By William Welsh
NASA plans to hold an industry day July 23 in Washington to brief the private sector on the acquisition strategy for its Information Technology Infrastructure Improvement program (I3P).
The I3P solicitation will support several agency components and encompass network communications, data center, desktop and Web services, according to an announcement on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site.
In addition to communicating its acquisition strategy, NASA will describe its IT infrastructure requirements across the components, get input from industry on its IT strategy and establish a list of companies interested in the procurement.
Registration, which closes July 21, is limited to two representatives per company, NASA said.
The event will be held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center
Oct.08, 2008 in Informatiom Technology.
Computer benchmarking is an effective way of measuring your PC’s performance. Benchmarking is often used when overclocking, upgrading your PC, optimizing Windows XP, customizing Windows, and even speeding up your Windows XP startup. There are many different methods for measuring your computer’s performance, whether it be using a stopwatch to measure the startup time to shutdown time, or comparing how many FPS a game runs depending on what performance options you have selected on your graphics card. Some of the more common solutions to measuring your PC’s performance is to use specific benchmarking software that does just that. Why sit there at your computer with a stopwatch when you can have a program test that for you? Why perform only one test you have the ability to do yourself when you can use a program that has multiple tests to measure varying degrees of performance?
PCMark05
PCMark05 is a computer benchmarking application developed by Futuremark. PCMark05 will help you reliably test and measure your PC’s performances to determine it’s strengths and weaknesses. It’ll also help you decide on optimal upgrades, or choosing the right new PC that fits your needs.
PCMark05 comes with the ability to benchmark the entire system as well as each individual component. There are 5 different testing suites that come with PCMark05: System Test Suite, CPU Test Suite, Memory Test suite, Graphics Test Suite, and the HDD Test Suite.
PCMark05-Benchmark-Results
PCMark05 comes in three different flavors: Basic, Advanced, and Professional. Basic is free, and is the most limited in terms of benchmarking, allowing you to do only perform the System Test Suite. Advanced will cost you $19.95, and offers the best bang for your buck. Professional ($199.95) adds the ability to run a custom suite, export to MS Excel, use command line options, running PCMark05 with batch files, and it also gives a license for commercial use too.
3DMark06
3DMark06 is also developed by Futuremark, but focuses more heavily on the graphics card side of benchmarking and PC performance, though it does include CPU tests as well. 3DMark06 uses “advanced real-time 3D game workloads to measure PC performance using a suite of DirectX 9 3D graphics tests, CPU tests, and 3D feature tests. 3DMark06 tests include all new HDR/SM3.0 graphics tests, SM2.0 graphics tests, AI and physics driven single and multiple cores or processor CPU tests and a collection of comprehensive feature tests to reliably measure next generation gaming performance today.”
3DMark06-PC-Benchmarking
3DMark06 also comes in Basic (Free), Advanced ($19.95), and Professional Editions ($490.00). Basic lets you perform 2 SM2.0 graphics benchmarks, 2 HDR/SM3.0 graphics benchmarks, and 2 CPU benchmarks as well. Advanced copies of 3DMark06 enables the rest of the benchmarking features, while the Professional version has batch testing, commercial use allowed, and full demo looping.
Aquamark3
Aquamark3 is a free benchmarking program that allows you easily measure and compare your PC performance. It has a reliable benchmark that helps you configure your system for the best gaming performance.
Aquamark3-Benchmarking-Performance-App
Aquamark3 uses DirectX 9 as well as being backwards compatible with DirectX 8 and DirectX 7 graphics hardware. It allows benchmarking in a real-world scenario so you can get the most accurate benchmark results as possible.
SiSoftware Sandra
(System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) Sandra will measure, test, and benchmark your PC to give you the most accurate information about your hardware, software, and other devices that use either.
CPU-Benchmark-Performance-Results
“It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what’s really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.”
Sandra also has the ability to test computer stability with its burn-in wizard, the ability to give you performance recommends on how you can tune-up your computer, as well as testing for an overall PC performance score, and last, but not least Sandra has a full-on environment monitor wizard that allows you to measure temperatures, voltages, fan speeds, CPU power and even cooling solution thermal resistance.
SiSoftware Sandra comes in several different versions, but they have a really good free version called Sandra Lite, that doesn’t include any timers, serial keys or anything.
HDTach
HDTach is a reliable benchmarking software that allows you test your hard drives, removable drives, flash devices, and RAID arrays. It attempts to get as close to real-world performance as possible by bypassing software layers with low-level drivers, so you get real results, not inflated results.
HDTach-Benchmark-Screen
The trial version measures sequential read speed, random access speed, interface burst speed, and CPU utilization, while the registered version adds sequential write testing.
CPUBench
CPUBench is a free benchmarking utility that helps you make comparisons between different CPUs by measuring the MFLOPs (mega floating-point operations per second) and MIPS (million instructions per seconds) of your CPU.
CPUBench-Benchmark-Results
CineBench
CineBench is another free benchmarking utility that is made with amazing quality. It runs several tests on your PC to benchmark the performance of the processor and graphics cards under real world performance. CineBench also has support for up to 16 CPUs on Macintosh and Windows. The values between the two operating systems are 100% comparable and can aid in purchasing decisions as well.
Performance-Benchmark-Cinebench
COSBI OpenSourceMark
COSBI OpenSourceMark is described as “the definite, comprehensive open source benchmark”. That means it’s free and is damn good for benchmarking.
COSBI-Benchmarking-Results
It’s tests consist of file compression, audio encoding, spreadsheet calculations, and image-editing activites. It detects multiple cores and automatically reconfigures itself to use the benchmarks to take full advantage of your PC’s hardware. You can also do custom test suites if you don’t want to do the full on test.
Which Benchmark Application Is The Best?
There is no best benchmark solution. This list features the best in computer benchmarking available. You’ll just have to decide for yourself which one you like the best, they all measure different types of performances for different components. I’ve used these programs several times when doing maintenance, upgrading, and optimizing, and they have never failed when giving me real-world performance values. PCMark and 3DMark may be $20 but that $20 is well worth it.
If you have any benchmarking applications that you use that aren’t listed here, leave a comment and tell me about it, I’d like to know what else is out there.
Whilst it is usually possible to get a rough idea of how well a computer will operate by simply looking at the system specification sheet, this doesn't always give a true reflection of the machines performance. For that reason, those that want to get an accurate idea of the speed of their computer will often run a piece of benchmarking software.Benchmark programs work by testing performance characteristics of individual sections of your computer; for example the number of calculations per second of your processor, the access time of your memory and the number of polygons per second that your graphics card can draw.
The results can then be used to produce an individual score for each component along with an overall score for the entire system; such results can be helpful for those who want to identify weak spots in their computer and work on improving them. Fortunately this week I learned of a piece of software called PC Wizard which allows you to do just that.The software itself can be downloaded free of charge from www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php –
Fortunately it is only a couple of megabytes in size and so should only take a few minutes to download an install. The program is classified as freeware so isn't in any way restricted and they don't generate any revenue by exposing you to advertising.The primary function of PC Wizard is simply to identify system components – this is surprisingly useful if you're looking to update a particular driver or gain support for a particular building block within your computer. On a conventional PC the only truly accurate other way has been simply to take the side off and have a look however this technique falls flat on its face when we are dealing with laptops.
Whilst Windows Device manager will give me a limited amount of information regarding the hardware inside my laptop I'd much prefer a piece of software rather than a screwdriver to find out specifics.Our main interest with this software is the benchmark section so if you click on this icon you will be given the options to test every conceivable area of your system including the processor, main memory, hard drive and video card.
By comparing these readings against the benchmark systems already provided by the software you should be able to get a good idea of what areas of your system are letting you down. For your own peace of mind, if you are considering a system upgrade then try running a test like this before and after the upgrade takes place so that you can see how much of a difference you've made. Likewise, if you want to experiment with playing around with things like BIOS settings and your Operating System then run these tests at all stages so you can see whether your alterations have had a positive or detrimental effect.
I have in the past talked about removing software nasties from your computer such as wasteful applications that stay resident in memory and for your own interest it would have been appropriate to use PC Wizard before and after to ensure that my tips had indeed been beneficial.Any of the data you collect can be easily exported to a universal file format so should ever need the support of a PC helpdesk then sending the file along to them will provide an immediate and accurate impression of your machine without you having to do any legwork.
For those that need it, PC Wizard is a small, free and easy to use piece of software which can be extremely beneficial. Of course, not all software I recommend in Click is useful to everybody so if you have no intentions of tweaking your machine or performing any upgrades you're probably best skipping this particular recommendation.
more about benchmarking? click here.
There is a lot being said about Windows Vista at the moment along with the normal paranoia keeping users away that usually occurs when Microsoft release a new Operating System. I’m surprised by the number of people I know who have bought a new computer in the last couple of months and paid more to have Windows XP installed on it because of the horror stories they have heard
, usually through a chain of half a dozen people.If I can just clarify to my readership that Windows Vista is a good Operating System and in terms of bugs and security vulnerabilities it’s light years ahead of how Windows XP was this far into its distribution cycle. I’m not saying that you should rush out and buy it tomorrow if you’re happy with XP, but all I am saying is that if buying a new machine and you’re given the choice then definitely go the Vista route.
Other than which edition you’re going to get (Home Basic, Home Premium, Business or Ultimate) there is an equally important consideration in whether you’re going to go for the 64 bit or 32 bit version of Windows and unfortunately this is a consideration that’s often overlooked.Ultimately your choice may have already been made for you by the system manufacturer; if your system only has a 32-bit processor then you can only use the 32-bit version of Windows.
Those lucky enough to be buying a 64-bit processor will have the choice of going for either the 64 or 32-bit version of Windows and as such this article will be focusing on these users. If you’re not sure what on earth I’m talking about here I should probably explain a little more about what a processor is and how it works.The processor could be considered the most central part of your computer and is responsible for performing the billions of calculations that are performed every time you use your machine. There are a number of measures that can be applied to a processor to determine how powerful it is but one of the primary considerations is how many bits of information it can handle at any one time.
My old Commodore 64 could handle 8 bits of data at once, most current PC processors can handle 32 bits and the newer, more powerful models can often handle 64 bits.I feel that this oversimplification could be misleading as there are of course a million other factors that play a part in the performance of the processor; another important consideration for example is how many thousands of times a second the processor can move these bits of information around. Suffice to say, a 64 bit processor should perform better than a 32-bit processor of similar specification as long as it’s using software written to take advantage of the additional data handling capability.As these processors are backwards compatible, you can install a 32-bit version of Windows on your 64-bit processor but as a result your machine will not be able to take advantage of this additional data bandwidth and you will be essentially handicapping your new processor; this is where the 64-bit version of Vista comes in to play.
Whilst it is true that Microsoft did release a 64-bit version of Windows XP it unfortunately never gained any real support and as such was never developed in to a viable platform. With 64-bit processors becoming commonplace and with a large wave of support for these new, more powerful versions of Vista it looks like 64-bit computing has finally arrived so now there are important decisions to be made. I think I have explained the primary speed advantage however there are also a number of other benefits from making the switch and rather predictably a large number of disadvantages. As this decision is an important one I plan next week to go over both sides of the argument so that you can decide which version is right for you.
A torrent file is the file that is transferred among users using the torrent technology. The file extension used by torrent files is .torrent. Torrent files, when added into a torrent application, can be distributed among numerous amounts of people without the need of any major hardware costs and server fees on a particular individual. This is because each user supplies bits of the full torrent file to users without those particular bits, while receiving bits that they do not yet have. Therefore, torrent files can also be shared relatively quickly.
History
Torrent technology was first planned and developed by Bram Cohen in April 2001. After months of development, it first went public in 2 July, 2001. Today, Cohen’s technology is widely used. Although there are no specific measurements, it is considered as one of the most significantly used protocols in the Internet today.
Behind the Technology
The torrent technology is operated by a torrent client sending bits of the torrent file through a torrent protocol. A torrent client would be for example a personal computer while the torrent file can be of any file in the .torrent format.
For the sharing to begin, first a user must create a .torrent file (eg. File.torrent). A torrent file contains information, such as the tracker, the main computer distributing the file first, and the metadata, information about the files in the torrent file. People wishing to obtain the information must first download the torrent file (in this case, File.torrent), run it with their torrent application, and then connect with the tracker, which will give orders on where to download what bits of the torrent file.
Torrent Files vs. HTTP Files
Although torrent files and its sharing are technically a transfer of files over the network, it has its strengths compared to the old-school HTTP downloading style. Firstly, when downloading files, web browsers will make one HTTP GET request through one TCP socket. However, torrent files make numerous amounts of small data requests over many TCP sockets. Also, HTTP will download in an order—what is first will be downloaded first; however torrents download in a random way—whatever is of high availability will be downloaded first.
This is exactly why the torrent files have its strengths; it doesn’t need much financial back, it has a higher redundancy, and a better resistance to potential abuse from flash crowds than what would be a frequent thing with HTTPs. However, as with everything, there is a downside. It takes a bit of time for downloads to be running in full throttle, as connecting to other peers can tae time. Also, becoming an effective uploader also takes time. Not to forget, while torrent file downloading will reach immensely high speeds, the speed will eventually fall near the end of the download as availability of the bits of the torrent file decrease.
Sharing Torrents and Files
First a user browses through the Internet looking for torrent files. Once a torrent file is obtained, the user will connect it through a torrent application and connect with the tracker. Then, the user will begin to download off of seeders and a group of peers known as the “swarm.” If there is one seeder, the user will directly connect to that seeder and begin to download, but eventually start to exchange files with other peers too, which lessens the burden on the seeder.
Applications of Torrent Files
Surprisingly, torrent files are widely used today by many individuals and some corporations.
Some bands like “Ween” uses torrent files to distribute their free albums
.torrent files are increasingly used by Podcasters to meet the high demands of these radio MP3s
The game America’s Army uses torrent files to release their updates and patches for the games
An immense number of open source and free softwares utilize torrent files to increase availability and awareness of the projects
Torrent Files’ Limitations
Although torrent files seem to be another great way to download and share files, it has some limitations such as security issues.
IP Address Exposed: The use of torrent files can lead to anonymity issues, as all IP addresses of current and potentially previous swarm users can be found and abused
Internet Speeds: It is best to use broadband when sharing torrent files, so dial-up users cannot take full advantage of the torrent technology
Leeching Problem: While sharing torrent files is good, it doesn’t have many incentives behind it. Thus, there is no real reason to continue to seed after the download has finished. To fix this issue, some torrent sites have begun to limit the download speeds of users who do not upload often.
Free Torrent Applications to Download Torrent Files
In today’s market there are both quality free open source and paid products to download torrent files.
BitTorrent: BitTorrent is the first and official torrent client made by Bram Cohen himself. It is supported in major operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, Apple, and Linux.
Azuerus (Vuze): This is also a widely used torrent client first released in SourceForge in June 2003. Released under the GNU General Public License, Azuerus is a constantly developed, free client.
µTorrent (uTorrent): uTorrent, also known as microTorrent, is a torrent client written in C++. Because of its small size but a powerful interface, it is another widely used free torrent client. It was first released on December 7, 2006 between BitTorrent, Inc. and Ludvig Strigeus, but was later fully acquired by BitTorrent, Inc. because of the application’s popularity, size, and power.
CAT 6 (short for Category 6) refers to an Ethernet cable as defined by Electronic Industries Association and Telecommunication Industry Association (EIA/TIA). Like its name suggests, CAT 6 is a sixth generation of twisted pair Ethernet cabling. The cable itself contains four pairs of copper wire and utilizes all of them, unlike the earlier version, the CAT 5. CAT 6 supports Gigabit Ethernet and supports communications much faster (about twice) than the CAT 5e, the other standard for Gigabit Ethernet cabling.
It also features more stringent specifications for crosstalk and system noise. This cable may be identified by the printing on the side of the cable sheath. CAT 6 supports 10BASE-T/100BASE-TX as well as 1000BASE-T (these are IEEE standards that define the requirement for sending information at various speeds as well as various aspects of running baseband Ethernet on the cabling) and may in the future support 10GBASE-T (10 Gigabit Ethernet) though there will be limitations as regards the length if the unshielded CAT 6 cable is used. As is usual with all other types of twisted pair EIA/TIA cabling, CAT6 cables are limited to a maximum run rate of 100m (328 feet).
The CAT 6 cable is being made with 23 gauge conductor wire as opposed to the slightly smaller 24 gauge that is used to make CAT 5. However, using 23 gauge conductor is not really a requirement, and its possible to make a CAT 6 cable with 22 or 23 AWG gauge wire for ANSI/TIA-568-B.2-1 specifications, provided the cable can meet the required specifics standards. CAT 6 cable is normally terminated in 8P8C modular connectors when used as a patch cable.
CAT 6 connectors are made to lofty specifications that aid in reducing noise caused by crosstalk as well as system noise. Significantly, attenuation, Near End Crosstalk (NEXT) and Power Sum Next (PSNEXT) are lower when compared with CAT 5 or CAT5e.
Some varieties of CAT 6 cables may be too big and it becomes tricky to attach to 8P8C connectors without using a special modular piece. Such cables ate technically not standard. Should one mix the components of various cable standards, this will result into sub-optimal performance of the signal path which will be reduced to the lowest category. The cable is terminated in T568A or T568B schemes, and it matters a little as to which scheme is used since both schemes (though T568B is more widely used) are both straight through (meaning pin 1 will go to 1, pin 2 to 2 and so on). Any mix-up of the terminating patch codes between the two schemes does not produce pinout problems in a facility. It may, however, slightly degrade the quality of the signal even though the effect of this is marginal.
Twisted pair cable like the CAT 6 come in two main varieties-stranded and solid. The solid one supports the longer runs and performs best in fixed wiring configurations like those that are found in office buildings. The stranded AT 6 cable, on the other hand, is pliable and is better suited for shorter distances. CAT 6 cable comes with a higher price tag than CAT 5/5e though the price is justified with better performance.
Vista, the most debated and argued operating system ever launched by Microsoft. It has been long two years since the operating system was in the market but has not been out of the analyst’s hit list.
The battle zone is no new and is never outdated. It keeps the users and visionaries involved in it with something new every time to talk about. In my last feature, I presented you with some reasons to opt for Linux against Vista. But I felt it very partial for the Windows fans.
So this feature of mine will present you with some reasons to stick with Vista (party time for Windows fans).
Starting with the very first reason, no doubt Vista is a RAM eater but I do not think that RAM has ever been so cheaper. So, leaving this fear you can go ahead with Vista.
Secondly, Vista has been complemented by its Service Pack1 that leaves its initial stability and compatibility issues to be an old story. It is now a well polished operating system with a wider hardware support. Even it supports the older hardware.
Windows, being the king of operating system market has a huge amount of software programs written for it only. The list is much larger than the programs written for Linux and MAC OS X.
Agreed, Linux does not require an anti-virus but if the operating system has the widest software support it can be strongly vulnerable. But the good point is that Windows users can craft their own free security suites, from AVG or Avast Free editions, the ZoneAlarm Free firewall and free anti-malware software.
Linux has no support for Wi-Fi but Windows have. The mostly argued reason for not opting Vista is its lacking support for hardware but to it the fact is Vista has support for hardware that is two years older. Also, the market is flooded with hardware that has support for Vista. And, at this point of inflation, hardware has still never been cheaper or more advanced.
Again, if it can be agreed that Vista does not support old drivers; with Vista you can use any number of virtualization programs, including Virtual PC 2007, VMware, Citrix, VirtualBox, Parallels for Windows. Above all if you really need a support for your that old piece of driver you can downgrade to XP.
Supporting Vista against the argument that you can update Linux at single click, I will say that Vista can be automatically updated. It has this feature integrated in it. Also there are many programs that cannot be updated on Linux because they only support Windows.
You cannot set your Linux or MAC OS X for an automatic back-up but you can even set your computer up to make automatic backups to an external hard drive, or an online storage space.
Overall at concluding note, it can be undisputedly said that Vista is the best looking and working version of Windows yet.
What is a HD DVD?
HD DVD is a compact disc in which codes are embedded with the help of optical laser. As the disc spins, the surface is altered and data stored. The information is stored from the centre of the disc outwards. When the compact disc or HD DVD is placed into a suitable device, the data is interpreted. The frequency of the device must be the same as the one which was used during data storage. Otherwise, the HD DVD will not be readable.
Basic Difference between HD DVD and Blu-Ray:
There is a basic difference between a HD DVD and a Blu-Ray. The capacity of the Blu-ray is approximately 25 GB while that of the HD DVD is 20 GB. HD DVD is a writable media and is backwards compatible.
What is HD DVD duplication?
The process in which an exact clone of your HD DVD is done is called HD DVD duplication. In case of duplicated HD DVD, the capacity of information that can be stored ranges from 4.7 to 17 Gigabytes. HD DVD duplication is required for printing, encoding, recording and packaging.
Automatic and Manual duplication: There are two types of duplicators. One is the automatic duplicator and the other is the manual duplicator. On disc printing can also be done (with the help of inkjet and thermal options).
Create, edit and duplicate information: The HD DVD and Blu-Ray duplicators can create, edit and duplicate information in single and double layered HD DVD and Blu-Ray.
The basic features used by HD DVD duplicators to ensure optimum benefit are the following:
* Maximum Playback compatibility: High quality HD DVD is used in order to ensure optimum playback compatibility.
* Latest Printing Technology: The latest printing technology is used so that you get a nice-looking disc. A wide variety of mailing options and packaging are utilized so that you get the maximum benefit.
* Commercial Production: Commercially, hundreds of HD DVD are produced as the system is loaded with the original master.
* On Body Artworks: After duplication, the HD DVD discs can print the on body art work. On body artworks include inkjet, screen or offset litho print finish.
* Colors used: As many as 5 different colors (offset printed per disc) are there for you to choose from. However, the selection of colors depends on the amount of money which is paid. They are usually packaged inside by amaray case. In case of necessity it is wrapped in full color jacket and polywrap so that it suits your needs in a better way.
http://www.articlesbase.com/information-technology-articles/hd-dvd-duplication-575543.html
The Right IT Staffing Model For Your Business
? Calculate IT demand and supply ? Focus on efficiency before hiring ? Use consultants and outsourced workers to fill in the gaps ? IT skills you need now: Think business, not technology It Department Outsourcing ? What are the drivers? ? Benefits ? Risks & Costs
Calculate IT demand and supply
To get a sense of whether your IT department has the right number of people, compare your current IT staffing ratio to prevailing averages. Companies with 100 to 500 employees typically have four or five IT staffers, while those with 500 to 1,000 employees usually have 10 or 11 IT staffers.
Be careful when using such broad figures, however. Every business is different. For example, rapidly growing businesses often need larger IT departments, as do companies in technology-oriented fields.
Another approach is to conduct a benchmark study of IT staffing at similar companies in your industry.
Consultants can help with such projects, but less formal (and less expensive) research techniques can be effective, too. Talk to peers from trade groups and professional associations about how many IT people they have on staff, or ask your technology vendors how many IT people their clients typically employ. If comparable businesses consistently use fewer or more employees than you do, you may have a staffing problem.
Even better than benchmarks, however, is an annual analysis of your company's specific requirements. Begin by estimating how many hours of labor you will need during the coming year in each of these three categories:
1. Fixed demand: Planned IT projects, such as hardware upgrades and application rollouts.
2. Variable demand: Unexpected IT needs in response to emergencies or changing market conditions.
3. Maintenance and operations: The basic technical support and systems administration work that keeps your employees productive and your servers and networks running smoothly.
Next, multiply your total number of IT employees by the hours in a typical workweek to arrive at a rough measure of the work hours in your current IT labor supply. If that figure exceeds your estimated demand, then you are probably overstaffed. Conversely, if the figure is lower than estimated demand, you may not have enough people to get the job done.
Focus on efficiency before hiring
There are two ways to address understaffing: Increase your workforce or reduce your workload. Before hiring additional employees, make sure your IT staff is as productive and efficient as possible by taking steps such as these:
• Standardize processes: Organizations can trim their staffing needs by replacing ad hoc
management processes with standardized ones such as those in the Information Technology
Infrastructure Library, a popular set of IT best practices.
• Minimize customization: Supporting customized systems takes time and effort, so keep custom adaptations to a minimum on all but your most strategic systems to help cut IT overhead.
• Consolidate infrastructure: Using fewer, more powerful servers and network devices where
possible not only lowers hardware expenses but helps contain staffing costs too. A consolidated infrastructure requires fewer people to manage it.
• Centralize administration: Monitoring your entire infrastructure from a single control center
reduces your need for administrative staff. Many vendors offer tools that make centralized
administration possible.
Use consultants and outsourced workers to fill in the gaps
Consider hiring contractors and vendors when you urgently need specialized talent but have trouble recruiting full-time staff. Furthermore, outsourcing routine technical jobs helps keep IT departments lean. For example, a company can use permanent staffers only for jobs requiring deep understanding of core strategies. You must make sure the [full-time] employees in your information services department are first and foremost business process experts.
Still, critical technical skills — around legacy or industry applications, for example —should remain internal. That is why many midsize companies are shifting responsibility for increasingly important functions such as security and business continuity away from vendors to full-time employees.
In the end the trick to IT staffing is satisfying two sometimes contradictory imperatives. There is always pressure to perform and pressure to keep headcount as low as possible. Meeting both demands is a challenging goal that every business must pursue in its own way.
IT skills you need now: Think business, not technology
IT workers with expertise in security, disaster recovery, and storage are in high demand. But companies should consider business savvy as much as technical knowledge when hiring, according to many analysts and consultants. Here are three reasons why.
1. IT is becoming more strategic. With IT playing a growing role in providing competitive
advantage, companies need workers whose understanding of business processes matches their understanding of applications and networks.
2. Communication is critical. Today's IT strategists work closely with businesspeople from across the company, so they must be able to express technical concepts in terms nontechnical people can understand. Similarly, a basic appreciation of business ideas is important.
3. Outsourcing is on the rise. As vendors take greater responsibility for keeping servers
running and systems available, the ability to supervise contract workers and manage partner
relationships is fast becoming a must-have skill for full-time IT employees.
It Department Outsourcing
Outsourcing a part or complete IT department frees up a company's valued IT personnel so they can support their mission critical business processes. In addition many companies today are finding that they cannot take the risk or endure the financial burden of running their whole IT department in-house. Outsourcing a part or complete IT department can make financial and business sense to companies of all sizes. In many organizations, users demand the highest level of service - both from a technical and a customer care perspective. This can be challenging for smaller in-house teams to achieve as they are often so busy tackling the day-to-day issues, making it difficult to implement any IT improvements.
Outsourcing IT department – What are the drivers?
Growing pains: Is your company growing so rapidly or making acquisitions? What impact is this growth on your IT staff and resources? Outsourcing either a part or the whole of your IT department is now an accepted mainstream solution.
Downsizing: Is your organization downsizing? What are the impacts of this on your IT service delivery? IT department outsourcing is an option worth evaluating to save costs and improve efficiencies Infrastructure refresh: Are you coming to the end of your IT systems lifecycle? (Servers, laptops, PCs). This is usually a 3 year cycle. This event is the right time to consider the options of IT department outsourcing
Business Start up: Is your company in start up mode? Getting IT right is important but probably not your core business objective. Consider outsourcing IT to experts who’ll support your venture from an IT department perspective whilst you and your team get on with making your business work.
Beneffits:
Outsourcing a part or complete IT department may provide the following benefits:
? Quick deployment
? Flexibility in the choice of technology and modules
? Improvement of cash flow management
? Reduce the burden on internal IT staff
? Efficient use of internal resources
? Strong skills sets at lower costs - access to a mix of technicians with unique skills
? Better risk management, especially those risks associated with unscheduled downtime due to major disruptions.
? Avoids expensive recruitment
? Cost savings - eliminates the financial strains that necessarily go hand-in-hand with the running of an internal IT department
? Time savings - companies are concentrating in their own core business resulting in higher productivity
Risks & Costs of IT Department Outsourcing
IT department outsourcing can expose the company with associated risks that potentially have a higher costs than benefits for the company. Some of those associated risks could be:
? Loss of control over service quality
? Possibility of service disruption due to instability of vendors
? Increased complexity of managing and monitoring the outsourcing contract
? Poor communication between the business and the third party
Outsourcing IT services to a third party potentially puts a company’s reputation at risk - if suppliers or partners let it down. Organizations in both public and private sectors need a process of regular assurance from their external partners.
With a rigorous system in place, businesses can manage their external relationships and reputation more effectively, while allowing legal and working arrangements to be adjusted as the partnership evolves.
At the outset risks can be minimized by ensuring that due diligence is undertaken on prospective service providers.http://www.articlesbase.com/information-technology-articles/solutions-for-staffing-the-it-department-572027.html
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Uninterruptible power supply batteries play a central role in a power continuity plan providing a dc supply of electricity to the UPS inverter when mains power supply fails. UPS batteries utilise a chemical process to produce and store energy. When they age or become damaged they can corrode and leak potentially harmful toxins into their environment. Over time their efficiency also deteriorates. For these reasons UPS batteries must be stored and disposed of in compliance with a number of UK and European directives, most particularly in the UK the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Hazardous Waste Regulations 2005 also apply.
A battery block is a self-contained, electro-chemical device that stores electrical energy for later use. The outer case is usually constructed of polypropylene PVC (which may be flame retardant) and has two protruding terminals (positive and negative). Inside, positive and negative plates are immersed in an electrolyte, typically Sulphuric Acid, to form cells with electrical potential. This is where a voltage is created and then stored when a charging current is applied.
The most common type of battery used in uninterruptible power supplies is Sealed Lead-Acid but there are others: Nickel-Cadmium, for example, or Lithium Ion and Silver Alkaline.
UPS Battery Storage: a battery will age and discharge even when not in use. The typical storage life of a battery is six to 12 months and this very much depends upon the environment in which it is stored, particularly ambient temperature. A battery’s internal discharge rate will also affect its aging process. Without charge over longer periods, battery performance will reduce.
The most important factor for preserving the life of UPS batteries is temperature; the ideal is a constant 20-25 °C (UPS battery life is halved for every five degrees above or below this level). To maintain temperature, a UPS and UPS battery set (particularly those running in crowded data centres) require an effective cooling system, which is a factor to be considered during uninterruptible power supply specification.
For uninterruptible power supply distributors care must be taken to monitor the actual time the UPS and batteries are left without charge as this can lead to deep discharge and potentially result in the need for a full battery set replacement.
UK and European Directives for Controlling Storage and Disposal of UPS Batteries
- Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive 2002/96/EC
EU End-of-Life (ELV’s) Directive (September 2000)
- EU Batteries Directive (May 2006)
Batteries are classed as hazardous waste due to their toxic components. In essence batteries cannot simply be ‘thrown away’ or entered into landfill. They must be disposed of in a manner that is protective of the environment and to comply with the law in most countries this should be carried out by companies licensed to perform such tasks on behalf of manufacturers (who bear the ultimate responsibility). Riello UPS is one such uninterruptible supply manufacturer that is also licensed to dispose of UPS batteries. Working with a UPS provider with ISO 14001 provides peace of mind especially if they are licensed to carry waste. They will in turn work alongside a licensed disposal company and thus ensure that they growing requirement for uninterruptible power supplies does not harm the environment.
http://www.articlesbase.com/information-technology-articles/uninterruptible-power-supplies-battery-storage-and-disposal-574072.html
Despite the importance of information within any business, the vast majority of small businesses do not have adequate backup and data recovery systems in place. Even when a solution is in place it is often fraught with problems; some of which are only discovered when it’s too late.
Home users are no different; often storing treasured photos of occasions never to be repeated in one place with no copy!
So why don’t we protect the information on our computers?
At The PC Support Group we have looked into this and it would appear that a combination of factors contribute to this potentially dangerous situation.
The first issue is simply that most businesses, particularly smaller ones, don’t fully appreciate the value of the information they have stored on their computers and believe that manually retrieving it (presumably by making a few phone calls and checking old paperwork) is a relatively trivial process.
This belief seems to stem from the fact that most businesses develop from the knowledge and skills of one or two people. Those people are often the major decision makers in all areas for some time and, due to day to day activity and pressures, they don’t realise the quantity or quality of information that is building up to help the business operate. As a result they don’t put protecting that information very high on the agenda.
Those that have recognised the need to protect their data are then faced with the challenge of knowing what the threats are and how to protect against them.
Data can be lost through hardware failure, software problems, malicious software such as viruses, theft of equipment, human error or major physical disasters such as fire and flood. Considering all these issues can be a major challenge in its own right.
The next issue is that backup solutions are notoriously difficult to run and manage reliably - no one wants to take day-to-day responsibility for them and all too often they are left failing for prolonged periods.
Finally we have the old favourites: time and money. With all the other pressures placed on small businesses it is natural to put data backup on the “to do” list. Spending money on marketing and sales is seen as more important, so protecting the data will just have to wait… after all, it’s not likely to fail, is it?
So let’s look at a few statistics:
• Half of all companies that lose their data go out of business overnight (Source: Baroudi Bloor International - research firm)
• 93% of companies that lost their data for 10 days or more filed for bankruptcy within one year of the disaster (Source: National Archives & Records Administration)
• 34% of companies fail to test their backups, and of those that do, 77% have found backup failures (Source: Home Office Computing Magazine)
Pretty scary stuff! Clearly taking care of your information is paramount to any business and is sensible from a home user’s perspective too.
So what is data backup and what are the options these days?
Data backup is the act of ensuring your important information (which could be customer contact details for a business or cherished photos for a home user) isn’t only stored in a single place, which leaves it vulnerable to being lost through damage or theft. Since a backup system contains at least one copy of all important data, the risk of total data loss is minimised. And any data loss does not result in a total standstill of the business or heartache for the home user. Using the backup data, the system can be restored and normal service resumed.
Finding the right data backup solution can be confusing. It depends on what to backup, how to backup and what type of computer or network is being used. It might sometimes seem difficult to choose the right backup solution. Not because they are difficult to find, but because there are so many of them.
For small quantities of data you can consider simply copying it to a CD or a memory stick; both are cheap and easy to use. The main problems with these are that they are limited in what you can store and more importantly you have to physically remember to make the copy and then file it appropriately.
For larger quantities it is recommended that a local backup is made to another system such as a Server or an external hard drive. This protects you from the most common data loss issue - hardware failure. Your entire system is stored on an hourly, daily or weekly basis to a permanently connected independent disk, ready to be restored at any time. Depending on how sophisticated the solution is, you may be able to quickly search for and retrieve individual files that have been accidentally deleted… Data Backup isn’t just for total system failures!
To guard against major disasters such as flood or fire, where your entire office or computer room is destroyed, off-site storage is required. There are two ways in which you can do this. You can sign up to a service that automatically creates a backup of your critical files over the internet to a secure off-site location. Alternatively, or in addition, you can take a manual backup which stores a password protected image of your entire system onto portable disk drives that are taken off site on a rotational basis. The main advantage of this is that a complete system can be more rapidly restored than from a backup of only files and folders.
Choosing a backup system, setting it up and then managing it can be a complicated undertaking. Luckily there are companies, including The PC Support Group, who offer data backup and recovery services to both businesses and home computer users to take all these headaches away. If you decide to use on of these then you need not worry about the technicalities, process or intricacies of the data backup procedure.
One thing is certain, if you don’t arrange to have a data backup, it is not a case of if you lose your data but when, and the consequences will be at least upsetting or in the case of a business, could be catastrophic. Don’t delay, act now!
http://www.articlesbase.com/information-technology-articles/data-backup-the-problems-solutions-584016.html
Welcome to the new age, where women are chasing their professional dreams even after a brief lull dedicated to the family very smartly. They are slowly, but surely navigating their way to the higher echelons of entrepreneurship in all the parts of the world. Earlier women of the western countries were known as the career oriented personalities. But today even in other parts of the world women are moving ahead and giving their better halves a helping hand in their business and even they are trying to maintain and run the business independently. Some of them have achieved a quick success where the others might have stumbled and many more are working hard to make the progress in life with a positive attitude.
But it is really appreciable that they are managing all this even if they have c
Installing the spy cam or the nanny cam for the surveillance of the baby sitter is not just enough for these women. They are as well making use of such cameras or rather the hidden cameras at their work places too. They are taking the entire plunge into the world of uncertainty and are fighting the odds to make a statement and that too with courage and élan. They are very well conscious that they have to manage and handle everything independently without their husband's help if they are running an autonomous business. So they always make wise moves and decide to install the hidden cameras or the CCTV cameras in their business premises so that they can be attentive towards the troublesome occurrences which may take place in their daily routines. Today these women entrepreneurs do not lack any one's support. They can help themselves in all the ways with the use of the pioneering and beneficial cameras very easily. Evidently these women are the ones who very contented with the introduction of these cameras.
They are slowly catching on, but many people still haven't quite gotten the hang of them. Online or web calendars have been around for a while, but it is only just now that their potential for enhancing our lives is being explored. They help their users keep abreast of meetings, events and other relevant happenings like anniversaries and birthdays. Best of all, online calendars enable sharing of this information with many persons if needed, while also offering the ability to keep some things private.
These are just like any ordinary print calendars or diaries except that they are accessed online. Online calendars need web-enabled devices to be accessed, and they can also be shared with others, which is another great feature. There are now lots of online calendars to choose from. Of course, the one you decide on will be guided by your needs.
Some great features of online calendars include:
o Multiple views: You can adjust how the calendar is displayed to suit your tastes. Therefore it can display daily, weekly or monthly events.
o Online calendars can be integrated with other e-mail or e-mail-related programs, such as Outlook, Gmail and Yahoo mail.
o Once you have a web-enabled device you can have and share online calendars. That means if you use a Blackberry or any other PDA you can take advantage of the features of web-based calendars.
As to be expected, some web calendars are more advanced than others depending on the technology used. Advanced online calendars allow for viewing of events and appointments. They also enable users to add attachments if needed. Others allow users to determine which events are private (can be viewed only by specified people) and which are public. Listing recurring events is also possible so that there is no need to keep entering monthly meetings. Once the calendar is set up to keep repeating a particular event, it will do so until the feature is disabled.
Why Should I Use an Online Calendar?
There are many benefits associated with using online calendars. In today's fast-paced world, one major benefit is that they enable the sharing of calendars among associates. Online calendars are accessible anywhere as long as there is Internet available. With so many global offices, they bring everyone closer together. Online calendars are also great for posting company information and events so that everyone can see it. These handy widgets mean no more missed meetings, events and appointments.
Online calendars are not just useful for work or work-related activities and appointment planning. They are just as handy for families and friends so that you can know who is on vacation and when. They can be used to send invitations and reminders to people in your address book. Some online calendars allow recipients to respond to your invitations without having to open an account with the calendar host.
Best of all, there are lots of online calendars available and most of them are free. Some popular providers of full-service calendars are Google, Yahoo, iCalendar and vCalendar. Deciding on which one is best for your needs is easy. There are lots of reviews online that discuss the features of the more popular ones and outlining their pros and cons.
With an online calendar, you will never have to miss a date or appointment ever again. At least, you won't as long as you can connect to the Internet. Finally, with time being a scarce commodity for most people, online calendars also offer great time management benefits.
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Have you been paying too much for the Cable or Dish TV monthly bill? Everybody's problem with bills they have to shoulder each and every month is that a big sum of that is for Cable or Dish TV. This sometimes makes them feel that they just want to end the service but they can't because they love watching. But now there's an easy way for you to get rid of the burdensome monthly bill but not the entertainment of watching 3000 channels in your own computer. The mystery revealed is Satellite TV on your PC. Here you never have to pay a monthly bill to take pleasure in Cable or Dish TV, the fact is it's only one payment. You will get the pleasure of a lifetime of viewing 3000 channels with a payment could cost as much as one month's bills for Cable or Dish TV. Just grab the chance now or suffer paying your monthly bill.
PCTV cards uses variety of ways for the consumers to enjoy their favorite leisure time, one uses PC's internal drivers to decipher satellite signals. These days, you can easily purchase cards with embedded graphic and memory processors which you can then use to watch your favorite tv movies online. In order to watch unlimited tv, all you need is a computer with Internet Access. Satellite tv data is transmitted via your local phone line into your computer where it streams at constant speed regardless of your speed connection.
In order to watch unlimited cable tv on your pc, all you need to do is get a compatible software which works with your PC requirement. Most good satellite tv to pc software today are highly compatible with any OS running on windows, MAC or Linux. You can also install different software which will help you in viewing your favorite TV shows accessibly, these are Windows Media Player, Quick time Player, Real Player and a lot more to choose from.
Consumers have a lot of options to choose form, some of you may want it to be connected directly to a satellite dish with the use of an internet cable. Different people have different preferences when it comes to how they connect their computers to the tv box. Products like Direct TV and Dish TV suggest their consumers to use the satellite box which is easier and simple.
Satellite TV allows all their users from all around the word to watch their favorite TV programs or movies from anywhere in the world for free! All you do is lie back and enjoy unlimited tv viewing. There are countless items and options to choose from when you want to watch satellite tv on your PC! If you are too busy, you can also make sure you record your movie while you work on your PC. These satellite tv to pc products are continuously being improved for better streaming to anyone from all around the world regardless of your internet connection speed.
PCTV cards uses variety of ways for the consumers to enjoy their favorite leisure time, one uses PC's internal drivers to decipher satellite signals. These days, you can easily purchase cards with embedded graphic and memory processors which you can then use to watch your favorite tv movies online. In order to watch unlimited tv, all you need is a computer with Internet Access. Satellite tv data is transmitted via your local phone line into your computer where it streams at constant speed regardless of your speed connection.
In order to watch unlimited cable tv on your pc, all you need to do is get a compatible software which works with your PC requirement. Most good satellite tv to pc software today are highly compatible with any OS running on windows, MAC or Linux. You can also install different software which will help you in viewing your favorite TV shows accessibly, these are Windows Media Player, Quick time Player, Real Player and a lot more to choose from.
Consumers have a lot of options to choose form, some of you may want it to be connected directly to a satellite dish with the use of an internet cable. Different people have different preferences when it comes to how they connect their computers to the tv box. Products like Direct TV and Dish TV suggest their consumers to use the satellite box which is easier and simple.
Satellite TV allows all their users from all around the word to watch their favorite TV programs or movies from anywhere in the world for free! All you do is lie back and enjoy unlimited tv viewing. There are countless items and options to choose from when you want to watch satellite tv on your PC! If you are too busy, you can also make sure you record your movie while you work on your PC. These satellite tv to pc products are continuously being improved for better streaming to anyone from all around the world regardless of your internet connection speed.
