The Gary Comer Youth Center is not only a fantastic customer of ours, but also a pillar in their south Chicago community. Starting today they are participating in Chase Community Giving 2012, a charitable contest sponsored by J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, where they are eligible to win up to $250,000! By voting for Make Miracles Grow you can help the Gary Comer Youth Center expand their urban agriculture and teen employment programs.

Plant Your Vote to support teen jobs and educational programs! There are two ways to vote: click here and/or visit Chase Community Giving (Chase customers only) and search for Make Miracles Grow!

About Make Miracles Grow Foundation & Gary Comer Youth Center

The Make Miracles Grow Foundation, founded in 2010, is dedicated to urban agriculture and youth education on Chicago’s South Side to serve as a model for sustainable urban farming methods and youth career and education development.

Having opened its doors in June 2006, the state-of-the-art Gary Comer Youth Center (GCYC) offers positive extracurricular alternatives in a welcoming and safe environment. The mission is to provide the support for all members to graduate from high school, prepared to pursue college and careers. Located on Chicago’s South Side, the Gary Comer Youth Center draws its primary membership from the youth of the South Shore Drill Team, Gary Comer College Prep, Paul Revere School and youth throughout the local community.

This summer, Carolyn Martin from the IT Resource Sales Team went to Davenport University to attend a West Michigan Cisco Users Group meeting. As a Cisco Sales Expert, her hope was to increase her knowledge on some of the technology solutions today and how they can benefit our company. The topic of that particular meeting was Cisco UCS (Unified Computing and Servers).

The main idea behind Cisco UCS is to have a central location where users can access their ‘Desktop’ from anywhere. Instead of having a local computer users log into when they’re at work, they will log onto their account from any computer and have access to all of their files, settings, and saved work no matter where they are. This is incredibly useful for employees traveling or users who work from home. Since the workforce is moving toward mobile computing, it would make sense to move with it!

Here are some of the benefits to Cisco UCS
• Centralized Management for IT
• Any Device can connect – Android, iOS Devices, Apple Computers, Windows PC’s, Linux PC’s, etc…
• Secure Universal Access
• Constant Experience delivered to users
• Smaller and less hardware (Blade Servers)

The big names in VDI (Virtual Desktop Interface) right now are VMware, Microsoft, and Citrix. Cisco’s UCS supports all of these hypervisors on their hardware and each work in different ways depending on the hypervisor. IT Resource has many Cisco devices and some of our engineers are well versed in Cisco certifications. The technology world is moving in the virtual direction and Cisco UCS is leading the way!

If you are interested in learning more about the West Michigan Cisco Users Group, this month is the perfect time to attend as IT Resource will be the featured sponsor at their August event, which takes place on the 29th at 5:30, at Davenport University, 6191 Kraft in Caledonia. For more information visit WMCUG, or contact Carolyn.

Imagine being able to save your company both time and money, and reduce the amount of headaches while you're at it. Aligning yourself with a qualified IT partner can get you just that. When proper IT systems are not in place it's very easy for a company to lose valuable time and money, and not even realize it until it's too late. We often come across businesses that don't know where to begin when it comes to assessing their current situation. Some know they have an issue that needs resolving and others are just looking for ways to upgrade their current system. Either way, we're always happy to come in and help. 

Let's do lunch!

We often set up lunch & learn events to meet with businesses who have questions on certain IT solutions and products. Our technical sales team will determine your needs, educate you on services and products that would make your business run smoother, and show you how the proper IT solutions will save you money, time, and hassles in the long run. These events are simply a learning process. Are you wondering whether virtualization is right for your business? Do you wonder if your current IT staff has the time and experience to take on a large project or if it would be more cost effective and less disruptive to work with an IT consulting team? Do you need the assistance of an IT professional on a regular basis, but don't have the resources to hire them on as a full time employee? These are all things we can help you with.

Some recent projects we’ve done to help customers leverage their IT investment include moving a customer to Microsoft’s cloud based Office 365, reducing their overall expenses on Microsoft Office licensing; we also completed a 17 physical server consolidation and virtualization project which resulted in a cleaner footprint with energy cost savings, and reduced Total Cost of Ownership of physical devices in their Data Center.

Contact our sales team at sales@itrw.net to set up a time to do lunch - we'll come to your office and learn about your IT systems. These events are perfect for businesses who are based in the greater Grand Rapids, Muskegon, or lakeshore areas, have 20+ employees, and are looking to revamp, upgrade, or increase their current IT systems.

The ubiquity of mobile devices and their ease of use have left many of us with oft-forgotten, but still occasionally used desktop computers languishing in the corner. Turned on or off, these workstations are magnets for dust and debris that can reduce the lifespan of your system and negatively impact performance if not properly maintained. Fortunately, this problem can be resolved with a few simple steps.

In June of this year, one of our leaders here at IT Resource headed out to Orlando, Florida to attend a conference called Automation Nation, regarding our ticketing and monitoring software. Leo Reap spent two days with plenty of other IT partners and business owners to learn the ins and outs of our monitoring software. By attending this conference, Leo received firsthand experience and information regarding the software and how it can benefit not only our company, but our customers here in Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin as well.

By better utilizing the software we use here at IT Resource, we can put what we learn into practice and learn even more. Leo spent the two days taking in new information about best practices, monitoring, and execution of newly learned abilities. Not only did he attend meetings on various topics throughout the two days, he was also able to connect with different partners who also use similar software, and chat about what works and what may need more attention. An event like this is great for getting new information and meeting new people for future references as well! Plus, it’s not all just sitting in lectures all day. Some fun is had, too!

This event runs every year around this time, so hopefully next year Leo can attend as well and learn even more as the product continues to grow!

As we have mentioned before, backups cannot be important enough. Countless hours of video and thousands of digital memories can be lost in a matter of seconds due to hard drive failure, natural disaster, or even employee error. Sometimes months or even years can go by without error; however that doesn’t mean you’re in the clear. Your data should be protected and replicated at all times in case of the unthinkable.

To combat the risk of data loss and increase ease, one of our Chicago based customers recently implemented a new backup solution which will lessen the load on their server, replicate their files off-site, and increase the reliability of their data. Going in the route of Network Attached Storage (NAS), they purchased two Buffalo Tetra Stations to move their shared files to. Since the files are no longer located on the server, valuable server resources can be used for more intensive tasks and storage needs. Plus, since they bought two Tetra Stations, they can replicate the data across the both of them in case of device failure or data loss.  So as one device sits in Chicago, the other is currently stationed at their Wisconsin location so not only is all their data backed up, it’s off-site for added reliability.

Just recently Microsoft has been testing a new mail service called Outlook.com. Not to be confused with Microsoft Outlook, Outlook.com is a brand new email service created to eventually replace Microsoft’s dated email service Hotmail. Hotmail has sort of earned itself the reputation for being ad-filled, slow, and hard to navigate. Microsoft wanted to create a new email service that focused more on messages themselves and the overall design of the website. With a more intuitive look and cleaner layout, Microsoft would like to steal the thunder from Google’s email service; Gmail.

If you have an existing Microsoft Hotmail or Live account, you can log into it right now and check it out. I was able to jump in with my existing Live account and see what all the buzz was about. You are also welcome to make a completely new account using the @Outlook.com domain if you’d like. Some of the great features of Outlook.com are the integration with social websites and apps like Facebook and Skype.

Microsoft’s plan is to eventually wipe out Hotmail and Live mail. If you currently have either a Hotmail or Live mail account, don’t worry, you’ll eventually be able to pull all your contact and emails over and keep your email as well. If you’re ready to give it a try, head on over to outlook.com and check it out!

We've been sharing the progress of our renovations with you ever since day one and things are really starting to take shape. We started with our before shots, followed by some demolition, then the walls came down, and new ones went back up. Here we are again with a new update and this time we've got drywall, cabinets, and some ceiling work done.

Here is a sneak peak at our new kitchen. Cabinets and countertops are in and we're excited to get the appliances, flooring, and finishing touches complete so we can put this room to good use.

Opposite our kitchen cabinets is this long countertop which will serve us well when we have company lunches and buffets.

Here is a look at one of our conference rooms. We'll have a few different break away areas for folks to set up meetings, bring in customers and talk about projects.

We're so thrilled with the way things are coming along. Each week more progress is made and before long we'll be moving in!

A room like this is an extreme. Most server rooms don’t tend to get this bad, however if left unmanaged, things can quickly escalate out of control. Also, the more people involved in cable management, the more disorganized things can become as one employee may run cables one way while another may run them completely different. 

Poorly routed cables can lead to an assortment of problems over time. In the above examples, cables could have been plugged into devices as they arrived or hardware mounted in the most sensible locations. This can lead to cables crossing in front of moving parts or spilling out into walkways where they can be tripped on. Not only is it messy looking, poorly routed cables can lead to decreased airflow and improper hardware management. Just imagine how difficult it would be trying to trace a cable through that mess?

Fortunately, companies like Belkin and Tripp Lite offer great cable management products. With the help of these products and a little time and effort, a server room can go from disaster to exceptional!

Better cable management can lead to increase in performance, traceability, and management. Without all those cables clumped in front of the fans, the servers can breathe a little easier, reducing the risk of overheating. Eliminating stray cables on the ground also ensures the safety of the network engineers. On top of all the operational benefits, we can’t forget how aesthetically pleasing proper cable management is either!

Here is a recent server spaghetti story from one of our engineers. Names have been omitted to protect the innocent.

"I was asked to help out in a very small, one-rack data center that, in my thoughts, was actually rather nice. It was nicely cabled, clean, and tidy. I was able to do my work quickly, and I was quite impressed by how well things were put together. On my way out, I was closing the door behind me and flipped off the lights. When the lights went out, I noticed that the room got a lot quieter. That’s when I noticed that none of the equipment was on. There were two light switches that were right next to each other, neither marked. But one turned off the power to the rack. Busted!"

Overall, proper cable management is not something to overlook. It can help with performance and ease of locating devices. If you’d like to take it one step further, don’t forget to label everything including devices and cables. You’d be amazed on how easy this makes managing your network!

A new virus has shown up in the technological world that has professionals baffled and amazed at the severity and complexity. Flame, also known as Flamer, sKyWIper or Skywiper is a piece of malware that was discovered in 2012, yet appears to have been active as far back as 2010. Flame affects Microsoft Windows PC’s and can spread through a local network or via a USB drive and is mainly targeting cyber espionage in the Middle Eastern Countries. This piece of malware can record audio, screenshots, keyboard activity, and network traffic. It can also record Skype conversations as well. (Gostev, 2012)

Recently, however, the infection has worked its way into Microsoft Updates and can now spread through said means. Attackers located a flaw within Microsoft’s Terminal Services licensing certificate authority that allowed them to create their own ‘valid’ certificates. (Keizer, 2012) From there, they could fool the Microsoft machine to believing their malware was a legitimate Microsoft Update. Following that, the infected machine could then trick neighboring machines to thinking the infected machine was a Windows Update machine, and pass off the malware to other machines.

Researchers are saying this is one of the most complex and largest malware infections they’ve seen. While most infections are less than 1mb in size, Flame is right around 20mb. Professionals estimate around 1 year just to analyze the code of the infection. Microsoft has taken the necessary steps to stop the false certificates from registering within their Operating System to minimize infections. At this point, the best preventive measures include having up-to-date antivirus, monitor which websites you visit, and continue to receive Windows updates straight from Microsoft’s website. While the malware infection may not seem to be affecting the North American continent for now, there’s no saying the attackers will focus their attacks elsewhere. Always stay protected!