|
MANAGED IT & CONVERGED COMMUNICATIONS SOLUTIONS |
The SynerTel Sentinel
Online Edition
November 2011 Issue 178 |
|
|
|
|
|
| News you can use! | |
As we move into November, we are thankful for of you - SynerTel customers in the US and abroad who are contributing to our growth -- even in these trying times. We hope you have a lot to be thankful for, too!
Now - meet Dreamfarm, creators of inexpensive, irrisistable & innovative tools for office and home!
Plan ahead - hard drive shortages are expected - could cripple your servers or delay new equipment delivery.
Section 179 accelerated depreciation rules become less favorable after 12/31/11. If you're considering upgrading business technology, it pays to do it with SynerTel now!. Every contract we've signed in the last 2 weeks has been preceded by the question "can you get it installed and in service by the end of the year?". Smart companies understand the tax advantages of buying under current Sec. 179 rules.
If you've got better things to do than try to protect, understand, track, and administer and support your network - ask us about SynerTel Managed WorkPlace ... we offload the complexity and risk of maintaining your network and supporting your users - for a surprisingly affordable fixed monthly rate! Moving? Expanding? Shrinking? Involve us 70-90 days before the move date to get maximum benefit from our experience & resources. We'll help you get the least-cost carrier moves, and ensure your technology move is 100% planned and managed for low risk and high uptime. Ben Stiegler, CEO 415 746 1811 |
|
|
|
| Anticipated Hard Drive Shortages & how to Protect the systems you rely on today! | |
 The floods in Thailand have seriously affected the hard drive supply stream for server and workstations - the place all your data is stored. Thailand is the 2nd largest disk drive producer in the world. Supply is drying up fast (unlike Thailand itself). One of our clients experienced THREE older server drives failing in just 2 weeks last month. Fortunately - we were able to provide spares - but supplies are dwindling. Western Digital, Hitachi, Seagate, and Toshiba as well as Nidec (maker of 70% of all motors used in drives) are all expected to be affected.
 | | Flooded Factory - Bankok Oct 2011 |
Drives are going to be harder to get -- and more expensive -- til those factories can be dried out and equipment renovated - which will take months if not years.
How can you best protect your existing disk drives?
Fragmentation is one major cause of premature drive failure.
Intense I/O can result in heavily fragmented files. Reading a fragmented file requires repeated repositioning heads. Not only does this make the file slower to open, all that movement has a negative impact on the disk's life expectancy -- it wears out much faster.
When disk access is optimized, the moving heads are likely to last much longer.
What can you do?
1. It is now more critical than ever to prevent fragmentation with Diskeeper! Ask us about deploying Diskeeper on your PCs and servers. They'll run faster, crash less, and last longer. Deploying Diskeeper saves $$ by avoiding downtime, extending hardware life, and making your information systems respond faster -- allowing your busy staff to accomplish more in a day.
2. Many SynerTel Managed Workplace clients are asking us to pre-stock a spare drive or 2 for their critical servers. Investing a few hundred dollars now to have a spare onsite is cheap compared to waiting days or weeks for one - or being forced to run without redundancy (RAID protection) ... or worse ... if 2 drives fail in the same server array - losing your current data entirely.
|
| Client of the Month - Dreamfarm | |
Dreamfarm is an Australian-based *idea factory* which develops simple ideas into inexpensive tools for home, office, and kitchen that solve old problems in fresh new ways. Its hard to describe the breadth of their products ... but my favorite right now is the GarJect! See what its all about here.
SynerTel is proud to be chosen to open Dreamfarm USA corporate offices. Dreamfarm and SynerTel are teaming up to offer you a special discount on Dreamfarm products - just in time for the holidays. Watch the December SynerTel Sentinel for the code!
If you're like me, you'll probably flip thru each of the quick musical videos which explain their unique products - then start thinking "Uncle Theo just can't live any longer without a Garject for the holidays!" |
| Section 179 Rule Changes 12/31/11 - Act NOW! | |
The amount of equipment purchases you can deduct in year 1 of service drops significantly from $500K to $125K as of Jan 1, 2012.
Section 179 of the IRS Tax Code allows a business to deduct, for the current tax year, the full purchase price of financed or leased equipment and off-the-shelf software that qualifies for the deduction. The equipment purchased or leased must be within the specified dollar limits of Section 179, and the equipment must be placed into service in the same tax year that the deduction is being taken (for tax year 2011, this means the equipment must be put into service before January 1, 2012).
EXAMPLE - advantage of Section 179 can significantly lower company tax liability.
Total Equipment Expense $300,000
Total First Year Tax Deduction $300,000
1-year Tax Savings (assume 35% tax rate) - $105,000
Net Cost of $300,000 phone system $195,000
Section 179 deduction may only be applied for the tax year the equipment was placed in service. The total cost of equipment that may be expensed cannot exceed the total amount of taxable income during the year.
If you want to harvest this deduction - call us today to get started!
|
| How tiny cracks in security lead to huge negative impacts - and what you can do about it | 
There's a chilling but fascinating article by Taylor Amerding in a recent NetWorld issue dealing with the effects of little cracks - tiny, apparently un-important things that aren't secured which can cause BIG problems.
Today, I visited a potential customer who asked us to assess ongoing voice and wide area network problems. This firm runs critical dispatch and security operations for a Fortune 100 corporation from the facility I visited. I couldn't help but notice that lots of passwords which we used for diagnosing their systems were still at factory default.
Here are 2 real-life examples from Taylor's article which could easily apply to the firm I visited ... or to YOUR company:
1- Taylor found a PBX admin password unchanged from factory default. So what, you might say? Using this password, his team was able to listen to voicemails left for the company help desk. One of the msgs led to his learning a username and domain password of an important user. Ka-Ching! Now he had access to that user's email and files. The files and databases were wealth management records for the firm's clients. Now identity theft and worse is only a click away.
b) at another site, his team found the remote access password for the company's security cameras was still at default. So what? Well, the cameras had good zoom lenses, and they were able to pan/tilt/zoom the cameras to read employee computer screens and watch their fingers during login - thus collecting user names and passwords for later access.
What can you do? SynerTel offers a variety of security audit services, including consulting, on-campus inspections, and remote penetration tests and scans. Ask us for more infomation! |
| Welcome -- New Clients! Thank you Existing Clients for new projects! | Thank you for entrusting us with improving your IT and business communications!
Wade Financial Services - Campbell Mission Council on Alcohol Abuse - SF HedgeCount - SF & Manila Dreamfarm - SF Western Hydro - Anaheim, Hayward, Reno, Santa Maria & more BBR Partners - NY/SF Conrad Imports - SF Todd R Cole Landscape Architecture - SF Limon Restaurant - SF KontAgent - SF, Toronto, LA Dillingham & Murphy - SF BEI - Reston, VA ACLU - SF ForeSight Wind Energy - SF
For a complimentary assessment of your organization's IT and Telecom spending, practices, and resources, call us at 415 746 1801 or email sales@synertel.com |
|
|
|
|
|
|
