Monday, August 17, 2009

A Few Questions to Consider About SANs

Have you adopted server virtualization? Do you have a SAN to support it?

To take full advantage of server virtualization, you need to leverage storage virtualization as well. The Compellent SAN can amplify the

benefi ts of server virtualization, increasing utilization and improving availability.

Do you have a Disaster Recovery plan? How long does it take you to recover?

The vast majority of companies that experience a major data loss go out of business. With Compellent, you can recover any size volume

to any server in less than 10 seconds and implement replication at a fraction of the cost of traditional systems.

What is your storage growth rate? Are you storing inactive data on high performance drives? How do you decide what data to

store on your highest performing drives?

If you think about email data, old attachments and calendar invites really shouldn’t be on your highest performing storage. Our storage

architect can explain how to automatically tier your storage to save you both time and money.

What percentage of space is unutilized or underutilized?

Industry analysts suggest that up to 60% of storage capacity is wasted. Think about what saving capacity could do for your budget. I’d

like to set up some time and have my storage architect discuss the space-saving benefi ts of new storage features like thin provisioning.


IT Info Guy

514-373-8345

800-555-6255 x8345

Article Worth Reposting

How to Develop a Technology Investment Strategy

· AllBusiness.com

· Friday January 2, 2009, 8:00 am EST


While most small businesses require technology to grow, they are also likely to have tight budgets and be unable to invest in "pie in the sky" IT projects with no guaranteed returns. That's why it's important to lay down a technology investment strategy that aligns with the specific goals of your organization.

Begin by looking at your business strategy over the next two to three years and determine in which areas you plan to grow, change, or improve. It will be easier to identify technologies that can help your business if you have a clear picture of where you're heading and what steps you must take to get there.

Once you've set down your business strategy, you should appoint a member of your organization to track IT trends and advancements in the marketplace. With the explosion of possible technologies available to you, it can be helpful to have someone on your team who is on top of the current products and trends.

Sit down with this person and list the key technology areas they should be monitoring based on your business needs. For example, these areas could include business applications, data warehousing, Web services, or wireless technologies. By creating this list you can begin to assess which technologies are likely to impact your business. Do any of the technologies you've listed present growth opportunities or offer significant improvements in performance or customer service? Are other players in your industry using these technologies to enhance their businesses, and if so, how?

This list of technologies and opportunities is a way for you to narrow down your technology requirements and come up with a well-thought-out investment plan.

Once you have some technology projects in mind, talk to a trusted IT advisor and run a cost/benefit analysis. (If you don't already have an advisor, be sure to read How to Choose an IT Consultant.) Look carefully at your technology budget over the next few years, taking into account the cost of maintaining and supporting the IT you already have.

Create a short list of IT investments that you can not only afford, but will also help you achieve your stated business goals. Prioritize these investments according to the benefits they will give your business and then start to look at factors such as the time it will take to implement and test the new technologies, the staff required to support them, and any necessary training.

The project that offers the greatest benefit may also be the one that requires the most time, money, and staff. Investing in one large project may mean you don't have the resources to invest in others, so you will want to do a risk analysis of any significant project you consider undertaking.

Technology projects are notorious for running over time and budget, so make sure to plan for possible overruns. It's better to have a realistic idea of the costs you could be facing. If the project comes in on time and on budget, it will be a pleasant surprise!

Finally, continue to update your IT investment plan and monitor new technology developments. The last thing you want is an aged IT strategy that misses out on the current opportunities in the marketplace. Keep in constant communication with your trusted IT advisor, and once you embark on a project, update your investment plan with new deadlines or cost estimates.

Keep in mind that while most recognize that technology advances at a rapid pace, many small business owners neglect to plan for technological obsolescence. Read Anticipate Obsolescence When Planning Your Technology Investment Strategy for some good advice.

iland and Vizioncore Team to Deliver Outsourced and Transatlantic DR

Launches first of its kind, managed replication and continuity service to UK; presents channel-ready offerings for SMB through to enterprise

________________

Hoffman Estates, IL, and Houston, TX, August 17, 2009 – Vizioncore Inc., the market leader in virtualization data protection and management solutions, and iland™ Internet Solutions today announced that iland, a leading global provider of Cloud Infrastructure Services, has chosen Vizioncore's vReplicator and vConverter products to underpin iland's outsourced, cloud-based disaster recovery services in the UK. The new channel-ready service forms part of the global iland Continuity Cloud, a highly resilient infrastructure spread across six datacenters and the first to offer managed transatlantic disaster recovery services.

With virtualization reaching maturity in organizations of all sizes, simplifying its management has become the next hurdle for business and topping that list is successfully protecting and recovering data by implementing a business continuity and disaster recovery plan. The new service from iland provides UK businesses with an opportunity to fully protect their virtual estate by provisioning Virtual LANs on the iland Continuity Cloud, replicating to the highly-available datacenters using vReplicator, and continuously monitoring both sets of infrastructure. In the event of an extended outage, the business can fully recover using its replicated estate and continue operating as it had before, saving valuable time, not to mention money.

“We’re excited to begin offering this service in the UK, a country which has wholeheartedly adopted virtualization technologies," said Dante Orsini, Channel Director, iland Internet Solutions. "By opening the door to our London hub, we’re also now able to offer a transatlantic service to enterprises with global operations, a real first. Partnering with Vizioncore made perfect sense for us as it has long been at the forefront of innovation in virtualization. By combining Vizioncore technical excellence and iland’s high levels of service reputation, we’re delivering a truly original service that is ready for channel partners of all kinds to take advantage of.”

iland brings together a range of industry-leading components to provide the foundations to its service offering including 10Gbps Ethernet low-latency IP connections and highly specialized and experienced virtualization support teams to turn on, test and maintain during the service agreement.

“iland has built a fantastic service portfolio, and we’re proud to have been chosen to be part of that,” commented Roger Baskerville, VP EMEA, Vizioncore. "By choosing vReplicator and vConverter, iland gives its customers tried and tested products to rely upon, teamed with true professionals to guide them. The new service will also present Vizioncore’s multi-tier channel with a unique opportunity to provide differentiated services to businesses of all sizes, and we’re already seeing significant interest in re-packaging the offering.”

“Softcat has long been an advocate of enhancing the virtualization solutions we deliver with Vizioncore’s technology,” commented Sam Routledge, Services Director at Softcat, a UK infrastructure provider and Vizioncore Platinum Partner. “The robust protection offered by vReplicator is a core part of our disaster recovery offering for our clients’ virtualized infrastructures, and the potential of a service offering from iland based on this proposition is an exciting one for us.”

The new service is available now.

About Vizioncore Inc.

Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Hoffman Estates, IL, Vizioncore Inc. is a fully owned subsidiary of Quest Software. The company has operations in the Americas,

EMEA, Asia and Australia. Vizioncore's products provide server virtualization management solutions that help customers safeguard and optimize their IT systems while allowing them to extract the maximum return on their investment in virtualization. Vizioncore’s products are built from the ground up to support virtual environments with none of the legacy encumbrances of products built for physical servers. Over 17,000 organizations around the world, from SMBs to large-scale enterprises, use Vizioncore’s products. Vizioncore operates independently and distributes its products through an extended partner network of 2,200 value-added resellers worldwide. For more information, please visit www.vizioncore.com or www.vizioncorum.com, the official blogging site of Vizioncore Inc.

About iland

iland is a provider of cloud computing infrastructure with high-availability datacenters specifically designed for cloud computing in Boston, Washington D.C., Houston, Los Angeles, Dallas, and London. As a partner of VMware and other industry-leaders, iland's infrastructure enables organizations to go beyond the cloud computing buzz and realize tangible business benefits including reduced and predictable IT costs; streamlined and simplified management; and a nimble infrastructure that lets customers prepare and respond to changing environments.

This Weeks PC Mall Double Take Deals

These are fantastic offers
Lenovo
IdeaPad S10E Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz Netbook - Refurbished
Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz, 1GB (2-512MB) RAM, 160GB SATA HDD, 4GB SSD, No Optical, 10.1" WSVGA LED, Camera, WLAN 802.11b/g, 3 cell battery, Windows XP Home Edition
PC Mall Part #7886684
Mfr. Part #4187XB5

ViewSonic
VA2226w Value Series Widescreen LCD - Refurbished
ViewSonic’s 22" VA2226w LCD brings high-performance, widescreen displays to users on a budget. Enjoy beautiful graphics and view spreadsheets in unbelievable clarity.
PC Mall Part #7885202
Mfr. Part #VA2226W-11-S

Western Digital
My Passport Studio 500GB Portable FireWire 800/400 and USB 2.0 Hard Drive
Equipped with FireWire 800/400 and USB 2.0 interfaces, and formatted for Macintosh, this high speed portable hard drive is perfect for Mac users on the go.
PC Mall Part #7691859
Mfr. Part #WDMT5000TN

HP Z800 Workstations at PC Mall

HP
Smart Buy Z800 Intel Xeon Quad-Core E5506 2.13GHz Workstation - 3GB RAM, 250GB HDD, DVD SuperMulti, Gigabit NIC - Ships with XP Pro installed with option to upgrade to Vista - Includes HP LP2275w 22" LCD Monitor and 3x HP 1GB PC3-10600 DDR3 Memory Module
Intel Xeon Quad-Core E5506 2.13GHz, 3GB 1333MHz DDR3 RAM, 250GB 7200rpm SATA, DVD+/- RW SuperMulti, NVIDIA Quadro FX380, Gigabit Ethernet, Microsoft WIndows XP Pro, Rackable Minitower
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HP
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Intel Xeon Quad-Core X5550 2.66GHz, 3GB 1333MHz DDR3 RAM, 500GB 7200rpm SATA, SuperMulti LS DVD+/-RW, NVIDIA Quadro FX1800, Gigabit Ethernet, Microsoft WIndows XP Pro, Rackable Minitower
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HP Z400 Workstations at PC Mall

HP
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Intel Xeon Dual-Core W3505 2.53GHz, 2GB 1333MHz DDR3 RAM, 250GB 7200rpm SATA, 16x SATA SuperMulti LS DVD+/-RW, NVIDIA Quadro FX380, Gigabit Ethernet, Microsoft Windows XP Pro, Convertible Minitower
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HP
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Intel Xeon Quad-Core W3520 2.66GHz, 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 RAM, 500GB 7200rpm SATA, 16x SATA SuperMulti LS DVD+/-RW, NVIDIA Quadro FX1800, Gigabit Ethernet, Microsoft Windows XP Pro, Convertible Minitower
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HP
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HP top performing desktops

Desktop units available at PC Mall

HP
TouchSmart dx9000 Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26GHz Business Desktop - Includes FREE MS Office Basic MLK
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HP
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Lenovo ConstantConnect


This is cool


Monday, August 10, 2009

A Couple of Interesting Articles

First Look: System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2

http://www.crn.com/it-channel/219100130;jsessionid=YLI2F23YSPIUDQE1GHPSKHWATMY32JVN



Windows 7 Upgrade

Windows 7 Upgrade

Qualifying PC List

Overview:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/buy/offers/upgrade-option.aspx

HP

http://www.hp.com/united-states/consumer/windows7-upgrade/eligmodels.html

Lenovo

http://www.lenovo.com/us/en/windows7/index.html

Buying less than 25 PCs

http://www.lenovo.com/us/en/windows7/program_details_%20pc_less.html

Buying over 25 PCs

http://www.lenovo.com/us/en/windows7/program_details_pc_over.html

Dell

https://win7.dell.com/Eligibility.aspx

Other

Participating PC Manufacturers

Country: United States

[change]

§ Acer

§ Asus

§ Averatec

§ Dell

§ eMachines

§ Fujitsu

§ Gateway

§ HP

§ Lenovo

§ Samsung

§ Sony

§ Toshiba

§ Other PC manufacturers

Interesting Article on Virtualization

"Avoiding nasty surprises

Free whitepaper – Managing Desktop Software for fun and profit

Reader Workshop The benefits of virtualization, particularly in relation to x86 server consolidation, are pretty well recognised. The significant reduction in hardware requirements and operational overheads that many have achieved with their initial deployments will in many cases have easily justified the cost of the virtualization technology itself.

As organisations move beyond the low hanging fruit of obvious consolidation opportunities and begin to work virtualization into the fabric of their infrastructure, however, both the cost of acquisition and the ongoing total cost of ownership come into sharper focus."


read the rest click here

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/10/avoiding_nasty_virtualization_suprises/