Click here to see a library of useful PDF documents for your home or business, including:
· Cyber Threats to Mobile Devices
· Before You Connect a New Computer to the Internet
· Securing Your Web Browser
· Avoiding Email Scams
· Spyware
· Recovering from a Trojan Horse or Virus
· Understanding VoIP
· Malware Threats
· Computer Forensics
Produced by the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT).
Renee Halgerson
Marketing Specialist
SDN Communications
Should telecommuting be considered more than just an employee perk? One author thinks that it should be considered a fundamental business strategy. Telecommuting has been shown to increase productivity, encourage city revitalization (workers no longer have to leave rural areas to find high-paying jobs), and reduce pollution caused by traffic congestion.
Simplified communication tools make telecommuting easier now than ever before. High-speed Internet services allow secure and speedy connections from remote locations to the main office. Advanced phone systems provide the ability to work from any location and have all of the tools of an office at your fingertips.
Want more information about how a telecommuting program could be established at your office? Contact SDN today.
Julie Hoyer
Marketing Specialist
A recently released study finds that telepresence can reduce corporate CO2 emissions by 5.5 million metric tons and deliver $19 billion in financial benefits to U.S. and U.K. economies by 2020.
Telepresence technology allows businesses to collaborate effectively while saving money and improving environmental impact. In addition, telepresence has been shown to provide personnel benefits such as faster decision making, improved employee productivity, and a better work-life balance for employees.
The study, commissioned by AT&T as part of the “Carbon Disclosure Project,” sought to compile key climate change information and present a business case for the world-wide reduction in corporate carbon footprints.
Julie Hoyer
Marketing Specialist
Keep an eye on these top 10 technologies and trends to watch, according to CRN Magazine, Issue 1239:
5 Technologies to Watch:
1.) Multitouch Displays — The ability to gesture, pinch, grab images to manipulate them on screen carries both a cool factor and the potential for productivity gains. First made popular on Apple’s iPhone, multitouch is now poised to enter mainstream computer usage with its integration into Microsoft Windows 7, Hewlett Packard, Lenovo and Toshiba.
2.) Solid-State Drives — With promise of increased speed, life span and reliability compared to their hard-disk counterparts, solid-state drives feature no moving parts and run completely silently, drawing less power and offering top-level performance.
3.) Google Android — Can Android take on iPhone? Google’s open-source mobile operating system is gaining traction against its popular Apple rival. In a recent ComScore survey, 17 percent of consumers in the market for a smartphone said they plan to buy an Android-based service, while 20 percent chose iPhone.
4.) Geolocation — Geolocation is the ability to tie data about physical geography in with Internet-connected devices or systems. It’s typically used for locating which friends are nearby or locating children at any given moment.
5.) Intel Westmere Processors — It’s series of 32-nanometer Nehalem laptop, desktop and server processors have a die shrink that promises to provide the same performance out of a smaller package, enabling the chips to consumer less power.
5 Trends to Watch:
1.) Mobile Applications — While the first wave of smartphone apps have been consumer-focused, the new wave will bring more business-class apps to users.
2.) Cloud Computing — A recent survey by Symantec showed that more than 50 percent of enterprises consider cloud computing a priority for this year.
3.) Electronic Medical Records — The impact of 2009’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will allow solution providers ways to target health-care clients with full solutions that incorporate document management, storage and security.
4.) Green IT — Virtualization and power management are top of the list when it comes to making IT go green.
5.) Smartphone Management — For enterprises, the key to successful smartphone rollouts is management: making sure that they have a handle on the devices their employees are using and having some means of securing and controlling the data housed on them.
Renee Halgerson
Marketing Specialist
SDN Communications
SDN recently hosted a webinar to showcase the Business Productivity Online Standard Suite (BPOS) from Microsoft. As the name suggests, Microsoft capitalizes on the cloud to offer access to productivity and collaboration-enhancing software for a minimal per user fee.
The biggest differences in the SaaS model versus the per-PC software version are minimal. In fact, the differences can actually be seen as enhancements:
· The online suite is an Operating Expense versus a Capital Expense. This allows for more predictable IT costs and easily scales with your business.
· Online software solutions free up IT resources. Instead of spending valuable IT staff time installing software on user computers, staff only need purchase another license and the user is connected from any PC with an Internet connection.
· Employees now have an easier time collaborating, making them more efficient and productive.
BPOS includes:
· Exchange Online
o Outlook and Web Access
o Shared calendars, contacts and tasks
o Active Sync Mobile Devices
· SharePoint Online
o Collaboration portal –easily share resources, documents, calendars and tasks
o Enterprise Content Management
· Office Live Meeting
o Web Conferencing
o Desktop sharing, chat, question manager
o Live 360 degree panoramic video
· Office Communications Online
o Instant messaging and presence
o Address book search
For more information on how BPOS can improve office collaboration and communication, contact SDN today.
Julie Hoyer
Marketing Specialist
