On It

Yesterday, one of our engineers ran into some trouble deploying some BlackBerry’s for a customer.  Verizon happened to have been the carrier.  The client was running BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express (BESx).  After having difficulty provisioning the devices, the engineer decided to call Verizon.  One or more Verizon representatives claimed that BESx was “unsupported” and advised our engineer that the customer would need to upgrade to a corporate or enterprise messaging plan.

Exigent Technologies is a BlackBerry Reseller.  With the confusion that ensued, I decided to contact our representative at RIMM.  Here’s what I was told:

Our rep. said that BES Express does work with Verizon even if you do not have a corporate/enterprise messaging plan, with one caveat.  If you do not have a corporate/enterprise messaging plan, you cannot perform wireless provisioning of the devices.  You must use a physical cable to provision the device onsite at the server.  (I think you can also do this at a PC).  Once the device is provisioned in this manner, RIMM stated that it will work just fine (without the Corporate/Enterprise Messaging Plan from Verizon)

Our contact at RIMM stated that Verizon is the only carrier “pushing back” and trying to coerce people into upgrading their plan.  This would make sense, since, the introduction of the FREE BES Express likely results in significant lost revenue for Verizon.

Our rep. went on to say that many people are downloading BES Express and deploying the devices with the cable, and are working just fine.  Other customers that have many devices to deploy are purchasing the upgraded messaging plan from Verizon, provisioning the devices “over the air”, and then downgrading their plan with Verizon to eliminate the extra “corporate messaging” charge(s).  It will be interesting to see how this plays itself out.

I was just going through my e-mail.  Blogging was the furthest thing from my mind.  Like most people, our employees make use of signatures in their e-mails.  In those signatures, it has become customary to list the various certifications that they have achieved.  I always knew what certifications we had in our repertoire, but perhaps I had forgotten just how many certain staff members had.  GO EXIGENT!

Here is a cumulative list of certifications from just two Exigent employees.  IMPRESSIVE!

• Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows 2008
• Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA)
• Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP)
• Network +, A+ Certified
• IP Communications Express Specialist (IPCX)
• MCSE:Messaging (Windows 2003)
• MCSE:Messaging (Windows 2000)
• CCNA (Cisco)
• FCNSA (Fortinet)

I take my hat off to them.  Their dedication to continuous learning and improvement is both humbling and gratifying.

Labor Day 2009: Its 8:50AM and with a steamy cup of coffee in hand, I look down at the table to see the OS X Snow Leopard upgrade package that has been quietly competing all weekend with barbeques and pool parties for my attention. With no hard plans on the agenda, my inner-geek gets the best of me as I mutter, “there’s no better time than the present”. I make a beeline toward my study. I’m upgrading my MacBook to Snow Leopard. As I sit down, inner-geek taps me on the shoulder. “You’re not going to just stick that disc in and let it roll, are you?”

Ah, the OS upgrade dilemma. Seasoned computer users and experienced IT professionals alike know all too well that, many times, an “in place upgrade” can lead to problems. At best, this type of upgrade has a tendency to leave lots of junk behind, among other shortcomings. At worst, the upgraded computer is rendered unstable or completely hosed. (Hosed is geek-speak for “really, really messed up”.

But something feels different about this one. Somehow, I feel compelled to put my fate into the hands of the Apple team and “think different” this time. Not to let my anxiety go unchecked, inner-geek speaks again. “I understand that you’re feeling brave, perhaps the coffee has something to do with it, but please, just Google, what to do before upgrading to OS X Snow Leopard and see what you find, please, Dan.” And so I submit. As I expected, the results are rich with advice and war stories of Snow Leopard upgrades gone good and bad. Practical Me wants to get this thing running, fast. But inner-geek knows better. He’s been burned before.

With a slightly elevated pulse, I rationalize that the average consumer wouldn’t consider searching Google for OS X pre-upgrade exercises, let alone going through some of the aggressive motions that I found in the search results. Would Joe Mac User, let alone Joe Six Pack make a bootable backup of their OS X installation before running the upgrade? I think not. So with a chip on my shoulder and points to prove, Practical Me wins.

About 49 minutes later, I was running Snow Leopard, safe and sound. No issues at all to speak of. A pretty thorough check revealed that all of my apps and data were intact. My biggest worry was my Parallels 4.0 installationfor Windows Vista Business, but it too was running just fine. So far, I haven’t felt any of the performance gains that many people are talking about, but in all honesty, the machine was pretty snappy from the start. I also haven’t completely looked under the hood yet at some of the newer features.

So, was it a flawless operation? Yes, with a caveat. One of the main catalysts for my upgrade, like so many others, was the Microsoft Exchange support. After getting Snow Leopard up and running, I almost immediately configured the Mail application to connect to our Exchange 2007 Server at the office. The configuration itself was relatively easy for me, a technical person. But it would have frustrated an average end user. The results were annoying and disappointing. But the Exchange support debacle is a different story for a different day in a different posting. This was a Snow Leopard OS upgrade experience post, and I have to take my hat off to Apple for a job well done in that regard.

Disclamer:  The writer is an experienced IT professional.  The laptop that is the subject of this blog post had virtually no data stored on it.  Before performing an OS upgrade, always consult an IT professional and/or make backup copies of your data.

So I’ve been geeking out with my new MacBook and OS X, and trying to figure out whether I would go with VMware Fusion or Parallels for Microsoft Windows application integration.  But as of a few minutes ago, I might not use either of them!  Exigent Technologies is a big believer in thin-client and server-based computing.  We regularly install and configure Windows Terminal Services, 2X and Ericom PowerTerm WebConnect. In fact, we’ve built our cloud computing offering on the Ericom platform and use PowerTerm WebConnect internally.

Using PowerTerm WebConnect and Windows 2008 Terminal Services, we simply published the Windows applications that I want to be able to access from my Mac.  Now I can just use a web browser to access them and my internal network, quickly and securely, from anywhere.  And yes, it works with Safari (though I use Firefox).

So the question is, should a business owner or IT manager purchase, deploy and maintain several copies of Fusion or Parallels?  Or, simply set up a server based solution like Ericom to streamline the process.  For now, I’m holding off on installing Fusion or Parallels until such a time that I see a good reason to have one of them running on my Mac.