Greetings!

 

Ok, we're leaping into March. Get it? Leaping? Cuz it's a Leap year, so...ok, ok...I get it. You're busy, and don't have time to read my normal silliness. It's ok, I get it. I truly do.

 

We've been busy here at Simplex-IT. Our number of managed clients has grown by 10% so far this year. If you ask me that question a week from now the number might be 20%. Kevin's getting ready to start that "Daddy thing," but doesn't seem interested in advice from me (huh!). We're in the process of adding an Office Manager, and have a new intern who just started (as well as Brandon, who's introduced in this issue).

 

March isn't going to let us slow down, either. I'm excited about the upcoming Lunchinar, co-presented with Chi Corporation. We (ok, mostly Doug) have worked with several clients in the past year regarding SAN storage systems and performance. A lot of SAN systems are purchased with the "It'll just work" promise. But there are a lot of factors that go into the performance. This Lunchinar will be a bit more technical than other ones, but I think it'll be worth it.

 

Meanwhile, we're started to look to the rest of 2012 in terms of new stuff. Like Windows 8, which just entered "Consumer Preview" (we call it "Open Beta") on the 29th. Or Office 2012 which will come out later this year. We've got April 18th pegged as when we'll feature Windows 8 at our Lunchinar, so mark that date down.

 

Oh, and for those who didn't ask (though several of you did) but wanted to know, the 10th Anniversary PNR Improv show went quite well, with over 100 folks in the audience. A good time was had by all!

 

Bob 

 

 

    

 

 

Where: Hattie's Café, 164 N. Main Street, Hudson

When: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 from 11:30am-1:00pm

When companies look to consolidate and centralize their data storage, two technologies are available:  Storage Area Networks (SANs) and Network attached Storage (NAS).  These centralized collections of drives and services promise higher reliability, flexibility and control and can reduce total cost of ownership compared to maintain local storage in each server.

Many Companies are under the impression that putting in a SAN or NAS is an automatic fix for performance and centralization of data. It's not! Finding that out after you make a decision to purchase a SAN is not the best time!

Centralized storage, like all IT technology needs to be appropriately sized, configured, monitored and managed.  For example, consider the configuration of a SAN supporting a virtual environment versus high levels of SQL transactions versus high volumes of emails. Each has different performance needs and exhibit different IO characteristics.

Read more here.

The article Desktop Videoconferencing Ready For Wide Use in the January 30, 2012 issue of Information Week magazine  provides us with a glimpse into the very near future, where individuals in diverse locations around the globe can videoconference right from the comfort and convenience of their own desktop PC.

The hero of the story is the H.264 SVC (Scalable Video Coding) codec. It's this compression technology that is responsible for finally making high-definition videoconferencing over the Internet feasible for business use. 

Read more here!

Bob here reporting from sunny (-ish) but not warm, Columbus Ohio.  Kevin and I are attending Level Platforms Road Show event, an annual travelling circus that Level Platforms (supported by several other vendors) puts on annually.

It's my fourth such event.  It's Kevin's third (newbie).

Some info for some of you might be in order.  Simplex-IT is what is known as a "Managed Service Provider," or MSP.  A key component of that concept is automated monitoring and managing of the networks of our customers.  Level Platforms is the tool we choose to work with.

I'm actually a Council member for Level Platforms (yeah, they were desperate, lost a bet...the mind boggles), and Simplex-IT has been working with LP for over four years.  One of the reasons we've stuck with them is the product just keeps improving with a steady stream of updates.

Read more here.

Blog updates from Simplex-IT over the past month