Monday, April 5, 2010
Digital Foundation at Interop
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.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
New UTM appliance for Digital Foundation Clients
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.
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.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Power Protection
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/.
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/.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Mac OSx Deskto Support
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.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Is Windows Vista Ready for Business?
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.
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.
Thursday, February 1, 2007
New Client - Etna Interactive
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.
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.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Manager Seminar
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.
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