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Technology News You Can Use

January 2010

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Comments from the Editor
What is VoIP
Backup Server
Cyber Definitions
Electronic Document Management
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Technology Resource Guide

Comments from the Editor

My name is Tod Bruning. I am the IT Industry Liaison for the Alamo Colleges and I have taken the reins of the North Chamber Tech Newsletter for 2010, and it’s already shaping up to be an interesting and exciting year. This month we have four great articles featured. First, regular contributor and Microsoft MVP Larry Lentz discusses the small business benefits, particularly automated backup, available in Microsoft’s Windows Home Server. Then first time contributor Gary Cain, a Defense Analyst with EDS, has a great primer discussion on cyber security terms. Next Jamey Milner discusses the benefits of adopting Voice over Internet Protocol to unify you and take control of your businesses communications. Finally, Dave Chionsini, has a great overview of Electronic Document Management.

If you have ideas for articles or would like to contribute, please contact Debby or me. That’s all for now. I hope you enjoy the newsletter and I am looking forward to serving you for the coming year!

Tod Bruning, M.S.

Rackspace Grant Project

Alamo Colleges

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What is VoIP? Jamey Milner, VOIPHEAD

What is VoIP and What Can it Do for Your Business?

VoIP and IP telephony are becoming increasingly popular with large corporations and consumers alike. For many people, Internet Protocol (IP) is more than just a way to transport data, it's also a tool that simplifies and streamlines a wide range of business applications. Telephony is the most obvious example. Voice over IP (VoIP) is also the foundation for more advanced unified communications applications including Web and video conferencing that can transform the way you do business.

What is VoIP: Useful Terms

The first step toward learning the potential of this technology is understanding the terms:

·VoIP refers to a way to carry phone calls over an IP data network, whether on the Internet or your own internal network. A primary attraction of VoIP is its ability to help reduce expenses because telephone calls travel over the data network rather than the phone company's network.

· IP telephony encompasses the full suite of VoIP-enabled services including the interconnection of phones for communications, as well as related services such as billing and dialing plans; and basic features such as conferencing, transfer, forward, and hold. These services might previously have been provided by a traditional Private Branch Exchange (PBX).

· IP communications includes business applications that enhance communications, enabling features such as unified messaging, integrated contact centers, and rich-media conferencing with voice, data, and video.

· Unified communications takes IP communications a step further by introducing such technologies as Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and presence along with mobility solutions to unify and simply all forms of communications, independent of location, time, or device.

What is VoIP: Service Quality

Public Internet phone calling uses the Internet for connecting phone calls, especially for consumers. However, most businesses are using IP telephony across their own managed private networks because it allows them to better handle security and service quality. Using their own networks, companies have more control in ensuring that voice quality is as good as, if not better than, the services they would have previously experienced with their traditional phone system.

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Backup Server, Larry Lentz, Lentz Computer Services

A couple of years ago Microsoft introduced a new product called Windows Home Server. As an MVP, I was pretty much in on it from the beginning but with my focus in small business, I really did not see a compelling reason why I should be interested in a ‘home’ server. However, Windows Home Server has a very powerful feature that is great for business - its backup routine. Windows Home Server can automatically back up all computers joined to it every night.

The backup is stored in a very efficient manner. Duplicate files found on multiple computers, such as operating system files, are only stored once on the server with pointers to each computer that has that file. Also, after the first backup, the backup is incremental, meaning that only information that has changed is backed up. And by changed I don’t mean the whole file that changed, just the piece of a file that changed, so very little disk space is used. This incremental approach makes backup very quick, though that’s generally not of much concern since it is usually performed while you’re sleeping.

Perhaps more important than the backups is the restore function. To restore a failed computer, simply insert the Recovery CD that comes with Windows Home Server. The computer will boot from the CD. You will likely need some drivers for the network so you can connect to the server, and these drivers are maintained on the server in a directory called Windows Home Server Drivers for Restore. Simply copy this folder to a USB flash drive and insert into the recovering workstation. Once started the restore runs quickly.

I first used Windows Home Server for one of my clients experiencing hard drive failures in systems provided by his software vendor. Despite all data being safely backed up on the network server, manually replacing a hard drive would take hours. This resulted not only in a large labor cost, but significant down time for the user. With Windows Home Server I can (and have) restored workstations to full use in 30 to 45 minutes! Each Home Server can serve up to 10 client computers. We have 3 Windows Home Servers at this customer’s site and will probably add another.

Windows Home Server is obviously a great server for the home as well. I’ll save discussion on those features for another time. It is also inexpensive, generally running anywhere from $500 to $750 depending on the configuration and amount of disk space. Recently HP has promoted a low end model that is even cheaper. Adding disk space is a snap. Simply add a drive using a USB connection. The server will walk you through a wizard to properly configure it. It also keeps tabs on the health of the workstations in the network and will report when there are problems like an out of date antivirus signature file.

All in all Windows Home Server is an efficient, inexpensive way to protect your entire network. For me, Windows Home Server equals Windows Business Backup Server.

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Cyber Definitions 101, Gary Cain, EADS NA Defense Security

In the few short months since I have been in the cyber industry, I am surprised by how many cyber professional people I meet who do not know the difference between cyber and cyber security. Recently, I met Dr. Jeffrey Addicott, Distinguished Professor of Law, Director, Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary's University School of Law. His book, Terrorism Law: Cases, Materials, Comments, 5th edition, has an entire chapter on cyber-terrorism where he provides an excellent lexicon of terms and definitions. So starting with this reference point I offer here a short summary and clarification of the three most important terms.

To begin with, “cyber” is a fairly vague concept widely used as a catch-all prefix to define anything tech-related. A quick Google search of the term leads to the Wikipedia definition, “Pertaining to the Internet”. However, for our purposes, we will limit its use to the three most important concepts: cyberspace, cyberterrorism, and cybersecurity (also known as Information Assurance).

Cyberspace refers to computer-based information technology, as it is created, stored, and transmitted with hardware and software in both the physical and non-physical realms. A widely accepted US Department of Defense definition describes cyberspace as: “A global domain within the information environment consisting of the interdependent network of information technology (IT) infrastructures, including the Internet, telecommunications networks, computer systems, and embedded processors and controllers.”

Cyberterrorism can be divided into two categories: effects-based and intent- based. In effects-based cyberterrorism, computers are used to generate fear and uncertainty comparable to traditional acts of terrorism. In contrast, intent-based cyberterrorism is politically or criminally motivated, and is carried out to coerce, further political goals, cause grave harm or severe economic damage. An interesting discussion of the tools (both hardware and software) commonly used in these types of attacks can be found in the Government Accountability Office Report GAO-07-705 (PDF), dated June 2007. Whether effects based or intent based, industry experts generally agree that critical infrastructure the primary target in these attacks.

So just what is critical infrastructure? Though outside the scope of “cyber", critical infrastructure needs to be defined in order to get a good understanding of what cyberterrorism encompasses. The Department of Homeland Security defines five types of critical infrastructure:

1)      production industries including energy, chemical, and defense industrial base
2)      service industries including banking, finance, transportation, postal and shipping
3)      sustenance and health including agriculture, food, water and public health
4)      federal and state including government and emergency services
5)      IT and cyber including information and telecommunications

For more information, please read the discussion on critical infrastructure found in Presidential Directive 63, Critical Infrastructure Protection.

Cybersecurity is the art and science of preventing compromise of an information system’s confidentiality, integrity and availability. These three terms, confidentiality, integrity and availability, are known as the three pillars of Information Assurance (IA) and the foundation of any cyberdefense strategy. IA can be used interchangeably with cybersecurity, and responsibility for IA usually resides with the IT department. In practice, this involves activities and measures designed to protect (from attack, disruption, compromise or other threats) computers, computer networks, related hardware and devices/controllers, software, data and commands they contain and communicate. This process not only includes strength and vulnerability assessments, but also security event recognition, detection, reaction, mitigation and recovery from an attack or even a probe.

I hope this helps with your understanding of cyber terminology and use. Thank you for allowing me to contribute.

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Electronic Document Management, David Chionsini, Inetware Technology LLC

Few people would disagree that businesses waste a great deal of paper. Despite a conscious effort to reduce this waste, printing files and documents is often unavoidable. As a result, storage costs, and time spent searching and organizing documents, has increased proportionately.

However with the push to go “green”, more and more companies are now making a concerted effort to implement electronic document management (EDM) solutions. Many companies recognize that implementing an EDM solution can help business operations run more efficiently. Furthermore, they have learned that this approach can also be considerably cheaper than the paper, ink, physical space and manpower required to assist in taking care of piles of documents.

Why Use an EDM Solution?

More and more industries are required by law to implement specific policies and procedures for record keeping. For instance, in order to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley requirements, financial institutions must demonstrate that information is unaltered. Similarly, in order to comply with Health Insurance Portability and Privacy Act (HIPPA) guidelines, healthcare organizations and medical practices must demonstrate their records are safe from prying eyes. The legal industry also has explicit requirements related to discovery, including full-text searching of substantial amounts of documents.

EDM solutions are by far the best way to ensure compliance with strict security and record-keeping rules in these highly regulated industries. That being said, it’s important to keep in mind that such technology solutions can only help a company become compliant. An EDM solution combined with proper procedures, processes, and training can guarantee an organization achieves compliance.

Efficiency

An increasing number of organizations are using remote connectivity across the web to access data. However, hardcopy records continue to be a serious obstacle to distributed organizations. The right EDM solution within a business can allow employees the opportunity to access essential records from wherever they are located.

Once a company makes the decision to implement an EDM solution the natural progression is to eventually implement electronic signatures. As electronic signatures are adopted within the organization, workflow approvals and internal quality control measures can be largely automated, thereby increasing overall organizational efficiency. This results in a streamlined quality control process and eliminates the need for paper documents to be routed to different offices throughout the organization.

Cost Savings

Every organization wants to be more efficient and reduce costs, right? Sure they do, that’s a silly question. Unfortunately, most companies don’t think about the costs involved in managing documents.

The time it takes to work with paper files is one of the most significant hidden costs that businesses face. As an example, let’s say it takes an employee making $20 per hour five minutes to walk to a records room, find a file, act on it, re-file it, and return to his desk. At just four files per day, that’s over 86 hours per year spent filing and around $1700 in wages. At ten files per day, that figure shoots up to 216 hours per year. Calculated, that’s over $4300 per year for just one employee. A system that lets employees find and work with those documents without ever leaving their desks can instantly slash those costs.

The cost of lost documents can largely be eliminated as well with an EDM. Consider the time it takes to re-create a document that’s been destroyed or misplaced. Some companies have estimated the cost of replacing each lost document at approximately $250.

Additional cost savings comes from the office space that can be freed by eliminating most paper records. With real estate costs at $15 to $40 or more per square foot in many major cities, converting records rooms into usable office space can save considerable amounts of money. In other cases, you may be able to eliminate warehousing costs of old records for years.

EDM and the Business

If you own a business or work for a company with employees who spend most of the day filing or retrieving documents, or if you spend money every month to warehouse old paper records, you should investigate an EDM solution.

Simply put, EDM systems can transform the way your business operates. Whether you’re solving a paper problem or simply improving the way you handle electronic files, the right document management system can provide a wide range of benefits for businesses large and small.

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