When it comes to connectivity and collaboration of users and resources, businesses are quickly realizing if they have the network to support this or if a re-design is in need.  And, just when you figure out how to meet the current needs, you realize that your network must also meet the future needs.  And, within your current budget constraints.

The best way to design a network is to get it right the first time.  If that isn’t an option, the next best thing is to re-design it right the second time.  A network redesign should be implemented when you need to improve your network efficiency, reduce your network complexity, improve your network security, enhance your network availability, and achieve a higher network reliability.  An added bonus should include a strategy for scalability to keep up with the latest in technology, connectivity, and collaboration that your users will demand.

Network Design or Re-Design requires a highly trained staff with experience in designing complex and efficient enterprise networks.  An understanding of the business requirements that drive the network are curtail to a design’s success.  You should first analyze your current network environment to determine any changes that are necessary for you to minimize the operating costs associated with a network design/re-design.  Then, develop a network infrastructure design that balances the needs of your network users while maintaining the traffic and performance efficiencies.

Teaming up with Digital Reach for your Network Design or Network Re-Design means you get the support, experience, and peace-of-mind in knowing your network will serve as a means to improve productivity rather than hamper it. 

The release of Microsoft Vista is changing the way businesses get things done.  Below are 10 ways your business can improve productivity with the implementation of Microsoft Vista.

1. Safely Secure and Backup Your PC
With Microsoft® Windows® Backup and Restore, you can easily schedule automatic backups of documents, files, and even entire hard disks. More easily recover lost files with new Windows VistaTM Shadow Copy and improved Microsoft Office Document Recovery

2. Organize it your way.
Enhancements to Windows Vista Explorer let you use file properties to intuitively sort, organize, and view your files—including work created in Microsoft Office. Use the new Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007 To-Do Bar to see your daily tasks and appointments in an integrated view, so you can get a quick grasp on your priorities.

3. New and better ways to see and do your work.
Innovative navigational tools in Windows AeroTM make it easier to get to recently used documents and programs. The new Microsoft Office Ribbon replaces menus and toolbars with task-related commands, tabs, and visual galleries.

4. Centralized customer information.
Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager consolidates all customer and sales lead information in one location: e-mail, communication history, relevant documents, sales opportunities, and more.

5. Professional design made easy.
Make your business stand out with new SmartArt graphics. Easily save Microsoft Office files to PDF or XPS.

6. Protect your inbox, your data, and your peace of mind.
Improved junk mail filters in Office Outlook 2007 and new anti-phishing technologies minimize junk mail and potentially harmful e-mail messages. Windows Defender** provides built-in tools for detecting and removing spyware.

7. Stop searching. Find.
Instant Search in Windows Vista and Office Outlook 2007 helps you quickly find what you’re looking for—documents, media, programs, e-mail messages, and more—on your PC, across your network, and throughout your e-mail.

8. Work virtually anywhere.
Windows Meeting Space lets you easily share files directly from your PC to other Windows Vista PCs over one-time, wireless, or peer-to-peer networks. Windows Vista Remote Desktop Connection allows you access to files on your office PC from another computer.

9. Small budget. Big marketing.
New Marketing Campaigns in Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager combined with new Microsoft Office Publisher E-mail Merge capability enables you to manage marketing campaigns and to deliver targeted marketing communications to your customers.

10. Stay in sync with your business.
Easy synchronization of information with Windows Mobile® devices gives you access to e-mail, business contacts, customer information, documents, and presentations while on the road.

Find out how to roll-out Microsoft Vista to your enterprise. Learn More

Organizations today are facing several unique data challenges: the proliferation of data and systems across their enterprise; the need to provide employees, customers, and partners with consistent access to that data; the desire to better equip information workers with meaningful information to drive informed decisions; and the mandate to control costs without sacrificing application availability, security, or reliability.

SQL Server is Microsoft’s next-generation data management and analysis solution that will deliver increased security, scalability, and availability to enterprise data and analytical applications while making them easier to create, deploy, and manage.

SQL Server provides an integrated data management and analysis solution that will help organizations of any size build and deploy enterprise applications that are more secure, scalable, and reliable, maximize the productivity of IT by reducing the complexity of creating, deploying, and managing database applications, and empower developers through a rich, flexible, modern development environment for creating more secure database application.

In today’s connected world, data and the systems that manage that data must always be available to your users. With SQL Server, users and IT professionals across your organization benefit from reduced application downtime, increased scalability and performance, and tight security controls.

One of the key barriers to developer productivity has been the lack of integrated tools for database development and debugging. SQL Server provides advancements that fundamentally change the way that database applications are developed and deployed.

The challenge and promise of business intelligence revolves around providing employees with the right information, at the right time. Accomplishing this vision demands a business intelligence solution that is comprehensive, secure, integrated with operational systems, and available all day, every day.

SQL Server is part of the Windows Server System™ – a comprehensive and integrated server infrastructure that simplifies the development, deployment and operations of a flexible business solution. For more information about SQL Server and how to best implement this in your business, contact Digital Reach.

Network Administrators rely on the ability to manage desktops, and servers, within their IT environment through an automated process. To manage today’s Microsoft Windows enterprise relies on the ability for centralized system configuration, software deployment, desktop security, and desktop support.  Desktop Management means a network administrator can managed 1000 desktops just as easy as they can manage 3 desktops. By implementing a Desktop Management solution from Digital Reach, companies increase the efficiency of the administrator while providing end users with a workstation that is consistent and secure.

With all the configuration settings that make up a user’s workstation, management of individual machines can be a comprehensive task. Mapping drives, connecting printers, applying user policies, and creating email profiles, just to name a few, can task an IT department beyond their ability to sustain the everyday needs of the enterprise. A comprehensive desktop management solution can restore efficiency to a spread-thin IT department.

To learn more about Digital Reach’s Desktop Management Solutions, click here.

With the pressures to create more operating efficiencies while increase business growth and maintaining company profit, CIOs are re-evaluating their technology strategies. Successful CIOs see IT as a means to sustain and create new business innovation and with traditional, in-house IT departments this can damper innovation and efficiency. Strategy, planning and development are often pushed aside in favor of short-term fixes and the demands of day-to-day technology operations. With limited IT budgets, and increasing operations costs, CIOs must find a way to foster strategic innovation and top-notch IT infrastructure to support today’s business needs and requirements.

The Solution

CIOs are implementing IT infrastructure outsourcing and personnel strategies that can help them reduce costs, improve efficiencies, increase technology expertise, and drive new business capabilities.

Successful CIOs have recognized the enormous impact that IT can make on business growth, responsiveness, process effectiveness and cost efficiency.  They recognize that IT is no longer merely in place as a support factor but instead an efficiency driver. But what happens when your IT staff has reached the point of diminishing returns in regards to support, development, and innovation? By outsourcing areas of their business previously administered by their local IT department, CIOs can achieve economies of scale that they could not accomplish on their own.

CIOs are carefully analyzing their IT service delivery options by asking whether outsourcing IT is a viable option for their company or whether implementing an outsourcing or fractional outsourcing model is the way to go.  They are evaluating their in-house talent and resources and deciding if they have the necessary skills to handle new technologies. Companies can benefit from utilizing a combination of outsourcing with in-house staff to satisfy business needs and IT requirements.

Ask This Question

Does my IT organization have the means and resources to grow my enterprise? If not, Outsourcing ( or Fractional Outsourcing ) can help ensure your IT initiatives are on pace to achieve success.

To learn more about Digital Reach’s IT Outsourcing, Fractional Outsourcing, Managed Services or other IT solutions, call 972.381.4230 or click here to complete a consultation form.

Forrester Research recently reported that the majority, as high as 85 percent, of security breaches involve internal employees.  These include inadvertent employee error, laptop theft, contractor unauthorized access, disgruntled employees and password mismanagement.  These factors can have a drastic impact on revenue, liability, productivity and brand.

What are these threats and how can you avoid them?

Phishing

Phishing is an email that “looks” like the real thing but is far from it.  It is a means to gather trust from the receiver in hopes of collecting sensitive login information, banking account numbers, credit card numbers, and a host of other personal information including phone numbers, SSN numbers and addresses.

“These days a phishing attack is almost indistinguishable from the real thing,” says Paul Stamp of Forrester Research.

Employees mistakenly disclose confidential information including passwords and financial data to the attackers.  These internal employees are essentially opening a company up to criminal activity.

Laptop Theft

Leaving your laptop at the coffee shop, airport, hotel or restaurant can have greater consequences than merely being an inconvenience. The loss of a computer or data-storage device made up 54% of all identity theft-related data breaches in 2006 according to Symantec.

The theft can minimized should it occur.  Companies should require employees to protect their laptops with a startup password.  Also, deleting old emails, text messages and unwanted files should be put into practice.  It is also a good idea to make use of the device’s built-in encryption capabilities and password protection features.

Disgruntled Ex-Employees

Research has revealed that it can take up to 4 months to remove user rights of a former employee. Many IT administrators are simply too time-strapped to actively update users access and privileges. This delay can seriously endanger the security of mission-critical applications.

Digital Reach offers solutions that automate policy enforcement and delegate administration for user provisioning.  This helps maintain security levels while managing large numbers of users.

Missing Security Patches

Many IT administrators are simply too overburdened to ensure that they have the latest updates and patches in place for their systems.  As a result, viruses succeed in penetrating their IT environment.  If you are not up to date with the latest anti-virus detections, you  are clearly at risk for some of the latest threats.

Patch management solutions from Digital Reach can greatly ease the burden on today’s administrators.  These solutions automates system discovery, patch assessment, and patch installation on both workstations and servers.

Data Leakage

Joke emails, web link forwards, photos of friends and family not only hurt a companies productivity but can also serve to leak sensitive data.  Data leakage is primarily the result of malicious employee activities or more common, non-malicious employee error. The most innocent of correspondences can result in trouble. Example: an email message sent to a co-worker can offend leading to legal liability.

Installing strict usage policies can prohibit employees from sending sensitive information via insecure email.

A companies day-to-day business function is crippled when IT services fail.  Email goes down, access to file and print servers go down, and then you lose access to the Internet.  Higher up the chain, this delays a product or service launch, creates a customer service nightmare, or even creates bad press.  Not to mention the stress this puts on your employees.  In short, if your IT department spends most of their time struggling with routine IT services, then they will have no time to create better business technologies, better processes, or sharpen infrastructure goals.

The fundamental IT services that a business requires today and which an IT department delivers include desktop services such as email, back-office services such as storage, and mid-office services such as security.  Failure to deliver on just one of these initiatives can create a domino effect running enterprise-wide.  This is where outsourcing your IT services comes in.  The rationale behind outsourcing IT services is that instead of struggling inefficiently with these services internally, you can source them externally from an expert.  An expert who is keenly focused on a specific aspect of your total IT department’s responsibility. 

It is important to source the service from the right provider.  Companies should think about what services to keep in house and what IT services and processes are best to outsource for cost-cutting and efficiency reasons. 

If you want to know more about Digital Reach’s Managed Services offerings or what Digital Reach can do for your business, click here to schedule a consultation or call us at 972.381.4230.

In a recent release, Barracuda Networks, Inc., a leading provider of network security appliances, announced Barracuda Real-Time Protection.  Barracuda Real-Time Protection is a set of technologies that enable the Barracude Spam Firewall, a solution offered by Digital Reach Inc., to immediately block the latest virus, spyware, and other malware attacks as they emerge. This provides industry-leading response times to email-borne threats by adding a 3rd layer of antivirus protection to the Barracuda Spam Firewall.

“With the world’s largest installed base of more than 40,000 Barracuda Spam Firewalls in more than 80 countries, Barracuda Networks is uniquely positioned to detect early trends in email-borne threats” said Stephen Pao, vice president of product management for Barracuda Networks.  “By combining this early detection capability with real-time response, the Barracuda Spam Firewall delivers industry-leading virus and malware protection to organizations of all sizes.”

Barracuda Real-Time Protection is based on data collected from thousands of online resources and Barracuda Spam Firewalls across the internet.  The data is monitored and classified according to fingerprints.  These ‘fingerprints’ are detected by the Barracuda Spam Firewall and unknown fingerprints are submitted to the Barracuda Real-Time Protection Central where engineers monitor the Internet for the latest threats and deploy solutions 24×7 to stop them.

To discuss the Barracuda Spam Firewall and how it can significantly protect your company from outside attack, contact Digital Reach today!

More and more independent analysts and leading companies find that Microsoft Windows Server 2003 has stronger security, lower overall costs, better reliability and uptime, and better interoperability than Linux-based server operating systems.

Why Choose Microsoft Windows Server Over Linux-Based Alternatives?

Windows Server System is engineered to be familiar and easy-to-use. It has the ability to support a broad choice of applications and hardware devices with an emphasis on security, reliability, and consistent interoperability. Windows Server is an integrated and innovative software platform that enables a clear business advantage by delivering lower total costs, better price/performance, and greater developer, administrator, and end-user productivity than Linux-based alternatives.

At Digital Reach, we deploy and support reliable and interoperable server systems that enable you to minimize security risks and reduce operating costs. Our team of experts provide design, implementation, and security expertise to enhance the way you utilize and manage the servers that power your business.

Our experts can help you implement Microsoft Windows Server 2003, and we can help you achieve:

Greater reliability - Better security - Lower total cost of ownership - Increased interoperability

We bring the expertise to help you move your business forward with confidence.

Help increase your productivity and reduce your costs with a more secure, well-managed infrastructure.

Your IT infrastructure can help boost productivity, lower costs and complexity, and contribute more to the success of your business. Relying on integrated and familiar technologies like Microsoft System Center for systems management and the Microsoft Forefront family of security products, we can help you enhance your infrastructure and make your people and your company more secure and more efficient. 

Let us help you:

+ Improve Security. Get an optimized IT infrastructure that automatically helps identify, prevent, and respond to threats.

+ Simplify Infrastructure Management. Get a central management console that you and your people can access and utilize from virtually anywhere.

+ Reduce Costs and Complexity. Get the ability to centralize administration and local backup so your company invests less time managing complexity and security, and more time capitalizing on its increased efficiency.

+ Enhance Productivity. Ensure your infrastructure enables information workers to be more productive.

For more information about our specific solutions, contact Digital Reach Inc. today!

Security Messaging
Enhance your protection against spam, hackers, and viruses, using powerful and familiar Microsoft technologies, including the Microsoft Forefront family of security products. Stay focused on supporting the business- not worrying about your security.

Systems Management Messaging
Simplify the management of your infrastructure and make your business more efficient, using integrated and familiar Microsoft technologies including Microsoft System Center management products.