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  • Security

    Dealing with a Data Breach

    It’s the call no-one wants to get: your client has experienced a data breach, and is worried that customer data may have leaked from the business. It is your job to fix the problem as best you can, and give the client peace of mind. There are four key steps in incident management.
    read more
  • Telecoms

    Bringing VoIP in house

    For business, IP telephony and voice over IP is starting to displace conventional phone services. According to industry analysts Forrester, as many as 47% of businesses in Europe and the US have either deployed, or are rolling out, an IP-based phone system.
    read more
Network

How to spoof a MAC address (and why)

MAC spoofing is one of those odd tricks: it’s not very useful most of the time (and it can be extremely awkward in a well-managed environment) but sometimes it’s the only technique that will solve the problem.

   
NetworkClient

Macs in a Windows world

Helping your Apple users become full-time network citizens – without doing a lot of extra work

We IT professionals are seeing more and more Apple Mac computers on our comfortably Windows-based networks. In the past, it’s been easy to ignore them – after all, in many cases they belonged to just one or two users, none of whom tended to be an influential manager or executive. But today it’s just as likely to be the boss with a new Mac.

   
SecurityBusiness Continuity

Specifying and supporting disk encryption

Encryption is at the top of the business agenda following a spate of embarrassing data breaches. How can you design and implement encryption systems to suit your customers’ needs without making life harder all round?

   
Security

Setting up false volumes in TrueCrypt

TrueCrypt is a free tool to create virtual encrypted disks housed within individual files, or a ‘volume within a volume’ – a hidden operating system and set of files that is invisibly housed in an encrypted file.

   
Security

Encrypting backup tapes

Backup should be keeping your customer’s data secure as well as safe. Forget to encrypt data written to tapes and they run the risk of having to explain it to the auditor when a courier loses them.

   
Security

Installing Utimaco SafeGuard Easy

Protect a range of different versions of Windows with whole disk encryption with Utimaco SafeGuard Easy.

   


Next
issue March 2010

To read a sample please
download Jan/Feb 2009
IT-Expert-Magazine-Vo2-Ed1.pdf

 

MS-SMB-Report-2009
Download the Microsoft SMB
Insight Report 2009

“Because they can respond so quickly as business conditions change,small and midsize companies have an advantage in a volatile and uncertain economic climate".

Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft

IT EXPERT TOP TIP

Microsoft is prone to push features as 'in Windows Server' when they're restricted to a specific edition; find out exactly what's in which edition and what's new as opposed to just updated in this short and clear list. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/compare-features.aspx read more

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WELCOME

 If it ain’t broke, should you fix it? Actually, yes. The one thing most of your customers need is backup, because they’ll be out of business so this issue we take a look at the trickier systems to back up – databases and Exchange. But to get the most from their opportunities, your small business customers need to be innovating – because the bigger businesses they compete with are going to be. 

According to a survey done by the Economist Intelligence Unit for Accenture, 63% of businesses are going to increase their IT budget in 2010, 75% say IT has to give the business more flexibility – and over 80% said that yes, the cost of projects is very important when they’re trying to get them signed off (no surprise there). 

Incidentally, a third are planning to keep costs down by setting project requirements and sticking to them, which means you need to ask the questions that let you spec the project correctly in the first place. Expect to be asked to drop your charges and to include open source software (which too many businesses still assume is always cheaper, so make sure you know what’s actually cost effective). Think about services you can offer that will save them money by avoiding disruption; GFI’s MAX and LANguard tools help you create monitoring services that cover the full range of small business systems with very little effort and you can prevent most of those irritating and avoidable configuration problems more easily than you think with a free tool in all modern versions of Windows and Windows Server, Group Policy Preferences. 

The survey says businesses want to rationalise and replace existing systems: if that makes you think of virtualisation, 37% of businesses agree with you. Remember that replacing kit means dealing with what gets replaced; we take a look at both the problems and the business opportunities in recycling hardware. They also want to invest in CRM (which we looked at last issue) and improving business processes, in data analytics, compliance and supply chain management. VoIP might help them with that and we look at both the budget option, based on Skype, and the full in-house VoIP systems you can specify and video surveillance is coming down in price as it shifts to IP-based systems. 

We’re also seeing enterprises accelerating their Windows 7 deployments; according to analysts Forrester two thirds will migrate to Windows 7 in 2010, making it the new business standard OS. That’s a significant change given that analysts IDC says 72% of businesses across Europe are still using XP with only 15% on Vista – again, you’ll want to remind the small businesses you work with that they want to get the benefits of Windows 7 sooner rather than later. 

Things aren’t back to business as usual it does look like there will be more business in 2010 – but you’ll have to think strategically to win it. Dell’s director for SMB advanced technologies Aamir Paul has some ideas about what the small businesses you work with will need this year and how you can position the products and services you offer them to suit that. See more of the interview on our Web site, along with all our previous features.

 Mary Branscombe Executive Editor 

P.S.
Smartphones continue to go from strength to strength in business and if your customers are buying the new Bold and Storm BlackBerrys they’re going to want you to upgrade them to BES 5 to get the extra features; in this issue we have a full step-by-step guide to make it easier.

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