tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-332386742024-03-13T09:39:44.866-07:00Fervidus Scientia - Passion for TechnologyAndrew Grose's Blog for Information Technology and Business LeadershipAndrew Grosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13056839196997282248noreply@blogger.comBlogger213125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33238674.post-28098370195937354642017-03-15T09:06:00.002-07:002017-03-15T09:06:56.321-07:00
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<span style="font-family: calibri;">Businesses are Going Digital!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: calibri;">10 Years ago, server virtualization was the IT wave and just
a few years later the move to the Cloud became the most significant IT shift. Cloud is still in the early to middle stages
of adoption but growing extremely fast due to the compelling nature of scalability,
accessibility and cost. And now businesses are going digital!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: calibri;">According to a
McKinsey article I was reading "What 'Digital' Really Means" Digital can be broken into three areas: “</span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">creating value at the new frontiers of the
business world, creating value in the processes that execute a vision of
customer experiences, and building foundational capabilities that support the
entire structure.”</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Creating value at
the new frontier is the overall change in value from technology as in cars that
drive themselves, seeking new ways to drive value for customers.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Customer experience
value is improving the customer experience in ways that may not have been
possible before through new ways of implementing technology.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Building foundational
capabilities is about business intelligence and responding to the data in real
time.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">“What ‘Digital’
Really Means” by </span></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Chronicle SSm"; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><a href="http://www.mckinsey.com/our-people/karel-dorner"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Karel Dörner</span></a>
and David Edelman:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: calibri;"> </span><a href="http://www.mckinsey.com/industries/high-tech/our-insights/what-digital-really-means"><span style="color: #00adef; font-family: calibri;">http://www.mckinsey.com/industries/high-tech/our-insights/what-digital-really-means</span></a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><br /></span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Andrew Grosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13056839196997282248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33238674.post-71526327408869974042016-05-26T12:23:00.001-07:002016-05-27T07:03:30.402-07:00<br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: x-large;">Small and Medium Businesses (SMB) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: x-large;">Taking Out Complexity with Microsoft
Cloud</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Microsoft offers a broad end to end cloud solution for small
and medium sized businesses (SMB). Nortec has adopted an all in
Microsoft Cloud approach for our SMB customers. Microsoft Office 365 offers a desktop suite
of software combined with email, a terabyte (TB) of cloud storage, Skype for
Business and SharePoint. Additional
applications may be hosted in Azure or purchased from another software company
as Software as a Service (SaaS). Nortec adds
Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) to manage and protect the desktop as
well as provide single sign on with AD Premium.
Many SMBs are able to go completely cloud and only
need switches, firewalls and desktops on premises. Clients that do need on premises servers,
Nortec usually will provide a Dell VRTX Server. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Notec has seen tremendous success lifting and shifting
clients to the Microsoft Cloud and providing unlimited remote support on a
subscription services. Clients have
found that not only do they save money but everything works and works better
especially for the mobile worker! Using
a complete Microsoft solution removes complexity and drives down problems and cost
for the customer. We are seeing this as
a very compelling value proposition and so far the clients that have moved to
this unlimited support cloud subscription model are extremely happy!</span></div>
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Andrew Grosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13056839196997282248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33238674.post-78282929323492518762015-06-05T11:11:00.001-07:002015-06-05T11:11:46.213-07:00
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: ExoRegular; font-size: 18pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What is Skype for Business?</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: ExoRegular; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: ExoRegular; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the 4th Quarter of 2014, Microsoft
announced plans to rename its business communication tool Lync to Skype for
Business. Lync is a tool that Microsoft has invested in for the past decade,
offering a single application that combines all of the communication tools for
business. It became a core part of the Office enterprise. When the latest
version of Lync is released in 2015, it will be named Skype for Business and
include a new server release, client interface, and updates for the UC service
in Office 365.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: ExoRegular; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Essentially, customers will enjoy new
tools and features like:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: ExoRegular; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Access to any Skype user on
any device<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: ExoRegular; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Skype’s familiar functionality
icons<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: ExoRegular; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Skype’s call monitor feature
so active calls stay visible when using other applications<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: ExoRegular; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lync’s content sharing, IM,
and telephony<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: ExoRegular; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Improved access and interface
functionality<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: ExoRegular; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ease of use taken from
consumer Skype versions<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: ExoRegular; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Security and scalability for
every business user<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Andrew Grosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13056839196997282248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33238674.post-11148770720590078772015-05-27T07:28:00.000-07:002015-05-27T07:28:50.986-07:00<br />
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<b><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 28.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><u><span style="font-size: large;">New Verizon DBIR Report</span> <o:p></o:p></u></span></span></b></div>
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<i><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Quantify the impact of a data
breach with </span></i><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><br />
NEW DATA FROM THE 2015 DBIR.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">The 2015 Data Breach
Investigative Report (DBIR) from Verizon is now available for download.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The report is created every year with data
from 70 different IT security companies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The report found that breaches map to error and misuse and most breaches
are a result of known compromises that have remedies known for a year or
more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This suggests that businesses need
to rethink their patching strategies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The primary successful attacks were through phishing, misuse of
credentials and malware.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mobile risk and
the internet of things, although a concern, have yet to be a significant attack
vector.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><a href="http://www.verizonenterprise.com/DBIR/2015/">http://www.verizonenterprise.com/DBIR/2015/</a></span><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
Andrew Grosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13056839196997282248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33238674.post-89912537501268074662015-05-27T07:27:00.000-07:002015-05-27T07:32:24.929-07:00<br />
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<a href="http://www.interlink.com/blog/entry/is-office-365-hippa-compliant" title="Is Office 365 HIPAA Compliant?"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><strong>Is Office 365 HIPAA Compliant?</strong></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #303030; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 21pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><strong> <o:p></o:p></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: ExoRegular; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yes. Microsoft</span><span style="font-size: small;"><sup><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: ExoRegular; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">®</span></sup> Office 365 provides all the
capabilities you need to satisfy the technology requirements for HIPAA and
HITECH compliance. These regulations require that
organizations establish and document procedures that govern:<span style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: ExoRegular; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: yes;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: ExoRegular; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Restrict access to patient data.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: ExoRegular; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: ExoRegular; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">How patient data is handled.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: ExoRegular; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: ExoRegular; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">How stored patient data is kept
secure.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: ExoRegular; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: ExoRegular; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">How to secure patient data when
it’s transmitted.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: ExoRegular; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: ExoRegular; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Meeting these general guidelines requires lots of time and attention to
detail. Office 365 helps you meet these requirements with less time and cost
than you might think</span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: ExoRegular; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
Andrew Grosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13056839196997282248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33238674.post-17949584225324217212015-05-22T12:43:00.000-07:002015-05-22T12:43:11.642-07:00
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: ExoRegular; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 11.25pt;">
<a href="http://www.interlink.com/blog/entry/windows-server-2003-nears-its-security-deadline" title="Windows Server 2003 nears its security deadline"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 21pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Windows Server 2003 nears its security deadline</span></b></a><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 21pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;"> </span></b></div>
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 11.25pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: ExoRegular; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For those organizations who’ve been
planning on upgrading some of your legacy Windows Servers, especially the 2003
variety, but just haven’t found a compelling enough reason to do so, you’ll
want to go ahead and put those upgrade plans in high gear!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 11.25pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: ExoRegular; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In July of this year there will no
longer be any more security updates for this server. Unlike the retirement of
XP, where Microsoft continued with anti-malware definitions, in this case when
the server goes out of support and becomes an unsupported product Microsoft
will NOT be issuing any anti-malware protections.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: ExoRegular; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The ‘so-called’ security updates will end on July 14, 2015. Microsoft is
recommending that organizations not rely on what they deem as ‘up to date’
security patches as Microsoft has found them not to be ‘secure enough’ or
effective enough for out of date/support operating systems. If you’d like to
know what your migration options are and what makes sense for your organization
we are always ready, willing and able to help you figure out your next move.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Andrew Grosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13056839196997282248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33238674.post-78208605211433292032015-05-13T08:28:00.001-07:002015-05-13T08:29:07.939-07:00
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: whitesmoke; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 7.5pt; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #303030; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 21pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.interlink.com/blog/entry/onedrive-for-business-now-available-on-mac-and-ios-devices" title="OneDrive for Business Now Available on Mac and iOS Devices"><span style="color: #519bda; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">OneDrive for
Business Now Available on Mac and iOS Devices</span></a> <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 11.25pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: ExoRegular; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">OneDrive for Business is an Outlook
email storage application that is utilized by many Office 365 clients. While
the application has been available to Mac users, the ability to sync files and
take them offline was limited until now. With the new OneDrive for Business
sync client, users can now access their files across all devices by downloading
the iOS application and the Mac Sync Client from </span><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=45519"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #519bda; font-family: ExoRegular; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Microsoft Download Center.</span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: ExoRegular; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K9354e_hURA/VVNtmOgoGEI/AAAAAAAAAE4/x8LV13lE6ME/s1600/One%2BDrive.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K9354e_hURA/VVNtmOgoGEI/AAAAAAAAAE4/x8LV13lE6ME/s320/One%2BDrive.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 11.25pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: ExoRegular; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Accessibility is Key</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: ExoRegular; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 11.25pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: ExoRegular; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Users have been able to utilize Android
and Windows apps to sync their OneDrive files since late 2014, but the iOS
application took a little longer to develop. In late January 2015, Microsoft
finally released the OneDrive app, giving iPhone users the same accessibility.
The application features new capabilities for viewing, managing, and sharing
photos as well as the option to connect multiple OneDrive accounts. Previous
versions separated the business and personal use files but the new OneDrive for
Business allows users to access all files through the same app interface.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: ExoRegular; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Business users can access all saved files and shared files, as well as
the most recently viewed files. Additionally, there is a recovery option for
files that were accidentally sent to the Recycle Bin. The new OneDrive features
an upload option as well as “search” and “share” features making it easy to
interact with business and personal files on the go. With this application
comes enterprise-grade security with compliance and control by Office 365.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Andrew Grosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13056839196997282248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33238674.post-48995927746109427832015-05-11T13:06:00.000-07:002015-05-11T13:06:45.575-07:00IT Priorities for 2015Top 5 IT Priorities aggregated from surveys by NetworkWorld and ComputerWorld:<br />
<br />
1. Security<br />
2. Cloud<br />
3. Analytics and Data Management<br />
4. Mobility and Wireless<br />
5. Clients - Desktop, LaptopAndrew Grosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13056839196997282248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33238674.post-50890617061507725672015-04-17T08:50:00.000-07:002015-04-17T08:50:58.275-07:00Biggest Security Issues Facing Businesses
<br />
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I attended a Security Session at the Channel Partners Conference and here are some of the Biggest Security Issues Facing Businesses:</span><br />
</span><br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
</div>
</o:p><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1. Security is not important - client perception Security
is adequate </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">22% of SMB 1-99 </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">15% of Medium </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">100 - 499 </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">17% of Larger 500+<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Drivers of Changing Security Approach<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">47% Change in IT operations<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">43% Reports of security breaches<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">34% Knowledge gained from training<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">29% Vulnerability Audit<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">29% Security Breach<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">2. So Many Moving Parts<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Complicating Factors<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">54% Growing organization of hackers<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">52% Greater tech inter connectivity<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">52% Sophistication of security threats<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">48% Greater availability of hacking tools 45% a Volume of
Social Media 44% more reliance on internet apps </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">38% Legacy apps<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Experiences with Data Loss<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">29% Definitely<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">23% Probably<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">48% No or Don't know<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mobile Security Incidents<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">32% Lost Device<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">31% Employee disabling security features<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">30% Mobile Malware<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">3. Up-front Planning<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Balancing Risk and Security<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">34% Too much risk<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">58% Appropriate risk<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">6% Security too stringent<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Dealing with Regulations<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">50% Fully aware<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">36% Mostly aware<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">14% Somewhat aware /unsure<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Effort involved with compliance<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">54% High<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">39% Moderate<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">8% Low<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">4. Keeping<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>people
out of trouble<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Human Element a Major Part of Security Risk<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">52% Human error<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">48% Technology error<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Top issue is end user but IT complacency as well<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The State of Security policy<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">50% Comprehensive<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">30% Policy in Place but needs work<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">21% working on policies<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">9% No plan<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
</div>
Andrew Grosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13056839196997282248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33238674.post-49476696389138364412014-07-17T08:22:00.000-07:002014-07-17T08:22:16.576-07:00Microsoft’s New CEO: Satya Nadella
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Microsoft has moved from being a follower in the cloud space
five years ago to being a leader in the space and credit should be given to
Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Satya drove
the Cloud Team at Microsoft and now drives the entire company further down the vision
of a cloud computing Microsoft.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I attended Satya’s presentation at the Microsoft partner
conference yesterday and although he does not have the presence of Steve
Ballmer, he does have a plan and it is working. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The news today that Microsoft will be reducing staff by 18,000 because of duplicate roles since the acquisition of Nokia is a distraction and not the story of what is going on at Microsoft.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nokia acquisition may prove to
be a bad decision or possibly brilliant but it doesn’t really matter that much
for the overall success of Microsoft as a cloud provider.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Microsoft is gaining ground with the Surface 3 and this one
device may become the number one computing device.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Office
365 is leading the way for email and desktop apps leaving Google Apps in the
dust. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Microsoft Azure cloud server
platform is coming on strong and is the leading competitor to Amazon AWS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Microsoft is able to deliver cloud applications and servers
at a lower cost than the traditional model.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Microsoft realizes this and Satya is leading an aggressive campaign to
move customers to the Microsoft Cloud with the help of their partners like
Nortec.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Satya Nadella will continue to
use this strategy building Microsoft into a larger stronger company.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
Andrew Grosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13056839196997282248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33238674.post-55670203470833344272014-07-17T07:20:00.002-07:002015-04-17T08:52:11.291-07:00"Experience Migrating to the Cloud" Presentation by Kevin Griffin of Harvard Business Publishing
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I attended an interesting presentation by Ken Griffin
chronicling his migration of IT operations at Harvard Business Publishing to
the Cloud.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here are his lessons
learned: <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">1.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"Without a plan, there can be no
victory."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Understand and categorize
your applications: Easy to move - do it;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Hard to move not critical, legacy -<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>kill or replace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Identity and Access management in cloud
solutions adds to the security challenges - need identity layer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Enterprise Access Management as a Service –
Okta.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rolling out to cloud was a bit to
easy!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>IaaS in AWS was best fit for
Harvard Business Publishing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Custom apps
migration strategy and decommission sun setting apps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Train IT operations staff and build net new.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">3.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">SysAdmin requirements in the cloud really are
different from traditional.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Need scripting
skills, Dev Opps people and don't really need SAN skills etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">4.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">People is the hurdle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Get excited about it!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>AWS Architect is a high value skill!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">5.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Excitement only lasts so long – Technical
details:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">a.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Make
use of AWS free services. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">b.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Include
compliance requirements early - limit scope <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">c.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Use
VPC Automate security auditing <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">d.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Get
your alerts to become notifications<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">e.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Plan
your instances to evaporate<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">f.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Don't
store sensitive data on the ephemeral drives<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">g.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Make
use of all available zones<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">h.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Control
costs with reserved and spot instances<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">i.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Tags,
Tags, Tags, and decide on a naming convention early<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">6.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Reduce the hump - the longer you are in hybrid
mode the more resources and money you need.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Invest only in
new world!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Source: Ken Griffin, Director IT Services and Operations, <o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Harvard Business Publishing<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
Andrew Grosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13056839196997282248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33238674.post-1741939252464375172014-04-29T06:49:00.000-07:002014-04-29T06:52:03.641-07:00Hybrid Cloud - Bernard Golden<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I attended Bernard Golden’s presentation on Hybrid
Cloud: Myth and Realities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hybrid Cloud is and will continue
to be the most common Cloud implementation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There will be some companies that are 100%
cloud, especially newer and smaller organizations and some companies that have no
cloud but these will be fewer and fewer.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Each day AWS adds enough computing to power one whole
Amazon.com circa 2003, when it was 5 Billion dollars in business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Estimated to be $20 B in hosting by 2016.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mr. Golden pointed out that we have seen this
shift before and uses Henry Ford as an example.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In 1908 the Model –T was introduced. In 1913 the assembly line
implemented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From 1913 to 1920 the price
of the Ford Model-T dropped 75% and Ford gained 75% of the auto market share!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;">IT will be significantly larger in next 10 years!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>New applications will be introduced and there
will be challenges on how to implement and improve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The biggest issue is legacy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Questions to consider regarding building up your data
center or moving to Cloud:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Can you build and operate world class data center?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">What do you do with existing apps?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">What is your scale plan?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">How can you manage security?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Can you carry utilization risk?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Do you know your economics?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Bernard Golden described three scenarios for IT in Cloud:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1. Cloud/Legacy Mix in Data Center<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Agile
development and traditional operations<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>"Avoids Big Bang" requirement<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not as
disruptive<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No need
to retrofit existing apps<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Key questions<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where do
agile apps go?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reducing
costs in IT infrastructure<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Need to
build cloud operations capability <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Probability :<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>50%
Short Term, 15% Long Term<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2. Mild Hybrid<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Legacy
data center, CSP for cloud apps<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Avoids
Cloud ops requirements<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No need
to retrofit legacy apps<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Key questions:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What
about high cost existing infrastructure?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What
about shadow IT?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Probability: 50% Long Term<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;">3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maximum Hybrid<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Legacy
Data Center Squeeze<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Service
provider / SaaS forward strategy<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shrinks
high cost infrastructure<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Redirects budget to business objects</span><br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Key questions:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cultural
resistance<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Managing
infrastructure not assets<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Probability: 30% Long Term<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Action Items:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Recognize critical IT role in today's business. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Understand the urgency for your future. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Recognize the sea change in IT economics. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Analyze application portfolio and look for application
"life events."<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Be prepared for process, policy, and skill changes. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Be prepared for internal resistance. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Determine your cloud scenario going forward.<o:p></o:p></span>Andrew Grosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13056839196997282248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33238674.post-28311198809761333122014-04-24T08:06:00.001-07:002014-04-24T08:06:41.726-07:00Netflix Architect Adrian Cockroft at InformationWeek Conference<span style="font-family: Calibri;">While attending InformationWeek Conference I had the pleasure of attending </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Adrian Cockroft's, </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">presentation on his pioneering experience as the Netflix Cloud Architect. Adrian Cockroft's primary motivator was s</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">peed wins in the marketplace. He also points out that Netflix growth rate was very dramatic and without using a cloud strategy it would have been much more challenging to scale at the rate Netfllix grew. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Netflix strategy was all in on the cloud and this is much easier to
do now then back then. Some recall outages during Netflix growth but Mr. Cockroft points out that d</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">atacenter kept breaking Netflix not the cloud and that 80% of
outages were data center. Netflix is now made up of </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">600 micro services so the parts can fail without failing entire
system - highly available design</span><br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">What learned at Netflix:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1. How fast can we move -Speed wins in the marketplace </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">2.
Remove friction from product development </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">3. High trust, low process, no hand-offs
between teams </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">4. Freedom and responsibility culture </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">5. Don't do your own
undifferentiated heavy lifting </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">6. Use simple patterns automated by tools </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">7.
Deploy as micro services to separate concerns into bounded contexts<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Peoples reaction<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">2009 - "You guys are crazy"<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">2010 - "What Netflix is doing won't work"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">2011 - "It only works for "Unicorns" like
Netflix<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">2012 - "We would like to do that but we can't"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Re</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">ad:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Phoenix Project<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Lean Enterprise<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
Adrian Cockroft made a very compelling argument that cloud infrastructure and Software as a Service is the future. Amazon, Microsoft, Google and others will continue to compete for hosting and the prices will continue to decrease as they did recently. Moving IT operation onto the cloud will be more and more compelling and easier to accomplish. <br />
<br />
Source: InformationWeek Conference, Adrian Cockroft's PresentationAndrew Grosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13056839196997282248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33238674.post-2985395218630697422013-09-06T12:16:00.001-07:002013-09-06T12:16:56.302-07:002013 IT Priorities<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wjnk_MU-4DE/Uiop180XBeI/AAAAAAAAADs/EaPgcmYEJj4/s1600/Nortec+2013+Survey+of+IT+Priorities.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wjnk_MU-4DE/Uiop180XBeI/AAAAAAAAADs/EaPgcmYEJj4/s1600/Nortec+2013+Survey+of+IT+Priorities.png" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />Andrew Grosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13056839196997282248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33238674.post-84292354584715669962013-05-22T11:34:00.001-07:002013-05-22T11:34:54.320-07:00UCaaS Business Suite Market Share<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7nDx9QmH2g8/UZ0PBOI13-I/AAAAAAAAADY/DOQFBus_as0/s1600/UCaaS+Business+Suite+Market+Share.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7nDx9QmH2g8/UZ0PBOI13-I/AAAAAAAAADY/DOQFBus_as0/s320/UCaaS+Business+Suite+Market+Share.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #1f497d;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black;">Here is the ink to the article:<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #1f497d;"><a href="http://www.srgresearch.com/articles/8x8-leading-high-growth-cloud-ucaas-market"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.srgresearch.com/articles/8x8-leading-high-growth-cloud-ucaas-market</span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #1f497d;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
Andrew Grosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13056839196997282248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33238674.post-89494996086113561192013-05-17T12:58:00.000-07:002013-05-17T12:58:29.018-07:00Working from Home
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I have always been a believer in working from the
office!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I started Nortec 23 years
ago and it was just me, I rented a small office and did not work from
home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I may be one of few entrepreneurs
to do this but I always enjoyed the separation and for me it is stress
management as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Now</span> I am like
everyone else in the information age doing emails from home and carrying my
mobile phone pretty much all the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
work at home on nights and weekends sometimes but I do try to keep this to a
minimum and focus on family and down time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">So I like to work from my office but does that mean it is
the right approach for others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
approach we take at Nortec is that for the consultants and sales we are
flexible once they have been with the organization for a while.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everyone must come in at the beginning until
they are integrated and hitting their metrics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I encourage everyone to continue to work from the office as often as
possible as it does help connect everyone with the occasional impromptu meeting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course these kind of meetings can be time
sinks as well so it is a double edged sword.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If someone is delivering top numbers in sales or top consultant in the
field there is tremendous latitude.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Overall my philosophy leans toward the showing up at the office.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Related Article:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The New York Sunday Times </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Location,
Location, Location”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/03/opinion/sunday/working-from-home-vs-the-office.html"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/03/opinion/sunday/working-from-home-vs-the-office.html</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
Andrew Grosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13056839196997282248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33238674.post-41467942817080161582013-04-30T08:08:00.001-07:002013-04-30T08:10:59.831-07:00Accelerating Performance Through Flawless Execution - Matt "Whiz" Buckley<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I attended “Accelerating Performance Through Flawless
Execution” presentation by Matt “Whiz” Buckley with Afterburner, Inc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Matt was a US Navy Hornet Pilot who quickly
acknowledged that you will not attain flawless execution but strive toward this
end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is easy to see the need for great
execution when flying a multimillion dollar supersonic aircraft.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The planning is probably the most important phase and Matt
describes creating three groups.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each group
is tasked to come up with a plan and one of these groups is designated to be
the “out of box” group meaning they create a plan with no resource
limitations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This allows the third group
to be more creative and may come up with something that is implemented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The three groups would come together to
create the actual plan from the three plans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Once the plan is vetted a fourth group would “Red Team It” - they would
not have been part of the plan but would listen to the plan and criticize it by
looking for holes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this step it is
important for the initial three groups who created the plan to just listen to
the feedback and not argue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They need to
just say thanks and record the information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Once the Red Team has left they would scrutinize the feedback and use it
when it makes sense.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The other area I liked that Matt discussed was the
de-brief meeting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The importance of
getting everyone together after the mission and reviewing what went right and
what went wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This step is all too
often skipped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ground rules for the
de-brief are:</span></div>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">1.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">"It's not who is right, it is what is
right" <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Everyone is an equal in the de-brief meeting<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">3.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What is said in the room stays in the room –
except of course lessons for the future<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Afterburner Website Link:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<a href="http://www.afterburnerseminars.com/"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.afterburnerseminars.com/</span></a><o:p></o:p>Andrew Grosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13056839196997282248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33238674.post-77429967139020464582013-04-26T09:48:00.001-07:002013-04-26T09:48:27.909-07:00Server Market Share
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Server Market is still dominated by IBM, HP and Dell
with combined market share of 74%. However, there are several newer players in the
"Other Vendors" category that are designing high density data center specific
servers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The traditional vendors do not
always dominate the new space and new vendors often emerge when there is a
significant shift in the market.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
shift to the cloud is causing changes everywhere and the big winners still
remain to be seen.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Server Market Share<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">IBM<span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>35%<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">HP<span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>25%<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Dell<span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>14%<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Oracle<span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>4%<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Fujitsu<span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>4%<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Other Vendors<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>18%<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Source: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Data Center
Knowledge: “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gartner, IDC See Server Sales
Turning a Corner</i>” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">by </i></span><em><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jason Verge</span></em><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<a href="http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2013/03/01/gartner-idc/"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2013/03/01/gartner-idc/</span></a><o:p></o:p><br />
Andrew Grosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13056839196997282248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33238674.post-66428861342628814842013-04-19T08:13:00.001-07:002013-04-19T08:16:24.709-07:00Installing Office 365 ProPlus for Office 365 pre-upgrade tenants<h1 class="post-name">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Office 365 ProPlus, the new version of the Office desktop apps Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and more, is available today for existing Office 365 customers. A user must have an existing Office Professional Plus license assigned to them in order to use the new Office.</span></h1>
<div class="post-content user-defined-markup">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt=" " src="http://community.office365.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/communityserver-components-userfiles/00-00-00-79-95-Attached+Files/2185.01.png" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;" /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our demo user here, Bob Kelly, has a check-mark in the Office Professional Plus license. This means he will be able to sign-in with the new Office 365 ProPlus and activate it against his service.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We set up our Office Licensing Service so that any user who has been assigned a subscription license to Office Professional Plus has a license to the new version of Office, Office 365 ProPlus. It doesn’t matter whether your tenant has received the service upgrade or not. This includes Office for Mac 2011 for Office 365.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The second step is installing Office 365 ProPlus. If your tenant hasn’t been upgraded yet, you won’t have access to the installer from the Microsoft Online Portal. Instead, you will need to either install Office 365 ProPlus from a Trial account, either a Midsize Business Trial, or an Enterprise E3 Trial, or use the Office Deployment Tool. If you install from a Trial account, you will sign-in by using your organizational account when you first run Office 365 ProPlus after the installation. This essentially deactivates the trial on the computer and reactivates Office 365 ProPlus in your production tenant. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You have two main options:</span><br />
<b><a href="http://community.office365.com/en-us/wikis/upgrade/installing-office-365-proplus-from-a-trial-account.aspx"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Installing Office 365 ProPlus from a trial account</span></b></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">:</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is the least technical way to install Office 365 ProPlus but require more steps and clicks, best for a business user or small business without IT help. You will create a throw-away id to sign up for the trial. After the installation, you sign in to Office 365 ProPlus by using your organizational account. Be sure to </span><a href="http://community.office365.com/en-us/wikis/upgrade/installing-office-365-proplus-from-a-trial-account.aspx"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">follow the instructions </span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">step by step.</span><br />
<b><a href="http://community.office365.com/en-us/wikis/upgrade/installing-office-365-proplus-with-the-office-deployment-tool.aspx"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Installing Office 365 ProPlus using downloaded source files</span></b></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">: </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This way requires working with config.xml in NotePad and command-line tools, but has fewer steps and can also provide more flexibility for an IT professional who wants to have the Office 365 ProPlus source files to install Office on multiple machines through a network share or other software distribution system. See </span><a href="http://community.office365.com/en-us/wikis/upgrade/installing-office-365-proplus-with-the-office-deployment-tool.aspx"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Installing Office 365 ProPlus using downloaded source files</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Source: Microsoft</span></div>
Andrew Grosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13056839196997282248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33238674.post-47139291727396361592013-03-12T08:25:00.000-07:002013-03-12T08:25:04.875-07:00Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I watched “Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview” on Netflix.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is an interview done in 1995 but not
released until 2012 as it was apparently lost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The interview is very good and insightful to the IT industry and
specifically Steve Jobs thoughts at that time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I found one statement particularly interesting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Steve Jobs talked about the difference
between average and the best in most industries is 20%, 30% or maybe 50% better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As an example, the best taxi in New York vs
average he explains is maybe 30% better. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Steve
Jobs believes that the difference between an average IT professional and the best is 50 times greater.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Getting the absolute best technical professionals was significant in the
creation of the Mac.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Steve Jobs also
points out that top professionals working with other very top professionals creates
an interesting dynamic where the team excels even more. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These experts may not have had the opportunity
to work with the best in the past. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
really enjoy it and take themselves to the next level.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the systems integration business, I do not
think that the difference between the best and average is 50 times but it would
be 2 to 3 times or more and this creates a significant advantage to an
organization that is able to attract these top professionals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
Andrew Grosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13056839196997282248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33238674.post-15764206151222244602013-03-08T08:05:00.002-08:002013-03-08T08:05:34.965-08:002013 IT Spending Growth
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">IDC is projecting U.S. IT spending to grow by 6% and
Forrester is projecting 6.5%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Forrester
reduced their projection from 7.5% because of the sequester.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is modest growth but it is greater than
the overall GDP growth and considering the focus on reducing costs this is
encouraging for the IT industry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
priorities of the spending according to a Protiviti survey are:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">1.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mobile Commerce</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Management and Classification of Data</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">3.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Social Media</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">4.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Business Continuity</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">5.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Risk Management</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">6.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">IT Infrastructure Planning</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">7.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">IT Asset Management<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mobility is clearly a priority for everyone as mobile
devices become so much more powerful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The cloud is not listed but is often the technology utilized to support
these IT priorities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the way it
must be as it does not make sense to move to the cloud because it is a trend it
needs to be done as a compelling method to deliver business continuity, risk
management, mobile commerce etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Source:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“IDC says tech spending will grow by 6% this
year, the same rate as 2012”</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>by By <span itemprop="author">Patrick Thibodeau</span>, COMPUTERWORLD UK <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="http://tinyurl.com/aoce2ds"><span style="color: #0563c1;">http://tinyurl.com/aoce2ds</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Source: Protiviti 2013 IT Priorities Survey<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.protiviti.com/itsurvey"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.protiviti.com/itsurvey</span></a><o:p></o:p><br />
Andrew Grosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13056839196997282248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33238674.post-52584381968050728602012-11-06T14:10:00.002-08:002012-11-06T14:10:31.420-08:00Gartner's 10 IT Trends for 2013
I read an article in Cloud Times that reported on Gartner's 10 IT Trends for
2013:<br />
<br />
1. Onslaught of Mobile Devices<br />
2. Native Mobile Apps and HTML 5<br />
3. Personal Cloud – A place to keep your stuff instead of on your computer's
hard drive<br />
4. Corporate Showcase Apps - Private mobile apps to for corporate apps <br />
5. Internet of things - other things will be connected to internet -
pictures, clocks, calendars<br />
6. Hybrid Cloud - <span style="font-family: inherit;">Internal</span> and Cloud interconnected<br />
7. Strategic Big Data – Companies are navigating diverse data not all in one
place<br />
8. Actionable Analytics - Cloud will allow more analytics<br />
9. In Memory Computing - Allows data comparison and analysis exponentially
faster<br />
10. Integrated ecosystems - Market is demanding integration of systems <o:p> </o:p><br />
<br />
This is in line with what we are seeing at our clients and at Nortec
internally. Primarily we are seeing hybrid cloud and the growth of mobility.<br />
<br />
<div class="entry-title">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Source: Cloud Times, "Gartner: Top 10 Key Technology Trends for 2013" <span class="sword">By</span> Saroj Kar </span><a href="http://cloudtimes.org/2012/11/06/gartner-top-10-key-technology-trends-for-2013/"><span style="font-size: x-small;">http://cloudtimes.org/2012/11/06/gartner-top-10-key-technology-trends-for-2013/</span></a></div>
<div class="entry-title">
</div>
Andrew Grosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13056839196997282248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33238674.post-60694037547240697042012-07-31T09:33:00.000-07:002012-07-31T09:33:23.274-07:00Importance of Meeting with Customers<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Starting the last week of June I have been visiting several
customers per week and will continue through the summer into the fall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have been visiting with all different
customers from large to small and this has been effective for several
reasons:</span><br />
<br />
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">1.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Better understand why customers choose Nortec</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Better understand where the opportunities are
and where the market is going</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">3.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Evaluate how the sales and the technical teams
are doing</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">4.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Motivates the sales team to get out and see
their customers </span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">5.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Demonstrate to the clients that we are committed
and care about them</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">6.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Opportunity to give feedback and coach the sales
professionals one on one</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">7.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Opportunity to evaluate our overall client
strategy and what is working and not working</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This list could go on much longer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Management meeting with customers is
fundamental, 101 stuff! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are in the digital age and often email or
phone customers. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Phone calls and emails
are not a substitute for meeting with customers!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">To often management becomes very inwardly focused.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is important for senior leadership to get
out to many clients on a regular basis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>One challenge I have had in the past, was trying to figure out what
clients I should visit and how to organize the scheduling of the meetings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The strategy that is working for me now is to
target every client in a geographical area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I have an inside sales person call down and line up the meetings in that
area and then move to the next area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They end up with a random sampling of clients based on who they are able
to contact and who is willing to meet that week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This experience has been very rewarding and
gives me energy!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />Andrew Grosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13056839196997282248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33238674.post-32307595065597637362012-07-19T05:53:00.000-07:002012-07-19T05:53:20.538-07:00Shift in IT and Priorities for 2012<span style="font-family: inherit;">I attended Tiffani Bova’s “Reading the Tea Leaves” last week
at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The message was on the shift in
IT to the cloud and also to more buying of IT outside the IT department. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The statistic is as much as 35%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consulting will be more related to data
management and process management with a focus on making IT work for the
business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not that this has changed that
much but the move to cloud will allow IT groups to focus more on non-infrastructure
issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here are the 2012 IT priorities
found through Gartner survey:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">2012 Priorities</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">1. BI</span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">2. Mobility</span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">3. Cloud</span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">4. Collaboration</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">5. Virtualization</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">6. Legacy modernization</span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">7. IT Management</span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">8. CRM</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">9. ERP</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">10. Social media</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">11. Web</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Source:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Microsoft WPC 2012: “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Reading
the Tea Leaves</i>” by Tiffani Bova</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.gartner.com/AnalystBiography?authorId=27453"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">http://www.gartner.com/AnalystBiography?authorId=27453</span></a></div>Andrew Grosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13056839196997282248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33238674.post-14568602846839768272012-06-25T11:12:00.001-07:002012-06-25T11:12:49.686-07:00Security Lessons from Flame<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Flame is a sophisticated software tool originally designed
to spy on governments and gather information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is essentially like malware and can go undetected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kevin Casey in InformationWeek outlines Five
Lessons Learned from Flame: </span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">1.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No
security plan is foolproof</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">You might not know if you are infected</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">3.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Attacks are increasingly sophisticated</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">4.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Reputation harm can be expensive</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">5.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Prioritize your most important assets</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Source:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>InformationWeek Article <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“5 Flame
Lessons For SMBs”</i> by Kevin Casey</span></div>
<br />
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<a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/security/240001377"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/security/240001377</span></a></div>
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<br /></div>Andrew Grosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13056839196997282248noreply@blogger.com0