Pictures from our Top Security Threats of 2010 Lunch & Learns
 

I hope spring of 2010 is being good to you. Can you believe it? The first quarter of 2010 is gone. Sunny Southern California weather is wonderful and almost predictable. I wish we could say the same for the economy and our servants in Washington. If you are like most of us, you wonder what the recent changes our government has made mean to you and your business. All of us are scrambling to try and figure out what it all means . . . if any of you have it all dialed in, let me know. Many of you have reported an uptick in business in the last few months. I hope this is a sign!

One thing we know for sure is that security is Big! Last month we held two executive briefings on security threats. These were the best attended Lunch and Learns we have held. Thanks to Coy Thorp of Watchguard Technologies for the very informative sessions. Turns out many of you are concerned about the security of your data. Congratulations to the winners of the Flip Video Cameras. Hope you are having fun with them!

This month we feature articles on the benefits and concerns of social media and the energy efficiency of some of the newer IT technologies. Take a look below. I hope you find the information beneficial.

Have a Great Month!

Marty

Has your business taken the leap into social networking yet?

Recent studies show that more and more small businesses are catching on to Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social networking sites as powerful workplace tools. According to a study published by New York-based AMI Partners Inc., the number of small businesses using social networking services is expected to double from 300,000 to more than 600,000 this year.

Increasingly, business workers are using these sites to communicate with colleagues, prospects, business partners, and clients. Numerous studies also cite the usefulness of social networks in competing under current market conditions.

And because networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Plaxo, and Ning cost little or nothing to join, there's no reason you shouldn't try them for the purpose of expanding your business. Stories abound of small businesses using social networking sites to dramatically increase the pool of qualified candidates when job openings arise.

Another advantage of using social networks: it shows candidates (especially younger ones) and potential customers that even though you're small, you can be as "bleeding edge" as any company. This is also a way to extend your business globally, as the Internet doesn't have boundaries.

Beware of being compromised
Of course, if you use these new tools, you need to be aware of certain risks. According to the latest Symantec Internet Security Threat Report, Web-based attacks are now the primary vector for malicious activity over the Internet. As the report observes:

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What's good for the environment can also make incredibly good business sense. By taking advantage of green IT strategies such as virtualization and server consolidation, midsized businesses can realize immediate ROI in 2010. What's more, today's energy-efficient technologies do more than just alleviate power and cooling costs. Green IT solutions can also have a significant impact on company-wide operational efficiency.

Facing the rising costs of business
Running a midsized company today calls for doing more with less  -  while also keeping up with the technology curve to remain competitive. Yet supporting new IT services often means increased costs in hardware, maintenance and power. As time goes on and energy costs continue to rise, many companies start to run out of physical space, or overload the power and cooling capabilities of hardware facilities from small computer rooms to large data centers.

So while many companies pursue green agendas, capacity issues often become the foundation for adopting energy-efficient IT technologies.

Explains Logan Scott, IBM energy efficiency offering manager, "If we keep growing with the current model  -  a very distributed IT model where a lot of companies are running one application per server  -  that is not really going to be sustainable. That's where we are seeing server sprawl. And even on the storage side it is just becoming too difficult to keep up with the increasing demand for storage capacity."

Energy-efficient IT for efficient operations
There are many reasons for midsized businesses to go green, according to Scott. "First of all, there is a major opportunity for cost savings," he says. Energy-efficient IT strategies that focus on consolidated, virtualized infrastructures can help midsized businesses quickly begin seeing a return on investment from reduced power and cooling costs of up to 40 percent.

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Quote of the Month
 

Just for Laughs
 

Sandwich every bit of
criticism between two thick
layers of praise.

Mary Kay Ash

Accent would like to welcome and introduce:

Donna Massie
Technology Consultant

Donna has over 20 years of
experience in New Business Development. This includes over
ten years of international business development in Japanese companies and four years selling projects, outsourcing and contractual staffing
to Fortune 1000 companies and government agencies. She has a BA from North Carolina State in Business and Economics with a minor in Japanese and a MBA from The American Graduate School of International Business Management. After graduating from college, she taught literature and English Composition for three years at a
junior college in Tokyo, Japan.