• Utilizing an off site data backup service: It's always good to have a backup, and in the case of your company data, it's easier to sleep at night knowing that you would be covered in getting the best practices back in place with little or no disruption.
• Experienced and seasoned IT professionals: If disaster strikes, you don't want your business in the hands of a rookie. You need professionals that are available at any time of day to aide in all emergency processes.
• A reliable, technologically advanced data center: The purpose of putting servers and other important IT equipment in a secure off site location is to guarantee that in the case of extremities (even those caused from within the data center), your business will not be put at risk. 
• Choosing an automated disaster recovery plan: By turning away from the traditional process and implementing recovery into an integrated part of your virtual infrastructure management system, there are better chances of eliminating error-prone manual steps. Also, this ensures that the recovery procedures will be consistently executed as intended, without worry.

Cost

Imagine for a moment that DR in the cloud is similar to the way you work with your residential electric company. You pay a small monthly fee for connecting your home to the utility, and then you pay for actual power usage. If you don’t draw any electricity, the small monthly fee remains; if you turn on your pool pump and your refrigerator and your lights, costs are added incrementally as you use increasingly more power. That’s a vastly different model than the way outsourced DR services have traditionally been handled, where you pay a fee commensurate with the amount of service you might need, in the event of a disaster, whether or not you ever use it. Which sounds more cost effective?

Flexibility

A great analogy here is to compare traditional outsourced DR services to your cell phone provider. To upgrade your cell phone or change your coverage model, you often have to sign up for another two years or more on a new service contract. But expanding your BC/DR service levels through the cloud gives you the freedom to reserve more or less space in a shared “container” system without dramatically impacting cost, without having to renegotiate service level agreements (SLAs), and without adding new multi-year commitments. If you’re doing DR in your own data center, or outsourcing to a third party who has reserved dedicated systems for your use only, the cost can be astronomical by comparison. In the cloud, with a shared container model, you simply reserve the space you need available to you, and make changes as your business needs dictate, usually at a very minimal cost, if any, for those changes.

Security

Today’s servers are designed for multi-tenancy use and can support different customers based on a variety of security settings, including advanced encryption methodologies to ensure the security of data in transit as well as at rest. As a result, data stored in the cloud is widely considered to be equally secure to information stored in a redundant local data center.

Design

If you have your own in-house data center, you can design your BC/DR plan and redesign it to meet changing needs, and you can conduct tests at random. Often, however, with traditional outsourced DR providers, the ability to customize your RPOs, RTOs and to conduct multiple tests throughout the year is sharply curtailed according to the parameters of your SLA. But typical DR-in-the-cloud solutions offer users an unrivaled combination of price-performance and custom design options.

Managed Recovery

Does your current DR strategy give you a “SWAT team” of IT professionals who can jump into action to kick-start your failover when disaster strikes? This is yet another reason to consider DR in the cloud. Cloud providers are accustomed to running and managing their own systems, and when you are in crisis mode, they are often able to conduct the initial restore on the customer’s behalf, getting you up and running that much faster.

Source: IT Business Edge

LightBound can help you with your virtualization services, server hosting, off site data backup service, cloud services, storage as a service, and disaster recovery needs.

The rise of mobility

The employee ecosystem is evolving, with more organizations looking beyond “task” workers to highly mobile, remote and information-focused workers. Fifty-one percent of firms said that they are planning to deploy application/desktop virtualization for mobile workers, and the same percent also plan to deploy it for remote/branch office workers. The now-constant need for connectivity during travel, or for telecommuting employees, has led businesses to provide support for all kinds of mobile devices, reducing the need for the PC from an end-user perspective.

Bring your own device

While PCs still remain a primary endpoint right now, 20 to 22 percent of organizations said they’re already providing support for employee-owned laptops, tablets and smartphones, with a further 16 to 21 percent planning to do so over the next two years. Fifty percent said that they see improved self-service as a primary reason for supporting employee-owned smartphones, tablets, netbooks and laptops, while 47 percent see lower purchase costs as a key driver for embracing BYOD. Driven by employees’ consistent dependence on their smartphones and tablets, as well as their personal preferences for devices used to access the corporate network at all times, businesses have started developing formal BYOD policies to support user choice and increasing mobile device contingency.

Improved Security in virtualization

Fifty-nine percent of respondents said that security is a major factor driving their interest in client virtualization. Virtualization technology enables organizations to remove all data from user machines and instead host it in the data center or public cloud. Thereby, reducing the impact of a lost or stolen machine that could potentially lead to a data security breach. IT managers who have successfully deployed client virtualization experienced dramatic improvements in their data security processes and patch management efficiencies.

Desktop Virtualization

More than 50 percent of companies ranked desktop and application virtualization as a critical or major initiative over the next 12 to 18 months. Local desktop virtualization enables desktop managers to provision virtual desktops as files rather than as individual, physical PCs. This desktop is fully managed and secured by the same policies that govern physical PCs. Because a virtual desktop has all the attributes of a file — albeit a large file — it can be encrypted and backed up, helping streamline regulatory compliance and business continuity processes.

Microsoft Windows 7 deployments and end of XP support

Nearly 30 percent of respondents are deliberately aligning their investments in Microsoft Windows 7 and desktop virtualization. Because virtualization reduces dependencies between the hardware, OS, applications, user settings and data layers, organizations are selectively taking advantage of this technology as they architect modern and more flexible systems for their users.

Cloud-hosted deployments are preferred

Forty-eight percent of respondents surveyed have considered cloud-hosted applications (SaaS) as an operational model as they plan their new/continued IT investments, while 45 percent considered cloud-hosted desktops (VDI). User diversity and decentralized and mobile work forces are forcing organizations to take hybrid approaches that balance their technology options with cloud-hosted, streamed, on-premise and thick-client solutions that are optimized for heterogeneous environments.

Source: IT Business Edge

LightBound can help you with your virtualization services, server hosting, off site data backup service, cloud services, storage as a service, and disaster recovery needs.

1. Inform and remind team of purpose just before meeting

By informing attendees just before they are not only less likely to forget it but they will also come with any material or information needed to support the discussion topics.

2. Minimize participants

Invite only those who are truly needed. As the number of participants goes up so does the tendency to get bogged down. Often, those who are not needed will show up to obtain any information resulting from the meeting.

3. Establish and follow an agenda

As a rule, every meeting should have an agenda that has at least three points; the topics, the time allocated for each topic, and the “talker,” the one who is taking the lead for a given topic.

4. State the purpose and intended outcome

Meeting leaders should not assume that everyone automatically understands the meeting purpose and the desired outcomes. By stating them clearly at the beginning, it will get the meeting started quickly and keep it on track.

5. Attempt to involve each team member

Meetings can often get off balance when a few attendees do all the talking and dominate the discussions. The meeting leader should attempt to involve each member to ensure that group synergy occurs.

6. Use diagrams, pictures and graphics

The adage, “a picture is worth a thousand words” is no truer than in meetings. They can reduce meeting durations by as much 28%. Whenever practical, encourage participants to use diagrams, pictures and graphics instead of handing out pages full of text.

7. Park important but unrelated topics

There may be times when an important topic, which is not on the agenda, will come up. Rather than divert the focus of the meeting, it may be better to list (park) the topics for another meeting.

8. Record action items, actionees, and due dates

Many times meeting discussions are very interactive but if the results are not translated into action items may fail to be productive. Almost every meeting should conclude with a) a description of actions to be taken, b) who has accepted the action, and c) when the action item is to be completed.

9. Issue a brief written meeting summary

Taking a few minutes to document a meeting can go a long way. By summarizing a) who attended, b) main topics discussed, c) conclusions reached, and d) actions to be taken, information will be easily recorded and disseminated. Meeting summaries should be kept to one page containing “bullet-type” statements.

10. Periodically measure the effectiveness of the project meetings

When project meetings begin being held many meetings will often be the most ineffective due to new participants, circumstances, unfamiliarity with roles, etc. By periodically measuring a meeting’s effectiveness, they can often be brought to a higher level of efficiency.

Source: IT Business Edge

LightBound can help with your virtualization services, server hosting, off site data backup service, cloud services, Storage as a service, and disaster recovery needs.

1.      Commit to leadership first and everything else second

Gartner and Korn/Ferry’s research reveals that the highest performing CIOs are effective because they embrace the idea that everything they need to accomplish will be achieved through people, by people, and with people. They don’t pay lip service to that idea. They live it. They lead.

2.      Lead differently than you think

A high-performing CIO is an incredibly complex and creative thinker. Yet when the time comes to lead, they don’t rely on their superior ‘smarts’ and analytical skills to come up with the best possible solution. They act collaboratively.

3.      Embrace your softer side

Effective CIOs manage the paradox of gaining more influence by letting go of control and allowing themselves to be vulnerable. In turn, that vulnerability enables them to create deep, personal connections — connections that provide the ability to inspire people both inside and outside their organization.

4.      Forge the right relationships to drive the right results

This skill may not be surprising. High performing CIOs spend a greater percentage of their time and energy managing relationships that exist sideways: with internal peers, external suppliers, and customers. They purposely invest in horizontal relationships which form the foundation to drive extraordinary results.

5.      Master communication

The best CIOs know that their colleagues - especially the people who work for them - are always watching. These executives understand they are always on stage. They take advantage of that situation by constantly reiterating core messages and values. Through their focus on clarity, consistency, authenticity, and passion, they make sure their message is not only understood but also felt. They want to communicate a feeling that compels people to take the right actions.

6.      Inspire others

In exchange for a regular paycheck, most people will give an adequate performance. But they will only give their best work if they believe they are involved in something greater than themselves. The best CIOs provide a compelling vision that connects people to how their enterprise wins in the marketplace and that their contributions are meaningful and valued.

7.      Build people, not systems

By developing people all around them, these CIOs increase their capability and capacity to deliver results. They also know that leaving behind the next generation of leaders is the best thing they can do for the organization — it will be their lasting legacy.

Source: IT Business Edge

LightBound can help you with your virtualization services, server hosting, off site data backup service, cloud services, storage as a service, and disaster recovery needs.

Give Presentations

Tired of lugging your bulky laptop around just to give presentations? With the VGA Adapter and supporting software, business users can make use of the much more portable iPad for this task. A number of software supports the VGA Adapter, such as the free Presentation App, or Apple's own Keynote. Getting the presentation onto the iPad will probably require the requisite files to be synced in advance, though some of the presentation software supports alternative means of moving the files over. And unless you create the presentation on the iPad, you will probably want to first check that the transferred files display as expected.

As an added bonus, Apple has also promised a future update that will allow Keynote presentations to be streamed via AirPlay to an Apple TV.  While not terribly useful for conference rooms where projectors are still predominantly VGA-based (the new Apple TV is HDMI only), the capability offers compelling value in certain scenarios – such as being able to conduct a presentation using a large-screen plasma or LCD at a trade show using an iPad.

Use as a sales brochure

Rather than lug along a stack of heavy sales brochures or other printed documents, why not just load everything onto an iPad? All it takes is some preparation to convert the requisite promotional materials as image files for viewing under the default Photos application. File them appropriately in separate folders, and you now have a veritable compendium of your company's products or services in the palm of your hands.

Access desktop files

Ever left the office for a meeting and then had to turn back because you needed some documents on your office desktop? Or you simply didn't have the time to fire up your laptop to take one more look at a spreadsheet? Well, a number of solutions are available today that allow you to synchronize your work-related files with a cloud-hosted solution. From there, these files can then be accessed from your iPad using the appropriate free apps.  LightBound can help with virtual storage and even hosted desktops as a service.

Increase productivity

Different kinds of software are available to maintain productivity, including Microsoft OnNote to maintain a list of ideas for new blogs and articles, as well as a plain text application for general note taking and to maintain your to do list. Discovering you can read and edit the OneNote Notebooks using MobileNoter on the iPad, while Simplenote allows you to do the same for the notes on your desktop. Because everything is automatically synced to the cloud, you doesn’t even have to remember to perform a manual synchronization, or leave your laptop on.

Use as an external monitor

There are a number of apps that you can get for your iPad that will transform it into a wireless monitor to extend your display area. There are a few solutions available, and one called DisplayLink app, which in tandem with the company's free iPad client software, allows you to use the iPad as an 1024x768 monitor for your Windows 7 laptop with full Aero support.

Cacth up on reading

The iPad with its larger display is very well suited for catching up on some reading when traveling, or while waiting for the clients to arrive.  Aside from the bunch of dedicated ebook applications such as iBooks and Kindle for the iPad, there is also a large number of RSS news readers that can help you keep apace of developments in your industry. Finally, iPad clients of both Read It Later and Instrapaper are available for you to catch up on Web pages flagged for reading from your desktop.

Access company email

One very practical feature of the iPad is its ability to connect to not just POP servers, but also to an Exchange Server or IMAP-based mail server. Users are not only able to access and read their e-mails in the latter two scenarios, but are also able to perform basic folder management and filing tasks. Moreover, the iPad's large screen and ability to render HTML e-mails in high fidelity allows users to tackle their inbox at practically the same productivity level as from a full-fledged workstation. Finally, a recent iOS update has made it possible for an iPad to connect to more than one Exchange Server for users that require this functionality.

Take your office with you

With apps offering the ability to edit and review Word documents and Excel spreadsheets, workers can literally bring their office along with them. While these software do represent an additional cost, and might not have all the desired functionality, they do work well in a pinch. In addition, they also price cheaply in comparison to desktop software.

Organize your schedule

There are many types of calendaring software that allow you to manage your work and personal schedule for the iPad. Schedules planned on Microsoft Outlook can be synchronized wirelessly to your iPad, or when synchronizing via iTunes – many of the apps also support syncing to cloud-based calendaring services such as Google Calendar.

Manage Social Media

The 10-hour battery stamina of the iPad means that you can leverage it for your social media interactions without constantly worrying about it running out of juice. Businesses are now aware of the importance of engaging their customers on an individual level via sites such as Facebook and Twitter. And while enterprises have the budget to pay dedicated specialists to perform these tasks, the responsibility in SMBs usually falls on the shoulders of employees in the sales and technical departments. On this front, the iPad makes an excellent platform, with dedicated clients for just about every social network out there. Safari works well, too.

Source: IT Business Edge

LightBound can help you with your virtualization services, server hosting, off site data backup service, cloud services, storage as a service, and disaster recovery needs.

Business Challenge

Many enterprises today have data living on the edge. Mission-critical data is created and stored on individual laptops and workstations, far outside the reach of traditional data center-centric approaches to backup and recovery.

This presents a challenge not only for data protection but also for long term data retention, and for eDiscovery requests. Current approaches can impose onerous demands on users and their systems, overwhelm network bandwidth and still do not deliver fast data recovery.

LightBound’s software offers a better approach to tracking and protecting data at the edge.

LightBound Solution

LightBound extends the power of our singular approach to data management to your laptops and workstations. LightBound Workstation Backup and Recovery software is a lightweight solution that provides cost-effective, efficient, reliable, and secure data protection for data at the edge.

LightBound Workstation Backup and Recovery solution delivers the following capabilities to simplify and protect data at the edge:

• Block-level incremental backups to ensure changed data is protected over thin networks.
• Remote, silent installation that ensures 100% coverage, without the need for local end-user or IT involvement.
• Enterprise-class features like data compression and encryption built in for data transfer efficiency and security over the network.
• Self-service file-level recovery capability for end-users.
• Integration with LightBound Storage Policy to create archive copies that can be used for long term retention and eDiscovery.

LightBound can help you with your virtualization services, server hosting, off site data backup service, and disaster recovery needs.

Data Backup and Recovery

LightBound’s backup service is an exclusive single-platform architecture which delivers what you really need: reliable data protection, multiple recovery options and sophisticated data retention capabilities, allowing maximum return on investment. The LightBound Backup and Recovery solution is designed for fast, easy deployment within your existing infrastructure.

Backup and recovery is usually about maximizing Returns on Investment. It is a fine balancing act between meeting

data retention needs and recovery objectives, while deriving maximum value from limited infrastructure and resource investments. In the last few years, exponential data growth, newer faster technologies and geographical expansion

have upset this balance and made it extremely difficult and cost prohibitive for IT to continue meeting ever aggressive data management demands.

Self-Managing Software

LightBound’s Backup and Recovery solution delivers what you really need: reliable data protection, multiple recovery

options and sophisticated data retention capabilities, allowing maximum return on investment. The LightBound Backup and Recovery solution is designed for fast, easy deployment within your existing infrastructure. Compatible with a wide variety of applications and platforms, LightBound will work with your team to install CommVault agents on machines needing backed up. Connectivity will then be established from those machines to LightBound’s Backup Storage Infrastructure. These deployments provide easy-to-use data protection and retention that supports corporate and federal policies. Because the software is self-managing, there is no need to waste time double-checking backup copies.

Configurable

Most other backup offerings start by managing devices. LightBound’s Backup and Recovery solution starts from the data and enables you to define what you need to do with the data, such as how many copies you need, for how long and when to retire it. Then the LightBound Backup and Recovery solution does the work for you—managing the devices transparently to ensure efficient, cost-effective use of storage while preserving simple, one step recovery. Granular, object-level recovery is included so we can find the data, select it and recover. You do not have to start by finding the tapes or scanning jobs, the LightBound Backup and Recovery solution tracks the data location to let you focus on the data.

Ensures Completion

Completing backup and recovery jobs is often the key challenge for backup administrators. Typically, much time can be

wasted verifying that jobs have run—and completed—and then diagnosing the network, server or storage problem that

disrupted operations. The LightBound Backup and Recovery solution provides advanced retry and failover resume capabilities that help jobs to complete even when failures occur.

Value

In today’s world, information may be the single most valuable asset a business can own. Your intellectual property, sensitive files, and other information must be kept safe. Therefore, you need a data backup partner you can trust – one that provides you with scalable, secure, and powerful resources. With LightBound, that is exactly what you get.

Give us a call and let LightBound help you with your virtualization services, server hosting, off site data backup service, and disaster recovery needs.

The LightBound Backup and archive solution meets these challenges head-on with a robust and common content archive interface approach. Its interface integrates with a range of data sources using HTTP/REST based environments to intelligently collect data, simplify management, and reduce the costs of data retention. Most requirements for enhanced security, encryption and compliance are exceeded.

• Unify Data Retention – Reduce complexity with a single platform featuring encryption, compression, deduplication, retention and data aging managed from a simplified interface for data retention.
• Integrated enterprise search, compliance and e-discovery options boost the value of the data retained within the LightBound archive solution.
• Consolidated Backup with Archive – Integrated single pass backup and archive provides content preserved views of data while taking advantage of storage management features.
• Reduce Management Costs – Administrators can easily deploy, setup, and manage large scale distributed data environments easier than ever while enabling LightBound software as the broker to the collection and retention of data.
• Support Heterogeneous Hardware Platforms – Traditional approaches are tied to specific hardware platforms that limit flexibility. LightBound software unlocks the use of all hardware throughout the lifecycle of the data archive.
• Enable Retention Lifecycle Management – Provide analytics and reporting throughout the creation, retention and deletion of all content.

Use Cases

Big data growth impacts all industries and departments, for every use case across the globe.  LightBound software's powerful architecture provides flexible options to address the diverse needs of some of the highest growth vertical markets, such as:

• Healthcare

   PACS

   Patient Records

• Digital Media

   Digital film

   Broadcasts

   Streaming video and audio

• Financial Institutions

   Financial transactions

   Applications

   Checks and deposit images

• Insurance Companies

   Insurance claims

   Photos

   Policies

Give us a call and let LightBound help you with your virtualization services, server hosting, off site data backup service, cloud services, and disaster recovery needs.

For small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) looking to not just survive but thrive during the downturn, an IP phone system may be just the answer. It will give them communication capabilities previously available to only the largest companies. It will let them work in ways that they would have found impossible before. It will help them accomplish more with fewer resources. And it can save them considerable money.

But even if a company is more than ready to move to IP, choosing the best system for its individual circumstances isn’t easy. There are several contrasting approaches to IP telephony, each with its own benefits. The biggest differences among them are who owns, operates and maintains the equipment, and where it is physically located. These differences produce major variations in cost, convenience and ease of management.

This report analyzes the three leading options, which go by the names of premise, hosted and hybrid-hosted. It describes each approach, explaining how they work and the equipment and support they require. It also lists the advantages and disadvantages of each.

PREMISE

The traditional approach is for the SMB to buy and operate the equipment. It either installs the IP PBX itself, or has a dealer or VAR (value added reseller) do it. The equipment sits in the company’s own premises, connects to its LAN, and distributes calls to IP phones also connected to the LAN. The company owns the equipment and software, and administers and maintains them. Calls can come to the IP PBX from the communication service provider over traditional PSTN lines or over the company’s broadband Internet connection.

The premise approach has several advantages. Although the upfront cost is higher than with hosted service, at the end of the day the company owns the system, rather than having to make payments forever. And with ownership comes increased control – companies can customize or extend the capabilities of their systems more than they could with hosted service. Another advantage is that it’s not necessary to rely solely on the Internet to deliver calls. A premise based IP PBX gives you fallback capabilities should your Internet service be interrupted. Security is also higher because all messages and call data remain on the company’s premises.

But when compared to hosted solutions, there can be a significant disadvantage depending on the needs and resources of your organization. The biggest is monitoring and maintenance. Someone has to be available virtually all the time to make sure the system is running right. Someone also has to maintain and upgrade the software on a regular basis. Premise systems typically require maintenance contracts that add significantly to the total cost of ownership. Accessing the system for administrative tasks such as moves, adds and changes also requires either having someone on site to do it, or establishing a special connection setup to allow remote access. The latter typically involves opening a special port through the corporate firewall, which can not only be a tricky process but may be against company security policies. Configuring remote users can also be complicated and thus expensive.

PROS

▪ Own the system with available financing options

▪ Can customize to suit needs

▪ Doesn’t rely on Internet for quality, reliability

▪ Messages, prompts, records remain on company’s own premises

CONS

▪ Significant costs for hardware and software maintenance contracts

▪ Requires on-site staff for monitoring and maintaining

▪ Administration requires on-site staff or special connection setup

▪ Configuring remote users can be tricky

▪ Hardware, software upgrades eventually necessary if user numbers grow

HOSTED

Hosted VoIP, also known as hosted IP PBX service, runs on equipment belonging to and located in the data center of a service provider. Calls travel to and from the SMB’s offices via its broadband Internet connection. Hosted services can provide many of the features and capabilities that traditional phone systems offer. Users can make or transfer calls by dialing each other’s extensions. They can also make conference calls, park and pick up calls, and answer calls forwarded to groups of extensions, known as ring groups. That’s not to mention all the new capabilities that IP makes possible, such as listening to voice mail messages through e-mail or another online interface, or placing calls by simply clicking on names in onscreen address books.

The business is left with no associated asset. Security is another concern, since voice mail messages and call records reside on the service provider’s premises, not the company’s. Call quality and service reliability can also be significant worries, since both are totally dependent on the company’s Internet connection.

PROS

▪ Low upfront costs

▪ Increase capacity exactly as needed

▪ No need for maintenance contracts or staff

CONS

▪ Quality, reliability depend on Internet

▪ Pay full rate for little-used extensions

▪ No end to payments, no eventual ownership of equipment

▪ Messages, prompts and call records reside in service provider’s data center

HYBRID-HOSTED

The hybrid-hosted approach combines the key elements of hosted and premise systems. The customer buys and owns the IP PBX equipment, which resides on its own premises. But the vendor monitors and helps manage the equipment from its data center. This arrangement offers most of the benefits of both hosted and premise solutions, while doing away with most of the disadvantages of both.

As with conventional premise solutions, hybrid-hosted systems let companies pay once to purchase the equipment rather than paying forever for extensions, some of which may see little use. There’s also no dependence on the Internet for the quality and reliability of calls, though Internet transport is an option. And messages and call data remain within the company.

And as with hosted solutions, hybrid-hosted systems significantly decrease the hassles and headaches of premise solutions. Part of it is ease of use. Administrators and managers can access their systems from anywhere via web browsers, rather than having to be on premises or to have configured special routes through their firewalls. Setting up remote users is simple too, and linking branch offices is a one-click process. Users can even configure their own extensions from wherever they are.

Perhaps most important, the hybrid-hosted approach alleviates monitoring and maintenance headaches. From its data center, the vendor proactively watches the customer’s hardware and software, 24 hours a day and seven days a week, for impending failures, and takes action before they happen. It also transparently maintains the software, pushing out automatic updates without the need for someone on the company’s premises to do anything. The vendor can also choose to back up call records and generate reports, taking a significant load off the premise equipment. And it also backs up the customer’s configurations (though not its voice mail messages or prompts due to privacy concerns), allowing for easy recovery in case of disaster.

PROS

▪ Own the system with available financing options

▪ Can customize to suit needs

▪ Doesn’t rely on Internet for quality, reliability

▪ Messages, prompts, records remain on company’s own premises

▪ Vendor monitors for faults 24/7

▪ Vendor backup of customer configurations with easy disaster recovery

▪ Automatic software upgrades

▪ Easy remote administration through web browser

▪ Easy setup of remote users

▪ One-click linking of branch offices

CONS

▪ Upfront costs higher than with hosted solutions

▪ Hardware and software maintenance contracts recommended

▪ Hardware upgrade eventually necessary if user numbers grow

WHICH ONE IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

To summarize the choices, companies using hosted systems have lower upfront costs and zero maintenance worries, but call quality and reliability are totally dependent on Internet connections, and all call data, including messages and prompts, resides with the provider. With the premise approach, companies buy and own the equipment and control the call data, but they also have to spend considerable money and staff time administering, monitoring and maintaining their systems. Users of hybrid-hosted systems own and control the equipment and software, as well as the call data, but can leave much of the monitoring and maintenance up to the vendor, while administration is simplified.

Ultimately, of course, the choices are all about cost. Poor voice quality or unreliable service can lose you significant business. Spending staff time taking care of equipment also means spending money. But the most important cost to keep in mind is the cost of doing nothing. Not moving to IP telephony means giving up the opportunity to make your business work better. It means missing the chance to save money through increased employee efficiency, or to increase revenue through making better use of employees’ time and talent. In short, failing to take advantage of opportunities such as IP telephony can be most expensive option, even – or especially – during a downturn.

Light Bound can be your Virtual Service Provider. We help you answer that email and return the telephone call without worry.

LightBound is your Fonality Authorized Reseller for trixBox Pro Editions for VoIP PBXsolutions both hosted and premise based IP Based Telephony.

LightBound, your Virtual Service provider, can combine your managed services, voice and data services to provide you with a seamless Cloud Service that is economical and provides the business continuity that all businesses require regardless of their technical expertise. 

In simple terms, virtualization adds a layer in between the physical hardware and the operating system. This in turn encapsulates the entire system, making it a virtual machine (VM) where hardware becomes agnostic and creates it its own “bubble”. This environment allows you to have multiple VMs running on the same physical hardware without conflict.

Portability is a benefit of this technology. Any VM can be transferred to other physical machines easily. This ease of portability can come into play when considering backup recovery and disaster recovery options.

Virtualization minimizes downtime if there is a hardware failure by allowing the VMs to automatically find another physical machine and restart themselves when they are running in a highly available cluster.  Virtualization can also provide “green” benefits to your physical environment by reducing electrical power usage and cooling load consumption when server hardware is consolidated. 

These solutions can be implemented locally or most of these benefits are already included when leveraging a hosted cloud service like LightBound. Give us a call and let LightBound help you with your virtualization services, server hosting, off site data backup service, and disaster recovery needs.

Cloud Computing can take many different forms. But the simplest definition is a good or service provided through and over the public or private internet.  

This concept is particularly useful when it comes to streamlining your business because it offers opportunities to outsource essential but not strategic parts of your organization. Some cloud services that come to mind include CRM applications, accounting software, offsite data backup services, etc. Anything that can be hosted by another company is another way to put it. Therefore email, web pages, VOIP service providers, and even hosted virtual server platforms are considered Cloud services.

LightBound can help you navigate your way through the cloud. If you are considering any of these options feel free to give us a call and we will be able to point you in the right direction.

If you are a Small to Medium Enterprise business with growing data storage needs look to Indiana based companies to help you out: LightBound and Scale Computing both based out of Indianapolis, IN.   LightBound offers Server Collocation and Cloud Services and will be opening up a 47,000 square foot state of the art data center at the end of Q1 or early Q2 2011.   LightBound offers Storage as a Service with Scale Computing as the target platform for off site data backup service.   If a company has a Scale SAN it can replicate natively to LightBound's storage platform.  This is a great strategy for business continuity.  With the recent ice storm's in Indiana and power outages many  businesses were effected.  LightBound rode through this with flying colors.   Scale Computing has some exciting news about growth today, February 9.  See the article below for details.  If interested in purchasing Scale Computing LightBound is a Scale Premier Partner and can provide full services to install and support a SAN or NAS at the customer premise.

Scale Computing Revenue Grows By Six Times In 2010

Scale Computing, a leader in intelligent storage completes record financial year, expands internationally.

Scale Computing, a developer and manufacturer of intelligent, clustered storage solutions that are tailored to the needs of the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME), today announced record results for the year ending December 31, 2010. For the full year, Scale Computing's revenue grew six times over 2009 with 79 percent of the company's products in the field sold during 2010. Scale Computing expanded internationally, opening a London office and introducing the company's products to Japan and the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. Scale storage solutions have now been sold in nine countries. To support the demand for the company's product offering, Scale Computing plans to triple employee count over the next two years and triple the size of its Indianapolis headquarters.

"Our 2010 record growth is a testament to our commitment to provide cost-efficient, enterprise-class storage that is tailored to the needs of the SME," said Jeff Ready, CEO and co-founder of Scale Computing. "Repeat customers account for 30 - 40 percent of our businesses, signaling the strength and demand for our scale-out storage solutions. Demand, combined with our rapid channel expansion, has positioned Scale Computing for continued success in 2011."

Additional 2010 company highlights include:

• Customer base grew 600 percent compared to 2009Partner program grew 500 percent compared to 2009
• Awarded 10 product and company awards, including Best New Product, Infrastructure Category by PC Mall and The Partnership Excellence Award, announced at PC Mall Vision 2010.
• Product lines achieved both VMware Ready™ Status and Citrix Ready™ Status
• Launched multiple new products including the N05 Starter Cluster

For small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) looking to not just survive but thrive during the downturn, an IP phone system may be just the answer. It will give them communication capabilities previously available to only the largest companies. It will let them work in ways that they would have found impossible before. It will help them accomplish more with fewer resources. And it can save them considerable money.

But even if a company is more than ready to move to IP, choosing the best system for its individual circumstances isn’t easy. There are several contrasting approaches to IP telephony, each with its own benefits. The biggest differences among them are who owns, operates and maintains the equipment, and where it is physically located. These differences produce major variations in cost, convenience and ease of management.

This report analyzes the three leading options, which go by the names of premise, hosted and hybrid-hosted. It describes each approach, explaining how they work and the equipment and support they require. It also lists the advantages and disadvantages of each.

PREMISE

The traditional approach is for the SMB to buy and operate the equipment. It either installs the IP PBX itself, or has a dealer or VAR (value added reseller) do it. The equipment sits in the company’s own premises, connects to its LAN, and distributes calls to IP phones also connected to the LAN. The company owns the equipment and software, and administers and maintains them. Calls can come to the IP PBX from the communication service provider over traditional PSTN lines or over the company’s broadband Internet connection.

The premise approach has several advantages. Although the upfront cost is higher than with hosted service, at the end of the day the company owns the system, rather than having to make payments forever. And with ownership comes increased control – companies can customize or extend the capabilities of their systems more than they could with hosted service. Another advantage is that it’s not necessary to rely solely on the Internet to deliver calls. A premise based IP PBX gives you fallback capabilities should your Internet service be interrupted. Security is also higher because all messages and call data remain on the company’s premises.

But when compared to hosted solutions, there can be a significant disadvantage depending on the needs and resources of your organization. The biggest is monitoring and maintenance. Someone has to be available virtually all the time to make sure the system is running right. Someone also has to maintain and upgrade the software on a regular basis. Premise systems typically require maintenance contracts that add significantly to the total cost of ownership. Accessing the system for administrative tasks such as moves, adds and changes also requires either having someone on site to do it, or establishing a special connection setup to allow remote access. The latter typically involves opening a special port through the corporate firewall, which can not only be a tricky process but may be against company security policies. Configuring remote users can also be complicated and thus expensive.

PROS

▪ Own the system with available financing options

▪ Can customize to suit needs

▪ Doesn’t rely on Internet for quality, reliability

▪ Messages, prompts, records remain on company’s own premises

CONS

▪ Significant costs for hardware and software maintenance contracts

▪ Requires on-site staff for monitoring and maintaining

▪ Administration requires on-site staff or special connection setup

▪ Configuring remote users can be tricky

▪ Hardware, software upgrades eventually necessary if user numbers grow

HOSTED

Hosted VoIP, also known as hosted IP PBX service, runs on equipment belonging to and located in the data center of a service provider. Calls travel to and from the SMB’s offices via its broadband Internet connection. Hosted services can provide many of the features and capabilities that traditional phone systems offer. Users can make or transfer calls by dialing each other’s extensions. They can also make conference calls, park and pick up calls, and answer calls forwarded to groups of extensions, known as ring groups. That’s not to mention all the new capabilities that IP makes possible, such as listening to voice mail messages through e-mail or another online interface, or placing calls by simply clicking on names in onscreen address books.

The business is left with no associated asset. Security is another concern, since voice mail messages and call records reside on the service provider’s premises, not the company’s. Call quality and service reliability can also be significant worries, since both are totally dependent on the company’s Internet connection.

PROS

▪ Low upfront costs

▪ Increase capacity exactly as needed

▪ No need for maintenance contracts or staff

CONS

▪ Quality, reliability depend on Internet

▪ Pay full rate for little-used extensions

▪ No end to payments, no eventual ownership of equipment

▪ Messages, prompts and call records reside in service provider’s data center

HYBRID-HOSTED

The hybrid-hosted approach combines the key elements of hosted and premise systems. The customer buys and owns the IP PBX equipment, which resides on its own premises. But the vendor monitors and helps manage the equipment from its data center. This arrangement offers most of the benefits of both hosted and premise solutions, while doing away with most of the disadvantages of both.

As with conventional premise solutions, hybrid-hosted systems let companies pay once to purchase the equipment rather than paying forever for extensions, some of which may see little use. There’s also no dependence on the Internet for the quality and reliability of calls, though Internet transport is an option. And messages and call data remain within the company.

And as with hosted solutions, hybrid-hosted systems significantly decrease the hassles and headaches of premise solutions. Part of it is ease of use. Administrators and managers can access their systems from anywhere via web browsers, rather than having to be on premises or to have configured special routes through their firewalls. Setting up remote users is simple too, and linking branch offices is a one-click process. Users can even configure their own extensions from wherever they are.

Perhaps most important, the hybrid-hosted approach alleviates monitoring and maintenance headaches. From its data center, the vendor proactively watches the customer’s hardware and software, 24 hours a day and seven days a week, for impending failures, and takes action before they happen. It also transparently maintains the software, pushing out automatic updates without the need for someone on the company’s premises to do anything. The vendor can also choose to back up call records and generate reports, taking a significant load off the premise equipment. And it also backs up the customer’s configurations (though not its voice mail messages or prompts due to privacy concerns), allowing for easy recovery in case of disaster.

PROS

▪ Own the system with available financing options

▪ Can customize to suit needs

▪ Doesn’t rely on Internet for quality, reliability

▪ Messages, prompts, records remain on company’s own premises

▪ Vendor monitors for faults 24/7

▪ Vendor backup of customer configurations with easy disaster recovery

▪ Automatic software upgrades

▪ Easy remote administration through web browser

▪ Easy setup of remote users

▪ One-click linking of branch offices

CONS

▪ Upfront costs higher than with hosted solutions

▪ Hardware and software maintenance contracts recommended

▪ Hardware upgrade eventually necessary if user numbers grow

WHICH ONE IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

To summarize the choices, companies using hosted systems have lower upfront costs and zero maintenance worries, but call quality and reliability are totally dependent on Internet connections, and all call data, including messages and prompts, resides with the provider. With the premise approach, companies buy and own the equipment and control the call data, but they also have to spend considerable money and staff time administering, monitoring and maintaining their systems. Users of hybrid-hosted systems own and control the equipment and software, as well as the call data, but can leave much of the monitoring and maintenance up to the vendor, while administration is simplified.

Ultimately, of course, the choices are all about cost. Poor voice quality or unreliable service can lose you significant business. Spending staff time taking care of equipment also means spending money. But the most important cost to keep in mind is the cost of doing nothing. Not moving to IP telephony means giving up the opportunity to make your business work better. It means missing the chance to save money through increased employee efficiency, or to increase revenue through making better use of employees’ time and talent. In short, failing to take advantage of opportunities such as IP telephony can be most expensive option, even – or especially – during a downturn.

Light Bound can be your Virtual Service Provider. We help you answer that email and return the telephone call without worry.

LightBound is your Fonality Authorized Reseller for trixBox Pro Editions for VoIP PBXsolutions both hosted and premise based IP Based Telephony.

LightBound, your Virtual Service provider, can combine your managed services, voice and data services to provide you with a seamless Cloud Service that is economical and provides the business continuity that all businesses require regardless of their technical expertise.