The Value in Managed IT Services

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Pedro Pereira, writing for Channel Insider, discusses the compelling statistics about managed IT services. Because cost savings are one of the main selling points for these services, it’s worth taking a look at what companies using them have to say about it.

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Periera cites Computing Technology Industry Association’s poll of 400 IT and business professionals that found that almost half of organizations that use managed IT services say they’ve reduced their IT budgets by 25 percent by using managed services.

Additionally, 13 percent of respondents estimated their savings to be 50 percent or more and 50 percent said managed IT services save them 1 to 24 percent on IT costs. With 96 percent of respondents saying managed services save them money, it’s hard not to use cost savings as a strong selling point.

But cost savings isn’t the only benefit of managed IT services.  Sharply reduced downtime with remote monitoring and better security of systems maintained in the cloud and not subject to the same risk of physical damage and loss as on-site equipment are just a few of the value-added benefits.

CIO Magazine’s article “Why You Should (Eventually) Fire Your CIO” explains that managed IT services are going to take the place of the CIO position altogether by enabling faster internal business and technical innovation with smaller teams of functional experts incurring smaller costs and requiring little to no central management.

Information technology research and advisory company Gartner predicts that changes in technology will cause more companies to seek managed IT services. Gartner says they’ll have to do it to keep up with rapid changes and developments in the digital business environment.

Jessica Adams, writing for Whitehat Virtual Blog, says the reasons to consider managed IT services include less downtime, proactive prevention rather than reactive, and heightened security necessary for increasing mobile access to sensitive data. She explains that using manage IT services keeps businesses closer to cutting edge IT management at lower costs than trying to do it in-house, which has the added benefit of also improving customer service.

If you want those kinds of benefits for your business, managed IT services can make them happen. Contact us at GroupOne IT and we’ll be happy to discuss how we provide managed IT services and how they will benefit your business.

What’s the Future of IT?

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With the new iPhone 6 recently released and all the kerfluffle about Bendgate, we started thinking about the Future of IT. Greg Satell, DigitalTonto, has given it some thought as well. Here’s what he says is coming at IT soon:

  • No-touch interfaces – Apple’s Siri and Google Glass are just warm ups for the no-touch interfaces that are coming in the next ten years. Wearables, living services, the Internet of Things, smart materials, embedded tech – coming soon, very soon.
  • Native content – Original programming to grab unique eyeball time is where Netflix, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Apple, and HBO are all headed.
  • Massively online – Gaming, learning, and even politics are heading online, massively online, with MOOCs (massively online open courses), Ask Me Anything on Reddit, Code Academy, and multi-player games like World of Warcraft leading the charge.
  • The Web of things – Smart phones have put almost everything in touch with computers, soon to make computing something done everywhere anytime and not just at a desk in the office thanks to Near Field Communication and energy harvesting.
  • Consumer driven supercomputing – The next phase of computing combines natural language processing, Big Data, and cloud accessibility and has Google, Microsoft, and IBM falling all over themselves to get there first.

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Satell brings up the incredible disappearing computer, gradually (but picking up speed) fading into the Web of Things and no-touch interfaces. The future of IT looks like it will be more intuitive, less intrusive, more online and more in the cloud than ever. GroupOne’s ready. Are you?

 

Hardware Gets Social with Tindie, Cell Phones, and Kickstarter

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Most people, even if they aren’t techies, have heard of open source software that is used, shared, and changed freely by all and available for modification without limit. Open source refers to something that can be modified freely because it is publicly accessible. Thanks to Emile Petrone and Tindie, open source now also applies to hardware.

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Need a touchless gesture controller for your latest tech project? What about a light intensity sensor? Go to the markets on Tindie and you’ll find exactly what you’re looking for, all for sale by market members as open source hardware. And if you’re the kind of geek/nerd/scientist/entrepreneur who likes to make those things, Tindie is the marketplace for you.

Petrone cut his tech entrepreneur teeth at places like Yelp, SimpleGeo, a location-based service to help companies understand their mobile users, acquired by Urban Airship, a similar business. He’s not new to startups either, having founded Housefed, an online reservation service for hosting and attending events with home-cooked meals.

Petrone got the idea for the open source electronics components markets now in 50 countries around the world from an inquiry he put out on Reddit about interest in a market. Tindie’s timeline starts with April 7, 2012, reached 1,000 products listed on July 11, 2013, and was invited to the first White House Maker Faire June 18th, 2014. He thinks it took off because of dropping cell phone prices and the rise of crowdfunders like Kickstarter, and social media probably has something to do with it as well.

Peterone’s customers include hobbyists, Google, libraries, and NASA, and envisions that kind of opportunity for everyone. Petrone made sure Tindie is easy to use so even unfunded indie hardware has a viable place in the market, where makers and marketers can snatch stuff like Tapster, a phone touchscreen tester, or little_simon, a throwback to the 78 Milton Bradley electronic lightshow game. So if you’ve ever had an idea for a handy gadget or dreamt of inventing the next cool hot electronic toy, Tindie might help you make it happen.

Pens Get Smart But Will They Last Forever?

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 There’s nothing more old school than pen and paper, but old school meets high tech when it comes to reimagining writing instruments. The Ivy Guide is a high tech translator tool that turns any pen into a translator and even recharges with a USB port. Engineers at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign developed a pen that writes with silver nanoparticle ink and draws functional circuitry. The Scribble Pen puts 16 million different colors at the user’s disposal with a color sensor and microprocessor.

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“Nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky” and now the 4.Ever Pininfarina Cambiano inkless pen. Made by the same Italian car design firm  based in Cambiano, Italy that designs for Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, and Fiat, the aluminum and wooden writing instrument lets users write, sketch, and doodle without ink or lead by simply oxidizing paper with the patented metallic alloy ethergraf instead of laying liquid on it.

The pen tip was invented by the Italian stationery company Napkin and the body was designed by Pininfarina. The $120 price tag is for being completely handmade in Italy by master craftsmen at Pininfarina. The pen comes with a notebook of stone paper made from stone powder, decorated with original sketches of the Cambiano concept car.

The inkless pen makes markings that are permanent and smudge proof and eco-friendly. But will the pen let users write forever? How will we know? If you believe a Google engineer, we might last forever ourselves…and Pininfarina has made sure we’ll have a working writing instrument with us. “You can’t take it with you” suddenly rings hollow when there’s a pen like this.

CloudOne – Find Your Wings

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Years of experience with growth has led GroupOne to believe that thorny, tangled problems – the kinds of problems that seem almost insoluble – usually just require a bold solution. Sometimes it takes a wise outside advisor to point in the right direction.

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Many organizations find themselves outgrowing their hardware, and /or the physical space the hardware requires. Maybe operations have outpaced the architecture. Maybe business continuity has become such an issue that the existing back-up and disaster recovery plan just isn’t adequate. Even if you could launch a giant new infrastructure project, where would you fit it? Who in your organization could you spare to learn all of the new intricacies? Sometimes all of these problems and more happen all at once.

CloudOne, the cloud services package from GroupOne, is the right decision for many organizations who have outgrown the nest of their early IT infrastructure. For many other ventures, right at the point where they begin to think seriously about virtualization, they might as well consider a cloud-based solution that grows with them and provides instant data coordination and immediate recovery.

Additionally, CloudOne, as part of a package of managed service, will address a number of challenges all growing organizations face – which also happen to be challenges all organizations that want to grow ought to be ready for:

  • Ease of implementation and management saves labor. Losing time for infrastructure upgrades is an old-business problem. Hit the ground running faster than when you jumped.
  • Unity and consistency in a virtualized operations environment for users in multiple locations with mobile capabilities is the future. Will you wait for your next upgrade to get there?
  • Easier integration of personal devices helps new people join your organization and empowers existing team members to work with greater flexibilty.
  • Reliable service at a low monthly rate that allows your staff to focus on what you hired them for is what managed IT is all about.

The big bold idea is just this: many organizations that start out nimble and light expect to grow into giant clunky infrastructure requirements, as if “arriving” necessarily meant a warehouse full of servers and an army of IT specialists to go with them; many established enterprises are so wed to their hardware that they assume upgrading means replacing each component with a more impressive next-generation incarnation – but what if an acknowledged expert in managed IT solutions could show you a simpler, cleaner, more efficient way to do business that would allow you gain greater operational flexibility and personal peace of mind, and the only thing you’d be asked to trade in is your old way of doing things?

At GroupOne, when a client outgrows the nest, we don’t build them a bigger nest. We give them wings.

Dell Leading Social Innovation for EveryOne

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GroupOne is proud to partner with Dell, the third leading manufacturer of PCs in the world. Not only is Dell a major computer manufacturer and a top seller of desktop and laptop computers, it’s a major leader in social innovation.

For seven years, the Dell Social Innovation Challenge has highlighted and supported entrepreneurs whose goals and ideas focused on solving urgent problems across the world. Over the years, Dell has supported social entrepreneurs from more than 100 countries to create a global impact with over 90 ventures like Daniel Paffenholz’s affordable and eco-friendly waste management services in Nairobi, Manoj Sinha’s  affordable, eco-friendly Husk Power Systems in India, and Emma Clippinger’s and Emily Morell’s Gardens for Health for people with HIV/AIDS in Rwanda.

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Dell’s Social Innovation Challenge has recently evolved into VerbU, an innovation machine that supports university students and new graduates across the world with social entrepreneurship competitions. By partnering with global companies, foundations, and governments, VerbU expands the original social innovation challenge that provided valuable opportunities for young entrepreneurs to win funding and get global exposure to encourage other organizations to sponsor social entrepreneurship support systems and competitions.

Social entrepreneurs can browse VerbU to see what their peer entrepreneurs are working on and get inspiration and new ideas from the incredible range of projects on VerbU’s website, as well as collaboration and mentoring support. VerbU’s members are a truly globally diverse group including members from the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Bangladesh, China, Kenya, Nigeria.

VerbU’s The Big C Competition, in collaboration with Livestrong, is an accelerator program focused on changing the way the world fights cancer by creating innovative solutions to improve the daily lives of those facing cancer.

From mobile games to help people manage cancer and other health conditions to digital peer support for children surviving cancer to patented smart pill bottles for improved medication adherence, VerbU’s innovators are working to improve the lives and outcomes for cancer sufferers the world over.

At GroupOne, we feel good that the technology and security Dell produces also supports and promotes social entrepreneurship, and you should too.

Why Use Hosted Services?

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When your IT needs have outgrown your equipment and the staff to manage it, it’s time to consider hosted services. GroupOne’s hosted services include application hosting, hosted exchange, hosted SharePointe for collaboration, small business server hosting, and private cloud administration. We deal with the IT management, maintenance, and equipment that keeps your business running so you can deal with running your business.

With hosted services, you can take advantage of Microsoft and other technologies that take your business operations to a more efficient and competitive level, improving security, communication, and computing power in the most cost-effective way.

Network World’s Zeus Kerravala cites several solid reasons for using hosted solutions, including centralized management and administration of IT systems and services, fast extension of services to remote employees, implementation of BYOD (bring your own device), and the cost-effectiveness of subscription services.

  • Implementation and management tasks are greatly reduced with hosted solutions, saving significant labor hours and improving accuracy and quality.

  • With mobile and remote employees in multiple locations, hosted solutions provide a more unified and consistent user and management computing environment with faster access at lower costs than on-site equipment.

  • The increasing use of personal devices at work has made the IT responsibility of controlling equipment and software extremely challenging. Moving communications to the cloud with hosted services creates greater flexibility for both IT management and user productivity.

  • The cost benefits of using hosted services include no upfront capital outlay, known monthly costs for services, and more efficient use of IT staffing.

Call GroupOne (916) 817-8877 to discuss hosted solutions or IT consulting for your business needs. We can help you understand how hosted services could save you time and money and improve IT efficiencies in your business.

Innovations from Our Partner Microsoft

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At GroupOne, we know the power of partnering with the best, and we’re proud to say that one of our partners is Microsoft. Microsoft continues to innovate and push the technology envelope.

Corporate vice president for Microsoft’s device partnerships Nick Parker gave the keynote presentation at Computex 2014 in Taipei, Taiwan recently. He presented more than 40 new Windows devices, including a 7-inch Toshiba tablet and the HP Pro X2 612, a 2-in-1 designed for business with 4G capabilities in the works.

Microsoft plans to innovate with Windows utilizing device partners to develop new devices and utilities through technology to fully participate in cloud services. Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Windows marketing Tony Prophet joined Parker to discuss the latest Microsoft momentum including 2 billion Skype minutes per day, 48 million Xbox Live members, and 18 percent share of the U.S. search for Bing, as well as Kabam’s lineup of hit games soon to be seen on Windows tablets and phones.

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Microsoft knows the future of technology innovation is tied to the cloud and has expansive and ongoing plans to participate in the cloud services industry. Microsoft speakers at Computex talked about things like 40 Windows for devices smaller than nine inches, the Windows 8.1 update, Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows universal apps to bring more Windows capabilities across a broader array of hardware and ecosystems for increased customer value and affordability.

The new devices introduced at Computex are the result of Microsoft’s device partner strategy with BLU, InFocus Corporation, Yezz, and prestigio, and collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies Inc. You can expect great things from Microsoft and its work with tech companies, and you can expect great things from GroupOne because we partner with the best.

How Do I Virtualize Thee? Let me Count the Ways

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So just what is virtualization anyway? That’s hosting all your IT in the cloud, right?

Close, but no. The Webopedia definition of virtualization in business is “the partitioning of a physical server into smaller virtual servers to maximize server resources.” This definition gets it right, but Paul Mah discusses even more specific ways to virtualize for PCWorld.

  1. Backup Security – taking a VM (virtual machine) copy of a server is extra insurance against hardware failure, enabling a business to get back on track with a recent image and saving the business’ bacon.

  2. Testing Testing 1 2 3 – Testing out internal services like Wikis or other projects in development on virtual machines makes great business sense. Isolating works in progress that could gum up the works with VM’s instead of taking chances or buying more hardware gives you more options with less expense.

  3. Two for One – Get double duty with mobility and security when you use remote desktop protocol with VM’s. This allows your employees to connect with their work virtually instead directly to their desktops, protecting your systems while still enabling mobility.

Ask about Group One IT Consulting services and how we can help you with virtualization needs and opportunities that protect your business, save you money, and help you innovate.

What You Get By Hiring IT Companies Providing Cloud Services

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Do you wish to bring down the workload of managing the IT setup of your company? Are you facing problems managing the server hosting and software applications that are running in-house. In such a situation you need to approach IT support companies that provide cloud services. You can avail a lot of benefits by outsourcing some of the IT management function to a separate company. So, by moving to a cloud computing system you can easily reduce the costs of managing the IT department. So, instead of purchasing expensive systems and equipment for your business, you can control the expenditure required for server management and maintenance through outsourcing.

Through this you can easily scale up or scale down your operation and storage needs very quickly. It will definitely suit your requirements and also offer a great deal of flexibility as your businesses needs are ever changing. So, instead of purchasing and installing expensive upgrades yourself, your cloud computer service provider will be handle all of it for you. This will give you more time to concentrate on other important aspects of the business. Protection of the company data and systems is an important part of business continuity planning. In situations of a natural disaster, power failure or any other crisis you can have a proper backup in place by opting for cloud services. Through the particular system you can have the data stored in the cloud which ensures it is backed up and protected in a secure and safe location. Getting back to the normal business process will be very easy for you after the disaster has passed by. So, you can easily access your data again quickly which helps you in conducting the business as usual. This way one can minimize any downtime and loss of productivity.

Through cloud services your business will have the ability to communicate and share more easily outside of the traditional methods. In a condition where you have project work going on at multiple locations, you can use cloud computing service to give employees, contractors and third parties access to the same files stored at a central location.

Come to Group One Consulting one of the most reputable IT support companies in Sacramento. You can contact us to know in detail the services that we specialize in.