Welcome to server room hell. Photo via: Sharenator.com

The rise of cloud computing, also known as “software as a service” and “hosted applications,” has greatly expanded the range of solutions that IT departments have for their companies’ needs. This is especially true for email. In the past, companies had no choice but to host their own Exchange environment. Now there are Exchange hosting options that allow more flexibility and even cost savings depending on a company’s particular needs. So the question is, should you host your own Exchange environment internally or go with a hosted option for your email needs?

Costs

There are a lot of costs associated with hosting an internal Exchange environment. These include:

*Hardware: Depending on server layout and roles, an Exchange 2010 environment could feature one server or anywhere from three to five. If a business has multiple offices, that number increases exponentially. There is no hardware cost associated with hosting.

*Maintenance and backup: Each server requires maintenance, repairs and upgrades over time. Skilled staff or consultants will need to be hired to handle these responsibilities. There are also costs involved in normal backup procedures. Again, hosting eliminates these costs.

*Licensing: Operating systems and programs require license fees for use. Applications like Exchange that require one license per user can become especially expensive. Hosting has no license fees, just service fees which usually cost less than Microsoft licensing.

*Environment: Servers have to live someplace, and that place has to be cool and has to have adequate power. The cost of air conditioning and power increase with each server that’s added, a cost not present with hosting.

Scalability

Another consideration when evaluating hosted options for Exchange versus an internal Exchange environment is scalability. Paying for something unnecessary in the interest of “future-proofing” has long been a nuisance IT administrators have had to deal with, purchasing overpowered servers and more licenses to couch against future growth. While buying more server than you need is a good practice from a capacity planning standpoint, it leads to inefficiency as companies essentially pay for something they really don’t need until capacity is reached.

In an Exchange hosting model, pricing is usually done a la carte, with companies paying a flat fee for service and then a certain regular per-user charge. This is a very efficient model, leading to businesses pay for exactly what they need right now and that’s it. Another user joins tomorrow? Sign them up and start paying for them tomorrow. This is a major benefit of hosted environments, especially in tough economic times.

Considerations for Staying Internal

Seeing just the cost and scalability benefits, many might wonder why companies would ever choose to host their own Microsoft Exchange environment instead of going with a hosted solution. One reason might simply be comfort, as these businesses may not like their data being hosted and actually “owned” by someone else. There may be legal issues as well, where a company might be legally bound to host, control and save all communications. Tax considerations could also be considered, since servers can be capitalized and depreciated while a service cannot. Finally, simple corporate inertia is a factor, as many companies take a certain course of action “because we’ve always done it that way.”

Switching a company’s Microsoft Exchange environment from internal to cloud hosting offers a variety of benefits. It’s cheaper and more scalable, but it’s not the perfect option for companies who want to retain ownership and control of data. These factors must be considered carefully when deciding whether to host your own Exchange environment or choose a hosted Exchange solution.

a

SkyNox acts as a business data insurance. With its speed and reliability, it is likely to become the best online backup service in the industry, proving once more that SherWeb is the most trusted name out there.

DATA PROTECTION

With SkyNox, costly in-house equipment is no longer required. The installation of the data backup application, either on workstations or servers, is quick and easy. Once configured, SkyNox backs up files and folders seamlessly and with little to no impact on your system processes.

But here’s the interesting part: let’s say there was a major disaster and all your critical business data was lost. What would you do? How would you recover your lost data? For obvious reasons, this is the most stressful part for a company.

RECOVERY

Fortunately, our online backup service preserves the authenticity and availability of your backed-up data, and, ultimately, ensures business continuity. With SkyNox, recovery is as easy as downloading a file.

When it comes to restoring lost data, flexibility is the word. Businesses have three different options to restore or access their data if disaster strikes:

-    The desktop application is an extension of a workstation hard disk. A few clicks, a file transfer, and it’s done.
-    The web console is accessible from anywhere on the internet:  laptops, iPhones, iPads, or any other mobile devices.
-    A hard drive containing all your backed-up data can be sent by express shipment anywhere in the world.

SUPPORT

Even if all the recovery steps are amazingly simple, SherWeb’s support team remains available around-the-clock to assist you in recovering lost data.

With nearly 15 years of experience in supporting worldwide businesses, our support specialists understand the value of your business data and the importance of a quick restore.

PROMOTION

To celebrate this new product, SherWeb offers unique launch discounts. For a limited time, get 50% off on additional storage space for workstations, and $1 off on server licenses.

Also, take advantage now of our 30-day full-featured trial. You can cancel at any time during the first month if our online backup service does not meet your expectations.

VIDEO

For a summary of SkyNox’s functions, watch our video:

SIGN UP

You can sign up now to get SkyNox installed on your workstation or server. Click here to access our signup page.

Do you think this product can protect your business from data loss in case of disaster? Tell us what you think.

a

Below are the steps for correctly naming files:

Step 1: Come up with a logical filing and naming system and then ask everyone who saves files to the shared network to use it.

Step 2: Organize files into descriptively named directories. A shared network may contain files from people who have different roles in the organization. The first step to organization is to store files in directories in a logical manner. The simplest way to achieve this is to store files by department for a medium to larger organization, by job title for a smaller organization and by author for a personal shared network. For example, store company annual financial reports in the directory, “Accounting” (department) and subdirectory, “Reports” (types of files in the directory).

Step 3: Create a uniform system for naming files. Consider what details will be most important to the person searching for your file. For example, call the company annual financial reports the company annual financial reports. A good name format for a financial report includes what type of report and the timespan covered in the report. Name the file “2011_Annual_Financial_Report.xls”. This file name tells everyone the file contains the annual financial report for 2011.

Step 4: To ensure that you are using a file-naming system that is effective for your organization, ask yourself, “Can a person locate the file by the filename alone?” If the answer is no, consider including more details in the file name. For example, suppose your 2011 Annual Financial Report only contains one type of report, like a balance sheet. Include this in the name. The filename including the balance sheet designation is 2011_Annual_Financial_Report_Balance_Sheet.xls. The designation, “Balance_Sheet” is at the end of the filename so a person looking for this file can begin with the widest designation, “2011_Annual,” the more narrow designation, “Financial_Report” and the specific file, “Balance_Sheet.”

Step 5: Ask everyone who uses the file-sharing system to use the file naming guidelines. If possible, ask individuals to rename and sort older files according to the file naming guidelines so there is a uniform method for naming and finding files across the entire file-sharing system. If it is not possible for individuals to rename all their files according to the system, at least have them rename files that are most likely to be accessed by other individuals on the Exchange 2010 systems.

Files not renamed according to the guidelines can be stored in a folder called “Old_Files.” This will prevent confusion for people searching for files.

a

Read on to find out what motivates both types of shoppers, and see if your loyalties lie on one side or the other–maybe you use both methods, and that’s okay, too!

(Click to enlarge)

46.7% of shoppers will buy something online for the 2011 holiday season–nearly a 3% increase from 2010. This year, tablets and smartphones will play a big role in holiday shopping, with 70% of tablet owners and 52.6% of smartphone owners using their mobile devices to shop or research products.

By 2014, over half of retail sales will involve the internet–whether it’s price comparison, research or actual purchase.

Similar to the social media-oriented, collaborative, open nature of hosted SharePoint, product reviews and 24-hour availability are online shoppers’ favorite reasons for staying at home to buy gifts–83% of consumers consider product reviews, and 63% are more likely to buy when there are reviews present, while 43.2% say that the ability to buy any time is what convinces them online is king.

However, 37.2% of people just want to stay away from the mall, and 29.6% of people like to compare prices online.

Over 1/3 of online shoppers admit to purchasing more if there is free shipping available.

While online shoppers will spend about 19 hours shopping, and that sounds like a lot, mall shoppers visit the mall on average 5 times to finish shopping!

Also, 45% of online shoppers only spend less than an hour per purchase.

Music and video are the most common online purchases, followed by electronics, books, and magazines. Home furnishings come next, and clothing/accessories are the fifth most popular category.

Cyber Monday purchases reached over 1 billion in 2010–it was the single biggest shopping day of the year, with about 106.9 million shoppers. Purchases were more than double the amount on Cyber Monday 2005.

On Black Friday, there were 212 million shoppers–but this year, in 2011, there were 226 million, and people spent nearly $400 per shopper.

Online shoppers are young (25-34), often have kids and want a convenient shopping experience. They’re also typically female.

For the entire holiday season this year, shoppers will spend $704.18, with the average online total being $353.51 per person. People tend to spend 22% more when shopping online, and they’ll complete 36% of all their holiday shopping from their computers or mobile devices.

Knowing this, will you stick to the computer or the crowd this year? Not much time left now; don’t forget those aunts and uncles!

Want to post this awesome infographic on your site?

Use the Embed Code Below:

Brought to you by SherWeb.com Try our Hosted Exchange services

a

1) Your IT department will need to determine which functions are needed for mobile users. Several of SharePoint’s functions are automatically enabled to work on a mobile device but some of them require the usage of a mobile web parts adapter. It is a relatively quick and easy procedure that most IT employees will be able to tackle with no issues.
2) If desired, the mobile version of SharePoint 2010 can be configured in custom ways, enabling your company to determine exactly how the web pages will act in a mobile environment. This process also requires the usage of mobile web parts adapters.

3) A wide number of smartphones are currently equipped with a browser that is compatible with SharePoint 2010, such as Blackberry, iPhone and the Nokia S60. Before setting up the mobile option, ensure that all of your employees are using a compatible phone. A full list can be found on the SharePoint website.

4) Privacy and security are just as important on a cell phone as they are on a computer, so it’s vital that security measures be put into place. Depending of your service provider, your IT department could be able to turn on SSL communication to keep the connection between everyone’s phones and the SharePoint website as secure as it is from the office computers.

With just a little bit of tweaking, SharePoint 2010 can become a one stop solution for your business, whether you’re in the office or on the go. It will require minimal training, both for the office based and mobile based versions, and it will provide an unrivaled amount of functionally in one place.

a

Reality aside, if you want to know what dressing room Bill Clinton prefers to hide in, or what Burt Reynods is doing in that truck stop restroom with a package of bacon, check out these hilarious fake Twitter accounts.

1. @Santa_St_Claus – Santa has many faces and it’s hard to choose just one. @Santa_St_Claus falls into the Santa that you want to hear from every day. He’s got jokes, he’s got gifts, he’s a little perverted, and he enjoys deer hunting.

Recent tweet: “I’m climbing in yo’ chimneys, snatchin’ yo’ cookies up. Hide yo’ kids, hide yo’ wife.”  http://bit.ly/say14j

Alternatively, if you want Santa’s drunken alter-ego, @LoadedSanta, he doesn’t even know how to tweet without slurring his somewhat-funny masochistic obscenities together. On the opposite side of the spectrum, @NORADSanta is great for the kids when Christmas Eve comes around, because he tweets all about his around-the-world journey.

2. @TheeBuddha – Buddha has mastered the art of the re-tweetable tweet by offering insights into the little things in life; like buying $5,000 car rims for your $2,000 car, and making you think about the ironic stance of Born Again Christians. After all, shouldn’t they believe in reincarnation?

Recent tweet: “If success is 90% perspiration, then the other 10% is deodorant.” http://bit.ly/rDula0 

3. @PimpBillClinton – If Bill was a college student in 2011, we’re guessing that this is pretty close to what you’d expect from his Twitter feed. So that makes it almost real, right? Pimp Bill doesn’t cut any crude corners and has probably insulted just about everyone from Helen Keller, overweight women, Indian Americans, anyone with a handicap, and most especially, Hillary Clinton.

Recent tweet: “If my phone company charged me by the pound for booty calls I’d be as broke as Bob Dole’s hand.”  http://bit.ly/sqFf4J 

4. @FakeSarahPalin – There will be Sarah Palin jokes long after people even forget who Sarah Palin was, or the things that may or may not have even come from her mouth. As a posterchild for dropping thoughtless ideas and debates, @FakeSarahPalin has no trouble coming up with jokes. Her Twitter list, “People I Hate” include CNN, John Gruber, David Hasselhoff and even poor little @Sockington, Twitter’s first celebrity cat.

Recent tweet: “Did you know Katy Perry is a republican? Listen to Firework: “After a Herman Cain comes a Rainbow.” GOP IS HIP YO’”  http://bit.ly/rpIf3r

5. @Jesus_M_Christ – Jesus appears to have many Twitter faces, but if he was still alive, we’d like to believe that this crude and often obscene account would get the “verified” Twitter stamp. Tweets often mock current events and play on every religion, including Catholicism.

Recent tweet: “A bunch of angels and I started an #OccupyHell campaign just to piss off Satan.” http://bit.ly/u6Zdab

6. @ColonelTribune – Colonel Tribune was born from the social media department of The Chicago Tribune, but his popularity far outweighs that of his more corporate counterpart, @ChicagoTribune. Climbing close to the million-follower milestone, the Colonel’s quirky take on select articles from the Chicago Tribune is embarrassingly high, compared to @ChicagoTribune’s 64k count.

Recent Tweet: “There is a big backlash over People’s choice for Sexiest Man. Every year, I cross my fingers. http://trib.in/sCnfnl”  http://bit.ly/vff1bb

7. @NotBurtReynolds – Burt is a Moustache-wielding tough guy, and according to his (fake) Twitter accounts, he’s big into hookers and rolling around naked in waffles and jelly doughnuts.

Recent tweet: “Met a hooker at a truck stop who proved that everything IS better with bacon.” http://bit.ly/rsM3pH

8. @TheWaltWhitman – Walt, circa 2011, is apparently a 200 year-old man who loves Chipotle, enjoys jowel-rubs, believes in zombies, shops on Amazon and owns a mountain lion that may, or may not, eat girl scouts.

Recent tweet: “As an older gay man trying to look hip, allow me to ask: when will deluxe remastered editions of Hootie & The Blowfish’s albums come out?” http://bit.ly/v58Z7x

9. @Nick_Nolte – If you love drug jokes, Nick’s got a pocketful of them. If you’ve ever mistaken your parmesan cheese for cocaine, or wondered if Nick really did inherit his voice from a grizzly bear, @Nick_Nolte can fill you in on those secrets.

Recent tweet: “What happened to the three-speedball lunch? This town was great once.”  http://bit.ly/roOQN0

10. @Queen_UK – You don’t get to learn the (fictional) inner thoughts of royalty just any day, and this Queen even got her own book deal out of it, Gin O’clock. @Queen_UK portrays the queen as a boozebag, with tweets like, “practically mummified in gin” and “One o’clock, two o’clock, gin o’clock rock!” Gin is to the Queen what hosted Exchange is to SherWeb.  She also dips into politics and other bits of British humor.

Recent tweet: “Having a large gin and tonic with no tonic. #ginoclock”  http://bit.ly/tP72vW 

And we couldn’t end without paying homage to the once brilliant account of @ceoSteveJobs, which once raised over 450,000 followers, but was closed by Twitter after he passed.

Any fake Twitter accounts you love that didn’t make it on this list? Drop a comment below!

a

iPhone 4G and iOS5 with Exchange 2010

With Sherweb’s real-time wireless synchronization, iPhone 4G clients can manage their Microsoft Exchange mailbox with ActiveSync. The three email clients Gmail, Yahoo and MSN can be managed at once with this app! All incoming email may be viewed from an account in one inbox. The synching process occurs automatically.

Clients may also host long email conversations and follow easily with Exchange 2010. The messages are organized in the order of receipt. The most recent message will be viewed at the top. Exchange 2010 manages email similar to or better than Microsoft Outlook. Email conversations may be managed directly from the phone.

The system is easy to set up and also easy to employ. Some expertise is required to deploy the system, but SherWeb offers access to technical support staff and are available round the clock to help companies resolve problems without having a full time network administrator on staff.

The Benefits of Hosted Mobility for Hosted Exchange

Wireless Synchronization of Applications. Applications may be synched easily on mobile phones such as iPhone, Blackberry and Android. Users may synchronize mobile email applications, folders, tasks, calendars and contacts with desktop and laptop applications. Real time ActiveSync synchronization makes synching data between devices easy.

Encrypted Technology. Encryption technology protects user data from being detected by other prying eyes during transmission. Applications may be synched without being concerned about a breach in the data.

Lower Costs. Hosted Exchange is typically less expensive to deploy and operate than other email and organizing solutions. The costs are lowered with increasing number of subscriptions. For example, companies may secure 100 subscriberships for $40 each, while 1000 subscriberships may cost $24 each. Licensing costs are typically included in the costs of this service.

The costs are more predictable with hosted Exchange than with internally hosted deployments. With hosted exchange, companies may better address problems such as natural disasters, power outages and other untimely events. Organizations may also expand as needed rather than predict the number of subscriptions that will be required.

Saves Time. Hosted mobility for hosted Exchange allows IT members to save time. They do not have to constantly monitor servers to ensure continuous uptime. This allows them to focus their energies on projects that are essential and more productive for the business.

Conclusion

Hosted mobility for hosted Exchange makes businesses operate more efficiently while working away from the office. These applications may be hosted easily on a mobile device to ensure productivity regardless of location. Consider integrating a hosted Exchange solution for your office.

a

Learn about the ways OWS is occupying the Internet.

(Click to enlarge)

Adbusters, a Canadian anti-corporate group, first tweeted the hashtag #occupywallstreet on July 4 of this year.

Just over a week later, they expanded on the idea in a blog post asking for protests–led and decided by the people.

Most of the conversation about OWS is happening on Twitter–82.5% of mentions take place there.

The runner-up is blogs, with 12.6% of the coverage.

Even smaller than that is Facebook at 2.8%.

@OccupyWallSt began the same day as the blog post, and now has over 107,000 followers.

The main Facebook page has over 311,000 likes.

On September 17, the designated day of protests in New York City, there were 18,817 tweets with the #occupywallstreet hashtag–that week saw 2004% more tweets with the hashtag than the previous week.

Between October 3 and November 8, the Occupy Seattle Facebook page increased its “likes” by 500%.

Occupy San Francisco grew by 310%, and Occupy Wall Street grew 163%.

Since blogs are such a big part of the mentions about the movement, what’s the general opinion?

Between September 17 (protest day) and October 25, 46% of blog posts mentioning Occupy Wall Street were in support of the movement. 35% of the posts were against OWS, and 18% were neutral.

Occupy Wall Street was the #3 most covered story on all blogs.

On YouTube, Anonymous posted a video supporting Occupy.

Protesters have used YouTube to share videos of police confrontations and the movement on the street.

There are over 10,600 YouTube videos about Occupy, and the one with the most views has nearly 3 million.

The internet has gained a few websites in solidarity with OWS, including the Move Your Money Project (anti-big banks) and Occupationalist (covering worldwide protests).

Here is a conversation you wouldn’t see on a hosted SharePoint discussion board… In a badly-timed outreach stunt, the New York Stock Exchange declared November 4 to be social media day.

The tweets from NYSE folks were optimistic, but OWS protesters soon retaliated.

They latched on to the #NYSESMD hashtag and tweeted sarcastic, antagonistic remarks against “the 1%.”

“It’s really creepy how NYSE ignores people on their hashtag,” one user tweets. “Maybe they’re afraid we’re going to ask for a quarter.”

The Occupy protests are still going strong. Only time will tell how long the 99% will keep their voices and fists raised.

Want to post this awesome infographic on your site?

Use the Embed Code Below

<a href="http://blog.sherweb.com/how-the-occupy-movement-is-unfolding-online/" target="_blank"><img src="http://blog.sherweb.com/how-the-occupy-movement-is-unfolding-online/" alt="How the Occupy Movement is Unfolding Online" width="500" /></a></p> <p><textarea>Brought to you by SherWeb.comTry our Hosted Exchange services

a

With IPv4, each device connected to the Internet was assigned an identification number known as an IP address. IPv4 addresses were equal to a 32 bit number. This allows for a possible total of 4.3 billion unique addresses (2 raised to the 32nd power). With the huge and perhaps unanticipated growth of Internet enabled electronics such as mobile devices, the number of available IP addresses has become exhausted.

A solution had to be developed in order to increase the number of available IP address. Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) was created to do just this. With IPv6, the number of unique addresses increases from 4.3 billion, to 340 undecillion (34 followed by 39 zeros) addresses. This is because IPv6 addresses use 128 bit numbers to represent IP addresses instead of the 32 bit numbers of IPv4. Other features of IPv6 include a more simplified and efficient routing format and the ability to transmit and receive larger packet sizes.

Most new hardware and software platforms have been written with IPv6 in mind and not many upgrades will have to be done. With Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, IPv6 is supported. For many hardware devices, a simple firmware upgrade will allow the device to be IPv6 compatible. From a software standpoint, even Windows 2000 was written with built-in IPv6 support, as do modern operating systems such as Windows 7.

Even with the built-in support, there are issues that IT administrators should examine to see if they are ready for IPv6.

These include:

- Compatibility issues
- Invalid IP addresses
- Spam
Let’s take a closer look at each…

Compatibility: IPv6 is not compatible with IPv4. If a company intends to keep some servers and applications running using IPv4 while others are using IPv6, they will essentially have to manage two separate networks simultaneously.

Invalid IP addresses: A concern for websites using IP addressing within a web page is that these IP addresses will be completely invalid once the new addressing of IPv6 kicks in and the address links will be broken.

Spam: Another issue has to do with IPv6 are website filters and blacklists. These lists will have to be completely updated to take the new IPv6 addressing into account. IT administrators should also be aware that with the larger number of IP addresses available, it will be easier for spam writers to obtain large blocks of IP address for malicious use. This increased number of addresses used for spam would become more difficult to filter out compared with IPv4.

These concerns are relatively minor compared to the speed and the flexibility IPv6 will offer. The “v6” does after all stand for “version 6” and just is the next in the line of many versions of IP addressing. By running different systems and applications on a “test” IPv6 network before switching over, IT administrators can be sure that the transition will go smoothly.

a

Below is a breakdown of Anonymous’ most notorious hacktivism feats since 2008:

(Click to enlarge)

Project Chanology

In early 2008, Anonymous started “Project Chanology”; a protest against the Church of Scientology. The group felt that the church was engaging in Internet censorship when they demanded that all leaked videos of a Tom Cruise rant be taken off of YouTube.

Project Chanology included a call to action on 4chan that drew 30 users to join over night and launched over 200 attacks.

The group also released a video on YouTube outlining the purpose of Project Chanology and even engaged in real life protests of Church of Scientology offices.

Bay Area Transit

In 2010 Anonymous struck again with their attack on Bay Area Transit, which arose after the organization blocked cell phone service following the protest against police shooting of Charles Blair Hill.

The BART attack included:
• MYBART.org becoming hacked and defaced with the Anonoymous logo
• The release of MYBART.org customer information
• Leaking of 102 BART officer’s information from the Police Officers Association website

Operation Payback

Throughout 2010 and 2011 Anonymous ran campaigns against anti-piracy organizations and hacked websites of banking companies who withdrew funding to WikiLeaks.

The hacktivist group was able to take down the websites of both Visa and MasterCard. Other targets included PayPal and Amazon.com.

The repercussions of Operation Payback included the arrests of 5 men in the UK.

Public Enemy #1

Although Anonymous denied their involvement of the 2011 Playstation network hacking, once Sony took legal action against hackers, Anonymous lost their cool.

They attacked Sony in April 2010, which resulted in the arrest of 3 Anons in Spain. Ay yi yi…

Most recently, Anonymous launched their second attack against the New York Stock Exchange in 2 years. The attack threatened to erase the NYSE, but also caused division among Anon members.

Perhaps they could have benefited from an online CRM system to sort out their internal issues!

Anonymous Attacks Deserving Honorable Mention

Anonymous has targeted a wide array of individuals and organizations.

Individuals that have been the target of Anonymous Attacks include the Australian Prime Minister and White Supremacist Radio Host Hal Turner.

Westboro Baptist Church has also been attacked along with Habbo, Egyptian Government sites, Support Online Hip Hop, and Bank of America.

Anonymous’ Most Notorious Hactivism Feats Infographic Embed Code
<a href="http://blog.sherweb.com/anonymous-most-notorious-hactivism-feats-infographic/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/MNX6h.jpg" width="500" alt="70 websites challenge" /></a><br /> <br />Brought to you by <a href="http://sherweb.com/">SherWeb.com</a> <a href="http://www.sherweb.com/hosted-exchange">Hosted Exchange provider</a>

What are your thoughts on how an Anonymous collective operates? Do you believe this is a viable method for achieving freedom of speech and information for all?

Leave a comment below

Check out our detailed article about other websites that have felt the wrath of Anonymous.

a