There are common sayings in the business world, usually tossed around by sales people to explain why the cost of goods and services for option A is higher than option B. We’ve all heard them; they go something like this…..

• You get what you pay for.
• Consider the value and not the cost.

And my all time favorite…..

• If you pay in peanuts, you get monkeys.

I must apologize ahead of time if this becomes a rant because in the technology industry these clichés hold true in so many ways; especially when it comes to technology goods and technology service. Let me try and explain.

As technology evolves, the bells and whistles increase in quantity and quality. When I began working on computers in the mid 90s computers were already far more advanced from their ancestors, but the basic function of the networked computer was to allow employees to easily share files and easily share printers. That was basically it, those two functions were worth considerable investment in technology. The basics of collaboration some fifteen years ago relied on those two functions, files and printing.

In today’s corporate network we have sophisticated communications options including online web meetings, video conferencing, phones that work over the Internet through a myriad of service providers, the concepts of access anywhere anytime, integrated messaging, collaboration portals, and so much more. As you can imagine, the products to provide these functions have significantly changed, and the processes for installing, supporting, and maintaining these business technology solutions has increased in complexity.

Here’s the kicker in all of this…….picture yourself as the successful business manager of the Widgets Unlimited Corporation. You know everything there is to know about widgets, how they are designed, how they are manufactured, how they are used, and how they are maintained. You no doubt have learned over the years how certain pieces of technology help you produce and support the best widgets in the world. So let’s now picture the scenario where your widget making system which is no doubt driven by and relies on a complex information system suddenly stops working normally or even worse completely shuts down.

You know everything there is to know about the widget, but not the computer system.

You have two options….

OPTION 1: Call a certified reputable solution provider that employees highly trained individuals to fix your problem and assist you in the future to maintain and plan the future of your widget making empire.

OPTION 2: Call the receptionist’s neighbor’s third cousin who has his own computer business with no physical business address…..AKA the trunk slammer.

The certified reputable solution provider is going to cost you more money per hour than friendly neighborhood trunk slammer. So if you are strictly looking for the cheapest per hour solution to your current problem and future direction of your widget making empire you are not only missing the boat, but you’ve just missed the entire ocean.

The following table will highlight the major differences between the certified reputable solution provider and the trunk slammer.

In short there are many options to reaching any goal, and certainly achieving technology goals is no different. You can hire the cheaper by the hour trunk slammer and hope that he has the skill set, knowledge, and connections required to help your organization succeed, or you can turn to a trusted business advisor and solution provider like Axxys Technologies, Inc. and confidently rely on a long term, certified, and experienced partner.

In short…..if you pay peanuts……you get monkeys.

Why not???? Don’t you need it….let me answer this one for you. YES.

The least a network needs is a good map shot of the network with IP addresses and the physical layout of devices. If you don’t have that then you really don’t have a fighting chance of someone coming in and helping you solve issues.

Here are some basic docs all IT admins need to have at the ready:
-Visio or Network Layout
-Data recovery plan
-Security policy or review
-Patch management policy or review
-Three year tech plan

Axxys provides them all with our managed service offerings. If this set of docs is not in your arsenal, then your bound to have issues. Axxys provides both a complete managed IT offering or staff augmentation to your existing department, either way we get them done. Do you?????
L8r
Blake

This weekend I installed Windows 7 on my HP notebook. Needless to say from the beginning of the process I was impressed. The install (including the formatting process) took about an hour. I immediately connected up to my home wireless and began downloading updates for the drivers on my notebook. Flawless… The interface to Windows 7 is very clean and the aero features are really cool. There really is a lot more to this latest, soon to be released from Microsoft.

Ok….now from a business perspective. The startup process is much quicker than Vista, moving around in IE 8 is a great user experience (fast and efficient), and I have had very little issues with our line of business apps functioning. I did have to run a couple in compatibility mode but no big deal. Over the next couple of days I will post a few more things I like about Windows 7…but for now I have to say the change has really been nice. But what do I know…I was a fan of Vista!

Later
Blake

The Twitter site today faced a denial of service attack which has essentially made it almost impossible to get to Twitter. The denial of service attack is a fialry popular form of attack on sites as it is executed in a very simple manner…simply flood their site with Internet traffic and make it almost impossible to access the site. Here is a good definition as well: .

Keep your head up out there….its a crazy world.

Blake

For Axxys it has been a game changer to have a group of businesses to share ideas, share best practices, successes and failures, and most importantly hold ourselves accountable to the group. Our meeting is based on sharing our recent financial results (board review), share our concerns and get feedback, presentation of a great business idea, as well as some great networking opportunities with our partners. Not to mention a good poker game as well and a friendly round of golf.

Sounds like a good time and for the most they are…but it is still challenging. Thanks to our clients and team at Axxys we will be pleased with our presentation to the group, not “content” with the results, but pleased for this quarter.

If you do not have an opportunity to present to a “Board”, the you and your business is missing out. It is something that has made a tremendous impact on Axxys.

But, how does this affect our clients? Well it keeps us moving forward and focused on results. We have a responsibility to our clients to be fiscally responsible as well as industry experts. Recently a business in our industry, and in the Dallas area, had to close up shop, for not so clear reasons (many rumors, but nothing concrete). We have heard from a couple of their former clients and they had no idea. Imagine making the decision to outsource your IT department and losing your provider….what a business impact!
We are dedicated to our employees, our clients, our community, and our peer group members to running a responsible business. Our relationship with HTG Peer Groups takes our responsibility/accountability to a new level.

Find a peer group in your industry….if it meet your needs it will add a tremendous value to your business,

Blake

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/07/microsoft-takes-on-google-with-free-office-programs/

Blake

Google is a company that is built on innovation and it only make sense for them to provide an end to end offering for end users. Axxys is dedicated to looking at new ways to improve business productivity for our clients and over time the Netbook running OS’s such as Google Chrome could lead the way in a software as a service market. This is the second announcement of recent times regarding the “netbook”. ATT recently launched a very low cost option for Netbooks. What’s a Netbook? Basically the Netbook is a laptop that is designed for end users to connect to their applications and business productivity application via the web. Google also recently announced that they are taking the beta tag off their web apps such as Google Apps.

Look out business world….Google is starting to make some headway in areas outside of “search” and “adwords”. Axxys welcomes the innovation.

Blake

www.axxys.com

Instant File Recovery: A file has been deleted or corrupted. . . what’s next? Tracking down the right tape, waiting on the tape to mount up, worrying if the data is on the tape, all of this is can become moot. With the Axxys Managed Backup Solution the data is backed up to a storage appliance every 15 minutes, so when you notify us of the file needed for restore, we will locate the file and simply restore back to your network. Depending on the file size the process can take minutes to recover instead of hours with tape.

No More Offsite Storage of Tapes: Where are your offsite tapes stored? In a bank, at someone’s house, in the trunk of your car, or simply kept onsite? How does this fit into your disaster recovery/business continuity plan? The Axxys solution includes offsite storage of the most current image of your systems; operating system and data. The data is stored offsite and replicated to two locations across the country to ensure your data is safe. To secure the data there is an encrypted password known only by Axxys and you. In the event of a disaster and your data is needed, the data center will migrate all data to a new backup appliance and ship to you for prompt delivery. The best part is once you receive this unit you will be able to begin most all normal business operations as the appliance can also be used as temporary servers until new servers are procured.

Best for Last – Server Virtualization: No need to go into how tape is being used for this scenario because it simply cannot be done. The Axxys Managed Backup Solution has the ability to take on the role of most any server in your environment if the server dies or crashes. With this solution we simply virtualize the affected server and it takes on the role of the downed server. Think of how powerful this is for your most important server in your environment! Users will continue working, saving data, and doing business as usual. Once a new server is procured and ready to go, we simply take the most current image from your server and restore all data functions to the new server. While this will take several hours to complete, the time saved over having to do this from tape is astronomical!

Offsite backup and recovery is not bleeding edge anymore. . . it is the standard. Now is the time to execute moving to this solution, your business depends on it!

To view a Flash Demo go to http://www.axxys.com/pages/120.html 

Blake

If you are considering saving a few dollars by buying from your local big box shop please beware of the consequences. Majority of all PC’s at Best Buy, Frys, Circuit City, and other big box shops are all equipped with one major issue: Windows Vista Home Basic/Premium.  Most businesses that own a server are on a domain and not a workgroup. The Vista Home editions cannot be joined to a domain so therefore you will need to either upgrade to Vista Business / Ultimate. If you need to upgrade these PC’s you will be putting additional time (which is money) and money into purchasing an upgrade. Axxys understands that all businesses are budget conscious but making the wrong decision on what appears to be a cheap alternative is usually a budget killer. Be sure to consult Axxys first, we will discuss your options and if we are not a fit for what you are looking for we can suggest some alternatives.

Blake

Here is the article http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/TV/09/19/microsoft.seinfeld.ap/index.html .

L8r

Blake