At our December 1, 2009 Meeting

Kevin Hodak (who did the great GFIMAX presentation for us a number of months ago) came in and showed off the new version of GFI WebMon, this is the first version that does not require ISA Server running under it. Dec 1st is also the launch date for another acquisition GFI made recently and so we got be the first to get to see it flying under the GFI Flag! 

 I have good news and bad news
The bad news first, the December meeting will be our last meeting at New Horizons, due to some logistical changes they will no longer be able to host our meetings after this one. 
Now for the good news, I have been in touch with Ronald Neil who is the Director of Education at ECPI in Greensboro and he said they would be happy to host our meetings starting with the January 5th meeting, so we will have no break in meeting schedule.

More Good News, I just heard from Kevin and GFI has decided to not only feed your mind, but your body as well. You know how this works, pick what you want from This_Menu and send me your order no later than noon on December 1st, don't forget to include a drink.

Meeting Space compliments of

7019 Albert Pick Road Suite B Greensboro, NC 27409

At Our November 3, 2009 Meeting

My old friend Bill Selmeier from my Silicon Valley days came in and spoke about Computer History and the Computer Museum, both topics he is an undisputed expert on. Bill has been a part of the IT Pro and User Group Community for as long as they have existed.

He is also the author of Spreading the Barcode which is a history of the barcode by LuLu Press. You can grab a copy from http://www.lulu.com/bills9

We ran out of time for open discussion (due to all the questions about the museum the group had) so if you have issues you can’t get past bring them in next month and the group will try to help you over the hurdle.

 Also of interest Mark Crall is putting together a lunch and launch for Win7 on Nov 17th, if you are interested in attending make sure and ping him at mark@techcareteam.com and let him know before he sells out!

We are on our own for dinner, so don’t forget to stop and pick something up on your way to New Horizons.

I am hoping to have Kevin Hodak (who did the great GFIMAX presentation for us a few months ago) to come in next month and show off a new offering from GFI, yes they bought yet another company. I offered to let Kevin hone his new presentation on us, hope you don’t mind.

 

At Our October 6, 2009 Meeting

We had Rich Cheston Executive Director & Distinguished Engineer for Lenovo. He will presented SMC Services and contrasted it to existing solutions like thin clients and virtualized clients. Here is a description of Lenovo Secure Managed Client Services

Organizations in all industries are witnessing an increased interest in virtualization and thin client solutions within enterprise environments, mainly due to the benefits of reduced infrastructure costs, simplified management and the ability to ensure greater adherence to policy and standards through centralized management and maintenance.

Lenovo had engineered a new client-based virtualization solution. This solution, called Secure Managed Client (SMC), is different from server-based alternatives. It provides all of the efficiency and security advantages while providing a high-fidelity computing environment that effectively presents no discernable difference to the end user than a traditional PC environment.  Additionally, with the SMC solution users have the option of adding hard drives and peripherals back to their clients at any time should a need arise to do so.  The costs of switching from a virtualized to traditional environment are therefore mitigated. With this technology and the service to deploy it to effectively yield all of its benefits to your environment.

This meeting is right after SMB Nation, as a matter of fact I am coming directly from the airport to the meeting, so if I am a bit late I will leave you in Scott's capable hands until I arrive :>)

Update: OK so Murphy was at work here, I had a dual crisis' in Calif. and had to go back after the conference and missed the meeting all together. Sorry :<(

At Our September 1, 2009 Meeting

Last month we had Farokh Karani Lam of who I met at SMB Nation in NJ earlier this year. Speaking of SMB Nation you are aware of the limited time discount for SMBTN members (that means you) of $399.00, you should have gotten an e-mail from Jim Locke.

Cyberoam makes a UTM device that uses entirely industry standard technology inside. Here is bit about the presentation in Farokh's own words.

The Internet is now as mission critical to SMB as it is to large enterprises, BUT until now, SMB customers had to either compromise on price or on protection. No longer… 

Cyberoam has now introduced its CR15i appliance, which combines ENTERPRISE class UTM+ features, with SMB pricing of UNDER $590 fully loaded. NO other SMB security appliance comes close to matching Cyberoam in features and price points, including Sonicwall, Fortinet or Calyptix.  

Come and learn about Cyberoam and the entire range of UTM+ appliances that focus on the SMB market, and that have received FIVE STAR ratings from SC Magazine for 3 years in a row now. (Sometime no other competitor can say).

I know a number of you sell devices from the other vendors as do I, but it is always good to know what else is available in the market and what the price points are. A little completive shopping is good for the soul :>)

Cyberoam is also sponsored dinner for the event!

At Our August 4, 2009 Meeting it was a SELL OUT

At the the August 4th Meeting fresh off the Win7 Tiki Hut Tour we will had Yung Chou come in to lead us through a Real Old Fashioned LoadFest. That is right, you bring in your computer, Yung will bring in Win7 DVD's and we will help you get it loaded on your machines. Actual member involvement, not just sitting and watching another death by PowerPoint. After we get you setup with Win7, Yung will did a demo of Boot to VHD and also the new XP Mode, just 2 of the killer features in Win7.

More Good News, I just heard from Yung and Microsoft has decided to not only feed your mind, but your body as well. You know how this works, pick what you want from This_Menu and send me your order no later than noon on August 4th, don't forget to include a drink.

Remember space is limited since we will have all those extra computers so please respond to me quickly if you will be attending. We will have to limit this event to the first 30 who respond, sorry.

Also Kevin Hodak a demo of GFIMAX while everyone was eating , they came to meet MAX and they loved him.

At Our July 7, 2009 Meeting

Detective Daniel Horne from the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Dept., Cyber Crime/Computer Forensics Division came and spoke to us on tech crime issues that we may run into as IT Professionals and how to handle them to protect ourselves. Detective Horne is also a member of the USSS Electronic Crimes Task Force.

Are you aware that if we know about crimes being performed on a PC and don't report them correctly we can be charged with a crime as well...  Knowing how to handle a "questionable" situation becomes most important according to the crime. He will speak to us and take a Q&A to help us be better prepared for items we are subjected to.

It was a great presentation and everyone said they learned a lot and really enjoyed listening to Dan speak.

At Our June 2, 2009 Meeting

We had Terry Van Winkle of StorageCraft and Calyptix fame come in to tell us about a brand new offering. Here is a small description in his words.

Doyenz Automated Virtual IT™ is sold exclusively through partners. The Doyenz service gives you the ability to provide no-touch off-site disaster recovery, failover and runs in the cloud. 

With Doyenz Automated Virtual IT, partners can perform major migrations and upgrades safely, in the cloud, using our Virtual Test Lab, or ‘virtual sandbox’ that allows you to test key changes like a SBS2003 to SBS2008 migration, or a line of business application Upgrade. It is a flexible service that requires no expensive hardware or software licenses, Doyenz can be a monthly or annual subscription that provides your client’s true business continuity at price they can easily afford.

I stopped by the Doyenz booth at SMB Nation Spring and it is some really interesting technology, I can't wait to see Terry's demo.

Doyenz bought everyone Din Din and Terry did a nice job of presenting the new technology, and even tap danced through a couple of glitches like a true pro :>)
One lucky member one a free Doyenz account!

At Our May 5, 2009 Meeting

Since we did not have a presenter for May we had a bit of a round table discussion and then I showed the group how to prepare a USB Flash Stick to be Bootable and use it to install the Windows 7 RC. Also since Dick Snow and I were home fresh from SMB Nation East which ended a couple days before the meeting we went over some of what the rest of the group missed. It was by far the best, East Coast SMB Nation event to date. Harry had a dynamite group of presenters, and no one was saying vendor fest this time around, it was all about useful content.

At Our April 7, 2009 Meeting

 At the March 3, 2009 Meeting

 Hi Gang,

You are going to need to send Kay an e-mail (ktatum@triadnetwork.com) no later than noon on Tuesday the 3rd letting her know you are going to be attending and what you would like to eat & drink (no alcohol) from THIS MENU. She will then contact Milano’s and place the order to be delivered at 6:10pm

If you want the same thing as last month, just send her a note and say SAME ORDER please, She has my spreadsheet; if she does not hear from you she will not be able to place your order and you will have to watch everyone else eat :>)

Sounds like it should be a really good meeting, hope you can make it,

At the February 3, 2009 Meeting

Kevin Hodak of GFI gave well received presentation of GFI’s current and upcoming line-up as well as some live product demos.

Here in Kevin’s own words is what he will be talking about.
I will start with a brief history and overview of GFI, and then move into an outline of the nine products in our portfolio.  The portfolio overview will take up the first half of the meeting and I’ll use the second half to show a live demo of GFI MailArchiver and answer questions.  With over 10,000 customers, GFI MailArchiver is the no.1 email archiving software for SMBs and it is used by administrators to maintain an archive of all corporate email correspondence, significantly reduce the demands on the Exchange server, manage and reduce the company’s dependency on PST files and also meet a growing number of regulations on compliance, eDiscovery and other legislation.  Furthermore, this easy to install product requires very little administrative effort and most importantly ships at the lowest price on the market.

 Kevin and the good folks at GFI bought dinner for all those attending the meeting.

Also I announced at the meeting that I was contracted as an advisor working with GFI to help them refocus their product line and business model to better fit the SMB Space.