Traditional IT systems come in one of two flavours; Client-Server or peer-to-peer. The implementation of each model was dictated primarily by the size of business and it’s ability to invest, financially, in a formal IT structure. One of the best products that was made available for businesses with Client-Server networks was Microsoft Exchange. What this [...]
Traditional IT systems come in one of two flavours; Client-Server or peer-to-peer. The implementation of each model was dictated primarily by the size of business and it’s ability to invest, financially, in a formal IT structure. One of the best products that was made available for businesses with Client-Server networks was Microsoft Exchange. What this product did was to ‘groupware’ enable email, essentially speaking it took standard email and added to it things such as calendar sharing, contact sharing, public email enabled folders as well as many other features. As the years have gone by the product has evolved to provide more features including synchronisation with devices such as Windows Mobiles, iPhones and Blackberrys but the requirement to have a server has never really changed.
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.
Windows 7 release candidate has been released for just over a week now but is it any good?
The much awaited successor to Windows Vista has now been release to the public in "Release Candidate" form. For those not familiar with the term the full description can be found on Wikipedia but in essence the term refers to a version which has the potential to be the final product if no major bugs are found.
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
2 Day Strategic Marketing masterclass for just £75, an absolute must for any business today…..
Many small businesses today are started and run by enterprising people who have a flare for the business that they start. This may be a printers, sign writer, IT Company, cleaning company the type of business is not important but what’s important is the type of person that starts it. This person is typically someone who is talented within their industry however there is one characteristic that is usually lacking and that is marketing. A huge amount of small businesses either do not market themselves or the marketing that they do is not effective or targeted. This is generally because of limited budgets as most small businesses do not have massive marketing budgets as most of the business is run on cash flow. Well there’s good news!
One of our fellow BNI members has put together a 2 day Strategic Marketing Masterclass which is perfect for small businesses. The masterclass will cover a variety of topics such as tools and techniques for analysing their business environment, objective setting, evaluation of different marketing tools, implementation planning and measuring key performance indicators. The course is suitable for any team member that wants to have a structured approach to business growth or who may be relatively new to marketing. Upon completion of the course each learner will have an accurate and relevant marketing plan to implement within their business. The marketing plan will be an action plan to ensure their commercial objectives are met for 2009. By attending this course, businesses have a much more cost effective method of obtaining strategic focus than hiring in a 3rd party which can cost thousands of pounds in consultancy fees. There will be options for post-masterclass
support to ensure that the newly produced marketing plan is being implemented and remains relevant to their business. Masterclasses will be held across April, May and June 2009. The course will be delivered in a Nottingham training facility where refreshments and lunch will be served on both days. Specific details of location, times etc will be issued in the learner packs sent to you. All learning material will be provided. The course is priced at £650 per learner (excluding VAT) with the option of group discounts. If you have 2-249 employees and have not had previous Leaders First Training you might be eligible for Business Link support. If you are eligible for funding you will receive a £575 contribution towards the cost of the course. Kirsty will arrange for Business Link to call you and allocate the funding. If you are eligible for funding you will be reimbursed by Business Link for the amount that you are entitled to. You will be asked to pay the full amount up front then you will receive the £575 reimbursement from Business Link.
The means that if you are eligible the course will cost just £75 + VAT, if you would like to know more then please contact rob.franklin@jpt-solutions.co.uk.
There has been a great deal of talk recently about cloud computing and that it is the way that all computing is headed, but not many people understand what it is, read our guide….
There has been a great deal of talk recently about cloud computing and that it is the way that all computing is headed, but not many people understand what it is. Essentially speaking cloud computing is about putting certain software applications in the “cloud”. This is a phrase which is used to describe the internet based on how it is typically shown in network diagrams.
So what does cloud computing bring that was not there before?
What cloud computing brings is the ability for small businesses to run applications which typically can only be afforded by larger businesses. This is made possible by having low start-up costs. For example we have started providing hosted Microsoft Exchange 2007 which gives 10GB of storage, ExchangeDefender spam filtering, Microsoft Sharepoint, Microsoft Forefront which costs £10 per mailbox per month. For a small business of 3 users this would mean a monthly cost of £30, giving an annual cost of £360 for the three users. If you compare this with the cost of a typical Microsoft Small Business server entry level cost of approx £1,000 plus installation of around £750 then hosted applications make more sense.
What other benefits are there?
With hosted application you are able to access your application regardless of location which means that any of the users can work so long as they have an internet connection, given the rapid growth of communications this means users can work from almost anywhere. Also with hosted application the provider typically will take care of backups so it is no longer your worry.
Whether it is suitable for your business is an individual decision based on your needs. If you would like to discuss this further please feel free to contact us for a free consultation.
Offsite backup solution now launched
We are please to announce that after rigorous testing we have now launched our latest Business Continuity Solution, to find out more information about this advanced solutions please click here.
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