Courtesy of GeoJono via the Creative Commons license

Outsourcing is a good way to minimize costs and simplify operations for a business that needs to focus on its core competencies. Just like many companies hire an employee leasing company to perform their human resources functions, outsourcing information technology (often called “managed IT services) to a third party can be an efficient way to get the best IT care at the lowest total cost.

IT outsourcing is popular also because it isolates and makes transparent total IT costs, which can be complicated to determine when the IT department is in-house.  IT outsourcing also insures 24/7 monitoring of IT resources at a lower cost than in-house IT staff being on call around the clock. It can also make sense in economic downturns to minimize employee and shop floor overhead, since these items will become the responsibility of the company handling your IT services.

Before you commit to outsourcing services, make sure you understand the control dynamics needed by your management, and sit down with your provider to make sure they understand that as well. Come to the table and hash out the details before you sign anything, so there are no surprises down the road. If you take the time to do due diligence, your chances of satisfaction and a long term relationship with your managed IT service provider are greatly enhanced.

Virtualization is not a completely new technique, and it’s easy to see what you need and don’t need if you just break it down, says IT analyst Dan Kuznetsky. He writes about what he calls the “layers of virtualization.”

Access virtualization, for example, makes it possible for employees in different locations using an array of devices to access applications and databases on disparate network servers, while network virtualization allows IT managers to present different views of the network based on permissions and access levels, which provides greater security and makes technical support easier.

Kuznetsky developed a chart to illustrate the different layers of virtualization that he uses to explain the concept to clients and help them sort out what they need, what they already have (and didn’t realize), and perhaps most important, what they don’t need.

Family Services Woodfield (FSW), a nonprofit organization in Bridgeport, Conn., is dipping its toes in open source waters with the help of virtual machines.

FSW helps families through difficult life situations: anything from illiteracy, domestic violence, or HIV, to helping a youth coming out of juvenile delinquency or a family caring for an aging grandparent. FSW maintains partnerships with other agencies it uses as resources, and it is continuously designing new programs to better serve its constituency.The agency receives government funding as well as private donations, and so must keep up with reporting requirements, and since it provides psychiatric care for children, it must comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). FSW is always looking for ways to get the most out of its $10 million-plus annual budget in order to better serve its client base of more than 23,000 people in the communities surrounding Bridgeport.

One way it has done that is to begin using Linux and virtual machines from VMware. FSW was a Microsoft shop before Joe Foran, the agency’s director of IT, came on the scene seven months ago. Right away, he knew what needed to be done to save the agency significant money on IT costs. “I came over from Unilever, and I had participated a lot in their VMware projects over the last couple of years,” Foran says. “I had a wealth of background and I knew where FSW could save money.”

After making his case, the board of directors gave him free rein to purchase VMware and begin deploying it on two new Dell PowerEdge servers running Red Hat-based distributions. On those two servers are four instances each of Linux — mostly CentOS and a basic custom kernel running a firewall. Applications running in Linux include CommuniGate Pro groupware, the LifeRay portal, Jive Messenger, a LAMP stack, OpenLDAP, Samba, and SSL-Explorer.

Foran keeps a separate Windows box going in order to house Medisoft medical billing software (for HIPAA requirements) and MIP accounting software. “Those are outside of the virtual environment,” Foran says, “on the ‘if it ain’t broke’ theory of operations management.”

An anonymous donor recently provided FSW with 58 used desktops. Foran would like to roll them out to FSW clinicians, outfitted with CentOS 4, OpenOffice.org, Firefox, and Evolution, so he’s performing desktop development testing with unused servers and VMware workstation.

Between Linux and VMware, Foran says he’s saved the agency at least $79,000 in IT costs. “The cost estimate for rollout would have been about $103,000, but with what we did it ended up being $24,000.”

**reprinted with permission from Tina Gasperson

Image courtesy of Larsz via the Creative Commons license

Your high school English teacher may have instilled a negative image of redundancy in your brain, but take our word for it - redundancy is a really good thing when it comes to your network infrastructure.

Server virtualization, the act of running multiple OS instances on a single computer, is hot right now. But if you spend a few minutes thinking about the possible negative implications of this practice, you can come up with an all too common scenario that can happen if you don’t have a good IT consultant. Imagine: a small business may need a mail server, a Web server, and a DNS server. With virtualization, you can put them all on one machine and you’re good to go. But wait - what if that one machine fails? BIG FAIL. Your entire business is taken down in one fell swoop.

The way to avoid this problem is redundancy, a word any good IT manager understands well. Having only one server is good for your pocketbook, but only if its up and running. To avoid going down hard, install a second physical machine on the network that is a virtual duplicate of your other machine. If one dies, the other is still online for a seamless backup. Ask your consultant if they can help you to be more redundant.

Small business owners might ask, “do we need an antivirus program?” The answer to that question is a most emphatic yes. But don’t worry, it’s not difficult to choose the right antivirus for your business needs. In fact, there is a range of products that are low cost or free, and very simple to use. It really doesn’t have to be complicated.

If you’re starting a business but you’ve used antivirus software on your home desktop computer, you probably already know most of what you need to know. Only companies running large Web-facing networks with multiple servers need to worry about more complicated antivirus solutions. The rest of us can turn to tried and true answers.

For example, many new desktop computers come with an antivirus like McAfee already installed. If you only have one or two employees, chances are that the solution is already installed and waiting to be used. McAfee has options to set the strength of protection, the time for scheduled scans, and additional features including a personal firewall. McAfee sells yearly subscriptions that entitle the user to all updates and bug fixes.

Other popular antivirus programs include AVG, Sophos, Symantec, Norton, Trend Micro, and Bit Defender. Most have a free trial period so you can see which works best for you. Just be sure to choose one, so that you and your office systems remain protected from viruses and trojan horses that can literally shut your business down.

Voice over IP (VOIP) telephony systems are becoming more and more mainstream as broadband options increase for businesses and home, and as technology provides ways for companies to make use of powerful internet connections and new products. Software based VOIP systems make it easy for any size business to set up its own PBX and gain some flexibility and independence.

Avaya is now marketing its IP Office telephony system to small businesses that want to take advantage of IP technology. IP Office is configurable as a traditional PBX system, or as an IP telephony server. Either way, Avaya comes with a complete set of administrator tools that allow your staff to monitor the system status, log calls, and diagnose problems easily.

Some of the features of Avaya, according to information at its Web site, include:

• Turns a home phone into an IP Office telephone with the Phone Manager Pro intelligent desktop application using Telecommuter capabilities.
• Enables a mobile device to simultaneously ring when calls arrive at an IP Office telephone.
• Empowers the mobile user with complete call control—place a caller on hold, transfer, toggle between calls, or create a conference call.
• Downloads software using mobile devices (Windows Mobile 5 & 6 and Symbian Single-Mode Version 4). This enables the mobile user to make and receive calls through the IP Office system, saving on toll charges, retaining customer records, and maintaining mobile number privacy.
• Provides remote workers with software to turn the remote IP hard phone into an extension of the system without the need for remote VPN (Virtual Private Network) gateways.

If you think Avaya IP Office might be a good fit for your business, AIO can answer your questions and help you find out if Avaya telephony would benefit your workplace.

Some businesses are moving to the convenience of wireless networks because with wireless, virtually unlimited numbers of systems can access the network without having to plug in. Ironically, the same feature that makes wireless so useful is also the element that makes it risky. Since an intruder doesn’t have to have an ethernet cable to connect to the network, it’s much easier and more tempting for rogues to break into the network, wreaking havoc on security and privacy for anyone who is legitimately connected to the network.

For this reason, it is important to set up a wireless intrusion detection system (WIDS) even before the wireless network is up and running.  A WIDS is typically a network device that scans the range of the network, looking for the presence of unauthorized access points which signal the presence of an intruder. The WIDS looks at the unique MAC address of each device on the network to make sure it is approved. If an unapproved MAC address is detected, the WIDS alerts the network administrator, who can then take steps to boot the intruder and close the security hole.

**Image courtesy of phylevn under the terms of the Creative Commons license.

Server virtualization was a buzz phrase in past years, but some experts think ‘09 is the year that the idea of multiple virtual CPUs moves past hype and becomes the norm. Virtual servers are pretty commonplace in Web hosting environments, where multiple domains share a physical server but each has its own virtual CPU running its own instance of an operating system. However, companies like market leader VMWare are moving into more and more advanced turf with CTOs who are feeling more confident about using virtual servers for high availability needs like banking and shopping.

In fact, Forrester surveys predict that in 2009, more than two-thirds of enterprise IT shop floors will have implemented x86 server virtualization, and the depth of that virtualization is expected to increase from a current 24% of internal virtualization to a full 45%. Forrester’s research is based on a survey of 275 decision makers.

Sounds like virtual servers really are slated to become the norm for 2009 and beyond.

Image courtesy of Chris Dag and licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons license.

This is the season for holidays like Hanukkah, Christmas, the celebration of the Winter Solstice, and New Years Day. The Internet and information technology have invaded every part of life and these holidays are no exception. British forces in Afghanistan sent home a Christmas message via email and video technology that is bound to touch your heart. Information technology makes it possible to communicate globally, instantaneously, and that’s a good thing. Happy Holidays!

Fears that outsourcing might decrease in the wake of leaner economic conditions are unfounded, according to a report at EconomicTimes. Quite the contrary, says Rohit Kapoor, president and CEO of EXL Service. Kapoor was quoted in the report saying that companies are looking for the quickest way to cut expenses, and apparently IT outsourcing is still one of the best ways to do that. In fact, companies that specialize in providing outsourcing resources are reporting that their business is expanding to include more “high value” assignments “such as total IT outsourcing, R&D, and business transformation services,” according to the EconomicTimes report.

In other words, there’s more incentive than ever to outsource. Where before outsourcing was done because of the high calibre of developer resources available through this alternative method of IT staffing, now companies are seeing it as a quick solution to some of the higher costs associated with local recruiting and hiring.

Photo courtesy of Katie Lips, under the terms of the Creative Commons license.