AT&T is one of the largest service providers in the telecommunication industry in United States. With more than 150 million customers it is the second largest wireless service provider in United States. It was honored with ‘Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards’ in 2008 for developing the ‘Coaxial Cable Technology’. The company’s range of products includes Telephone, Internet and Television.
AT&T has innumerous network and coverage issues and many of its customers are complaining. Recently it had a coverage issue in New England area when almost 60% of the international calls were shut down. Its long-distance service delivery is very poor in this area and this led many dissatisfied customers, switch to other telecom networks. Some common complaints are call dropping, dead/ no coverage areas; incoming calls go directly to voice mails, overcharges, poor customer service quality and many more. Though its has pros such as flexible plans, excellent data services, coverage on major highways and roadways, however, it still is unable to work well in rural areas and its coverage is really bad in northern New England.
Verizon Communications is one such American broadband and telecommunications company that is taking advantage of the current situation of AT&T. The market opportunity is bright enough for Verizon to grab as much market share as they can and they are putting in efforts well to do so. The high quality of customer service, better network and coverage, cheaper call rates are some of the factors where Verizon is playing to gain market share. According to a research report, Verizon’s ‘Dropped Call’ rate for 90 days is only 2.7% where as AT&T has a 3.6% rate. The customer satisfaction level on the basis of the service deliver is also higher for Verizon being 43% and on the other hand AT&T has only 29%.
AT&T even though is having coverage issues; it still has an important share in the market. The main reason for that is: The Apple iPhone. But customers cannot do without proper coverage. They will soon switch to other networks. Thus, the company is finding ways to satisfy their customers. Recently, AT&T released free application to report network problems. Just like we report crashes in Windows or Mac OS X, we can now mark the spot where and what network problems we faced and submit it so that it can be reviewed and rectified by the company.
If you travel a lot, then AT&T can be very annoying, but if you stay in an area where coverage is good, then you must opt for AT&T. You can see the coverage of AT&T’s network in your location by entering your area in this website:
http://www.wireless.att.com/coverageviewer/#?type=voice
When two large telecom companies compete with each other, the result is always excellent. The one who will benefit is the customer. Verizon and AT&T are trying their best to win the loyalty of their customers. Hence, an excellent product and a fantabulous service experience can be expected soon.
- Brian Kingsley, Director of Technical Services, ACS Services, Boston
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Web 2.0 – Positive Vs Negative Effects
In all cases one-way communication always lacks efficiency. Due to many disadvantages of Web 1.0, Web 2.0 came into existence. The term Web 2.0 is usually associated with web applications that help in two-way communication. It is basically a user-centered design that is associated with terms such as interactive, collaborative, information/ knowledge sharing, etc. Earlier, only the advertisers, publishers and website owners were allowed to share their knowledge and information in the worldwide web. Today, it is more than just sharing knowledge and information. Web 2.0 gives the freedom to each and every individual to post their thoughts, views, philosophies, likes and dislikes. It is all about interaction, sharing and networking.
Web 2.0 websites include some of the following features:
• Information Search: Search engine helps in finding relevant information for the keywords entered. It includes website designing, website ranking in search engine, keyword research, etc.
• Links: Low-barrier social tool. It includes one-way linking, link exchange, etc.
• Authoring: This gives the right to create, publish and upload content, videos, audios of your own. It includes blogs, press releases, articles, newsletters, etc.
• Tags: These are one word descriptions of the entire content written by the owner.
• Extensions: It is software that makes web an application platform as well as a document server.
• Signals: It is the use of syndicate technology that informs users of content changes. RSS, Really Simple Syndication, is a tool from where you can get the latest updates of your area of interest.
Things that you can do in Web 2.0:
• Social Networking
• Content writing and submission
• Post blogs
• Post comments, reviews, etc.
• Information Search
• Slide share
• Social Bookmarking
• RSS feeds
• Online Gaming
• And many more
Now let’s discuss few of the pros and cons of Web 2.0
Pros:
• Social Media Marketing and Search Engine Optimization.
• Equal chance to all to post their views and comments.
• Increase the circle of friends and contacts through social networking.
• Latest update and content can be received if you are a RSS reader.
• Online promotion of businesses, products and services.
• Engaging the customers. Customers can write their views about the products and services.
Cons:
• Information overload. Too much information is daily posted by many people with different thought. This creates confusion for the readers and the quality of the content is not reliable.
• Freedom to post views and comments provides good opportunities for competitors and rivals to post negative comments about other companies.
• Too many fake ID’s and spammers.
• Forgeries and hackers commit crimes.
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING is one of the biggest and most significant results of Web 2.0. Websites like Facebook, Orkut, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace, You Tube, etc are the top visited websites. It is because networking is one of the most essential needs in today’s world. Efficient networking is backed by internet. Thus, two-thirds of the total number of internet users visit social media websites daily. It has become an addiction to many. Again this brings many advantages and disadvantages along with it. Few of them are:
Advantages:
• Create a large and strong network.
• Increase in number of friends.
• More interaction leads to higher exchange of knowledge.
• Build strong relationships.
Disadvantages:
• People are highly dependent on internet to network.
• Wastage of time.
• High number of frauds and hackers.
People now-a-days are so addicted to update their Facebook and LinkedIn accounts that they do not realize the amount of time they are spending in such activities.
According to a survey, every individual working in an organization spends an average time of about 40 minutes daily on social media websites. This incurs loss to the organizations as their valuable and knowledgeable employees are busy chatting online with their friends. The organizations are taking the following steps to eliminate this problem:
• Organizations now-a-days block all social media websites.
• They encourage employees to indulge in activities organized within the company, where they can socialize and relax.
• An interesting work environment can help employees to concentrate more on their work.
- Brian Kingsley, Director of Technical Services, ACS Services, Boston
Web 2.0 websites include some of the following features:
• Information Search: Search engine helps in finding relevant information for the keywords entered. It includes website designing, website ranking in search engine, keyword research, etc.
• Links: Low-barrier social tool. It includes one-way linking, link exchange, etc.
• Authoring: This gives the right to create, publish and upload content, videos, audios of your own. It includes blogs, press releases, articles, newsletters, etc.
• Tags: These are one word descriptions of the entire content written by the owner.
• Extensions: It is software that makes web an application platform as well as a document server.
• Signals: It is the use of syndicate technology that informs users of content changes. RSS, Really Simple Syndication, is a tool from where you can get the latest updates of your area of interest.
Things that you can do in Web 2.0:
• Social Networking
• Content writing and submission
• Post blogs
• Post comments, reviews, etc.
• Information Search
• Slide share
• Social Bookmarking
• RSS feeds
• Online Gaming
• And many more
Now let’s discuss few of the pros and cons of Web 2.0
Pros:
• Social Media Marketing and Search Engine Optimization.
• Equal chance to all to post their views and comments.
• Increase the circle of friends and contacts through social networking.
• Latest update and content can be received if you are a RSS reader.
• Online promotion of businesses, products and services.
• Engaging the customers. Customers can write their views about the products and services.
Cons:
• Information overload. Too much information is daily posted by many people with different thought. This creates confusion for the readers and the quality of the content is not reliable.
• Freedom to post views and comments provides good opportunities for competitors and rivals to post negative comments about other companies.
• Too many fake ID’s and spammers.
• Forgeries and hackers commit crimes.
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING is one of the biggest and most significant results of Web 2.0. Websites like Facebook, Orkut, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace, You Tube, etc are the top visited websites. It is because networking is one of the most essential needs in today’s world. Efficient networking is backed by internet. Thus, two-thirds of the total number of internet users visit social media websites daily. It has become an addiction to many. Again this brings many advantages and disadvantages along with it. Few of them are:
Advantages:
• Create a large and strong network.
• Increase in number of friends.
• More interaction leads to higher exchange of knowledge.
• Build strong relationships.
Disadvantages:
• People are highly dependent on internet to network.
• Wastage of time.
• High number of frauds and hackers.
People now-a-days are so addicted to update their Facebook and LinkedIn accounts that they do not realize the amount of time they are spending in such activities.
According to a survey, every individual working in an organization spends an average time of about 40 minutes daily on social media websites. This incurs loss to the organizations as their valuable and knowledgeable employees are busy chatting online with their friends. The organizations are taking the following steps to eliminate this problem:
• Organizations now-a-days block all social media websites.
• They encourage employees to indulge in activities organized within the company, where they can socialize and relax.
• An interesting work environment can help employees to concentrate more on their work.
- Brian Kingsley, Director of Technical Services, ACS Services, Boston
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Enterprise Networking with VLANS
Networking in the Enterprise Environment can be very challenging. With hundreds of devices on a network, broadcasts can get of control. Fortunately, there are methods to design a network to virtually eliminate the adverse effects of too many computers on the network.
VLANS, or Virtual LANS, are the building blocks to a better Enterprise Network. A VLAN is a logical network provisioned on a switch. This effectively segments the traffic on the network ports of the switch. A single switch can have hundreds of VLANS or may have just a few, or even as little as one. The network switches in production today have a very robust feature set to enable the configuration of VLANS.
Enabling a VLAN is a simple process and typically can be done in very little time. Once a switch has multiple VLANS configured you would need to add in some sort of router to enable traffic between the VLANS. Years ago, at the first introduction to VLAN technology and managed switches, the routing had to be done with an actual router. This could be a router that was just attached with a single connection or a router switch module installed in a chassis switch. Cisco’s Catalyst 4000 was one of these switches. The advantage to the chassis switch was the high speed backplane that the switch modules communicated on. This made the routing happen at near wire speed. Todays layer three and four switches perform the routing function as part of its feature set. These high speed switches can route packets at wire speed.
Best practice network design includes separate VLANS for at least the networking equipment, servers and users. This will reduce processor utilization of the servers and allow for a protected management network for the switches. This can be taken much further and VLANS for departments, printers, wireless and other groups can also be provisioned.
The next step in the design of an Enterprise network will be the ACL list. This is a security list that a switch, router or firewall uses to allow or deny traffic. Once a solid VLAN design is implemented ACLS can be applied to enhance the network’s performance and security.
Stay tuned, next month I will talk about ACL configuration in the Enterprise network.
Howard Cathcart
Director of Enterprise Services
VLANS, or Virtual LANS, are the building blocks to a better Enterprise Network. A VLAN is a logical network provisioned on a switch. This effectively segments the traffic on the network ports of the switch. A single switch can have hundreds of VLANS or may have just a few, or even as little as one. The network switches in production today have a very robust feature set to enable the configuration of VLANS.
Enabling a VLAN is a simple process and typically can be done in very little time. Once a switch has multiple VLANS configured you would need to add in some sort of router to enable traffic between the VLANS. Years ago, at the first introduction to VLAN technology and managed switches, the routing had to be done with an actual router. This could be a router that was just attached with a single connection or a router switch module installed in a chassis switch. Cisco’s Catalyst 4000 was one of these switches. The advantage to the chassis switch was the high speed backplane that the switch modules communicated on. This made the routing happen at near wire speed. Todays layer three and four switches perform the routing function as part of its feature set. These high speed switches can route packets at wire speed.
Best practice network design includes separate VLANS for at least the networking equipment, servers and users. This will reduce processor utilization of the servers and allow for a protected management network for the switches. This can be taken much further and VLANS for departments, printers, wireless and other groups can also be provisioned.
The next step in the design of an Enterprise network will be the ACL list. This is a security list that a switch, router or firewall uses to allow or deny traffic. Once a solid VLAN design is implemented ACLS can be applied to enhance the network’s performance and security.
Stay tuned, next month I will talk about ACL configuration in the Enterprise network.
Howard Cathcart
Director of Enterprise Services
What should you expect from a Chief Technology Officer?
A CTO will typically be someone with 10-15 or more years experience in technology. Ideally a CTO will have owned and run a business and have 5 years or more experience in an executive technology planning capacity. A CTO’s business experience is every bit as important as their technology experience and will be invaluable in helping you make critical business decisions.
Most small and medium size businesses don’t have the resources or the need to hire a full time CTO. However it is vital for many of them that they have the opportunity to consult regularly with a senior technology manager who understands the big picture for their business and their technology. ACS has on staff several CTO level executives who have collectively managed the technology for scores of businesses including: hedge funds, venture funds, biotech, non-profits, general business, law firms, accounting firms, PR & marketing firms, property management companies, medical device manufacturers, start ups of various kinds and just about every other vertical in the small and medium sized business world.
A CTO from ACS can help guide you through growth and technology planning for the coming year or the next three years depending on your needs. We will work with you on everything from business continuity and disaster recovery to the evaluation of 3rd party software applications. Other areas where an ACS CTO can help you include:
- Backup strategy
- Security auditing
- Email management, archiving and regulatory compliance
- Compliance with privacy laws and financial records keeping regulations
- Bandwidth usage, traffic control, and monitoring
- PC purchasing and lifecycle planning
- Server capacity and lifecycle planning
- Routing and network infrastructure evaluation
- Technically intensive business strategizing
- Employee productivity & efficiency evaluation
- And many others
Call ACS today for a free initial consultation and find out what our CTO’s can do to help you improve your business. ACS: 877-227-7773
Most small and medium size businesses don’t have the resources or the need to hire a full time CTO. However it is vital for many of them that they have the opportunity to consult regularly with a senior technology manager who understands the big picture for their business and their technology. ACS has on staff several CTO level executives who have collectively managed the technology for scores of businesses including: hedge funds, venture funds, biotech, non-profits, general business, law firms, accounting firms, PR & marketing firms, property management companies, medical device manufacturers, start ups of various kinds and just about every other vertical in the small and medium sized business world.
A CTO from ACS can help guide you through growth and technology planning for the coming year or the next three years depending on your needs. We will work with you on everything from business continuity and disaster recovery to the evaluation of 3rd party software applications. Other areas where an ACS CTO can help you include:
- Backup strategy
- Security auditing
- Email management, archiving and regulatory compliance
- Compliance with privacy laws and financial records keeping regulations
- Bandwidth usage, traffic control, and monitoring
- PC purchasing and lifecycle planning
- Server capacity and lifecycle planning
- Routing and network infrastructure evaluation
- Technically intensive business strategizing
- Employee productivity & efficiency evaluation
- And many others
Call ACS today for a free initial consultation and find out what our CTO’s can do to help you improve your business. ACS: 877-227-7773
Thursday, December 17, 2009
GOOGLE VOICE/ GOOGLE WAVE
GOOGLE VOICE
Previously known as “Grand Central”, Google Voice is a phone answering service provided by Google launched in March 2009 where the user account gets a US phone number from selected area codes, mimicking a regular phone number. With simple change in settings, the calls can then be forwarded to any other 6 phones. To summarize, unified communication to manage all of the communication channels of an individual. Google Voice is to voice mail like Gmail is to email.
The inbound and outbound calls within US (incl. Alaska and Hawaii, though the quality of service here is criticized) and Canada are free of charge and international calls are rated according to Google Voice website schedule at highly competitive rates.
The add-on beauty is that the user can forward to a one group of phones in the day and another group in the night. The account holder is also at total liberty to block the spam callers or play around sending directly to voice mails. Choose to have specific numbers forward differently than the others.
So you want to be notified wherever/whenever you receive a voice mail? Simply set for SMS or email on receipt of a voicemail. So now you have absolute access anytime to your voicemails. How the question arises how do we read these voicemails from email? Interestingly, Google Voice transcribes the voice messages into text messages, thereby enabling readability in an email.
How does the service work?
GV is not a mobile phone service; it's not linked to a specific handset. It’s not a VoIP line, it's not matched with an IP address. It’s not a landline service, a Google Voice number isn't tied to a geographical location. It’s tied to you, your account. So moving? No hassles, you still control your mobile, home and work numbers through the same GV number.
Google Voice is, IMHO, a refined GUI within a fairly standard VoIP version of unified messaging with number portability thrown in.
Set along the style of Gmail, Google Voice is configured as a web-based application. Having a local established U.S. telephone service is a must to activate and use the service. Once configured appropriately by the user, additional phone numbers can be made to ring.
Internet calls work differently on Google Voice than on Skype. Rather than starting a call from a computer, a specialized phone or an application on a mobile device, Google Voice users call into their voice mail service from any phone. Once there, they can push a button to get a dial tone and call a different number. As such, the service is not set up to handle video calls, though Google offers simple video-chatting capabilities through Google Talk, its instant-messaging service.
In essence,
• A single Google forwarding number to all of the user's phones
• Free calls and SMS in the US and Canada
• Calling international phone numbers for as low as US$0.02 per minute
• Call screening. Announcement of callers based on their number or by an automated identification request for blocked numbers
• Listening in on someone's recording of a voice message before taking a call
• Blocking calls from specified numbers
• Send, receive, and store SMS online
• Answering incoming calls on any configured phone
• Call routing. Selection of phones that should ring based on calling number
• Voicemail transcripts. Reading of voicemail messages online
• Listening to voicemail online or from a phone
• Notification of voicemail messages via email or SMS
• Personalized greetings based on calling number
• Forward or downloading of voicemails
• Conference calling
• Call recording and online archiving
• Switching of phones during a call
• Viewing the web inbox from a mobile device/phone
• Customize preferences for contacts by group
• Ability to change your number for a fee
• Specifying an existing phone number instead of the Google Voice number on initial setup for use with limited functionality, such as some voicemail functions and using the voice mail system for the user's phone number (mobile devices only)
Cons:
• There is always the interference of accent, pronunciation and intonation, ambiguity of linguistics that influences these transcribed messages.
• One of the main disadvantages of Google Voice appears to be the fact that users won't be able to use their Google number as their outgoing caller ID when dialing directly from a cell phone, which means that the contacts that are in the habit of calling back based on the last caller ID will have a harder time adjusting.
• spotty SMS reception and overall reliability is a concern hence not a choice as a main line
• Privacy concerns with the ability to record cell phone conversations without the caller first being told that the call may be recorded
• The service starts the user on a brand new number, and lack of portability of the existing phone number is a major inconvenience
• The ability to transfer a call feature not available. For ex: When the user is on the phone and need to switch from home to cell phone, being able to "put the caller on hold" and then pick up the call on the or to be able to transfer to "another extension" to another cell phone or so is not available.
• An easier tool/process for recording calls
What does the technical world think about Google Voice?
Google’s take on the telecommunications industry with a free service called Google Voice that, if successful, could chip away at the revenue of companies big and small, like eBay, which owns Skype, telephone companies and a string of technology start-up firms
As regards the technical aspects of it, GV has rave reviews on routing power, screening, SMS, Voice Mail and mid-call capabilities. However has also raised quite a concern amongst the privacy obsessed population. The common concerns raised are privacy, advertisements, reliability, caller id confusion, number changing hassles.
If you have multiple phones, having a single number to reach them all can make you and your callers' lives a bit easier, and it can save space on your business card by not having to list separate numbers. The concept is simple: people are trying to reach you--not one of your phones--and Google Voice lets you decide how to route the calls.
The cost is interesting. Outgoing calls to US numbers are free. The choice to listen or read, tweak out the calls you want to receive and personalized messages makes it a great tool to use.
GOOGLE WAVE
What is wave?
Google has a very strong hold on the online ad market, but it’s facing new types of pressures from technology, as well as new business models.
Launched on 30th September’09 to about 100000 users, Google Wave is creating waves with its real-time communication platform combining aspects of email, instant messaging, wikis, web chat, social networking, and project management to be built in one elegant, in-browser communication client. The service seems to combine G-mail and Google Docs into an interesting free-form workspace that could be used to write documents collaboratively, plan events, play games or discuss recent news.
How does it work?
Google Wave is designed as a new Internet communications platform. It is written in Java using Open JDK and its web interface uses the Google Web Toolkit. Waves are hosted XML documents that permits low latency concurrent modifications. Edits and replies are called blips and each blip can be replied to by individuals. Any participant can respond anywhere within the message, edit, add participants at any point in the process. Recipients get notifications on changes and can review in chronological order when they open wave again. Wave can function as emails and threaded conversations as well while also being an instant messenger service when many participants are online at the same. The shifting between email and IM is purely based on number of users using concurrently. Wave can be used at any location and this makes creating/editing collaborative documents easy and possible. In simple terms, it can be termed as very advanced forums.
• A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more. Any of the participants can respond and reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and can also add participants at any point during the process. Wave also enables playback and any of the participant can rewind the wave to see who said what and when in the conversation.
• The best part of all is that it enables faster conversations, edits and enables interact with extensions, all in real-time with live transmission
The service combines G-mail and Google Docs into an interesting free-form workspace that could be used to write documents collaboratively, plan events, play games or discuss recent news.
Group projects, photo sharing, meeting notes, brainstorming sessions, interactive games are some best examples of appropriate use of Google wave.
To put the crux of features in a nutshell:
- Real-time: In most instances, you can see what someone else is typing, character-by-character.
- Embeddability: Waves can be embedded on any blog or website.
- Applications and Extensions: Just like a Facebook application or an iGoogle gadget, developers can build their own apps within waves. They can be anything from bots to complex real-time games.
- Wiki functionality: Anything written within a Google Wave can be edited by anyone else, because all conversations within the platform are shared. Thus, you can correct information, append information, or add your own commentary within a developing conversation.
- Open source: The Google Wave code will be open source, to foster innovation and adoption amongst developers.
- Playback: You can playback any part of the wave to see what was said.
- Natural language: Google Wave can autocorrect your spelling, even going as far as knowing the difference between similar words, like “been” and “bean.” It can also auto-translate on-the-fly.
- Drag-and-drop file sharing: No attachments; just drag your file and drop it inside Google Wave and everyone will have access
Wave can run any iGoogle or OpenSocial gadget. This makes it very versatile and thousands on existing applications will work with it. On the other hand, the advantage is of live interaction with multiple users if it’s a gadget built within. A live online game with active participation from all the users would be a good example. So now it sounds similar to Facebook/MySpace which takes advantage of your friend network to make games, quizzes, and applications more meaningful and useful. However the difference is that gadgets are specific to individual waves, rather than to specific users and thus its not like having a Facebook app on your profile and the gadget belongs to everyone within the wave. They also do not have titles, to better integrate with the actual conversation. Some of such gadgets already built include a Sudoku gadget, Bidder (which turns your wave into an auction), and Maps (which allows for collaboration on a Google Map).
What does the tech world think about Google Wave?
Tech world generally raves about Wave offering a very sleek and easy way to navigate and participate in communication on the web that makes both email and instant messaging look stale.
The reviews can’t get over the magic of wave on the ability to watch your co-waver type in real-time. One can reply to an entire wave like an IM or an email by clicking the reply button on a wave's toolbar. The ability to reply to bits of a message inline which lets the user and other collaborators annotate the wave as they go is seen as the coolest thing.
Possibility of spamming is looked as a big negativity. For example, one can waltz up to someone else’s wave/blip and added his own line to it and could easily add a link or files as well. Wave’s API freely available to use makes it a big opportunity for spammers and hacked accounts could tune Wave into the biggest spam-fest since Twitter.
For more information on ACS Services, please visit:
http://www.acs.com/
Contact: Brian Kingsley
Director of Technical Services
Sources used for the content for Google voice are as follows:
http://google.about.com/od/g/g/GoogleVoice_def.htm
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/index.cfm?reviewid=113166
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Voice
http://voip.about.com/od/unifiedcommunications/fr/GoogleVoiceRvw.htm
Sources use for Google Voice Reviews:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/167424/google_voice_5_reasons_to_use_it_5_reasons_to_think_twice.html
http://news.cnet.com/google-voice-flawed-but-still-awesome/
http://voip.about.com/od/unifiedcommunications/fr/GoogleVoiceRvw.htm
http://www.maketherightturn.com/blog/reviews/google-voice-pros-and-cons.htm
Sources used for Google Wave Reviews:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/28/google-wave-drips-with-ambition-can-it-fulfill-googles-grand-web-vision/
http://lifehacker.com/5370738/google-wave-first-look
http://thecoffeedesk.com/news/index.php/2009/11/03/google-wave-review/
Previously known as “Grand Central”, Google Voice is a phone answering service provided by Google launched in March 2009 where the user account gets a US phone number from selected area codes, mimicking a regular phone number. With simple change in settings, the calls can then be forwarded to any other 6 phones. To summarize, unified communication to manage all of the communication channels of an individual. Google Voice is to voice mail like Gmail is to email.
The inbound and outbound calls within US (incl. Alaska and Hawaii, though the quality of service here is criticized) and Canada are free of charge and international calls are rated according to Google Voice website schedule at highly competitive rates.
The add-on beauty is that the user can forward to a one group of phones in the day and another group in the night. The account holder is also at total liberty to block the spam callers or play around sending directly to voice mails. Choose to have specific numbers forward differently than the others.
So you want to be notified wherever/whenever you receive a voice mail? Simply set for SMS or email on receipt of a voicemail. So now you have absolute access anytime to your voicemails. How the question arises how do we read these voicemails from email? Interestingly, Google Voice transcribes the voice messages into text messages, thereby enabling readability in an email.
How does the service work?
GV is not a mobile phone service; it's not linked to a specific handset. It’s not a VoIP line, it's not matched with an IP address. It’s not a landline service, a Google Voice number isn't tied to a geographical location. It’s tied to you, your account. So moving? No hassles, you still control your mobile, home and work numbers through the same GV number.
Google Voice is, IMHO, a refined GUI within a fairly standard VoIP version of unified messaging with number portability thrown in.
Set along the style of Gmail, Google Voice is configured as a web-based application. Having a local established U.S. telephone service is a must to activate and use the service. Once configured appropriately by the user, additional phone numbers can be made to ring.
Internet calls work differently on Google Voice than on Skype. Rather than starting a call from a computer, a specialized phone or an application on a mobile device, Google Voice users call into their voice mail service from any phone. Once there, they can push a button to get a dial tone and call a different number. As such, the service is not set up to handle video calls, though Google offers simple video-chatting capabilities through Google Talk, its instant-messaging service.
In essence,
• A single Google forwarding number to all of the user's phones
• Free calls and SMS in the US and Canada
• Calling international phone numbers for as low as US$0.02 per minute
• Call screening. Announcement of callers based on their number or by an automated identification request for blocked numbers
• Listening in on someone's recording of a voice message before taking a call
• Blocking calls from specified numbers
• Send, receive, and store SMS online
• Answering incoming calls on any configured phone
• Call routing. Selection of phones that should ring based on calling number
• Voicemail transcripts. Reading of voicemail messages online
• Listening to voicemail online or from a phone
• Notification of voicemail messages via email or SMS
• Personalized greetings based on calling number
• Forward or downloading of voicemails
• Conference calling
• Call recording and online archiving
• Switching of phones during a call
• Viewing the web inbox from a mobile device/phone
• Customize preferences for contacts by group
• Ability to change your number for a fee
• Specifying an existing phone number instead of the Google Voice number on initial setup for use with limited functionality, such as some voicemail functions and using the voice mail system for the user's phone number (mobile devices only)
Cons:
• There is always the interference of accent, pronunciation and intonation, ambiguity of linguistics that influences these transcribed messages.
• One of the main disadvantages of Google Voice appears to be the fact that users won't be able to use their Google number as their outgoing caller ID when dialing directly from a cell phone, which means that the contacts that are in the habit of calling back based on the last caller ID will have a harder time adjusting.
• spotty SMS reception and overall reliability is a concern hence not a choice as a main line
• Privacy concerns with the ability to record cell phone conversations without the caller first being told that the call may be recorded
• The service starts the user on a brand new number, and lack of portability of the existing phone number is a major inconvenience
• The ability to transfer a call feature not available. For ex: When the user is on the phone and need to switch from home to cell phone, being able to "put the caller on hold" and then pick up the call on the or to be able to transfer to "another extension" to another cell phone or so is not available.
• An easier tool/process for recording calls
What does the technical world think about Google Voice?
Google’s take on the telecommunications industry with a free service called Google Voice that, if successful, could chip away at the revenue of companies big and small, like eBay, which owns Skype, telephone companies and a string of technology start-up firms
As regards the technical aspects of it, GV has rave reviews on routing power, screening, SMS, Voice Mail and mid-call capabilities. However has also raised quite a concern amongst the privacy obsessed population. The common concerns raised are privacy, advertisements, reliability, caller id confusion, number changing hassles.
If you have multiple phones, having a single number to reach them all can make you and your callers' lives a bit easier, and it can save space on your business card by not having to list separate numbers. The concept is simple: people are trying to reach you--not one of your phones--and Google Voice lets you decide how to route the calls.
The cost is interesting. Outgoing calls to US numbers are free. The choice to listen or read, tweak out the calls you want to receive and personalized messages makes it a great tool to use.
GOOGLE WAVE
What is wave?
Google has a very strong hold on the online ad market, but it’s facing new types of pressures from technology, as well as new business models.
Launched on 30th September’09 to about 100000 users, Google Wave is creating waves with its real-time communication platform combining aspects of email, instant messaging, wikis, web chat, social networking, and project management to be built in one elegant, in-browser communication client. The service seems to combine G-mail and Google Docs into an interesting free-form workspace that could be used to write documents collaboratively, plan events, play games or discuss recent news.
How does it work?
Google Wave is designed as a new Internet communications platform. It is written in Java using Open JDK and its web interface uses the Google Web Toolkit. Waves are hosted XML documents that permits low latency concurrent modifications. Edits and replies are called blips and each blip can be replied to by individuals. Any participant can respond anywhere within the message, edit, add participants at any point in the process. Recipients get notifications on changes and can review in chronological order when they open wave again. Wave can function as emails and threaded conversations as well while also being an instant messenger service when many participants are online at the same. The shifting between email and IM is purely based on number of users using concurrently. Wave can be used at any location and this makes creating/editing collaborative documents easy and possible. In simple terms, it can be termed as very advanced forums.
• A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more. Any of the participants can respond and reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and can also add participants at any point during the process. Wave also enables playback and any of the participant can rewind the wave to see who said what and when in the conversation.
• The best part of all is that it enables faster conversations, edits and enables interact with extensions, all in real-time with live transmission
The service combines G-mail and Google Docs into an interesting free-form workspace that could be used to write documents collaboratively, plan events, play games or discuss recent news.
Group projects, photo sharing, meeting notes, brainstorming sessions, interactive games are some best examples of appropriate use of Google wave.
To put the crux of features in a nutshell:
- Real-time: In most instances, you can see what someone else is typing, character-by-character.
- Embeddability: Waves can be embedded on any blog or website.
- Applications and Extensions: Just like a Facebook application or an iGoogle gadget, developers can build their own apps within waves. They can be anything from bots to complex real-time games.
- Wiki functionality: Anything written within a Google Wave can be edited by anyone else, because all conversations within the platform are shared. Thus, you can correct information, append information, or add your own commentary within a developing conversation.
- Open source: The Google Wave code will be open source, to foster innovation and adoption amongst developers.
- Playback: You can playback any part of the wave to see what was said.
- Natural language: Google Wave can autocorrect your spelling, even going as far as knowing the difference between similar words, like “been” and “bean.” It can also auto-translate on-the-fly.
- Drag-and-drop file sharing: No attachments; just drag your file and drop it inside Google Wave and everyone will have access
Wave can run any iGoogle or OpenSocial gadget. This makes it very versatile and thousands on existing applications will work with it. On the other hand, the advantage is of live interaction with multiple users if it’s a gadget built within. A live online game with active participation from all the users would be a good example. So now it sounds similar to Facebook/MySpace which takes advantage of your friend network to make games, quizzes, and applications more meaningful and useful. However the difference is that gadgets are specific to individual waves, rather than to specific users and thus its not like having a Facebook app on your profile and the gadget belongs to everyone within the wave. They also do not have titles, to better integrate with the actual conversation. Some of such gadgets already built include a Sudoku gadget, Bidder (which turns your wave into an auction), and Maps (which allows for collaboration on a Google Map).
What does the tech world think about Google Wave?
Tech world generally raves about Wave offering a very sleek and easy way to navigate and participate in communication on the web that makes both email and instant messaging look stale.
The reviews can’t get over the magic of wave on the ability to watch your co-waver type in real-time. One can reply to an entire wave like an IM or an email by clicking the reply button on a wave's toolbar. The ability to reply to bits of a message inline which lets the user and other collaborators annotate the wave as they go is seen as the coolest thing.
Possibility of spamming is looked as a big negativity. For example, one can waltz up to someone else’s wave/blip and added his own line to it and could easily add a link or files as well. Wave’s API freely available to use makes it a big opportunity for spammers and hacked accounts could tune Wave into the biggest spam-fest since Twitter.
For more information on ACS Services, please visit:
http://www.acs.com/
Contact: Brian Kingsley
Director of Technical Services
Sources used for the content for Google voice are as follows:
http://google.about.com/od/g/g/GoogleVoice_def.htm
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/index.cfm?reviewid=113166
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Voice
http://voip.about.com/od/unifiedcommunications/fr/GoogleVoiceRvw.htm
Sources use for Google Voice Reviews:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/167424/google_voice_5_reasons_to_use_it_5_reasons_to_think_twice.html
http://news.cnet.com/google-voice-flawed-but-still-awesome/
http://voip.about.com/od/unifiedcommunications/fr/GoogleVoiceRvw.htm
http://www.maketherightturn.com/blog/reviews/google-voice-pros-and-cons.htm
Sources used for Google Wave Reviews:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/28/google-wave-drips-with-ambition-can-it-fulfill-googles-grand-web-vision/
http://lifehacker.com/5370738/google-wave-first-look
http://thecoffeedesk.com/news/index.php/2009/11/03/google-wave-review/
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Massachusetts 201 CMR 17.00 - Deadline extended
201 CMR 17.00 is a Massachusetts data protection law managed by ‘Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation’ (OCABR). It contains the ‘Standards for the Protection of Personal Information of Residents of the Commonwealth’. The provisions of this regulation applies to all who own, store, license or maintain any personal information about a resident of the Commonwealth. This regulation is established to safeguard the personal information contained in paper and electronic records. The other purposes for this regulation can be:
• Maintain the security and confidentiality of personal information in a manner that is consistent with industry standards.
• Protection against threats or hazards to the security or integrity of such information.
• Protection against unauthorized access to personal information.
The law was supposed to go into effect on January 1, 2009 but due to some changes which are being made to the new version it has been postponed to May 1, 2010. Also some additional time has also been granted to business people to comply with the ‘Identity Theft Preventive Regulations’. Identification of fraud and theft will be easier after the implementation of this law. This law is basically for retailers and businesses involved in commerce as they are the ones who store and use personal information of residents of Commonwealth. If any personal information of a Massachusetts’s resident is leaked or misused, there could be serious actions taken against the business and people associated with the business.
According to the regulation, companies involved in commerce are required to maintain a written security plan to safeguard the personal information of the residents of Massachusetts. The following points will be considered to see whether the information security program is in compliance with the regulations:
• Size, scope and type of business of the person obliged to protect the personal information.
• Amount of resources available to such persons.
• Amount of stored data.
• Need for security and confidentiality of personal information of the residents.
To find more information about this protection law, you can visit the following websites:
http://www.mass.gov/pageID=ocaterminal&L=4&L0=Home&L1=Consumer&L2=Privacy&L3=Identity+Theft&sid=Eoca&b=terminalcontent&f=reg201cmr17&csid=Eoca
http://www.mass.gov/Eoca/docs/idtheft/compliance_checklist.pdf
Brian Kingsley – Director of Technical Services
• Maintain the security and confidentiality of personal information in a manner that is consistent with industry standards.
• Protection against threats or hazards to the security or integrity of such information.
• Protection against unauthorized access to personal information.
The law was supposed to go into effect on January 1, 2009 but due to some changes which are being made to the new version it has been postponed to May 1, 2010. Also some additional time has also been granted to business people to comply with the ‘Identity Theft Preventive Regulations’. Identification of fraud and theft will be easier after the implementation of this law. This law is basically for retailers and businesses involved in commerce as they are the ones who store and use personal information of residents of Commonwealth. If any personal information of a Massachusetts’s resident is leaked or misused, there could be serious actions taken against the business and people associated with the business.
According to the regulation, companies involved in commerce are required to maintain a written security plan to safeguard the personal information of the residents of Massachusetts. The following points will be considered to see whether the information security program is in compliance with the regulations:
• Size, scope and type of business of the person obliged to protect the personal information.
• Amount of resources available to such persons.
• Amount of stored data.
• Need for security and confidentiality of personal information of the residents.
To find more information about this protection law, you can visit the following websites:
http://www.mass.gov/pageID=ocaterminal&L=4&L0=Home&L1=Consumer&L2=Privacy&L3=Identity+Theft&sid=Eoca&b=terminalcontent&f=reg201cmr17&csid=Eoca
http://www.mass.gov/Eoca/docs/idtheft/compliance_checklist.pdf
Brian Kingsley – Director of Technical Services
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Use the Economic Stimulus Act to fund critical infrastructure improvements.
With 2009 winding down, companies are taking in all the money that they can, and budgeting for the future. Many companies are unaware of the tax deductions that they qualify for when entering this planning process, especially those outlined in Section 179. “Section 179" refers to Section 179 of the Internal Revenue Service Tax code, and can prove extremely profitable for companies. It allows them to deduct for certain purchases and expenses – in some cases, before they are even paid in full. Many see this as the best feature of the economic stimulus act, as it’s great to have the option of not making the full payment before year end so that you can opt for an equipment lease if cash flow is an issue.
Another benefit of the economic stimulus act is enhancements to Section 179 that allow for higher dollar limitation for equipment purchased before December 31, 2009. In addition, this deduction is not based on the number of days this equipment has been in service. Another perk that comes with Section 179: it allows a business to take a current year deduction on an equipment purchase instead of depreciating the newly acquired equipment over the course of several years. The bonus being that more money is back in your pocket, faster.
If you’re looking to make a big (or even small) equipment purchase, do it sooner than later! To find out more about Section 179, click here.
It’s smart to speak with your tax adviser to figure out what moves will be most financially advantageous to your company, and you may find yourself with a cash flow advantage in 2010.
James Cranshaw
Sr. Sales Engineer
With 2009 winding down, companies are taking in all the money that they can, and budgeting for the future. Many companies are unaware of the tax deductions that they qualify for when entering this planning process, especially those outlined in Section 179. “Section 179" refers to Section 179 of the Internal Revenue Service Tax code, and can prove extremely profitable for companies. It allows them to deduct for certain purchases and expenses – in some cases, before they are even paid in full. Many see this as the best feature of the economic stimulus act, as it’s great to have the option of not making the full payment before year end so that you can opt for an equipment lease if cash flow is an issue.
Another benefit of the economic stimulus act is enhancements to Section 179 that allow for higher dollar limitation for equipment purchased before December 31, 2009. In addition, this deduction is not based on the number of days this equipment has been in service. Another perk that comes with Section 179: it allows a business to take a current year deduction on an equipment purchase instead of depreciating the newly acquired equipment over the course of several years. The bonus being that more money is back in your pocket, faster.
If you’re looking to make a big (or even small) equipment purchase, do it sooner than later! To find out more about Section 179, click here.
It’s smart to speak with your tax adviser to figure out what moves will be most financially advantageous to your company, and you may find yourself with a cash flow advantage in 2010.
James Cranshaw
Sr. Sales Engineer
Friday, December 4, 2009
The right tool for the right job
Well the end of the year is rapidly approaching, and as is often the case the scramble is on to close out IT budgets. To that end many of you are looking at the purchase of new hardware to replaceme legacy systems. One of the questions that we hear often is “what kind of laptop/desktop/server should I get?”
Unfortunately, there is no quick answer to that.
There are a myriad of factors that should be given very careful consideration before settling on a particular make or model as not all systems are created equal.
If you are looking at replacing a workstation, whether it be a laptop for a mobile worker or a desktop for your marketing guru, the first question that should be answered is what are you going to be doing with this computer? The processing needs, graphics rendering, and storage requirements of your accounting department are vastly different from those of your PR , web development, or marketing crew. The workstation that your bookkeeper has been using for the last two years and is absolutely thrilled with would hardly provide even marginally acceptable performance for the web designer/illustrator whose day is filled with editing photos, creating multimedia presentations, and rendering DVD’s for trade shows.
The same philosophy holds true when considering the replacement of your servers. The requirements for a basic FTP server will differ enormously from those of that new server that you are planning on running your latest implementation of virtual servers/workstations on. Of course, with these differing requirements are the associated costs. The basic FTP server mentioned above is going cost much less than the hardware for a new virtual machine consolidation.
Not only are the day-to-day uses of the machines to be taken into consideration, we also need to attempt to look into the future. How long are you planning (or hoping) that this workstation/server last? If you’re like most of us, you only want to go through this process every 3-5 years. So, how do we decide what hardware to focus on? As I mentioned above the role that the machine is going to fill is the first/best step in the process. Once this is determined then we can begin looking at the makes/models that provide hearty enough hardware. Although the FTP vs. virtual server comparison above rather drastic, all too often we have had new clients come to us and ask us to determine “why is machine X so slow?” often times the poor performance is due to the fact that insufficient consideration to the role the machine was going to fulfill was taken. After all, you “can” drive a nail with a pair of pliers, but who would recommend that? In addition to substandard performance, forcing an under-powered machine to fulfill an overly demanding role will very likely reduce the serviceable lifespan of the machine since it will be working at such a higher level than it was designed for, ultimately resulting in the requirement to replace it earlier than had been planned.
In short, if you look closely at what roles the machines will fill on a daily basis and adjust your focus properly, add a small cushion to accommodate for future growth coupled with future processing and storage demands, there is no reason that well-selected hardware fit all of your needs and provide exceptional performance for several years.
- Kevin Sheedy, Project Manager
Unfortunately, there is no quick answer to that.
There are a myriad of factors that should be given very careful consideration before settling on a particular make or model as not all systems are created equal.
If you are looking at replacing a workstation, whether it be a laptop for a mobile worker or a desktop for your marketing guru, the first question that should be answered is what are you going to be doing with this computer? The processing needs, graphics rendering, and storage requirements of your accounting department are vastly different from those of your PR , web development, or marketing crew. The workstation that your bookkeeper has been using for the last two years and is absolutely thrilled with would hardly provide even marginally acceptable performance for the web designer/illustrator whose day is filled with editing photos, creating multimedia presentations, and rendering DVD’s for trade shows.
The same philosophy holds true when considering the replacement of your servers. The requirements for a basic FTP server will differ enormously from those of that new server that you are planning on running your latest implementation of virtual servers/workstations on. Of course, with these differing requirements are the associated costs. The basic FTP server mentioned above is going cost much less than the hardware for a new virtual machine consolidation.
Not only are the day-to-day uses of the machines to be taken into consideration, we also need to attempt to look into the future. How long are you planning (or hoping) that this workstation/server last? If you’re like most of us, you only want to go through this process every 3-5 years. So, how do we decide what hardware to focus on? As I mentioned above the role that the machine is going to fill is the first/best step in the process. Once this is determined then we can begin looking at the makes/models that provide hearty enough hardware. Although the FTP vs. virtual server comparison above rather drastic, all too often we have had new clients come to us and ask us to determine “why is machine X so slow?” often times the poor performance is due to the fact that insufficient consideration to the role the machine was going to fulfill was taken. After all, you “can” drive a nail with a pair of pliers, but who would recommend that? In addition to substandard performance, forcing an under-powered machine to fulfill an overly demanding role will very likely reduce the serviceable lifespan of the machine since it will be working at such a higher level than it was designed for, ultimately resulting in the requirement to replace it earlier than had been planned.
In short, if you look closely at what roles the machines will fill on a daily basis and adjust your focus properly, add a small cushion to accommodate for future growth coupled with future processing and storage demands, there is no reason that well-selected hardware fit all of your needs and provide exceptional performance for several years.
- Kevin Sheedy, Project Manager
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Microsoft Windows 7
Microsoft Corporation is a global company founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975. It builds up, manufactures and licenses a wide range of software products for computers. Its most profitable product ‘Microsoft Windows’ enjoys 91% of the market share worldwide. Microsoft Windows is a software operating system and has a wide range of series such as Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 2000, Windows 7 and many more.
Windows 7 is the latest version of Microsoft Windows as is available since October 22, 2009. Bill Gates quoted this version to “be more user-centric”. I would like to list out the new and changed features contained in this latest version.
It’s amazing to know that it received huge number of orders through amazon.co.uk. It exceeded the total demand of Windows Vista for the first 17 weeks in only eight hours. It also broke Amazon’s pre-order record previously made by the seventh Harry Potter Book.
For more detailed information on Windows 7, you can visit the following URLs:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7
- Brian Kingsley, Director of Technical Services
Windows 7 is the latest version of Microsoft Windows as is available since October 22, 2009. Bill Gates quoted this version to “be more user-centric”. I would like to list out the new and changed features contained in this latest version.
- Multi-touch support
- Handwriting recognition
- Enhanced multi-core processors
- mproved boot performance
- Support for virtual hard disks
- Direct access
- Kernel improvements
- Supports for systems using Heterogeneous Multi-adapter
- Better media features
- New items like Clear Type Text Tuner, Gadgets, Recovery, Display Color Calibration Wizard, Troubleshooting, etc are added to ‘Control Panel’
- Windows Security Center will now be known as Windows Action Center
- And many more…
With the uncountable features added, there are many others that are removed from Windows 7 that was earlier a part of Windows Vista. They are:
- Windows Photo Gallery
- Windows Movie Maker
- Windows Calendar
- Windows Mail
It’s amazing to know that it received huge number of orders through amazon.co.uk. It exceeded the total demand of Windows Vista for the first 17 weeks in only eight hours. It also broke Amazon’s pre-order record previously made by the seventh Harry Potter Book.
For more detailed information on Windows 7, you can visit the following URLs:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7
- Brian Kingsley, Director of Technical Services
Monday, November 30, 2009
Spamming World
Spam is an electronic messaging system that is used by individuals, frauds and companies to send e-mails in bulk. It can be used to spread computer viruses like Trojan horses and other software, etc. The most common is e-mail spam whereas there are many other media such as mobile phone messaging spamming, search engine spam, forum spam, social networking spam, etc. It is highly annoying for the recipient of the spam as too many junk e-mails reduce the visibility of important e-mails and hence an important message can be overlooked which might sometimes cost a lot. Mainly advertisers and frauds use e-mail spamming as it does not involve operating costs and it has no/ less barriers to entry. The only thing they have to do is compose a spam e-mail and send it across to innumerable e-mail IDs. The only people who suffer are the recipient of these e-mails.
The reasons why spam is considered to be ‘bad’ are that they are innumerous; they are offensive and fake. Statistics reveal that large ISPs (Internet Service Providers) notice more than 80% spammers. With this huge number of spam e-mails, meaningful and important e-mails are lost. Filtering e-mails are also not so effective now-a-days. Identification of spam messages has become difficult. I will give you a very simple example to explain the impact of spam on people. If suppose a bank is sending thousands of e-mails, mobile phone messages, etc to its customers on a regular basis, the customers will feel annoyed and will stop giving importance to these spam messages. Even if any important message will be sent by the bank, it will be ignored by the customer as he/she might feel that it is a spam. This drawback will then be suffered by both bank and the customer. Hence, sending spam messages will only trouble the recipient and waste the sender’s time.
To identify a real message one must check its sender’s authentication. But usually it’s difficult to trace and compare a fake and an original ID. A 2007 statistical analysis showed that USA contributed around 28.4% for the total number of spam messages sent worldwide. There are many court cases running for the e-mail spamming done by various companies and they have been sent to prison or have given a huge sum of money for settlement of the case. However, there is no end to it. The only way to avoid spam messages is to report abuse and ignore the spam notices and warnings. A highly secured network will also help reduce spam e-mails. Spam still exists and is still difficult to find a solution to it. We can try and make incremental progress and can individually contribute little to reduce the number.
Brian Kingsley - Director of Technical Services
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
IT Outsourcing
Technology, in a layman’s language, is a concept that simplifies the tasks handled by human being. It helps man to control his work and environment with less complexity. He uses much of his brain rather than body. Technology can be used in fields of medical, construction, hardware, software, etc. Early man converted natural resources into simple tools, which were later converted into big machines and presently a sophisticated and easy to handle machines. This is how technology advanced day-by-day. The most common term used in the field of technology is ‘Information Technology’. It is the result of the combination of computer and communications technology.
The latest trend in the IT sector is the boom in outsourcing. It is in boom as it requires a lot of technical expertise and skills. So, companies contact IT giants to outsource their computer or internet related work. It simplifies their task, helps them save cost and also relieve them from the strenuous hiring procedure for technical people. An IT service provider is typically known as a Managed Services Provider (MSP). Most of the IT companies specialize in providing a set of outsourcing services to their clients. They take the entire responsibility of the client’s entire computer and internet related tasks at a very reasonable price with extreme knowledge and expertise.
Since 1985 ACS has been a name you can trust when it comes to IT Managed Services and Outsourced Support. We at ACS accept IT outsourcing work from our clients and are committed to give them the best possible services. We have a solid foundation and over 20 years experience in Managed IT Services. Our complete proactive Managed Services team is available to meet your every network need 24x7x365. Our services include; Network Support, Server Support, PC Support, Help Desk Services, Relocation Support, Set up and Configuration and many more. We believe in providing excellent and reliable services for a less price. We accept work from small and mid-sized companies and provide them with the IT support they need. Our engineers are available whenever you need them. So, if you have any technical work which you find difficult or expensive, we are ready to take it up and put in our best efforts to deliver the desired results.
For more information on ACS Services, please visit:
http://www.acs.com/
Brian Kingsley - Director of Technical Services
The latest trend in the IT sector is the boom in outsourcing. It is in boom as it requires a lot of technical expertise and skills. So, companies contact IT giants to outsource their computer or internet related work. It simplifies their task, helps them save cost and also relieve them from the strenuous hiring procedure for technical people. An IT service provider is typically known as a Managed Services Provider (MSP). Most of the IT companies specialize in providing a set of outsourcing services to their clients. They take the entire responsibility of the client’s entire computer and internet related tasks at a very reasonable price with extreme knowledge and expertise.
Since 1985 ACS has been a name you can trust when it comes to IT Managed Services and Outsourced Support. We at ACS accept IT outsourcing work from our clients and are committed to give them the best possible services. We have a solid foundation and over 20 years experience in Managed IT Services. Our complete proactive Managed Services team is available to meet your every network need 24x7x365. Our services include; Network Support, Server Support, PC Support, Help Desk Services, Relocation Support, Set up and Configuration and many more. We believe in providing excellent and reliable services for a less price. We accept work from small and mid-sized companies and provide them with the IT support they need. Our engineers are available whenever you need them. So, if you have any technical work which you find difficult or expensive, we are ready to take it up and put in our best efforts to deliver the desired results.
For more information on ACS Services, please visit:
http://www.acs.com/
Brian Kingsley - Director of Technical Services
Monday, November 23, 2009
Cloud Computing
Do you ever get frustrated on how long your computer takes to boot up? I know that I do! It takes on average 45 seconds for even the fastest computers. Imagine a day where it takes 45 seconds or longer to login to Facebook or Linkedin. Would you become impatient? Facebook and Linkedin do not care which device you use to access your account, whether a PC or mobile device. Then why in the workforce do we put up with waiting several minutes for our PC’s to boot and for our email to load? Today, when we boot our computers, the biggest question is “How long will it take until I get on the Internet? We all spend most of our time on a Web Browser like you are right now reading this blog. Everything we do today is web based; Email, Social Networking, Creating Documents, News, and Video for example. Organizations are either practicing cloud computing or have future plans to implement a private cloud using a VMware or a Citrix solution.
Cloud Computing is not going away anytime soon. As more end-users are on the go and working from home, cloud computing gives them the ability to no longer worry about where applications and data are stored. It is highly automated allowing end users to store more data than on a traditional personal computer. Organizations are implementing private clouds utilizing virtualization, eliminating any exposed data on end-user computers, improving performance, and tightening security. Users can now access their data and applications from anywhere with an internet connection, using for example, a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), and it is fast! VMware View 4 is transforming the desktop from device-centric to user centric. This private cloud provides an organization with a significant cost savings and improves efficiency, flexibility, and control to access applications.
Everyone is talking about Netbooks! The idea behind Netbooks is to have a travel friendly but mobile device that is fast for the end user. Next year, Google will be launching its Operating System that will be ideal for netbooks; “Google Chrome OS” Google has taken the OS from application based to web based. This new Google Chrome OS will boot in an average of 7 seconds currently, and they are working hard to make it faster! This is ideal for private clouds because all you need is a java enabled browser to access a VMware View 4 Desktop, which is fast, secure, and there are no worries of losing information because no information is stored on the device.
The Massachusetts 201 CMR 17.00 compliance deadline is approaching, May 1, 2010. Cloud Computing is a great solution because all corporate data is encrypted and resides in the data center with no personal information stored on end user devices. Not ready for cloud computing quite yet? ACS can provide a ROI analysis to see if cloud computing is a fit now or in future IT plans. In the mean time, ACS can provide a security audit to help your organization prepare and maintain compliancy.
ACS Services, Inc. specializes in server, desktop, and application virtualization solutions for SMB, Enterprise, K-12, State and Local Government. Stay tuned for a success story that VMware is publishing on ACS about one of my Enterprise clients!
If you would like to learn more about cloud computing, VMware, or how ACS can help your organization become 201 CMR 17.00 compliant, please contact me at bmcdonald@acs.com
- Brian McDonald, Director of Enterprise Sales
Cloud Computing is not going away anytime soon. As more end-users are on the go and working from home, cloud computing gives them the ability to no longer worry about where applications and data are stored. It is highly automated allowing end users to store more data than on a traditional personal computer. Organizations are implementing private clouds utilizing virtualization, eliminating any exposed data on end-user computers, improving performance, and tightening security. Users can now access their data and applications from anywhere with an internet connection, using for example, a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), and it is fast! VMware View 4 is transforming the desktop from device-centric to user centric. This private cloud provides an organization with a significant cost savings and improves efficiency, flexibility, and control to access applications.
Everyone is talking about Netbooks! The idea behind Netbooks is to have a travel friendly but mobile device that is fast for the end user. Next year, Google will be launching its Operating System that will be ideal for netbooks; “Google Chrome OS” Google has taken the OS from application based to web based. This new Google Chrome OS will boot in an average of 7 seconds currently, and they are working hard to make it faster! This is ideal for private clouds because all you need is a java enabled browser to access a VMware View 4 Desktop, which is fast, secure, and there are no worries of losing information because no information is stored on the device.
The Massachusetts 201 CMR 17.00 compliance deadline is approaching, May 1, 2010. Cloud Computing is a great solution because all corporate data is encrypted and resides in the data center with no personal information stored on end user devices. Not ready for cloud computing quite yet? ACS can provide a ROI analysis to see if cloud computing is a fit now or in future IT plans. In the mean time, ACS can provide a security audit to help your organization prepare and maintain compliancy.
ACS Services, Inc. specializes in server, desktop, and application virtualization solutions for SMB, Enterprise, K-12, State and Local Government. Stay tuned for a success story that VMware is publishing on ACS about one of my Enterprise clients!
If you would like to learn more about cloud computing, VMware, or how ACS can help your organization become 201 CMR 17.00 compliant, please contact me at bmcdonald@acs.com
- Brian McDonald, Director of Enterprise Sales
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Organizing vCenter
I have recently been asked what I thought was the best way to organize things in vCenter? I have personally used several different methods to organize virtual machines in different ways. I started to wonder how other VMware administrators were organizing their own environments and if there were any common methods to this. Let’s take a look at the different ways I have organized things in previous deployments.
The different methods that I have used to organize my environments have been mainly with the use of resource groups and folders. Each of these options is located in different views; resource groups are located in the host and clusters view and folders are located in the virtual machine and template view.
Starting with resource groups, I have built different groups in a few different ways in different clusters. Creating resource groups based on importance, such as high, med and low has been the most basic configuration that has been taught by VMware in the classroom and as examples when talking about resource groups. Resource group settings only take effect when contention happens on the host. If there is no contention, then these groups give you the ability to group virtual machines together based on operating system. I have used a “Windows” resource group as well as a “Linux” resource group to separate the different systems. This can also be used to separate teams and the virtual machines that each maintain, as well as having “high” and “low” groups for the most important and least important virtual machines. In other words, examples like the development or sales department virtual machines could be grouped in this manner. I have also created resource groups for VDI deployments, putting each VMware View pool in their own resource group limiting processor usage. I have also seen people create resource groups based on the type of application, but vSphere now gives the ability to use vApps to accomplish that type of configuration.
So, nothing too exciting with the resource groups, just a pretty straight forward configuration. Now, I have also organized Virtual Machines in the folders view. You can actually create different folders based on the application running on the virtual machine. One example would be to have all the exchange servers in one folder or to have all the virtual desktops organized in a folder and then create sub-folders by department. In one engagement, I actually created folders based on the virtual machine owner, so I would be able to determine who was responsible for each virtual machine if an issue arose. Moving forward, I started to use custom columns in vCenter for application owner and other information to be able to get in touch with that person. You can also create custom columns to turn the main virtual machine page into a main source of information about all of the virtual machines. Eventually these columns would have the same information that the server database would have and could replace the server database for any information about the virtual machines.
How do you organize your vCenter? Inquiring minds what to know!
by Howard Cathcart, Director of Enterprise Services October 25th, 2009
The different methods that I have used to organize my environments have been mainly with the use of resource groups and folders. Each of these options is located in different views; resource groups are located in the host and clusters view and folders are located in the virtual machine and template view.
Starting with resource groups, I have built different groups in a few different ways in different clusters. Creating resource groups based on importance, such as high, med and low has been the most basic configuration that has been taught by VMware in the classroom and as examples when talking about resource groups. Resource group settings only take effect when contention happens on the host. If there is no contention, then these groups give you the ability to group virtual machines together based on operating system. I have used a “Windows” resource group as well as a “Linux” resource group to separate the different systems. This can also be used to separate teams and the virtual machines that each maintain, as well as having “high” and “low” groups for the most important and least important virtual machines. In other words, examples like the development or sales department virtual machines could be grouped in this manner. I have also created resource groups for VDI deployments, putting each VMware View pool in their own resource group limiting processor usage. I have also seen people create resource groups based on the type of application, but vSphere now gives the ability to use vApps to accomplish that type of configuration.
So, nothing too exciting with the resource groups, just a pretty straight forward configuration. Now, I have also organized Virtual Machines in the folders view. You can actually create different folders based on the application running on the virtual machine. One example would be to have all the exchange servers in one folder or to have all the virtual desktops organized in a folder and then create sub-folders by department. In one engagement, I actually created folders based on the virtual machine owner, so I would be able to determine who was responsible for each virtual machine if an issue arose. Moving forward, I started to use custom columns in vCenter for application owner and other information to be able to get in touch with that person. You can also create custom columns to turn the main virtual machine page into a main source of information about all of the virtual machines. Eventually these columns would have the same information that the server database would have and could replace the server database for any information about the virtual machines.
How do you organize your vCenter? Inquiring minds what to know!
by Howard Cathcart, Director of Enterprise Services October 25th, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Are you Social Networking for success?
Over the last two years I have attended various events and presentations regarding “social networking”. I have read articles, had conversations and even presented on the topic. It has become clear to me that social networking is big and growing. People are either involved, getting involved or wondering if they should be involved.
And why not, it’s a great tool and easy to use. Right? Jump on line, sign up and search for people you know. Add friends to Facebook, “Link” people in, “follow” people on Twitter. Great…now what? You are all signed up, you check the site every day, and occasionally post something. You are “social networking”. Now we can just sit back and watch our business grow, or the job opportunities roll in, or our brand recognition increase, etc.
Unfortunately that isn’t how it works in most cases. Joining Linkedin.com, facebook.com, twitter.com, etc. are steps in the social networking process but are just the first steps. These are the tools that allow social networking to be effective. Now there needs to be a plan, a goal, a focused agenda for what you are trying to accomplish.
These goals may vary. Who is your target client? Are you selling retail or business to business? Is your responsibility marketing, PR or sales? Is your goal long term branding or are you trying to generate leads for today? These questions and more are going to be important in understanding which tool is best for you and leveraging that tool for results.
I was initially an offender. I am on facebook, twitter, linkedin and a few other less main stream sites. I started on facebook and linkedin 3 years ago. Up until 6 months ago, these sites have had little to no positive impact on my ability to drive business for ACS Services. This wasn’t the websites short comings, but my own. I spread myself too thin. I didn’t use these tools with a goal in mind. I was on the sites every day but had no understanding of why I was on the site, what I was looking for or how to best leverage them.
After researching, trial & error, speaking with others and asking myself some of the above questions, I determined that Linkedin was best suited for me. ACS Services sells outsourced IT services to small to mid-sized businesses in the Boston area. This is a very specific and target marketed. Linkedin allows me to search candidates in the area and see if I have any contacts that are connected to them. This is great for referrals or to make a cold call a warm prospect. It has also allowed me to be strategic and efficient about finding good networking partners through Linkedin’s Groups. Unfortunately the use of this site effectively is a whole other blog.
I leave you with this thought. If you are currently “social networking”, think about how you are using these sites. Are you getting what you want from them? Do you have a goal in mind when using the sites? Ask other people how they utilize the different sites. I think we will all find that we are “leaving money on the table.” If you have any questions please feel free to email me at vverducci@acs.com and good luck with your social networking.
-Vincent Verducci, Director of Business Development
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Antivirus is Not Enough with Today’s Hostile Internet Environment
At this point, everyone pretty much realizes that every system needs Antivirus in order to stay protected. Those that didn’t want to spend the money or computer resources have already been burned and now see it as a necessary expense. Now, most individual users as well as companies are doing a good job at budgeting for this expense every year. So with the hundreds to thousands of dollars spent for this each year, the question remains: why are my systems still getting infected?
As necessary as antivirus is these days, it’s simply not enough. It’s never been a perfect solution but has always been good enough to protect from the majority of the scripts created by the pimply faced kid in his parents’ basement. As time goes on, more is at stake. No longer is a virus simply a way to ruin someone’s day, or steal a piece of information, or even destroy a system. No, the virus of today is just another method of marketing (pop-ups), bumping a webpage’s stats in search engines (homepage hijacking), selling a product (rouge antivirus/antispyware ), assisting with an emailing campaign (spam bot), a form of activism (DDoS attacks), stealing your identity (backdoor Trojan), another place to store information (mIRC, FTP bot), or make a name for one’s self by spreading as much and as fast as possible (worm). Because there is more on the line, there are more resources on the side of evil than good.
So what can you do?
Well, all the major antivirus players seem to be doing two things. First, they are beefing up their antivirus programs to try to stop this. The side effect to this is an antivirus software that is now taking up 60% of your computer resources and creating little add-ins that require you to do more manual maintenance. From what I have seen, this is not really effective. All it's doing is slowing you down. If this was effective, then my laptop with 4 gig of ram, 2.4ghz processor, and a 100gb 7200 rpm hard drive that is bogged down with Symantec Endpoint 11 would not have just gotten the WinAntivirus 2010 virus from the spoofed UPS email I just opened. Or my desktop with 3gig of ram, 3ghz processor, 500gb 7200prm hard drive bogged down with McAfee would not have just downloaded a Russian speaking virus from my friends Facebook profile. Trust me, by the numerous issues per day ACS works on I know I am not alone. Yes, my antivirus was up to date, my Network threat protection was enabled, Tamper protection was enabled, the internet was marked as an untrusted zone, and I even verified that the firewall component was enabled. More features just bog me down, make it confusing, and leave more room for misconfiguration.
These companies are also releasing different methods of protection. Most have been around for a while, but now are starting to get serious attention and are becoming more effective. It is very important to choose the right solution for your infrastructure and as your IT provider what’s best for your situation.
So what are some of these methods:
The correct firewall – you can spend fifty or five thousand dollars. The correct one depends on your setup and need. The biggest mistake is most people make a decision based on price, and many firewalls I have seen implemented are doing more harm than good. Make sure you weigh all the factors before making a decision.
Content filtering – while not a viable option for all companies this is usually a very effective way to protect your network. By using an effective content filter you can not only protect yourself from malicious programs, you can also protect your business from losing time/money due to employees goofing off.
Gateway Antivirus protection – Just one more way to filter your traffic, but at it's source. By adding this to your arsenal, you are removing viruses before they hit your machines.
Managed Anti-spam protection – Spam is a growing problem, but in addition to just wasting time deleting junk it's also a way to get malicious programs. A Managed Anti-Spam solution can eliminate the junk mail while saving your machines.
Deep Packet Inspection - A powerful method for filtering traffic. DPI acts almost like a customizable antivirus/content filter. This is not meant to replace these functions but instead to add to them. DPI will scan for a pattern within a packet rather than the file itself like an antivirus solution will. DPI signatures were more effective in preventing the Conficker virus than the antivirus programs themselves when it first released.
Managed antispyware protection – Antispyware is best to work in conjunction with antivirus software. A managed solution will ensure that your systems are fully updated and have the appropriate settings for your environment. While antivirus is necessary for preventing viruses they usually lack the protection of those pop-up campaigns, and rouge antivirus/spyware programs.
Managed Antivirus protection – While antivirus has been the topic here, it still is necessary, and by having the appropriate managed solution you increase the effectiveness.
Brian Kingsley - Director of Technical Services
At this point, everyone pretty much realizes that every system needs Antivirus in order to stay protected. Those that didn’t want to spend the money or computer resources have already been burned and now see it as a necessary expense. Now, most individual users as well as companies are doing a good job at budgeting for this expense every year. So with the hundreds to thousands of dollars spent for this each year, the question remains: why are my systems still getting infected?
As necessary as antivirus is these days, it’s simply not enough. It’s never been a perfect solution but has always been good enough to protect from the majority of the scripts created by the pimply faced kid in his parents’ basement. As time goes on, more is at stake. No longer is a virus simply a way to ruin someone’s day, or steal a piece of information, or even destroy a system. No, the virus of today is just another method of marketing (pop-ups), bumping a webpage’s stats in search engines (homepage hijacking), selling a product (rouge antivirus/antispyware ), assisting with an emailing campaign (spam bot), a form of activism (DDoS attacks), stealing your identity (backdoor Trojan), another place to store information (mIRC, FTP bot), or make a name for one’s self by spreading as much and as fast as possible (worm). Because there is more on the line, there are more resources on the side of evil than good.
So what can you do?
Well, all the major antivirus players seem to be doing two things. First, they are beefing up their antivirus programs to try to stop this. The side effect to this is an antivirus software that is now taking up 60% of your computer resources and creating little add-ins that require you to do more manual maintenance. From what I have seen, this is not really effective. All it's doing is slowing you down. If this was effective, then my laptop with 4 gig of ram, 2.4ghz processor, and a 100gb 7200 rpm hard drive that is bogged down with Symantec Endpoint 11 would not have just gotten the WinAntivirus 2010 virus from the spoofed UPS email I just opened. Or my desktop with 3gig of ram, 3ghz processor, 500gb 7200prm hard drive bogged down with McAfee would not have just downloaded a Russian speaking virus from my friends Facebook profile. Trust me, by the numerous issues per day ACS works on I know I am not alone. Yes, my antivirus was up to date, my Network threat protection was enabled, Tamper protection was enabled, the internet was marked as an untrusted zone, and I even verified that the firewall component was enabled. More features just bog me down, make it confusing, and leave more room for misconfiguration.
These companies are also releasing different methods of protection. Most have been around for a while, but now are starting to get serious attention and are becoming more effective. It is very important to choose the right solution for your infrastructure and as your IT provider what’s best for your situation.
So what are some of these methods:
The correct firewall – you can spend fifty or five thousand dollars. The correct one depends on your setup and need. The biggest mistake is most people make a decision based on price, and many firewalls I have seen implemented are doing more harm than good. Make sure you weigh all the factors before making a decision.
Content filtering – while not a viable option for all companies this is usually a very effective way to protect your network. By using an effective content filter you can not only protect yourself from malicious programs, you can also protect your business from losing time/money due to employees goofing off.
Gateway Antivirus protection – Just one more way to filter your traffic, but at it's source. By adding this to your arsenal, you are removing viruses before they hit your machines.
Managed Anti-spam protection – Spam is a growing problem, but in addition to just wasting time deleting junk it's also a way to get malicious programs. A Managed Anti-Spam solution can eliminate the junk mail while saving your machines.
Deep Packet Inspection - A powerful method for filtering traffic. DPI acts almost like a customizable antivirus/content filter. This is not meant to replace these functions but instead to add to them. DPI will scan for a pattern within a packet rather than the file itself like an antivirus solution will. DPI signatures were more effective in preventing the Conficker virus than the antivirus programs themselves when it first released.
Managed antispyware protection – Antispyware is best to work in conjunction with antivirus software. A managed solution will ensure that your systems are fully updated and have the appropriate settings for your environment. While antivirus is necessary for preventing viruses they usually lack the protection of those pop-up campaigns, and rouge antivirus/spyware programs.
Managed Antivirus protection – While antivirus has been the topic here, it still is necessary, and by having the appropriate managed solution you increase the effectiveness.
Brian Kingsley - Director of Technical Services
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Welcome to "What's Up with IT?". For some of you, this is your first time viewing this blog, for others you may have been wondering when our next post would be! I am sorry for the delay, but there was a method to our madness. Let me explain.
Over the last two years, we have learned a great deal regarding the art of Web 2.0. We have been very active on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and we also started this blog, What's Up with IT (Information Technology). What we didn't have was a destination to direct the attention of the people we were interacting with. Thus began a major overhaul of our website, http://www.acs.com/. For those that don't know, we are in the business of Outsourced Technology, which in the most basic terms means that we handle a client's technology needs with the same level of service they would receive if they had a full time staff.
SO, when it came time to redesign our site, we practiced what we preach and hired 451 Marketing, widely considered the best in class firm when Web 2.0 is discussed. We feel that they did an excellent job. Please feel free to give us your feedback as well http://www.acs.com/.
I now feel that we are in a great position to take full advantage of all that Web 2.0 to offer. I also feel if you're not taking similar steps, then you and your business are missing the boat in a big way. Web 2.0 is a powerful tool if you're able to harness it! It allows you to share your skill set with a large audience, requiring very little overhead. It also will provide you qualified leads as opposed to the scatter shot approach of mass mailing, cold calling, etc.
While we don't profess to know it all, we can be a strong resource and have a full complement of partners to help guide your firm through Web 2.0 as well as a host of Technology Solutions. If you have Technology needs, concerns or just want a sounding board to ensure your firm is taking the necessary steps to compete, look us up, we are here to help!
Thank you and we look forward to chatting!
Over the last two years, we have learned a great deal regarding the art of Web 2.0. We have been very active on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and we also started this blog, What's Up with IT (Information Technology). What we didn't have was a destination to direct the attention of the people we were interacting with. Thus began a major overhaul of our website, http://www.acs.com/. For those that don't know, we are in the business of Outsourced Technology, which in the most basic terms means that we handle a client's technology needs with the same level of service they would receive if they had a full time staff.
SO, when it came time to redesign our site, we practiced what we preach and hired 451 Marketing, widely considered the best in class firm when Web 2.0 is discussed. We feel that they did an excellent job. Please feel free to give us your feedback as well http://www.acs.com/.
I now feel that we are in a great position to take full advantage of all that Web 2.0 to offer. I also feel if you're not taking similar steps, then you and your business are missing the boat in a big way. Web 2.0 is a powerful tool if you're able to harness it! It allows you to share your skill set with a large audience, requiring very little overhead. It also will provide you qualified leads as opposed to the scatter shot approach of mass mailing, cold calling, etc.
While we don't profess to know it all, we can be a strong resource and have a full complement of partners to help guide your firm through Web 2.0 as well as a host of Technology Solutions. If you have Technology needs, concerns or just want a sounding board to ensure your firm is taking the necessary steps to compete, look us up, we are here to help!
Thank you and we look forward to chatting!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)