Broadview Networks is a Finalist in the Microsoft Partner Program IMPACT Awards

Annual Microsoft Awards recognize Canadian technology partners’ and their commitment and leadership in the channel community

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007

The next generation of Exchange Server holds the promises of improved productivity for end users, and increased administrator efficiency.

Broadview Sponsors the IBM Client Appreciation Golf Tournament

IBM held their 2007 Client Appreciation Golf Tournament at Elmhurst Golf & country club. Broadview Networks sponsored a hole and held a “closest to the pin” contest.

Making Sense of SANs

While SANs are regularly perceived as only suitable for companies with vast budgets and specialist IT knowledge, the reality is that they are a truly viable option for all sizes and types of businesses.

Broadview Media- Securing Your Portal

Security is a major concern with Secure Portal access over the Internet. Fear of sensitive information being made available online to the public is a worry for many organizations. Broadview's Secure Portal functions can give Security Administrators the tools they need to secure their data without requiring users to undergo complex procedures to access the site.

Winnipeg, Manitoba – September 17, 2007 – Broadview Networks announced that it has been selected as a finalist in the Networking Infrastructure Solution of the Year category for the 2007 Microsoft Partner Program IMPACT Awards. The fifth annual IMPACT Awards recognize excellence within the Microsoft technology partner community in Canada as well as the innovative solutions and value they deliver to customers.

“Microsoft technology partners are the key drivers in delivering ground-breaking solutions that help meet today’s complex customer demands,” said Lora Gernon, Director, Partner Group, Microsoft Canada Co. “Broadview Networks has demonstrated commitment and leadership in the Manitoba market and the Microsoft Partner Program IMPACT Awards celebrate the company’s achievements and invaluable solutions they have developed to help drive real business growth and customer satisfaction.”

Broadview Networks was chosen as a finalist in Networking Infrastructure Solution of the Year for Class-leading practice on implementing and supporting Microsoft Server products.

“We are very excited to receive this recognition for our Microsoft expertise in deploying Infrastructure Solutions” said Michael Orloff, President of Broadview Networks. “To be one of the top three Canadian Microsoft Solution Providers nominated in this category is a testament to our highly qualified and dedicated team of professionals.”

Broadview Networks, along with other technology partner winners and finalists in each of the award categories, will be honored at a gala event in Toronto on November 1, 2007.

About the Microsoft Partner Program IMPACT Awards
In 2003, Microsoft Canada replaced all of its previous technology partner awards with a unified program that also recognizes customer service, marketing, and contribution to the community. Microsoft Canada has outlined 30 categories to highlight the Partner Program competencies to honour the achievements of top technology partners.

The Microsoft Partner Program IMPACT Awards were open to Systems Integrators, Large Account Resellers, Direct Market Resellers, Value Added Resellers, Distributors, Systems Builders, Authorized Education Resellers, Certified Partners for Learning Solutions, Microsoft Certified Partners, Independent Software Vendors, Channel Suppliers, Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) Partners and Original Equipment Manufacturers.

For a list of all 2007 finalists, and more information on the Microsoft Partner Program IMPACT Awards, please visit http://www.microsoft.ca/awards.

About Broadview Networks
Broadview Networks is one of Canada's leading advanced IT infrastructure companies. The company is recognized as one of the fastest growing businesses in Manitoba and is also acknowledged as one of the top Gold Certified Microsoft Partners in Canada. Broadview Networks has a distinct focus on simplifying complex technologies for clients across Canada, ranging from SMB, Mid-Market and SME organizations. For additional information visit Broadview Networks online at http://www.broadviewnetworks.ca

The next generation of Exchange Server holds the promises of improved productivity for end users, and increased administrator efficiency. Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 will provide IT Professionals in any sized business the tools needed to improve employee productivity, while helping administrators achieve efficiency in deployment and maintenance tasks. What's new and exciting about Exchange Server 2007:

• Improved Mobility
• Unified Messaging
• Administrative Improvements
• Outlook 2007 and Exchange 2007: Better Together
• 64-Bit Performance
• Small Business Server and Exchange Server 2007

Improved Mobility

Outlook Web Access 2007 provides users with an experience that looks like Outlook 2007; all that is needed is a web browser! Accessing documents and attachments is easier from outside the office now. And when you don't have a browser available, you can use ActiveSync and Exchange Server 2007 to keep mobile devices such as SmartPhones up to date with your Exchange email, contacts, schedules, voice mail and fax messages, and task lists.

Unified Messaging

With Unified Messaging, employees can access email, voicemail, and faxes through a single inbox that is accessible from any internet connected browser or mobile device. Exchange Server 2007 provides the capability for users to manage all of their messages in a single location. Forwarding a voice mail as an email attachment is possible, and notes added to a voice mail message become searchable with Instant Search. Consolidating voicemail and email infrastructure can lead to powerful productivity improvements.

Administrative Improvements

It might take a while to get used to, but the command line interface for Exchange Server 2007 really does make things easier for the administrator! Many types of operations can be fully automated with scripts, and troubleshooting tools like the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer and the Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant reduce the chance of operator error when implementing procedures in an Exchange Server 2007 environment. When using the graphical user interface, administrators will find a completely updated interface with a task-oriented layout.

Outlook 2007 and Exchange 2007: Better Together

While Exchange Server 2007 is compatible with previous versions of Outlook before the Outlook 2007 client application, there are some distinct benefits to using the newest version of the client application.

Instant Search simplifies searches for information inside Exchange server. Distinct internal and external out of office notifications are now possible so that internal staff can get a detailed out of office message while outside contacts receive only a basic message. An auto-discover service permits users configuring Outlook 2007 to connect to their Exchange 2007 server by entering their email address and password; no more manual configuration of users systems to their mailbox server are required! And Exchange Server 2007 sharing policies permit Outlook 2007 clients to share a calendar, contact list, task folder, or other information with other Exchange users with a single click, making group collaboration a breeze.

64-Bit Performance

Exchange Server 2007 is available in 64-bit only. The underlying hardware and the operating system on which Exchange Server 2007 is installed must be 64-bit.

The selection of 64-bit hardware and operating systems for Exchange Server 2007 translates into significant performance and scalability benefits. While 32-bit architecture allows up to 4 GB of addressable memory, using a 64-bit architecture permits upper limits of 16 Exabytes of addressable memory.

Performance improvements of 64-bit over 32-bit are also noted in the number of input/output operations per second. Tests have shown that Exchange Server 2007 running on 64-bit hardware requires as much as 75% fewer input/output operations per second compared to Exchange Server 2003 running on the same hardware.

Small Business Server and Exchange Server 2007

A common question in Small Business Server environments is whether the Exchange Server installation on the SBS server can be upgraded to Exchange Server 2007. As SBS 2003 is based upon a 32-bit operating system, Exchange Server 2007 cannot be installed on SBS. The next release of Small Business Server (currently in development, code-named Cougar), will be 64-bit only, and will include Exchange 2007 as a part of the product suite.

To learn more about Microsoft Exchange 2007, and to find out all of the new features that provide more quality innovation for less money please contact us.

On September 5th IBM held their 2007 Client Appreciation Golf Tournament. The event was held at the beautiful Elmhurst Golf & Country Club and was well attended by customers and partners alike. Although the clouds looked threatening at times, Mother Nature co-operated and allowed the event to be held without any major rain or wind.

Broadview was the "Hole Host" for hole number 4 which was a par 3. As part of sponsoring the hole representatives from Broadview held a "closest to the pin" contest. At 163 yards, the hold proved challenging to most who attempted to land on the elevated and sloped green guarded by bunkers on both sides. We had a handful of contestants at the hole come within 20 feet of the pin, and a couple that had the sweet swing and PGA potential to land close enough to be serious contenders in our contest to win gift certificates totaling $300 from the GAP and Old Navy. IBM provided a dinner at the end of the event where the the winner of our contest walked away with a new stylish wardrobe courtesy of Broadview Networks.

Broadview Staff enjoyed meeting many of our customers during the event and we look forward to participating in next year's event. A good time was had by all and IBM organized a great event. See you next year!

Digital information is a critical component of business today. It not only doubles in size every year, but many businesses require that it is available around the clock. Inability to access your information even to perform a system backup is no longer an option. Add a shrinking IT budget to these realities, and you're presented with a real challenge. How do you provide efficient storage, management, and availability of your data? The solution can be found in a highly flexible, intelligent, and easy-to-manage storage solution that is also cost-effective: the SAN (Storage Area Network). While SANs are regularly perceived as only suitable for companies with vast budgets and specialist IT knowledge, the reality is that they are a truly viable option for all sizes and types of businesses. If you need to store and manage growing amounts of data more efficiently, while simultaneously cutting operational and management costs, a SAN will help you do that as it:

• Allows multiple servers to share storage for greater efficiency and increased availability, ensuring that your data and applications are fully accessible at all times, even during backup.
• Creates a high-performance, resilient infrastructure so you can add storage with ease to meet changing capacity requirements.
• Consolidates data into a disk array that provides increased available capacity as well as simplified management.
• Highly utilizes disk capacity by creating a central pool of storage, doubling capacity utilization from 40 up to 80 percent, which improves cost efficiency.
• Utilizes centrally managed, high-performance tape backup to reduce your backup window.
• Manages your consolidated storage from one location to enhance your efficiency.
• Restores data faster to return your business to full productivity in the event of a failure or data loss.

SAN Explained The simplest way to explain a SAN is to compare it to a popular IT infrastructure solution: the local area network (LAN), which enables multiple PCs to share key IT resources such as applications, servers, shared files and printers. SANs provide similar resource sharing but are specifically designed to share storage devices such as disk arrays or tape libraries. How is SAN different from NAS? A SAN and a NAS fundamentally provide the same thing: networked storage, but the methods each employs and the benefits for businesses are very different. NAS solutions can be deployed in minutes using an existing LAN infrastructure. NAS provides an optimized storage space that all users can access directly over a corporate network. SAN solutions provide potentially limitless, raw storage capacity directly to servers (instead of users) over a dedicated infrastructure that can be tailored to a company's specific needs. The following table includes an at-a-glance comparison of the two:

Security is a major concern with Secure Portal access over the Internet. Fear of sensitive information being made available online to the public is a worry for many organizations. Broadview Media can provide thorough security for your Secure Portal, including role-based security groups and password protection, giving you the peace of mind needed to make your business work.

Broadview's Secure Portal functions can give Security Administrators the tools they need to secure their data without requiring users to undergo complex procedures to access the site.

Role-Based Security Groups

Our systems include, as standard, role-based security groups, allowing you to set particular limits on what your users can access. Through our easy-to-use back-end administrative system, you can set any security levels your require, and then apply those levels to your users, whether locking them down to being able to only read one section of the system to full adding, editing and deleting capabilities.

Full Password Protection

Our systems implement full password encryption, and our back-end administrative system allows you to set and edit passwords for your employees. Our system also provides the option of forcing your users to have strong-passwords which are difficult-to-guess passwords for each user.

Don't be complacent: Attacks can and do happen

Hackers will try and access your site using a variety of methods. The most common is Brute Force, which involves a program that tries every combination of letters, number, and keyboard characters to guess your password. It starts with trying every character, then tries two-character combinations and so on. The longer the password is, the exponentially more difficult it becomes to crack.

The User Security Administrator is the weakest link without an good internal Security Policy:

Give everyone their own account

This allows you to identify each user as they log in, you can compile statistics, you can give them personalized content, and they can maintain their own account profile. Make sure strong passwords are created. See below for tips.

Organize users into groups

By grouping people you can easily define which groups can see what content, and which groups can edit what content. You should restrict your high-level functions, and sensitive data to only select groups of individuals. In the event their single account password is compromised you are reducing the treat of losing private data.

Back it up with a full management system

Site administrators need to see and control what's going on; you can view and edit user data, and ultimately grant or withdraw.

Tips for creating passwords that are secure

1. Do not use personal information

• Do not use real words from the dictionary
• Make sure your password is at least 6 characters in length

2. Mix different character types, symbols, uppercase, lowercase and numbers

3. Use different passwords for each application

4. Change your passwords regularly.

Or, use a Strong Password generator application. Broadview can help with this.

Please contact us for more information about securing your Portals, and creating strong passwords.