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.

So I’ll highlight another route that cyber criminals take in an attempt to steal your identity during the holiday season, shipping confirmation emails that appear to come from FedEx, UPS or the USPS.  Again, with many gifts shipped from homes and business along with increased online purchases, identity thieves send out spam emails asking you to verify sipping information with your credit card or ask for personal information to receive and confirm packages.  If you ever receive a request online to confirm any account or personal information, you should open a new browser window and type in the sites address, such as www.fedex.com, and then proceed or call their customer service department.

If you think just because  a link in an email says it it from fedex or goes to bankofamerica.com look out.  In my original example of the Bank of America Alert, there is a link to update your account info, but the link actually goes to awilmer.net not bankofamerica.com.  It really is difficult to differentiate between valid emails and phising scams aimed at stealing your identity and personal information.  Remember though that banks, credit card companies and other valid companies will not request personal, account or credit card info by email.

Here is the Bank of America Alerts email for reference:

Dear Bank of America Customer,

This email was sent by the bank of america server to verify your e-mail address. You must complete this process by clicking on the link below and entering your account information . This is done for your protection , because some of our members no longer have access to their online access and we must verify it. To verify your e-mail address and access your bank account, click on the link below.

Update Info  (http://www.awilmer.net/inc/scurepdat/index.html)

Please fill in the required information.
This is required for us to continue to offer you a safe and risk free environment .

Thank you
Accounts Management

Bank of America, N.A. Member FDIC Privacy Promise Terms & Conditions
Copyright © 2009

• Compare Windows 7 editions.
  

  Windows 7 Home Premium

  Windows 7 Professional

  Windows 7 Ultimate

Some good news on Windows 7 are the new features Microsoft piled in to the new OS.  One example is the Direct Access VPN connection to Windows Server 2008 R2 systems.  Instead of dedicating a VPN device to handle the encrypted tunnel, if IT admins implement IPv6 and IPsec (IP security) machines, such as remote offices and remote laptops, can connect directly as if there were inside the office on the company network.

Another point to note is the enhanced power management options for systems running Windows 7.  Microsoft and others are touting between $50+ – $107 energy savings per computer each year.  That justifies the upgrade cost of the license and install time for many tech managers.

There are also several more security enhancements included in Windows 7 such as BitLocker for USB thumb drive encryption, AppLocker to disable programs and DNSSec extensions which many security researchers agree is the next large scale vulnerability to computers and networkds.

With all the hype and bad press form Vista, it appears Microsoft may have overcome the past failings and developed a solid business computing platform.  The big question though is still, will large enterprises and small business adopt the new OS and drive the migration from XP to the new Windows 7?

According to some local telecom providers, new customer interest and demos are growing, with significant increases in the past several weeks.  Telephony is a good barometer of the overall business climate because nothing is more basic and necessary as voice and data connectivity to a business.  With that said, voice and especially data purchasing has been down significantly since the recession hit and was realized in Oct of 08.  So when business cut back even on the basics the overall cascading affect hit most businesses, some harder than others.  Again, the point to note is that business executives and small business owners are increasingly optimistic about the direction of the economy and business in Indiana.  According to several online job sites, new job postings are up, but to temper expectations it is also reported that there is only 1 job for every 6 job seekers.

So with those tempered expectations, I think that with the recent experiences over the past year we’ll see businesses focus more on vetting their business partners, vendors and other relationships more thoroughly.  What that will mean is a leaning out of local small businesses.  A few will prosper and the others will most likely struggle or fail.  The successful businesses will drive each others bottom line and grow together.  Will we see Indianapolis business again invest in their core processes, business infrastructure and technology?  The indicators look good.

As a business executive, CIO or business owner do you know where most threats are coming from that target business networks, computers and users?  Most likely it is not something you have seriously researched.  As business consultants, we focus on knowing as much as possible about threats to business so we can effectively combat their tactics.

Most people, including many IT professionals, assume spam most predominantly originates in China, Nigeria and the former Soviet Republics such as Russia.  Oddly enough spam, its viruses and more importantly rootkits/trojans that allow those criminal enterprises free access to steal information from your computers and use your computers to launch other attacks that steal from additional business originate in some countries not usually associated with online threats, South Korea, Brazil and… the United States.

There are definitely larger and more aggressive threats targeting business networks as well as their servers and computers.  But you cannot minimize or dismiss the serious consequences of a single computer on your company’s internal business domain network.  The reason is, that single compromised computer can be used as a pinhole opening for criminals, either foreign or domestic, to launch more complex and sophisticated attacks to steal your business data, personal employee information or make it appear your computers are attacking other organizations.

Knowing what you know is as important as knowing what you do not know.  If you have any doubts about your business’ current security posture ask a qualified business consultant.

- Tsung Tzu, Art of War, Chapter 3 “Attack by Strategem”

“So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a thousand battles without a single loss.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.”

What are the implications and affects on business technology from such a drastic policy as forcing all employees to work remotely from home?  Some items to consider:

• What is your server resource, licensing and bandwidth capacity for remote access through secure remote VPN access?
• How will workers collaborate?  Can they share documents, conference call remotely, effectively carry out daily business tasks?  It most likely will not be as efficient as working together in the office, but can it even be done remotely?
• What about security?  If many users have remote access, are the security policies and settings in place to restrict sensitive data from being downloaded remotely to their home computers or offsite to laptops?  This is a legal issue for some industries as well as an individual business secrecy issue for all.

There are many others but the above examples illustrate how daunting the task will be if in fact some of the more dire predictions come to pass.  Some companies may think cloud computing or hosted solutions are the answer.  Just remember the Google Gmail outage this past Tuesday and other cloud computing issues identified in the past.  Still though, recognize that even with Google’s recent Gmail outage their uptime service still beats most enterprises.

If you need advice on technology planning for your organization, you can always contact our parent company, L5 Solutions.

Linkedin

Twitter

Facebook

Oddly, the recession has driven some new restrictions and also offered more incentive to follow those policies on social networking sites.  Law firms are increasingly competing for fewer resources from clients and cannot afford a public relations flap to hinder their prospects.  Additionally, attorneys and other legal professionals find it is not a good time to test their firm’s policy on social media posts and profiles.

We’ve seen a large number of businesses without any such policy or restrictions on social media sites, but more and more Indianapolis businesses are finding it necessary to address the issue before an incident arises.

What is your company’s stance on social media sites?

Amazon's cloud - EC2 - Elastic Computer Cloud

Google's cloud - Google Code App Engine

Microsoft's cloud - Windows Azure Platform

Some of the main points from the article, and issues commonly discussed regarding the cloud in general, revolve around availability, scalability and response times.  This article did not focus on the security aspects of computing in the cloud.  The three platforms evaluated are Amazon EC2, Google AppLogic and Microsoft Azure.  The gist of the article’s results are that “researchers have revealed that the infrastructure-on-demand services offered by Amazon, Google and Microsoft suffer from regular performance and availability issues.”

The take away for business owners and executives is that the cloud may not be all it was originally hyped to be.  A secondary point though, from Microsoft’s approach, is the availability of help in the transition or migration from your in-house servers, network infrastructure and apps to the cloud.

I mentioned yesterday in my post that security issues can often dictate a need for a hybrid based model combining a fully hosted cloud with your own private cloud.  The hybrid based approach to cloud computing means you get the best of both worlds: accessibility, remote access and scalability from the hosted cloud along with speed, control and security from your in-house or on-premise private cloud.  It is often the case that you need to filter through the technical details and marketing hype to get down to what makes sense for your organization and pull together a combination of solutions.  That’s why it’s always good to have trusted advisers to deliver the technical solutions that meet your business goals.

Get a solid backup and recovery solution for your business. Don’t cut corners, or costs, on this one. What would happen if your business server(s) quit working right now? Even if you have a backup, such as on tape, on an external USB or even on one of the many cheap offsite backup options, would you be able to recover your server and how long would it take? If you’re using tape to backup still I really recommend making a change. Tape has a pretty significant rate of not allowing you to recover data. That rate varies depending on study, but often I see 50% failure for tape backups when trying to recover data. The cheap offsite or online backup is cheap. But when you calculate how long it will take to process and download your data it becomes a measurement in days not minutes that you need for a business that is down.

We’ve gone through the whole evolution of backup media options, software, hardware, offsite, imaging, data centers, etc… After much searching and a number of trials we’ve got a proven backup and disaster recovery solution that really works. this backup/imaging option is a server (NAS) that sits onsite at your business. It takes multiple incremental snapshots throughout the day, up to every 15 minutes if desired. It handles SQL and has some pretty great Exchange mailbox item recovery built-in (it actually works!). So if you delete a file or need to go back and check revisions of files/folders it’s all there. The recovery is fast because the device is on your internal office network.

So what if your server crashes completely, like if someone decides to use it as a coffee table and spills their cup o joe. If your server crashes this NAS backup device can be up and running an image of your server in under 30 minutes. Yep, less than 30 minutes and your business is working just like nothing happened. This gives you time to purchase a new server and then port the image onto your new hardware and BAM… your new server is going and your a happy camper.

So what if there is a major incident like a water line break or a tornado… in this case the NAS also allows for transfer of data/backups/images offsite to secure data centers in Colorado and Maryland. The data is all encrypted using the highest available schemes such as blowfish or 256 bit encryption.
…besides the fact we recommend placing the NAS backup device at a different area of your office than the server…

It’s just like going to buy insurance, no one wants to take time to do it or spend money on it, but boy, when something bad happens and you can recover from it quickly you understand why you need it.