The cloud model is the result of the creative reimagining of several technologies, most notably virtualization. It takes advantage of the widespread availability of high-bandwidth Internetworking, and grid-like scalability of hardware and software, all fueled by the availability of commoditized (i.e. affordable) infrastructure. This has enabled the realization of a true services-focused approach to IT that can offer a level of flexibility and responsiveness not easily attainable through the traditional route.

On the surface, this addresses many of the IT-related complaints of the frustrated business user. In addition, barriers to access are low, and the cloud provides an instant alternative to anyone with a credit card. This is unlike traditional IT models where cost (if apportioned at all) is often essentially a “tax” over which users have little or no control.

In this case, cost is based on real usage, meaning if a business doesn’t use the service, it doesn’t have to pay for it. The net of this is that we are at the precipice of a major transition in IT that is likely to dwarf those of the past. The critical question: Is IT ready for this?

A recent GlassHouse survey of more than 100 enterprise IT professionals suggests that many are not ready. In fact, when asked where they were in development/deployment of a cloud strategy, 31 percent said they had established a strategy or had a proof of concept underway while 69 percent were either still in the investigation stage or had no plans.

The most common reasons cited for not having a cloud strategy were related to security concerns, data recovery and ownership issues — and simply being too busy with other activities.

While all are valid issues, none are insurmountable. For example, in the area of security, the capabilities and expertise of major cloud providers — with many years of experience in the cold, cruel world of the public Internet — exceed that found within many organizations. The challenge is weeding out the true barriers from the excuses that simply justify saying “no.”

Traditional IT vs. a Cloud Service Provider

The concept of delivering a services-based approach to IT has been with us years. Its focus has been on clear definitions of service requirements (service level agreements and service catalogs), measurement and reporting, consumption-based cost models, and mature (ITIL-influenced) operational practices — all goals for some of the leading IT organizations.

However, evolving to this level of service delivery has not been easy, and for some organizations, the goal of becoming a true service provider proved to be too difficult — a worthy goal, but a bridge too far.

As a result, a majority of organizations remain heavily techno-centric, focused on building reliable infrastructures and relying heavily on vendors for technical direction. Although it’s becoming less common, many IT shops still operate on a project-focused, quasi-customized model that does not lend itself to the responsiveness and flexibility being demanded by the business.

By contrast, in a cloud, it’s once again all about service delivery, or more specifically, automated service delivery. Cloud providers leverage technology to provide standardized offerings that can be self-selected and automatically provisioned. This enables dramatic scalability and allows IT staff to focus on other tasks required to support the cloud, including developing and improving activities related to

• Orchestration, configuration and lifecycle management;
• Demand planning, capacity management and forecasting;
• Metering and analytics
• Customer management, including SLA reporting and accounting.

It’s notable that these areas are where IT often lacks focus or demands modification of an effort that is currently in place. Rest assured, there are plenty of vendors of all sizes working on cloud tool suites to address these gaps.

Making the Transition

The cloud era is upon us. As newer, non-IT-sponsored, mobile devices have pervaded the workforce and IT has been forced to respond, the cloud genie is out of the bottle. Unlike the mobile revolution, which impacts the organization at its periphery, the cloud goes straight to the heart of IT — the data center.

Without being alarmist, it has the potential, from a central IT perspective, to become outsourcing on steroids. It’s entirely plausible that just as organizations transitioned primarily from a build-to-buy model for enterprise software 20 years ago, the conversation for IT services across the board will become cloud vs. non-cloud very soon. In fact, it’s already started for a number of organizations, and a strong rationale will be needed to justify the latter.

The reality for most organizations is that a hybrid model will evolve, and traditional IT, private cloud and public cloud will coexist. IT organizations need to adopt a proactive view and develop a clear plan not only to manage, but also to lead this change.

In addition to traditional IT capabilities in areas such as asset management, provisioning, and plan, build, run project cycles, IT needs to focus on providing a portfolio of hybrid services obtained from a variety of sources, but integrated and managed under a common services umbrella.

Initial steps that should be taken by IT focus on the cloud and developing a focused strategy with an evolutionary road map for how and when cloud-related elements will be adopted. Specific activities should include the following:

• Developing a clear understanding of cloud technologies and capabilities — There are numerous cloud technology variants and, within those variants, numerous vendor options. Understanding the capabilities and determining which are most relevant for a given organization is a critical step.
• Identifying which environments in the organization are most “cloud compatible” — Basically, “know thyself.” If concerns about off-premises control of data are a major impediment, then it is important to identify those functions that are not likely to be subject to such constraints. Application-readiness is another major area of cloud focus, as some lend themselves to a cloud approach more so than others.
• Documenting existing service delivery costs — A big driver for cloud interest is cost containment, but few organizations have a clear understanding of how much it costs to deliver a service on a per-unit basis. This is a metric that becomes critical for doing an apples-to-apples comparison to a cloud alternative.
• Quantifying the potential benefits from cloud services — Understanding benefits and tradeoffs beyond the cost impact an equally important analysis that must be done when considering a cloud option.
• Improving organizational readiness for cloud services — Becoming a successful provider of services requires capabilities to handle things like automated provisioning and more accurate demand management. This will entail new or different roles and responsibilities within the organization, which must be developed.

Based on this list, transitioning to a cloud model doesn’t sound easy, but the status quo isn’t really a viable option, because it is becoming increasingly unable to adequately satisfy 21st century business demands.

The frustration expressed by my colleague can only be truly resolved by establishing common, aligned objectives between IT and its consumers and providing a transparent, service-oriented set of capabilities. The best road for doing that is via the cloud model, and the sooner that IT realizes this, the better.

The concept of what “The Cloud” truly is and why everyone is rushing to get there can be intimidating to some. Our technical team can help simplify these concepts and explain their extensive benefits to you. Orange County Computer offers custom Cloud Computing Solutions for Small to Mid-Market companies. From single hosted applications to completely virtual environments, we offer custom designed virtual environments unique to your organization. Contact a member of our Technical Team to schedule a Free Network Evaluation at 949-699-6619 or email sales@orangecountycomputer.com for more information.

Has your IT Provider locked down your company network and disappeared? Do you believe that your In-House IT Guy is talking over your head to direct your focus away from their incompetencies?

Orange County Computer receives frequent phone calls from frustrated business owners inquiring about our services and how they can phase-out their existing In-House IT Guy or Outsourced IT Vendor who is holding them hostage. Many times they are contacting us in secret so a member of our team can relinquish administrative rights to that company network and give the business owner the rightful access to their company that they deserve. The technology industry isn’t safeguarded against the unsavory professional that falls short of basic business ethics. It’s important to choose wisely who you entrust with your company data, financial information and intellectual property and client contacts.

Here are a few tips when either transitioning or hiring a Technology Service Provider for the first time:

1)   Ask for both previous and current references – It is important to confirm how both current and past clients rate service and professionalism.

2)   Verify partnerships or certifications that you are hiring the vendor for. For example, if you are running or want to run in a Microsoft Server Operating System Environment, it would be wise to confirm that the company is qualified and certified to help you or obtain support services in mission critical situations.

3)  Confirm exactly how many employees the IT Vendor has on staff. Lack of staffing resources during mission critical times can cost clients thousands of dollars in lost revenue.

4)  Personally visit the location of the business you are hiring to work for you. It is important to know where your IT Vendor conducts business. This may help to confirm or rule out a possible candidate. A “one man show” working from home might not align with the needs of your organization.

The team at Orange County Computer hopes this information has been useful. If you have found this blog post and your network is currently being held hostage by your IT Vendor, we are here to help.

Contact our Tech Team at 949-699-6619 or reach us via email at support@orangecountycomputer.com

It’s unfortunate, but computer hardware is bound to fail at some point…

Here are the Top 10 Data Disasters of 2011:

1. Triple whammy: When a lightning strike caused a fire that sent a famous Caribbean island home up in smoke, the computer servers were burned and then doused with water by the fire squad. The media then corroded while the building sat idle until it was safe to re-enter. In the end, the triple whammy of a lightning strike, fire and water damage was overcome in the Level 3 Data Recovery Center.
2. Doggy eat dog world: A man encouraged his girlfriend to back up her photo library, which contained thousands of high-resolution photos from her photo studio. She diligently moved the data from her laptop to an external hard drive, and unfortunately that became the only good copy. A friend then pulled into the driveway and the couple went out to meet her, but not before the hyper, happy family dog heard someone at the door and came tearing out from underneath the table where the drive is sitting. The drive went crashing to the floor, damaging the only good copy of this data
3. A little piece of history: A freelance photographer happened to be with a camera in the midst of the recent London riots. Some rioters saw they were being filmed and opted to smash the camera in order to destroy the potentially incriminating evidence. The camera made its way to the Level 3 Data Recovery Center where 100 percent of the data and the video footage was recovered and supplied to the police.
4. In the safe not on the safe: To avoid arriving late to a business meeting, an IT person opted to put a tape drive on top of the waterproof safe instead of inside it. Within an hour of doing so, the city was struck by a powerful earthquake and the tape was knocked to the ground. Then, the premises was engulfed by mud, water and sand. The tape looked unrecoverable, but the Level 3 Data Recovery Center proprietary tape recovery technology was able to recover 100 percent of the data, which included one year of TV and web animations.
5. Smoking kills: A newly hired security guard was doing his first evening security check in a chemical ingredients warehouse. While he was informed that smoking is forbidden, he pondered who could possibly spot him enjoying a cigarette after company hours. After it was lit, the fire alarm sounded and prompted the anti-fire sprinkler system. All the electronic equipment included 44 desktops and two servers were flooded.
6. Sunken business deal: Two businessmen met in a pub to discuss their future deal over a beer. The server accidently knocked over one of the glasses she was delivering, soaking the laptop which contained the business plans. A paper towel was not enough to save the laptop and its important deal files.
7. End of month disaster: A corporate accounting department stayed late to reconcile the books for the month. While rejuvenating on a coffee break, a power outage occurred. All of the computers shut down including financial server. Luckily the department’s computers were connected to UPS. However, the continual brewing of their cups of java drained the UPS battery, resulting in a crashed server.
8. Magnetic attraction: A laptop was set down on a desk near some rare earth magnets. The earth magnets came into contact with the laptop and when the user went to turn on the machine, it did not boot up all the way and there was a clicking noise. While there was physical damage to the platters, proprietary techniques overcame the damage and the data was recovered.
9. Virtual reality: To increase system performance, an IT administrator split the C and D partition of his virtual server across two different systems. Running out of space, the admin needed to rush and consolidate C and D onto the same system. Not knowing that the same naming convention already existed on the target system, he copied over the important data set.
10. Bad image: An actor deleted her entire portfolio including her model card samples and recent pictures by accidently selecting the wrong externally attached USB drive using the MAC disk utility program. Our Level 3 Data Recovery Center was able to recover her image entirely.

Our Certified Data Recovery Specialists at Orange County Computer have found that companies are not testing their data storage hardware or disaster recovery plans. We urge clients to test backups and schedule weekly backups at a mimimum in the event of a catastrophic data loss. Wisely choose a Data Recovery Provider to work with in the unlikely event that your company needs to retrieve data.

Common Precursors of Data Loss Events:

• Human Error
• Storage Hardware Failure
• IT disaster recovery plan that is weak or not exercised regularly
• Overconfidence in a SAN Storage redundancy
• Corrupted or unreadable backups or archives of missing data

Jumpstart the New Year with a Free Network Evaluation. Contact our Technical Support Center at 949-699-6619, via email at support@orangecountycomputer.com, or visit our site for more information at www.orangecountycomputer.com.

The Data Storage market has become inundated with anything and everything from flash drives to single external drives to 12 Bay Rack Mount hardware storage devices. How do you decipher which Data Storage Solution will meet your needs?

DROBO makes award winning data storage products for small to mid-market businesses and individuals that delivers “Big Storage in a Small Box” to create a simplified and reliable solution.

There are several difference configuration scenarios designed to meet the needs of multiple industries, both big and small.

What Is a Drobo?

Hard drives get full and wear out. A single drive failure can lose your data. Not so with Drobo.

Meet your new storage solution, the safe and expandable Drobo. It’s so simple that anyone can use it, yet powerful enough for business. Drobo connects to your computer or network and provides redundant data protection without the complexities of traditional RAID.

Incomparable Expandability

With Drobo, buy just the storage you need now and change it as your data grows. Mix and match drive brands, capacities, and speeds. Replace your smallest drive with a larger one and immediately use the new capacity in a matter of seconds, not hours! It’s a simple as inserting the new drive into the slot. Expand up to 24 TB on a single volume as larger drive sizes become available. Drobo creates one large storage pool. Dive in and eliminate the need for multiple external storage drives and devices.

Storage on your Terms

Safety access and quick access go hand in hand with Drobo. Whether you’re directly attached to your personal computer, sharing files with others over the network, or backing up a business application—Drobo’s the best choice.

Drobo connects to Mac, Windows, Linux, and server virtualization systems with ease. Everyone can take advantage of simple, powerful, and complete Drobo data protection.

Plug In Peace of Mind

Just plug in Drobo and your data protection is ready. Add disks at any time for additional protected capacity. Drobo can even solve problems by itself. Lights on the front tell you what’s happening—if you can read a traffic light, you’re already a Drobo expert.

Take a look at how the lights on the front work on a four-bay Drobo. They work the same way on all Drobo models.

Contact a member of our Data Storage Team today for pricing and configuration at  949-699-6619 or via email: sales@orangecountycomputer.com

Technology Services are critically important to the success or failure of an organization!

The current economic climate has led to the closure and/or consolidation of thousands of companies in recent years. Companies continue to scale down operating expenses and reduce unjustified “fluff” as they ride out the remainder of the economic storm.  Across industries, particularly with Small Businesses, technology infrastructure and services (Desktops, Servers, Software Application Management, Remote Monitoring, Managed Services, IT Solutions, Data Storage and Disaster Prevention) continues to be viewed by some as expense “fluff”.  However, implementing the right technology solution can actually enable staff workload to be downsized, enable future growth of business in remote offices and increase the profitability of a company, rather than drain the operating budget! Ensure that your organization will thrive by investing in Technology Support Services. Don’t view Technology Support as an expense, but rather as an investment into the long-term success of your company. The necessity for business productivity is not an expense to cut. The right Technology Solutions Provider can access the needs of a company and identify a more cost effective approach that meets the needs of a company. This inevitably will reduce the “fluff”. Processes can be streamlined and a more efficient way to perform daily tasks will be revealed. This would decrease work hours for assigned tasks and enable staff to be more productive. Increased productivity typically generates more revenue, thus the outcome is mutually beneficial.

The correct Technology Solution may also allow for future growth of your company within other geographical locations. Remote offices can access and share files with the main office. This functionality will allow for new sales opportunities and provide a company with additional growth!

Service Providers such as Medical and Dental Practices often have a tough time justifying technology expenses. Ironically, with the recent added EHR or EMR requirements, if a medical or dental practice was to experience a Network Failure, the consequences could be catastrophic. A small investment in Technology Infrastructure and Maintenance can save thousands of dollars each day that an office is not operating at full-capacity.

We must ask this question…How much money would YOUR company lose if your office network was down or if your company data was lost and unrecoverable? What value do you place on intellectual property and client contact information? What monetary fines would be imposed upon your company by Federal or State Regulating Entities for technical non-compliance?

If you want to ensure that your company is properly equipped with a technology solution that meets the needs and goals and compliance requirements of your organization, contact the infrastructure specialists at Orange County Computer and a member of our team will be happy to help. Contact us to schedule a complimentary Network Evaluation or Compliance Assessment today at 949-699-6619. We are happy to help!

By: Joseph F. Kovar CRN

Western Digital late Thursday night said that the rebooting of its Thailand hard drive manufacturing (in the wake of devastating floods in that country), has commenced earlier than expected.

However, Western Digital echoed rival Seagate’s warning from earlier this week that hard drive supplies will remain constrained through at least the first half of 2012.

The company has also moved manufacturing equipment for sliders, a key hard drive component for hard drives, from that facility for decontamination, and expects slider production there to restart during the first quarter of 2012 at about the same time it plans to open a similar facility in Malaysia.

Other Western Digital facilities in Thailand are still under about two feet of water, and refurbishment will commence after they are pumped dry, which the company estimated will take another 10 days.

Rising prices and supply chain uncertainty from the Thailand flooding have already started to adversely impact the storage industry as a whole.

Orange County Computer is a Microsoft Certified Team that offers cost effective disaster prevention solutions, data storage and data management solutions. We encourage our clients to be proactive in protecting valuable data before ensuing catastrophic data loss.

Contact a member of our Disaster Prevention Team to learn more information about preventing Hard Drive failures, implementing an Offsite Backup Solution and more! Call our offices at 949-699-6619, submit email inquiries to support@orangecountycomputer.com , or visit our site http://orangecountycomputer.com to speak to a LIVE Technical Specialist.

Orange County Computer is supporting South County Outreach in helping to feed families in South Orange County by sponsoring a Holiday Food Drive!

MOST NEEDED HOLIDAY FOODS

Stuffing · Cranberry Sauce · Boxed Potatoes
Gravy · Green Beans · Cream of Mushroom Soup
Yams · Broth · Canned Milk · Pumpkin

Customers that bring in 2 cans or more will

Receive $10 off of their computer repair bill!

 About South County Outreach

Founded in 1989, South County Outreach is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping low income families in South Orange County. SCO helps those in crisis reach self-sufficiency by providing the following services: food pantry, rental and utility    assistance, homeless prevention counseling and coaching, transitional housing,   computer learning lab, thrift store and seasonal programs. For more information about how you can donate your time or resources, contact them directly at 949-380-3798.

Thank you for your support!

“Preventing Hunger and Homelessness…
…Helping People Help Themselves”

21092 Bake Parkway Suite#100, Lake Forest, CA 92630 (949) 699-6619

Recent surges in identity theft calls for an increase in online consumer identity protection.

Anti-Virus Integration

If your computer gets a virus; it’s not something a little lie-down and a bowl of chicken soup is going to fix.

Note: Computer viruses are similar to real flu virus in which they are always working around the clock to acclimate to new security updates and patches.

That’s why your computer’s anti-virus should always be renewed immediately after your subscription expires to ensure that you have the latest security updates and patches.
And now, a look at how you can have your own back:

Plugin Check

Plugins like Flash, QuickTime and Java can make your computer vulnerable if not up to date. Check and update them regularly with our Plugin Check for happy computers and safe browsing.

Customized Security Settings

Depending on how comfortable and confident you are with your virus prevention, take a look at what your browser of choice provides for you on security settings. You can change these settings to your preference to accommodate for children that share computers with the household etc.

Secure Passwords

Hopefully none of your online passwords are “password.” And hopefully you didn’t just answer, “why not?” And hopefully you’ve chosen as strong a password as possible.

Choosing more secure passwords will help keep your identity safe on the internet. Here are a few tips to start with:

1. Take a moment to think of a phrase that’s meaningful to you. Use that phrase to create a secure password that you can customize for each website you visit. (Ex: Hihas4ei)
2. Add special characters. (Ex: #Hihas4ei)
3. Associate it with a website. (Ex: fCb#Hihas4ei: for Facebook)

While this technique lets you reuse the phrase-generated part of the password on a number of different websites, it would still be a bad idea to use it on a site like a bank account which contains high-value information. Sites like that deserve their own password selection phrase.

The Tech Team at Orange County Computer, wants to help you protect your confidential financial and personal information from hackers.

We keep ourselves up to date on the latest information on how our customers and keep their information secure. For more tips to keep your information secure, you can visit our site, www.orangecountycomputer.com, call our Tech Repair Center: 949-699-6619, or email us support@orangecountycomputer.com.

 Since the recent disastrous flooding in Thailand, reports of 14,000 factories have been shut down.

Western Digital faced major damages to their factories and has announced a temporary shutdown, bringing panic to the PC industry and is a direct concern to the pricing on consumer PC and Repair. “You’ll start to see PC makers increase prices for some products. So indirectly, consumers will face some higher prices because of higher Hard Disc Drive prices,” said John Rydning, a Vice President of research at IDC.

IDC is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology markets.

The prices for many several types and sizes of drives in both retail stores and online have already begun to skyrocket.

For example, the average price of Western Digital’s 1.5TB Caviar Green series desktop drive has shot up from $162 to $280 over the past five days. The average price of a Toshiba’s 1TB Canvio Basics external drive has gone from $109 to about $115 in the same period.

Coincidentally, Western Digital’s 250GB and 500GB Black Drives have been placed on strict purchase reserve at Retail Stores, while online, vendors are either completely out or have raised prices to weed out large purchases in attempt to keep what little inventory they have in stock until they are notified of a restock date by manufacturers. An official restock date has not been released yet.

Here’s how we can help:

Given the uncertainty of hard drive availability, we would strongly recommend replacing any desktop/laptop drives that are starting to show signs of failure SOONER rather than LATER and risk having to pay more for a drive. The situation in Thailand, combined with China’s rare earth supply cuts, could impact the price of hard drives causing a huge jump in pricing to a record high in the next three months.

The Team at Orange County Computer provides alternative cost effective solutions even during times of disaster.

Before you are faced with an unanticipated disaster, call us now to see how you can prevent Hard Drive failure; implement Offsite Backup to protect your data, and more! You can reach our Tech Repair center via phone @ 949-699-6619, email us @ support@orangecountycomputer.com & and visit our site http://orangecountycomputer.com to speak to a LIVE Technician.

Most companies and organizations have some kind of backup solution for their data. The question is, does yours?

Even if you currently backup data to a dedicated server, external hard drive, or tape, your data may be at risk in the event of disaster unless it’s safely and securely stored off-site.

That’s where Orange County Computer can help. We wanted to introduce you briefly to a few facts about us that you may want to consider in light of your current backup plan.

OCC Onsite Backup capabilities:

• We know data! We backup your computers and/or servers every day effortlessly and automatically.
• Your data is safe with OCC Offsite Backup.
  • You can back up your data to a local device on-site and to our off-site data centers (no fees for local copy)
  • You can Restore your entire system (exact image of your system)
• Businesses of all sizes trust OCC Offsite Backup.
• We serve more than 1000 organizations from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses, non-profits, and everything else in between.
• OCC Offsite Backup enables users to select specific files, entire folders or systems to back up to our off-site data centers.
• Retrieval Speed is noted at one of the fastest in the industry.
• Offsite Backup Solutions is simple to use, secure, and affordable. Offsite Backup Solutions saves you time and money with no hardware to buy and little management required. OCC Offsite Backup includes 24/7, U.S.-based support.
• Our world-class data centers use military-grade encryption (128 or 256) and follow HIPPA guidelines.

NO hardware to buy!

NO cables to connect!

NO training required!

Orange County Computer’s low price is just one solution that saves money with the deliverance of value to your business. You can access your data anytime, anywhere with a computer that has access to internet, so you can travel with your information.

A surprising majority of small businesses do not have a reliable backup system.

SO START TODAY by contacting our Technician Center @ 949-699-6619, email our team support@orangecountycomputer.com, and visit our website to find out more details on how to start your new backup plan.