InfoBulletin
February 2010
Issue 114
IT 2010: Cloud computing comes down to earth, Virtualisation made real, Windows 7 upgrade, Are email messages unique?
coopsys.net
InfoBulletin
February 2010
Issue 114
IT 2010: Cloud computing comes down to earth, Virtualisation made real, Windows 7 upgrade, Are email messages unique?
coopsys.net
Popular editionsMay 2008 Outlook Time Recording: Journal, Video to ruin your ISP? Zoho: software at your service, OCR tips, BGInfo, How to audit my PC? August 2008 Risky business, Salesforce review, SteadyState manages multi-user PCs, Do you really need a web site? June 2008 Time Recording: Outlook Times plug-in, Windows Server 2008 storage, data protection, Convert PDF documents into Word format |
| *** NewsBytes *** | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| ||||||||||||||||
| *** end of NewsBytes *** | |||||||||||||||||
| ^ Back to contents ^ | |
|
1.
IT 2010: What's in store?
A milestone event aimed at third sector orgainisations to show what you can actually do with the rising technologies of cloud computing and virtualisation.
| |
|
Help at hand. |
In its flagship event this year, Co-Operative Systems put industry leaders Microsoft and Dell together on stage directly in front of the UK's third sector audience for the first time. What did they want all out of "IT 2010"? For the computing giants, it was a chance to glean third sector needs and ultimately sell more wares, both hard and soft. But were they fulfilling the requisites of social enterprises (rather than big enterprises) for great value IT hardware and software? For organisations it was a unique opportunity to make an appeal of a different kind on a one-to-one basis - an appeal for sleeker, more efficient IT systems. Also a chance to assess whether the software and hardware stalls being set out before them would fit the bill. Given the continuing tough economic climate, the clouds on the horizon envisaged by most are not necessarily related to the much-prompted virtual computing; the thoughts of charity CEOs are inevitably bent on budgets and bottom lines. Amazingly, it seems possible to have your IT cake and eat it. We heard how Microsoft has made life on the desktop easier with Windows 7 and how it is creating web-accessible versions of some of its leading packages such as Exchange and at very affordable rates. On the hardware front, Dell demonstrated how its new range of servers save money in management time, power consumption, space and performance, as well as being a better deal environmentally. Phil Anthony, director of Co-Operative Systems hinted at exciting times ahead with virtualisation and cloud computing offering a digital environment where information becomes accessible anywhere, any time, forming a scenario of "three screens and a cloud", namely:
Perhaps it's a leap into the world of 'pervasive data' that will be new for many people, but one that can bring significant time savings and efficiencies in day-to-day work. Sign up for the white papers and presentations here.-IB- |
| ^ Back to contents ^ | |
|
2.
Cloud computing comes down to earth
Phil Anthony, director of Co-Operative Systems introduced 'Microsoft in the sky' – their vision of cloud computing – at IT 2010.
| |
|
Help at hand. |
Nick Caw, Business Development Manager at Microsoft UK brought cloud computing down to earth with some real detail on Microsoft's Online Services and in particular how to use the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). In a historical context, we have moved through a transformation from personal computer, to Client-Server, to Web Services, and now to the Cloud. In the near future, the best combination is likely to be a mix of on-premise software plus hosted services. 
Another transformation is the trend towards subscriber-based models of software, hence BPOS is priced per user per month (pu pm) What's inside the Business Productivity Online Suite?Four essentials applications available to be hosted:
Hosted applications at Microsoft's own Online Services are a fairly standard set. The aim is to offer enterprise-grade capabilities at a low price, with upgrades included as part of the subscription, and stated Service Level Agreements (SLAs) so customers know at the start what reliability and uptime can be expected. What BPOS won't accommodate is deep customisation; it is after all a service, not an outsourcing solution. However, this limitation doesn't apply to SharePoint, the web development platform. Since installation requires little effort to be up and running, BPOS should become popular with hosting companies in so-called multi-tenanted schemes – several companies subscribing to one set of applications on one virtual platform with data remaining private. But Microsoft's partners should be able to accommodate other applications too - for instance, donor and fundraising, unique databases. As an aside, we noted that Office Web applications (a cut-down version) is currently being beta tested. One can also find a 90-day trial of Microsoft Dynamics (its CRM application) on the US web site. The BPOS Applications
Nick pointed out that the people attending IT 2010 indicates they think it's important enough to view IT strategically rather than as an entity. Organisational IT needs are generally driven by:
BlockersTypical frequently asked questions that arise andpotentially stand in the way of adopting online services are: Q1: Is my data secure?With massive data centres suddenly cropping up everywhere, Microsoft has written several white papers about its own data centres, each of which is an investment of several hundred million dollars. For example, read Securing Microsoft’s Cloud Infrastructure (PDF). More links the full presentation online. Q2: Isn't "IT for everyone" just too expensive?
The cost of licensing (see below) are certainly attractive but you can now trial these Microsoft offerings before buying at microsoft.com/online. A Deskless Worker features a 500MB Exchange mailbox via Outlook Web Access Light version, while the Info Worker role sees a full 25GB Exchange mailbox with full OWA and SharePoint plus ActiveSync for mobile devices. The emphasis was definitely on implementing a managed trial (see below), otherwise enthusiasm drops off and you find it's day 29 without having completed any useful tests and a lost opportunity. Pricing of BPOS licensesAs just one of the components, Exchange Online can be subscribed from £3.35 per user per month, but the whole Business Productivity Online Suite can be had for £6.69 pu pm, a 38% discount on the bundle of 4 applications if subscribed separately. The Deskless Worker role, basically a web-access only model with reduced features, drops the price even further to £2.01 pu pm. There is also a series of Transition to Online agreements as a step-up (5-user minimum) ensuring an easy path for those on Software Assurance agreements. Compelling EventsNick Caw identified some compelling events that drive organisations to adopt new approaches or implement a sea change. Translating business events into scenarios for the third sector, these might look like:
At this point, it seems appropriate to quote White House chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, speaking to business leaders last year: "Never let a serious crisis go to waste ... it’s an opportunity to do things you couldn’t do before." Co-Operative Systems arranges managed 30-day trials so do get in touch via the form below to get started with your own Business Productivity Online Suite. -IB- Sign up for the white papers and presentations here. |
| ^ Back to contents ^ | |
|
3.
Virtualisation made real
Sonny Kausel and Eugene De Conning present Dell's Storage Virtualisation and Enterprise Solutions.
| |
|
Help at hand. |
Sonny Kausel kicked off, detailing how advances in Dell server technology save money in management time, power consumption, space and performance. Summary of today's typical IT department problems
Under this kind of demand, traditional server arrays and storage methods rapidly create spiralling maintenance and power consumption. Dell's advice: invest in IT infrastructure. Server advances
Overall improvementsCompared with a previous generation Dell PowerEdge PE2950, those purchasing Dell servers can now save £75 pa per server on power. On the performance front, you can replace 7 old servers with one new R710 and Hyper-V virtualisation. Savings parametersThe savings made thus span a variety of criteria:
Visit dell.com/poweredge and contact Co-Operative Systems for a readiness assessment.
Eugene De Conning explained why today's Dell storage technologies overcome traditional bugbears. Storage pooling and SAN virtualisation
Virtualisation began being implemented around 2002 and is now old hat for government and big business, but it was scary then! Now it is affordable, reliable and much easier to set up. But Dell's EqualLogic (virtualised storage products based on iSCSI connections) takes the scariness out of SANs. Old SAN designs suffered from inherent bottlenecks at the processor, at the cache and the storage levels, requiring add-on controllers and software to facilitate the inevitable storage expansion fuelled by user demand. There is no longer the need to send engineers off to complex fibre-channel training courses. A quick straw poll of qualified fibre-channel installers in the conference room saw only one hand in the air – that of Co-Operative Systems' Anslem Munroe. 
All vendors are supply iSCSI nowadays. EqualLogic permits an approach of buy-on-demand storage; no need to blow your budget all on day one. The EqualLogic system doesn't make additional charges for advanced features such as Snapshotting - a process of taking server images at a point in time which obviously could impact enormously on processing and storage demands. The storage array is built with a bespoke controller and connects via any Ethernet network card (1GB/sec or 10GB/sec) to the server. Apart from solid state drives (SSDs), disc technology using spinning platters hasn't changed much and the fastest spin speeds are still 10,000 rpm or 15,000 rpm. Dell drives now have better labelling, so that spin speed and capacity are clearly marked where you need to see them when pulling out a drive for replacment. Eugene rounded off with a live '10-minute demo' of installing a SAN – finishing with 2 minutes to spare! It really has become a lot easier. Contacts
-IB- Acknowledgements: Sonny Kausel and Eugene De Conning |
| ^ Back to contents ^ | |
|
4.
Co-Operative Systems gets Windows 7 upgrade
Tim Palmer discovers a mass transfer to Windows 7 was easier than expected.
| |
|
Help at hand. |
With Windows 7 (or simply "7" techies hail it) getting so much positive press compared to its predecessor, our clients will soon begin making the upgrade themselves. So the Co-Operative Systems helpdesk are very happy to have this upgrade to become more familiar with the operating system. We decided to roll out Windows 7 to keep up to date and felt it was the right time to 'practice what you preach'. 
I drew up a project plan to cover everything and wasn't expecting too many problems. All the pre-checks were done and the only real surprise was spare time on my hands, since after a bit of help from our system administrator, database developer and project supervisor, the number of days to complete the upgrade and transfers halved! A busy helpdesk doesn't get too much testing time to play with, but we ensured the core essentials for Windows 7 were working fine and our guinea pigs Karina and Angela didn't report any problems after testing. 
Our bespoke database needing tweaking though, since we are now using Microsoft Access 2007 instead of Access 2003. Potential 'tripping up' points to note:
Helpdesk staff who reported back say they enjoy the 'Windows 7 experience' - things like the Aero desktop view (those translucent glass windows), improved task bar (that now bundles in the Quick Launch toolbar) and the search feature. Personally, I like some of the newly built-in tools, such as Windows Easy Transfer which I employed to backup and restore local information on the PCs - so thumbs-up from me! Learn more about Windows 7 or contact us to discuss upgrading. -IB- Acknowledgements: Tim Palmer |
| ^ Back to contents ^ | |
|
5.
IT's a numbers game - the last decade
The last 10 years has witnessed computing and the Internet return from burst bubble to booming business. Here is a round-up in numbers and trends.
| |
|
Help at hand. |
$100 billion Net worth of Bill Gates at his peak 4.6 billion Mobile phone subscriptions worldwide 1.7 billion Number of Internet users worldwide, a 10-year growth of 380% 1 billion PCs in use (up 100% on last decade) 800 million Internet-capable mobile phones globally 500 million Subscribers to world's largest individual mobile operator, China Mobile 225 million Apple iPods sold 75 million RIM BlackBerrys sold 55 million Nintendo Wiis sold 140,000 Number of systems shipped by Dell per day, on average, (more than one a second) $1000 Amount of money that Dell started up with $100 Cost of one-terabyte storage drive (1TB = 1000 GB) Compare with $1m in 1990s 91% Windows' market share of client operating systems, as measured by Internet usage 80% Share of enterprises using Microsoft Office 22% Percentage of US-installed PCs running unlicensed versions of Windows 10 cents Cost-per-gigabyte of external consumer storage devices (60 times cheaper than a decade ago) 9 Dell facilities in the USA and Europe that are powered by 100% green energy 8 hours Amount of time it took Windows 7 to outsell Vista Trends to note
-IB- |
| ^ Back to contents ^ | ||
|
6.
Q&A: Are email messages unique?
Question 
Hi Mark, | ||
|
Help at hand. |
Every email message has a Message-ID. You can see this identifier in most email client software by looking at the hidden headers (In Outlook: right-click | Options | Internet headers. In Thunderbird: View menu | Message source). 
The evidence that the message is genuine is bolstered if you can link it to the logs held in the mail server that sent or received it, though if you are contesting a point in this case, the receiver will likely deny you access to their mail server and/or deny the existence of the message even if they have it. However, if you can show that the message left your server (and your own ISP may help you here) the burden of proof shifts to the recipient's organisation to demonstrate that their mail server was incapacitated (down, not receiving) in some way, and there should a great deal of other evidence to back this up (server logs), if it was true at the time. If there is a lot hanging is the balance, the receiving ISP should be keeping logs (unless they are very shabby) since the UK government has required ISPs to keep track of every email sent and received for 12 months starting from April 2009 under the Communications Data Bill, which implements the European Union's Data Retention Directive. Whether the ISP will co-operate is another matter, though if it becomes the subject of a case in law or a notice issued under RIPA by an investigating authority, they will be under obligation to do so. As to whether all email messages are unique, the answer is they are required to be generated as unique by the owner. Usually this will be handled by the outgoing mail server software or outgoing ISP. The defining document (called a Request For Comment) RFC2392 states: "Both message-id and content-id are required to be globally unique. That is, no two different messages will ever have the same Message-ID addr-spec; no different body parts will ever have the same Content-ID addr-spec. A common technique used by many message systems is to use a time and date stamp along with the local host's domain name, e.g., 950124.162336@XIson.com." More commonly, the uniqueness is guaranteed by deriving it (so-called 'hashing') from a combination of:
thus:
-IB-
|
|
| ^ Back to contents ^ | |
|
7.
Collaboration station
Collaboration is less of a technical problem than people imagine.
| |
|
Help at hand. |
"Not every organisation actually welcomes collaboration. It really does result in a flattening of hierarchies"
Ever noticed that getting people together at the same time in the same place sometimes seems impossible? This is because most of us are inherently drawn towards ranking our own priorities above everyone else's. SharePoint, huddle, 37signals and other collaborative tools are ramming this issue of human lethargy down the throats of those who invest in sharing, collaboration and so-called Web2.0 style technology. The blindingly simple reason for email being so popular is that it allows senders and receivers to operate in their own little virtual spaces. Thus, they are happy working on more than one task at a time as long as that doesn't involve too much interaction with real people in real time. Those at the geekier end of the spectrum tend to be the worst culprits of this isolation phenomenon, embroiled in a technical world of machine conversations that they relish, rather having to co-operate with than unpredictable hominid co-workers. You can watch this happen in an open plan office without being hampered by any communications wizardry (or lack thereof) just by planning a meeting. Inviting half a dozen colleagues to congregate around one of the nearby desks for 3pm. You can bet at least one of the group won't arrive at the agreed table 5 minutes of the start. Laggards will invariably be distracted from travelling the short distance to the table by a phone call, reading an email, or 'just printing something'. At the root of our collective intransigences is that office workers feel pressured by time. The very thing that computers claim to save has turned us all into impatient individuals, in fact individuality is at the heart of the problem. Top in the irritation rankings is "Waiting For Someone Else", but even when we fill in the waiting-for-others gap by fiddling with BlackBerrys, iTunes, sundry buttons and mice, we fail to switch off when the collaborative need calls us. David Tebbutt of freeformdynamics.com puts it: "Not every organisation actually welcomes collaboration. It really does result in a flattening of hierarchies, the breaching of the silo walls and the by-passing of those who add no value. If you've been in the game long enough to remember the advent of email, you'll remember the fears of those middle managers who suddenly found themselves 'disintermediated'". 
However there are huge benefits to be gained from embracing the new software collaboratively. And it's not just about sharing party photos and non-stop one-line chat. IBM reckons that improved search productivity and reduced travel from its 25,000 wikis and 260,000 blog posts (to name but two of its technologies) saves it £12.9M (US$18.4 million) annually. Neither is this solely the playground of big budget enterprises who can gain from their economies of scale. Among the gains even for smaller organisations are:
All these solutions are to do with connecting people to each other and creating 'business value' to quote the jargon. Translated into simpler terms, it's just making the most of what you have already. Learn more about collaboration software. -IB- |
| ^ Back to contents ^ | ||
|
Clicks of the Trade - show Outlook's hidden calendar clocks
--- Quick tips for happier clicks! ---
| ||
|
Help at hand. |
No clocks 
With clocks 
In Outlook's calendar, the Week View shows just a blocky view of appointments, unlike the Work Week View where you can see exact appointment times. Now you can reveal Outlook's hidden clocks so that even in the Week View and Month View, each appointment displays its own time. Result: you save on clicking between views and see precise times at a glance. It's dead simple to configure:
After clicking OK twice to exit, you see tiny clocks next to each appointment in Week View (or Month View as well if you chose that). ** try it now **-IB-
|
^ Back to contents ^
Opinions expressed within InfoBulletin do not necessarily represent the views of Co-Operative Systems.
E&OE
|
^ Back to contents ^
|
|
|
Read recent and past issues of InfoBulletins on the Web at www.coopsys.net/ibindex.htm or search our archives and subject index.
We hope you found InfoBulletin useful! If you would like to comment on any of the articles or request particular subjects to be covered, mail us here.
|
||
Southwark-based charitable organisation, Cambridge House, offers services such as advocacy, community development, disability services, a law centre and nursery. The organisation recently chose Co-Operative Systems IT support to help it further its mission to alleviate the local effects of poverty and support social change. Discover more 
This year's conference focuses on strategic issues, in particular the importance of defining and measuring the benefits of IT within your organisation to ensure that IT is seen as an enabler rather than just a cost-centre. Presentations include: building an IS strategy; developing a business case; benchmarking the IT function; and developing a web strategy. The day also looks at best practice in IT and rounds off with some 'blue-sky' developments. Aimed at Finance Directors and directors and managers of IT, tickets cost from £120 to £330 from 
Callers phoning abroad are now turning to Skype. Although conventional long distance calls have declined only marginally during the global recession, Skype's ability to offer cheap or even free international calls via the Internet has made the company a winner, routing 54 billion minutes in 2009. "Skype is now the largest provider of cross border communications in the world, by far", says TeleGeography analyst 
The announcement came after claims of attacks by the Chinese government on its servers, email accounts and other businesses by sophisticated manipulation of a hitherto unknown flaw in Internet Explorer. (Using IE in "protected mode" with security settings at "high" should mitigate the vulnerability though a patch is still awaited). However sales of Google's January-launched 
The Rev Canon David Parrott updated the ceremony that traditionally blesses a symbolic farming implement (Plow Monday) and applied it to today's digital tools instead. The vicar blessed a pile of laptops and smart phones placed on the altar of London's 17th-century 
