Simply put, when the need arises to purchase new IT infrastructure or replace aging or defective items, you decide against purchasing and owning the items.  Instead, you decide to fulfill your organization’s IT needs and goals by utilizing servers and other IT infrastructure located outside of your office.

Do you want to own it, or rent it?

Some people liken (IaaS) to renting, versus owning a home.  For many people, owning their own home is simply ideal.  Perhaps they’re very handy and enjoy gardening, painting and home repair.  These buyers accept the fact that homes need constant maintenance.  They know that they’ll have to perform that maintenance themselves.  And if not, they are certainly more than willing to pay a professional to perform that maintenance.

For others, the carefree condominium lifestyle is most appealing.  These buyers aren’t very mechanically inclined.  Or, they enjoy the peace of mind in knowing that the grass will always be green, the snow will always be shoveled and the pool is always clean.

We’re very proud of this!  Credit for it goes to our tremendous team of engineers.  They truly value continuing education as part of their commitment to constant improvement.

Membership in the Apple Consultants Network (ACN) is a prerequisite for the MTC designation.  Candidates also have to attend Apple training courses and provide proof of other industry standard IT certifications.  Exigent Technologies is also an authorized Apple Reseller.

This new designation proves that we’re committed to nothing short of excellence in terms of managed IT services for Apple.

1. Download the latest iTunes
2. Login with your iTunes account (this must be the account that you used to purchase the music).
3. On the right side of your iTunes screen, go to Purchases
4. Click Songs or Albums to change the page view and All or “Not in My Library” to view your purchased content that currently is not downloaded on your computer
5. Click the download icon to the right of each item to download that item or simply download them all.

Thanks Apple, for saving us from ourselves!

We’ll, how do you choose a doctor, or an accountant? Certainly, the usual criteria like length and depth of experience should come into play. Other obvious factors like number of years in business should be considered too. So, what about location?

When we bring up the topic of location, some customers tilt their head in bewilderment, as if to ask, “Isn’t the cloud everywhere?” Or, “does the location of my small business cloud services company really matter?” We think it does, and here’s why.

Location, location, location

When looking at cloud services for your small business, you’ll want to ask your salesperson where your precious data will actually live once you move your business to the cloud. Yes, you did read that correctly. Wouldn’t you like to know that your data isn’t sitting a block away from a potential terrorist hotspot? How you like to learn that your servers are actually sitting in a known flood zone?

When shopping for small business cloud services, you absolutely want to visit the datacenter that will house the computing infrastructure for your small business cloud needs. It just makes sense to see it and touch it, doesn’t it? Any cloud services provider should be more than happy to take you on a guided, informative tour of their facility. After all, you don’t know if you don’t see. It would be pretty embarrassing to suffer a massive data or computing outage, only to find out that your cloud services provider’s datacenter was actually a small unused room in his basement.

Want to visit our jaw-dropping, purpose built multimillion dollar facility? Reach out to one of our friendly representatives to arrange for a tour. Hint: it’s not in our basement!

I have worked at Exigent Technologies in the Mount Arlington, New Jersey office for only a few months, but the culture embodies an undeniable Titan amongst the other would-be technomancers of the industry. Technicians are employed at most IT companies. Believe me, I have worked with them. A technician is a technical person employed by a business whose sole purpose is to resolve the technical issues being experienced by someone with as minimal effort as possible. Their goal is to find out what your technical issue is and to put the quickest bandaid possible on it so they can move on to their next droning task. A technology consultant, however, is much more than that. A technology consultant is someone who can work with technology, but has the wisdom and desire to see past the immediate or obvious. A technology consultant is someone who can analyze a problem and not only come up with a temporary fix or work-around for the problem, but develop an entire strategy to eliminate that problem from ever coming back, all while providing the maximum level of customer service, technical aptitude, and business-conscious advice possible. A technology consultant can differentiate between the “right way” to do something and the “easy way” to do something and will always make sure they do right by their clients.

When a small to medium sized business shops for a technology company to implement, support, or administer their servers and networks, they might not understand the difference between a technician and a true consultant. That is where we come along. Exigent Technologies is not a company that employs technicians. We employ consultants. When we perform work for our clients, that work is not performed so that we can pave the way for our future, it is done to pave the way for their future. In turn, as those businesses grow, their increased growth and trust in Exigent allow us to grow as well. This is the kind of culture and mindset that Exigent Technologies cultivates. And for that, I am not only privileged to be a consultant for our clients, but honored to be counted amongst the few, the proud, and the nerdy!

Let’s take a simple example.  Let’s say that you wanted to have 30Mbps of Internet access speed, but your cable company only offered a 15Mbps connection.  You could actually purchase two of those lines from the cable company and bond them together to reach a total of 30 Mbps using FatPipe technology. 

However, that is a VERY simplistic example of FatPipe’s technologies.  There is so much more to it.  I’m really looking forward to working with the FatPipe team to bring these extremely sophisticated bandwidth aggregation solutions to our customers in the NJ and NY area.

I think Mozy has a good offering, but due to the fact that there is no onsite backup, I can’t recommend it.  Trying to download large amounts of data over the Internet in the midst of a disaster just isn’t my cup of tea.  Further, I think it’s too complex for most small businesses. 

You see, many small businesses underestimate the complexity of data backup.  The majority of non-technical business owners feel that backing up is as simple as copying data from one place to another.  Most marketing campaigns are geared toward convincing small business owners that “anyone can do it”. 

Backing up servers a very different from backing up some documents stored on a PC.  Backing up servers involves the precise and specialized backup of files that need to be in use 24-hours a day.  Server backup also entails backing up your user database (Windows Active Directory) and several other live databases such as SQL and Microsoft Exchange Server (e-mail).  Does Mozy Pro support Active Directory, SQL and Microsoft Exchange backups?  Yes, they do.  Is a small business owner or his/her delegate best suited to implement, monitor, maintain and restore these backups?  Probably not. 

But don’t take my word for it.  Picture yourself in the midst of a data loss crisis, and click on the following links below to see some of the documentation from the Mozy Pro.  If any of it makes you uncomfortable or appears complicated, you should probably trust your backups to a local, trusted IT advisor. 

Links:
Restoring Microsoft Exchange in Mozy Pro

Restoring Active Directory and SYSVOL Data

One of my goals for 2011 is to try and make it easier by creating a system, document or website of some sort that will help consumers looking for a IT Managed Services company make a better choice and mitigate risks.  Stay tuned!

Not replacing old PCs solely on the basis of what the end-user does is wrong.  How about the fact that older PCs cost so much more to maintain than their newer counterparts?  What about the fact that the PC is the centerpiece of your employee’s work experience?  A slow PC with annoying issues will certainly reflect on that employee’s outlook of your company, don’t you think?  Check out the FREE whitepaper here:  “The Case for Buying  Modern PCs”.  And remember, we’re always here to help with your new IT hardware and software purchases.