there is another way

This has all changed now. Most people have heard someone talking about ‘the cloud’, so what is it?

In a nutshell it is the Internet which as we know is a network of computers connected up via communications lines so that they can talk together and make information available to it’s users. By definition ‘cloud computing’ is the act of placing certain computing functions on to the Internet for use by subscribers. One great example of this is ebay, this is an entirely cloud based business that has become a great success both in term of a business but also for it’s users.

so what

One of the more recent additions to ‘cloud services’ is the introduction of business services like Microsoft Exchange. There are a number of providers who are able to supply you with Microsoft Exchange in a hosted environment, these vary in terms of what you will typically get for your money. Some providers will supply a mailbox along with a copy of Microsoft Outlook which is good for users who do not have Microsoft Outlook and they will typically be able to supply them on a single mailbox basis. By contrast Microsoft Online Services can supply with a Microsoft Exchange Online Mailbox for the lowest cost I have seen but you must purchase a minimum of 5 mailboxes for 1 year.

what does it all mean

Well, this means that now micro business can have all of the features that you can get by having a server without the high investment cost or running cost. It also means that they can have features such as calendar sharing and, for some, synchronisation of email and calendar with their iPhone or other mobile device. All of these help those micro businesses become more efficient and streamline at what they do.

If you would like to know more about cloud services and see whether they are right for your business then give us a call on 0844 310 0040 or via out contact page.

So what’s the difference? The core difference between the two products is that Microsoft Forefront Security is a centrally managed product which had updates and definitions distributed from a central source which is traditionally the office server. In contrast Microsoft Security Essentials is ideally suited to Small businesses that may not have a server in place, for example when they are using cloud services, or that do not require central management. Either way it is a compelling and interesting move by Microsoft in to a market space which they currently do not have a significant market share in.

Either way this is great news for Small Businesses everywhere!

Fundamentally Windows 7 is built on the foundation that was used to build Windows Vista but with some significant improvements, the most obvious one is performance. The initial release of Windows Vista was, to say the least, unpopular. Much of this was down to poor performance and compatibility with many of the hardware devices that were in current circulation as well as new devices. As time went by support for the hardware improved as did performance with the release of Service pack 1 last year.  Windows 7 out of the box is a vast improvement on both hardware support as well as the overall performance. Microsoft are committed on making Windows 7 capable of running on as many of the netbooks that are currently on the market such as the Asus Eee PC 901 as well as many others. One of the main reasons for this I believe is due to the fact that the inability of many netbooks to run Windows Vista is still keeping the Windows XP market alive as this is that choice of manufacturers as it runs so quickly on their equipment.

Another significant change to Windows 7 is the introduction of the new taskbar.  The traditional taskbar which has now been with us since the introduction of Windows 95 has finally had and overhaul which at first seems to be hard to get used to it is in actual fact a great improvement. What Microsoft have done with the new taskbar is instead of minimizing your applications down to a bar they have minimized them down to icons on the taskbar which is a much needed improvement where desktop real estate is concerned. Another improvement on the taskbar is the “fly out’s” that happen when using the Aero interface.  In the image shown I have two tabs open within Internet Explorer both of which are minimized, however when I move the mouse over these I see the two tabs pop up and I can click on with one of them to restore them back to their original state.

There is also support for multi touch surfaces as touch computing has become an upcoming trend with the technology becoming more affordable. Multi-touch support effectively allows the user to touch multiple locations on the device, typically a tablet, and the system will recognise the contact and act accordingly.  An excellent example of this is both the Apple iTouch and Apple iPhone both of which have support for multi touch on the devices.

Another introduction for the latest Windows 7 Release Candidate was XP Mode. What this allows the user to do is virtualize applications on the desktop, eh? Let me explain. Essentially speaking virtualisation is where an operating system is run within another operating system in a fashion that is similar to running it as a normal application.  What it does however is appear as a real computer from a networking perspective as well as from the user perspective. In the same way your desktop needs to run Windows Updates, so does the virtual machine.  Now XP mode takes this to the next level through the support of hardware virtualisation what it allows you to do is to install an application on the Virtual PC, which may only work in Windows XP, and actually run it on your Windows 7 computer as if it were installed but it is in actual fact running on the Virtual PC in the background. This has great advantages for businesses that would like to upgrade to Windows 7 but are unable to due to legacy application support being poor or in some cases non-existent.

But don’t just take our word for it, the Windows 7 Release Candidate is open to anyone who wants to download and try it. The release candidate will work until 1st June 2010, and will shut down every 2 hours from 1st April 2010 so there is plenty of time to try it out and see if your software will work.  If you would like to discuss any aspect of Windows 7 then please free to contact us and we’ll be happy to discuss it further.

- Rob

It is believed that the identified flaw could allow criminals to take control of people’s computers and steal their password.

We recommend that any users who are concerned about this issue should download and use Firefox until such time as an update has been release by Microsoft.

See also:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7784908.stm

UPDATE: Microsoft have now release an update to resolve this issue, please see here.

1. First open “My Computer”
2. The select the “Tools” menu and select “Options”
3. Now go to the “File Types” tab
4. Go down the list and select “XLS (Microsoft Office Excel 97-2003 Worksheet)” and then click on “Advanced”.   Now select “Open” from the list and click on “Edit”.  Now in the box titled “Application used to perform action:” add a “%1″ at the end of the line.  Also take the tick out of the box titled “Use DDE”.
5. Now click on “OK” and select “OK” on all of the subsequent windows and thats it!  Excel 2007 will now open Excel 2003 workbooks without any problems.

The diagram above shows the fundamental differences between Small Business Server 2008 Standard and Premium editions.  One important changes that they have made is that Client Access Licenses (CALS) can now be purchases as single licenses as well as the previous 5 packs.  The premium edition also adds an additional Windows Server 2008 license.  Another change is the system requirements which are in-line with Windows Server 2008 which means in summary:

Processor:      2Ghz (x64 Processor)
Memory:        4GB Minimum
Disk Space:   60GB Minimum

Essential Business Server (EBS) is one of the new product offerings from Microsoft.  Small Business Server 2008 still maintains the license limit from previous versions of 75 users however EBS allows up to 300 licenses which will help bridge the gap for those businesses that are slightly too big for SBS but not really big enough to afford the full license model.  As you can see from the diagram above it also includes Windows Server 2008 licenses for 3 servers with the standard version and 4 servers in premium edition.

More information to follow as it becomes available.