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February 2007 

Volume 7 Issue 2

February 26, 2007

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Welcome to the February 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
  • Practice Area Spotlight
  • Recruitment Spotlight

QTS AND PARTNER NEWS

WELCOME TO NEW CUSTOMERS
QTS offers a “welcome aboard” to the following new customers:

·         CommonHealth

·         GenTek

·         Hatch Mott McDonald

QTS IS HIRING!
QTS is recruiting for senior and mid-level technical personnel 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

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME CHANGES
As a result of Congress’ Energy Policy Act, the start time for Daylight Savings Time is moving from the first Sunday in April (April 1, 2007) to the second Sunday in March (March 11, 2007), and DST now ends later, moving from the last Sunday of October to the first Sunday in November.  Any software product that manipulates dates may be affected by this change. 

The result of this change, if unpatched, for calendaring programs like Outlook/Exchange is that for a three week period in March, and a one week period in October/November, calendar entries will be off by one hour.  Each of your systems needs to be reviewed for potential impact of this change, as it can range from a severe inconvenience (people may be late for or miss meetings) to being financially significant (any calculations that are time-based can be adversely impacted – for example, transaction logging or calculations done in tariff billing applications).  Please be extra-sensitive to reviewing your financial and business systems. 

Patches are also available from Symantec for Enterprise Vault, Symantec Mail Security and other products.  Other systems may also be affected, such as systems that do logging and date/time stamping.  Furthermore, non-Microsoft systems such as building security systems, alarm systems and time clocks could be affected by this change.  Linux and custom-OS appliances may also be affected. 

It should be clear at this point that a key element here is USER COMMUNICATION.  There is significant potential for appointments to show up in the wrong places, no matter what is done, due to the sequence of applying patches and to people using their systems before patches are applied.  Furthermore, irrespective of everything you do, your users may be affected by unpatched systems outside your organization (for example, Outlook appointments sent by other organizations).  So, it is important that users be notified of the change, and that they be suspect of time entries on their calendars during the two time windows noted above. 

Contact your QTS Account Manager if you need assistance with these changes.

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

In late January, I attended Citrix’ Partner Summit, an annual forum for Citrix to lay out strategies and key messaging with its top tier partners.   This year, the conference really crystallized the core themes from last year and positioned Citrix as an Applications Delivery company around six key solution elements:

·         Citrix Presentation Server (what we think of as MetaFrame) allows for Windows application delivery from a Presentation Server/Farm;

·         Citrix Desktop Server (a new offering) allows for centrally managed access to either Windows Desktop/Blade systems, or to Virtualized Windows Desktops, or to Presentation Servers, depending on the users’ application delivery requirements;

·         Citrix NetScaler provides accelerated, secure access to Web-Based applications and web sites;

·         Citrix Access Gateway (CAG) enables secure applications access from outside the network, or controls internal applications access, providing SSL VPN functionality;

·         Citrix WANScaler accelerates and optimizes WAN performance, optimizing branch office access;

·         Citrix EdgeSight monitors application performance and the end-user computing experience, and provides tools for troubleshooting and remediation of problems on Windows desktops and Citrix Presentation Servers.

Through its acquisitions over the last 2 years (Net6, NetScaler, Orbiral and Reflectant), and adding home-grown technologies, Citrix has significantly expanded its breadth of offerings and now has all the pieces to provide secure, high-performance access to applications through a variety of access methods, and back-end platforms. 

The core Citrix technology remains Presentation Server, and the impending release of version 4.5 delivers many new features and benefits of interest.  To me, the most significant of these is Application Streaming – the technologies Citrix announced last year under the code name “Project Tarpon.”  With this technology, included in the Enterprise Edition and Platinum Edition of Presentation Server, it is possible not only to run applications via Terminal Services, but to actually “push” the applications out to remote computers so they can execute locally.  This leverages the Application Isolation feature first introduced in 4.0, but instead of just running the isolated (virtualized) application within the server, Application Streaming lets the application be run locally, or even offline (separate licenses may be desired if users are going to run this way for an extended time).  This technology is similar in concept to the SoftGrid technology Microsoft acquired through the purchase of Softricity, but to me seems easier to implement and better scaled to smaller organizations (whereas the disadvantage, from an applications virtualization perspective, of the Citrix approach is that it requires Presentation Server to run).  Citrix has also introduced other improvements, including Automated Server Recovery functions, enhanced 2D graphics support, and 64-bit improvements. 

Citrix also introduced the Platinum Edition of its Presentation Server family, essentially replacing the Access Suite but adding EdgeSight into the mix.  This comes along with elimination of the Standard Edition, so Advanced Edition becomes the bottom line offering (besides Access Essentials, which remains targeted at Small Business customers). 

Citrix WANScaler will be a significant product for QTS, particularly for mid-market customers with multiple sites, and we are already seeing significant traction here.  The ability to significantly accelerate WAN performance can have significant cost savings.  WANScaler not only “compresses” data (actually, it substitutes repetitive data with small markers, reducing the amount of data on the pipe), but also improves circuit utilization (overcoming inefficiencies in the TCP Sliding Window protocol) and reduces latency delays.  Any customer with a WAN or site-to-site VPN should look seriously at this. 

NetScaler also has significant improvements in its upcoming release, including integration of options for performance monitoring (through EdgeSight for NetScaler), Application Firewall functionality (from the Teros acquisition) and numerous enhancements to its ability to accelerate web site traffic.  

Citrix Desktop Server is an evolutionary technology from the “Desktop Broker” product Citrix introduced last Fall, which was/is free to Presentation Server customers.  Essentially, Citrix envisions three usage scenarios for delivery of desktop services to users: 

·         Standard, Task-Oriented Users need deployed applications or desktops, without much flexibility and highly locked down and secured (delivered via Presentation Server);

·         Moderate Users may need the flexibility of a “full” desktop experience, but virtualized when balancing cost and performance considerations (delivered through a virtualized server such as VMWare or Virtual Server serving desktop guest virtual machines); or

·         Power Users need a high-performance, flexible desktop (dedicated PCs or Blade PCs)

Desktop Server is the “glue” to deliver the appropriate desktop platform to the appropriate user.  This product will be released some time in 2007. 

Overall, I have to say I like where Citrix is going here.  Even as Microsoft continues to improve Terminal Services with the Longhorn release of Windows Server, Citrix continues to enhance Presentation Server to stay ahead and add more and more value, making Terminal Services more manageable and improving its performance and user experience.  More important, Citrix has broadened its messaging and become a genuine provider of IT solutions to secure, accelerate and manage access to applications of all types (Windows and Web, Full and Virtualized and Terminal Services Desktops), while providing strong tools to manage the environment and ensure delivery.  They are truly adding value and have a consistent and coherent message.  And as long as that continues, Citrix will continue to play an important role in QTS’ line card of solutions we deliver to our customers. 

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 its business solutions partner, AKA Enterprise Solutions (also known as Interdyn AKA).  AKA is a highly focused solution provider that provides services around Microsoft Business Solutions – currently, the Dynamics (formerly Great Plains) and Axapta accounting systems, and Microsoft CRM, as well as related eCommerce and application development services. These solutions are a great fit for most of QTS’ mid-market customers.

For more than a decade, AKA Enterprise Solutions has been a leading partner dedicated to the sales, consulting, service and support of Microsoft Business Solutions. AKA Enterprise Solutions provides solutions that address Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), e-Commerce and Business Process Consulting and Custom Application Development.

AKA’s dedication and focus on the Microsoft Great Plains, Axapta and Microsoft CRM products benefits their clients by providing increased access to knowledge and dedicated resources for all areas of customer care. As a certified Microsoft Business Solutions partner, AKA shares Microsoft's commitment to long lasting customer relationships exemplified by a 93% client customer retention rate and consistently high satisfaction ratings.

AKA Enterprise Solutions has been the recipient of numerous industry awards and national honors that serve to reflect the combined talents, innovation, and enthusiasm of the team members. AKA was the 2006 winner of Microsoft’s Great Plains Partner of the Year Award, as the top Great Plains Partner worldwide. Of the 4,000 Microsoft Business Solutions partners worldwide, AKA is routinely ranked within the top fifteen companies in the world. As part of their dedication to Microsoft Business Solutions, AKA has maintained the only North East certified Microsoft Great Plains Education Center for the past four years.

As an InterDyn company, AKA Enterprise Solutions offers clients the advantage of specialized talents and industry expertise of each of its locations to maintain the highest quality of customer care services. With more than 500 certified professionals in locations around the world, InterDyn supports over 3,500 customers- making it the largest, most comprehensive, and most experienced Microsoft Business Solutions partner worldwide. For more information about AKA Enterprise Solutions visit http://www.akaes.com, or contact your QTS Account Manager.

QTS and AKA Enterprise Solutions work together for our customers to build new solutions that create competitive advantage, reduce costs or create opportunity - with QTS providing the infrastructure and AKA the software solutions, in a highly integrated fashion.

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PRACTICE AREA SPOTLIGHT

QTS offers a broad range of services to its customers.  This month, we are highlighting our Desktop Deployment practice area.  QTS offers strong skill and expertise around the Windows Desktop platform, including strong experience with Windows Vista based on our participation with four clients in the Windows Vista Technology Adoption Program throughout 2006.  Helping our customers with upgrades and migrations to the latest version of Windows is one of our prime areas of expertise. 

Our Desktop Deployment solutions include:

  • Planning for the Windows Migration with our QuikDesign for Desktop Deployment service;
  • Conducting the Windows Migration following the 5 stage methodology in our QuikDeploy Desktop Deployment service;
  • Delivery of Windows Applications via Thin Client solutions including Windows Terminal Services and Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server;
  • Delivery of Windows Applications via Software Distribution tools including Microsoft SMS;
  • Delivery of Windows Applications via application streaming technologies such as Microsoft Softricity (future);
  • Planning for and implementing Office 2007 via our QuikDesign for Office 2007 service.

For more information, visit www.QTSnet.com/deploy.

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RECRUITMENT SPOTLIGHT: SR. SYSTEMS ENGINEER

QTS is currently recruiting to fill this important open position, newly added to our team.  The Sr. Systems Engineer will work closely with the QTS technical management team to deliver services to QTS’ customers:

·         Windows Server, Active Directory and Exchange Design & Upgrades;

·         Strong working knowledge of antivirus and backup technologies (preferably Symantec);

·         Clustering and Load Balancing experience highly desirable;

·         Citrix experience highly desirable;

·         SMS/MOM/systems management experience highly desirable;

·         Cisco networking experience highly desirable;

·         SharePoint and SQL Server experience highly desirable;

·         Information Security Evaluation and Implementation; and

·         Disaster Recovery Planning.

A broad understanding of and experience with Microsoft server technologies is required, and an MCSE 2003 is highly desired.  A college degree is required, along with strong communications and interpersonal experience.

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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Visit www.QTSnet.com for company information.

QUIKSECURE TIP OF THE MONTH

Each month, we now provide a security recommendation to our QuikNews readers based on content from our recent QuikSecure Security Assessments.  One of these reports typically includes 100-200 specific recommendations such as this, but we’re providing some “free advice” here to our readers.

ISSUE – Is email webaccess allowed through the firewall?
 
IMPACT – Email Webaccess is a tremendously valuable tool for enabling staff access to email from remote locations.  It is also a huge security vulnerability if housed behind the firewall in your internal network, as hackers can now access this web server and, if they compromise it, your internal network.

RECOMMENDATION – Move the webaccess server into a DMZ, so if it is hacked, the attacker still needs to go back through the firewall to get to your network.  Or, even better, put it behind an Application Layer Gateway such as Microsoft ISA Server to protect the web server.  Optimally, implement Strong Authentication via tokens (such as RSA SecurID) to restrict access to properly authenticated users.

QTS EVENTS

Please note that QTS seminars are open only to customers and prospective customers, and not to other vendors, partners and consultants.

 

Microsoft Executive Solutions Briefing for Medium Business Customers
 Presented by QTS and Microsoft
QTS and Microsoft are hosting an Executive Solutions Briefing for small and medium business customers (50-1,000 user environments).  Join us for this informative, 3 hour event to learn how your organization can benefit from new Microsoft technologies and solutions, and what tools and resources are available to you from Microsoft.  Microsoft and QTS will also review the benefits of Software Assurance, discuss available promotions that can save you money, and review the roadmap for upcoming product releases and features.  We will also present on key Microsoft product line updates including Windows Vista and Office 2007, System Center management tools, ForeFront security products, Business Intelligence tools and the integration of Microsoft’s Business Solutions offerings.  This event will provide valuable information to any Microsoft customer!  Note that a signed Microsoft Non-Disclosure Agreement is required for attendance at these events.
   9:00 AM-1:00 PM (8:30 registration/continental breakfast)
     With SoftChoice
     Wednesday, March 28th, 2007 at Microsoft's Iselin, NJ Office - Click To Register
     Thursday, April 26th, 2007 at Microsoft's NYC Office - Click To Register
     With Software Spectrum/Insight
     Wednesday, April 11th, 2007 at Microsoft's Iselin, NJ Office - Click To Register
     Thursday, March 1st, 2007 at Microsoft's NYC Office - Click To Register

CxO Seminar: Securing Your Microsoft Medium Business Network
 Presented by QTS, Microsoft, Symantec and Citrix
Join Microsoft, Symantec, Citrix and QTS for this informative seminar on how to optimize security for your Microsoft network.  Key topics will include Security Policy and Enforcement, Secure Remote Access, Identity Management, Perimeter and Client Security, Email Architecture and other key elements.  Together, we will review the architecture and best practices for implementing a strong security strategy and architecture.
   9:00 AM-1:00 PM (8:30 registration/continental breakfast; lunch provided)
     Wednesday, February 28th, 2007 at Microsoft's Iselin, NJ Office - Click To Register
     Thursday, March 29th, 2007 at Microsoft's NYC Office - Click To Register

CxO Seminar: Disaster Recovery Solutions for Medium Business Customers
 Presented by QTS, Citrix, Symantec, Double-Take Software and Microsoft
Join Microsoft, Citrix, Symantec, Double-Take Software and QTS for an informative seminar on how to develop a Disaster Recovery Plan and build a Hot Site Failover Solution for your business leveraging technologies from Microsoft, Citrix and Double-Take Software, or how to rapidly recover servers and data in Cold/Warm Site configurations with technologies from Symantec and Microsoft.  Businesses are challenged more and more each year with the need to maximize systems up-time and availability, amidst an ever-increasing range of threats.  IT management is often tasked with responsibility for developing and implementing Disaster Recovery Plans to protect the business and ensure continuous access to key business systems.  In this seminar, we’ll discuss how to build the plan and what the key elements are, and discuss the various options for Cold, Warm and Hot Site solutions.  We’ll then drill down into how to cost-effectively build a Hot Site leveraging technologies from Microsoft, Double-Take and Citrix to enable access to your applications and data, and conclude with tips and best practices.
   9:00 AM-12:00 PM (8:30 registration/continental breakfast)
     Wednesday, April 25th, 2007 at Microsoft's Iselin, NJ Office - Click To Register
     Thursday, June 7th, 2007 at Microsoft's NYC Office - Click To Register

CxO Seminar: Preparing for Windows Vista and Office 2007
 Presented by QTS and Microsoft
Join Microsoft, HP and QTS for this informative seminar on how your organization can get ready for Windows Vista, the successor to Windows XP Professional as the desktop operating system of choice for businesses.  In this seminar, we will discuss some of the features and capabilities planned for Windows Vista, and how your business can benefit from this next release of Windows, as well as the upcoming release of Microsoft Office 2007.  We’ll explore how these new products can improve user productivity and collaborative capabilities, as well as how Windows Vista can improve systems’ reliability, security and performance.  We will also discuss how to deploy Windows Vista across your organization, leveraging tools such as Windows Deployment Services, the Business Desktop Deployment Solution Accelerator, and Systems Management Server.  We’ll also discuss best practices in desktop management and patch management.
   9:00 AM-12:00 PM (8:30 registration/continental breakfast)
     Tuesday, March 13th, 2007 at Microsoft's Iselin, NJ Office - Click To Register
     Thursday, April 12th, 2007 at Microsoft's NYC Office - Click To Register
     Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007 at Microsoft's Iselin, NJ Office - Click To Register
     Thursday, June 14th, 2007 at Microsoft's NYC Office - Click To Register

CxO Seminar: Exchange Email Security and Lifecycle Management
Presented by QTS, Microsoft and Symantec
Email has quickly risen to become the most mission-critical application for most businesses, and presents a series of challenges to network administrators around security, management and archiving/capacity management.  In this seminar, QTS, Microsoft and Symantec will show you how our best practices, combined with products such as Microsoft ForeFront Security products (ISA Server, ForeFront Server Security), Microsoft Operations Manager, Symantec Mail Security and Symantec Enterprise Vault can be combined to create a secure, well-managed and highly reliable email environment.  We will also touch on the roadmap and new features in Exchange 2007.
   9:00 AM-12:00 PM (8:30 registration/continental breakfast)
     Wednesday, April 4th, 2007 at Microsoft's Iselin, NJ Office - Click To Register
     Thursday, May 3rd, 2007 at Microsoft's NYC Office - Click To Register

CxO Seminar: Systems Management Tools and Approaches for Medium Business Customers
 Presented by QTS, Microsoft, Citrix and IMPACT Management
QTS and Microsoft are hosting a half day seminar on how to leverage Microsoft's Systems Center tools and Management methodologies to implement a Secure and Well-Managed Infrastructure.  In this event, QTS will present on how Microsoft Systems Management Server and Microsoft Operations Manager can help reduce management costs and improve the efficiency and available time for your IT staff, while increasing network uptime and proactivity.  We will demonstrate key features of both products, and discuss other products under Microsoft's System Center product family, including future plans.  We will also discuss virtualization, and Microsoft Virtual Server, as it relates to systems management.  Citrix will present on how its EdgeSight product can manage Windows desktops and Citrix Presentation Servers, and our partner IMPACT Management will also present on Change Control and their SharePoint-based Change Control Portal software.
   9:00 AM-12:00 PM (8:30 registration/continental breakfast)
     Tuesday, May 15th, 2007 at Microsoft's Iselin, NJ Office - Click To Register
     Thursday, March 22nd, 2007 at Microsoft's NYC Office - Click To Register

CxO Seminar: Storage Management and Virtualization
 Presented by QTS, Microsoft, Symantec and Citrix
 Join Microsoft, Symantec, Citrix and QTS for this informative seminar on how to manage your ever-expanding storage needs and how to better manage servers and applications through virtualization.  This event will explore the benefits of centralized storage using SAN and NAS technologies, including technologies like iSCSI and Fibre Channel.  We will then explore backup issues including dealing with expanding backup windows, tape management and rotation, the benefits of Disk-to-Disk-to-Tape backup, and continuous data protection strategies.  We will then discuss email and data archiving tools and best practices.  We will then explore how HP BladeSystem technologies allow for high density, easily manageable server environments, including related issues such as power and cooling.  We will also discuss how virtualization, and specifically Microsoft Virtual Server, can be used to reduce the physical server footprint in your data center.  Finally, we will discuss Application Virtualization tools from Microsoft and Citrix, allowing for more efficient distribution of software to the desktop.
   9:00 AM-12:00 PM (8:30 registration/continental breakfast; lunch provided)
     Wednesday, June 6th, 2007 at Microsoft's Iselin, NJ Office - Click To Register
     Thursday, June 21st, 2007 at Microsoft's NYC Office - Click To Register

CxO Seminar: Citrix Strategic Briefing - A Review of Upgrade Benefits and Product Strategy
 Presented by QTS and Citrix
Join Citrix and QTS for this informative seminar on the benefits Citrix customers will realize from upgrading their MetaFrame 1.8/XP/3.0 environments to the current 4.0 platform, and Citrix' roadmap for how its products can help customers provide secure applications access within, outside and beyond your network.  Topics will include MetaFrame upgrade benefits, product roadmaps for MetaFrame Presentation Server, Password Manager, Access Gateway/NetScaler, WANscaler, and future product plans.
   9:00 AM-1:00 PM (8:30 registration/continental breakfast)
     Wednesday, April 18th, 2007 at Microsoft's Iselin, NJ Office - Click To Register
     Thursday, May 10th, 2007 at Citrix' NYC Office - Click To Register
 

CxO Seminar: Symantec Strategic Briefing - Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability Products and Strategy
 Presented by QTS and Symantec
Join Symantec and QTS for this informative seminar on Symantec's current product lines and corporate strategy around Security and Availability technologies.  We will present Symantec's vision, and how Symantec's current and future products fit into this vision.  Products covered will include Symantec Antivirus and the Sygate technologies (including "Project Hamlet"), Symantec Mail Security, Symantec Database Security, Enterprise Vault and IM Manager, Backup Exec and Backup Exec System Recovery, and others.
   8:00 AM-10:00 AM (8:30 registration/continental breakfast)
     Wednesday, May 16th, 2007 at QTS' Morris Plains, NJ Office - Click To Register
     Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007 at Symantec's NYC Office - Click To Register

CxO Seminar: Microsoft Solutions for Collaboration
 Presented by QTS, ISS Group and Microsoft
Join Microsoft, QTS and ISS Group at this informative event focused on how Microsoft Office and the Windows Server System can allow organizations to collaborate and share information and resources more effectively, both within and outside their organization.  QTS and Microsoft will show how Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft Groove 2007 and Office Communications Server and Exchange Server can be used to help teams of people work together, in an internal context (Intranet) as well as across organizational boundaries (Extranet) with highly mobile users.  QTS partner ISS Group will then show how Microsoft SQL Server and Business Scorecard Manager can be added to this solution to empower better business decision making and put key data in the hands of people that need it, creating a more agile and People Ready organization.
   9:00 AM-12:00 PM (8:30 registration/continental breakfast)
     Tuesday, March 27th, 2007 at Microsoft's NYC Office - Click To Register
     Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007 at Microsoft's Iselin, NJ Office - Click To Register

Please visit www.QTSnet.com/events for our full event schedule.

 

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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 SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2;
* New Security Updates are available in February for Symantec ESM, Symantec Network Security, Symantec Gateway Security, Symantec Manhunt and Symantec Client Security.

To receive notifications of new Microsoft product downloads and Service Packs, click here.

Also, please click here 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.

Note that Microsoft releases security patches on the second Tuesday of each month. New Security Updates to Windows and Office are available.

Symantec (formerly Norton) Antivirus Corporate Edition signature files are currently at version 90225f (2/25/2007). CA eTrust VET signature files are currently at version 30.4.3424 (2/22/2007). McAfee VirusScan / NetShield signature files are currently at version 4970 (2/23/2007). Trend Micro signature files are currently at version 4.293.00 (2/23/2007).  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.

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PRODUCT SUPPORT LIFECYCLE WATCH

The following products are pending “end of life” status by their manufacturers, and therefore customers should be planning for system upgrades or replacement.

* Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 support ended on 12/31/05.
 * Novell NetWare 4.2 reached end of life on 6/1/05.
* Novell NetWare 5.1 reached end of life on 11/1/06.
* Novell NetWare 6.0 reached end of life on 11/1/06.
* Citrix MetaFrame 1.8 reached end of support on 12/31/05.
* Citrix MetaFrame XP reached end of maintenance on 12/31/06, and end of life/support on 6/30/07.
* Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server 3.0 reaches end of maintenance on 6/30/07, and end of life/support on 12/31/07.
* Captaris RightFax 8.5 reached end of life on February 17, 2006.  RightFax 8.7 is supported until November 1, 2007.

Please remember that end of life for a product does not only impact that product, but also other products that interact with it.  For example, end of life status for an operating system means that no new software products that are released will run on that operating system, as the manufacturers will no longer receive support from the operating system vendor.

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SOLUTION SPOTLIGHT: CITRIX WANSCALER

Citrix' WANscaler product is a hardware appliance that you install on all sides of WAN or VPN links to provide performance improvements - typically of 100-400% or even more.

This means that if you're currently bandwidth constrained, it will give you the ability to push more traffic over the same speed links, and avoid needing to buy more bandwidth from your carrier. If you're currently at the right level, you might be able to reduce your monthly recurring bandwidth charges.

*For more information, click here.

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SPECIAL OFFERS

MICROSOFT LIVE COMMUNICATION SERVER – FREE CLIENT ACCESS LICENSES
Microsoft is offering customers with Software Assurance on Microsoft Exchange that was active on or before 10/1/03 free CALs for Microsoft Live Communications Server, to match their Exchange CALs owned at that time.  Software Assurance can also be purchased for redeemed LCS CALs at the time SA on Exchange is renewed.  Contact your QTS Account Manager for more details.

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QUIKNEWS ARCHIVES

For access to past issues of QTS QuikNews dating back to January 2001, click here.

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Quality Technology Solutions, Inc.
201 Littleton Road, 2nd Floor
Morris Plains, NJ  07950

Tel: (973)984-7600
Email: QuikNews@QTSnet.com
Web: www.QTSnet.com

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This site last updated 02/26/07
© 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