Thinking of Switching Hosting or Broadband Provider?

Plan Ahead When Considering
Changing Hosting Provider

A natural reaction when organisations want to reduce costs is to look at changing their service providers. We wrote about this in more detail in Changing Premises and Suppliers.
We wanted to highlight some specific issues with changing broadband provider and website hosting companies. As these are both competitive markets, we’re seeing more and more organisations wanting to do it. It’s not always cost that drives organisations to switch, sometimes it's additional facilities or services. But regardless of the reason, the pitfalls to be aware of are the same and include the points given below.

Loss of internet access. If you change broadband provider, you’ll not be able to use the internet for several days, so no emails, websites or web-enabled applications unless you set up a separate means of access such as Wi-Fi.

If you use any cloud-based applications, you’ll also lose them. So if you have Google Documents, Googlemail, remote off-site back-ups or specific cloud-based software, you’ll lose access during the handover period.

Loss of website and emails. If you’re changing the organisation who hosts your website or provide your email adresses, you’ll also lose your emails and company website during the handover period. We don’t mean you won’t be able to access websites in general – you can do that if you have an alternative arrangement such as Wi-Fi. We mean that your customers can’t access your website, which could be disastrous for sales and service.

It also means that you won’t get your emails. It doesn’t mean they will be held in a server somewhere and you can access them when the system comes back on, it means they are lost forever with no way to get them back. You’ll never get them.

Changing hosting company or broadband provider is a serious proposition. We’re not saying don’t do it, there might be very good reasons why you want or need to. But you do need to plan it carefully in advance. In our blog posting next month - Reducing the Pain of Switching Broadband or Hosting Provider, we’ll highlight some of the techniques you can consider to mitigate the effects experienced the handover period.

Seamless Mobile Working

IT Solutions for
Mobile Working

Many companies have an IT network based in the office but also have employees who often need to work away from the office. Whilst they might have mobile phones and tablets that enable them to work wherever required, there are a number of aspects that need to be considered, including:

• Back-ups. Anything done on a laptop, netbook, tablet or mobile will not be backed-up unless you specifically do it – it’s not automatic in the way it might be in the office. So anything done on a device will be gone forever if you lose or damage it, unless you have consciously and specifically performed a back-up.
• Sharing. Items stored on a server or computer at the office cannot be accessed via a remote device – unless you specifically make an arrangement to be able to access it. It can get very messy and annoying trying to access the documents you want.
• Accessing company-wide systems. You might have a system or software used across the organisation, such as email, calendars or a specific application. Unless you integrate your mobile and IT systems the two will remain separate, meaning you can’t access the company calendar or the essential software you need when out of the office .
• Business continuity and disaster planning. If something happens and staff can’t get into the office, perhaps because of weather disruption due to snow and ice for example, they might be able to work from home or another location - but only if you have set up the arrangements in advance for them to do so. It’s often too late to create this ability after the event has happened. We have created some useful articles to help you understand more about the alternative ways of doing this which you can access at What is Disaster Planning & Business Continuity? and An Introduction to Remote Working.

None of these issues are insurmountable though, and a good IT support company will be able to advise on the best solutions for your organisation and its circumstances. With the growth in mobile devices and remote working, we would suggest ensuring your IT company has suitable experience in integrating mobile and IT systems, otherwise you might find yourself dealing with multiple organisations and incompatible systems.

Watch YOUR TV Anywhere

Use Your Home Sky Box

To Connect To External Devices

Have you ever been frustrated when staying in a hotel overnight or on holiday and unable to watch your recorded programmes from Sky+? Watching the hotel’s Freeview channels or paying for the movies just doesn’t cut it, not when the big game is available via your Sky channels – at home.

Slingbox is a solution to this. It’s a device that plugs into your home TV device, such as your Sky+ box, which then makes it available via external devices, such as smartphones, netbooks and the like, as well as desktops.

It has two variations:

• Solo, which is the standard product,
• Pro-HD, if you have a high-definition device at home.

You’ll also need SlingPlayer Mobile to watch your TV on your smartphone or tablet.

Prices and ordering are available from their website http://uk.slingbox.com/go/slingbox.  

Transferring Notes from an iPad or iPhone to Your Computer

The problem with remote working is that you’re not always connected to your server. So important notes can get left on your remote device rather than transferred to your desktop PC, unless you retype it.

One organisational-wide solution is SafeSync which we wrote about in a recent blog posting Sharing & Backing Up Across Multiple Devices. But if you have the Notes App on your iPad or iPhone, there is another solution which isn’t dependent on your organisation having something such as SafeSync.

This video tutorial demonstrates how it’s done, in simple, step-by-step fashion with screen shots and instructions.

Uploaded to YouTube by iTechTutorialVideos.

Sharing & Backing Up Across Multiple Devices

The Ability To Back Up Data
Across Multiple Devices

Mobile phones, tablets, netbooks and other such devices are great for allowing you to work remotely and not be tied to the office.

But the potential problem with them is that they are not backed-up, which means that if something goes wrong with your device, you might lose everything on it. So if you lose your phone or spill coffee on your iPad, you could have lost everything on it. Everything. Documents, contacts, photographs – the lot, never to be replaced.

There’s also the problem of not being able to access data or files on your server when you’re out, unless you specifically connect your device to it. So that important document you want to work on might not be accessible.

One of the solutions to this is called SafeSync Safesync from Trend Micro. It works by synchronising everything on your team’s remote devices, seamlessly and automatically in the background. So you can access files on your device and it will automatically be backed-up, giving you both access and security.

The cost is based on the number of users and storage space needed, so there will be a package available that suits your need.

SafeSync isn’t the only method we have of doing this but a big advantage is that you don’t have to guess which device something might be stored on. Have you ever wanted to find a particular tune or photo but can’t remember if it’s on your phone or tablet? With SafeSync it doesn’t matter as you can access it from any device, regardless of which one you thought it was stored on.

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.