Technology Blog: October 2008

Monday, October 06, 2008

IT Outsourcing - Some of the Pros and Cons

There are many pros and cons of IT outsourcing you might consider when you are looking for the right support team. It is very important to make the right decision for your department to be successful.

When you have employees that work for you internally, you have the benefit of team members who are already onsite. These employees are available to fix problems as soon as they occur. They are often on call and will come in on the weekends or in the middle of the night.

When you select IT outsourcing you often have to wait for the people to be available to fix your issues. This may cause bigger problems and cost a lot of money depending on how long you have to wait.

Employees in an IT department know the equipment better and are capable of fixing things quickly. Employees are often the ones who set everything up, and they know the quirky things that occurred during setup as well as the configurations.

When you practice IT outsourcing you might get a different person each time you call about an issue. This may take hours to fix a problem because they need to learn the system.

There are positive sides of IT outsourcing which can make it a tempting solution. If you are tight on a budget and cannot afford full-time IT staff within the company, outsourcing is the best option. You save a lot of money because you are not paying salaries for positions but rather as the people are required to come in and fix issues. If you never have issues then you never pay for anything. You also don't have to pay for benefits to employees when you outsource your staff.

There are many pros and cons of IT outsourcing which you may consider when needing to put together a staff of IT people. You first need to consider your budget and what is right for you and the company.

Determine your needs and how often calls are coming in for help with the computer systems too. These factors can help you make a smart decision.

Nick Pegley is a marketing expert with All Covered: Technology Services Partner for Small Business, providing information technology consulting and IT services in 20 major U.S. metro areas. Outsource your procurement, installation and technical headaches...

IT Server Management - Types of Servers

IT server management is essential for a business that has many servers that need to be running at all times because your staff relies on them. There are many different types of servers which include file servers, back up servers, application servers, database, and more.

IT server management includes taking care of the file servers that remain on site at your establishment. A file server is a server that holds a lot of data. Typically, a company's file server will hold all of the user information including their My Documents folders, shared files between departments and many more. The file servers often hold a lot of data. They also need to be able to handle a heavy load of users accessing their information at the same time.

Backup servers are used on a nightly and daily basis. Depending on the size of the company this can be a full time job for the IT server management. Backups are important for data redundancy. If a file server crashes or a hard drive dies and you need data restored, the right back up server person will be able to restore the data within minutes. Users often call the IT staff to restore data files they accidentally erased also.

Database servers can be the most taxing servers on your network. It is important to have the right IT server management that can handle the databases that you use. These servers hold a lot of data but they also interact with the application servers. They are very taxing on the network and they can be costly too. It often requires a professional who specializes in the particular database that your business uses.

IT server management is essential for businesses that have a lot of computers that need to network together and have backup needs as well. This staff can assist with making sure everyone in the company is able to communicate and work together effectively through electronic or manual means.

IT Network Consultants

Network consultants provide many benefits to companies who don't have their own staff for Information Technology. The duties of network consultants are often very vast, including phone issues, line and data repair, and server-related fixings too.

Network consultants are usually hired in for IT outsourcing efforts because a company doesn't have their own IT staff or the staff on hand doesn't have the equipment and the knowledge necessary to perform the duties. Network problems can be significant and they can be detrimental. In most cases, network problems can stop productivity of the entire staff until they are fixed. These problems are often much bigger than your staff can handle.

Network consultants are the best option to call when you would like to roll out a new project like going from an analog or punch down block phone system to an IP phone system throughout the company. This is important because you need to be sure that lines are run properly in the walls and they talk to the right carrier and more.

Network consultants are the best solution when you have a network issue you cannot figure out. It is common for a business to notice that they have a lot of electrical magnetic interference in the business and it is affecting the transmission of data. You might notice you are losing packets during data transfer and have many other issues. They can help you find out what is causing problems like this because they are trained professionals on any type of network topology and everything a network needs.

Network consultants don't have to be paid benefits or an annual salary so you do save money not having a full time position on staff. You can save a lot of money when you outsource these people. However, it is important to remember that when you hire professionals for work on your network it is very expensive.

When you hire network consultants they can help you with problems with your network and rolling out new systems too. It can be costly to hire them but it is cheaper in the long run than hiring full time employees.

VMWare Consultants

There are many benefits of VMware consultants that you might want to consider. These benefits include the advantage of business continuity, desktop management, and software lifecycle. In addition, consultants can also help you with infrastructure optimization.

Business continuity provided by VMware consultants is essential for any business. This means that you can have an advisor that is dedicated to helping you build and manage a robust and critical system. In order for continuity to occur consultants can help you make it happen.

VMware consultants can also help with desktop management. This will help your business optimize the availability of optimized software. Your users will be very satisfied with the ability to control another user's desktop from theirs. This is a big benefit and ensures total satisfaction and ease of support.

It is important for your business to consider software lifecycle. Software can be very important for productivity of your business but you may not be able to afford the cost of upgrading to a new version every year. VMware consultants can help you with software lifecycle issues and help you with rolling out new versions, upgrades, add-on tools, and more. They can also help you make the most of your software so it lasts longer. This might help you with upgrading less often or just having an easy installation. They can also take away the problems of rolling out new applications if you don't have the staff to do it or if you don't have the time.

Infrastructure optimization is another important factor you might consider when it comes to VMware consultants. They can help you with the implementations of cost saving methodologies on your network. You can rely on consultants that you need and achieve very high standards with virtualization on your network.

VMware consultants are very beneficial to a business when you want to optimize your performance in many different ways. You can enjoy total optimization with continuity, desktop management, software, and your infrastructure.

Saturday, October 04, 2008

The Atomic Clock and the NTP Time Server

Most people have heard of atomic clocks, their accuracy and precision are well known. An atomic clock has the potential to keep time for several hundred million years and not lose a second in drift. Drift is the process where clocks lose or gain time because of the inaccuracies in the mechanisms that make them work.

Mechanical clocks, for instance, have been around for hundreds of years but even the most expensive and well engineered will drift at least a second a day. Whilst electronic clocks are more accurate they also will drift by about a second a week.

Atomic clocks have no comparison when it comes to time keeping. Because an atomic clock is based on the oscillation of an atom (in most cases the caesium 133 atom) which has an exact and finite resonance (caesium is 9,192,631,770 every second) this makes them accurate to within a billionth of a second (a nanosecond).

While this type of accuracy is unparalleled it has made possible technologies and innovations that have changed the world. Satellite communication is only possible thanks to the time keeping of atomic clocks, so is satellite navigation. As the speed of light (and therefore radio waves) travel at over 300,000km a second an inaccuracy of a second could see a navigation system be hundreds of thousands of miles out.

Precise accuracy is also essential in many modern computer applications. Global communication, particularly financial transactions have to be done precisely. In Wall Street or the London stock exchange a second can see the value of stock rise or fall by millions. Online reservation also requires the accuracy and perfect synchronisation only atomic clocks can provide otherwise tickets could be sold more than once and cash machines could end up paying out your wages twice if you found a cash machine with a slow clock.

Whilst this may sound desirable to the more dishonest of us, it doesn't take much imagination to understand what problems a lack of accuracy and synchronisation could cause. For this reason an International timescale based on the time told by atomic clocks has been developed.

UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) is the same everywhere and can account for the slowing of the Earth's rotation by adding leap seconds to keep UTC inline with GMT (Greenwich Meantime). All computer networks that participate in global communication need to be synchronised to UTC. Because UTC is based on the time told by atomic clocks it is the most precise timescale possible. For a computer network to receive and keep synchronised to UTC it first needs access to an atomic clock. These are expensive and large pieces of equipment and are generally only to be found in large scale physics laboratories.

Fortunately the time told by these clocks can still be received by a network time server wither by utilising time and frequency long wave broadcasts transmitted by national physics laboratories or from the GPS (Global Positioning system). NTP (network time protocol) can then distribute this UTC time to the network and use the time signal to keep all devices on the network perfectly synchronised to UTC.

Richard N Williams is a technical author and specialist in atomic clocks, telecommunications, NTP and network time synchronisation helping to develop dedicated NTP clocks. Please visit us for more information about a network time server or other ntp server solutions.

Card Printing Solutions to Consider For Your Organization

Technology now offers you many printing ID systems and just as many card printing solutions. Whether you need to print photo ID or some other form of identification, there are many card printing solutions to consider.

There are several different types of printable plastic cards. Companies like Fargo, Datacard, Zebra, and Magicard all have a reputation for quality plastic cards. With more than 3 million identification cards printed every day, you can quickly see that this is really a new way of doing business.

Bank Cards

You can print on-demand bank cards right at your branch providing improved customer service. You can improve it even more by producing debit cards, credit cards, and ATM cards, then making them available for immediate use.

Driver's Licenses

Government agencies around the world must print driver's licenses, as they want a top notch product. This is why there are printers designed specifically for driver's license printing.

Employee ID

Organizations require employee ID to help identify people, monitor production, and control access to areas. You want your employees as secure as your intellectual property. You can create personalized ID cards for your employees, the professional teams in your organization, for access control, and a host of other reasons.

Loyalty Cards

Loyalty cards have become very popular with businesses that want to reward their regular customers for their continued business. It's a great way to set you apart from the competition. There are many different types of loyalty cards and you can decide what type you'd like to offer.

Membership Cards

Your members are your best asset and just as you want to set your business apart from the rest you should make sure your membership cards set you apart from the rest too. In-house card printing makes it easy for you to do just that. You can add security and value to your membership by printing cards that are personalized have the member's name, and even a photo of your members. By printing barcodes you can keep the members personal information confidential. And if you want you can have expiration dates and balances in the printed barcode.

Government ID

There are all kinds of Government divisions with some that require some type of photo ID for most employees and others which require security identification cards for their security systems. Governments also provide all kinds of identification to citizens such as with healthcare cards or social security cards.

High Level Security ID

All high level security printed photo IDs are protected from counterfeiting, duplication, forgery, and alteration. And you can add the type of security that's required from microchips for identification to systems that will open secure doors. There are many corporations that require high level security such as Homeland Security, research facilities, and hospitals.

Student Identification

The campus of today is far more secure than the past. Today's student ID card can do a whole lot more than just identify a student. It can be encoded with all kinds of student information including medical conditions, library cards, and even class registrations.

Smart Cards

This type of card can be used by many different companies and organizations and it offers a great deal of functionality and security. Smart cards provide security, convenience, and portability. For example, ATM cards are an excellent example of a smart card.

With so many different card printing solutions there's something to meet the needs of all companies and organizations. While deciding on the right solution for your organization you should consider the following.

Security - What type of security do you need? Different types of organizations and events require different security levels. Each business has their own unique needs so you will need to determine what it is you require in this area.

Integration - You will need to determine how you will need to integrate your new card printing system into other areas of your company or organization. You can always get the experts in the field of integration to give your organization a hand in providing a seamless system.

Functionality - There are several different card printers on the market and you will need to evaluate for the functionality you require. The professionals that offer these products to the market are experts in their product line so be sure to utilize this expertise.

Card Issuance - Issuing cards in-house is great but the security of these cards is only as good as the card printing system you implement which is why it's important for you to know and understand the various levels of security associated with the equipment.

There are many different card printing solutions available. That means your organization should consider what it is they want to do, and how they would like to do it. Only then they can make the right choice.

Check out ID Superstore for low prices on card printing. Or print your id cards yourself with a plastic card printer. Also shop for id accessories such as badge holders, badge reels and lanyards.

Use a Registry Cleaner to Avoid Permanent Damage to Your PC

Operating systems of Microsoft are now very complex. If you will notice, earlier versions are still easier to use. But Windows XP and Vista are much more complicated and they need to be maintained very well.

To maintain your system, you must often scan your computer for spywares and viruses. This is already a common knowledge since it is standard that your system must have an antivirus installed. However, with the complexity of the operating systems today, having a registry cleaner is equally important to keep you system running at its best.

When you add something to your PC, it is recorded. But when you remove something, the registry keys are not removed. They are retained in the registry and these no longer existing keys are still being read by the system. It is a total waste of time considering that there are many keys for the system to read. As a result, your computer runs slower and is more prone to crashes and freezes.

Spywares that have been removed by the antispyware applications leave traces in the registry. There are entries of the removed spywares and viruses even though they are not there anymore. This will make the computer work double time. As a result, your system slows down.
If you are using an outdated registry cleaner or if you do not scan your PC regularly, your system will surely be running slow coupled with frequent crashes and freezes as well as error messages. All of these can lead to permanent damage of your system. It is therefore recommended to use a registry cleaner to scan your PC every once in a while especially if you are running on Windows XP or Vista.

Some time before it was strongly advised to avoid too much use of the registry cleaners because they will do more harm than good to your system. Actually, the newer versions of registry cleaners do not pose those problems. It is still best to scan your PC once a week or once a month.

The exclusion to this rule is when spyware has been found and deleted. The registry cleaner should be used right away to stop the proliferation of invalid entries from increasing in the registry, which would make the computer move sluggishly and become laden with errors. It is safe to use a spyware cleaner frequently. As a matter of fact, it has been a routine already.
Computer maintenance does not only mean scanning your system, it also means cleaning your keyboard, and dusting you motherboard. Always remember the proper sequence in scanning. Scan the spyware and viruses first before using the registry cleaner. This is because removal of spyware and viruses will leave traces in the registry that is why you use registry cleaner last.

Richard A. Woods is a Senior Computer Programmer and Analyst for the last 18 years. Check out my comprehensive Registry Cleaner Reviews to find out which is the Best Registry Cleaner that will boost speed by 110%!

What is the Highly Recommended Registry Cleaner?

Having the best registry cleaner will definitely protect your computer from crashes and freezes and from the infuriating error messages that suddenly pops up. If you stumble upon a registry cleaner which is not good, you will end up having more problems in your system. It is therefore important to find the best registry cleaner for your PC.

What is the registry cleaner anyway? Consider it as somewhat like an enormous filing cabinet where thousands of files are kept. This is the way how Windows stores the information about your computer. Everything about your computer and the actions you are doing are all noted down. The registry contains the software, hardware, user preferences and many more. The new registry keys are stored in one of the HKEY directories.

If your filing cabinet becomes full of junk, it will be very hard to sort out the files that are stored there. Same goes with the registry. When your registry is full of obsolete files and invalid entries, the system will start to run slow.

If you are planning on repairing your registry manually, think again. It might take you forever because of the thousand of files in your registry. Besides, you will not find all the errors. And moreover, why would you use the harder way when you can there is a lot easier way to clean you registry. Cleaning your registry can be done by the registry cleaners. In a few minutes, your computer will run as fast as when you first bought it. You do not have to be an expert to repair your PC.

The finest registry cleaner program available is RegCure which was developed by ParetoLogic. It is user friendly, a thorough and powerful scan, and you can and run a free scan. RegCure was our top selection over all the other registry repair tools available on the market.

What Causes My Computer to Get Slow, & How Can I Speed Up My Computer?

Does your computer run really slow these days? Does it take forever to start up and shut down, and does it even freeze up? If this describes your computer, you are probably among the many PC users out there asking the question "how do I speed up my computer?"

If you want to know how do I speed up my computer, the answer I will give you is that I clean up the PC registry. This is often overlooked when it comes to fixing a slow computer, but it is very essential. The registry and its files can be found on the hard drive of your PC. Those files give instructions to Windows on how to run each program and application. As you can see, Windows relies heavily on the registry, so when there are problems inside that registry, then the whole computer gets messed up. The system does not know what to with each program, and so it basically does little or even nothing. In certain instances, the registry file is just corrupt, and so the program does not run the right way and will lock up. You will end up with the dreaded "blue screen of death."

As I finalize my answer on "how do I speed up my computer," the best way to fix registry files is to use a registry cleaner. This type of software program will scan your PC registry for any problems or errors, and then the software will repair them. It will also work to keep them from coming back in the future.

How do I speed up my computer? I use a registry cleaner, and the best product out there is RegCure because it finds the most accurate number of errors. Go to http://www.registryrepaironline.com for a FREE SCAN of your PC registry

Apple TV is on But Who's Watching?

Something happens when a company becomes a major player in the technology field: great expectations. After producing two of the most beloved innovations of the past decade, the iPod and the iPhone, Apple now faces the additional burden of living up to its own hype. That, in part, can be seen as one of the reasons Apple TV has been a disappointment.

For those who haven't heard about it (which may be a lot of people, judging by sales), Apple TV is a device that hooks up to a widescreen TV and plugs into a high-speed Internet connection (either wirelessly or via Ethernet cable). The device enables users to rent (or buy) movies from the iTunes Store and watch them on their big-screen TVs instead of just their computers. While that's not the device's only purpose, it seems to be its main one. A person also can use the Apple TV box to buy individual TV-show episodes, listen to music, view photos from Flickr, and watch YouTube videos.

The 2.5-pound Apple TV box is essentially a small computer and is available with a 40 GB hard drive (for $229) or a 160 GB hard drive (for $329). The box must be "linked" to a computer so it can work through that person's iTunes Store account. With Apple TV, a person can rent a movie instantly from iTunes and have it downloaded onto the Apple TV box. HD movies cost $4.99 to rent (for new titles) and $3.99 for older titles, while standard-definition movies are $3.99 and $2.99. Apple designed the Apple TV system to encourage people to download movies, but the major problem with the device is that it doesn't really give people an incentive to do so.

According to most reviews, the quality of HD movies from Apple TV is decent, but nowhere near as good as Blu-ray. And the selection of movies currently available (in HD or SD) is severely limited (still in the hundreds), despite the fact that Apple has agreements with all the major studios. For regular renters, NetFlix offers greater variety and a better price - though renters have to wait to get DVDs in the mail or watch movies on the computer. And, for those who want immediacy, renting movies through a cable On Demand service may cost a dollar more - but it eliminates download time (which, for HD movies can take a few hours) and the need to spend a couple hundred dollars on an Apple TV box. Users also can get cable DVR or TiVo to record TV shows rather than pay $1.99 to rent episodes from iTunes.

So, while Apple TV may offer a lot of different services, it's doesn't offer anything better than what's already out there. In fact, the greatest benefit of Apple TV may be the ability to look at Flickr photos or watch YouTube videos on a big screen. While the iPhone and iPod revolutionized cell phone use and portable music, Apple TV, in its current incarnation, hasn't really improved the movie-rental experience. And, until it does, this little white box remains the black sheep of the Apple family.

Shad Connelly,
Executive Editor -
Invention & Technology News (http://news.inventhelp.com)

http://www.apple.com/appletv/

System Data Migration - Why Help is Important

There are many reasons why migration help is important. If you are planning a company wide migration from one platform to another it is important to consider outsourcing your work. This can help you with the time it takes, productivity, and achieving a successful migration.

A migration can be very time consuming. It takes a lot of planning in order for the project to be successful. A business often is forced to pay a lot of overtime costs when a migration occurs because there is not enough time during the normal work week to work on the project. This can be very expensive. Migration help through outsourcing takes away the problem of overtime costs and tired employees. Your employees don't have to worry about the project at all or only just a little bit. However, if you hire a company to do your entire migration it can eliminate the stress entirely.

When a migration occurs with any company it is common for productivity to be lost. This occurs because the staff will be more focused on the project rather than their normal daily activities. Some of the users in the company may feel like the staff in your department is lacking and that you aren't doing a good job. This is because they may not be aware of the major project you are working on. Productivity can be saved when you outsource by seeking migration help.

Migration help can also help you with a successful migration. You don't want overworked and tired employees working on a project make mistakes in the middle of the night. When you outsourcing efforts it is the best solution because you can ensure the job is done right. In addition, if the job is not done right it will be guaranteed. If problems occur with the migration you will be able to call upon them for your rollout needs.

AMG Mercedes Wallpaper

By searching the internet, you should be able to find a number of websites specialising in images of Mercedes Benz cars. A good time to change your wallpaper is when AMG Mercedes comes out with a new car model. Even if you are not a devoted fan of car themed wallpaper you will certainly love the scenery contained in the AMG Mercedes wallpaper that you download.

AMG Mercedes Wallpaper for Racing Fans

The AMG Mercedes has widely been used as a race car and everyone has a favourite car and driver team. The AMG Mercedes has been employed as a race car since 1967 when the car was developed for the racetrack by the German based company to provide a reliable engine for race cars.

From 1967 Mercedes soon grew into a company that offered cars suitable for the street. People all over the world began to enjoy the speed and reliability of the AMG Mercedes and the demand began to pour into the company for more street versions. If you have a favourite AMG Mercedes which is simply just too fast for road use you can download Mercedes wallpaper. What would a picture of the SLR McLaren look like on your PC?

Free AMG Mercedes Wallpapers

Most of the Mercedes computer wallpapers which you will find are free. These wallpapers tend to look great on any size screen and is a wonderful way to impress your friends and family while showing your support for this great race car.

The official site for AMG Mercedes offers a wide range of associated wallpapers for the fans of the car to enjoy on their home PC. To download the wallpaper image should only be a case of right clicking with your mouse and selecting the background image option. Then, when you look at your desk top again, there will be the image of your car. Enjoy.

Alex West is a Mercedes Benz driver and is a luxury car enthusiast. You can read the rest of this article and find out more about the Mercedes Benz products at http://www.usedmercedesonline.com/amg-mercedes-wallpaper.php