Quality
Technology Solutions, Inc.
QTS
QuikNews – June 2001 – Issue 2001.6
July 5, 2001
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Welcome
to the June 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.
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This is an unmonitored account.
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IN
THIS ISSUE
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1. QTS News
2.
Events
3.
Patches & Upgrades
4.
President’s Corner
5.
Business Spotlight: AFS Intercultural Programs
6.
Special Offers & Featured Solutions
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QTS
NEWS
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QTS
ADDS AT&T TO PARTNERSHIP LINE CARD
QTS
has joined AT&T’s partner program as an Authorized Agent, offering
AT&T’s numerous services including Internet access (leased line, DSL,
Frame Relay and OC3), Managed Hosting Services, Private Line Service and
other offerings. As an
AT&T Authorized Agent, QTS can coordinate service installation and has
access to systems and procedures to streamline your installation and
service, integrated with our project management methodology.
Contact your Account Manager if you are considering adding an
AT&T service, or would like a price quote on some of the promotional
specials running currently for T1 and Fractional T1 managed services.
+++
FROM THE WEB +++
QTS
AND RSA SECURITY PARTNER FOR AUTHENTICATION SOLUTIONS
7/5/2001: Quality Technology Solutions, Inc. (“QTS”) and RSA Security, Inc. (“RSA”) today announced that QTS has joined RSA’s channel program as a SecureWorld Product Reseller for the SecurID product line, including RSA ACE/Server.
Read
more at http://www.qtsnet.com/stayinformed/l3_stay_pr15.htm
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EVENTS
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QTS
SEMINAR SERIES: FALL 2001
QTS
is continuing our Seminar Series this fall with the following upcoming
morning seminars at QTS:
*
Fundamentals of Network Security: Firewalls and Intrusion Detection
* Knowledge Management with Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server
* Fundamentals of Network Security: Virtual Private Networking and
Authentication
* Novell Solutions Spotlight: NetWare 6, GroupWise 6, ZENworks and
Security Solutions
* Fundamentals of Network Security: Traffic and Content Management
* Wireless Networking: Issues and Opportunities
Look
for next month’s newsletter for final seminar dates, or read more at http://www.QTSnet.com/seminars
QTS
TO INTRODUCE TECHNOLOGY ROUNDTABLES FOR ITS CUSTOMERS
Keeping
up with the changing pace of technology can be a real challenge. To help our customers, QTS will be starting a technology
roundtable series (to run roughly every other week starting in late July
with a GroupWise 6 session) where customers can learn more about new areas
of technology that can benefit their business.
The
sessions will be restricted to QTS customers only, or active prospects
when recommended by the Account Manager, in a small group setting to
maximize the value attendees receive, and will be held on Tuesdays from
12:30 to 1:30, over lunch. See
next months’ QuikNews for more details and a schedule of upcoming
sessions.
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PATCHES
& UPGRADES
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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 recommended by QTS:
*
Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 (see note below)
* Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 Service Pack 1
* Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5
and 2000 Security Fix (see Microsoft
Security Bulletin MS01-030)
* Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 1
* Check Point FireWall-1/VPN-1 Service Pack 4 (see note below)
Note
that Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 breaks the IP stack for CheckPoint
Firewall-1/VPN-1 and requires application of Firewall-1/VPN-1 Service Pack
4.
CA
InoculateIT 4.x signature files are currently at version 25.32 (7/2/2001)
and McAfee VirusScan/NetShield is at version 4146 (7/4/2001). Please keep your antivirus signatures 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.
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PRESIDENT’S
CORNER
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We
will be alternating content in future newsletter issues between the LAN
Administration Best Practices you are used to seeing, a new column on
Internet Security issues, and this general, editorial column.
I will try to keep the editorial content here focused on major
industry issues, to keep our customers focused on technology industry
trends, issues and opportunities that you need to be aware of in managing
IT functions and your business.
This
month, an area of concern I’d like to discuss is DSL.
DSL technology has been a wonderful boost to the IT industry,
bringing reasonably priced (if not in fact cheap!) always-up Internet
access to small and mid-sized businesses across the country.
It has been a major driver for expanding Internet mail, increasing
the richness of multimedia content on the Internet, and from QTS’
perspective has been a major driver for our QuikAlert product and our
remote network management services. So,
one might say, where is the problem?
Fortunately,
only a handful of our clients were impacted by Northpoint’s bankruptcy,
and the dissolution of its DSL network.
As you may know, Northpoint was one of the three major CLECs
driving the DSL growth-frenzy. The
CLECs are the critical “glue” between ISPs and the circuits themselves
(provided by Verizon or the local Bell company).
All three companies (the ISP, the CLEC, and the telephone company)
need to work together and provide components of the DSL solution –
making DSL a challenging technology to implement in many cases.
Failure on the part of any one of these key components of the
solution brings down the service, and with it Internet access for impacted
businesses.
Hence,
the problem. Northpoint’s
bankruptcy, concurrent with a continuing shake-out in the ISP realm
(including victims like PSInet), may be the tip of the iceberg.
Rumors have been flying for the past few months that the other two
CLECs, Covad and Rhythms, are in equally challenging financial straits.
Both companies insist that, though still in red ink, they are on
the path to profitability. Only time will tell. But
it raises the specter of possible future problems – imagine the impact
of Covad suffering the same fate as Northpoint, and over 55% of all DSL
users suddenly losing their connection to the Internet!
What
is one to do? Cable modems
provide fast performance, but there are cons as well as pros to this
technology. From my perspective, this isn’t really a strong
business-class solution, based on the shared nature of the bandwidth and
the security issues associated with it.
If the Internet is a critical component of your IT infrastructure,
which it is for most of our clients, then this is an issue you need to
consider. A positive side-effect of DSL has been the driving of T1
pricing down to all-time low levels – from around $2,000 per month a few
years ago, to in some cases below $1,000 per month these days (but, caveat
emptor, you do get what you pay for here!).
If Internet connectivity is critical to your business, and you are
running DSL, you should be considering at what point you’ll look to make
the jump to a T1 or fractional T1. It
will absolutely be more expensive, but it will be more reliable and will
come with a Service Level Agreement (SLA) commitment from the ISP.
You don’t, and won’t, have that with DSL, because the
technology is inherently less reliable.
Feel
free to email me your comments or thoughts at nrosenberg@QTSnet.com.
Hopefully,
this is much ado about nothing. But,
as noted above, only time will tell….
Neil
Rosenberg
President & CEO
Quality Technology Solutions
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BUSINESS
SPOTLIGHT: AFS INTERCULTURAL PROGRAMS
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In
this section of the newsletter, we will spotlight a customer or partner
with a unique and interesting mission or message.
QTS has been a long-time supporter of AFS Intercultural Programs,
both of the USA organization and the International umbrella organization
in New York. QTS has
contributed resources, secured partner donations and provided technology
infrastructure design and support for AFS USA since 1995.
See http://www.novell.com/success/afs.html
for a published success story on how QTS and Novell worked together to
deliver a highly managed network solution to reduce support expenses and
redeploy IT resources.
By
way of background, AFS is the most experienced student exchange
organization in the world. In response to the humanitarian crises of World
Wars I and II, more than 2,500 young Americans volunteered as American
Field Service ambulance drivers on the front lines of battle. Following WW
II, the drivers resolved to find a way to build understanding between
nations by educating enlightened world leaders through international
student exchanges, and, in 1947, founded AFS.
Today,
AFS exchanges more than 10,000 participants each year. In addition to
being the most experienced student exchange organization, AFS is also one
of the world's largest volunteer organizations. With 270,000 AFS alumni
and
During
the past three years, the number of students going abroad with AFS has
increased by 24%, and minority participation has increased from 3 to 18%. This is due, in part, to AFS awarding more than $1 million in
scholarships to
Through
more than 50 years of service as a non-governmental, non-profit
organization, the mission of AFS has remained the same -- to create a more
just and peaceful world by providing international and intercultural
learning experiences to individuals, families, schools, and communities.
For more information about AFS and its programs and services in the U.S.
and abroad, visit the website at http://www.afs.org/usa,
or contact AFS’ IT Director, Saul Zuchman, at (212)299-9000 x379.
AFS is always looking for corporate partners, supporters and
students, to enhance its mission for global understanding.
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SPECIAL
OFFERS & FEATURED SOLUTIONS
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GROUPWISE
6 UPGRADE PROTECTION
QTS
and Novell are offering customers the ability to upgrade to GroupWise 6
from an earlier version of GroupWise at a very aggressive price by
purchasing Novell VLA Upgrade Protection, and get a year of future updates
for free! GroupWise 6 expands
on the strong features of GroupWise 5 but adds improved webaccess
performance and usability, improved wireless/mobile device support,
improved server scaleability and reliability, and numerous administration
improvements. This special
pricing is only available through the end of July, so contact your QTS
Account Manager soon for more details!
FEATURED
SOLUTION: MICROSOFT SHAREPOINT PORTAL SERVER
Microsoft
SharePoint Portal Server is a new Microsoft offering based on both new and
old technology. It combines
the strong Index Server/full-text search technology from Internet
Information Server with web publishing features from Microsoft Site
Server, and integrates them with strong document management and publishing
functions to provide a powerful, rich tool for building Intranets and
Extranets, with users submitting and managing the content.
Start
sharing knowledge internally, or building your client Extranet, by calling
QTS today!
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copyright
2001 Quality Technology Solutions, Inc.
This site last updated 07/09/01
© 1999 Quality Technology Solutions, Inc.
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07079
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