Managing networks with System Center Essentials 2007

Microsoft’s System Center tools manage everything from updates to virtualisation. Now there’s a version that will help you manage an entire SME from one screen.

Storage: Buy, Build or Restore?

Over the last 20 years we have seen the cost of hardware and software plummet. For the most part, smaller companies can now run the same computing solutions as large companies.

Document management with Microsoft Search Server

Storage is cheap and it’s easy to create documents, so most companies have tens or hundreds of thousands of documents on the computers in their companies. So how do your customers find a document on a particular topic? The worrying answer is probably that they can’t...

Partner Focus: Aamir Paul, Dell

Small businesses depend more than ever on technology, but also face a growing challenge when it comes to managing their IT assets.

How, why and when to defragment your Windows Server disks

Servers are particularly susceptible to file fragmentation as they deal with multiple requests from a wide range of users and often have more complicated drive setups such as RAIDs and SANs.

Installing Utimaco SafeGuard Easy

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

Failover, not fall over - how to keep running when the hardware fails

Failure is not an option in business and redundancy is the solution. You can offer customers systems that keep running when the hardware fails.

Server failure used to mean widespread panic and a scramble to find backup tapes and a spare server to restore onto. Inevitably this meant business interruption, user frustration and even data loss. Recovering from a backup can take hours; even planned maintenance can take the server down during business hours leaving users unable to work. Today there is no excuse for this situation.

Supporting Office 2007: top tips for compatibility and how to make the most of the Ribbon and Quick Access Toolbar

It was a shock when Microsoft unveiled Office 2007 at its Professional Developers Conference in 2005. The reason was the new ribbon user interface (officially called the Office Fluent User Interface), not supplementing but replacing the old drop-down menus. According to Microsoft, the new UI was the outcome of years of research, as described in detail by Group Program Manager Jensen Harris on his blog. Nevertheless, response to the ribbon has been mixed: some users love it, some never get used to it, and pretty much everyone experiences a period of frustration during which familiar features are hard to find.

Database Backup

Databases store the most valuable information for the businesses you work with and they’re the trickiest systems to back up; some of the largest technology companies in the world have got database backup badly wrong. Losing that data can have serious consequences for the business, to say nothing of the embarrassment quotient for you. Here we explain the essentials of backing up and introduce some specialist tools.

Setting up a VPN between two sites

Setting up a VPN between two sites for a small business to create a single network; although the interface will be different for every router, the functions are roughly the same.