Computer Whisperer

Case Study: Cloud Computing

Stefan — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 23:07:54 +0000

Introduction

As a foundation client of Computer Whisperer, we have seen The Improve Group grow from strength to strength over the years. As Australasia’s Leading Productivity Improvement Provider, Bob and his team have always pushed for customer service and technology excellence. With an ever expanding team of coaches across Australia and New Zealand their IT Infrastructure needed to be reliable, flexible, and cost effective.

Challenges

Restricted office space for IT Infrastucture
Reduce PC maintenance
Increase asset lifecyle
More flexible Microsoft licensing
Server resources accessible for staff across Australia and New Zealand

Solutions

Replaced all onsite physical Servers with our Virtual Private Servers in our Data Centre
Replaced PCs with Dual-Screen Wyse Terminals
Renting Microsoft licenses on a month-to-month basis
Setup remote access via a secure web interface

Impact

Turned IT Infrastructure costs from CapExs to OpExs
Zero PC/workstation maintenance
Functional remote server access across Australia and New Zealand

Scheduled Maintenance

Stefan — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 02:06:44 +0000

Public Reminder For Customers

As per our previous emails to affected customers, we will be moving our hosting environment tonight between 6pm and 8pm.

Virtual servers and our website will be unaccessible between these times.

How the Cloud can save you money.

Stefan — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 07:56:03 +0000

Here’s a great video from PC Authority on how Cloud Services can save small businesses money.

iPhone Time Management Tips

Stefan — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 05:24:44 +0000

Had a great time at Peppers Ruffles Resort this morning helping a client get the most our of their iPhones. We covered:

Updates, Folders, Home screen apps
Outlook Task sync with ToodleDo
Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search
Voice4Mail
Evernote

Sony still under attack

Stefan — Sun, 22 May 2011 04:10:22 +0000

PlayStation Network password reset page closed over hacker fears.

The fur flies as Microsoft and Google punch it out again

Stefan — Sun, 22 May 2011 03:50:00 +0000

We’ve started looking at the Office 365 beta and found it very usable. Online versions of Word, Excel, etc are similar to Google Apps however Microsoft’s Sharepoint document management integration is more fluid.

Apple tightens it’s hardware further

Stefan — Tue, 17 May 2011 08:17:12 +0000

It looks like Apple is making it harder for “self-upgraders” who want to put larger drives in the new series of iMacs.

Could you suffer 6-9 hours of email downtime?

Stefan — Tue, 17 May 2011 00:29:51 +0000

Another feather in Google Apps’ cap.

Microsoft has apologised again to business customers for three outages that hit clients running Exchange on its Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) cloud.

So what have 77 Million Playstation users been doing for the past month?

Stefan — Tue, 17 May 2011 00:29:02 +0000

It has nearly been a month since Sony shut it’s Playstation Network down after what has been known as the biggest security breach of all time. Australian gamers should be back online by the end of the month. A recent system patch (3.61) was available to download indicating it’s not too far away.

Here’s the latest from ITNews.

Microsoft confirms Skype buy for US$8.5 billion

Stefan — Tue, 17 May 2011 00:28:09 +0000

Microsoft plans to buy Internet phone service Skype for US$8.5 billion in cash, a rich price as it seeks to regain ground on growing rivals such as Google.