Looking to hire part time dispatchers in Central MA
Looking to hire part time dispatchers in Central MA – more information at our website, http://www.alphanetsolutions.com/about-us/careers/dispatcher/
Tim Shea's BlogLooking to hire part time dispatchers in Central MALooking to hire part time dispatchers in Central MA – more information at our website, http://www.alphanetsolutions.com/about-us/careers/dispatcher/ Looking to hireLooking to hire an L1/L2 Technician in South/Central CT - see our website for details - http://www.alphanetsolutions.com/about-us/careers/desktop-technician-for-ct-a... My latest article at ITChannelInsight.com - Office 365 – New Cloud Paradigm or What?Checkout my latest article at ITChannelInsight.com - Office 365 – New Cloud Paradigm or What? - http://www.itchannelinsight.com/2011/09/office-365-%E2%80%93-new-cloud-paradigm-or-what/
--Tim
Tim Shea, CEO & Senior Consultant Alpha NetSolutions, Inc. My direct line: 860-481-7190 Fax: 508-519-0351 Important Preparation Information for Hurricane IrenePreparing for Hurricane Irene It appears likely that Hurricane Irene will make a direct hit on New England over the upcoming weekend, with the latest reports suggest early Monday morning and into the day. We want you to know that AlphaNet is actively monitoring the forecasts and taking several steps to assist our clients in the event of any impact. Please review the following list of 8 recommendations and share it with the appropriate members of your team. We obviously hope that none of us will suffer any impact, personally or professionally, from this storm. One of my favorite sayings is "Better to have a plan and not need it than need a plan and not have it", so hopefully the simple step of reading this post and taking these recommendations seriously, will help you weather the storm without issue. 1. Prepare For a Power Outage It is highly likely that you will lose power during this storm. As a result, we are strongly recommending that all non-essential equipment be powered down. All personal computers, printers, copiers, phone systems, scanners, etc. should be powered off and unplugged from the wall outlets for the weekend. All your servers are protected by battery backup power (UPS), however, it is highly likely that you may endure a power outage that will outlast the ability of your battery backups to keep your systems up and running. This will result in the UPS properly shutting down your servers when battery power runs low. If you are in an area that is known for power outages or spiking during storms like this, we also recommend you consider shutting down your servers as well, to ensure maximum safety. Obviously if you power down your servers, you may lose the ability to send and receive e-mail during this time, so you want to evaluate what the impact of not having e-mail during this time may be. For those of our clients that subscribe to our Message Continuity Services, you will always have the ability to send and receive throughout the storm using Message Continuity, see your network admin for details on how to access. All AlphaNet clients will have email protection throughout the storm as all mail will be held for delivery to any server that may drop offline during the storm, either planned or unplanned. You may rest assured you will not lose any e-mail. 2. Remove Backups Off-Site If you are not presently using an automated off-site backup, to ensure that your backups are safely outside of your office, you will want to be certain that you have a complete copy of your most recent backup taken off-site Friday evening. 3. Find Out What Your Building Management Office Plans Are It is important to document all emergency and technical support numbers and take them with you off-site. As an example, your Internet Service Provider and telephone line provider. If you do not have access to your office, you will need to contact these providers quickly to make other arrangements. Please make sure you have this documentation on paper since computers may not be accessible. 4. Remove Equipment from Floor & Move All Equipment Away from Windows If your office has a risk of flooding, this can obviously create significant issues with the computer equipment. Please make sure that all equipment is at least 12" off the ground. Make sure to move all equipment at least 6 feet away from windows. 5. Document ALL Emergency & Support Numbers It is important to document all emergency and technical support numbers and take them with you off-site. As an example, your Internet Service Provider and telephone line provider. If you do not have access to your office, you will need to contact these providers quickly to make other arrangements. Please make sure you have this documentation on paper since computers may not be accessible. 6. Take Pictures of Your Offices and Equipment Digital pictures can be stored on multiple pieces of equipment and backed up on your server as well. These pictures will be very handy if your office were to be effected by the hurricane. 7. Make Arrangements to Use Other Vehicles of Communication If your server and/or ISP are not up and running, you should be able to communicate through a different vehicle. Please remember that cell phone service should remain up, but may be interrupted. Texting or free e-mail services like Gmail may provide a short term way to communicate should your office lose power for an extended period of time. Again, AlphaNet clients using our Message Continuity Services will have these capabilities throughout the storm. 8. Business Continuity Plan (BCP) While today is not the time, you should periodically dust off your Business Continuity Plan (BCP, also referred to as a Disaster Recovery Plan) and see how well it still applies. If possible, go through a test and make sure all of the required personnel and systems are still available and aware of their roles. Your BCP should include how to contact fellow employees and clients in case the office is unavailable, where to meet and what you will need to function as a company. Distribute cellular numbers as well as home numbers to key team members. Assign an out of area contact to be available to receive information from your employees in case of emergency. If you don’t have a BCP, you should. Once we get through this Hurricane, please feel free to contact me to discuss getting a BCP in place for your company so you will always have that plan that we all hope you will never need. To access our emergency support during the storm, please call the main office number at 508-797-0629. One of us will ask you for some specifics related to your emergency and then contact an engineer on your team who will call you right back. Should our office phone system be impacted, our lines will auto forward directly to our cell phones.
Tim Shea Epsilon Hack exposes even more privacy concernsEpsilon, the world’s largest permission-based email marketer, was breached on March 30th, and some subset of the email lists of their 2500 clients was compromised. Epsilon’s clients include Kroger, TiVo, US Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Capital One, Citi, Home Shopping Network, Ameriprise Financial, LL Bean Visa Card, McKinsey & Company, Ritz-Carlton Rewards, Marriott Rewards, New York & Company, Brookstone, Walgreens, The College Board, Disney Destinations, Best Buy, and Robert Half Technologies. I personally received notice from 4 of my vendors that their lists were compromised. Some are treating this as the “hack of the century”. The reality is that this sort of thing is going on all the time. That’s why it’s so important to protect your computers and your data with Anti-Virus, Anti-Malware, Anti-Phishing, and Web Content Filtering systems. Some are expecting this to result in a wave of phishing attacks, since the data stolen provided email addresses tied to a company – so they can send you a phishing email asking you for your Marriott Rewards account information, for example. Wondering what to do? DON’T PANIC. If you’re under our Platinum Plan, your work computer is well protected. On your home system, avoid emails from people you don’t know, and NEVER respond to an emailed request to change your password, verify credit card info, or provide any other financial information. Questions or Comments? --Tim Tim Shea, CEO & Senior Consultant Alpha NetSolutions, Inc. My direct line: 860-481-7190 Fax: 508-519-0351 Web :: Blog :: Twitter :: Facebook :: LinkedIn
Pano Zero-Client Technology now supports Hyper-VPanologic announced Pano System 3.5 today – see their press release at http://www.panologic.com/news/pano-logic-expands-open-platform-with-hyper-v-support This update supports Hyper-V as well as VMware ESX, so now if you’ve chosen to go with Microsoft’s Hyper-V as your Virtualization platform, you can introduce the Pano Zero clients without also introducing VMware to your environment. We’re starting to see a lot of interest in the Zero client approach. There’s also a good article on this announcement up on ZDnet at http://www.zdnet.com/blog/virtualization/pano-logic-launches-pano-system-35/2332 Interested in learning more about Pano? Send me an email or give me a call. --Tim Shea Article by Steve Burke at CRN on IT SpendingAnother great article by Steve Burke at CRN. I happen to be a source for this article.
What Users Want According to The NPD Group's SMB Technology Report, a majority of small and midsize businesses expect to spend more on PC refreshes, networking equipment, printers, storage and servers in the coming year. http://www.crn.comhttp://www.crn.com/news/channel-programs/227500664/what-users-want.htm
--Tim --- CEO & Senior Consultant Saw a Keynote by Mark Cuban at Xchange in Dallas todayI saw Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and serial entrepreneur, as he gave a keynote address at the Xchange Americas show in Dallas today.
For those who don’t know Mark’s background, he started as a PC Reseller/VAR back in the early 90s. He had a column in Computer Reseller News. He sold his first company (MicroSolutions) for a few million dollars, then eventually started another company, Broadcast.com, that he sold for even more.
Mark was there to talk to Solution Providers like myself, to inspire us, and to give us some insight into his success.
Those who thought he’d share some super secret miracle thing he did, or admit it was blind luck, were disappointed.
What was Mark’s secret? Here’s what I got out of his speech:
1. Work hard and with passion – he didn’t take a vacation the entire time he owned MicroSolutions. 2. Look for the “next big thing” in your technology/area of expertise. Ignore opportunities that don’t play to your strengths. 3. Ask yourself “How do I kick my own ass?” Look for ways to outdo yourself.
Mark was also asked about new technology directions, and specifically about cloud computing. He suggested “providing comfort and innovation to your clients”. He suggested that we “take crazy chances by experimenting hand in hand with your clients”, doing research and development with the help of your clients. Find solutions that interest them, and try to get it working together.
His final statement was that we should “recognize your core competencies, recognize the value add you provide to your clients, and aggressively get the word out.”
No mystical secrets here, just great advice from someone who’s been in our shoes, and ended up as what is arguably the single most successful entrepreneur to ever arise from the ranks of solution providers.
--Tim
This transmission may contain privileged and confidential information intended only for the recipient(s) named above. If you have, or believe you have, received this transmission in error, or are not [one of] the intended recipient(s) named above, you must notify the sender immediately and permanently destroy any and all copies of this transmission. I saw @Tiffani_Bova speak at Xchange Americas, she was as insightful as usualYesterday, I saw Tiffani Bova (VP at Gartner) speak about the future for IT Solution Providers. She was as insightful as usual, and made a few comments that really struck home for me.
The most important thing I took away from her talk was that companies are ready to talk about “growth and innovation” rather than “reduce cost” again. That’s great news, and means that we all need to change our talk track and marketing approach. As part of that, you need to focus on your role as trusted advisor again – show your clients how you can help them leverage IT to fuel and support growth and innovation for their companies.
This statement does align with what we’ve started to see with our clients – companies are now catching up on hardware refresh projects, but are also looking for new technologies, such as server and desktop virtualization, cloud computing, mobile computing, and the like.
--Tim
This transmission may contain privileged and confidential information intended only for the recipient(s) named above. If you have, or believe you have, received this transmission in error, or are not [one of] the intended recipient(s) named above, you must notify the sender immediately and permanently destroy any and all copies of this transmission. Having brilliant ideas while driving in your car? Try Reqall!This happens to me all the time - I'm driving to or from a client's site, typically I'm in the car about an hour. I have this great idea, but I don't have a chance to jot it down while I'm driving at the mandated maximum speed limit on the highway. So, more often than not, I totally forget this great idea. Then a colleague told me about Reqall! Reqall is a FREE service that allows you to call a phone number, interact with a menu system, and leave yourself to-do items, add things to your shopping list, send notes to yourself, or whatever. You just record a voice message over your cellphone, and then Reqall converts your voice to text, adds it to their system, and then emails the text (and a wav attachment with your recording) to you. WOW! Try it out today - www.reqall.com --Tim --- CEO & Senior Consultant LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/timothyjshea Twitter: http://twitter.com/Tim_Shea |
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