Company Blogs

As a result of the mounting fear over personal data loss some Nervous Nelly’s can have Norton AntiVirus, Ad-Adaware, Spybot Search & destory, Windows Defender, and Windows Firewall. Is this too much or is this a case of being better safe than sorry?

Networking giant Cisco Systems recently unveiled its new state of the art, energy efficient data center in Allen, Texas. In keeping with Cisco’s green minded approach to technology, the new data center is outfitted with a multitude of energy efficient features and was designed to achieve a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE ) of 1.35!

You’re excited about a new laptop or desktop you decided to buy. While you may think the decisions are over, there’s still another important decision to make -- the warranty.  Many manufacturers offer a set of warranties including extended warranties, and most big-box stores (such as Best Buy, Target, etc.) offer a third party warranty. In this post I will discuss the various pros and cons of different types of warranties and provide some advice on how to decide which is best for you.   When considering these different warranties, many consumers tend to look only at the price. You should look further as there are some features where your warranty will make your experience with your new purchase much better.

 The best warranty for your computer depends on your situation.  Is this a laptop for your son or daughter to take to college, or a backup netbook used only for traveling?  Can you be without this machine for 3-5 days, or would you need it fixed right away?  Do you plan to keep the computer for a few years? Will there be sensitive data on this machine?  These questions all come into play when determining the type of warranty to purchase, and from whom to purchase.

DaaS

In my last post I discussed taking a look at some of the Hosted VDI Solutions available to you in the marketplace. A hosted Virtual Desktop is known as DaaS or Desktop as a Service.

It’s all about the user experience with desktop access anywhere, anytime, and on any device.

The Virtual Desktop is hosted on a data center server virtual machine and delivered across the network using a remote display protocol. ( RDP, ICA, VNC,EOP, ALP and PCoIP.  I’ll save that for another blog).

Lets start with ThinkGrid [1]. ThinkGrid was named in a Gartner  report “ Cool Vendors in Infrastructure Services” So I wanted to take a look at their offerings. http://www.thinkgrid.ie/hosted-desktop.aspx

We will start with the desktop specifications. They offer Windows XP, but will soon offer Win 7. Some applications come standard, like Microsoft Office 2010 and Adobe Acrobat Reader 9. You can add and install your own applications using your own licensing. Or, take advantage of using their catalogue of applications for a monthly fee. Let’s say you have some temporary workers and really only need some applications for a few months. This is the ideal situation; you pay the monthly fee instead of the full licensing cost. When you are done you no longer pay the fee. It even supports local printing. You can have multiple images just like you normally would have for your different departments. I think when you take a look at the specifications you will find these are probably more powerful devices than what you are currently using in your environment.

Specifications

Fully Isolated Customer Environment - Full Customizable - Fully Virtualized _{(Not like Terminal Services)}

CPU/Processing Power -  Intel 2.2 Ghz Quad Core

Application Memory 1 GB - 32 GB

Disk Space 5 GB Useable Data + OS

Shared Diskspace (File Server) Optional

Resources Upgradeable and On-Demand Performance Burst

With the Group Management Pack and you get 100 GB Shared Fileserver, Active Directory/GP Management, User Permissions Management.

You can connect 24x7 with Windows, Mac, Linux or the iPad and Multi Monitor support is available.

Migrating your users

Not all your users would be a candidate for a hosted desktop. With this type of service, you choose who in your organization should use the hosted desktop and who stays on their regular desktop. This is where planning and testing comes into play. You can use a phased approach moving small or large sections at a time.

Wondering how much you can save by using DaaS?  You can download their Excel calculator.  http://www.thinkgrid.ie/hosted-desktop-info.aspx

There are also some really good whitepapers so you can compare DaaS to Google Apps or Go to My PC.

Go to their website and take a test drive, it’s free!

IDC recently reported that shipments of non-PC devices (smart phones and tablets) will outpace PC shipments within 18 months, further stating at the end of their report that, “The PC-centric era is over.” 

LeBron James came into the NBA boasting of his desire to be the "First Billion Dollar Athlete".  Sorry LeBron but like your Cavaliers you got beat by one behometh of an athlete with more starpower, range and recent publicity than any before him - Mr. Tiger Woods.   Tiger joined the PGA in 1996 and 13 years later added this accolade to his trophy case.  http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/29/tiger-woods-billion-business-sports-tiger.html