June 2004  

Volume 4 Issue 6

June 21, 2004

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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.

In this issue:

• QTS News
• Events
• President's Corner
• QuikSecure Tip of the Month
• Patches and Upgrades
• Product Support Lifecycle Watch
• Solution Spotlight
• Special Offers
• Partner Spotlight

QTS NEWS

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

�         Formosa Plastics Corporation, USA

�         Groupe Clarins, USA

�         Pryor, Cashman, Sherman & Flynn

�         West Parkway Ambulatory Surgical Center

�         Young Broadcasting

QTS OFFERS FREE SYSTEMS STRATEGY CHECK-UPS
Having developed this unique engagement jointly with Microsoft, QTS is now offering Systems Strategy Check-Up engagements to qualified customers and prospects throughout New Jersey and New York.  This high-value, half-day consulting engagement helps businesses evaluate how they are using Microsoft technologies and identifies best practices and recommendations for how to best deploy Microsoft technologies in a business.  For more information on this no-charge engagement, contact your QTS Account Manager.

QTS IS HIRING!
QTS is recruiting for senior level technical personnel, as well as entry and senior level sales staff/telemarketers.  If you know anyone who might be a good fit, please have them submit their resume to Liz Meechan, our Office Manager. Liz can be reached at lmeechan@QTSnet.com, or (973)984-7600 x223.

SUCCESS STORIES

BROOKLYN BREWERY
QTS helped this craft brewery modernize its network with Windows Small Business Server 2003 to better support mobile and remote users.
http://www.qtsnet.com/about/success stories/brooklyn brewery success story.pdf

PRESS RELEASES

QTS ACHIEVES MICROSOFT COMPETENCIES IN NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE AND ADVANCED INFRASTRUCTURE
6/21/2004: QTS today announced that it had added Microsoft�s Network Infrastructure and Advanced Infrastructure Competencies to its Security Competency, while maintaining Gold Partner status.  Read more at http://www.QTSnet.com/stayinformed/l3_stay_pr52.htm

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EVENTS

WINDOWS AND EXCHANGE SERVER WEBINARS

The Exchange Server 2003 Upgrade: Improving Security, Reliability and Performance webinar held on May 19^th is available for replay at the following URL: http://www.placeware.com/cc/lmevents/view?id=msft0519sy&pw=6QMPN8

The Windows Server 2003 Upgrade: Improving Security, Reliability and Performance webinar held on May 26^th is available for replay at the following URL: http://www.placeware.com/cc/lmevents/view?id=msft0526sy&pw=DJDFJN

SARBANES-OXLEY ROUNDTABLE: NEW YORK CITY

Medium Business senior IT and business management are invited to join QTS, Conchango and Microsoft on Tuesday June 22^nd at the Tribeca Grill in New York, NY for an Executive Roundtable Luncheon to discuss Sarbanes-Oxley compliance and the Microsoft Office System Solution Accelerator for Sarbanes-Oxley.  QTS will also present �10 Steps to Secure your Microsoft Network� as part of the event.�  To register, contact your QTS Account Manager.

NEW JERSEY LAW FIRM EVENT AND WEBINAR

Join QTS, Wertheim and Hummingbird on Monday, June 28^th for an event for law firms hosted at Gibbons Del Deo in Newark, NJ.  Wertheim will present on matter-centric computing, Hummingbird will present on its document management offerings, and QTS will present an introduction to Mobility solutions.  To register, contact your QTS Account Manager.

Also, Wertheim will be conducting a webinar on matter-centric computing for interested law firms using or interested in Hummingbird document management software.  Information is as follows:

Name: DMFolders for Hummingbird DM5
Date: Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Time: 11:00 am, Eastern Daylight Time (GMT -04:00, New York)
Meeting Number: 761473346
Teleconference: Call 1-866-549-3239 (Tollfree in US/Canada) or 1-303-248-0246 (International)
Agenda: DMFolders enables administrators to standardize and centralize the folder creation process across all Hummingbird DM5 libraries. Join us and learn how DMFolders can help your administrators quickly and accurately migrate their information management process to a matter-centric approach.

Visit http://www.wertheiminc.com/t_webinars!.htm to join the meeting.

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PRESIDENT'S CORNER

This month, Microsoft announced a change in its product support policies.  Microsoft announced that it will provide a ten year support lifecycle for most business and developer products (it does not affect the impending end of life for Windows NT Server at the end of this year).

To be more specific, the announcement provides for a 5 year lifecycle from product release during which service packs and enhancements will be made, then a 5 year lifecycle after that during which only security fixes will be released.  Technical support will be provided, as a pay-for service, during that 10 year window.  See http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=lifecycle for more information.

This brings to light the question of just how long is an appropriate window for technical support.  It�s a tough question, with many angles.  Looking at things from a user/customer perspective, I can clearly see where people feel that the industry norm of 5-7 years can be perceived as too short.  In some cases, large organizations don�t even begin deployments of a product until it is several years mature.  Conversely, from a manufacturer perspective, one can only keep so many older products �fresh� and supported without impacting development of new products � and it should be obvious to anyone that the way software vendors make their money is from releasing new products, not supporting old ones.

In the case of Windows Server for example, Microsoft released Windows Server 2003 last year, is working on an interim enhancement for 2005 and �Longhorn� for 2006-7, and is still supporting Windows 2000 and Windows NT (until the end of this year).  Is it really realistic for Microsoft to continue supporting an 8 year old product (since Windows NT Server 4.0 is really �Windows 96) with numerous security vulnerabilities and design issues?  Windows NT was first designed in the early 1990s, when there was no such thing as high-speed Internet access.  Clearly, we live in a different world today, and one can only do so much to secure a platform which has become obsolete from massive changes in the industry surrounding it.

Windows 2000 Server is a particularly interesting illustration of this dilemma, and how emotionally charged it can be.  Next year, Windows 2000 Server will hit its 5 year anniversary, and move into the �extended� phase of its support lifecycle.  Yet many people waited until 2002 or 2003 to deploy Windows 2000, so they�ll be at a relatively early stage of use of the product when it hits the end of its �enhancement� life.  If they deployed this year, for example, they�ll want a 3-5 year life span (and some, realistic or not, will want more) for their investment.  Yet that will put Windows 2000 at a point where, with the release of Longhorn, the product is four versions behind the current, shipping product, and there will be massive differences in the code by then.

The problem is fueled by an emotional reaction of many customers to wait on deploying a product until the first (or second, or third) service pack, because of past history of bugs and problems (and though Microsoft tends to take the brunt of this, it is not a Microsoft-specific problem or perception).  In many ways, this is a learned behavior we have developed based on past experiences of implementing new and often immature technologies, and being burned by bugs and problems.  Yet the industry has reacted to this � certainly Microsoft has � and new products today go through far more rigorous testing than prior releases.  QTS has done numerous deployments of both Windows 2003 Server and Exchange 2003 Server within months of product release, with no service packs, and I can only think of one technical �bug� that a QTS customer encountered � and that was of the inconvenience variety, with a clear work-around.  I think the lesson here is that the industry has changed, and in many cases (though certainly not all) it can make sense to go with the newest technology and not hold back to a prior revision.  Ultimately, it comes down to weighing risk, cost and benefit and making a judgment call as to what patch makes the most sense for your organization.

How will the industry resolve these competing issues and considerations?  Ultimately, the manufacturers will need to react to the desires of its customers, and this has already happened to some degree.  Software companies took a great deal of criticism years ago for accelerating their development cycles to �Internet speed� and coming out with new releases every year or sooner, often at the expense of quality.  Customers spoke up, with their voices and with their wallets, and the pace of software updates has slowed to a more reasonable and rational level.  Some might say this is a function of reduced competition in the industry, but I think the reality is that this was the result of a convergence of the economic downturn, customer feedback, and a simple inability on the part of organizations to keep up with such a rapid pace of change.  The �human factor� will always make or break any technology implementation.

So, the bottom line here is that we all need to look at the life cycle of the products we run our businesses with and pick the appropriate points to deploy and upgrade our technology � at a pace that makes sense for our businesses.  Manufacturers that realize this, and that build their products with sufficient quality to make the process as painless as possible will win one of the most important things a business can achieve � customer loyalty.

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: IMA

Often companies are unaware of opportunities provided by the Internet and their web sites, that can help differentiate them from their competition.  In today�s world, a web site is often the first image your customers see of your organization, and sets the tone for how your company is viewed and treated.  This is one area where QTS' partner for Web site development, Interactive Media Associates (IMA), can help.  Consider inviting IMA to perform a cost-effective audit of your existing Web site and your Intranet/Extranet services to learn how savvy companies are using the Web to improve their marketing, as well as to drive efficiencies internally and externally. 

IMA is a full-service digital agency headquartered in Parsippany, NJ.  Clients include New York City Ballet, Hackensack University Medical Center, Metropolitan Opera, Mason Gross School of the Arts, CalTech, the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, and IATSE International, among others.  IMA works closely with another QTS partner, Lenskold Group, to develop web content that integrates tightly with the organization's marketing strategy. They also specialize in interactive "Weblet" sites that extend the Internet experience through smaller, more targeted interactive sites, which promote a specific product, event, or company function.

Len Muscarella, IMA�s President, founded the company in 1985. Len spent years working for traditional media companies, including three plus years as one of the pioneers of the "online" industry in his work with CBS and Prodigy.  Anticipating the business potential of interactive media, he founded IMA and began to help clients use the new technologies to change the way they marketed their products and services.  Soon, IMA was providing consulting services in market research, competitive analysis, and business strategy for companies developing products related to proprietary online services, interactive television, CD-ROM technology, and, eventually, the Internet.

Many of IMA's client sites are hosted in the company's ReliaServe hosting environment, based on multiple web servers, set up in a high availability and reliability configuration.

QTS, Lenskold Group and IMA work together for our customers to develop web sites that integrate the technology, design and marketing strategies to best meet our customers' goals and objectives.

For more information on IMA please view their web site at www.imediainc.com, email them at lmuscarella@imediainc.com, or call 973-539-5255.  Or, contact your QTS Account Manager.

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