Category: Solutions

The problems with PST files

Posted by at 11:38 AM

Most companies cannot give users unlimited email storage on their Exchange server (although many users will attempt to test this reality). To control the amount of data begin stored, administrators implement quotas on mailboxes. When users reach their quota, they have two options: They can delete some email (yeah, right), or move it off the Exchange server.

Outlook uses PST files to store email outside of an Exchange system. The program prompts users to auto-archive old email to PST files by default, but users can also manually create them. While this sounds like a simple fix, most IT support will tell you that PST files are a pain in the neck to manage and in some cases create more problems than they solve.

To make matters worse, desktops and laptops are not always protected by a backup process. For this reason, users are taught to put documents and files they want backed up in their “home” folder on a network file server, which, in theory, is backed up regularly. As a result, users often put their PST files in their home folder and open them in Outlook to use.

Server administrators (or backup administrators) are responsible for backing up these file servers. There are two types of backups: full backups, during which all files are backed up, and incremental backups for files that have changed since the last full backup. Continue Reading…

Cisco recognizes SHI for customer satisfaction excellence

Posted by at 10:22 AM

At SHI we’ve always been proud of our commitment to customers and confident in our ability to find, build, and deliver solutions that meet their specific IT challenges and environments. But it’s reassuring to occasionally receive third party validation that we are getting customer service right.

Cisco’s Gold Star for Customer Satisfaction Excellence

SHI receives highest honors for customer satisfaction from Cisco

We’re proud to share that SHI has achieved Cisco’s Gold Star for Customer Satisfaction Excellence, the IT partner’s highest distinction for customer service.

Cisco measures the customer satisfaction levels achieved by its certified partners (SHI was just recertified as a Cisco Gold partner) based on regional target goals and the results of an online customer survey. The Overall Satisfaction Score is a weighted average of a partner’s pre and post-sales support over a rolling 12-month period.

As a Cisco Gold partner, SHI demonstrates specialization in mobility, collaboration, and physical, virtual, and cloud architectures. In addition, we consistently meet a number of certification, support, customer satisfaction, and service requirements.

Thanks to our customers who communicated their confidence in our customer support to Cisco! We hold this recognition in high regard and will remain diligent in our dedication to delivering the best Cisco solutions and customer experience possible.

Email archiving: Solving the problem of digital data hoarders

Posted by at 1:23 AM

Email-archivingWe all know how important email is to business. But I sometimes wonder if we’re becoming too obsessed with our email, to the point where we can’t let go of a single message for fear of losing a file or piece of correspondence. Unfortunately, all that worrying is having a negative effect on business — forcing organizations to invest in unnecessary amounts of storage and backup space.

Consider this real-world scenario. In my past life as an Exchange administrator, I found that my organization’s Exchange server was running low on disk space. After running some reports, I made a surprising discovery: 65 percent of all the email in our system was in the deleted items folders of user mailboxes! In addition, most of that email was more than a year old.

Excited that I was able to solve a problem without needing funding to purchase new storage for our Exchange server, I shared the good news with my boss. I told him we didn’t need to spend the $6,000 on new storage. I could simply create a policy to purge the email in the deleted items folder that was more than a year old. With that, I sat back in anticipation of the kudos that was certainly on the way.

Much to my surprise, he answered, “What if people need that email later on? I go back and get stuff out of the deleted items folder all the time.” So the decision was made to keep the old email and add new storage to the Exchange server.

However, this eventually led to another problem: The size of our email data had grown so large that it was taking too long to finish our daily backups. We couldn’t get them done in the off-hours. But the problems didn’t end there; our Exchange admins were facing a number of issues: Continue Reading…

Think digital signage isn’t for you? Think again.

Posted by at 12:13 PM

digital signage solutions from SHIAdvertising has been around for as long as humans have had something to sell. Historians have found examples of commercial messages in Pompeii and lost and found advertising on papyrus in Ancient Greece and Rome. As time rolled on, advertisers found opportunity to place ads on everything from billboards, cars, buses, boats, to even an athlete’s skin. Now the question becomes, how can business leaders capitalize on advertising in the digital world to drive their businesses into the next decade?

Enter digital signage. Already seeing widespread use in malls, airports, and train stations, digital ads are making their way into every industry. What’s driving this shift? Since digital signage can be both frequently and easily updated, it saves you the printing and construction costs associated with traditional signage techniques.

Think there isn’t a place for digital signage in your organization? Look to these four industries for inspiration and direction. Continue Reading…

Plugging the leak: Data loss and smartphones

Posted by at 11:14 AM

Smartphones are becoming more powerful every day, and tablets have evolved to the point where people are using them as their on-the-go computing device, allowing them to leave the laptop at home. But while smartphones and tablets are sharing the spotlight with laptops for many business users, their underlying design makes them very different from a traditional PC. That difference could be putting your organization at risk. Luckily, there’s a way to get a handle on it.

The risk that I’m speaking of is data leakage. The very things that make smartphones easy to use (social sharing, constant connectivity, location services, etc.) are also putting your company’s data at risk. In fact, Forrester Research estimates that between $90 and $305 dollars can be lost per customer record. With devices carrying thousands, if not millions, of records, the total cost of a compromised device is high.

SHI-The-rising-cost-of-data-loss-CHART Continue Reading…

Everyone needs mobile device management, but nobody’s buying it

Posted by at 11:42 AM

A study by B2B International recently highlighted the slow adoption of mobile device management (MDM) software. It revealed that only 11 percent of the companies surveyed had an MDM solution in place to ensure those employees with mobile phones and tablets are complying with corporate security policies. This tells us that even though the entire industry is talking about bring your own device (BYOD) programs, very few companies are correctly implementing them.

According to Gartner, this problem will only grow in the coming years, as the BYOD trend shows no signs of slowing down. Shortly after the B2B International study, Gartner predicted that over the next five years, 65 percent of enterprises will adopt an MDM solution. However, the B2B study suggests that companies aren’t embracing the challenge of securing corporate data on mobile devices.

Our experience in working with SHI customers integrating mobile devices into their enterprises show the accuracy of both of these studies — MDM adoption is slow despite heavy BYOD use.

The IT departments I talk to recognize this problem and want to manage their devices, but they’re having problems determining which solution is best for them. They don’t want to spend money on one solution, only to find out six months later it wasn’t the right fit.

The problem lies within the industry. There’s so much noise that people are becoming confused. There are hardware solutions for BYOD, and there are software solutions. Some solutions are touted by big-box security companies, while others are from no-name, angel-funded startups. Without the proper education, companies don’t know which solution to choose, and the problem falls to the wayside.

So today, I’d like to share the top-five pieces of advice I give my customers to help them pick the correct MDM solution for their organization: Continue Reading…

Microsoft User CAL Changes: What it means for you

Posted by at 10:31 AM

As the nature of the cloud evolves, so too does its licensing models. In the past, organizations were set up with licensing on a “per device” basis, but with the ongoing consumerization of IT and the proliferation of new devices (mobile phones, tablets, ultrabooks, etc.) in the workplace, many organizations are looking to cut costs by shifting focus to the user rather than the device.

To address this shift, Microsoft is raising the cost of its User Client Access License (CAL) licensing model. Effective Dec. 1, 2012, the cost of the following User CALs will increase 15 percent:

  • Bing Maps Server CAL
  • Core CAL Suite
  • Enterprise CAL Suite
  • Exchange Server Standard and Enterprise CAL
  • Lync Server Standard, Enterprise, and Plus CAL
  • Project Server CAL
  • SharePoint Server Standard and Enterprise CAL
  • System Center 2012 Client Management Suite
  • System Center Configuration Manager
  • System Center Endpoint Protection
  • Visual Studio Team Foundation Server CAL
  • Windows Multipoint Server CAL
  • Windows Server CAL
  • Windows Server Remote Desktop Services CAL, Terminal Services CAL
  • Windows Server Rights Management Services CAL

What does this mean for you? Continue Reading…

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