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Welcome to the October 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.
In this issue:
-
QTS and Partner News
-
Events
-
President's Corner
-
QuikSecure Tip of the Month
-
Patches and Upgrades
-
Product Support Lifecycle Watch
-
Solution Spotlight
-
Special Offers
-
Partner Spotlight
-
Recruitment Spotlight
QTS AND PARTNER NEWS
WELCOME TO NEW CUSTOMERS
QTS offers a “welcome aboard” to the following new
customers:
·
Phibro Animal Health Corporation
·
Solix
QTS PUBLISHES "10 STEPS TO SECURE YOUR MICROSOFT NETWORK"
WHITE PAPER
– QTS has released the first in a series of White Papers,
focused on its famous “10 Steps” security presentations.
Click
Here to view the White Paper.
QTS IS HIRING!
QTS is recruiting for senior and mid-level technical
personnel, a Service Manager, a Sales Coordinator, and 1099
contract technical resources. If you know anyone who might
be a good fit, please have them visit our recruitment page
at
http://www.qtsnet.com/jobs/Default.htm, or submit their
resume to Liz Meechan, our Office Manager. Liz can be
reached at
lmeechan@QTSnet.com, or (973)984-7600 x223.
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PRODUCT NOTICES AND ADVISORIES
MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER 7 FOR WINDOWS XP
Microsoft has announced availability of IE7 for Windows XP,
and this technology will be automatically upgraded onto
existing machines via Automatic Updates. Although this is
desirable in many cases, in some cases this will cause
compatibility problems. Testing is therefore critical. We
recommend customers begin testing IE7 imediately and
evaluate whether this automatic update needs to be blocked
or not. The “IE7 Blocker Toolkit” can be downloaded at
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=4516A6F7-5D44-482B-9DBD-869B4A90159C&displaylang=en.
Please contact us if you would like assistance with this
process.
MICROSOFT END OF LIFE FOR SUS 1.0
Microsoft has announced end of life on December 6th,
2006 for its Software Update Service (“SUS”) patch
management software, which has been replaced by Windows
Server Update Service (“WSUS”). This is a free upgrade.
Note that as of the cutoff date, SUS will stop receiving and
distributing patches so this is a critical upgrade. For
more information, see
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/updateservices/evaluation/
previous/default.mspx. Please contact us if you would
like assistance with this process.
FREE MICROSOFT CRM SERVER LICENSE FOR MBS CUSTOMERS
At its Worldwide Partner Conference, Microsoft announced
that all new customers purchasing its Dynamics ERP products
(Great Plains, Axapta, Navision, Solomon) will receive a
free Dynamics CRM Server License. This offer also applies
to all current customers who presently have maintenance on
their systems. Contact your Microsoft Business Solutions
Partner, or your QTS Account Manager, for more information.
TERMINAL SERVICES CAL TRADE-UP EXTENDED!
Due to a change in the way Microsoft licenses Terminal
Services as of April 2003, customers may be eligible for
free Terminal Services Client Access Licenses (CALs). With
the release of Windows Server 2003, the “built-in” CALs
under Windows 2000 were eliminated. However, customers
owning Windows XP Pro receive a free Terminal Services CAL
for each XP license. This offer has been extended,
but we strongly recommend processing this promptly.
For more information, visit
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/
howtobuy/licensing/tscaltransfaq.mspx.
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PRESIDENT'S CORNER
Last month, we talked about Server Virtualization and the
numerous benefits a properly planned and implemented
virtualization solution can bring to an organization. This
month, we will focus on Desktop Virtualization and Desktop
and Application Streaming.
As I noted last month, Citrix (and with it Microsoft) has
been providing a virtualized desktop experience for over 10
years, with its WinFrame/MetaFrame products and with the
Terminal Services technology Microsoft licensed from
Citrix. In this scenario, a full virtualized desktop is run
from within a Windows Server, and that desktop is delivered
to a client PC or device. The OS is actually running inside
the Terminal Server, with the user receiving screen images
locally, and sending keystrokes and mouse clicks to the
server. The server does all the processing, and bandwidth
consumption is minimized.
Citrix extended and enhanced the approach in its MetaFrame
products with the concept of “Application Publishing” –
rather than running a full Windows desktop via Terminal
Services, some users choose to just run one application that
way. In some cases, this works best because of the size or
deployment headaches around an application, or patch/update
considerations – for example, this is one of the primary
ways most Microsoft Business Solutions partners
deliver/deploy Microsoft Great Plains and other Dynamics
applications. This is also a great approach for delivering
specific applications via an Extranet to users outside your
organization, without giving them a full desktop. This
approach can also be used to resolve compatibility problems
– we’re using it as our default fallback plan when rolling
out Windows Vista if a given application can’t be made to
run in Vista, since our clients in the Vista deployment
program all have this technology in place.
There are some downsides to this approach, however. For
one, there are costs associated with both the Terminal
Services and MetaFrame Presentation Server licensing (though
these are typically far outweighed by the benefits).
Second, users need to be online to be able to run
applications – which is not always possible for mobile
users, or situations with limited or no connectivity.
Lastly, users often have limited flexibility in this type of
environment. These considerations, even though the overall
solution is very powerful and effective, have led some
organizations and vendors to approach the problems in
different ways, in most cases variations off the same theme
of centralized management.
One approach is to virtualize an entire “traditional”
Windows desktop, and run that desktop from PCs, servers or
Blades. This can be accomplished using a virtualization
engine such as VMware or Microsoft Virtual Server, but
running desktops such as Windows XP or Vista as the guest
OS. This can be run on Blade Servers or Blade PCs for
further space savings and manageability. This allows the
benefits of a centrally managed, consistent desktop, while
providing flexibility to users and a familiar experience.
In some cases, users received dedicated sessions and
consistent desktops, in others they simply access pooled
resources. Citrix recently released its Desktop Broker
technology to manage these pooled desktop services and
resources from Presentation Server, directly competing with
VMware’s Virtual Desktop Interface (VDI) technology, and
others are in this space as well.
On the other hand, some organizations are more concerned
with delivering the applications than they are with
delivering the desktop. This can be a major challenge,
particularly for organizations with a large number of
applications. In a traditional environment, delivering the
applications is often the easy part – tools like Microsoft
SMS provide a great mechanism for delivering the apps to a
user’s desktop. The challenge often comes in with making
the apps work – it is rare for 20, 50 or 100+ applications
to all play well together, and the likelihood is high of
having conflicts between DLLs, Java or .Net versions, or
required supporting services such as Crystal Reports. What
one application requires may break another application, and
the inherent complexity of managing and regression testing
such a complex environment can be very time consuming, while
also impacting performance, system stability, and user
satisfaction. The deployment method is fine (we’ve had
strong success with SMS across a wide range of clients) –
the challenge is around managing what is being deployed.
Application Streaming is a concept developed and coined by
Softricity, with its SoftGrid technology (recently purchased
by Microsoft). Under this approach, rather than
distributing an application and installing it directly into
a client operating system, the application gets installed
into a virtualized, “sandboxed” section of the file system
and the registry. This eliminates the problem of one
application’s files overwriting those of another
application. Furthermore, the application can execute
independently within the computer (think of it as a “box
within the box”), so it can have its own version of Java or
.Net, etc. This is very powerful, particularly when
combined with a powerful distribution tool such as SMS.
Microsoft purchased Softricity and the SoftGrid technology
in an effort to help customers develop more manageable IT
infrastructures (see the
November 2005 QuikNews
column on Infrastructure Optimization). However, clearly
the primary goal is to help organizations to migrate to
Windows Vista on a more rapid basis, resolving application
conflicts through virtualization. The strategy is in fact
quite sound. Microsoft recently announced that in January
2007 it will make a
Desktop Optimization Pack
including SoftGrid technology (along with several other
components) available (at additional cost) to customers with
Software Assurance on their Windows desktops (essentially,
customers with Enterprise Agreements, or who chose to add SA
to desktops within 90 days of purchasing the computers from
Dell, HP, etc.).
The SoftGrid approach is very similar to an offering under
development by Citrix, known for the moment as Project
Tarpon, which is based on the new Application Isolation
feature introduced in MetaFrame Presentation Server 4.0.
Under this feature, an application can be installed into a
Presentation Server (or farm) in its own self-contained
section of the file system and registry. This was primarily
done to allow, for example, an organization to run multiple
versions of Microsoft Office on the same server
concurrently. However, the feature has other benefits in
preventing conflicts and managing ill-behaved applications.
Taking this concept and packaging this isolated application
for delivery to remote systems is what Project Tarpon is all
about. However, the time frame and pricing model for this
offering are still up in the air, largely because of
Microsoft acquiring Softricity and Citrix’ desire to avoid
being a direct competitor to Microsoft if possible.
There are other offerings in this space, and many nuances
around how to deploy these tools and architect a desktop
deployment and management solution within a given
organization. Every organization’s environment,
requirements, roadblocks and challenges are different. In
our QuikDesign for Desktop Deployment and QuikDeploy
services, we work with organizations to help plan and
architect migrations to new desktop operating system
platforms, including Windows Vista. A critical component of
this planning (and subsequent execution) is managing
application inventory, compatibility testing, and
deployment. We would enjoy the opportunity to work with you
and to help you to develop an OS and Application Deployment
strategy appropriate for your organization, and to help you
implement that strategy so you can realize the management,
security and support benefits of doing so.
As always, feel free to email me your comments or thoughts
at
nrosenberg@QTSnet.com. Thank you.
Neil Rosenberg
President & CEO
Quality Technology Solutions
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PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
This month QTS is spotlighting Enterprise Information
Management International (“EIM International,” formerly
Wertheim Inc.), its partner for document management,
document imaging and document-based solutions. EIM
International is a premier provider of information
management solutions, office automation solutions and a
premier integrator for Hummingbird Software. The result of
implementing these solutions is organizations are enabled to
increase profits and improve work quality, while enhancing
the level of professionalism exhibited to their customers
and partners via delivery of their electronic documents.
EIM International is able to assist clients in all areas of
information management, from initial technology planning
through final implementation, including maintenance and
audit services. EIM International’s professionals’
extensive experience provides them with the unique ability
to provide consulting expertise and to speak to the best
practices currently available with regard to document
management, imaging, assembly, and content management
systems.
The staff at EIM International has honed and refined a style
of interaction which has garnered many accolades up and down
the firm's client list. Put most simply, clients like them.
EIM International has had many successful engagements with
clients ranging from those that are new to document
management, as well as organizations need of upgrades.
Their approach to customers and technology mirrors that of
the outlook and values held by QTS.
EIM International has developed a proprietary set of
administrative software tools specifically designed to
optimize Hummingbird Solutions. The “Winc” suite of
products works with a Document Management System that
provides tools to:
* Help manage environments with multiple databases
* Assure proper documents security to users
* Enable business continuity solutions for the DMS
environment,
* Provide a robust array of DMS administrative utilities.
These applications are used by clients today throughout the
world.
EIM International is a leading service provider and clients
benefit from their depth of experience with the product
offerings of Hummingbird (DOCS Open/DM5), PDF applications
from DOCSCorp, Microsoft Sharepoint integration with
SeeUnity, and document imaging systems from Kofax and eCopy.
While QTS continues to build, enhance and
support the Microsoft platform, networks and
infrastructure, our partnership with EIM International
significantly extends our capabilities and the total range
of services that we can offer clients.
For more information on EIM International, please visit
their web site at
www.eimintl.com, email them at info@eimintl.com,
or call 212-413-8600. Or, contact your QTS Account Manager.
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RECRUITMENT SPOTLIGHT: SALES COORDINATOR
QTS is currently recruiting to fill this important open
position, newly added to our team. The Sales Coordinator
will work closely with the President and QTS Sales team to
help:
·
Follow-up with prospects and customer on outstanding
proposals;
·
Help to develop solutions and proposals for new current and
new customers;
·
Assist with coordination and implementation of marketing
programs and events;
·
Participate in new product development;
·
Maintain CRM database and ensure sales, marketing and
service information is kept up to date and accurate;
·
Telemarketing and telephone follow-up to schedule and
coordinate meetings;
·
Work with vendors and partners to coordinate pipelines and
sales activities.
A broad, high-level understanding of QTS’ supported
technologies and solutions is required, and vendor
certifications will need to be pursued – QTS will provide
training and support for both. A college degree is
required, prior sales experience is highly desirable. A
strong interest in technology and desire to learn is
critical.
If you know anyone who would be a good fit for the above
responsibilities, please have them contact our Office
Manager Liz Meechan at (973)984-7600 x223, or via email
emeechan@QTSnet.com.
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