| June 2008
In this issue: ■ Disaster Ready?
■ How to Undo Mistake
■ Deadline for XP
■ Business Interruption
Planning
■ The Weakest Link
■ Service Pack vs Patch
■ Case Study
■ Watch What You Install
■ Sit Up Straight
■ Barnacleware
■ Opportunities
| The Weakest Link in Network Security
By Peter Alexander
Reprinted with permission from Microsoft Small Business Center
Your small-business network may be protected by firewalls, intrusion detection and other state-of-the-art security technologies. And yet, all it takes is one person’s carelessness, and suddenly it’s as if you have no network security at all. Continue Service Pack
vs “Patch”
contributed by the Technical Department at ITsynergy
Microsoft has been busy the last several months, and among other things has released two new major service packs that will affect most of our customers. We thought that we first might provide some benefit by discussing the difference between a service pack and a patch. Patches are released regularly by Microsoft and fix a specific problem with a piece of their software. Microsoft categorizes their patches with the most important being categorized as critical. Microsoft has one of the best records in the industry in this area, including a regular schedule of patch releases (second Tuesday of every month), outstanding communication to interested parties about the patching process (they email us to warn us of everything that is coming out before it hits) and free support for problems created by patches. Continue Barnacleware
by Mark D. MacLachlan, itSynergy Keeping up to date with security patches for non Microsoft applications can be a daunting task. Redmond Security Watch author Russ Cooper recently referred to applications that come pre-installed on new computers as barnacleware. The name is apropos, these pre-installed utilities cling to new PCs slowly eating away at resources (both hard disk and memory) in the same manner that barnacles cling to a ship’s hull, slowing it down and slowly eating the hull. Continue Please share this newsletter with anyone who might be interested. | Is Your Business Disaster-Ready?
By Jeff Wuorio
Reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Small Business CenterHurricanes, earthquakes and other natural events are disasters in every sense of the word. Lives are lost, property decimated and entire communities disrupted.For your small business, these events can be just as devastating. But there’s a great deal you can do — both to prepare before a disaster strikes and afterwards, to get your business back on its feet quickly.Here are 10 tips to better protect your business and, if damage occurs, what you can do to speed your recovery. The first five tips will help you protect your business. |
| How to ‘Undo’ a Big Mistake in Windows
by Kim Komando
Reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Small Business CenterIt used to be, back in that last century, that people wished for a reverse time machine. This would allow them to go back in time after they messed up their computer. Well, Windows XP has that time machine. And when some awful thing gives your computer the staggers, it’s easy to go back to the day before. Or the day before that. Or last week or last month. It’s an all-too-often unused feature that may save your bacon someday, called System Restore. Here are some things to know about it. |
| Microsoft sets 6/30/08
deadline for sales of XP Operating SystemMicrosoft appears to be sticking with its announced deadline of 6/30/08 for sales of their Windows XP O/S. There is a grass-roots effort to convince Microsoft to extend that deadline, and despite Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s comments in Belgium that “If customer feedback varies we can always wake up smarter, but right now we have a plan for end-of-life for new XP shipments,” the company has yet to budge on the June 30th deadline. (see this link for more details.)What does this mean for you? eMazzanti Technologies will be able to order PCs for clients with XP Professional for some months to come. If we see any change in that policy, we will send out an alert to our client base immediately.The deadline does seem to indicate Microsoft’s determination to phase XP out in favor of Vista, but with a little planning, businesses can time their equipment refresh schedules to keep XP as their predominant PC O/S for long enough to ensure they won’t need to switch to Vista until it’s a more mature product. Continue |
| | Business Interruption Planning Not Just for Big Business: 10 misconceptions about disaster recovery Paul Sullivan has seen it all. A 25-year veteran of disaster recovery and business continuity management, Sullivan witnessed the growth of continuity planning among the Fortune 1000 in the 1980s. He watched, first hand, the successes and failures of business continuity plans following the events of September 11, 2001 and in 2005 throughout the most active hurricane season in recorded history. Today, Sullivan is helping small and medium-sized companies plan for and recover after significant business interruptions.“Continuity planning has always been associated with big business,” said Sullivan, Vice President and General Manager, Agility Recovery Solutions. “We’re using the same knowledge, strategies and tactics we developed with the Fortune 1000 and implementing them among small and medium-sized businesses across North America.” Agility Recovery Solutions, a former division of General Electric, focuses planning and recovery efforts on small and medium-sized businesses, though the company continues to do work with giants such as IBM and HP. Why Business Continuity? Why now? |
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| | Proud member of
| | | The Original SoupMan SoupMan
Finds a Key Ingredient for Business Growth
Soup Kitchen International wanted to implement a technology architecture that would keep it connected to its growing family of franchisees. With the help of Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, eMazzanti Technologies, it discovered that Windows Server® 2008 would work seamlessly with its disparate business-critical applications. Deploying it has improved operational efficiency, has increased employee productivity, and has become part of the company’s plan for growth. Read the Case Study
| Watch What You Install On Your Server
by Christopher Elliott
reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Small Business CenterDownload warning: Watch what you install on your server. Today’s server operating systems, including Microsoft Small Business Server 2003, are so user-friendly that you could be left with the impression that anyone with the ability to put a CD into a computer disk drive could successfully deploy a new application. Here are a few things I wish I had done. | Sit Up Straight and Keep Your Wrists in Neutral
By Monte Enbysk
Reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Small Business CenterErgonomics is not a four-letter word — even though many business owners may think otherwise. That’s because when business people hear the word ergonomics, they immediately think of dollar signs — as in what it will cost to outfit employee workstations with new setups to prevent sometimes crippling injuries. Continue | | Opportunities at
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