ANTenna Blog -- September 2009 Archive

BlackBerry For Mac Out Friday

Posted by Jake Widman 04:45 PM ET | Sep 30, 2009

Research in Motion announced that native desktop software for managing the company's BlackBerry smartphones will be available as of this Friday, October 2, at 1 PM EDT. The software will bring Mac-based mobile workers the functionality that up til now they've needed to use a third-party app for.

Disaster Recovery: SMBs Think They're Ready. Symantec Says They're Not.

Posted by Keith Ferrell 10:29 AM ET | Sep 30, 2009

A new Symantec study of small and midsized business disaster recovery preparedness reveals a dramatic disconnect between DR beliefs and DR realities. Namely, most businesses are convinced they're prepared to recover from a disaster. Wrong.

Solarwinds Tweaks IP WAN Voice Monitoring Tool

Posted by Paul Korzeniowski 05:12 AM ET | Sep 30, 2009

Increasingly, businesses are moving their voice traffic from the old telephone network to IP networks. However, this application is especially vulnerable to performance variations often found in IP networks. Solarwinds, which has been gaining acceptance by offering companies inexpensive, easy to deploy network performance tools, revamped its IP WAN tool to help companies meet this challenge.

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Management

Quick FAQ: Making Sense Out Of Moblin

Posted by Matthew McKenzie 05:46 PM ET | Sep 29, 2009

Are you wondering what Moblin is and why you're hearing so much about it lately? Step right up, and we'll try to answer your questions.

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Company Size: 1-49 | Hardware & Software | Linux | Mobile

FileMaker Beefs Up Bento

Posted by Jake Widman 05:00 PM ET | Sep 29, 2009

Version 3 of Bento, the "personal database" from FileMaker, adds features that make it a good choice for Mac-based small offices and midsize businesses with modest database needs. Its close integration with existing Mac tools means that getting up and running is relatively easy.

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Apple | Company Size: 1-49 | Company Size: 50-249 | Hardware & Software

Security By Geography: Stop A Country With A Click

Posted by Fredric Paul 12:25 PM ET | Sep 29, 2009

I'm hoping that it's more than a mere reinforcement of America's most unfortunate xenophobic tendencies, but TechGuard Security's new PoliWall ESE security appliances take a geographic approach to SMB security by filtering IP according to their country of origin.

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Company Size: 1,100-1,500 | Company Size: 250-999 | Company Size: 50-249 | Security

HP Revamps Entry Level Ethernet Switch

Posted by Paul Korzeniowski 08:10 AM ET | Sep 29, 2009

HP has made inroads in the small and medium business sector by delivering low cost, easy to maintain Ethernet switches. The company revamped one of its entry level lines, so it is more secure, simpler to deploy, and more energy efficient. The products may appeal to companies who need high speed connections but are not yet ready to embrace 10G Ethernet networking.

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Networking & Communications

Mac Security A Myth? Really?

Posted by Jake Widman 03:04 PM ET | Sep 28, 2009

As the launch date for Windows 7 approaches, more and more articles about flaws in Mac security are hitting the Web. Should Mac-based businesses be worried?

SMB Security Provider Sees $1 Billion Markets Becoming $100 Million Markets

Posted by Fredric Paul 12:04 AM ET | Sep 28, 2009

Walter Scott, CEO of Malta-based GFI Software, says that a combination of decreasing bandwidth costs and increasingly cost-conscious small and midsize companies are changing the security landscape.

Online Bank Fraud: 5 Riskpoints Your Business Needs To Worry About

Posted by Keith Ferrell 03:35 PM ET | Sep 25, 2009

How much do you know about the security habits, practices, technologies policies of your business's online bank and other financial services and institutions? Odds are, if Terry Austin of Guardian Analytics is right, it's nowhere near enough.

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Business & E-Business | Finance/Banking/Insurance | IT | Operations | Security

How To: Fix High-Capacity Hard Disk Formatting Problems

Posted by Matthew McKenzie 03:02 PM ET | Sep 25, 2009

Thinking about a storage upgrade using one of the latest monster-sized hard disks? I have a tip to share that might save you a lot of trouble.

Secrecy Is A Stupid Way To Sell Software Security

Posted by Matthew McKenzie 03:48 PM ET | Sep 24, 2009

It makes my day when someone out to "expose" the flaws in open-source software ends up doing exactly the opposite.

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Hardware & Software | Internet/Web | Open Source | Security

Spammers To Idaho: You're The Tops!

Posted by Keith Ferrell 03:10 PM ET | Sep 24, 2009

Spam targeting is one of those categories you don't want to be Number One in, but somebody has to be. According to a new report from MessageLabs, the top spam targets in the U.S. live in Idaho. But the rest of the states aren't that much better off.

Document Imaging, 90 Percent Off

Posted by Jake Widman 02:54 PM ET | Sep 24, 2009

Document Imaging Solutions, Inc., is making 50 copies of its DIS-Imaging Enterprise Edition, which normally sells for $26,000, available for $2,400 -- a discount of more than 90 percent. The offer is limited in time and number of sales, though.

Protecting Laptop Data: New bMighty How-To Guide

Posted by Fredric Paul 10:33 PM ET | Sep 23, 2009

The data on your company's laptops may be your firm's most vulnerable asset. But the latest addition to bMighty's IT Management How-To Center can show you how managed laptop data-encryption and backup services can safeguard that data even if the laptop itself goes missing.

Credit Card Compliance Still Poorly Practiced

Posted by Keith Ferrell 10:46 AM ET | Sep 23, 2009

A new survey from Imperva and the Ponemon Institute finds that despite the rising number of data breaches, many companies still do not fully adhere to compliance standards. And many of those that are protecting credit card information are neglecting security when it comes to other, equally sensitive data. Smaller businesses may be having the most trouble with the standards.

The Search For A Perfect Corporate Password Policy

Posted by Matthew McKenzie 08:25 PM ET | Sep 22, 2009

What qualifies as a safe and sane password policy for your business? A recent blog post serves up some interesting answers to this question.

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Company Size: 1-49 | Hardware & Software | Security

Oracle Accelerate Adds MidMarket BI, CRM On Demand, And More

Posted by Fredric Paul 07:26 PM ET | Sep 22, 2009

Oracle Accelerate, the company's 3-year-old effort to address midsize companies, has extended its tool set to include Demantra for advanced demand planning, Agile for product lifecycle management, Siebel CRM, and Transportation Management. And the apps will now be available via SaaS as well.

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Company Size: 1,100-1,500 | Company Size: 250-999 | Hardware & Software | IT | Transportation

Google Pushes Further into the Enterprise

Posted by Paul Korzeniowski 04:34 PM ET | Sep 22, 2009

E-mail has become the lifeblood for many companies. Increasingly, employees are traveling outside of the corporate office and need ways to stay in contact with it. In response, Google broadened the reach of its Google Apps, so they can now exchange information with Apple iPhones and Windows Mobile cell phones.

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Messaging | Mobile

The Power To Cloud Men's Minds

Posted by Jake Widman 08:29 PM ET | Sep 21, 2009

Will Apple take on building a business mobility support system in the cloud? Here's why they won't, and why they shouldn't.

SaaS Holds Big Appeal For Midsize CIOs

Posted by Fredric Paul 04:13 PM ET | Sep 21, 2009

"Two years back, I thought [SaaS] was the stupidest thing. But we've finally started seeing some applications that make sense," says Peter Larsen, manager of information technology at National Frozen Foods in Seattle.

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Cloud Computing | Company Size: 250-999 | Company Size: 50-249 | IT | Software-as-a-Service

New Avaya Unified Communications System For SMBs Focuses On Role-Based Solutions

Posted by Fredric Paul 03:53 PM ET | Sep 21, 2009

Avaya IP Office Release 5 offers small and midsize businesses 6 different versions of UC for different kinds of workers, from telecommuters to customer service agents.

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Unified Communications

FCC Chairman Endorses Net Neutrality Concepts

Posted by Paul Korzeniowski 03:22 PM ET | Sep 21, 2009

The battle between Internet Service Providers and consumer advocacy groups reached an important milestone. New FCC chairman Julius Genachowski threw his weight behind initiatives designed to prevent ISPs from blocking or penalizing bandwidth intensive traffic, such as video files, and ordered them to manage their networks in a more transparent manner.

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Internet/Web

Another Take On Freemium -- From LogMeIn

Posted by Fredric Paul 11:13 PM ET | Sep 18, 2009

In today's feature story, online businesses talk about the plusses and minuses of offering free online services -- and then transitioning them to paid services. Coincidentally, I had a conversation on the very same topic this week with Michael Simon, CEO of LogMeIn. For Simon, there are no minuses, only plusses.

Why Are Software Updates Such A Pain In The Butt?

Posted by Matthew McKenzie 11:08 AM ET | Sep 18, 2009

Some recent Mozilla stats go a long way towards explaining a major problem with desktop software security. But maybe they don't go far enough.

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Company Size: 1-49 | Hardware & Software | Linux | Open Source | Security

Live Chat With A Cybercrook! Popup Talk Latest Scam

Posted by Keith Ferrell 10:12 AM ET | Sep 18, 2009

Phishers have always counted on volume and automation to generate revenues: scam mails by the millions, proliferating malware links, a deluge of devious and deceptive tools designed to grab info from the unsuspecting. Now they're using chat to pluck their pigeons one-on-one.

AT&T Expands Remote Tech Support Push -- With Help From Intel VPro

Posted by Fredric Paul 11:19 PM ET | Sep 17, 2009

Last week, AT&T TechSupport 360 expanded coverage from very small businesses to companies with up to 50 employees. This week, AT&T joined with Intel to announce a new level of support for computers equipped with Intel's VPro technology.

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Business Continuity | Company Size: 1-49 | Disaster Recovery | Services

HP Strengthens Integrated Server and Switch Line

Posted by Paul Korzeniowski 11:53 AM ET | Sep 16, 2009

The design of IT equipment is about to dramatically change. No longer will data center servers, network switches, and storage area networks be sold autonomously. Instead, the different devices will be consolidated into integrated devices, and HP has made it clear that it wants to be a player in this market.

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Networking & Communications | Storage

Cisco's New NetSec Hotrods Run Linux Under The Hood

Posted by Matthew McKenzie 10:59 AM ET | Sep 16, 2009

Cisco is launching a major new push into the small-business network security market. And Linux lies at the heart of the company's strategy.

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Company Size: 1-49 | Hardware & Software | Linux | Networking & Communications | Open Source

iPhone Security Fix May Reveal Longstanding Vulnerability

Posted by Jake Widman 06:14 PM ET | Sep 15, 2009

The latest release of the OS for iPhones and iPod Touches breaks the Microsoft Exchange Server compatibility of many existing devices. In doing so, it may have revealed that businesses that trusted Apple's assurances about the devices' security were misled.

Microsoft Launches Mac Office Business Edition

Posted by Jake Widman 05:35 PM ET | Sep 15, 2009

The new Office:Mac package includes all the usual suspects, with enhancements for online and network collaboration. It replaces the existing standard retail package, while the Special Media Edition is dropped from the lineup.

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Apple

MidMarket CIOs Not Embracing Windows 7

Posted by Fredric Paul 02:57 PM ET | Sep 15, 2009

A panel of CIOs at the Midsize Enterprise Summit West in Los Angeles showed remarkably little interest in quickly moving to Microsoft's new operating system.

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Company Size: 250-999 | Company Size: 50-249 | Hardware & Software | IT | Windows

Cisco Refreshes Its Small Business Pro Lineup

Posted by Fredric Paul 10:55 AM ET | Sep 15, 2009

As Cisco continues to evolve its efforts to reach small businesses, it's rolling out new security and collaboration technologies, including security appliances, routers, and VoIP phones.

Help Arrives to Secure Mobile Devices

Posted by Paul Korzeniowski 08:21 AM ET | Sep 15, 2009

The latest round of cool smartphones has turned them into favorites among consumers. Increasingly, they are bringing these devices to work, regardless of whether or not their employers have sanctioned their use. Consequently, small and medium businesses need help securing these devices and Good Technology wants to provide it.

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Mobile

Let The Business Mobile Price Wars Begin!

Posted by Fredric Paul 09:02 PM ET | Sep 14, 2009

Firing the first shot, Sprint rolls out new Business Advantage plans that could put pressure on other carriers to offer better deals.

Samsung Wants To Be Big Player In Business IT

Posted by Fredric Paul 06:47 PM ET | Sep 14, 2009

ChannelWeb reports that the Korean consumer electronics powerhouse is planning new PCs and laptops along with a move into commerical IT services. The company could be an important new option for SMBs, and the competition could help keep prices down.

New York Times Malware Problem: All The Scamware That's Unfit To Post

Posted by Keith Ferrell 12:15 PM ET | Sep 14, 2009

This weekend's eruption of popup antivirus scam ads on The New York Times site offers a couple of opportunities, the most important of which is to remind your employees of the increasing aggressiveness of rogue antivirus malware.

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Business & E-Business | Internet/Web | Security

IBM Prepares To Pull The Plug On Microsoft Office

Posted by Matthew McKenzie 09:24 AM ET | Sep 14, 2009

According to a recent news report, Big Blue is officially giving Microsoft Office the boot in favor of its own Lotus Symphony business productivity suite.

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Hardware & Software | Open Source

Students (Your Future Employees) Like Macs

Posted by Jake Widman 08:37 PM ET | Sep 11, 2009

According to a survey touted by Windows-on-Mac vendor Parallels, 36% of undergraduates plan to purchase a Mac, and many of them plan to run Windows software on it. SMBs might want to consider planning to accommodate such flexible platform choices in making their IT decisions -- after all, these students will be in the workforce within five years.

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Apple | Company Size: 1-49 | Company Size: 50-249 | Hardware & Software

What Is E-Mail Worth To Your Company?

Posted by Fredric Paul 01:01 PM ET | Sep 11, 2009

These days, small businesses have a wide range of e-mail options, ranging from on-premise Microsoft Exchange servers to cloud-based Web mail -- and everything in between. And prices range as widely as the technology, from free on up.

Lunch With Salesforce.com And Twitter

Posted by Fredric Paul 09:18 PM ET | Sep 9, 2009

Salesforce.com put on a fancy lunch spread at the Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco this afternoon to celebrate the launch of its Service Cloud 2 upgrade, and Twitter was invited. But I already blogged that... so I was more interested in what the cloud computing and social media bigwigs had to say about customer service. And they didn't disappoint.

Snow Leopard Not A Game Changer: The View From IT

Posted by Jake Widman 09:14 PM ET | Sep 9, 2009

Enterprise IT executives say they're stuck with Windows, despite Snow Leopard's support for Microsoft Exchange. SMBs, on the other hand, have more freedom to accommodate their employees' preferences.

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Apple | Company Size: 1-49 | Company Size: 50-249

Desktop Death Watch: Don't Hold Your Breath!

Posted by Matthew McKenzie 07:21 PM ET | Sep 9, 2009

Yet another pundit has proclaimed the death of the desktop. I'm not planning to send any flowers just yet.

Verizon Offers Mobile Management Help

Posted by Paul Korzeniowski 12:34 PM ET | Sep 9, 2009

How can you control the growing number of smartphones making their way into your enterprise? Finding an answer to that question has been keeping IT managers up at night. Verizon, one of the nation’s largest carriers, has decided to try and help small and medium businesses solve that problem.

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Mobile

Wordpress Hack And Other Patch Problems Demand Patch Policies

Posted by Keith Ferrell 11:52 AM ET | Sep 9, 2009

The recent Wordpress hack, affecting older, unpatched versions of the blogware, as well as the raft of critical patches Microsoft released yesterday make this a good time to review -- or implement! -- an effective patch policy.

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Business & E-Business | IT Management | Networking & Communications | Security | Windows

New Intel Xeon 3400 Processors Lead To New Dell SMB Servers

Posted by Fredric Paul 10:29 AM ET | Sep 9, 2009

The new 3400 series Xeon server processors are designed for 1U entry-level servers, and Dell has responded with four new 1-socket servers using the new chips, starting at less than $600. Plus new NAS storage and 28 new power supplies.

Salesforce.com Upgrades The "Service Cloud"

Posted by Fredric Paul 01:14 AM ET | Sep 9, 2009

Service Cloud 2 adds the new Salesforce.com Answers and brings Salesforce.com Knowledge and Salesforce.com for Twitter out of beta and into general availability.

SMBs Aware Of Benefits Of Power Management, But Not Doing Much About It

Posted by Fredric Paul 08:37 PM ET | Sep 8, 2009

A new survey by Dimensional Research for KACE reveals that smaller companies are more likely to understand the cost benefits of desktop power management, but less likely to have a green initiative in place.

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Company Size: 1-49 | Company Size: 250-999 | Green Business | Hardware & Software | IT

Mid-Market Heroes: SMBs Say Color Really Does Make A Difference

Posted by Fredric Paul 12:01 PM ET | Sep 8, 2009

Printer companies are always talking about how color printing can make a difference to small and midsize companies -- making marketing materials more effective and .... Frankly, the arguements always sounded like little more than semi-desperate attempts to sell more toner.

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Printers/Printing

Adventures with Snow Leopard

Posted by Jake Widman 10:36 PM ET | Sep 7, 2009

Based on my experience, businesses should not be afraid to upgrade to Snow Leopard. But they should be prepared to deal with a few cleanup tasks, so they shouldn't do it on deadline and should work out any kinks on a non-mission-critical machine first.

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Apple | Company Size: 1-49 | Company Size: 50-249 | Hardware & Software

7 Times As Many SMBs Use Twitter To Find Deals

Posted by Fredric Paul 07:12 PM ET | Sep 4, 2009

Warrillow & Co. says small busineses are a whopping 700% more likely to use use Twitter than other social networks when looking for promotions and discounts.

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Business & E-Business | Company Size: 1-49 | Sales/Marketing | Social Networking | Web 2.0

Red Hat's Virtualization Game Plan Looks Like A Winner

Posted by Matthew McKenzie 10:03 PM ET | Sep 3, 2009

Red Hat Enterprise Linux isn't just for enterprise users. And neither are the virtualization tools baked into Red Hat's latest release.

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Hardware & Software | IT | Linux | Open Source | SMB Vendor News

Snow Leopard vs. Windows 7, Continued: Fighting The Last War

Posted by Jake Widman 07:22 PM ET | Sep 2, 2009

The operating system battle is a diverting sideshow, but the real battle is going to be over the next hardware platform. SMBs may not have embraced netbooks yet, but how will they feel about the iTablet?

SMB And ERP: No Longer Mutually Exclusive Terms

Posted by Matthew McKenzie 06:20 PM ET | Sep 2, 2009

It has been a very good week for open-source ERP developers -- and for small businesses that can benefit in a big way from the solutions they offer.

Facebook Bug Month

Posted by Keith Ferrell 10:42 AM ET | Sep 2, 2009

A researcher plans to unveil a raft of Facebook vulnerabilities in September, one every few days or so. Which means a regular reminder to remind employees and staff to take care when social networking.

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Company Size: 1-49 | Security | Social Networking | Web 2.0

Gmail Goes Down – Again

Posted by Paul Korzeniowski 07:25 AM ET | Sep 2, 2009

Google has been aggressively positioning its Gmail mail service as an alternative to Microsoft’s Exchange line and had a great deal of success in the small and medium business sector. However, the service’s reliability has been an ongoing concern, and it was knocked offline once this week.

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Cloud Computing | Company Size: 1-49 | IT | Messaging

New Salesforce.com Contact Manager Edition Designed For VERY Small Businesses

Posted by Fredric Paul 01:01 AM ET | Sep 2, 2009

The new Contact Manager Edition of Salesforce delivers several Salesforce.com features for managing business contacts and customers, for $9 per user per month -- but only for 1-2 users!

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Cloud Computing | Company Size: 1-49 | Sales/Marketing | Software-as-a-Service

Windows And Linux Users Get Another Great VM Option

Posted by Matthew McKenzie 08:06 PM ET | Sep 1, 2009

Parallels, Inc. is a company best known for its Mac-based virtualization software. This week, however, it finally delivered an updated version of its Windows- and Linux-based products.

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Company Size: 1-49 | Hardware & Software | Linux | Open Source | Windows

Aerohive Networks Attacks Wi-Fi Network Overloads

Posted by Paul Korzeniowski 09:12 AM ET | Sep 1, 2009

Wireless communications have become quite popular in small and medium businesses. As companies rely more heavily on these connections, it has become difficult to make sure that there is sufficient bandwidth to support important applications. To address that problem, Aerohive Networks enhanced its network monitoring tools.

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Mobile

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