If you’re like most businesses, you’ve already made the investment with E-Mail using Microsoft Exchange Server; you’ve purchased Microsoft Office for Outlook, Word, Excel; you may have even integrated your Smart Phone with your E-Mail box for Real-Time access. 

You might find yourself asking, what’s the next big communications innovation?  The answer is Microsoft Lync, a unified communications tool combining:

• Instant Messaging and Group Chat
• Voice over IP (VoIP)
• Enterprise voice integration (integrate Lync with your office phone system)
• Video Conferencing Desktop sharing for presentations and collaboration

Lync is fully integrated with Outlook with features such as available/busy status; create scheduled video/audio conference calls with a click of a button

Built-in Voice over IP for instant laptop to laptop voice/instant messaging communication from anywhere in the world.

Instant message conversations are saved in Outlook as a conversation for archival purposes. If you miss a request for an instant message session or an audio/video call the system automatically emails you to alert you of the missed request.

Thanks to Microsoft’s cloud solution called Office 365, you can deploy this in your organization for only $6 per user per month.  Paired with 360 Visibility’s remote deployment services, we’ll have you up and running in no time using our proven deployment methodology.

Looking even further into the not so distant future…is that the sound of your phone system moving to the cloud?  It may be closer than you think!

Apples recent public release of IOS5 and iCloud has been widely anticipated for quite some time. Yes…I know; “it’s not iPhone5″ you might say, but it is still a move forward in the Apple world and worth investigating. Up until now, there have been; let’s call them ‘deficiencies’ in mobility management for small or medium businesses. As with all things cloud, we are now one step closer to the technology utopia that we are all secretly dreaming about.

Utopia may not be attainable, but I am tired of being plagued with evil thoughts when it comes to any sentence containing the words ‘iPhone’, ‘backup’, or ‘centralized’. Even now ‘iCringe’.

The Answer Every Business has been Waiting For…or Not?

Apple has now put the ‘up’ in ‘backup’, taking us one step closer to IT bliss. Allowing users to backup their devices over Wi-Fi to iTunes or into the iCloud directly, provides a lot more flexibility when it comes to making sure your data doesn’t fall in the toilet along with your iPhone (I’m sure there are a few red faces right now). With your data stored in the cloud, recovery becomes one less worry for IT administrators. From a high level, it’ll back up virtually everything on your device except for music not purchased through iTunes (At least not yet).

Do You See What I See?

The next undisputed benefit to iCloud is that it has become device agnostic. Get access to your iTunes music, photos, documents, books, and apps from any Apple device or through your PC using icloud.com. Since many of us already have a combination of PC’s, Mac’s, iPhone’s, or iPad’s, the iCloud makes your content accessible when you want on whatever device you prefer.

Document Management

Apple carries this idea of synchronization to the next level with shared documents. iCloud enabled apps include; Pages, Keynote, Numbers (Apples version of Word, PowerPoint, and Excel) which allow you to make changes to your doc’s. Harnessing the power of cloud based storage, enables you to access the changes from other devices in your arsenal.

There’s That Word Again…Productivity

If my calculations are right, we should now be so productive that tasks are completed before we even start! A few productivity features introduced with the iPhone navigation include; the ability to Tweet something from many different applications, and tabbed browsing for the internet. Also, those pesky notifications are better managed through the notification centre so you are not interrupted when you’re in the middle of an important email or text.

I’m interested in hearing how you see IOS5 and iCloud changing your business, if at all. Like it or hate it, Innovation Happens!

By Jason Meilleur
Infrastructure Team member

We are living in a world full of unique businesses, all fighting to establish their niche in the marketplace.  Whether you’re a small start-up with a handful of employees, or an established organization of several hundred, technology decisions are often made on a best-effort basis.  Many businesses have developed their own “culture” – if you will, of how they consume technology.  This creates a growing challenge for IT decision makers who are faced with a myriad of questions regarding their available options. With the technology landscape in constant motion, IT Managers are left with the time consuming and often daunting task of researching and downloading evaluations, to determine which products or technologies will accomplish their goals.

To Cloud, or Not To Cloud

Cloud computing seems to be taking a front seat in the hearts and minds of the masses. The idea of leveraging someone else’s massive infrastructure investment, for a fraction of the cost, is too good to pass up.  Almost every day at least one person asks me about my thoughts on this topic, hoping to glean some new information on whether or not it would be right for them.  Some IT Managers have come right out and told me they’ve made a decision and are starting the process of moving into the cloud.  After asking them a few basic questions, they quickly realize they’ve bought into a solution without understanding how it will impact other technologies within their organization.

To Partner, or Not To Partner

Leveraging an outsourced pool of resources is not only a service that is provided by the cloud, it’s also available through technology partners.  As with any small or medium business, many rely on a single person with strong IT Kung Fu to make all of their technology decisions.  Combining forces with the right partners can provide low-cost access to a large network of highly skilled professionals. Thus enabling, proper solution development and minimal surprises (a.k.a. downtime or sinking money into the wrong technologies) all based on industry best practices, learned through experience with past implementations. In a recent meeting at Microsoft Canada Mike Ryan, SMB Server and Cloud Specialist cited a particularly telling statistic; over 80% of small and medium businesses who attempt a migration into the cloud fail unless they are working with a partner who has navigated the process in the past.  If you see the value that cloud computing brings to the table, the benefits of establishing a relationship with a trusted partner for technology should go hand in hand.

Jason Meilleur is the Infrastructure Team Lead at 360 Visibility. As a Microsoft Certified IT Professional and Cisco Certified Network Associate Jason combines his technical and business development backgrounds to help customers overcome business challenges by utilizing innovative technology solutions. For more information, contact Jason at jmeilleur@360visibility.com or (905) 907-3606.

If you’re thinking “Big deal, I already use Citrix!” that means you also pay Citrix Contract Support fee, Licensing fee and Citrix Software on top of Microsoft TS CAL. Microsoft RDS can do 95% of what you may need with less cost. It is also blazing fast using RDC7 client challenging Citrix’s ICA protocol performance – which is a big deal! For many years, the ICA protocol was the reason many large companies stayed away from Microsoft’s RDP connection-oriented protocol as it wasn’t as efficient or as fast as ICA was at presenting data. Application Virtualization was also previously an extremely expensive application solution that cost serious ducks in licensing, support and software purchases and contracts on top of consulting. However, with recent developments at Microsoft it would seem they have been in the lab working on these issues for some time. Their hosted platform solution called RemoteApp is the ’secret weapon’ for Network Administrators; its features, applications and low cost make it a valuable solution for many of our clients and may just be a great solution for your business too!

What is RemoteApp?

As part of the RDS Server role, it works by utilizing Microsoft Terminal Services and RDP to host applications installed on the server in user profiles. Applications are launched by RDC shortcut or .MSI file at the client PC, accessing server files in a remote session managed by the TS server with secure connections if needed. It is then presented through your built-in remote client in Windows XP and 7. Your application is hosted at the server and shows up on your desktop as a managed app run from either a shortcut distributed or an installer package that can create file associations for your users. It can also be accessed by a configured web portal with customizable access for users. By using Group Policy and RemoteApp Manager, you can string multiple servers together in Server farms with the same configuration and load balance the sessions. Another previously expensive enterprise solution! These services can also be hosted via an internally hosted setup in a secure IIS intranet site for even more value for sprawled employees on the road with access to a VPN. All this with integrated windows Active Directory security and you can setup to save your account info.

The Dance of IT Admin

With RemoteApp you’re able to go from a bare bones laptop – to having applications up and running in less than 30 seconds for each user, by distributing shortcuts to each PC. If updates are needed, a phased approach can be used to make this happen with less impact to your users.

Let’s say you had to roll out an application that was hosted on a RDS Server farm, with 4 servers, for 100 users. You can take one server down and the connections will automatically be load balanced to one of the other servers. Once it is updated, place it back into production and move to the next.

Pushing out apps using Group Policy is a good idea and a new machine can have a Start menu folder automatically created for launching the app. Centralized printing is also available for this solution, and works with any local printer no matter where the remote access takes place.

Who Would Benefit?

The possibilities for who would benefit from RemoteApp are endless; Hotel Clerk and Desks, Presentation Kiosks, Law Firms, Dental Offices, Government, Manufacturing and Health Care, just to name a few! Microsoft has done a fantastic job of packaging RemoteApp with the small and mid-size business in mind.

Imagine you are testing an accounting package that will virtualize and manage all the updates and deployment for your finance division. You can roll out RemoteAPP and test it with existing or new data with no impact to your users. Or perhaps you have a time logging application for a group of lawyers that timestamps your calls and conferences with clients. Lawyers can’t afford to waste 30 minutes to install a custom application with lots of add-ons and configuring with reboots; RemoteAPP helps keep time down and value up.

What if you work for a manufacturer of goods that needs a kiosk setup for factory stations – essentially a “set and forget” scenario with little configuration. RemoteAPP would be perfect for enabling a centralized configuration for Kiosk applications and touch screens.

If you are a salesman and need access to applications for critical contact information that you can’t do without, even if Viruses or malware attack, suddenly in almost any situation you can access the application from your web browser over the VPN. This can be done in a hotel, a client site, or even from home. You save your files in your network home directory safely on the RDS server.

It is easy to see the potential for RemoteApp’s added value and how it’s resolved multiple problems in the enterprise. With the proper planning this take on Application Virtualization can save you time, money and support downtime.

The future of cloud computing and the cornerstone of a successful and efficient IT practice is in creating scenarios where the application is separated from the PC desktop. The next time someone says to you “My Application does not work – can you reinstall it for me??” Remember RDS and let 360 Visibility help you plan for it so you can work smarter not harder!

The tickle in the throat. The scratch in the chest. The leak in the nose. Far from down and out, you’re functioning just fine, thankyouverymuch. Still, there’s trouble around your edges and every reason to believe you could be performing at levels much closer to the top of your game.

But wait. Before congratulating yourself on the wisdom that delivered tickly, scratchy, leaky you to the doctor’s office in pursuit of a clean bill, consider that other parts of your life could benefit from similarly preventative attention.

An information technology health check is common sense, write large, 72-point type, shout it from the rooftops and nothing less. Technology, after all, is a torpedo, tugging progress along by the nosehairs. For a company to imagine it can remain still in this rushing current, without benefit of the occasional Band-Aid, upgrade or plans best laid, is pure folly.

At 360 Visibility, our proven IT Health Check provides clients with a comprehensive review of their IT infrastructure status. Complete with diagnosis, we offer an all-in prescription for improvement. Among other things, our detailed report will identify both areas of present-day, drag-you-down incompetence and of big, hairy potential risk. We’ll benchmark your firm against industry best practices and offer some guidance on bridging the divide.

We’ll tell you if your existing infrastructure can be better aligned with your existing business strategy. We’ll scope out your IT inefficiencies. We’ll poke around your disaster recovery and business continuity provisions. We’ll take a listen to your IT policies and procedures.

Your cabling, switching, wireless networks, phone system, routing and firewalls will all be subject to a technician’s gentle exploration. We’ll call up your legacy phone system to see if it’s up to snuff.

And we’ll give you a brutal glimpse of the scene that awaits a company that makes no move to improve.

More than that, qualified 360 Visibility technicians will set you up with a exhaustive report that includes working paper checklists on those specific categories we’ve identified as worth watching, and solid written counsel to help you prioritize next steps within an implementation timeline.

Your IT Infrastructure is a critical factor in the success of your business. It provides the construct for your employees to do their jobs. It facilitates daily operations and expedites plans for growth. Thanks to it, security, communication and access to information are reasonable expectations for a day at the office.

If the information technology bones inside a business are unwell, or even in peril of minor fracture, the company as a whole will suffer. And if the place isn’t operating at maximum capacity, when a certified IT professional with a highly refined trouble-seeking stethoscope is at such close hand, well, that’s just a shame.

And that doesn’t feel good at all.