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The internet has opened many doors to new ways of doing business.  Software that once cost businesses hundreds, even thousands of dollars, is now licensed out with low monthly subscriptions, with no need to install software on you local machine.  This new era of ‘Cloud’ based computing is paving the way for smaller more energy efficient equipment, and opening up new doors for alternative operating systems.  We no longer need to run only Microsoft Windows or AppleOS.  Google has already started developing their new operating system, ChromiumOS.

What is cloud computing and what does it mean for your business?

Large data centers are used for large scale cloud computing applications.

The term “cloud” is used as a metaphor for the Internet, based on the cloud drawing used in the past to represent the telephone network, and later to depict the Internet in computer network diagrams as an abstraction of the underlying infrastructure it represents. Typical cloud computing providers deliver common business applications online which are accessed from another web service or software like a web browser, while the software and data are stored on servers.  Basically, cloud computing works by a central system containing the software and data of an application that allows remote computers to access it.  This is usually done through an internet connection.

This allows your business to run anywhere, over an internet connection.  This new ‘Web 2.0 Office’ has most of the tools you need to run your business.  Google offers a software suite.  It has e-mail hosting, word processing, spread sheets, calendar and contact management.  This is all down in a browser based format.  Also all files you create or upload to the software are all stored on the server, securely.  You can access these files from anywhere with an internet connection.

Some premium services like Work Flow Max, allows you to manage projects within your company.  This has API integration, which allows you to use other compatible apps to work with it.   With a fully functioning accounting software built in, this software helps you manage every project, from the initial quote up to the completion of the job.  Multi-user logins permit multiple users to access various features of the program.

These are just a few of the many options and possibilities to use cloud based computing.  iRemedy is fully in the cloud.  We can assist your business in assessing, planning, migrating and maintaining your cloud based office.  Want to know more?  Contact us

Security experts from Fire Eye took Command and Control over a botnet responsible for 30 percent of the worlds spam.

A botnet is a mass network of "Zombie" Computers that send spam worldwide

The network of zombie machines, also known as ‘Mega-D’ and ‘Ozdok’,  were examined by security firms and were ‘Hijacked’ by the researchers and sent out new commands to cease and desist.  The spam from this network stopped, and ISP’s networks were saved, for now.  Users won’t notice much of a difference, but ISP’s that have exhausted resources to filter spam have a lighter load.

Over 250,000 IP’s were found to be controlled by this massive botnet.    Now its a huge clean up job to rid the machines of the leftover bots.  ISP’s will work with FireEye to identify these machines.

The takedown effort is significant because it shows that a relatively small company can defeat a for-profit network that took extraordinary measures to ensure it remained operational. Not only did Ozdok reserve a long list of domain names as command and control channels, it also used hard-coded DNS servers. When all else failed, its software was able to dynamically generate new domain names on the fly.  -The Register

For now, the botnet was outsmarted, but they only get more sophisticated. The only way you can protect yourself is to use security measures such as updating software when needed to patch security holes and using proper firewalls and anti-virus. If you think you are a victim of a botnet, contact a qualified repair company such as iRemedy, to get checked out and secured.

Acer has released a new laptop.  Selling it through BestBuy, It uses a cheaper Intel Celeron 900 chip, not the Atom.  Sporting a 250 GB hardrive, 2 GB of Ram, and a 2 .2GHz Celeron processor and a 15.6 inch screen, This is not a netbook.  Going on sale on Wednesday, this could be the GoTo item for Christmas.

This laptop sells for $349 at BestBuy

The recent netbooks that came out earlier this year from various manufacturers, including acer, have similar specs.  However the main difference is the memory, and the speed of the processor.  NetBooks were mainly built for efficiency and low power consumption, using the Intel Atom processor.  Another big difference is that this laptop comes with Windows 7 Premium, where as the netbooks are designed for use with Windows XP.

What also sets this apart from the netbooks, is the optical drive.  Which is a Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive with double-layer support.  Not to forget the 3 USB 2.0 ports, and the Multi-card reader.  Backing up and sharing your files is easy to do.

Comparison of Processors

Does your anti-virus slow down your   computer?

Everything is done in the “cloud” nowadays.  Your documents,     file back-up, pictures and financial software, why not your             anti-virus?  One of the better free antivirus solutions is a cloud     based program, called Pandacloud.  Here @ iRemedy we                 switched to it to try it out for a little bit.

The concept of  using internet servers to execute programs and tasks for the user,  is an ingenious way to make make their computer run more efficiently.  Pandacloud collects data, and sends it back to their servers for analysis.  Also, it tags files to be scanned during idle time.   Instead of running the scans on the physical machine, it eliminates needs for database updates and a lot of resources drained.

In a PC world test of a half-million virus samples, they claimed a 99.4%  detection rate.  That is a superb job for a beta release of free security software.

A few things we noticed about the software, was that when you manually scan it takes a while because all information has to be sent back and forth to the server.  Also, there is very little control over the settings.  This is still beta tho, so give this idea some time to fine tune, but the forecast looks good for cloud based antivirus.

With the combination of some other cloud based security services, you can have a safe computer experience.  For example, using OpenDNS for Filtering out bad URLs and using Web of Trust to get ratings on sites you are unsure of, would be a perfect combination for a simple browsing experience.

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