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Provide Your Network System With The Cisco Boost

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Posted in Career, CCNA, CCNP, Cisco

To enable an assimilated network that, adapts to the contemporary and prospective business needs, you need various equipment to control them. When looking for network accessories, consider good quality equipment that are updated and of good quality.

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Our contemporary businesses are all mainly computerized. So, with the increase in the competition, it often becomes very important to keep up with the changes in the systems used. As, these changes result into added revenue and ensure the smooth running of the businesses. Consequently, whether you are a startup, or an already established business, updating or setting up of network hardware technology can be an expensive job. Especially, opting for high-end and quality products offered by Cisco. In this case why not opt for a gently-used or refurbished Cisco IT products? Refurbished products often make a good investment for businesses.

There are many retailers who resale from new to slightly used, Cisco products, to meet all your network systems needs, like:
* Cisco Routers

* Cisco Switches

* Cisco Access Servers

* Cisco Content and Storage

* Cisco IP Telephony

* Cisco Security

* Cisco Wireless

Whilst looking for a resale retailer it is important to ensure that they provide:

Customer service: they provide you with excellent and up to date information to enable you to make your important IT purchasing decisions. They always make themselves available to answer any questions you have before, during the whole process. Be it before, whilst you make the purchase or after the purchase is made. And they also provide impeccable customer service n times of an emergency whilst maintaining the optimum quality of work.

Value: whether new or used Cisco equipment, they have the resources to help you get your start-up off the ground. In addition to ensuring that your current business is progressing. They are likely to provide you impressive discounts on new products and up to 90 percent off listed price for used and refurbished I.T. equipment. Thus, ensuring you are provided by optimum value added service at inexpensive rates.
Quality: Despite being resale products, the quality of the new and used Cisco equipment is vigorously tested. They are only sold when they are deemed worthy for deployment. Remarketed, gently used and surplus I.T. equipment are meticulously cleaned before being resold. In addition to that, expert technicians carefully inspect and application-test all equipment according to the highest standards in the industry.
These used Cisco products, apart from the end user, can also be used by:

Systems Integrators: As, they manage the multilayered process of processing, storing, and categorizing data. Furthermore, they also bring together component subsystems into a plausible and measurable system.

IT Consultants: Since, they make use of information technology effectively and efficiently to meet evolving business challenges. The resale Cisco products enable them to balance hard budget realities along with pressing tech necessities. Thus, matching quality with affordability by resourcing gently used and surplus IT equipment, at a true value for the discerning consumer.

Network Architects: As Cisco sets the standard for network platforms and telecommunications, demand for used Cisco equipment follows. Network Architects looking for a reliable technology vendor with a comprehensive inventory of tested and inspected components can avail these services.

Government and Education Industry: Services such as, municipal, state and federal government agencies, universities and school districts also need high quality, reliable, and affordable Cisco IT parts and equipment. Good as new Cisco components, at a huge discount, are often what governmental and educational purchasing departments working under strict budgetary guidelines, need the most.

This article has been written by an expert associated with Network System Resale, a global seller of new and gently used Cisco network hardware technology.

Microsoft: We won’t update others’ Windows apps

Posted on November 16, 2011 by Posted in Microsoft

Microsoft on Tuesday slammed the door on updating third-party software via Windows Update in the upcoming Windows 8.

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One security expert said the company was missing a big opportunity to improve the overall security of Windows PCs.

The new operating system will not update non-Microsoft software, said Farzana Rahman, the group program manager for Windows Update, in a blog post.

“The wide variety of delivery mechanisms, installation tools, and overall approaches to updates across the full breadth of applications makes it impossible to push all updates through [the Windows Update] mechanism,” said Rahman said. “As frustrating as this might be, it is also an important part of the ecosystem that we cannot just revisit for the installed base of software.”

Rahman’s statement was the clearest ever by Microsoft that it would not take other applications under its update wing.

Currently, the company offers customers updates to Windows drivers — third-party files required to run the OS — via Windows Update, and occasionally disables third-party ActiveX controls in Internet Explorer (IE) at vendors’ requests. And that’s how it’s going to stay, Rahman said.

She did add that Microsoft feels its customers’ pain.

“People clearly find the experience with multiple updaters on the system less than optimal, and we agree,” Rahman said. “Each application updater gives you a different experience, you have to remember to go visit each updater to install updates, you never know when or how updaters will run and what they might do, and so on. People would like one updater for the entire system.”

Yes, they would, said Wolfgang Kandek, chief technology officer for Qualys, and an advocate for Microsoft’s updating other companies’ Windows software.

“I understand the thinking,” said Kandek of Microsoft’s reasons for not pushing third-party updates, “but at the same time, it’s a little disappointing. Microsoft could collect a huge amount of goodwill by doing this, and it would be a huge leap for security.”

Kandek argued that although even Microsoft doesn’t have the resources to validate every application’s update, it could certainly focus on the most important vendors whose products need to be constantly updated. His examples: Adobe’s Reader and Flash Player.

“I would argue that there are certain organizations, and Adobe is one of them, where [Microsoft taking on updating duties] would be possible,” Kandek continued. “There are only a couple of [vendors] that they would need to address, and they’re mature companies with well-tested updates.”

Both Flash Player and Adobe Reader have been patched multiple times this year: Adobe has issued nine security updates for the Flash Player and five for the Reader so far in 2011.

Others, including Danish vulnerability tracker Secunia and some readers of Rahman’s blog, have called for a unified update mechanism for all Windows software.

Two years ago, Secunia pitched an updating standard but couldn’t drum up any support. Instead, Secunia released PSI 2.0, a utility that scans a Windows machine for a wide range of software, detects when that software is out of date, and leads users to relevant update sites where they can download the newest editions.

Rahman’s readers weighed in, too.

“You could focus a new third-party update functionality on these relatively few, incredibly common programs,” said someone identified as “JustSomeWinGuy” in the blog’s comments. “A relatively small bit of new effort by Microsoft could pay huge dividends for many millions of end users.”

But Microsoft has spoken.

“Microsoft’s doing some great work [with Windows 8],” said Kandek, talking about some update streamlining the company revealed Tuesday. “But it’s really too bad they’re saying we won’t integrate other applications in Windows Update. It would be a real boost to everyone’s security.”

acebook places third: Companies young people want to work for

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Posted in Career, CCIE, CCNA, CCNP, Cisco

Facebook is the third company that Americans want to work for. Only two other companies were ranked higher by young professionals this year: Google and Apple.

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Facebook placed third this year in a ranking of how attractive an employer is among professionals in the US. This is a huge win for the social networking giant, considering it is just a 7-year-old company.

The results, which reveal how working professionals perceive organizations as employers, are based on a survey conducted by employment data and consulting firm Universum. The company asked 6,698 young professionals with one to eight years of experience between June 17, 2011 and September 30, 2011.

Respondents were asked to pick as many as five ideal employers out of a list of about 200. They could also write in candidates, and a total of 17,950 companies were evaluated. You can see the top 15 in the table above.

8.90 percent of young workers said they wanted to work for Facebook. Only two companies ranked higher: Google (19.67 percent) and Apple (12.74 percent).

Facebook vs. Google+ vs. Twitter vs. LinkedIn

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Lindsay Posted in Apple, Google, Tech

Facebook and Twitter continue their momentum, while LinkedIn and Google Plus show there is plenty of social networking to go around

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Much has changed since we examined the ongoing war between Facebook and Twitter in the spring of 2010. The stakes are higher, the competition has increased, and we see LinkedIn and Google roaring into the social networking arena like never before.

A year and a half ago, you might have thought the reverse would have happened – that Facebook and/or Twitter would have crushed any remaining competitors and that would be the end of it.

Instead, what happened was that LinkedIn and Google were able to find unfilled niches, and we now have four different major social networks, each with its own specialty, but with major overlaps.

NETWORK WORLD’s HOTTEST TECH ARGUMENTS: Read the rest here

THE OTHER SOCIAL NETS: Private social networks playing Facebook role in more workplaces

The biggest point of overlap is in sharing news and other content online. Each site provides a mechanism for sharing the latest headlines with your friends and colleagues. Caught in the crossfire are sites that specialize in social media, where users submit and vote on Web content – and so we have seen weaker social media sites like Digg and Delicious struggle, while stronger sites like StumbleUpon and Reddit have hung in there.

Of the big four, Facebook is still the big kahuna. It now has more than 800 million members. In April 2010, analytics site Compete.com said Facebook attracted 135.4 million unique visitors, and that number improved to 156.3 million in September 2011.

What sets Facebook apart is its personal nature – and this has been both a blessing and a curse. People turn to Facebook because it is the place where more of their friends are sharing photos and general updates on their lives. The flipside is that, because people see Facebook as so personal, they are shocked when Facebook tries to leverage their personal information, and they get upset when the interface changes with new features.

Twitter benefits from its immediacy and its simplicity. At 34.7 million unique visitors in September, according to Compete, it still has a fraction of Facebook’s visitors, but has seen 60% growth since spring 2010, vs. Facebook’s 15%.

Twitter doesn’t suffer from Facebook’s personal-information problem. Apart from the occasional congressman, most people regard Twitter as a more public place, a place to share news, chime in on public events and see what others are saying about them, and this formula has remained constant. If you want the world (as opposed to just your friends) to know about something, you go to Twitter, not Facebook.

HP, Dell pass Nokia in new Greenpeace green IT guide

Posted on November 12, 2011 by Posted in Career, CCNA, CCNP, Tech

While some consumer electronics manufacturers have cleaned up their act, making more energy-efficient gadgets with fewer toxic materials, others are continuing to make fine promises but no changes, according to Greenpeace. In response, the environmental pressure group is changing the way it scores companies in its Guide to Greener Electronics, placing more emphasis on their actions than their words, and measuring new aspects of their operations.

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The latest guide to greener PCs, TVs and mobile phones recognizes the efforts Hewlett-Packard and Dell have made to clean up their supply chain, catapulting them up the rankings, while Nokia has slipped back to third place after leading since September 2008. BlackBerry maker Research In Motion came in last place.

HP scored 5.9 out of 10, the energy efficiency of its products and its avoidance of hazardous substances putting it well ahead of second-placed Dell, with 5.1 points, Nokia with 4.9 and Apple with 4.6.

Greenpeace rated Nokia’s products more energy efficient than HP’s, but gave the PC manufacturer bonus points for a range of sustainable operations criteria that haven’t appeared in the rankings before.

For instance, HP scored well for its advocacy of clean energy policy, its clean electricity plan and its clear policy in favor of sustainably sourced paper and against deforestation — something still missing at Nokia, which began life as a paper manufacturer.

“The original guide criteria were created in 2006, and there’s been a lot of progress on toxics phaseouts since then,” said Greenpeace senior campaigner Tom Dowdall.

The Greenpeace guide originally set out to encourage manufacturers to stop using materials such as brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and PVC insulation in their products, and many manufacturers did so between 2008 and 2010.

Companies such as HP, Apple and Acer were particularly quick to react, said Dowdall. Apple’s products are now BFR-free and the company uses no PVC, except where required by local safety regulations on power cords, according to the latest edition of the guide.

While the new rankings still measure the energy consumption and PVC and BFR content of finished products, Greenpeace is now targeting the way they are made, asking companies to report on the greenhouse gas emissions and type of energy used by the factories that make them, and even the suppliers of the components and raw materials that feed the assembly lines.

“If you haven’t measured it, you can’t reduce it. Measurement and disclosure are the basics of any target-setting,” Dowdall said.

Greenpeace has changed the scope of the guide in other ways. Games console manufacturers Microsoft and Nintendo are no longer ranked, and neither are PC maker Fujitsu nor phone manufacturer Motorola Mobility. The report now covers 15 major manufacturers of PCs, TVs and mobile phones: HP (5.9 points out of 10), Dell (5.1), Nokia (4.9), Apple (4.6), Philips (4.5), Sony Ericsson (4.2), Samsung Electronics (4.1), Lenovo (3.8), Panasonic (3.6), Sony (3.6), Sharp (3.0), Acer (2.9), LG Electronics and Toshiba (both 2.8), and Research in Motion (1.6). A full breakdown of the scores can be found on the Greenpeace website.

Greenpeace praised all but the last four companies for either their product energy efficiency, the disclosure of their own greenhouse gas emissions, or both. HP and Dell were also praised for their sustainable sourcing of paper products, Nokia and Apple for their voluntary take-back programs in countries without electronic product recycling laws, and Sony Ericsson for its chemicals management and advocacy.

Sony was criticized (and lost a point) for opposing legislation in California to make battery chargers and appliances more energy efficient.

Twelve of the companies (all save Acer, LG and Sony Ericsson) were warned that they too will lose a point next year if they continue to support industry bodies that have also opposed the energy efficiency legislation.

Forbes places Mark Zuckerberg in top 10 most powerful people

Posted on November 6, 2011 by Posted in Career, CCIE, CCNA, CCNP, Cisco

Forbes has ranked Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg as the ninth most powerful person in the world this year. He was number 40 last year.

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Forbes has released its list of “The World’s Most Powerful People.” The annual ranking, which compares politicians, religious leaders, self-made billionaires, major philanthropists, and celebrities, has listed Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg as number nine this year.

At age 27, Zuckerberg is not only the youngest person on the list, but he is also the biggest gainer this year, jumping 31 spots from number 40 in 2010. Forbes estimates his net worth at $17.5 billion.

Unsurprisingly, US president Barack Obama tops the list. The only technology-related figure above Zuckerberg is Microsoft founder Bill Gates, at fifth place (up from 10th last year).

The next technology figures don’t appear till number 30: Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are tied for the spot, having slipped from number 22 last year. Other tech gurus this year include Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in 40th place (up from 66th), Baidu CEO Robin Li in 42nd, and Apple CEO Tim Cook in 58th.

Forbes takes into account four factors for its ranking. It measures how many people a person has power over, the financial resources controlled by each candidate, whether his or her influence affects more than one arena, and considers how actively they wield their power. This cuts the list down to 70 people, or one for every 100 million people on the planet.

Microsoft quarter shows continued growth

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Posted in Career, CCIE, CCNA

Microsoft kicked off its first quarter of fiscal 2012 with solid growth, reporting a 7 percent increase in revenue compared to a year ago, and a 6 percent increase in net income.

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Overall, Microsoft reported first-quarter revenue of US$17.37 billion, beating the consensus estimate from financial analysts of $17.24 billion, according to Thomson Reuters. Net income for the quarter ending Sept. 30 was $5.74 billion, or $0.68 per share, in line with analysts’ consensus estimate.

As in quarters past, business sales dominated the growth for the company.

The Microsoft Business Division, which oversees Microsoft Office, reported $5.62 billion in revenue, an 8 percent increase from the prior year’s first quarter, which itself benefitted from the release of Office 2010.

“We had another strong quarter for Office, SharePoint, Exchange, and Lync, and saw growing demand for our public and private cloud services including Office 365, Dynamics CRM Online, and Windows Azure,” said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft, in a statement.

Sales of Microsoft’s enterprise support server software — including Lync, SharePoint, and Exchange — enjoyed double-digit growth, according to the company. Revenue from the company’s Dynamics business grew 17 percent. For the back office, the Server and Tools Division generated $4.25 billion in revenue during the quarter, a 10 percent increase year on year.

Sales of Microsoft’s flagship product, Windows, grew as well, although less spectacularly. The Windows and Windows Live Division revenue was $4.87 billion for the period, a 2 percent increase.

Starting next quarter, Microsoft will include financial results of Skype, whose acquisition it completed earlier this month. Because of the successful quarter and the Skype acquisition, Microsoft increased its revenue forecast for its full 2012 fiscal year, from $28.6 billion to $29.2 billion.

During a conference call after the results came out, Bill Koefoed, Microsoft general manager for investor relations, noted that consumer purchases of PCs and netbooks were flat, resulting in the sluggish Windows sales. Overall, business sales of PCs outpaced consumer sales, and sales in emerging markets outpaced those in mature markets.

Microsoft expects to see a rebound in growth with the arrival of the first generation of Intel-based ultraportable laptops, or ultrabooks, which have just started to ship. Thus far, more than 450 million copies of Windows 7 have been sold since its launch.

Another area of concern for the company is its 10-year search and advertising partnership with Yahoo, signed in 2009. The teaming has not produced the expected income for Microsoft or Yahoo, which reported its own financial results Tuesday.

“The number-one priority is to resolve the monetization challenges of the combined ad platform,” said Peter Klein, Microsoft chief financial officer, adding that the company is working “very closely” with Yahoo to improve the results. Microsoft’s Online Services Division generated $625 million in revenue for the quarter, up from $527 million a year ago.

What makes Nokia Windows Phone devices unique?

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Posted in CCIE, CCNA

When Nokia and Microsoft announced their future Windows Phone strategy less than 10 months ago, there was the promise of some unique features in Nokia’s devices. We saw a couple of these unique features last week at Nokia World.

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I had the chance to attend the first day of Nokia World last week where they announced the Lumia 710 and 800 devices. James mentioned that he did not see much from the Nokia partnership. Nokia did mention three pieces in the keynote, but didn’t explain many of the details so I spent some time talking with some folks on the show floor and found out more to share with you.
Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive

One of the main services mentioned in February when Nokia and Microsoft announced their partnership was the integration of Nokia Maps into Windows Phone. The two companies said that Nokia Maps would not be exclusive to Nokia devices and that was confirmed at Nokia World. People with HTC, Samsung, LG, and other Windows Phone devices should see Nokia Maps appearing in the Windows Phone Marketplace within the next couple of weeks as a free software application. This version of Nokia Maps will NOT support offline maps or voice guided navigation, but does have the following features:

Local POI details (provides you location, phone number, reviews, and photos of up to 25 locations in your vicinity)
Deep link support (you can pin destinations to the Start screen)
Detailed maps in satellite, 2D, and 3D views

The differentiation between Nokia and other manufacturers will be offline maps and Nokia Drive, which is the program powering voice navigation. The voice navigation experience is much like what you see with Nokia Maps on the Symbian and MeeGo platforms. You can find voice guided navigation on Windows Phone in programs like Navigon, but when you get a Nokia Windows Phone you will get this support for free.
Nokia Music

The Windows Phone experience is best in the United States where you get full access to all the services of the Microsoft ecosystem. Outside the U.S. there is a matrix of unsupported services that gives Windows Phone users an inconsistent experience. Nokia is working to improve the out-of-box experience by providing Nokia Music for FREE on all Nokia Windows Phone devices. Nokia Music is similar to Spotify, Slacker, Rdio and other $10/month subscription services where you get unlimited streaming music support and offline music to enjoy when you have no connection.
Nokia Music does provide a one tap link to the Zune music on your device when you tap the My Music words in the main Nokia Music interface. There is radio stations customized for different regions that you can tap and download for offline listening. You get 50 songs per channel and up to four channels to download for something like 10-12 hours of music that should cover most any flight. There are also personalization options where you can search for your favorite artist and enjoy music from that artist.

The ability to get up and running with music right out of the box on Nokia Windows Phones is pretty compelling, especially when you know that other Windows Phone devices require you to first connect to a PC or Mac to get any music. With this free service and the trend of people to stream music, Microsoft may find fewer people subscribing to the Zune service with Nokia Windows Phones.
ESPN Sports Hub

The third app/service announced at Nokia World was an ESPN hub. I didn’t find this on the show floor to discuss more details and there was not much covered during the keynote. Based on what was shown, I really did not see any differences between this ESPN app and the ESPN ScoreCenter app for all Windows Phone devices. The ESPN Sports Hub was not on any of the devices in the hands-on area of the show and Nokia did not reveal when this would be coming to these devices.
Is this enough to offer a compelling Nokia WP experience?

I think the two main services, Maps and Music, are compelling offerings and if these services are important to you then it may be a no brainer to purchase a Nokia Windows Phone. It is important to put what we see here into perspective and understand that it was just earlier this February when Nokia and Microsoft announced this Windows Phone strategy and we already see a couple of unique Windows Phone services and two solid Windows Phone smartphones. I imagine there will be a LOT more coming from both Nokia and Microsoft in the future and in my opinion this partnership will be valuable for both companies.

Windows 8 to increase PC production costs

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Posted in Career, CCIE, CCNA

ODMs and brand vendors squabble over who will cover the additional costs.

Microsoft’s new Windows 8 OA 3.0 verification system will add complication and costs for ODMs (Original Device Manufacturers) who create and build PCs for the big name OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers). These costs will, undoubtedly, be passed on to us, the consumers.

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Note: The DigiTimes piece inaccurately refers to OA 3.0 as being incorporated into the BIOS. What we are actually talking about here is UEFI firmware, which all Windows 8 certified systems must have.

According to DigiTimes, the issue revolves around Microsoft’s new activation system for Windows 8.

For the OA 3.0, Microsoft plans to pre-install the Windows 8 operating system into PC’s BIOS and will have consumers key-in the authorization key to activate the software through an Internet connection and will completely abandon its previous method of using a COA [Certificate of Authenticity] label.

OEM BIOS activation is nothing new. OA was first seen in Windows XP, and OA 2.0 with Windows Vista and Windows 7. Both of these mechanisms are now easily bypassed by pirates looking to install/sell unlicences copies of Windows.

However, now rather than shipping PCs with a COA, keys will be incorporated in the system’s UEFI firmware, and this will increase production costs for ODMs because each machine will require individual attention to squirt the key into the UFI firmware (rather than just sticking on the COA). Technicians will also require more training. Finally, the absence of a certificate on the machine could also increase costs because of installation overlap (Microsoft charges a per-install fee, so having to install a second key because of an error would increase costs.

There’s also concern about who will bear these extra costs:

The sources also revealed that the ODMs believe Microsoft is playing a two-faced game with the notebook players – on the one hand, the software giant has told notebook ODMs that brand vendors will pay all the increased cost, while they told the brand vendors that ODMs will be responsible for the cost.

One thing is for sure … you and I will be the ones ultimately footing this bill.

French gov’t will train SMEs to use Google, Microsoft tools

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Posted in Career, CCIE

Microsoft and Google recruited a new sales force of sorts on Thursday: a network of business counsellors and IT trainers partly funded by the French government.

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Microsoft and Google recruited a new sales force of sorts on Thursday: a network of business counsellors and IT trainers partly funded by the French government.

The companies have struck an agreement with the government allowing them to promote productivity tools such as Web analytics, document sharing and unified communications, including their own product offerings, through a government-backed IT training plan for small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs).

The government wants to help the country’s small businesses use IT to increase sales and become more profitable, and last month renewed the program intended to achieve that, “Passport for a digital economy,” for a further three years.

The Passport program delivers free training courses and offers other benefits to startups and businesses with fewer than about 20 employees that have followed three of the courses. Those benefits include discounts on IT products and services, and access to government-backed financing for IT purchases.

Some of the training courses will be written by Google and Microsoft under an agreement signed Thursday morning with Hervé Novelli, the secretary of state responsible for SMEs, and Yves Fouchet of CEFAC, a government-funded agency that delivers training and support to small businesses.

Google will contribute three training modules written by the company’s marketing and product teams, said Mats Carduner, the company’s managing director for Southern Europe. The courses will teach businesses how to create a Web site, attract an audience and optimize the site to increase sales using tools such as Google Analytics. “We’ll make the modules available to CEFAC, but we won’t do the training,” he said.

Microsoft, a supporter of the Passport program since it began, will offer training materials on Web site creation, along with additional modules on unified communications products and Microsoft Office Live Small Business, its online office productivity tool, said Eric Boustouller, CEO of Microsoft France.

The company is also a participant in the government-sponsored buying guide for small businesses, he said.

“It’s not just about Microsoft products. We’re open to any products that work with ours, whether from Google or others,” he said.

Google and Microsoft are not the only IT vendors backing the Passport program: others include Cisco Systems, Dell, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, PayPal and Yahoo.

Since the launch of the program, 45,000 businesses have signed up for help, according to Fouchet.

However, that’s just a small fraction of the 2.7 million microenterprises in France, said Novelli. One of the limiting factors for the Passport program is how to reach them all, as the network of small business advisers doesn’t have sufficient geographic reach, he said.

That’s why the government is almost doubling the number of advisers, said Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, secretary of state for IT.

She also wants to see improvements in the quality of IT training, and said the government is looking at a system of certification for trainers. With the level of demand for IT expertise today, “IT advisor” needs to become a recognized profession that people can put on their CV, she said.

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