The Cost of the Cloud

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You have heard so much about “the cloud” and you probably don’t know exactly what that means but more importantly you have heard that it can save you time, which can equate to money, and money. Let me tell you what we see in the field.

As IT consultants to small & medium businesses we help them utilize what they have as well as discover what new technologies they can employ to save time and money. It is true that the cloud is an amazing thing. Here are some quick helpful facts:

  1. If you are thinking of starting a business you can get up and running much faster these days with a lot less capital expenditure. That is extremely helpful in this economy.
  2. The cloud can help you off load some very important services that your company must perform such as backups, email and, depending on what data you generate, database type services as well as financial.
  3. From a disaster recovery/business continuity perspective you can recover from a disaster and continue doing business quickly as your data is off site (like backups, email) and you can simply log in from a new location or system and get your data.

Now let’s talk about the cost. We have seen so many companies pull back out of the cloud mostly due to the cost. Many companies did the math up front and found that for their needs and based on what they had, the service they were looking to use in the cloud was too costly. Here is an example: a company of 10 people has 150 GBs of data that is critical (yes, there is a difference between important and critical data) and that data needs to have a SAS 70 Type II facility (for reasons that would take too long to explain in this article) – IF – they are to store off site. What’s more, they need snapshots of data at intervals of 6 months to be stored. Many cloud backup services don’t have SAS 70 Type II facilities nor do they do 6 month snapshots. They perform rolling 30 day backups meaning that on day 31 the data that was backed up over 30 days ago is gone or copied over. Just like many other companies in the U.S. right now, money is tight and watched like a hawk. Based on the above criteria the cost per GB averages a little over $3.00 so that means that the company would have to pay $450.00 per month for this cloud service. Many would just say, “no”.

Here is another downside. We have seen some small businesses completely outsource all of their software to the cloud (In this case the cloud is basically a company that has a datacenter who owns the software and lets the user “rent” the use of it). This means that the user owns nothing and has nothing on their server and personal systems. You may think it’s a great idea. You would until you encounter the time when you have to be or want to be productive and you have no internet connection. Remember, you need the connection to get to the server that has all of your software which is at the datacenter where all of your software is hosted – the cloud. To do this you have turn on your computer, log in, connect to the internet, log in to their server, open up the application and start working. (So much for quick productivity!) Since, in this instance, there is no internet connection AND since you have no applications on your personal system you cannot simply turn on your personal computer, log in, open the app and start typing.

What should you do? You want to take your time when making decisions about the cloud or any outsourced services. If you don’t have the time or the knowledge to research what you need find a consultant who can not only research the latest services out there but who also may be able to provide them to you. The reputable ones will research with you what you have, your needs, your budget and make the appropriate recommendations. For example, off site backups may be too expensive but hosted email – a perfect fit.

Hope this helps.

Robert Lane

President/Owner
ASE, Inc.
Getting you ready for tomorrow today
703-273-8388 ext 111

ASE, Inc. is an IT consulting, engineering, hosted and managed support services provider covering the Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC area.  Since 2000 ASE has focused on providing full outsourced IT department services to small and medium businesses as well as providing senior level expertise designing, installing and managing complex databases and network security consulting to very large entities in both commercial and federal markets.  Call ASE today – 703-273-8388.

Best Information Source When Buying IT Products & Services

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When the time comes to purchase IT products and services where do you get the best nonbiased info? Great question huh? Well, let me ask you this: when you decide to buy a car, and you have narrowed it down to 2 or 3, how do you make the final choice? Best answer: you go to a mechanic and ask, “Which one of these do you see the least?”

Let’s build the scenario. Your company needs to upgrade its network including the server and some end-user computers. Of course any reseller, VAR (Value Added Reseller), integrator, whatever, that is authorized in just one manufacturer is going to push that product. They will tell you why they chose to sell that brand, why it is the golden challis, and how it is the best in breed for some reason that is unclear. Is that unbiased? No! A mechanic in a gas station is a service provider. The gas station doesn’t sell cars (at least not the gas stations I know). Therefore, the mechanic is a great source since he/she just services cars – almost all cars, all day, every day. The mechanic will tell you what they see less of, what major problems they work on in reference to the choices you have, and, will offer their personal choice based on your needs.

In reference to IT, you want to find a technical services provider, one that provides the IT technical services that the product you will be buying would need. For product these services cover managing servers, switches, end user machines, firewalls, routers, et cetera. If the provider sells hardware then ask if they are authorized in more than one manufacturer for that type of product. The engineers will tell you what they work on less, what major problems they see the most of at other sites, and, based on your needs what they think would be the best choice.

By services I mean voice and data lines, (telephone & internet to your office) hosted and managed services; and any service that you buy directly from a major (Tier 1) provider. Our engineers tell our clients which services they see the least problems with when working on site, which provider gives the biggest bang for the buck and which one has the best support.

Price plays a big role, particularly in these economic times. In every industry there are always one or two brands that are substantially more expensive than the rest. This is where talking to an IT technical service provider is most valuable. They will help you decide whether the more expensive product is the best way to go or not.

Hope this helps.

Robert Lane
President/Owner
ASE, Inc.
Getting you ready for tomorrow today
703-273-8388 ext 111

ASE, Inc. is an IT technical support services and consulting firm in the Washington DC Metro area. Since 2000 ASE has focused on providing full outsourced IT department services to small and medium businesses as well as providing senior level expertise designing, installing and managing complex databases and network security consulting to very large entities in both commercial and federal markets. Call ASE today – 703-273-8388.

The ATI2DVAG Problem

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You’re working away on your computer and all of a sudden you get a blue screen telling you the problem is an ATI2DVAG infinite loop issue, could be hardware but most likely software. You freak out because you have always heard of the “blue screen of death”. NOT AS BAD AS YOU THINK. I went through this. Here is what happened and how you can fix it. One thing is for sure – you have an ATI video card and driver in your computer.

The issue could be that somehow your computer improperly loaded a driver (software) so that it has two versions of the same driver. Therefore, as the system sends a signal to display images it goes into an infinite loop from one driver to the other and back. The first time I got this was right after I bought a new HP 6830 notebook. Within 2 months I got the first blue screen. When I called HP support the tech in India told me to load the operating system disc and use the OS repair feature. Absolute mess. This futile attempt messed up my OS so badly that I had to wipe the drive and reload everything – again – from scratch. Two months later it happened again. This time I had my call elevated to a manager who told me that he was simply going to reinstall the driver. It only took about 30 minutes and everything seemed fine. Two months later it happened again. This time HP reloaded the driver AND had me set the Updates process to manual so that I could read each update before accepting. If any of the updates pertain to ATI or video then I was told to skip them. Things were fine for about 4 months. Then it happened again. By now I was not a happy camper.

Even though my company, ASE Inc., is an IT Network Support services provider (great plug, huh?) I didn’t want to bother my engineers as they need to stay billable and focus on the clients. By now I was so mad that I asked my team what they thought. Every one of them came back with, “it’s the motherboard, the chip on the motherboard.” I called HP and demanded that my motherboard be replaced. After looking at my history they agreed and dispatched a technician with a new motherboard early the next day. It took the tech about 30 minutes. The tech was great and the problem was solved.
A few things to think about. First: when I searched the web for ATI2DVAG I saw some postings describing the problem and stating that I could download a utility that would solve it. Don’t do that. The sources on the web can be worse than the problem you have. Second: in my opinion, stay away from the OS repair. As shown above, doing that caused me six more hours of problems and the real problem took only thirty minutes. Last, sometimes it can be the hardware even though you may think it has to be just software. As one person said, it could be as simple as one of the chips not acting the way it should.

Hope this helps someone.

Robert Lane
President/Owner
ASE, Inc.
Getting you ready for tomorrow today
703-273-8388 ext 111

ASE, Inc. is an IT consulting, engineering, hosted and managed support services provider covering the Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC area. Since 2000 ASE has focused on providing full outsourced IT department services to small and medium businesses as well as providing senior level expertise designing, installing and managing complex databases and network security consulting to very large entities in both commercial and federal markets. Call ASE today – 703-273-8388.

How to Buy a Computer When Buying Niche Software

Posted by Robert Lane on with 3 Comments

I’m sure you have heard this, “You have to buy the hardware from us because we tweek, or optimize, or customize the systems to work with our specialized software.”  Well, I’m going to tell you the truth.  That’s a bunch of bologna.

Software developers tell you this so they can sell the hardware for at or above retail pricing which is not the best pricing you can get.  The fact is, you can tell the developer or niche specific software vendor such as a medical software or a legal market software vendor, to give you the specifications for the optimal machine that the software would run on.   You then take this information, contact your product partner (or if you don’t have one try ASE, Inc. at 703-273-8388 – too tempting; I had to plug my company) give them the specs and they will order the machine you need with all of the right specs and probably for a lot cheaper than the pricing you are seeing from the software vendor.

The software vendor may say that the services will cost more because they didn’t get the machine.  Ask why.  There is no good reason for that.  They too are simply buying a machine and having it delivered to them.  They don’t stock the machines because technology changes so much that they can’t stock the latest machines, which is what you want.

Certainly don’t get a “white box”, a machine that is not a name brand and put together by this vendor.  You want products from well known manufacturers so you can get their top notch warranty and support.  Both HP and Dell offer Build to Order systems that can be built to the specs the software vendor needs.

Pros & Cons

The Pros are that you will most likely save money this way although some software vendors have caught on and are trying to be competitive with their hardware pricing because they know that end users have become savvy.  Another Pro: you can have the separately purchased system dropped shipped directly to the software vendor to install their software.

The Cons are that if you buy from two different companies some people would say there is a chance for finger pointing when a problem occurs.  This is easily overcome as good systems partners can quickly figure out if the problem is hardware or software related.  Be smart and buy the manufacturer’s Enhanced Support for the particular computer system you purchased which will give you a direct relationship with that manufacturer.  Both HP and Dell offer a 3 year, on site, Next Business Day or Same Day or 4 Hour response feature that compliments the warranty and support pack you get with the purchased system.  This is a no brainer since the first time there is a problem you get the manufacturer involved immediately at no extra cost since you paid a nominal fee up front for this support. Believe me- it is much cheaper this way.

Robert Lane

President/Owner

ASE, Inc.

Getting you ready for tomorrow today

703-273-8388 ext 111

ASE, Inc. is an IT consulting, engineering, hosted and managed support services provider in the Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC area.  Since 2000 ASE has focused on providing full outsourced IT department services to small and medium businesses as well as providing senior level expertise designing, installing and managing complex databases and network security consulting to very large entities in both commercial and federal markets.  Call ASE today – 703-273-8388.

The Small Business Dilemma: The right outsource

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stockxpertcom_id8109922_size4Who do you get to work on your company’s IT infrastructure?  Are you big enough to hire someone full time or not?    If not, what rate do you pay for the services you think you need?  I get asked these questions every week.  It’s amazing how many companies make the same mistake: picking the wrong skill sets, the wrong person for your company.  For this article I will address outsourcing – contracting someone to work on your company’s IT infrastructure.  Hopefully, when I’m done you will be able to make a good, educated decision.

You are a company too small to hire a full time employee as an IT administrator – the person who will keep the network that runs your business working.  You have a server, router, firewall, switch and a bunch of end user machines (desktops, notebooks etc… say ten of these).  You know nothing about IT nor do you want to but you don’t know how much to pay someone.   The problem is that a small business needs to look for someone who can handle a wide range of issues for a network like this.  This means someone who knows how to perform Moves, Adds & Changes (MAC), break/fix and remediation services to all of the equipment not just the end user machines, also known as clients.  If you get someone who only knows the clients then you are setting yourself up for disaster when disaster occurs.  Why?  Because the lower end administrator will have a harder time analyzing the problem, probably won’t know how to solve it and have to hand off to a higher skilled person who needs to schedule time to come see you.  All this equates to hours burned that you have to pay for and downtime.  The higher skilled administrator will figure out problems faster, solve them faster and know how to do this to handle all of the equipment you have.  This means less hours burned (most likely) and less downtime.

So what do you pay?  In the suburbs of Washington DC for on call support meaning that you call when you need help, a lower end administrator will charge from $60.00 to $80.00 per hour for skills that handle the client side and have mid level server skills.  A server expert with knowledge of various operating systems and the applications that go on servers like Exchange, and well skilled at switches, firewalls and routers for a company of this size will charge from $125.00 to $175.00 per hour.  Please keep in mind that long term contracts will affect these rates lower as the person is guaranteed a certain level of time. 

As a last note, on call services or even a routine schedule is areactionary mode (waiting for problems to occur) and will ultimately cost more long term.  Companies of the size described above should look at managed services that monitor and are proactively(monitoring trends to head off disaster or reducing traditional support time spent) supporting you network.  This is complimented by on site visits.  The savings will be realized certainly in the first year and most likely in the first six months.

For further discussions on hosted and managed services contact Robert Lane of ASE, Inc. @ 703-273-8388 ext. 111.  Robert.Lane@goaseinc.com;goaseinc-staging.coydhea2-liquidwebsites.com. ASE, Inc. is an IT consulting, engineering, hosted and managed services provider in the Washington DC metropolitan area since 2000.

Lawyers – Is Your TABS Backup Working?

Posted by Robert Lane on with 4 Comments

If you are like many law firms you use TABS and actually in many cases this is the main product that law firms run on.  We have had great success transitioning companies to our on line off site backup solution (ASE BackupPro) because it reduces the problems of in-house backups such as reducing CapEx by not having to buy the expensive products, it takes the human element out of the equation since no tapes have to be changed or taken off site, and, it works – everyday.  But there are some products that don’t lend themselves kindly to on line off site backups so that is what this article is about.

I received a call from a law firm who had a disaster inquiring about our on line off site backup solution.  I explained that for me to give them the best possible advice they needed to list all of the products on their network.  When I saw TABS I contacted the manufacturer who verified that TABS and all of its modules cannot be backed up using a method that performs differential or incremental backups (we’ll use differentials).  To explain how it works: once installed, the backup solution does a complete backup of your network (what you designate to be backed up) and from that point forward as files are changed, added or deleted, they are backed up every day (simple way of describing it.).  TABS is a product whose data cannot be restored if the backup solution performs differentials.  Please note that many of the external hard drives you buy to use as a backup solution also use this method.

So how do you solve this problem?  Create a second task where only the TABS program and its data are backed up in one complete process.  You can also configure your external hard drive to do the same.  Now you will have a complete backup of all of your data not including the TABS stuff and a second with just the TABS data. 

Timeslips by SAGE is another product for the legal niche and must be handled in the same way.

I would be interested in knowing how many of you knew this.

Robert Lane.

ASE, Inc.

Robert Lane is the owner of ASE, Inc. a provider of IT consulting, engineering, hosted and managed services in Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC since 2000.  For more information on ASE’s BackupPro contact Robert at 703-273-8388  ext 111.  You can find more information at goaseinc-staging.coydhea2-liquidwebsites.com and www.IT4smallbusiness.org.

The IT Dilemma: Who To W2 for IT?

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stockxpertcom_id8109922_size4So you can hire someone as an employee to handle your IT support internally.  Great.  Who?  This discussion will focus on who a small to medium sized business should hire to handle the company’s IT support.

You’ve checked the boards and see everyone from kids in high school to retirees who just want to stay busy.  You are a company of 65 people with servers, a core switch, firewall, router and lots of end user machines – clients. (desktops & notebooks.)  The old statement, “you get what you pay for” will certainly apply here so watch out.  Yes, there are lots of people out there but you need someone who can cover all of the bases. (see my previous discussion, “The Right Outsource”)  This person doesn’t have to be a Certified Information Security Specialist Person (CISSP) but certainly one who know how to troubleshoot all of the end user machines and the peripherals like the printers – blindfolded.  The person needs to know how switches work, how routers work, and absolutely needs to know how firewalls work.  Your servers: this person needs to know how to work with the operating system running your server(s) and the applications on them like Exchange,SQL, Terminal services etc… Why?

If you hire someone who only knows the client side of things, the end user equipment, you will find yourself in big problems when, for example, the server has trouble.  The diagnosis will take forever; the resolution will be slow if you don’t call out for another person to visit, and all of this at a tremendous cost to you.  Say your firewall has a problem and you can’t communicate.  An inexperienced person will only foul that up more or at least take a long time to solve the problem.

Make sure the person of choice has strong server skills by asking what operating systems are you proficient with; knows firewalls by asking what firewalls are you skilled at like SonicWall and Cisco; does this person know how to manage switches and if so which ones.  How good is this person with Exchange or whatever you use as a communications server.  Have that person give you references that you can call and then ask them how they found him/her and call them.

For a full time employee with the skills to cover all of these technologies in the Washington DC Metro area, not in the city, you are looking at paying someone an annual salary of ninety thousand per year. ($90,000.00/year)  Why so much? Because it’s a lot to know and if they do know their stuff they will diagnose problems quicker no matter what the technology, remediate faster minimizing down time.  Also, they will know how to set an IT strategy that protects your investment as time goes on.

Don’t be fooled by a great looking resume.  Make sure they have a broad range of skills and are good at them.  They don’t need lots of certifications but do needs lots of experience.  Some of the best engineers have no certs.  They are just really good.

One last note, a company this size may benefit from using hosted and/or managed services.  These services can be used to compliment your IT staff.  If used properly your IT employee will find more time to manage bigger problems while proactively managing the entire network, from firewall to BlackBerry.

For further discussions on hosted and managed services contact Robert Lane of ASE, Inc. @ 703-273-8388 ext. 111.  Robert.Lane@goaseinc.com; goaseinc-staging.coydhea2-liquidwebsites.com. ASE, Inc. is an IT consulting, engineering, hosted and managed services provider in the Washington DC metropolitan area since 2000.