Our focus this year for marketing our services is the Small and Medium sized business marketplace. This is where we believe the seeds of recovery will be sewn, and where innovations and entrepreneurism will develop to bring new products, services and

Microsoft’s Office 2010 includes the free online component - Office Web Apps...

Windows 7/ Server 2008 R2 Freezing ? It isn’t often that attempting to diagnose a problem with a desktop computer leads us to what is potentially a serious problem in the server environment.

We hope today brings the results that all you young people have been hoping for.

Out of Band Release to address Microsoft Security Advisory 2286198
MSRCTEAM
29 Jul 2010 9:23 PM

Today we`re announcing plans to release a security update to address the vulnerability discussed in Security Advisory 2286198 on Monday, August 2, 2010 at or around 10 AM PDT.
We are releasing the bulletin as we`ve completed the required testing and the update has achieved the appropriate quality bar for broad distribution to customers. Additionally, we`re able to confirm that, in the past few days, we`ve seen an increase in attempts to exploit the vulnerability. We firmly believe that releasing the update out of band is the best thing to do to help protect our customers.
Our colleagues over in the Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC) have more details about what they`ve seen in the threat environment.
As always, we`ll provide additional information as it is available.
Finally, as always, we`ll hold a special edition of the bulletin release webcast on Monday, August 2, 2010 at 1:00 PM PDT. If you are interested in attending the webcast, click here to sign up.

Thanks,

Christopher Budd
Sr. Security Response Communications Manager at Microsoft

Beware - "Faster Payments" can apply, only if under £10,000. If £10k or over, the 3 - 5 days will apply, so for speedy access to your money you will need to CHAPS, before 14:30.

Interesting Facebook pitch from Perry Marshall....

Yesterday I heard from a very reliable source that Facebook has triggered a sea change in the nursing home industry. This comes from a client of one of my business mentors.

The #1 reason people die is their friends have died or been dispersed to the four winds; their family doesn`t visit them anymore, and they have no more reason to get up in the morning. I`m sure all of us have visited long-term care facilities and seen the blank stares and hopelessness of aged people living out their last days.

Facebook has changed that. There are many, many 77 year old folks in nursing homes who now have 60 Facebook friends and interact with them on an hourly basis. This is literally extending life spans - to the point of wreaking havoc in the long-term care industry.

This is because many of the payment models are based on people living only so long and their communities on Facebook are literally extending their lives.

(It`s also creating some interesting social gaffes. Like after a person dies their friends are still getting reminders: "You haven`t reached out to Ethel for awhile. Send her a note. Click here to POKE Ethel.")

It`s also obliterating illiteracy. Kids might be able to fake reading books in school, but they can`t fake writing comments on their friends` pages. I seriously believe that within 5 years, nearly every single kid in the developed world will be able to read, write and type - because of Facebook.

Within 10 years, the same will be true in developing countries - because of mobile phones. Yesterday I saw a video of men with pickaxes in Rwanda digging 6 foot trenches for fiber optic cable. Rwanda is rapidly becoming the most wired country in Africa.

To hard-core, driven business types, Facebook might seem like a toy. That`s what most people thought about the Internet 10-12 years ago. It turned out to be something much bigger than that, didn`t it?

I don`t know if Facebook is a perfect fit for your business or not, but if you haven`t taken our free self-evaluation you might want to do that right now. It literally takes 60 seconds and you can do it at http://www.IsFacebookForMe.com.

Perry Marshall

Organisations can now set up a “Pay as you go”; Priority Economy Account with us for as little as a one off payment of £250. This brings guaranteed responses and a dedicated contact for all of your computing and telephony issues without a hefty premi

• All inclusive, capped, Priority ICT Support Services
• Transparent Pricing
• All Full all parts and labour on File Servers
• All user issues, applications, email, back ups and housekeeping included and much more
• Free non file server installations, and local reshuffles,
• Warranty management service on non critical equipment
• Easily budgeted for, per user.

The BBC reported recentley that

The BBC reported  recentley that "Cloud Computing has gone mainstream." Written by Tim Weber, it is a great insight to how organisations are shifting across to the cloud and provides a fair amount of detail, also don`t miss Marc Benioff`s comments at the foot of the article.

Cloud computing has been an information technology buzzword for many years. Now it is going mainstream.

Bryan Kinsella has a problem. As chief information officer of business services provider Rentokil Initial he looks after a widely dispersed and mobile workforce.

Email is a key management tool but as the company grew it found itself with 40 different email systems across 50 countries for 20,000 employees, with another 15,000 staff offline.

Setting up a new single email system with a global server infrastructure would have meant a massive capital expenditure.

Instead, he settled on a ¡°cloud¡± solution, rolling out Google¡¯s enterprise email across the company. It¡¯s saving Rentokil about 70% in expenditure, he says, with lower support costs on top of that.

But what is cloud computing? In the simplest of terms, it is IT-as-a-Service. Instead of building your own IT infrastructure to host databases or software, a third party hosts them in its large server farms. Your company has access to its data and software over the internet (which in most IT diagrams is shown as a cloud).

Cloud fans claim five key benefits:

Cheap: your IT provider will host services for multiple companies; sharing complex infrastructure is cost-efficient and you pay only for what you actually use.

Quick: The most basic cloud services work out of the box; for more complex software and database solutions, cloud computing allows you to skip the hardware procurement and capital expenditure phase ¨C it¡¯s perfect for start-ups.

Up-to-date: Most providers constantly update their software offering, adding new features as they become available.

Scaleable: If your business is growing fast or has seasonal spikes, you can go large quickly because cloud systems are built to cope with sharp increases in workload.

Mobile: Cloud services are designed to be used from a distance, so if you have a mobile workforce, your staff will have access to most of your systems on the go.

In other words: information technology becomes a utility, consumed like electricity, water, or even outsourced HR or payroll services, says Chuck Hollis, chief technology officer at information management company EMC. This year, he exhorts companies, ¡°is the year to get your cloud strategy together.¡±

Bear in mind, cloud computing is not new. Most of us are using the cloud already, through services like Hotmail, Flickr, Blogger and Facebook. It¡¯s business that has been slow in the take-up.

For Bryan Kinsella, the cloud strategy is paying off at an enterprise level. So far his team has moved close to 10,000 staff on to Google¡¯s email services; another 10,000 will have migrated by the end of the year.

¡°We never went into this to get cost reduction,¡± says Mr Kinsella. It was about ¡°unifying the business¡­ to operate and collaborate on a global basis.¡±

Now he is rolling out Google Sites to share documents across Rentokil and create intranets for both the global company and its many divisions.

It¡¯s this easy scaling that makes cloud-computing attractive. Insurance giant Aviva, for example, moved all its enterprise content management and business intelligence tools online, using Microsoft¡¯s Sharepoint online service.

Logistics firm Pall-Ex can grow fast and cheaply by moving much of its IT to UK hosting firm Outsourcery.

Universal Music is using the cloud computing services of e-commerce provider Venda to roll out its online store model across Europe.

¡°It¡¯s so expensive to build a world-class e-commerce platform, no single retailer can build it by themselves unless they are the size of Amazon,¡± says James Cronin, chief technology architect at Venda.

Cloud computing can be applied nearly anywhere: the small retailer that needs a secure e-commerce website quickly and cheaply; the ferry operator that has huge computing spikes in May and June while 90% of its IT system idle the rest of the year; the fire service that needs extra computing power to predict the movement of forest fires during the summer.

Cloud services range from fulfilling single business functions, say calculating payroll taxes, to outsourcing heavy-duty computing for complex 3-D modelling.

Many firms ¡°have not moved significantly to cloud computing yet,¡± acknowledges Casio Dreyfuss at technology consultancy Gartner. But he predicts that ¡°more dynamic¡± industries, ¡°where business models change very fast, where competition is very hard¡­ will move more quickly.¡±

Right now, the cloud computing market is worth almost $2.4bn, says Gartner and predicts that by 2013 this will have grown to almost $8.1bn.

Get ready now and map your company¡¯s IT needs, says Mr Hollis. ¡°If IT is your company¡¯s differentiator you may want to keep it in-house.¡± But most IT is just another service that ¡°can go the same way as other corporate functions like finance, logistics and manufacturing¡±.

For starters, to be cheap cloud computing tasks need to be standardised. While traditional applications have many little-used features to cope with specialised needs, customising a cloud service costs extra.

For firms on a tight budget this may result in a few standard network solutions. However, it does not mean a standard look and feel. ¡°I challenge you to spot that our customers¡¯ websites run on the same platform,¡± says James Cronin at Venda. Plus most Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers roll-out newly developed features to other customers as well.

Usability is another issue. Some people, firmly wedded to ¡°their¡± software, whether it¡¯s Lotus Notes or Microsoft Outlook, are reluctant to switch to plainer online applications. Rentokil¡¯s Bryan Kinsella counters that his migration team received few complaints.

Connectivity is another worry. The City of Los Angeles wants to move 34,000 employees to Google Apps, but there are complaints about speed and reliability ¨C problems that may be rooted more in the city¡¯s internal network than Google¡¯s service.

But what if you go offline? Well, most SaaS providers offer resilient offline solutions. Microsoft ¨C a late-comer to the cloud computing party ¨C likes to point out that it offers proven offline applications like Microsoft Office that integrate with its new suite of online applications.

Security concerns are a much bigger issue. Will your corporate and customers¡¯ data be safe? What about data protection? Can you meet all legal compliance requirements?

¡°There are enormous security [...] and auditing risks that have not been addressed yet,¡± says Gartner¡¯s Mr Dreyfuss.

Google¡¯s Dave Girouard says cloud computing has a good track record

¡°Cloud computing,¡± warns a top expert for business security, ¡°is the concentration of corporate risk in one single place.¡±

Not so, say the providers of cloud services. ¡°We put together multiple points of replication¡­ multiple lines of defence¡­ multiple levels of sophistication¡­ that a single company just could not afford,¡± says Jean-Philippe Courtois, the president of Microsoft International.

His words are echoed by all his competitors. Dave Girouard, the man in charge of Google¡¯s enterprise solutions, says ¡°trust¡± is the issue customers raise most often when they explore whether cloud computing fits their business needs.

¡°There are now enough proof-points, enough track record for it to go mainstream,¡± he says. ¡°Company data are much safer inside Google than in a company¡¯s data centre.¡±

If Marc Benioff is not the high priest of cloud computing, then he¡¯s certainly its televangelist.

Eleven years ago he founded salesforce.com. Today his ¡°enterprise cloud computing company¡± is approaching annual revenues of $1.5bn.

Its key product, a cloud service for customer relationship management, is used by organisations ranging from small charities to computer maker Dell.

For years Mr Benioff has been repeating his ¡°no software¡± mantra, arguing that the old IT and business models of companies like Microsoft, SAP and Oracle are broken.

Cloud computing, he says, is a total revolution of how we use and pay for software, and it is spreading fast.

His company now offers services like Force.com and Vmforce.com that provide developers platforms to build customised cloud services themselves.

Once belittled by rivals, he now revels in the fact that they all compete to prove their cloud computing credentials.

For Marc Benioff, though, one cloud is not enough.

These days he speaks about the transition to ¡°Cloud 2.0¡å. Just as he once queried why enterprise software was not more like Amazon, he now asks why it is not more like Facebook.

Mr Benioff promises that new software like Salesforce¡¯s new Chatter will do just that.

¡°We are going through a major shift in computing,¡± he says, where enterprise computing gets both more social (think collaboration) and mobile (think tablet computers, netbooks and smartphones).

Rentokil may be a case in point. Instant messaging software like ¡°Google Chat has become a very powerful tool for us,¡± says Mr Kinsella, while using Google¡¯s Android phones has made the enterprise software mobile. His new intranet, meanwhile, is getting a touch of YouTube: ¡°We are using it carefully, but we now send out video messages to all employees, and they have the ability to comment.¡±

Microsoft¡¯s direction is similar. It¡¯s new Office 2010 software, to be launched next week, makes steps to integrate both ¡°social connections¡± and online services.

¡°People are working more and more from everywhere¡­ home and workspace are merging,¡± says Per-Olof Schroeder at Microsoft¡¯s Office software division.

¡°The growth of cloud computing is phenomenal,¡± says Fabio Torlini of hosting company Rackspace. ¡°In the downturn all enterprises are asking ¡®what¡¯s safe to put in the cloud, and how can I save in the cloud¡¯.¡±

And there are other opportunities for growth. As connectivity improves, cloud computing can bring high-end IT services to developing countries.

Right now, says Google¡¯s Dave Girouard, cloud computing is just at the start of its evolution.

¡°All business computing will be more web-enabled,¡± predicts Mr Dreyfuss at Gartner. ¡°For some [companies] it will reach the point where it will be totally web centric.¡±

Audi to allow drivers to download i-phone apps !

Sharp practice really, and quite a shock as the deal was quoted as x 36 payments, however, within the documentation the "interim charge" was fully explained. A bit like accepting software terms and conditions; who has the time to read them ? and one

Yell, similar to Google CPC; thousands of impressions sift down to a few very special introductions. However, I was confused as to how many calls Yell had logged to our number, and actual prospect calls received. The answer was in the number of inbou

Customers in parts of north and west London may be hit and possibly others across the country following the blaze in the Paddington area, a BT spokesman said.

A fire at a BT exchange has affected broadband and telephone services, the company said today.

Customers in parts of north and west London may be hit and possibly others across the country following the blaze in the Paddington area, a BT spokesman said.

A statement from BT said: "We are currently assessing the impact of the damage but will only know the full extent of the impact once the site has been declared safe and our engineers are able to enter the building.

"We will issue a further update once we have more information on the incident."

A spokeswoman for the company said the fire had affected broadband and telephone services and possibly mobile phones.

"Some customers may be experiencing problems with making calls with their mobiles," she said.

She added that once the company had a "clearer picture" of how many customers were affected, it would issue an update.

The CHART OF THE DAY shows that smartphone sales will more than triple to 491.9 million units by 2012 from 139.3 million in 2008, according to the Stamford, Connecticut-based research firm. The PC market will expand to 443.1 million units from 290.8

The CHART OF THE DAY shows that smartphone sales will more than triple to 491.9 million units by 2012 from 139.3 million in 2008, according to the Stamford, Connecticut-based research firm. The PC market will expand to 443.1 million units from 290.8 million in the same period, Gartner predicted on March 4.

“Smartphones are headed towards that billion-unit category that handsets are in today,” said Jim McGregor, an analyst at research firm In-Stat in Scottsdale, Arizona. “The smartphone is the billion-unit pot of gold that everyone wants.”

The rise of the smartphone has prompted the computer industry to respond with their own products in an attempt to retain control over consumer access the Internet.

Intel Corp., the largest maker of computer chips, has revived an earlier failed attempt to get its processors into phones. So far, only LG Electronics Inc. has said it will make a phone using an Intel chip. Microsoft Corp., the biggest maker of computer software, unveiled a new version of its Windows mobile phone operating system earlier this month, aiming to hold off gains made by Apple and Google.

Apple fired up interest in phones that double as handheld computers with the first iPhone, introduced in 2007. Google, owner of the world’s most visited search engine, has since responded with the Nexus One handset and Android operating system, which is being used by phone makers such as Motorola Inc.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ian King in San Francisco at ianking@bloomberg.net

Many companies would pay a small fortune for that level of response and fix, especially as the system had sufferred a major failure which had to be rebuilt, our new client was up and running within 8 hours outside of any contract or service level agr

Forget "BOGOF", try "Service One, Do One Free"

Data breaches to incur up to £500,000 penalty. New powers, designed to deter personal data security breaches, are expected to come into force on 6 April 2010. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) will be able to order organisations to pay up t

Having just booked on another "Meet the Buyers" conference, what do you think is the main reason buyers STOP buying from a regular supplier ? Well 1% die, 8% move away, 9% get a better deal, 14% due to service disatisfaction and a thumping great 68%

Here is a classic quote from one of our Helpdesk clients.

Here is a classic quote from one of our Helpdesk clients. "You asked me to "right click", and I have written "click"".

I have spent a busy morning preparing the documentation for a new installation and migration from Windows 2000 to SBS 2008, and was reflecting on how far our own internal procedures have come. Boring....

Well here we are...Xmas Pud and New Years Day blues an distant memory, the 2010 snow storms only just thawed and out of the blue here is our new web site. We hope you like it and find it easy to use.

As well as ensuring your data is backed up, it is imperative to any DR situation that a back up of your actual "system settings" are available electronically.

The alternative would be that although your data would be safe, without these settings also available for download, a new technology install would have to take place before the network was again fully operational.

This service is now available for a one off investment of £350 plus VAT to include all labour and materials.

Call Roy now on 0845 4590 360, or complete our quick contact form.

I recently counted up how many logins I had to support my online social networking and purchasing world. It came to 62 and my being security conscious means they all have different passwords, none of which I can remember.

I recently counted up how many logins I had to support my online social networking and purchasing world. It came to 62 and my being security conscious means they all have different passwords, none of which I can remember.

This ranged from Amazon ( I have about 3 accounts there as I never seem to be able to convince them that I am me ) to Woolworths ( Yes still online - not sure if it is actually Woolies though ), Twitter through Facebook. I think there is a You Tube in there along with a myspace. I have a log in to my own web sites, five in all and many others including my bankers, the AA, Hotmail, Google ( mail, APPS and Check out ) Paypal, an e-shot service and a few music sites which I log into to download backing tracks.

Plus a few dozen others that I have joined purely to read the remainder of an article or to buy a one off, most recently a model Dinosaur King "Ankylosaurus" for my son.

Café Rouge for one have recognised that needing a log in to participate is a damn good reason for not taking part. It is a restaurant for God`s sake, and therefore hopefully miles away from the range of my wireless mouse, but I was refreshed to read that they have dropped the need to log in to an on-line community to find out details of special offers, competitions, desktop downloads ( inedible ) and their Christmas Plans.

Here is the note from their web site. Enjoy !

"We`ve changed things around here a bit recently to make your browsing experience as pleasant as possible. With this in mind we`ve done away with our previously password protected member area, as we know you`ve got enough to remember. This means you can now access everything much more easily."

We all need new business not only so we can grow, but for stronger cashflow, better security and indeed survival. You may be surprised that there are many FREE, or low subscription software tools available to help you grow and indeed reduce your exis

We all need new business not only so we can grow, but for stronger cashflow, better security and indeed survival. You may be surprised that there are many FREE, or low subscription software tools available to help you grow and indeed reduce your existing technology costs.

We believe in "PULL" strategies to increase inward interest momentum in your organisations services and products. Yes, you can continue to "push" out mailshots, telecanvass calls, door to door leafleting but there has to be method to attract prospects to you, and build on that. Surely it makes more sense for interested parties to know where you are, rather than you individually finding those interested parties ?

Sometimes all that is needed is a little kick start to get the ball rolling and gain some inbound sales momentum. It often doesn`t always require more staff, or huge investment. There are some grants available, and ways you can "box" clever to get on the radar of new business prospects.

It needs a positive mental attitude, some NEW TRICKS, measurement of WISE ACTIVITIES and a few COST SAVINGS along the way.

Call Roy Charles now on 0777 557 1007 to discuss further, or use our quick contact form.

Despite pay freezes and companies cutting costs Execunet have polled 306 IT executives - there is an 11% increase in those who are happier with their jobs.

Despite pay freezes and companies cutting costs Execunet have polled 306 IT executives - there is an 11% increase in those who are happier with their jobs.

"People become happier with their jobs when the grass on the other side of the fence looks more like a mud flat."

http://blog.topitconsultant.com/

A smaller survey of the team here at 360ict revealed that happiness at work was a way of life !

A new book detailing the contents of Agatha Christie`s private notebooks is published this week. The 73 volumes, discovered in 2004, reveal the working titles for many of the author`s most famous books.

A new book detailing the contents of Agatha Christie`s private notebooks is published this week. The 73 volumes, discovered in 2004, reveal the working titles for many of the author`s most famous books.
Test yourself on the working titles of other works.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8233896.stm

Social Network sites can support collaboration and networking, and indeed 360ict are in the process of creating a business page on Facebook.

Social Network sites can support collaboration and networking, and indeed 360ict are in the process of creating a business page on Facebook.

However some say that the only difference between networking and not working is one vowel, and with 35% of interviewed IT Managers saying that their email servers were under increased pressure from incoming emails from social network sites, it may be that access will be further restricted; in fact 77% plan to monitor or limit staff access !

We would suggest considering "reasonable use policies" in order to work with and make the best of these new technologies.

http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2007/12/04/228394/bosses-clamp-down-on-social-networking.htm

WiMAX is the next generation of wireless networks. Described by some as "WiFi on steroids" it gives wider coverage than WiFi and faster speeds than 3G.

For applications where high capacity internet is needed such as metropolitan networks or links between remote buildings, we can provide microwave links in the range from 10Mbps to 200Mbps between two or more locations.

• inter-building LAN, voice and video connections
• broadband internet connectivity
• internet service provision
• CCTV

360ict provides a fully bespoke service for this solution, including the site surveys and project management of the installation.

The range between transmitter and receiver (or a repeater) is approximately 20 km, but must be " line of sight ". The signals will be obstructed by hills or high buildings, requiring additional signal repeaters. Very occasionally weather interference may occur.

No signal encryption is generally necessary to guard against unauthorised access by third parties as the radio beam is so directional

A cheaper alternative to cabling in town centres. Used to link main schemes with isolated areas such as housing estates.

User must check that the equipment is correctly licensed.

Affordability - a 100Mbps is almost the equivalent price of a 10Mbps leased line. The prices are similar so where two office blocks need to be connected and are in line of sight, microwave is the real options

360ict provides a complete range of WiFi services, including design, site surveys, equipment supply, installation, deployment and testing. This includes indoor and outdoor equipment, such as WiFi Access Points and Mesh Networks.