IT Revolution

The IT Revolution is not here. It’s everywhere! Today there many different technologies that have changed the way we do business and as an MSP (Managed Service Provider) provide our services. There are so many different terms that we are bombard with now, thanks to all those marketing genius, we do not make sense of all them. Such terms as Green IT, Cloud Computing, Virtualization, It Outsourcing and Managed Services are used and nicely packaged for hungry high demand IT needs. All these terms are really many technologies that have been around for many years, but now have a fancy way of bring it to you.

What it all boils done to saving money, ease availability and use, lowering downtime and did I mention Saving Money. All business can benefit from the array services now available, even small business. There are many reasons to jump on the IT revolutions band wagon, but the most important reason to do so is because it is to your businesses benefit.

Why spend a bunch of money on equipment when you can pay as you grow. Virtualization of your office can lower your out-of pocket expense dramatically. It lowers your power bill (Green IT), hold your information in safe and secure area (Virtualization), need to increase your capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in infrastructure (Cloud Computing), and do not spend money on an IT staff because most problem can be handle via remote connection and with proper preparation in case a device goes down (MSP).

I must sound like a broken record at this point, but let us face facts in these economic times everyone is looking to cut cost and still grow their business. We all like sign and drive and fixed monthly payments. MSP’s are the future of IT staffing and IT support. MSP’s are here to stay and the services will only become more robust and less expensive as time goes on.
By Agustin Casero PatchNet

Digium launches 'app store' for Asterisk

Digium launches 'app store' for Asterisk: "

Ever since Apple adapted their wildly successfull iTunes music store to sell apps for the iPhone, technology vendors everywhere have been trying to find opportunities to replicate the innovation. Now Digium is launching AsteriskExchange--while not quite a true app store--it's a marketplace and reviews site for Asterisk's open source community.

The website will serve as a hub for the Asterisk open-source VoIP community including a place for users to review applications and phones. Developers can get exposure for their Asterisk-based applications and users can get the purchase info right from the site. At the moment it looks like AsteriskExchange is not actually doing any selling itself, but instead directs users to vendor sites who sell the products. The site has a number of tabs including a 'most popular' tab. Currently, the Bria softphone app is at the top of the list, but with no reviews or star ratings yet, I am not sure how they are determining the popularity. It will be interesting in the future to see what apps end up the top of the list when more users access the site.

Unlike other app stores, AsteriskExchange also includes some hardware that you can learn about, review, and connect to sellers to get your equipement. Clicking on the Snom 360 deskphone will bring to an info page and an offsite link to 'Buy Now.'

For more:
- read this article from Connected Planet

Related articles
IBM and Digium add Asterisk VoIP calling to Smart Cube
Dialogic, Digium team on media gateway interoperability
Digium targets Latin America, South Africa with sales partnership

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Swing Your Energy - Mobile Phone Battery Charger System by Song Teaho & Hyejin Lee » Yanko Design

Swing Your Energy - Mobile Phone Battery Charger System by Song Teaho & Hyejin Lee » Yanko Design

RunCore's 100GB Pro V solid state drive gets benchmarked, loved

RunCore's 100GB Pro V solid state drive gets benchmarked, loved: "

RunCore's had a thing for delivering high-speed, enthusiast-level SSDs, and if you managed to pass right over the Pro IV, you may find the urge linked to the Pro V a bit too much to resist. TweakTown was able to spend some quality time with the device, which includes a SandForce 1500 controller and low(er)-cost MLC flash. Without getting into the dirty-dirty (trust us, you'll find plenty of charts in the source below), we'll pass along the following note: 'we feel comfortable saying that the Pro V will be the enthusiast SSD to which all others will be compared to for the first half of 2010.' Of course, with the speed worries behind us, the only question remaining is cost -- which always seems to best the case with SSDs. We're told that it'll cost more than the Barefoot-powered Pro IV, but with competition in the market heating up, hopefully the MSRP won't sting too badly.

RunCore's 100GB Pro V solid state drive gets benchmarked, loved originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 Jan 2010 10:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Best Buy's 'Optimization' Is Officially a Huge, Evil Scam [Scams]

Best Buy's 'Optimization' Is Officially a Huge, Evil Scam [Scams]: "

Best Buy's computer optimization service costs $40 and promises to double the speed of your computer. They push it hard, so hard that you're often forced to get it against your wishes. The trouble? It makes computers slower.

If you've ever bought a computer from Best Buy, you've doubtlessly been pitched an optimization. And you may have even been forced to buy a model already 'optimized' against your wishes, as they have a practice of opening up a sizable percentage of laptops, performing the service, then sealing them back up. Want to buy this advertised laptop? Oops, only pre-optimized models are left! That'll be $40 over the advertised price, please.

That would be a slimy enough practice if the service was actually beneficial, but a new Consumerist investigation shows that the 'service' is actually damaging, slowing down new computers by an average of 32%.

What exactly are they doing to these computers to warrant a $40, then?

Upon comparing the optimized changes, the first noticeable change was a cleaner desktop. Most of the removed shortcuts were for trials, promotions and software added by the manufacture. The programs themselves were still installed and available for later access. Updates had been downloaded on all three models, but differences in the factory default setup can affect how the system is optimized. On one laptop, for example, because Windows Defender was deactivated by default, its definitions had not been updated.

Some optimization changes seemed intended to make the laptop easier to use, such as adding the status bar to the file explorer, or displaying the file menu bar in Internet Explorer. Including a link to the Downloads folder in the Start menu, for example, can save you a few clicks. Security settings were adjusted to allow for automatic Windows updates, and in Internet Explorer, privacy settings were eased up to allow websites you visit to save info you provide on your PC.

Yes, Best Buy is charging $40 to delete shortcuts from your desktop. They don't delete the actual bloatware, just the shortcuts that let you know what bloatware is there. And they download updates for you. Good lord.

Oh, and did I mention that after one of the optimizations, the Geek Squad forgot to put the power cable back in the box? Oops!

Why is Best Buy being so crazy aggressive about rip-off services like optimization? Well, it's no secret that they make almost all of their money off of accessories like HDMI cables, extended warranties and services like this. Most of the products they sell have razor-thin margins, meaning they'll make three times as much profit selling you a Monster Cable than an LED LCD TV. And services like optimizations? Almost pure profit.

But that doesn't make such anti-consumer behavior acceptable. Pre-optimizing new laptops is a downright scummy behavior, and completely contradicts their claims that it's a mere choice and not something customers are forced into. If Best Buy is going to continue to push these expensive services, they need to make sure that it's always a choice for customers. They also need to make clear that it, you know, actually does something useful. [Consumerist]

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AT&T Takes Step Toward Landline Phase-Out

AT&T Takes Step Toward Landline Phase-Out: "The estimated one in five people who rely solely on landlines for their phone service better think about leaping into the 21st century before too much longer.In a response to an FCC inquiry about the future of all-IP telecommunications, AT&T said it wanted to see requirements to support a wireline network to go the way of the Dodo. The phone ... (171 words)"