Online Social Networking Sites: Well Monitored

Your employees are buzzing because Twitter is down and Facebook is running painfully slow.

Within seconds of a Twitter or Facebook problem — even a minor slow down — hundreds of thousands of people — from tweens enjoying the last of their summer vacation to corporate executives — are aware of the problems and teams of engineers begin working to correct the problem.

Your Company’s Exchange Server Status: Unknown

Funny, isn’t it? Twitter and Facebook may be viable promotional and brand management tools but they aren’t the core of your business technology infrastructure. Yet, you are far more aware of their ups, downs, performance and reliability than your own servers. Why is that?

Honestly, right now, do you know:

• How many days before your Microsoft Exchange email server runs out of disk space?
• When was the last time your Microsoft SQL Server had a full backup?
• Does your Windows IIS server have the most recent security patches?
• Do your desktops have anti-virus software and is it up to date?

24/7 Monitoring of Your Critical Systems and Patch Application

DedicatedIT has the solution to sleepless nights: 24×7 Remote Monitoring and Remediation.

The monitoring, care and feeding of your Microsoft Windows Servers and network equipment is critical. What you don’t know can hurt your business. Call today (561-491-5725) and learn how we can help to protect your critical information infrastructure.

Cloud Computing is More Buzzword than New Technology

Cloud computing simply means the system is too complex or dynamic to be explained but is so reliable that no one really cares that it can’t be explained. More or less.

Your Business is Already Using the Cloud

Here are some clouds you’re using right now in your business:

• When you’re placing a call on your telephone, you’re using the cloud. Your phone just works. You pick it up and you get telephone service. It’s very reliable, and you don’t have a clue how it really works.
• When you plug in your office coffee maker and grab electricity from the local utility, you’re using the cloud. You don’t care how the electricity is generated, you just want your coffee quick and hot.
• When you’re working late and order a pizza, you’re using the cloud. That sausage and onion pizza is output from the cloud. You don’t know exactly where it was cooked, who cooked it, the path it took to get to your office or where the ingredients originated. Best of all, you don’t care so long as they remembered the garlic dipping sauce.

The common denominator in all of the above is that you care about the end result, not about the process. Cloud computing is about improving results quality without getting involved with the process.

Reasons to Move Your Servers and Resources Into the Cloud

The short answer is the cloud is more reliable, better performing and less expensive than hosting your own services.

The only way you’re going to know if the cloud has a silver lining for your business is by making a phone call and then sitting down with DedicatedIT in front of a white board. No silver lining, no cloud. It’s that simple. Let the bottom line lead your business, not buzzwords.

Already in the Cloud and Need an Umbrella?

Some clouds just bring rain.

If you got into the cloud — or into the wrong cloud — and want out, we can help you there, too. As wonderful as outsourced services can be with the correct managed services provider, there are some good reasons to host your own services in your own office or in a co-location facility.

We can help you determine if it is time to get out of the rain.

Eight out of ten hurricanes come in August, September or October. Worse yet, 95% of major hurricanes (winds greater than 110 miles an hour) hit in just those three months. (Thank you Eliot Kleinberg of the Palm Beach Post.)

So, while hurricane season started June 1, think of that as preseason training.

Would Your Company’s Computers Survive a Hurricane?

Who cares? No, really. Who cares if your computers get through the storm? The question you need to answer is if your business will get through the storm.

Specifically, some questions you need to be asking are:

• Will our employees be able to access our critical business systems?
• Will we have internet access and email?
• Will our phones still work?
• Are my employees able to work remotely, from their house or a temporary office location?
• Is our data backed up to multiple locations?
• How do we communicate with employees who may not have phone service?
• Are we planning to just limp along in the days immediately after the storm or do we plan on being fully-functional for all our client needs?

Too Late to Fully Prepare for the 2009 Hurricane Season

We could tell you that if you call today we can have all your computer systems protected for the 2009 hurricane season. If we did, we’d be lying.

We can help mitigate your exposure. We can virtualize your most critical systems and place them in our data center. We can establish off-site replication and server backups. We can even help you figure out how much UPS and generator power you need for your in-house computer systems and network.

What we can’t do is provide a full business continuity plan for 2009. We can’t do it and we’d be very leery of an IT services firm that would make that sort of claim this late in the season.

Start Planning Now for the 2010 Hurricane Season

Even if we could deliver a complete business continuity plan in time for this hurricane season, you don’t have it in your technology budget. So, please contact DedicatedIT today (561-491-5725) and let’s talk about 2010.

Our company is based in South Florida and we specialize in protecting your company’s technology needs in the Miami to Palm Beach to Jupiter area. We know what must be done to keep your company online because we have taken the same steps to keep our company online.

Quick Network, Server Fixes for the 2009 Hurricane Season

Before a hurricane knocks out your business, you should have a complete network assessment performed. With that document in hand, you will better know your liabilities and you’ll have the information necessary to rebuild your computer systems should it be necessary.