SDN is in the final planning stages for a new building location that would serve as a disaster recovery center. The building will help ensure that service to SDN’s customers continues, uninterrupted, even in the event of a major emergency. In addition, the $10 million technology center will have rental space for data center storage and co-location available to other companies.
Click here to read the full article in the Sioux Falls Business Journal.
Julie Hoyer
Marketing Specialist
As previous blog posts have discussed, SDN is growing. As part of that growth plan, SDN is laying the ground work for a $10 million building project at the northeast corner of 60th Street North and La Mesa Drive.
The new building would serve as a second operating location for protecting SDN’s network as well as a high-tech office space where other businesses could co-locate network equipment.
Click here to read the full article in the Sioux Falls Business Journal.
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
Two recent articles, one from InformationWeek and one from the Wall Street Journal, both site increased concern from IT staff about network threats and vulnerability of private customer information. By doing simple searches, web users were able to find personal information, such as social security numbers and credit card numbers that had been poorly protected or leaked online. Eighty percent of IT managers expect network-borne threats to increase throughout 2010 and 2011.
With the constant changing security landscape, should your company be concerned about network threats?
SDN has security experts on staff to help review your network and address any specific gaps in your system defense.
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
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
According to a press release issued June 8 from Savvis, Inc (Nasdaq: SVVS), the number of companies that outsource their IT infrastructure will increase globally from 17 percent today to 64 percent in 2020.
In the US, in-house It infrastructure is expected to drop from 82 percent today to 49 percent in 2020. Organizations have been tasked to do more with less and many IT executives feel that managed IT services are one way to cut costs and increase strategic priorities.
Click here to read the full release.
Julie Hoyer
Marketing Specialist
The AIM Institute in Omaha along with the Midwest Center for Information Technology conducted research into education in the technology field.
There are certain trends in the IT field that are interesting to note:
· 16.8% or 5,680 of all employees from responding firms, are currently taking academic courses
· Expenditures for training and education will increase faster (8.4%) than employment (6.0%)
· Leading areas of additional education include: security, development, interruption and recovery and management issues.
· The IT department is becoming increasingly important to the strategic success of the organization.
What does this mean for you and your business? The IT industry sector is growing. But, it is also an industry sector that is rapidly changing. Ongoing education is going to be essential for success in this field.
Julie Hoyer
Marketing Specialist
In a recent article for Information Week, author John Foley highlights the FBI’s recent upgrade to its network infrastructure. Changes include new PCs, new applications and a higher performing network (which facilitated the change from ATM/Frame Relay to Multi-Protocol Label Switching).
We should be impressed that so many Midwest companies are already aware of and utilizing this same technology!
Read the full article here: http://www.techweb.com/article/showArticle?articleID=224900058§ion=news
Julie Hoyer
Marketing Specialist
Technology solutions continue to evolve, providing ever-expanded opportunities for businesses. 2010 has been no exception and industry leaders, like Cisco, Extreme Networks and VMWare, are busy announcing “next-generation” solutions for businesses.
· Cisco now offers an application to access WebEx online meetings from smartphones and the iPad. Cisco is also expanding its portfolio of small business technology solutions. New technology includes energy-efficient, unmanaged switches and a wireless virtual private network (VPN) firewall.
o http://www.cisco.com/cisco/web/solutions/small_business/index.html
· At Interop Las Vegas, Extreme Networks launched the new VIM440 module for the Summit X650 data center top-of-rack switch. This module enables the box to scale to 40 GigE. The fastest Ethernet connection in datacenters today is 10 GigE.
· VMWare, the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, recently formed a strategic alliance with Salesforce.com to launch VMForce. With VMForce, more than 6 million enterprise Java developers will have an open path to cloud computing. It will enable Java developers to quickly and easily build next-generation enterprise Cloud 2 apps that are instantly social, mobile and collaborative.
o Visit www.vmforce.com for more information.
Be watching for more updates and new product launches in the next few months from other SDN vendor partners.
Julie Hoyer
Marketing Specialist
