Mo’ Mobility, Mo’ Problems

Apple released the iPad 3 this month with much fanfare. In the first weekend alone, they sold three million of them, which is very impressive considering it took 28 days for the original iPad to reach just one million units sold. As I’ve written in previous newsletters, businesses of all shapes and sizes have been finding new and inventive ways to increase productivity by arming their employees with these modern marvels. While businesses have been quick to uncover new capabilities with these devices, they have also been quick to uncover new problems.

Last month in my newsletter article, I wrote about these devices changing the requirements for Wi-Fi around the office. Outside of the office, the new iPad 3 has the ability to gobble up bandwidth like never before. While latched onto Verizon or AT&T’s 4G LTE network, a user can consume a whole month’s worth of bandwidth in just one hour by watching high-definition video or downloading a bunch of apps.

Rethinking Wireless

It seems like a just a few months ago most of our client’s wireless networks were installed for occasional use in conference rooms. Now, with the increased use of iPads, tablets, and smartphones, those wireless networks are no longer sufficient. The office of today requires wireless access to be highly available throughout the entire office.

It’s now not unusual for each person to have three wireless devices: a laptop, smartphone and tablet. Wireless access points from just a few years ago can’t handle this explosion of devices. If you notice that some of your devices have occasional issues using the wireless network at home or at work, it is probably time for an upgrade. Access points available today have multiple radios to handle the different devices in use. These access points can also recognize the difference between a laptop and a smartphone, and give more bandwidth to the laptop automatically.

Be on the Lookout for a Microsoft Survey from INTRUST

Those of you who have done business with us in the last year will receive an email from Microsoft in the next couple of days requesting you to complete a survey. The survey only takes a few minutes, and your input will be used to identify ways INTRUST can improve our service to you.

As part of our partnership with Microsoft, we are required to conduct this third-party customer survey once per year. We already survey every support ticket we complete, but the Microsoft survey allows us to identify other areas of the business we might need to improve, like sales or accounting. Keep in mind that your feedback is anonymous, so if you do have specific improvements we need to be aware of in your company, please reach out to me directly.

Crowdsourcing My Wife's Birthday for Charity

December 21st, 2011 was my wife Mary’s 40th birthday. Being the great person that she is, she chose to donate her birthday tocharity:water, our favorite charity.

Normally, when you donate your birthday to charity:water you have a party and people make donations instead of bringing gifts. Without the party, the whole donations in lieu of gifts wasn’t going to work. So, what I did was surprise Mary with a special “virtual online party” by using social media and crowdsourcing.

An iPad and Mickey Mouse

This month, my wife Mary and I took our two kids, Ethan (eight) and Lauren (six), to experience all that Disney and Universal Studios have to offer in Orlando, Florida. This was our fourth family vacation to the Sunshine State, so at this point, between our other trips and my wife’s research, we are pros at running the Disney gauntlet.

The Toaster Effect

Saturday, my wife Mary returned from a shopping trip with a new toaster. When I saw it in her pile of newly purchased merchandise, I innocently asked, “Did our toaster break?”

“No,” she replied, “I just thought it was time for a change.”

I quickly did the math in my head, and replied, “Okay, sounds good.”

I came to the conclusion that there were two good reasons why her purchase garnered an almost “Yes, dear” reply:

An Emotional Business Conference

To stay current with the IT and business world, I attend quite a few business conferences. I’ve heard some great speakers tell some great stories at those conferences. Some stories have been funny, some sad, some inspirational, but none has moved me to tears, until now.

What the Cloud Actually Means to Business

INTRUST GROUP and our clients have been using cloud-based applications for several years now. But recently, we’ve seen that trend rapidly accelerate. It’s become such a hot topic that I’ve started a blog dedicated to it, called Cloud Actually.

You’ve probably heard the term “eating our own dog food,” or “dogfooding” before. In the IT industry, the term was first used in 1988 by Microsoft to kick off an initiative to make sure that they used as many of their products internally as possible. We at INTRUST also make sure we practice “dogfooding” as much as possible, and the cloud is no exception. We are in the process of moving many of our systems to the cloud, and we will be sharing our successes and failures at Cloud Actually. So you will be able to find out if we are “eating our own dog food,” or “drinking our own champagne,” as I recently heard it described.

Our Future Will Have More Screens, Not Less

In my day-to-day work, I currently use three different computing devices: a smartphone, iPad and laptop. I choose the appropriate form factor, or “screen,” based on where I am and what I am doing.

My phone is always in my pocket, so I can check email or get to the web, no matter where I am. I use my iPad during meetings to take notes, check email and do light web browsing. I do the majority of my email, research and content generation on my laptop. For instance, I am typing this article on my laptop.

There is a lot of speculation right now that a single device will become the only device we need for computing. I recently heard a very good analogy that convinced me that it won’t happen anytime soon. The analogy was about cameras.

Is Your Business Continuity Desirable?

Recently, while lying in bed with my wife late at night I discovered something of hers that I desired for the first time in our nearly 16 years of marriage. It was her Business Continuity Team, or BCT.

You see, she was on a conference call with her team because the power had been out at her office for the past 3 hours, and it was looking like it wasn’t going to be restored until later the next day. The team was reviewing contingency plans and assigning responsibilities and determining at what time they would need to start notifying the 2,000 employees to either work at home or report to an alternate location.

Our First Retiree

This month, Tom Arnold retired from our company. To be exact, he retired on Friday April 13th. This was the first retirement in the 19-year history of the company. It wasn’t something I was prepared for, but for Tom it was old hat. Prior to retiring from INTRUST, Tom had already retired from the telephone company after working there for 30 years. After that first retirement, he quickly found himself drawn back into the 9 to 5 grind. His hobby of building and repairing PCs prepared him well for a position in the IT industry. After a few jobs through a temporary agency in his hometown of Middletown, Ohio, he landed at CONTECH Construction Products, helping out with everything from telephone moves to PC assembly and repair.

I first met Tom in 2001 while he was working at CONTECH, building and repairing PCs. At the time, my company was contracted by CONTECH for some different IT projects. While working on some of those projects, I had the pleasure of working alongside of Tom. I was always impressed by his calm demeanor and broad knowledge of every piece of hardware Dell ever produced. He could look at any laptop or PC and know the technical specifications, and if it wasn’t working, he usually knew what the problem was before he even started troubleshooting.