Save Energy, Save Money!

"Green" isn't only about shrinking your carbon footprint. It's also about saving "green," as in money! Server virtualization does both - and more - making it a win-win for both the environment and your bottom line.

It provides energy savings for your IT equipment's power needs (to run and to cool) while also increasing your computing capacity, reducing floor-space needs, addressing environmental and recycling concerns, and even boosting productivity and efficiency.

The Benefits

With server virtualization you consolidate underemployed servers into a smaller number of fully utilized machines, so you use less power, generate less heat, take up less space, and consume fewer materials. Beyond consolidation benefits, the right virtualization technology, properly configured, will also give you benefits in data migration, data or server movement, technology upgrades, and load balancing. Not to be dismissed when considering server virtualization: it's a powerful tool for business continuity and disaster recovery. No wonder its popularity is growing exponentially!

Gone are the days when you needed one physical server for each major application like email, printing, or database services. Not only are the costs of maintaining and managing large networks of servers high, but their electricity consumption is, too: each unit needs power 24/7/365. Plus, they need to be kept consistently cool - which requires even more power.

Electrical Savings

With virtualization solutions like Citrix XEN Server and VMWare, you can virtualize as many physical servers as needed onto a single machine that can be managed remotely, and you can consolidate down to fewer servers. Many companies report electricity savings of up to 40% with server virtualization. And that savings is compounded by savings on physical server support needs.

Want to do more "reduce, reuse, recycle" in your business? Server virtualization is the ultimate in green IT strategies, because you're taking older hardware out of service and installing a more energy-efficient alternative. Running multiple virtual servers on a single server makes the most of both hardware and software resources. It creates efficiencies for your data center by redistributing resources dynamically among different virtual machines and platforms. So you optimize network resources, increase server utilization, improve fault tolerance, and even reduce nonscheduled downtimes.

This Earth Day, think about having CONNECT Computer recommend some green IT services using virtualization technology that complements your existing infrastructure, and accommodates your budget. [Top]

Triumphing Over Katrina: Remote Hosting Saves the Day

New Orleans Client Discovers Hosting "Thanks to" Katrina

Hurricane Katrina was one of the strongest storms our country has experienced in the past 100 years. While we like to comfort ourselves by thinking "lightning doesn't strike twice" in the face of monumental events like this, the reality is that we're starting to experience severe weather events more often. Think about the Winter of 2011, its record snowfalls, searches for roof rakes (who in Connecticut really had ever heard of those before?), and lost days of both school and business activity. Hurricanes, floods, blizzards, and other natural disasters are just some of the events that bring the need for business continuity planning and disaster recovery systems into the spotlight.

During Hurricane Katrina, CONNECT Computer customer TBS Adjusting, an insurance adjuster specializing in the international shipping industry, was forced to evacuate its highrise office building in downtown New Orleans. They were then unable to return to their offices after the floods wrought by Katrina. "Katrina came a half a breath away of putting us out of business," says TBS President Bruce Tillman. "We bill by the hour, and out of six or seven billing partners only one could bill after Katrina. Everyone was scattered all over the country."

Tillman, who is based in Connecticut, asked CONNECT to restore their backup data to a new server in our CT data center. But tapes had to be obtained from offsite locations, then overnighted to CONNECT where we had to set up compatible tape systems. Only then could we restore all the data and import it into the new systems to meet their ongoing needs - so it took a full week. With the company's physical infrastructure in New Orleans and hosting in Connecticut, everyone could connect remotely all the time. If anything should ever happen to CONNECT's server, it would be redundant and mirrored at another data center. "As a claims management firm for London-based underwriters, we're on-call 24/7. We need to be accessible 365 days a year," Tillman explains. They needed to always be able to survive the storm. Any storm.

More than Just Surviving: Thriving with Remote Hosting

Because Katrina caused tremendous communications problems, including cell phone tower damage, the company realized it needed a system for potential future evacuations to keep them operational no matter where they were. Even with a solid disaster recovery plan, typically it takes 4-8 hours to flip over the data to the disaster recovery site. But it takes even longer to flip it back once people are using and manipulating data. For TBS, that would mean a future evacuation of the city could result in two full days of downtime!

"CONNECT introduced us to using the Citrix system, CONNECT hosting and their servers to access our proprietary computer programs, email, etc. from any computer in the world," Tillman says."And with VOIP, we could always remain in verbal communication, too."

By hosting in a datacenter, TBS "skipped the flip" problem with its disaster recovery system. They began running apps from the cloud, meaning that all users needed to do was save their work, log out, drive to an evacuation site, and then log back in should there be an evacuation. No resyncing of data was needed. It was a permanent solution to always being up and surviving the storm.

Not Just Disaster Recovery: Efficiency Improvements

Additional benefits TBS capitalized on with remote hosting included the ability to easily dispatch workers to any location, national or international, and having them run applications just as if they were sitting at their desk in New Orleans - without any additional technology investment. "It's a lot easier to bring people onto the system than before, as we just get them onto the Citrix system through the CONNECT server and they're up and running," Tillman says. "It takes very, very little effort. Hosting has greatly improved the reliability of our whole IT system."

The efficiencies of day to day business operations with hosting have also been a boon for TBS. "Any time we're away from the office, as long as we have our smart phones or laptops and internet access, we're accessible and available to assist people very easily. We can address anything that arises without having to come back to the office and log in!," says Tillman.

Cost/Benefit Analysis

Asked how his operations would persevere in the face of another catastrophe like Katrina, Tillman responds happily, "There would be literally no downtime for us now with another Katrina - just the length of time it would take an individual adjuster to get to a safe place to set up shop. With WIFI and laptops, now we just tap into the system the minute you turn on your computer - it's invaluable. And with the phone service - you just forward your number through your cell phone and you get immediate verbal communication as well. There's zero downtime, and all of your capabilities go with you anywhere you go."

Tillman calls the move to hosting with CONNECT "a no-brainer and the perfect solution" to their past problems. "If it is more costly it's not significantly so, and the flexibility it gives us outweighs any additional costs that might have been associated with it."

In fact, not only did TBS accomplish its business continuity goals, but the company also saved money as their servers had been due to be replaced anyway before the hosting was arranged. They even saved on subscription licensing, and gained more mobility for their business by not having on-location servers.

Security and Recommendations

Being in the insurance claims industry, TBS is of course very concerned about the security of its data. A confident Tillman says easily, "I have no reservations or concerns whatsoever about the security of our data using the Citrix hosting system with CONNECT."

He would recommend the hosting service to anyone who needs to remain in contact with their clients and vendors regardless of environmental concerns, man-made or nature-made, and catastrophic events that might otherwise affect their ability to perform their jobs. "CONNECT are great people to work with. They're very easy to reach, accessible, friendly, and whenever any problems whatsoever arise they're quick to address them."

Thanks to remote hosting solutions, TBS Adjusting is now ready for just about anything mother nature (or anyone else) has to throw at their home town of New Orleans or other locations in Florida and Connecticut. It will be business as usual, from anywhere, at any time. [Top]

Honoring Mother Earth

Recycling Hardware Safely

In honor of Earth Day (April 22nd), we are extending a special offer to waive pickup fees for customers needing hardware recycling through April 30^th. If you have old hardware lying around or cluttering up your workspace, this is a great time to send it (safely) on its way! If you've already taken advantage of CONNECT Computer's recycling services, you know we make it simple and convenient to recycle old monitors, towers, servers, and other hardware. And you never have to worry about the safety of your data, which we make certain to destroy completely. Tax day is quickly upon us: your recycling expense is tax deductable if you act by April 15th.

Let us take care of your unwanted hardware, call 203.333.4444 or email one of our sales associates. Know a colleague who might benefit from our recycling services? Forward this offer to them, and we'll happily extend this special offer to them as well.

Want to do even more to celebrate Earth Day? Attend Fairfield Earth Day Celebration on April 30th at Ward High School from 10am to 4pm. [Top]

CONNECT with Social Media

Our Own Experience with Being More "Social"

The only thing you hear more about than "cloud computing" or "virtualization" these days seems to be "Social Media." So we thought we'd share a bit here on the topic, as CONNECT Computer has been venturing into social media itself. It took a bit of persuading by our web marketing firm, answerYES Interactive, to get us on board with things like "tweeting." If you're a CONNECT Computer customer, you know Alan and Bob - can you picture them "tweeting"? Well, Lynn Sousa joined forces with answerYES to make it happen, and now we're using social media to more actively promote our new website. Actually, we're even getting a little addicted to seeing who's reading what, and reviewing our analytics - after all, we're "techies"!

We all think about platforms like LinkedIn as being "for business," but even CONNECT has been exploring other platforms including Twitter and Facebook. We were surprised ourselves to see how much traffic to our new website was coming from those social media sources.

Every business wants to be "liked" by its customers, and have its products promoted by buyers in real-time. Social media platforms provide unique insight into the customer mindset, encourage two-way communication with your brand and allow small to mid-sized businesses to tailor messages, which can translate into sales. Happy customers tell their friends about your company and momentum builds to where your customers are serving as an extension of your marketing and sales teams. These "fans" become influencers in the decision making process about purchasing products from your company.

Building a loyal customer base lays important groundwork for future marketing plans, special promotions and of course new product introductions. Social Media is just giving companies like CONNECT Computer another way to grow that all-important loyal customer base. We're more actively managing our online presence to try to reach those who don't know our products and services yet, too, as well as stay in closer touch with our valued existing customers. If your company is venturing into social media, or just thinking about it, call us. We're happy to share our experiences with you and help you stay in closer touch with your own customer base. [Top]

Spring Recycling Special... EXTENDED!

Earth Day is officially April 22nd so to celebrate CONNECT will waive pickup charges on any recycling order placed by April 30th! [Top]

Toner and Ink Specials

CONNECT sells toner and ink for almost all of the printers our clients use. We guarantee the best pricing, even over the office super stores, with $3.50 shipping on orders over $100. We maintain complete listings by client to make the restocking process simple. Compare pricing, call 203.333.4444 or contact one of our sales associates. [Top]

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