Digital Foundation, inc.

Cheap Software for Tech Startups

2010-07-01T14:43:00.000-07:00

Digital Foundation specializes in computer networks for fast-growing businesses. We are looking for local start-ups to work with and help them get access to Microsoft's BizSpark program, a program designed to give start-ups in the technology sector, server and Development software for only $100.

http://www.bizspark.com/
http://www.digitalfoundation.net/

Office 2010 - 64-bit

2010-05-24T19:54:00.000-07:00

Office 2010 is out, and after playing with the beta for a few months I can definitely say that they have polished the ribbon. The ribbon interface is now intregral in the entire office suite. On the infrastructure side of things, you can get office 2010 in 32 and 64 bit.

From experience, I would not get too excited on 64-bit office. I do not know anyone who has approached the limits of rows and columns in excel, or attempted to import the entire library of Congress in a single word document. There may be a performance benefit, but the downside is that several plug-ins are just not 64-bit ready.

The biggest loss are theo social networking plug-ins that are now built into Outlook. As of right now, plug-ins for Linked-in and Facebook only support 32-bit. Other imcompatibilities include integration with Windows Mobile and applications that attach to Word to send out form letters. Hopefully by service pack one the 64-bit flavors of Office 2010 will be ready.

If you are interested in obtaining copies of office 2010, Digital Foundation is a Microsoft Software Advisor specializing in volume licensing and also deployment via Active Directory's Group Policy. Visit http://www.digitalfoundation.net/contact/quote.aspx to request a quote.

Microsoft Volume Licensing Changes

2010-05-01T08:49:00.000-07:00

Lot's has changed with Microsoft's Volume Licensing plan. Previously they offered 4 office suites:

Standard	Small Biz	Pro	Enterprise
Word Excel Outlook	Word Excel Outlook w/ BCM PowerPoint Publisher	Word Excel Outlook w/ BCM PowerPoint Publisher Access	Word Excel Outlook w/ BCM PowerPoint Publisher Access OneNote Groove

No longer will they license Office Small Biz and Office Enterprise.
Instead there is only Office Pro 2010 that will have ALL products there were formerly in the Office 2007 Enterprise Suite.

As with every Licensing Plan change, the prices change a bit too. If you are interested in Volume Licensing, you can request a quote from our website at: http://www.digitalfoundation.net/

Digital Foundation at Interop

2010-04-05T11:49:00.000-07:00

We will be attending Interop in Las Vegas this year. This is always a great opprtunity to stay on top of the latest technology for our Small Busines Clients and meet our vendors face to face. We are especially looking forward to meeting the Engineers at SonicWall, Avaya, Dell, and Microsoft.

New UTM appliance for Digital Foundation Clients

2009-09-08T13:24:00.000-07:00

We have been researching for the past several months to better protect our clients from the threats that are so common on the Internet that appear to be able to circumnavigate AntiVirus software.

One of the best solutions we found was to replace the typical client router with one that is called a UTM appliance (Universal Threat Management). These appliances filter for spyware, viruses, and spam - they also provide content filtering (so you can block employees from inappropriate websites by category: ie: porn, social networking, gambling, etc). Finally these applicances also provide intrusion prevention actively looking for common attack and Denial of Service (DoS) signatures.

At Interop 2009 we met several vendors of UTM applicances: Sonicwall, Watchguard, and Brocade (there were at least 4 others there as well). After learning their product line and speaking with other computer consultants we are now actively testing SonicWalls TZ-200W. Initial tests so far have proved very exciting.

As a network admin, if you are still using a basic SOHO router you have GOT to move on. Any router that requires a reboot, requires the admin to upload signatures, does not provide bandwith reports, require an annual signature renewal, or does not provide email alerts really should be replaced. Basically, if you have paid less than $400 for your router it probably is lacking the protection that you can get from one of these UTM applicances I mentioned.

If you would like a product recommendation and quote, please visit our quote page and provide your Internet Connection speed and total users you have on your network.

Power Protection

2008-01-07T14:38:00.000-08:00

This weekend’s weather activity created many alerts on our systems. Over 25% of Digital Foundation’s clients were affected. Problems ranged from extended power outages to dropped Internet connections. It is pleasing to say that everyone recovered as soon as their services were restored.
Although we cannot stop power outages and lost internet connections, there are measures we can take together to make things run more smoothly. Every server that Digital Foundation maintains has a battery backup. Typically, the minimum sized battery provides about 40 minutes of runtime when the electricity goes out.
As you consider how future power outages may affect your business, please let us know if you require a longer runtime for your servers or other important computer equipment so that we can install the necessary battery backups.
In general, we install a $450 battery backup on the server (this provides 40 minutes of backup power) and a $60 battery backup on each important workstation, providing about 5 to 10 minutes. Most server battery backups are expandable where additional batteries can be connected to double runtime (you can attach up to 10 battery expansions!)
As a rule of thumb, we recommend batteries to be installed on all accounting PCs to ensure the accounting data never gets corrupted and complex tasks such as check and invoices batches to not get interrupted.
Digital Foundation sells both High Quality Surge Suppressors and Battery Backups. If you feel that you need any additional power condition equipment visit: http://www.digitalfoundation.net/.

Mac OSx Deskto Support

2007-07-26T00:44:00.001-07:00

Digital Foundation has just released a HelpDesk tool designed especially for the Mac! This amazing feature has been available for PCs for quite some time and Mac users can enjoy the same immediate desktop support that Digital Foundation has been providing to PC users.

Is Windows Vista Ready for Business?

2007-02-12T08:50:00.000-08:00

Vista is released and several clients have been asking about when Digital Foundation will upgrade all their computers to this new operating system. We are recommending our clients to wait until 2008 for upgrades. This strategy is best understood when considering the huge computing power requirements: any computer purchased in 2005 is not up to speed to power Vista and will result in slow performance and lost productivity.

What about new computers?
We are considering Vista for new computer purchases in 2007. This allows us to guarantee the computing speed requirements for good performance.
This is also explained in detail in James Gaskin's Podcast on Windows Vista.

As for Office 2007 - this upgrade is a great option all our clients who are in a software agreement with Microsoft or are ready to purchase upgrades for all their PCs. Since Office 2007 introduces new file types it will be best for your business to have a homogenous network of Office 2007. We are finsihing our research on this software and will be ready to install Microsoft Office in large scale in April.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

New Client - Etna Interactive

2007-02-01T13:06:00.000-08:00

Digital Foundation would like to welcome our newest client, Etna Interactive. Etna Interactive is a high end web development and marketing company specializing in the medical and health insurance industries.

We are proud to support their network and hope to provide them the best environment to meet thier technical needs. We also want to congratulate them on their impressive growth.

Manager Seminar

2007-01-29T15:21:00.000-08:00

Our Manager Seminars were a huge success. We set out to show our client managers tools they probably see everyday but have never used to bring efficiency and better communication to their office environment. We hope that with the training we provide and Microsoft's release of the new Microsoft Office 2007 we can bring more productivity to our clients.

New Team Member

2007-01-16T16:10:00.000-08:00

We just added a new member to our team. Leah Lapotre is our new office assistant who will be fulfilling several of our office tasks. This will free up our engineers to handle support, administrative tasks, and research and development.

Welcome!

2007-01-01T14:36:00.000-08:00

Digital Foundation, inc. would like to welcome you to our corporate blog. We hope to use this space to better communicate to our clients and businesses considering our services. Please feel free to post as well.

Sincerely,

The Digital Foundation Staff