Using Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing
Offers Off-site Facilities

We recently posted an article to our website about cloud computing, which in essence means accessing computing services remotely, rather than via your own servers.

There are advantages and disadvantages to this method of storing your data and applications. A sensible approach is to use the positive aspects of it to your advantage, but be more cautious in those areas where it is as yet unproven or has risks which are yet to be fully addressed and resolved.

The most effective uses for the cloud are often those where off-site facilities would be of positive benefit, such as back-ups and business continuity which you can read about in How to Help your Business Survive Disasters. However, there are a number of other situations where the cloud deserves serious consideration, such as;

• Where mobility is key. If you have remote workers or are often out of the office, cloud solutions can help you access stored files, data and software applications.
• For ‘Software as a Service’ applications. For example, smaller accountancy firms often use cloud solutions rather than having to purchase their own Sage packages.
• New business start-ups. All software and kit needed can be rented for a fixed, regular payment and then expanded as necessary, rather than investing capital in purchases.

Where you have to be careful with the cloud is applications that promise better service than is currently available with existing servers, but at a fraction of the cost. If you’re thinking of using it to save money as opposed to enhancing your operational abilities, think carefully. We’re not saying it won’t, but there are some costs associated with it that you might not have expected, such as service rental costs and upgrading broadband connections.

There are also risks associated with it. Your data would be under someone else’s control rather than yours and everything you did would require a link outside the office, via your broadband connection. If your broadband went down or was running slow, you would have issues accessing files, software and data, rather than it just being limited to your internet and email.

Our advice is generally to use the cloud for certain applications rather than seeing it as a complete solution, unless you are a new business start-up. Some of the potential applications could include providing remote working capabilities and as part of your business continuity and back-up arrangements.

Visit the website for more details on the range of cloud computing services P&L Networks can provide.

Ensuring Successful Server Installations

Ensuring Successful
Server Installations

We’ve recently conducted several very efficient server installations and thought we’d share the reasons for success with you.

There are a number of reasons why organisations may want to replace a server. Often it’s because of a need for expansion or performance issues with existing equipment. Another reason is that a part may have failed outside the server’s warranty period, so the opportunity is taken to upgrade or expand.

Regardless of the reason, the secret to success lies in planning.

One of the first things to look at is what the new server actually needs. There are three areas to look at here;

• What’s on the existing server that needs to move over. This will also identify any compatibility issues between the existing systems and the new server’s capabilities.
• What’s not on the existing server but is needed – new applications, for example.
• Potential future requirements so there is a degree of future-proofing built in.

All three of these need to be considered in advance so that the most appropriate server can be purchased, together with the most appropriate software for it, then a plan for the installation can be developed.

Each of the three areas also has specific things that need to be considered. For example, when looking at what needs to move to the new server, housekeeping exercises such as a full clean-up of existing data should be undertaken, including archiving files no longer needed or used only occasionally.

The purchase and configuration of a new server can be also be an excellent opportunity to consider what the organisation needs from an IT perspective. Back-up and disaster recovery routines can be reviewed and tested with any required amendments incorporated, rather than introduced later when the scale of the job may have become larger.

So a successful server installation requires an understanding of all these areas, which will require lots of advance planning involving both the organisation and the IT maintenance company.

This doesn’t necessarily prevent it from happening quickly though.

With only two weeks notice, we recently replaced and upgraded a server system for an organisation with 125 workstations over the course of a weekend including the installation of an Exchange email system and virtualisation for business continuity. But we were only able to do that because of our IT experience, putting the effort into advance planning and the number of experienced engineers we were able to call upon.

Employees in an IT Support Role

IT Support Services
for IT Employees

We wrote recently about Changes in the IT Maintenance and Computer Support Market. There is another trend we’re starting to see, but this time linked to organisations that have an employee providing in-house support.

Having someone knowledgeable within the organisation that can perform basic IT tasks is a great idea and something we discussed in Reducing your Maintenance Costs. The trouble happens when this role is extended and the employer gets the employee to take on more IT responsibility because they want to reduce the IT support costs.

The employee then has two roles, both of which are on a part-time basis, even though the individual may be employed full-time. Unfortunately the employer thinks they have decent IT support in place but the employee doesn’t really have the expertise and knowledge to do a thorough and professional job.

So as with pay-as-you-go arrangements, the quality of the system may start to deteriorate over time.

In addition, with a single employee doing two jobs, they’re not always in the position to provide the ‘quick fix’ help that an IT helpdesk often can. They can’t be in two places at once, whereas a professional IT support company can.

It all seems to be part of a general trend towards commoditisation.

When IT was new and novel, IT individuals were considered to be experts and were paid accordingly. Now salaries are starting to fall and companies are taking the support in-house or using sole-traders on a pay-as-you-go arrangement. We don’t have a problem with this, but unless you want your IT to continue to support your business, you have to ensure that your arrangements provide the time and attention your IT needs.

If in doubt, speak to a reputable IT support provider or read our guide to Types of Support Available or watch this video.

Changes in the IT Maintenance and Computer Support Market

IT Maintenance Contracts
Guarantee Response Times

Back in 2008, when the current economic downturn was first experienced, we noticed a change in the market for IT maintenance and computer support. Many organisations understandably wanted to cut back on their IT maintenance costs so moved away from a maintenance contract approach, to using pay-as-you-go.

Now, however, we’re starting to detect a switch from some larger organisations back to maintenance contracts. But we don’t think it’s anything to do with economic changes, we think it’s actually because organisations are starting to experience some of the disadvantages of pay-as-you-go.

With a maintenance contract, the IT support company should be providing a proactive support and maintenance service involving regular healthchecks, back-ups, ongoing advice, etc. None of this is provided with pay-as-you-go unless specifically paid for, which it generally isn’t. In addition, Antivirus software may not get updated or data storage may become inefficient because it is not being proactively maintained and considered.

The net effect of this is that the quality of an IT system will deteriorate over time. Then, when the system goes horribly wrong and needs major attention, another disadvantage of pay-as-you-go may become apparent.

Lower cost pay-as-you-go IT providers are often single engineers or sole-traders. This means that the speed of response may not be as required, emergency access or ‘quick-fix’ helpdesk support may be limited, and the level of expertise or resource availability may not meet requirements.

We see the value of both sole-traders and pay-as-you-go. They are ideal for new starters, small organisations or those where the IT need is limited. But it’s interesting that larger organisations who have tried pay-as-you-go are starting to find that it doesn’t meet their needs.

We provide both maintenance contracts and pay-as-you-go. If you’re wondering what level of IT support would be best for you, this video and guide to Types of Support Available might be useful for you.

Future Equipment Shortages

IT Equipment Shortages

The recent severe floods in Thailand have created an issue with the supply of certain types of computer equipment.
There are two main aspects to the issue. First of all, future supplies of hard disks and handy drives will be limited as Thailand was a major supply source for them. Secondly, the price for those that are available is increasing rapidly.

This means that if you are considering purchasing a new server or drives within the next three years, you need to consider acting on it now. Suppliers are already limiting the amount they will sell per day and some have said that servers will not be available after Christmas. Dell have stopped selling hard disk drives completely and will only sell a new server if a hard disk fails.

Suppliers are also saying that they don’t know if they will have stock replenished in early 2012 or not. Otherwise, it may be 2014 before more hard disks are manufactured.

Although this is an imminent problem for disks, drives and server replacements, ultimately it could extend into PCs and laptops. It has already started to affect new car manufacturers as they use these components in on-board computers.

The message from this is clear; if you are thinking of renewing or extending any computer equipment in the short to medium term, you need to be addressing it now, as there may be no supplies available or the price may have increased considerably. Also, if your current server, disks or drives fail, you may struggle to get replacements quickly so you need to ensure you have an appropriate business continuity plan in place, as the impact of a failure has increased significantly.

It is, of course, possible that this is all just a sales ploy from the suppliers and manufacturers. We genuinely don’t think this is the case though, as we are already starting to see the effects. We’ve also provided a quote below from one of our suppliers that demonstrates the scale of the issue.

“With regards to the hard-drive situation in general, there is no guarantee of how long stock will last or when we will be receiving new stock. 60-70% of hard-drive manufacturing has been affected by the floods in Thailand and as it stands, we do not know if we are going to be getting new stock in 2012 or 2014.

Companies such as Google and Facebook, who historically use HP servers, have already reverted to contingency plans for their own products as they are unable to source from HP and this would have a knock on effect to their business and stature as a worldwide brand.

The message that is being communicated at the moment is buy now or you don’t know when you can buy again.”

This article from an IT trade publication also gives more details on the issue; http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/jacks-blog-10017212/thailands-floods-will-cause-a-shortage-of-hard-drives-10024693/.

The Value of Certifications

Microsoft and other IT providers and vendors often provide certification schemes. These schemes provide IT support customers with some reassurance that the organisation has a degree of competence and knowledge.

Receiving a certification will require engineers in the organisation to undertake a course of study and pass practical exams. They also have to continue to study and practise their skills to retain the certification, in a process known as Continuing Professional Development (CPD). The certifications can also be at different levels, from entry level through to more advanced stages, plus the organisation can also achieve certification depending on the number of qualified engineers it has and the systems it uses.

Certifications can give organisations needing IT Support a method to assess competency levels. Without this measure, the decision might need to be made on relationships or costs, but by comparing certifications the prospective customer can check that the organisation and its engineers have achieved at least a minimum standard.

This is particularly important when looking at IT support for an organisation, as opposed to support for home-based computers. For your home computer you might be content with an individual who is knowledgeable on IT matters and who can set up your internet and email.

But for a business or organisation with several computers networked together and needing remote working abilities, you need a completely different level of proficiency – from both the individual engineers and the organisation. And that’s where certifications can give you some reassurance that the organisation really does know what they are talking about and can be relied upon. They have to provide an ongoing minimum level of competency and proficiency, or they will lose their certification.

P&L have a number of different certifications, including Microsoft Partner (Silver Server Platform) and Kaspersky Antivirus Sales Specialist. In addition, the two principals are both members of the British Computer Society.

Business Continuity and Disaster Planning

Continuity & Disaster Planning

The news is regularly full of reasons why businesses need to look at continuity planning.

Whether it’s the recent riots, the fires at Peckforton Castle and Chester Enterprise Centre, or floods following rains, there are plenty of threats to your business.

It could even be something as simple as road works cutting the phone cable to your office, bringing down not just your telephone lines but also your internet connection and access to emails.

Have you thought how you would cope if something like this happened to you? And if you have thought about it, have you set up robust systems to protect yourself and tested them?

As with many of these things, the first thing to look at is your requirements. If you run a 24/7 real-time operation with hundreds of people depending on you, then your business continuity is vitally important. But if you have an office because it’s convenient but in reality everyone could work from home remotely using their mobiles and laptops, then it’s not such an issue, providing it didn’t last for a long time and you had a suitable back-up routine.
Here are some of the continuity arrangements that you might like to think about.

Back-ups. These ensure things are recoverable if anything happens, but they don’t stop the event from happening or reduce the impact. Remember though that your back-up storage should be off-site. If your premises has a fire or flood and your back-up is stored on-site, then you can’t get at it so it will have been completely pointless from a continuity perspective. You want to be able to load up and get going again as quickly as possible.

Physical security. As prevention is better than cure, you want to stop as many dangerous elements as possible from getting at your IT. This includes making sure everything is locked and physically protected, but also the online aspects. Hackers can access your system whenever you sign onto an internet connection so make sure all your firewalls, antivirus and spam protection are up-to-date – automated updates are usually provided every day. Don't forget about password protection and screen locks.

Mirrored Services. If the priority is to carry on working seamlessly (known as ‘business continuity’), rather than recovering quickly (known as ‘disaster planning’), you will need some form of mirrored application. In effect, this is a duplicate of your systems that would be activated if your normal operations went down. This could be as simple as an email continuity system, an overflow telephone system to a telephone answering service, wireless internet or a full mirrored server providing seamless service to staff and customers.

We’ve produced a couple of articles on different forms of business continuity and disaster planning which you might find useful (What is Disaster Planning & Business Continuity and How to help your Business Survive Disasters), and we also have a blog post on a specific form of mirrored servers – virtualisation.