they return to their office. When the device detects it is in proximity of the office based on GPS, the alert goes off. This is very handy for traveling users, including the aforementioned consultants and sales people.

Siri
Apple is making the biggest deal regarding this feature but, as it is only available for iPhone 4S users, not all users have access to it. Those that have shelled out the cash for a new iPhone, however, are in for a treat when they use Siri. Siri brings voice commands on the iPhone to a whole new level. Previously, users could tell the iOS device to call certain contacts or play certain music with varying levels of success. Siri, which was a 3rd party app before Apple bought, turns the iPhone into a personal assistant. Users can now create calendar items, reminders, and messages by just telling their phone to do so. Users can also ask Siri questions, which the service will answer using information sources such as Wolfram Alpha and Yelp to find the answer. The most obvious use for Siri is in the car as it grants hands free operation of the device to the driver, but, for those who are not fans of the iPhone on screen keyboard, this is a whole new way of interacting with the phone. Once Siri is available to all iOS users (Siri, according to Apple, is currently in beta), this service can truly redefine how users interact with technology.

These are just a few of the ways which iOS devices can benefit business users. There are many more functions, both in iOS5 and in previous versions, which make the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch excellent tools for improving productivity in the business world. The Business Technology Consultants at Best Technology are experts in iOS and Apple products and are standing by for your call to help you get the most out of your Apple technology. Give them a call today at 440-471-0344.

The old saying, “don’t fix what ain’t broke” is commonly applied to computer systems, with the expectation that a computer will run forever.  But this thinking isn’t very smart–you wouldn’t expect a car to run forever.

Today, a third of small business computers are more than five years old.  Older systems are obviously less reliable, just like older cars–but they’re also slower.   Older computers may not be able to run the latest software, either.  For these reasons, most businesses have adopted a “tech refresh” program, wherein they pick a time period, say two to three years, and replace all of their workstations and servers once during that time frame, on a repeating basis.

That much you’re probably familiar with.  What you might not know is the reasons why businesses choose NOT to keep their workstation fleets up-to-date.  So, why do businesses cling to their old machines?

1. New software means training users for new capabilities.  This incurs both a cost and a benefit.

2. Disposing of old computer equipment is ridden with expenses and regulations.  You can’t just throw old PCs and monitors out with the trash.

3. Some businesses don’t view computing power as a “cost of doing business”.   Instead, they view computer acquisition as a strategic, project-centric activity.  They get stuck replacing 12 computers at once, instead of one per month all year.

4. Purchases may be put off because of the constantly changing cost-to-value ratio. As computing power is always increasing in the latest PCs, the effective cost is lowered, causing some to wait on purchasing new equipment because, “tomorrow, it’ll be cheaper”.

While there’s a legitimate point in all four of these reasons, the truth is, each of these reasons is a restatement of something that is damaging to a business.  Whether its competitiveness (1), liability avoidance (2), predictability of budget (3), or productivity (4), Best Technology has a solution for you.

A great place to start is simply knowing how old all of your equipment is–and then monitoring its age and health over time.  The best way to accomplish this is by having a Best Technology Techpod installed on your network.  You (or we) will be able to monitor the health and age of all of the systems running on your network. It’s the first step towards having an active and forward-looking technology refresh program.

Once a computer is infected with malware, it generates thousands of emails and sends them to people not only in the infected user’s contact list, but sometimes from a database of email addresses generated by all infected computers. While the program is doing this, it may also be the cause of numerous other problems for the infected user including internet pop ups, web search redirects, and slowness.

Be on the lookout for suspicious-looking emails.  While everyone should be aware of these, it is sometimes tough to tell the difference between the real and the fake emails. Best Technology offers Secure Mail, a solution that stops those emails from ever making it to your mailbox. So keep those mailboxes spam and virus free by giving us a call to see what Secure Mail with Best Technology can do for you!