I also work in a small company with two staff in IT. Myself and a web developer. We do use metrics to report to upper management how well systems are running. What I've done is create an excel spreadsheet with all of the systems we have running, the licenses, version and comments for each system. We then assign that system a 1 to 5 score and average the total at the end for a total composite score. One is if there are no problems, five is for serious issues.
I generate this spreadsheet every month and send it to my boss. The other Major part to a small operation is customer service. In a small company, how happy your end users are imho more important than if the systems are running perfectly. We have to market ourselves and make sure we are available if anyone needs us. Being personable and friendly is very important.
A final point of advice. Please don't make the metrics too complex. Management may be looking to let somebody go. However, they also may be looking to see what needs to be fixed and/or improved for capital expenditures. Metrics help track trends and you can use them to get the equipment and/or programs you need if you design them correctly.
I imagine this impact was much higher than they stated. One of the small operations I support on the side called a couple of days ago about this issue when it cropped up. The Windows XP computer would not even allow him to do a system restore let aloneuse his computer. Luckily, we found out about the fix yesterday or it could have cost them a couple hundred dollars to fix. Along with the lost productivity time, this isn't a good thing for McAfee.
While we use other solutions for our systems, this highlights how much testing needs to take place before a patch is deployed. It's amazing these types of 'issues' occur in today's world. Time for McAfee to step up QA.
While Antivirus and a well setup firewall can help, I've found as a sysadmin that there are additional layers that need to be applied. We also use Content Filters to block out any unwanted malicious sites, porn and other sites we need to block. While I use Websense at work as an in-line filter, I setup Opendns at home and on home user's computers to cut most malicious websites off at the knees.
We also employ an off-site email scanning service to scan our emails before they hit our internal email server. Once email hits the server, then it gets scanned again. All computers have are locked down and we utilize LANDesk for Malware and Patch Updates / Security Vulnerability scanning. Of course, Altiris works well too as well as MS System Center.
Having a layered approach tends to mitigate most problems. Some do get through, but the computer immediately gets re-imaged. All User Files are stored on a central server. The computers themselves are as 'dumb' as I can make them and thus, easy to fix.
Of course, you can't avoid everything. However, many solutions exist and are very low cost to implement if needed. A decent home stack would be:
Anti-Virus (Sophos, Kaspersky, yada, yada)
Malware Detection (Adaware, Spybot, etc.)
Content-Filter (aka opendns or k9 webprotection)
Backup (aka mozy or carbonite)
Online Email (aka gmail, yahoo, etc.)
Baseline Image (...)
Ad-block, Flashblock and Firefox... Sorry Slashdot...
There are many choices available. Many of them work very well. While this won't mitigate all attacks, it will minimize them quite a bit. As long as folks don't intentionally break them...:)
Hope this helps.
I agree that games can help many improve their skills in many areas. My son was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome when he was three years old. His main difficulty had to do with Coarse Motor Skills and Physical Fitness. Knowing this, we decided to get a Wii and Wii Fit. He's played that game more times than I can remember. He especially loves the 'Marble Madness' game and the Soccer Dodge game. This game has done wonders for his physical activity level and he is more coordinated now more than ever. He was able to get out of the Special Needs program when he was 6 1/2 years old which was amazing.
Now, he's seven and reads at a 3rd grader's level. He's mastered everything in his class with straight A's. Sure, he plays Super Mario Wii. However, the applications that game makes him go through are insane. Yet he still progresses well academically. A great motivator for him is the classic "I'll take away the game for 'x' days if you don't get your homework done."
My belief is if games are monitored and chosen for the appropriate age, then there's no need to worry about them. They teach skills that cannot be traditionally taught. This is a well known fact.
We'll see how things evolve. However, I can't wait until I'm playing Star Wars in my holodeck here in 10 years.:)
I was put in your exact position four years ago with the current place I work with. Here's some things I suggest:
1- Make a plan. These things can't be fixed in a day. My boss, the CIO said, "Rome wasn't built in a day." He was right on with that one. It took me three years to get things to where they needed to be. One piece at a time.
2- Make sure you break things up and prioritize them. What is the 'oldest' equipment or the pain points? Is the network holding up? Connectivity is the most important part. Make sure you have your network running well before you mess with other parts of the system or put additional strain on the system.
3- Make sure you have the right people on board. I call this checks and balances. You need to have firepower behind your decisions, especially when it comes to making the budget.
4- Remember the phrase: KISS. Burn it in your mind... It means, keep it simple, stupid. Don't bow to salesman, brochures, 'white papers' or peer pressure. Experience and checks and balances are essential.
And finally, be cautious and move slow. Systems don't all just fall apart at once. Once you're prioritized, gotten the right people on board and have your ducks in a row, things will run smothly. If managment gets in your way, refer back to the checks and balances you set up and force it down their throats. It's kind of sad to say that this is just like playing chess, but when management doesn't trust IT in general, you have to prove yourself. Following the above steps will help.
Good Luck.
One solution that I've always used and works great is located at showmypc.com. The user you're supporting will download the client (VNC) that will connect to their servers that serve as a bridge. It will give them a code after you download the client that you will type into your showmypc client that authenticates the session. It's very easy to use and works great. I never need to install VNC or any other clients and it doesn't cost me a dime.
Good Stuff.
Of course, LogMeIn works just as well. For the iPhone lovers out there, there's LogMeIn ignition that costs a pretty penny if you're into paying for it.
Lots of solutions exist, it's up to you to decide which one you like best. Hope this helps.
So far, I've really enjoyed playing Wii Fit for the past week. The game does focus heavily on balancing your body. While I don't really go for the yoga exercises, I do love the Skiing, Snowboarding and Running Exercises. While it may seem boring to be running on an island, the game really steps it up by having the other Mii's you've created run with you which makes the running entertaining. I recommend you hold the Wii Remote in your hand for it to be more accurate since when I put it in my pants, it tends ruin your pace.
I'm usually always worn out after 30 minutes of these exercises. The strength exercises are really good if you do them right. Just like Wii Sports, once the family plays this game, they'll love it. My younger boy who has difficulties with his gross motor skills loves the balance games. For $90, you can beat this type of therapy.
It's fun having your friend get registered as being 'obese' when he's really got a lot of muscle mass. You guys will get a kick out of watching your wife do the hula hoop...
Well worth the money in our family. My wife also loves it which is rare for any game.
And Finally, once we get some decent skiing and snowboarding games that use the balance board, it's going to be a blast.
Since we are part of a larger umbrella corporation, we've been using a product called MX Logic. Basically, MX Logic is a service provider intercepts all of our email and scans it for viruses and spam. Our MX records point to their servers. Our Email Server then accepts only email from their server farms. This does a couple of things:
1. The email doesn't touch our email server until it's been scanned. 2. If the email is dubious, the user gets an email allowing them to accept or deny the email from them (No work on my part). 3. It hides our email server from any would be spammers since MX Logic is the interceptor.
While this does cost a little bit of money, it's worked extremely well and since it's a Service Provider, we don't pay for any hardware or maintenance costs. We just pay a yearly fee per user. Once the email hits our server, it is then scanned again for viruses and then passed on to the user. We've had a lot of success with this product. Of course, the OSS solutions are great too (I use those at home), but for our needs, MX Logic has done a great job.
I wholeheartedly agree with your statement. We've been evaluating Vista on some of our machines (pilot project) and after using it for a while on my laptop, I can still see that it's a Beta product.
There are other products Microsoft has released that were pretty good products that we use (Exchange, Server 2003 R2, SQL Server 2005, etc). However Vista is what our we call a 'stillborn'. While it works fairly well, the minor annoyances and high resource use is what gets at most of our users. People tend to adapt to it with time, but some of them still long for the 'XP days'. Due to this perception, we will be using XP SP3 for quite some time. I'm an IT Director of a company that meets with 13 other IT Directors and discusses these things on a regular basis. Only one of the companies has decided to go with Vista. We told him 'let us know how it turns out'. It's that bad.
I hope the next version of Windows is a more streamlined version. Microsoft has 'burned' themselves in a big way. When the general populace looks down on a product, especially in computers, you know it's bad.
Another thing that can hurt Microsoft significantly is VMWare. Microsoft's Virtualization has flopped in a big way from my research. No, I will not touch it with a long pole. VMWare is gaining a lot of ground and this will hurt Microsoft greatly. I use VMWare solely in our organization and love it. We don't have a lot of money to spend and VMWare has saved our hides. My thoughts were if anybody could get between the Hardware and Microsoft's OS, then Microsoft would be in trouble. Here we are.
It looks like Microsoft has some real competition now. They are making better products in the server space from my research, however, they need to seriously fix their OS and Office problems. Virtualization and imho themselves are their biggest competitors. Linux/Unix variants will become the OS of choice for many products in the future which will leave Microsoft in the cold. After all, we all love appliances that are easy to maintain and use. I guess we'll see what happens. Competition can only make things better.
Slashdot Mirror
I also work in a small company with two staff in IT. Myself and a web developer. We do use metrics to report to upper management how well systems are running. What I've done is create an excel spreadsheet with all of the systems we have running, the licenses, version and comments for each system. We then assign that system a 1 to 5 score and average the total at the end for a total composite score. One is if there are no problems, five is for serious issues. I generate this spreadsheet every month and send it to my boss. The other Major part to a small operation is customer service. In a small company, how happy your end users are imho more important than if the systems are running perfectly. We have to market ourselves and make sure we are available if anyone needs us. Being personable and friendly is very important. A final point of advice. Please don't make the metrics too complex. Management may be looking to let somebody go. However, they also may be looking to see what needs to be fixed and/or improved for capital expenditures. Metrics help track trends and you can use them to get the equipment and/or programs you need if you design them correctly.
I imagine this impact was much higher than they stated. One of the small operations I support on the side called a couple of days ago about this issue when it cropped up. The Windows XP computer would not even allow him to do a system restore let aloneuse his computer. Luckily, we found out about the fix yesterday or it could have cost them a couple hundred dollars to fix. Along with the lost productivity time, this isn't a good thing for McAfee. While we use other solutions for our systems, this highlights how much testing needs to take place before a patch is deployed. It's amazing these types of 'issues' occur in today's world. Time for McAfee to step up QA.
While Antivirus and a well setup firewall can help, I've found as a sysadmin that there are additional layers that need to be applied. We also use Content Filters to block out any unwanted malicious sites, porn and other sites we need to block. While I use Websense at work as an in-line filter, I setup Opendns at home and on home user's computers to cut most malicious websites off at the knees. We also employ an off-site email scanning service to scan our emails before they hit our internal email server. Once email hits the server, then it gets scanned again. All computers have are locked down and we utilize LANDesk for Malware and Patch Updates / Security Vulnerability scanning. Of course, Altiris works well too as well as MS System Center. Having a layered approach tends to mitigate most problems. Some do get through, but the computer immediately gets re-imaged. All User Files are stored on a central server. The computers themselves are as 'dumb' as I can make them and thus, easy to fix. Of course, you can't avoid everything. However, many solutions exist and are very low cost to implement if needed. A decent home stack would be: Anti-Virus (Sophos, Kaspersky, yada, yada) Malware Detection (Adaware, Spybot, etc.) Content-Filter (aka opendns or k9 webprotection) Backup (aka mozy or carbonite) Online Email (aka gmail, yahoo, etc.) Baseline Image (...) Ad-block, Flashblock and Firefox... Sorry Slashdot... There are many choices available. Many of them work very well. While this won't mitigate all attacks, it will minimize them quite a bit. As long as folks don't intentionally break them... :)
Hope this helps.
I agree that games can help many improve their skills in many areas. My son was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome when he was three years old. His main difficulty had to do with Coarse Motor Skills and Physical Fitness. Knowing this, we decided to get a Wii and Wii Fit. He's played that game more times than I can remember. He especially loves the 'Marble Madness' game and the Soccer Dodge game. This game has done wonders for his physical activity level and he is more coordinated now more than ever. He was able to get out of the Special Needs program when he was 6 1/2 years old which was amazing. Now, he's seven and reads at a 3rd grader's level. He's mastered everything in his class with straight A's. Sure, he plays Super Mario Wii. However, the applications that game makes him go through are insane. Yet he still progresses well academically. A great motivator for him is the classic "I'll take away the game for 'x' days if you don't get your homework done." My belief is if games are monitored and chosen for the appropriate age, then there's no need to worry about them. They teach skills that cannot be traditionally taught. This is a well known fact. We'll see how things evolve. However, I can't wait until I'm playing Star Wars in my holodeck here in 10 years. :)
I was put in your exact position four years ago with the current place I work with. Here's some things I suggest: 1- Make a plan. These things can't be fixed in a day. My boss, the CIO said, "Rome wasn't built in a day." He was right on with that one. It took me three years to get things to where they needed to be. One piece at a time. 2- Make sure you break things up and prioritize them. What is the 'oldest' equipment or the pain points? Is the network holding up? Connectivity is the most important part. Make sure you have your network running well before you mess with other parts of the system or put additional strain on the system. 3- Make sure you have the right people on board. I call this checks and balances. You need to have firepower behind your decisions, especially when it comes to making the budget. 4- Remember the phrase: KISS. Burn it in your mind... It means, keep it simple, stupid. Don't bow to salesman, brochures, 'white papers' or peer pressure. Experience and checks and balances are essential. And finally, be cautious and move slow. Systems don't all just fall apart at once. Once you're prioritized, gotten the right people on board and have your ducks in a row, things will run smothly. If managment gets in your way, refer back to the checks and balances you set up and force it down their throats. It's kind of sad to say that this is just like playing chess, but when management doesn't trust IT in general, you have to prove yourself. Following the above steps will help. Good Luck.
One solution that I've always used and works great is located at showmypc.com. The user you're supporting will download the client (VNC) that will connect to their servers that serve as a bridge. It will give them a code after you download the client that you will type into your showmypc client that authenticates the session. It's very easy to use and works great. I never need to install VNC or any other clients and it doesn't cost me a dime. Good Stuff. Of course, LogMeIn works just as well. For the iPhone lovers out there, there's LogMeIn ignition that costs a pretty penny if you're into paying for it. Lots of solutions exist, it's up to you to decide which one you like best. Hope this helps.
So far, I've really enjoyed playing Wii Fit for the past week. The game does focus heavily on balancing your body. While I don't really go for the yoga exercises, I do love the Skiing, Snowboarding and Running Exercises. While it may seem boring to be running on an island, the game really steps it up by having the other Mii's you've created run with you which makes the running entertaining. I recommend you hold the Wii Remote in your hand for it to be more accurate since when I put it in my pants, it tends ruin your pace.
I'm usually always worn out after 30 minutes of these exercises. The strength exercises are really good if you do them right. Just like Wii Sports, once the family plays this game, they'll love it. My younger boy who has difficulties with his gross motor skills loves the balance games. For $90, you can beat this type of therapy.
It's fun having your friend get registered as being 'obese' when he's really got a lot of muscle mass. You guys will get a kick out of watching your wife do the hula hoop...
Well worth the money in our family. My wife also loves it which is rare for any game.
And Finally, once we get some decent skiing and snowboarding games that use the balance board, it's going to be a blast.
Just my two cents...
Since we are part of a larger umbrella corporation, we've been using a product called MX Logic. Basically, MX Logic is a service provider intercepts all of our email and scans it for viruses and spam. Our MX records point to their servers. Our Email Server then accepts only email from their server farms. This does a couple of things:
1. The email doesn't touch our email server until it's been scanned.
2. If the email is dubious, the user gets an email allowing them to accept or deny the email from them (No work on my part).
3. It hides our email server from any would be spammers since MX Logic is the interceptor.
While this does cost a little bit of money, it's worked extremely well and since it's a Service Provider, we don't pay for any hardware or maintenance costs. We just pay a yearly fee per user. Once the email hits our server, it is then scanned again for viruses and then passed on to the user. We've had a lot of success with this product. Of course, the OSS solutions are great too (I use those at home), but for our needs, MX Logic has done a great job.
I wholeheartedly agree with your statement. We've been evaluating Vista on some of our machines (pilot project) and after using it for a while on my laptop, I can still see that it's a Beta product. There are other products Microsoft has released that were pretty good products that we use (Exchange, Server 2003 R2, SQL Server 2005, etc). However Vista is what our we call a 'stillborn'. While it works fairly well, the minor annoyances and high resource use is what gets at most of our users. People tend to adapt to it with time, but some of them still long for the 'XP days'. Due to this perception, we will be using XP SP3 for quite some time. I'm an IT Director of a company that meets with 13 other IT Directors and discusses these things on a regular basis. Only one of the companies has decided to go with Vista. We told him 'let us know how it turns out'. It's that bad. I hope the next version of Windows is a more streamlined version. Microsoft has 'burned' themselves in a big way. When the general populace looks down on a product, especially in computers, you know it's bad. Another thing that can hurt Microsoft significantly is VMWare. Microsoft's Virtualization has flopped in a big way from my research. No, I will not touch it with a long pole. VMWare is gaining a lot of ground and this will hurt Microsoft greatly. I use VMWare solely in our organization and love it. We don't have a lot of money to spend and VMWare has saved our hides. My thoughts were if anybody could get between the Hardware and Microsoft's OS, then Microsoft would be in trouble. Here we are. It looks like Microsoft has some real competition now. They are making better products in the server space from my research, however, they need to seriously fix their OS and Office problems. Virtualization and imho themselves are their biggest competitors. Linux/Unix variants will become the OS of choice for many products in the future which will leave Microsoft in the cold. After all, we all love appliances that are easy to maintain and use. I guess we'll see what happens. Competition can only make things better.