Using your iPad at work

Wednesday, July 13, 2011 by Drew Emsweller

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.

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LightBound Managed Services offers Scale to Scale Replication and Compellent to Compellent Replication

Monday, September 13, 2010 by Jay Cutler
LightBound Managed Services offers Scale to Scale Replication and Compellent to Compellent Replication.

What does this mean?  Companies can now easily replicate their Storage Area Network Solutions (SANs) back to Indiana Premier Data Center and Managed Storage provider LightBound. 

Let one of LightBounds Sales professionals show you how to increase your Business Continuity and Disaster recovery plans with our SAN to SAN replication. Regardless if you are using a High Speed Compellent SAN for your transaction heavy data bases and applications or if you need normal speed drives for doing Archival or Business Continuity.

Even if you don't have a Compellent or Scale SAN you can still use LightBound's Managed Storage solutions for your business continuity or disaster recovery with LightBound incredible reach of huge bandwidth for Off Site Data Backup Service. We can provide many Cloud Services and Share Storage Solutions.

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 PBX solutions both hosted and premise based IP Based Telephony with Enterprise, Call Center and UAE (SalesForce and SugarCRM integration) editions.

LightBound, your Virtual Service provider, can combine your managed servers hosting, Shared Storage server, 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.

LightBound is also expanding. Be on the lookout for our new state of the art 47,000 sq ft. Data Center coming out of the ground and available for occupancy in first or second quarter of 2011.

www.lightbound.net



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Fonality Seals the Deal for Prudential SourceOne Realty

Monday, September 13, 2010 by Jay Cutler
Goodbye expensive Avaya phone system, Hello Fonality PBXtra!. Prudential SourceOne Realty wanted to revamp its phone system to provide better communications between offices and with its customers. With PBXtra, there are no more missed calls and no more lost commissions!

Prudential SourceOne Realty is Chicago’s fastest-growing real estate company. The firm focuses on offering outstanding real estate and homeownership services and uses open source technology whenever possible to meet its business goals. Prudential SourceOne restructured its operations in 2007, giving the firm’s IT department the chance to completely revamp its telephone system.
So long Avaya, Hello Fonality

Prudential SourceOne had previously operated an expensive Avaya phone system, but “we were sick of dealing with Avaya,” said Steve Krzysiak, Prudential SourceOne’s director of IT. “Our old Avaya system was antiquated and it would have required a highly paid phone guru to maintain and revamp it. Our restructuring provided us with a golden opportunity to do our phone system right.”

Prudential SourceOne’s IT staff initiated a search for a new phone system, based on its interest in utilizing open source technologies, which led them directly to Fonality. “The Fonality PBXtra phone system was easier to set up than our network was, and we are network guys!” Krzysiak said. “We can do so much with our Fonality system without having to read a 500-page manual like we had to do with Avaya.”

When Krzysiak deployed Fonality PBXtra in two Chicago-area offices, he found that “integrating the two offices with PBXtra was as simple as a few clicks of the mouse. PBXtra’s four-digit dialing and easy call transfer lets our two offices communicate and work as one.”
Perfect for Road Warriors

Whether showing homes, meeting with sellers or finding new properties to list, Prudential SourceOne’s, more than 70, real estate agents have to conduct business all the time, from anywhere. Krzysiak recalled how poorly suited his former phone system was for a remote workforce: “our old Avaya system wouldn’t allow our agents to set up call forwarding remotely; they could only do it when they were physically in the office, which is not that often. It was terribly inconvenient.”

Missed calls are more then inconvenient as they increase the risk of an agent losing out on a sale and the resulting commission. According to Krzysiak, “with PBXtra, agents can set up Fonality’s Boomerang Mobile Integration feature from anywhere, and it automatically finds them when they aren’t in the office. Or, they can log in from any location with Internet access to check their phone logs.” Prudential SourceOne agents are also especially pleased with Fonality’s voicemail-to-email feature. “Our agents love that PBXtra allows them to forward their voicemail messages directly to their email accounts,” Krzysiak continued. With the old Avaya system, Prudential SourceOne’s agents struggled to confirm telephone numbers left on their voicemail systems. “Our agents really like PBXtra’s ability to conveniently listen to voicemail messages from their email, which allows them to easily re-review a message and ensure they have captured the accurate number. Now, our agents have no concerns about losing a big commission because they missed a number. Fonality PBXtra makes sure of it!”
HUD is the Icing on the Cake

HUD Agent is also finding a home with agents at Prudential SourceOne. “We love HUD! It allows us to quickly see who is on the phone and then simply right click to dial someone directly. The intercom feature has also been great. We no longer have to run across our office to check with someone; we just use HUD’s intercom feature. HUD is going to be a great time saver for us.”
Closing the Deal

Krzysiak is convinced Prudential SourceOne chose the right IP-PBX phone system. “Fonality’s technology is superb, and its engineers are extremely competent. I really feel like I’m talking to a peer when I call. They absolutely know what’s going on.”

Krzysiak’s overall feeling about his Fonality system can be summed up quickly: “It’s simple — Fonality PBXtra makes life easy.” Any regrets about switching from Avaya to Fonality? Nope. “There is no comparison between Fonality and our old Avaya system. Fonality PBXtra is far superior to Avaya.”

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 PBX solutions both hosted and premise based IP Based Telephony with Enterprise, Call Center and UAE (SalesForce and SugarCRM integration) editions.

LightBound, your Virtual Service provider, can combine your managed servers hosting, Shared Storage server, 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.

LightBound is also expanding. Be on the lookout for our new state of the art 47,000 sq ft. Data Center coming out of the ground and available for occupancy in first or second quarter of 2011.

www.lightbound.net
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Need SAN or NAS that's cost efficient, easy to manager, and scalable? Look no further!

Friday, July 23, 2010 by Ron Pirau
Is your direct attached storage at capacity for your servers and your are thinking about adding more storage or a NAS?  Is the maintenance for your current SAN up for renewal but budget is limited?   Are you at capacity for your current SAN but don't have capital to acquire another SAN chassis?  If you answer yes to any of these question Scale Computing SAN is something you need to look at.  Scale Computing SAN is about 1/2 to 1/3 the price of competing SAN solution, is less complex to operation, and expands when you need to in 1,2, and 4 TB increments with a scalable predictable cost.  Scale Computing also includes replication so if you have DR requirements you can locate another Scale SAN in an off site location and replicate.  To save on capital costs LightBound uses Scale Computing SAN as part of the off-site data backup service for a monthly recurring cost.  LightBound also sells Scale Computing Storage Area Network Solutions and can fully implement the SAN on your site and also set up the replication to our shared storage server.   LightBound is an Indiana High Speed Internet provider and offers circuits starting at a T1 to a direct fiber connection that can provide the bandwidth needed for the replication server.  If you want to take 10 minutes to see what Scale is all about lick on webinar to watch a short video. If you need more information on Scale's SAN & NAS please send an email to sales@lightbound.net or contact your LightBound account manager.
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Don’t let 12 feet of snow shut you down.

Monday, June 7, 2010 by Jay Cutler
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Storage Area Network Solutions & Cloud Services: A cost analysis, Part 1

Friday, May 21, 2010 by Sam Newberry
Cloud services providers offer hosted virtual servers and they can also offer Storage as a Service. At LightBound we offer both.  A customer can opt only for storage as a service, and to this can add server virtualization services.  There are two technologies we leverage to maximize cost savings, which we in turn pass on to the customer - thin provisioning and tiered storage.

Definition: A LUN (Logical Unit Number) is a single storage unit on a SAN (Storage Area Network), mapped to a server which then corresponds to a hard drive letter, like C:.

Thin provisioning is the ability to leverage available storage space from the total "pool" of storage, regardless of the number and size of LUN's.  In other words, it's over subscription.  The space isn't consumed when the LUN is created, but when it's actually used.  So you can create twenty 1TB LUNS on your 10TB SAN, and as long as the aggregate consumption across all 20 LUNS is less than 10TB, all is well.

At LightBound we investigated how we might provide this cost savings garnered from thin provisioning directly to the customer.  We found, however that for a number of reasons, it just wasn't going to be practical.  First off it's a billing nightmare - customers want many things, and one of those is a consistent bill.  To charge only for the actual usage would mean a substantially higher cost per "consumed" gigabyte to cover our costs, and every month an analysis of the consumed disk would have to be reported on for accurate billing.  Also, how do you determine a months usage if the data ebbs and flows through the month?  Maybe 95 percentile, or prorated down to the day, but again, a huge billing ordeal and often an inconsistent and potentially an unexpectedly high bill to the customer.

What we did instead was to take consideration of the average LUN usage (about 75%), and provide that cost savings to the customer.  This provided for a competitive price point for disk, and a consistent and simple bill for the customer.  But wait there's more - we actually figured out a way to allow the customer to leverage that extra space - snapshots.

Almost all customers utilizing storage area network solutions, including those paying for storage as a service, want to utilize snapshots.  Snapshots provide point-in-time recovery capabilities of the critical data.  Snapshots are freezing the data, and storing the changes (or deltas) in a different container.  Thus even though the data isn't being copied, there is some consumption attributed to these snapshots.  Thus the cost of snapshots is not in the number of snapshots, per say, but in the amount of disk space they consume.  So here's the cost savings, and I'll apologize up front that it's a little complex, so bear with me.  The customer can leverage the space they have not [yet] consumed in their LUN towards snapshot space. Here's an example:

Let's say a customer knows that they will have about 750GB of data, so they lease a 1TB LUN. Why not lease 750GB you ask?  Because most operating systems don't react very well when their drive is completely full.  You need to instill a little wiggle room, so 1TB it is.  Now we invoke the snapshot retention schedule, which is what determines when and how often a snapshot is taken, and how long to retain that snapshot. So let's assume for the sake of discussion that we end up taking and retaining snapshots that total 200GB in disk consumption.  The customer bought 1TB, used 750GB, and used another 200GB for snaps.  That's only 950GB, less than 1TB, and so less than what the customer paid for.  Voila!  The customer doesn't have to pay for the snapshot consumption.  Now, if the total of the two (data & snaps) exceeds the initial total allotment, then they're some fees, but not until then.  So use that extra "wiggle room" for something fruitful like snapshots and in doing so you don't lose your wiggle room!

This was a long one, so I'll save tiered storage for next time.

Go Cloud!

Sam Newberry 
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Why do we need this Cloud? Part 3

Thursday, May 20, 2010 by Sam Newberry
One of the most important aspects of Cloud Services that will greatly contribute to its market adoption and growth is the removal of the complexities.  Companies of all shapes and sizes, most not offering a technical product or service, are simply not interested in Storage Area Network Solutions, Hosted Virtual Servers, or Virtual Storage.  What they're interested in is bringing their products and services to market in the simplest most seamless means possible.  Enterprises have always cringed at not only the costs of ever growing data centers, but also all the complexities attributed to every request made of their IT department.  I'm not saying that IT is made up entirely of a bunch of naysayers, although there's a few out there (you know who you are).  There have been many times in my career when I've had to clarify that I'm not making it complex, it is complex. But Cloud Services, or more specifically Software as a Service, is going to help simplify the process of providing to business units, and yes even end users, the services that they need without complexities involved in the underlying infrastructure.

Go Cloud!

Sam Newberry
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Virtual Network Services Part 3

Monday, May 17, 2010 by Sam Newberry
Historically, ergo back in the days of physical servers, I often commented that Disaster Recovery in preparation of Business Continuity is much like a dog chasing its tail.  Server Collocation was often employed to have backup servers at a remote location.  Well, congratulations - you've just doubled your workload, not to mention increases your costs, possibly more than two-fold.  So here's where I say welcome virtualization services and cloud services!  Storage Area Network Solutions (SAN's) paved the way for multiple server hosts to be able to easily and seamlessly share storage, and with boot from SAN technology, you can now replicate the data, including OS and App, to another location at the block level. No muss, no fuss.  No more having to manage an entire mirror of your server infrastructure.  No more installing every patch twice, no more having to upgrade your applications to the next version twice. No more having to troubleshoot twice.  No more having to pay for the number of licenses you need- what?  You guessed it...TWICE! Good news.

Go Cloud!

Sam Newberry
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Get a 3TB from Scale Computing for the cost of what you are now paying for SAN maintenance

Friday, May 14, 2010 by Ron Pirau
Do you currently have a SAN (Storage Area Network Solutions) from one of the top tier providers? Is you maintenance contract currently up for renewal?   You may want to consider comparing the cost of renewing maintenance on that SAN with purchasing a new SAN from Scale Computing.  A county in Michigan recently went through this scenario when their maintenance came up for renewal and in scrutinizing costs for savings went the route of purchasing a Scale SAN.  They were able to save money and got a brand new SAN on top of it.   LightBound offers Scale Computing SAN for direct customer purchase.  We also offer off site data backup service using Scale's SAN that can provide business continuity at a very effective cost.  If you have a current SAN and need to expand the Scale SAN solution may also make sense.  Most data migrates to a state of being accessed on an infrequent basis, which would be a perfect fit for the Scale Computing SAN.  You can use your current SAN for high performance needs and migrate stale data to the Scale SAN at a much lower operating cost.   See www.scalecomputing.com/ for more information on Scale or to watch a webinar click on Scale Webinar.
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LightBound Storage Area Network Solutions

Monday, May 3, 2010 by Kate Rance

LightBound's key benefits of a Storage Area Network offer: Scalability, Expert Management, Performance, and Availabiity.
Scalablity allows any size business to purchase only the amount of storage needed and allows for rapid growth, should a need arise.
LightBound's expert management team sets up, monitors and maintains your Storage Area Network. In the event of a problem, our team will take care of the issue and make sure you are kept informed during the entire process.
LightBound's storage area network solutions offers high-performance storage fit for applications and processing databases. LightBound also offers low-performance, dedicated Storage Area Network, you get special-purpose hardware designed for serving data. Your application will experience higher I/O, less latency and provide a better end-user experience.
LightBound's Storage Area Networks is configured with redundancy at every layer; from network switches, through the storage array itself, which ensures  your application is always up and running.
LightBound's storage as a service is fit for any size business and service need.


 

Scalability

The NetApp range is extremely scalable – from the entry-level 2000 series, right up to the enterprise class 6000 series -- which can hold 1176TB of data on a single array.

Expert Management

Our certified storage experts setup, monitor and maintain your Storage Area Network. In the event of a problem, our team will take care of the issue and make sure you are kept informed during the entire process

Performance

High-performance applications, such as transaction processing databases, require I/O that is simply not available through local disks.   With a dedicated Storage Area Network, you get special-purpose hardware designed for serving data.  Your application will experience higher I/O, less latency and provide a better end-user experience.

Availability

Storage Area Networks can be configured with redundancy at every layer – from the HBAs and network switches, through the storage array itself – which ensures  your application is always up and running

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Why do we need this Cloud?

Friday, April 30, 2010 by Sam Newberry
The answer to why we need and want Cloud Services and Storage Area Network Solutions is simple - money.  Ok, there are a few more reasons, but I'll start with cost savings.  Businesses don't generate their own electricity to produce their products and services (except the electric companies). Why? Because due to economies of scale it's much more cost effective to buy the electricity we need from the electric company.  This same economies of scale applies to shared storage and server services. Cloud Services allow businesses of all sizes to buy only the services that they need at that time they need them for a small monthly recurring fee.  No longer do companies have to dole out hundreds of thousands of capital to own and maintain their storage and server hardware.  There are a few more advantages to Cloud Services and Virtualization Services which I will address in my next blog.

Go Cloud!

Sam Newberry
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Cloud Services Differentiators, Part 1

Wednesday, April 28, 2010 by Sam Newberry
Infrastructure as a Service is definitely going to become a commodity offering and with economies of scale, virtual network services will be a high volume, low margin product.  Cloud Services providers are already offering Hosted Virtual Server, Storage Area Network Solutions, Off Site Data Backup Services, and even Storage as a Service combined with Server Collocation for pennies on the dollar compared to legacy physical network and server infrastructures.  That being said, the leading contributor to competitive advantage in the Virtualization Services and Cloud Services market is going to be how the service is differentiated from the "commodities".  What are those differentiators?  Depends on the customers your targeting, including their size and type of business, their vertical, and other numerous variables.  In my next blog I'll talk more about how LightBound is setting itself apart with added value beyond the base Infrastructure offering.

Go Cloud!

Sam Newberry
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Uncovering the Mysteries of Cloud Services, Part 6

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 by Sam Newberry
Listed below are the answers to the questions I posed in Part 5 as applicable to LightBound's Shared Storage Server (s) and Hosted Virtual Server.
 
1. Where is the data?
All shared storage server (s) are managed within LightBound's secure datacenters in central Indiana.
2. Who owns the data?
The customer owns the data.  LightBound has no rights to in any way modify, share, disseminate, or otherwise manipulate the data without the express permission of the customer.
3. Is the data backed up?
All LightBound Storage Area Network Solutions incorporate a thorough analysis with the customer to ensure that critical data is protected through backup and replication processes, aligned with the customer’s needs.
4. Can the data be extracted?
Yes, the customer is provided the means to extract their data upon request. 
5. Are the data and servers volatile?
No, servers can be inactive or restarted at any time without loss of data or virtualization services.
6. Who has access to the data and servers?
Access is restrictive to only the customer and their affiliates.  Unless providing managed cloud services, LightBound does not nor have access to the customers critical data.
 
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Storage Area Network Solutions

Wednesday, February 24, 2010 by Sam Newberry
Storage Area Network solutions come in many shapes and sizes, and with the advent of virtual storage, brings about a host of new capabilities which cater well to server virtualization.  LightBound offers a shared storage server platform that sets it apart from its competition.  Our storage as a service provides all the high performance, scalability, and dependability of the enterprise SAN at a low monthly cost.  Bundled with LightBound's virtualization services, medium and small business server hosting has never been easier and more cost effective.

Go Cloud!

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LightBound Cloud Services

Friday, February 12, 2010 by Kate Rance
Cloud services offer the latest in virtual network services. LightBound offers Storage Area Network solutions with a secure facility and redundant backups.
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LightBound rolls out its SAN

Thursday, November 19, 2009 by Kate Rance

LightBound, an Indiana managed server host, has expanded its service offereings to include virtual servers, backups, and storgae via its new SAN.
A storage area network (SAN) is an architecture to attach remote computer storage devices (such as disk arrays, tape libraries, and optical jukeboxes) to servers in such a way that the devices appear as locally attached to the operating system. Although the cost and complexity of SANs are dropping, they are still uncommon outside larger enterprises. A System Area Network (SAN) is a high-performance, connection-oriented network that can link a cluster of computers.
LightBound can use this new technology to better serve its customers using a wide variety of data recovery, disaster recovery, business continuity, and sever collocation needs

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