QuikNews January 2003 E-Mail Newsletter




Quality Technology Solutions, Inc. QTS QuikNews � January 2003 � Issue 2003.1 January 31, 2003 ************************************************************************ Welcome to the January edition of QTS QuikNews, our Monthly E-Mail newsletter. In this monthly e-mail, you will receive an update of what's new at QTS - new products we support, new patches and upgrades, solution ideas and promotions to save you money, and information about our company and our clients. As a QTS client, a prospective client we have had discussions with, or a �friend of QTS,� you have been automatically added to our newsletter distribution list. To unsubscribe from this mailing please see the instructions at the bottom of this page, or call your QTS Account Manager. Please do not respond to this e-mail. This is an unmonitored account. ********************************************************************** IN THIS ISSUE ********************************************************************** 1. QTS News 2. Events 3. Patches & Upgrades 4. President�s Corner 5. Special Offers & Featured Solutions ********************************************************************** QTS NEWS ********************************************************************** QTS HAS MOVED! See our Press Release below � our new address is 201 Littleton Road, Morris Plains, NJ 07950. Our new phone number is (973)984-7600, our fax is (973)984-7650 and the Customer Support Center phone number is (973)984-7750. Please adjust your records accordingly. The old 761-5400 number will forward calls to our new number, but it can only handle one caller at a time, so please use the new number going forward. Thank You! QTS OPTS OUT OF COMPAQ WARRANTY SERVICE PROGRAM Although we have been a Compaq Authorized Service Center and provided warranty service for Compaq hardware for the last three years, QTS has decided to discontinue participation in this program. Our volume of warranty business does not justify the investments necessary to remain in the program, as we have found the failure rate on Compaq components to be minimal. QTS customers that need Compaq (now HP) warranty service can call HP directly for technical support at (800)652-6672, and they will either ship parts or dispatch a warranty technician as dictated by the situation. We do not anticipate any degradation in service from this change, and QTS will continue performing troubleshooting and integration services � we simply will no longer be reimbursed by HP for warranty parts replacement. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your QTS Account Manager. WE WANT YOUR FEEDBACK! We are considering switching the format of QuikNews from plain text to HTML. This will make the newsletter more �reader-friendly� and aesthetically pleasing, but might make it harder for some of our readers to view it easily. Please email us back, to QuikNews@QTSnet.com, with your feedback on whether you would like to see this change or not. If we move to HTML, some of the contents will most likely be shortened in the newsletter and linked directly to our web site for the full contents. Let us know if you like or dislike that idea as well. MICROSOFT PRODUCT SUPPORT LIFECYCLE Manufacturer support for software offerings typically runs a 3 year lifecycle from initial product release these days � sometimes sooner, sometimes later, depending on the frequency of interim updates. The following Microsoft products will reach the �Non-Supported� stage at these dates: 6/30/2003 � Microsoft Windows 98 and Windows NT Workstation 4.0 12/31/2003 � Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 After these dates, only online support will be available. See http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/desktop/business/default.mspx and http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver/productinfo/availability/retiring.asp for more information. Note that support for Windows 95 was discontinued effective 12/31/01. +++ FROM THE WEB +++ QTS RELOCATES CORPORATE OFFICES TO MORRIS PLAINS, NJ 1/20/2003: QTS today announced its relocation to new corporate offices on the second floor of 201 Littleton Road in Morris Plains, NJ. Read more at http://www.QTSnet.com/stayinformed/l3_stay_pr37.htm QTS LAUNCHES QUIKSECURE ASSISTED SECURITY MANAGEMENT SERVICE 1/6/2003: QTS today launched its new QuikSecure� Assisted Security Management service offering, providing customers with a cost-effective means to outsource network security monitoring and management. Read more at http://www.QTSnet.com/stayinformed/l3_stay_pr36.htm ********************************************************************** EVENTS ********************************************************************** QTS OPEN HOUSE QTS will be hosting an Open House in its new Morris Plains facility to welcome customers, prospective customers, partners and friends of QTS to our new home. The event will be on Thursday, February 6^th from 5-7PM. Please join us for food, drink and good company! Please RSVP with Tamara Lee at x262 or Liz Meechan at x223 if you can join us. For directions to our new office, please visit www.QTSnet.com/directions. ********************************************************************** PATCHES & UPGRADES ************************************************************************ Call the Customer Support Center to have us apply QTS-standard patches and keep your systems current. The following patches have been recently released and are generally recommended by QTS: * Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2001 Service Pack 2 * Microsoft Operations Manager Service Pack 1 * Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3 NOTE: As per our recent QuikAlarm Bulletin 2003.1, if you are running Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and/or MSDE 2000 you need to apply a patch to prevent attacks using vulnerabilities identified in MS02-039 in July 2002. An Internet worm (�Slammer�) is currently running that exploits this vulnerability, causing degraded system performance and denial of service conditions. Also, please check http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/current.asp for applicability of Microsoft Security Bulletins to the products in use at your environment. Contact your QTS Account Manager if you would like our Customer Support Center to monitor these bulletins for you and advise with recommendations for your environment upon release of new bulletins. Symantec (formerly Norton) Antivirus Corporate Edition signature files are currently at version 50131e (1/31/2003). CA InoculateIT 4.x signature files are currently at version 41.29 (1/30/2003) and 6.x signature files are currently at version 23.59.30 (1/29/2003). McAfee VirusScan/NetShield signature files are currently at version 4245 (1/29/2003). Please keep your antivirus signatures, and your scan engines, current! If you do not have your system set up to automatically distribute updates from your server to your PCs, please call your QTS Account Manager or the Customer Support Center. Some patches can cause problems, especially in combination with other software programs or patch levels. Please talk to us to verify whether we see any possible problems in your environment before patching your systems independently. We make best efforts to test patch combinations but cannot guarantee compatibility between software and hardware manufacturers� products. ************************************************************************ PRESIDENT�S CORNER ********************************************************************** It is a new year, and with this of course comes New Years� Resolutions, which are directed at achieving desired changes � in personal life, in business, or in whatever is important. We probably have all spent at least some time thinking about what we want to do differently this year. One of my goals for the year is to enhance my level of direct engagement with our customers, and to make sure that QTS� efforts are correctly aligned with our customers and their business goals. So far in January, I have been spending considerable time visiting our customers and personally meeting with them � to get a handle on what their business concerns and priorities are, to help them with their planning for the new year, and to make sure QTS is aligned with our customers� needs. It has been great to get out and meet with many of you, and I hope to do so with the rest of our customers in the upcoming weeks. What I am seeing and hearing generally is a cautious optimism about the economy � business plans are in place, and people are slowly starting to re-engage with their priorities after a 2002 in which most non-essential spending was put on hold (even if compelling ROI or strategic advantage was involved). Now, people are looking forward more, albeit a bit cautiously, and starting to follow a path based on priorities. We�re seeing a very heightened sense of the importance of Information Security, and our QuikSecure offerings have been very well received thus far. I�m also seeing a strong interest in Disaster Recovery and Business Contingency Planning, which bodes well for our upcoming QuikRecover offerings. So we seem to have successfully aligned our product lines with our customers� business needs. This ties to an overall improved understanding of the strategic importance of our customers� systems to their businesses. Whether we�re talking about an eCommerce system that processes business transactions, or the network of a mid-sized law firm, people seem very in tune today with the importance of avoiding downtime and disruption, based on both the economic and service impact. I�m hearing today, even in smaller organizations (25-100 user networks) that the MIS Director or Manager is being charged with, and measured on, responsibility to keep the network operational and available. A year or two ago, I was only hearing this in larger environments, but it seems to now have trickled down to the core of medium business and I�m hearing more and more of this being a key measure in job descriptions and compensation structures. We seem to have also hit the mark here, with the proactivity of our QuikAlert Daily Monitoring service offering and our QuikSecure Assisted Security Management offering striking a strong chord. The fact that our QuikAlert customers have over the years seen fewer network outages and disruption, because we�ve caught the small problems before they turned into big ones, is now making more and more sense to people, and our new QuikSecure ASM offering extends the same approach to perimeter security. In 2003, we will extend the offering by leveraging Microsoft Operations Manager (�MOM�) and other technologies to improve proactivity and provide more options for faster response and resolution, with the ultimate goal of maximizing network uptime. What I�m also seeing is a direct focus on business value of the technology investments people are making. Organizations, particularly medium businesses, are looking at their projects and clearly prioritizing based on business value. Some risk mitigation projects (security, server upgrades, disaster recovery) are happening regardless, because the down-side risk or the negative business impact is the motivator. For many businesses, their infrastructure is 3-5 years old (1999 pre-Y2K systems are now coming up on 4 years old), and these upgrades are necessary to ensure system reliability. But larger software-centric projects are being driven by a clear sense of the business value that is to be achieved � cost reduction, creating competitive advantages, improving client relationships. There is a clearer sense of alignment between business IT spending and business goals, and when the alignment occurs, it seems this year businesses are starting the spending again. However, the projects are being controlled, with clear checkpoints and better project management, to ensure that the anticipated gain is actually achieved. This is clearly a good thing, as far too many projects in the late 90s and early this decade had no clear goals or measures. QTS� goal in all this is to ensure that the network infrastructure is �Worry-Free� � that the underlying servers, switches, routers and security mechanisms can all handle the load and run reliably, so the applications that deliver the business value can do what they�re supposed to. So I�m finding that in a lot of these meetings, we�re looking at key system upgrades to support these initiatives, and we�re introducing our application-level partners to handle the projects that drive the business value, or working with existing vendors or in-house staff to do so. The applications are what makes a difference and create business value, but they�re only as good as the network they run on. I am looking forward to working with you in the upcoming year to determine with you what initiatives can truly have a significant positive impact on your business, and to help you plan the implementation so that technology can be an enabler of positive change, and not just a necessary expense. As always, feel free to email me your comments or thoughts at nrosenberg@QTSnet.com. Thank you. Neil Rosenberg President & CEO Quality Technology Solutions ********************************************************************** SPECIAL OFFERS & FEATURED SOLUTIONS ********************************************************************** SYMANTEC SECURITY SOFTWARE Symantec is offering a 10% discount on many of its security software programs (Intrusion Detection, Vulnerability Management, etc.) to customers who purchase a Vulnerability Assessment utilizing Symantec�s NetRecon software, from QTS. Contact your QTS Account Manager for more details. ********************************************************************** To Comment on this newsletter, send an email to QuikNews@QTSnet.com. ********************************************************************** To Remove yourself from this mailing list please send a reply to this message with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject field. Or call or email your QTS Account Manager. ********************************************************************** To Subscribe to this Newsletter, tell your friends and colleagues to go to http://www.QTSnet.com/QuikNews. ********************************************************************** To View an archive of all QTS QuikNews editions, please visit http://www.QTSnet.com/stayinformed/QuikNews/QuikNews_Index.htm. ************************************************************************ ^{� 2003 Quality Technology Solutions, Inc.} This site last updated 08/31/07 � 1999 Quality Technology Solutions, Inc. 201 Littleton Road, Morris Plains, New Jersey 07950 telephone: 973.984.7600 fax: 973.984.7650 email: info@qtsnet.com