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October 2014
In This Issue
NPS Update
Trivia
Ask the Expert
WEBINAR Oct 22nd
Congrats Josh!!!
Moving UC to the Cloud
Mitel Powering Connections
ESI Blog
Shellshock FAQs
Free Backup Planning Tool
IT Will Love Windows 10
Quick Links to CCC...
Solutions
Manufacturer Links Below are links to manufacturer support and/or update sites. Please note some sites may require registration.  
NPS� Update
NPS

Current NPS�: 79.14%
Surveys
Completed: 2722

Click here to learn more about Net Promoter Score. 
Trivia
Trivia

Trivia Answer

 

In a 1981 John Carpenter film about 1997, which of our major metropolises has been turned into a maximum security prison?

 

BONUS: Name the movie and the iconic lead character.  

 

ANSWER:
New York City

BONUS:
The movie was "Escape from New York" starring Kurt Russell as "Snake Pliskin."

WINNERS:

Dan Kurkiewicz

_________________ 

   

New Trivia  

 

"I hate meeces to pieces" was the motto of what TV cat?

 

Ask the Expert
"Taking the Mystery Out of Holiday Tables in Avaya Communication Manager"
Tom Calandriello, CSU Engineer 

Here we are with the winter holidays right around the corner. The time of year when many of us plan extended vacations in order to spend time with friends and family. The holidays also mean that it is time once again (for those of you responsible for the phone systems) to update and schedule system programming so that customers, vendors, and the public are aware of when your organization is closed for the holidays.

This month we are going to take the mystery out of how and where you can check (and/or program) the holiday dates and times in your company's holiday tables. Whether your Avaya Communication Manager system is digital or IP-based, the process for scheduling your holiday tables is the same. (Please note: This process applies only to Avaya Communication Manager systems, the Avaya IP Office process is not the same.)   

 

Read more... 

WEBINAR: Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery in the Cloud
Join Us Wednesday, October, 22nd at 12pm CST
Cloud Computing

REGISTER NOW 

Use Code: CCC 

Do you have a solid plan in place to protect your business from data loss? You and your team of professionals spend numerous hours creating and maintaining critical business data...what would you do if you lost it all?

 

 

Did you know...
* Small and midsized companies are at greater risk for IT failure?
* 70% of businesses who have a significant data loss go out of business within 1 year?

 

This webinar will help you understand how to build a business continuity plan that will weather the worst "business storms" and keep your business operational.

 

You will learn:

  • The business impact of data loss on revenue and production
  • Why cloud solutions work better than traditional solutions
  • What cloud solutions are available to protect your business

Whether it's due to human error or natural disasters, there are circumstances where data can be compromised.

 

By adapting a strategy for business continuity and disaster recovery in the cloud, you will have better peace of mind knowing you can complete data restoration regardless of what challenges may come your way.

 

This is the perfect opportunity to gain valuable knowledge on this vital business matter.

 

Register Now 
Use Code: CCC 
Congratulations to Josh Rodriguez our CHAPTER winner for August
Josh Rodriguez, Senior Convergence Engineer

Congratulations to Josh Rodriguez, Senior Convergence Engineer, for receiving the CHAPTER Award for August 2014.

 

The CHAPTER Award is a new employee recognition program we started at CCC this year. Award recipients are chosen by fellow associates on the basis of the CHAPTER qualifications of going above and beyond to delight both internal and external customers. 

 

Champion

Hardworking

Advocate

Professional

Teammate

Enthusiastic

Reliable

 

The winner is announced each month at the company meeting. They are awarded with a trophy and a $200 gift certificate and their picture is displayed in the reception area. Each of the CHAPTER winners for the year will be the only associates eligible for Associate of the Year voting at the end of the year.

 

Congratulations Josh and Good Luck in your quest for Associate of the Year! 

Tips for Moving UC to the Cloud
Avaya Trend Advisor, Sept. 24, 2014 
avaya logo Many viable business benefits come from adopting Unified Communications (UC), particularly when it is made easier through a cloud or managed services provider. Yet these technologies require a robust network, new collaborative skills and a different mindset to be successful. If your company already has some UC infrastructure and wants to move to a private cloud, or sign up with a public cloud UC provider, then you need to consider the migration plan and what additional risks your business may be incurring.

From vendor selection to network planning, here are a few best practices to consider for a smooth transition.

Learn more...

Powering Connections  
Powering connections
Powering Connections

The ESI Blog:
VoIP Toll Fraud Very Real, Very Preventable
Shawn Guenther, Director of Product Management, ESI 
ESI LogoWhile Voice-over-IP technology has been around for a while, in the last few years it has surged significantly to the point of becoming a modern necessity. From hosted communications platforms and managed on-premises devices to interLATA SIP trunking and last-mile SIP-to-legacy conversion circuits there is truly no business in these United States unaffected by VoIP. Organizations around the world have found this kind of communication channel to be increasingly essential as workers demand flexibility and business leaders seek lower costs and higher ROI.

 

Read more... 

Shellshock (Bash Bug) FAQ
Richard Henderson, Fortinet - Sept.29, 2014
Fortinet Logo What is Shellshock?

Shellshock is a vulnerability discovered in the ubiquitous GNU Bourne Again Shell (Bash) program which can allow an attacker to remotely execute arbitrary code on a target system. Bash is commonly used in many Linux, Unix and Mac OS X operating systems. It also likely impacts Apple's iOS mobile operating system and Google's AndroidOS.

 

Who is affected?

While Bash is a local shell, it is used in many programs on the Internet to set environment variables which are then used in the execution of other programs.

 

Should I be worried?

If you are the owner or maintainer of a server or other Internet infrastructure, you should patch your machines as quickly as possible. The nature of this exploit is such that it would be trivial for an attacker to compromise your machine(s) or create a self-propagating worm, reminiscent of the SQL Slammer worm in 2003, leading to potential Distributed Denial of Service attacks.

 

Read more...
Download the Free Unitrends Backup Capacity Planning Tool
Backup & Recovery

Here's your opportunity to get granular file reports across your entire data center to estimate your backup sizes, jobs, schedules, and retentions-FREE. The Unitrends Backup Capacity Tool discovers all your data center files across multiple storage devices and servers, providing both detail and summary reports for backup planning.  This backup administrator's tool is comprehensive, powerful, file-savvy, agentless... and FREE. 

  • Comprehensive File Detail - Discovers files across your entire environment from multiple types of storage and servers.
  • Automatic, Non-invasive and Secure - Performs an agentless, secure scan of your files and immediately renders file reports.
  • Management Visibility - Automatically synthesizes vast quantities of storage and file data into an executive-ready deck of PowerPoint Slides ideal for your management with lists, graphs, and annotations.
  • Easy to Install, Run and Report - Simply deploy our appliance to VMware or Hyper-V, follow a simple wizard, and you're up and running. Our easy-to-navigate web interface lets you generate summary and detailed reports for all your storage devices in minutes.

*Unitrends Backup Capacity Planning Tool free for a 10-day usage period to obtain reports of your current files throughout data center.


Download the Free Tool...  

Why IT Will Love Windows 10
By Rob Enderle - Oct, 3, 2014 - CIO.com

As I watched the Windows 10 teaser from San Francisco this week, I thought back over the 20 years I've covered the platform and to what, for me, was the first real version of Windows. Windows 95 effectively launched me as an analyst. I doubt I'd have made it had I not been tied at the hip to that product.

Windows 10 (Note: The author has been launch analyst for Windows since Windows 95, and the Windows group has also been a client of his companies since then.)

One thing that's obvious is that Microsoft has a cadence with Windows. I hope CEO Satya Nadella will fix this so that Windows 10 joins Windows 98, XP and 7 in representing the best of what Microsoft has to offer with the platform.

 

Windows Cadence: Every Other Version Stinks

Microsoft's cadence with Windows is much like Apple's with its problem phones - that is, anything without an "S" behind the name. It started with Windows 95. (I swear I had nothing to do with it.) Microsoft operating systems stink every other time. Windows 95 broke catastrophically after launch, Windows 98 was fine, Windows ME and 2000 were big problems, folks still love Windows XP, Windows Vista defined the word stinks, Windows 7 is decent, and folks hide from Windows 8. 

 

Read more...