One point to note with Windows 7 launch is the confusion about the upgrade process and compatibility with business networks and domains.  Below is a graphic from Microsoft’s website detailing the Windows 7 upgrade & install process.

Use this chart to determine whether you should do an upgrade or custom (clean) installation.

UPGRADE TO:		Windows 7 Home Premium	Windows 7 Professional	Windows 7 Ultimate
Windows XP, all editions
Windows Vista Home Basic
Windows Vista Home Premium
Windows Vista Business
Windows Vista Ultimate

Upgrade available Custom (clean) install required

To upgrade an earlier operating system than Windows XP (for example, Windows 95 or Windows 2000) you will need to purchase a full license of Windows 7 and perform a custom installation.

Speaking with several clients we still hear some misconceptions about upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 and upgrading from Vista to Windows 7.

Windows XP – Home and Professional Versions

As noted in the info above you cannot perform and in place upgrade from any version of Windows XP to Windows 7.  That means you will need to save data from the Windows XP install to an external drive and then install Windows 7, which will erase everything on the disk including Windows XP and all the data.  This is the same as upgrading or migrating form Windows XP to Windows Vista.

Windows Vista upgrade to Windows 7

With Vista you can perform in-place upgrades to Windows 7.  This means you simply insert the WIndows 7 installation media, CD, DVD, and upgrade with a valid license to start using Windows 7.  The graphic above shows the different versions of Vista and the upgrade options to Windows 7.  One nice thing Microsoft did was to change the names back to the Windows XP version names of Home and Professional editions.

So there is not any confusion for business users, Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate may be joined to a Windows server domain.  Windows 7 Home Premium, the only home edition, cannot be joined to a business network Windows domain.

Windows 7 easily works great for home as well as business users.  The professional and Ultimate editions of WIndows 7 may be joined to your Windows business network domain, including SBS, with ease.  It is a solid alternative to XP and Vista and provides compatibility with older Windows XP programs if needed.  One other point to note when looking to upgrade or change to Windows 7 is to make sure you get the correct version regarding business use as well as 32 bit or 64 bit for your hardware and programs.

Let us know if you are interested in upgrading or moving to Windows 7 computers for your business network.  We can help. Indianapolis computer service provided by L5 Solutions.

Email is still at the core of business communications providing exchange of information and documents.  However, document sharing and collaboration has taken on its own specialized applications, servers and platforms.  The biggest concern with collaboration is security and tracking.  In a previous post I wrote about Google Wave and their push to expand collaboration beyond document sharing to live sharing of ideas, text, photos, media… a digital conversation really.  Microsoft has been in this arena for some time and has an established solution in its SharePoint brand.  SharePoint services and SharePoint Portal Server allow for extremely customizable online sharing of documents, projects, teams and more.

Exchange Server 2010 - Unified Communications, archiving, flexibility, data protection and more

Unified communications was a big buzzword several years ago; however, lately it is not thrown around in the media as much as it used to be but it is in practice at most businesses.  In fact Microsoft’s upcoming next version of it ubiquitous Exchange Server 2010 touts unified communications as one of it core features.  Unified communications allows for multiple communication channels to funnel to one platform to access, send and receive email and voicemail.

The recurring themes in this post and many of my previous posts are security and access to content.  As we’ve been hearing with cloud computing and hosted applications (Software as a Service – SaaS) security is an issue that is not fully addressed.  I recently read that even Amazon admits the platform is not compliant to store credit card numbers (EC2 and S3)…  In fact Amazon has come back to clarify their position on security in the cloud after the initial comments.  Hosted Exchange mail with Outlook Anywhere was the first widely accepted hosted solution.  It offers some good features for different businesses: remote access, web interface, mobile device integration, and more.  But there are some industries that cannot  (due to laws, regulation, compliance policies) move their entire organization’s mail to a hosted mail server.  So security will continue to be an issue that will garner much attention from the developers, CIOs & other executives, the media and the tech community.

Accessibility to data and ease of that access is the other theme that seems to play out in many solutions to business need and vision.  Users want to access their documents from the mobile device, whether it is a BlackBerry, iPhone, Palm Pre, etc…  They want to document and data to look and function the same on that mobile device (which is really a very powerful mini computer) as it does on their laptop and their desktop.  Something we’ve overcome for business recently was offering not just the ability to view data on mobile devices, but actually manipulate data, run applications and utilize the full functionality of the application from the mobile device.

I’ll trail off on that note for now.  There is so much common ground on the vision and implementation of technology driving business today.  Business evolves, and the businesses that adopt the right technology will reap its rewards…  waxing philosophic about technology, although, I am an engineer

One thing all successful small businesses do is focus on their core and find other companies to take care of everything else.  It really does make sense when you think about it.  Instead of hiring a person to cut the grass, develop marketing materials, maybe even do your accounting or handle your business computers, servers and other technology why not get an expert to take care of all these other items.  It seems the initial realization of the cost of the venture often puts small business owners off to the idea.  Why would I pay a market branding expert to come in and do something I certainly could do myself (if only I could find the time…?).  Well, maybe you could learn all the necessary knowledge that goes into the art of understanding how to get people to remember your logo, services, etc, but you could also spend that time learning more about your own business, refining processes or better yet spend time away from work.  If you think of it as the time taken away from helping your core business then it usually does not make sense to perform the tasks yourself or in-house.  In the case above even if you spent a good deal of time researching marketing and branding it would not even be a drop in the bucket compared to a branding expert.  So yes you could most certainly create a brand and send it to market, but it most likely would not be nearly as effective as the expert.

So, why then do many small business owners, (CEOs, CFOs, presidents) and small business executives want to try to manage and administer their small business servers, computers, mobile devices, printers, networks, routers, firewalls, etc…?  Is it more secure to do it yourself?  Probably not.  Is it faster to do it yourself?  Probably not.  Is it more fun to do it yourself?  Probably not. Is it less expensive (cheaper) to do it yourself.  Probably not.

That’s right; it’s probably not less expensive for you to manage your own business computers. What else can you being doing while you are trying to fix, update and manage your small business computer?  Talking with customers, calling on new leads and potential customers, focusing on your vision and future growth for the business…  With the switch of some specialized computer support service companies to managed services, a fixed monthly fee for all your computer support, you could focus on driving your business and growing revenue.  The monthly fixed cost allows you to easily manage technology costs and plan your budget.  So not only can you spend your time running your business but you can reduce the costs associated with your computer system and network being down (employee wages, missed email and other communications, lost data, etc) because the manage service provider is incentified to keep your systems up and running.

So now you’re focused on growing your business, defining vision, planning for the next 6 months, year, 5 years, etc…  You can also get some great help from an outsourced CTO or CIO – Chief Information Officer or Chief Technology Officer.  Some specialist IT advisors do offer these services to help you plan and budget for future technology/software upgrades/purchases, technology utilization and optimization, and business trends within technology to get you on top and keep you there.  There are things we all do and then there are things we do well.  Let’s all focus on the things we do well and see how your business revenue grows from the expertise.

You can find out more about our CIO advisors as well as computer IT support services.

That’s right, essentially every computer I’ve seen in the past 3 years that has a peer-to-peer file sharing program on it with free downloaded music, movies, etc has many very dangerous trojans and rootkits on it also.  The most popular one I keep encountering is Limewire.  You may not think it is a big deal that your kids (or you) are downloading some free music from the Internet but is that the same computer you use to connect to your company network using vpn?  Or send out emails on your work or personal account?  Or do your online banking or bill paying?   More often than not the home computer doubles as the after hours work computer.

peer-to-peer P2P file sharing software commonly infects computers with malware (viruses, worms, rootkits, etc.)

Maybe you still don’t think it is a big deal.  Do you know what many of these trojans and rootkits do?  They open up a backdoor to your computer from the Internet without you knowing it; allowing others to fully control your computer, gather data & passwords and infect your computer with more malware, viruses, etc., and  here is another reason Limewire may be a bad idea to have on your system.  Not only do you risk having your identity stolen, losing data and delivering viruses to your friends, family, coworkers and customers but often your computer becomes so slow that you need to have your computer rebuilt or buy a new home computer.  Some of the first scenarios have intangible costs but replacing or rebuilding a computer is several hundred dollars and a whole lot of your time to get it back with all your software customizations and applications installed.

You may want to forgo the free music and sign up with iTunes or another inexpensive music download service or even try out Pandora Internet radio.  Either way, I definitely recommend you do not install any peer-to-peer filesharing programs on your computer and if you already have one installed I give you very good odds that you already have several viruses on your computer…

We do care about our customers and the success of their businesses. That’s why we’ve positioned L5 Solutions not just as a computer service and IT support company but as a committed partner to your company focused on realizing your business goals through the intelligent use of technology. Now that is a pretty long sentence. We’ve always said we do not just implement technology for technology’s sake. If it makes sense to utilize the latest acronym (NAS, SAN, PPC, etc…) technology then we’ll do it, but in some cases there are better proven solutions to accomplish the same task with a proven and stable track record.

The trust factor:
How pleasant is it for you to go to see your local mechanic? Most likely it does not make you feel all warm and fuzzy thinking about it. Why? Well, in most cases you only see them when you have a problem. They fix it… hopefully: hopefully in a short period of time, hopefully at a reasonable cost, hopefully they did not break something else you’ll have to come see them about in the next 2 weeks. Right?

It is the same way with traditional IT support and computer services. That is why we transformed IT support to focus on keeping our customers server, computers, technology assets, mobile devices, etc up and running and advising our clients to help them achieve their business goals using and optimizing their business technology. We want to build and nurture long term relationships and partner with businesses driven succeed.

So don’t lose hope. There are those who still care, who still deliver on promises and who work hard to do the best job. We do. Now that makes me feel warm and fuzzy

edit Aug 2, 2009 @ 23:25

Oddly enough here is an article asking “do you trust your auto mechanic?” and how some are trying to upsell customers on unnecessary repairs due to slow business during the recession.  This reinforces my conviction that our business model of taking care of everything for our customers at a predictable recurring price, for IT support, technology recommendations and IT advising make sense now more than ever.