Daylight-saving time ends in November: Make sure your computer is ready

Previously, daylight-saving time (DST) ended on the last Sunday in October. To conserve energy, daylight-saving time will end one week later this year.

Broadview sponsors WITPro - The Winnipeg IT Professionals Users Group

Broadview continues ongoing support of the local Winnipeg IT Pro user group. Join us for a presentation on Microsoft System Centre Essentials.

Disaster Recovery from Broadview Networks - Part 1: Planning

In order to build and implement a Disaster Recovery Solution, initial planning first has to occur. Broadview can help you through all of the planning process.

HP BladeSystem c3000 enclosure

The BladeSystem c3000 enclosure is a versatile, affordable storage and server solution that will help you grow and secure your business.

Broadview Media- The Growing Problem of Spam

Spam is at an all-time high and accounts for as much as 75% of all email traffic arriving at most ISPs mail server. For small- and medium-business, as well as corporations, spam can account for up to 80% of email traffic, and some experts predict that this number could reach as high as 90% by 2008.

The “Fall Back” of the daylight saving time (DST) change in 2007 will go into effect on November 4th. As was the case during the first transition in March, Broadview is working closely with customers, and vendors to help ensure a smooth and seamless transition.

In general, computer systems should be updated to reflect the new DST rules. For most customers, this means applying software patches to select computer systems, including various releases of the Microsoft Windows operating systems and servers, Microsoft Office and other applications.

Impact of DST 2007 Changes on your Network

There are obvious implications for information technology across all sectors and industries. Any system that relies on a time/date stamp for processing will be in error without some automated or manual adjustment. Many systems automatically make such adjustments. Patches and fixes are also available for most systems.

Users will expect the effects to be transparent, so the burden of managing the situation will fall to IT professionals. Unfortunately, the fixes are not all automatic.

How to prepare for the DST 2007 upgrade

Research needs to be done in all areas of an organization to ensure that in November 2007 time is as time should be. This should include an analysis of how time related events and time manipulation occur in all hardware and software devices, software applications and the interaction between them. Most systems would have been patched from preparations for the original time change back in March however any new systems purchased since would need to be double-checked.

After the OS has been dealt with, each application must also be examined and tested to understand if there is date/time sensitive code within. This also applies to stand alone hardware such as network devices, routers, switches and even some alarm panels. Appropriate upgrades or patches may also be required in these instances.

Broadview is here to help with all your DST needs! Contact Us today for assistance with your network.

Broadview Networks supports local IT Professionals

Broadview Networks has been supporting the local Winnipeg IT Pro user group for over a year. This group provides information sessions on various Microsoft and related products and best practices. The Witpro group allows Winnipeg IT professionals to learn amongst peers from industry experts and vendor representatives. The group meets every second or third Wednesday at Red River's downtown campus.

In the past Microsoft Technet members, instructors and curriculum developers have attended providing insight into current and future products including some early looks into beta products. One of the best things about the group is that users have input into what will be presented.

This month Tyson Choptain from Broadview Networks will be presenting on Microsoft System Center Essentials 2007 a complete management, monitoring and reporting tool for environments with less than 30 servers and less than 500 PC's. This product brings enterprise class features from the Microsoft System Center suite of products to the mid market in an easy to deploy reasonably priced product.

Wednesday October 24th at 6:00 PM Red River Princess Street Campus. Pizza and beverages will be provided for registered attendees.

Visit www.witpro.ca for more information about WITPro.

For more information about Microsoft System Center Essentials please contact Broadview Networks.

In order to build and implement a Disaster Recovery Solution, initial planning first has to occur. Planning requirements vary greatly from one organization to the next, however in all cases a certain amount of planning needs to occur in order to ensure an appropriate Disaster Recovery Solution is identified and implemented. The components of DR Planning are explained below.

Base Inventory Documentation

The disaster recovery planning process involves several steps. A complete inventory of all applications and current hardware used to host these applications must be documented. Typically these applications will be categorized into at least three categories: critical line of business applications, non critical line of business applications, and non critical non line of business applications. The category definitions can be expanded to suit particular customer requirements. The distinction of critical and non critical applications should attempt to distinguish between acceptable time frames for data availability. Non critical applications are applications that if unavailable for extended periods of time would not affect day to day business. Critical applications conversely must be available to support ongoing business. The plan may or may not include provisions for non critical non line of business applications depending on customer requirements.

An assessment and inventory of all non computer related items must be documented in order to ensure that remote facility planning if required can be assessed. This inventory would include such items as office configuration, office furniture, parking facilities, telephones and security.

All collected inventories will then be reviewed in order to document clear business objectives. These objectives will detail acceptable time frames and data loss expectations and set out measurable objectives which can later be used to measure and quantify the effectiveness of the disaster recovery plan. The disaster recovery plan does not specify solutions and as such may be adjusted in order to meet budgetary considerations.

Assessment of Business Objectives

Broadview Networks will consult with the customer to determine business objectives related to downtime and data loss on the corporate network. The following are included in this exercise...

• Defining maximum acceptable downtime per critical line of business application as specified in the Critical Line of Business Applications section.
• Defining the maximum amount of acceptable data loss. This should be considered on a per application basis and should take into account data recreation time and feasibility.
• Defining whether or not a remote data center is required to meet the maximum acceptable downtime.
• Defining whether or not a remote workstation site is required to meet the maximum acceptable downtime.

Applications will be segmented and prioritized within "Critical" and "Non Critical" application pools. Each Critical and non-critical Business application should be inventoried. Any additional items specific to the customer should be noted and inventoried.

Supporting Infrastructure Inventory

In conjunction with the application inventory, a detailed analysis and inventory of the supporting infrastructure should be documented. Directory services, file systems, server based applications such as database servers must be clearly defined in order to accurately determine a scope of a disaster recovery scenario. This information will also be critical in determining requirements for a remote data center should the plan call for one.

Remote Data Center Requirements

Assuming a remote data center is specified as a requirement, specific items must be reviewed to ensure suitability of any proposed data center.

Remote Workstation Requirements

Should a remote workstation site or employee home workplace strategy be required for the purposes of disaster recovery, Broadview Networks can determine feasibility and document requirements as part of the overall plan.

Contact us for more information about Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning.

The BladeSystem c3000 enclosure is a versatile, affordable storage and server solution that will help you grow and secure your business. Run what you need today, and grow tomorrow he HP BladeSystem c3000 enclosure bestows substantial benefits when it comes to running applications:

• Combine multiple business applications in one box with thousands of choices on a variety of operating systems. This flexibility allows you to upgrade to the latest CRM, EPR, BI, Exchange and Server-based computing solutions now to meet current needs, and expand tomorrow into Virtualization, Unified Communications with VoIP, and more.
• Customize the c3000 enclosure to fit your business and mix, match and expand your choice of 4-8 storage and server blades that are affordable to buy and maintain.
• Virtualize from the start to multiply the cost, time and power advantage of blades with virtualization across server, storage & network.

Expandability brings da

ta security Not a storage expert? Not a problem. You can still leverage:

• The new, extensive storage blade portfolio that includes bladed Tape, Direct Attached Storage (DAS), and the All-in-One storage blade with Network Attached Storage (NAS) and iSCSI SAN capabilities. It's all the storage you need now, with expandability for the future, allowing you to back up and restore data, recover from disasters, expand your application storage in less than ten clicks, and a built-in best practice toolkit.
• Your storage and your server infrastructure in one box, managed as one solution, hiding the complexity of storage, server and application integration.

Big business results, small bottom line The BladeSystem c3000 enclosure provides big business results from a practical platform that opens new business opportunities and results not possible with traditional systems. You can reduce your time-to-market and make the business more flexible through quicker development cycles. Fund business growth with IT cost savings and redirect those savings to capture new sources of revenue, all while improving service levels. What won't you need with the BladeSystem c3000 enclosure?

• No need to compromise compatibility. The c3000 all-in-one design shares the same modular components with other HP BladeSystems. You can trust the exact same components, use the same simple tools, enjoy Virtual Connect and Insight Control, and connect to the same networks.
• You won't need a datacenter. The BladeSystem c3000 enclosure is designed for the 'undatacenters' of the world. You don't have to have a raised floor, special air conditioning, or special electrical wiring. The c3000 plugs right into a standard wall socket with standard UPS power backup. It's not a BladeSystem c7000 enclosure cut in half, but rather a uniquely designed unit made for smaller, harsher environments.
• You won't need to hassle with hardware integration. The c3000 is consolidated from the start, allowing you to manage it your way through a simple three-inch LCD screen and Onboard Administrator. If you specify 'Factory Express' your solution arrives 100% integrated to any location.

Explore the new, designed-for-you HP BladeSystem c3000 enclosure at the Blades Answer Center, and find out how accessible a blade solution can really be. Contact Us for more information.

Spam is at an all-time high and accounts for as much as 75% of all email traffic arriving at most ISPs mail server. For small- and medium-business, as well as corporations, spam can account for up to 80% of email traffic, and some experts predict that this number could reach as high as 90% by 2008.

Much of the problem lies in that spammers use as many external resources as they can – that is, they use as little of their own equipment as possible and place the burden on external systems. Despite the legislations put in place by several European and Asian countries in an attempt to reduce the issue, and a number of high-profile cases brought against spammers, the amount of spam generated grows year-by-year.

The amount of spam of an illegal nature is also on the rise. Phishing scams luring unsuspecting users to divulge personal information from account names and passwords to bank account information have increased dramatically as the world embraces the digital revolution even more. Spammers now also send out viruses in an attempt to create "zombie" systems to increase in their spam delivery.

Spammers can obtain your email address through a number of ways. One of the easiest methods to get on a spammer’s mailing list is to include an email address on a web page or web form. Spammers often employ applications that find your website through a search engine, then scan the contents of each page on your site looking for anything that resembles an email address. Brute force can also be applied, where spammers (or an application typically on zombie system) simply start guessing names and letter combinations until their list of possibilities has been exhausted. Because this is an automated process, time is not a deterrent for the spammer. Your email also can also be obtained from a purchased mailing list that has been sold by a marketing company or another spammer.

Broadview Media offers both Spam Assassin software and Fortinet hardware anti-spam solutions with all of our hosting packages. For more information on our hosting packages and anti-spam solutions, please Contact Us.