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Michael Cocanower
President, itSynergy |
Welcome
Every single one of our customers has a
little black box somewhere in their office
that connects them to the Internet. The only
problem is that the device is exactly that -
a little black box. Do you have any idea
what is happening inside that box?
I don't think anyone would disagree that we
are LONG past the point of arguing over
whether the Internet has had a positive
productivity impact on business - it clearly
has. Virtually every industry can point to
some example of their daily work life that
has been revolutionized by the Internet. For
example, how often do our attorney clients
spend quality time in their law library
anymore? Sure - the books are still there
for show, and yes they are occasionally
referred to. But most attorneys will tell
you that the vast majority of their research
is conducted online. |
Unfortunately, your company's Internet connection
is a two edged sword. Are you certain that all of
the activity flowing through that 'black box' in
your office is valid business traffic? In an article
in The Wall Street Journal on March 4 of this year,
a Houston funeral services company, Carriage
Services Inc., disclosed that it "recently
discovered that 70% of the workers in its 125-person
headquarters watched videos on Web sites like Google
Inc.'s YouTube and News Corp.'s MySpace for about an
hour a day". The same article pointed out a recent
study from Nielsen Online that found "the heaviest
consumption of Internet video is during weekday
lunch hours between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m." and a report
from comScore, Inc. reported that "in December,
Internet users watched more than 10 billion videos
online".
The problem is especially bad for the customers
we serve, as most small and medium businesses don't
have large amounts of excess bandwidth lying around
unused. Bandwidth isn't cheap, and our customers
aren't interested in paying for a lot of extra
bandwidth only to accommodate video watching and
other unproductive uses. In the worst cases, the
stability of your network can even start to be
impacted because there is no bandwidth left for
critical functions like email. In fact, according to
Paul Stamp, an analyst with Forrester Research,
"without having some kind of a set policy that
either controls or blocks video, [companies] run the
risk of their networks crashing or, at the least,
slowing down drastically."
So what is a small or medium business to do?
Fortunately, itSynergy has the answer. This month we
are very excited to announce the availability of a
new service, itSynergize Web Control. This service
allows us to finally open up that black box and peer
inside. We installed the system on our own network a
couple of months ago and did our first 'live'
customer installation last week. You can get a one
page overview of the new service by clicking here.
The moment we implement this new service, it
immediately begins collecting data and showing you
reports on your usage. I've posted some sample
reports you can look at here. We generally leave it
in this 'passive reporting mode' for the first week
or two as that data in and of itself can be very eye
opening. After we have an idea of what is happening
inside the black box, we can then come back and
start to implement policies and rules that help to
shape, limit, and even prioritize traffic. For
example, in the law firm scenario, maybe we don't
want to cut out YouTube altogether, but instead
maybe we want to implement a policy saying any
traffic to our online research provider is
prioritized over YouTube. With such a policy in
place users can still get to YouTube, but as your
bandwidth pipe becomes full, our system will take
bandwidth away from YouTube, and give it to the
research site instead. This is just one of many
examples of policies we can put in place that will
allow YOU to determine how your Internet bandwidth
is used, and not your users. That results in YOU
being able to choose how much bandwidth you pay for,
and not your users.
Have a great month! |
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The Weakest Link in Network Security
By Peter Alexander
Reprinted with permission from Microsoft Small Business Center
Your
small-business network may be protected by firewalls, intrusion detection and
other state-of-the-art security technologies. And yet, all it takes is one
person's carelessness, and suddenly it's as if you have no network security at
all.
Let me give you an example. In March
2006, a major financial services firm with extensive network security disclosed
that one of its portable computers was stolen. The laptop contained the Social
Security numbers of nearly 200,000 people. How did it happen? An employee of the
firm, dining in a restaurant with colleagues, had locked the laptop in the trunk
of a SUV. During dinner, one of the employee's colleagues retrieved an item from
the vehicle and forgot to re-lock it. As fate would have it, there was a rash of
car thefts occurring in that particular area at that particular time, and the
rest is history.
Continue |
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How to
Get Repeat Customers: 7 Steps
By
Jeff Wuorio - Reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Small Business Center
"Don't
be a stranger now." You've surely heard that expression, a most
hospitable one. But for small business owners, a returning customer
is essential to survival.
For the entrepreneur,
it's important to understand how to build a base of customers who
return to your business time and again. Here are seven ideas and
strategies to consider:
1. Repeat customers
cost less than new ones. Studies show that it's less expensive
to bring existing customers back than to attract new ones. It makes
sense, considering the expense of advertising, marketing, media and
other tools necessary to lure new customers. Also, getting a new
customer's attention can often be a matter of timing.
Read on for more ideas
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System Engineering Corner
Notes
from the Network Engineering Department:
Note to readers: As our network engineers
work with all of you across our entire customer
base, they observe trends and issues that many
people have in common, or that many customers will
find helpful to know about.
This section is designed
to give them a mechanism to communicate those issues
to you, with the hope that YOU might benefit from.
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Tech Corner
Barnacleware
by Mark D. MacLachlan, Infrastructure Team Manager
Keeping up to date with security patches for non Microsoft applications can
be a daunting task. Redmond Security Watch author Russ Cooper recently referred
to applications that come pre-installed on new computers as barnacleware. The
name is apropos, these pre-installed utilities cling to new PCs slowly eating
away at resources (both hard disk and memory) in the same manner that barnacles
cling to a ship's hull, slowing it down and slowly eating the hull.
itSynergy engineers have long made it a standard practice to remove as many
pre-installed applications as possible. The process can be very time consuming,
but often ensures a better performing computer that is less likely to be
exploited because some never used application has a newly discovered back door.
Ideally when purchasing a new computer consider ordering without any
pre-installed applications or even without a pre-installed Operating System.
Although this may add a bit to the initial price, you will more than make it up
in lower setup fees from our engineers.
Often times these pre-installed applications are not required and in many
cases will never even be utilized. If you find you really can't do without that
fancy calculator or that little application that takes the red eye out of your
photographs then itSynergy recommends that you be sure to check that application
for updates on a regular basis. Keeping computers up to date is a crucial start
in keeping your network safe and secure. |
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April 2008
In this issue
□
Welcome
□ Weakest Link in Security
□ Repeat Customers
□ Tech Corner
□ Referral Program
□ How to Undo a Big Mistake
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itSynergy Referral Program
 Can we
buy you dinner and send you to the movies? How about
make a donation to your favorite charity in your name?
Earn rewards for referring new customers to itSynergy.
For more details, please
visit here.
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How to 'Undo' a Big Mistake in Windows
by Kim Komando
Reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Small Business Center
It
used to be, back in that last century, that people wished for a reverse time
machine. This would allow them to go back in time after they messed up their
computer. Well, Windows XP has that time machine. And when some awful thing
gives your computer the staggers, it's easy to go back to the day before. Or the
day before that. Or last week or last month.
It's an all-too-often unused feature that may save your bacon someday, called System Restore.
1. It allows you to go back in time.
System Restore creates points in time
- called "restore points" - in which it takes a snapshot of Windows. It stores
them on your hard drive. At any given time, you might have restore points going
back a few weeks, or a few months. System Restore also is included in Windows
Me. Windows 98 has a similar, but less advanced, utility called Registry
Checker. It can undo problems in the Windows Registry. More about that in a
minute.
Click Here for more
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Quote of the
month
The reason a dog has so
many friends is that
he wags his tail
instead of his tongue
- Anonymous
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7310 North 16th Street,
Suite 130
Phoenix, AZ 85020-8203
Telephone: 602.297.2400
Fax: 602.297.8703
Email:
info@itsynergy.com
www.itsynergy.com
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