Riverbank It management

Microsoft has announced that the end of the road for Windows XP arrives on 22 October when it will stop supplying it as an option for new PCs. No-one is expecting a rush to snap up the final few copies though - its successor Windows 7 has proved to be popular and uncontroversial.

Support for Windows XP is scheduled to continue until 2014.

Update 23/7/10: This change applies only to factory-installed operating systems. There are still 'end user' downgrade rights, ie you are free to downgrade from Windows 7 to XP if you do it yourself. These rights are really on relevant to large companies with policies applied to thousands of PCs, or individual PC users who don't have enough to do. Downgrading from one perfectly good operating system to another has to be one of the least rewarding uses of time.

Did you know that you can now rent software licences from Microsoft instead of purchasing them? Renting often seems like a bad idea - cheap over the short term but expensive over the long term. But we're discovering that rental can make good sense for Riverbank clients.

Take a Microsoft server licence as an example. What we are finding is that over three years the software rental costs are tending to be slightly lower than the price of purchasing the licence. The crossover happens in year four. Given a server life expectancy of around four years it's a hard call to say which is better. But by renting you also avoid the cost of the initial cash investment - and in these post-credit-crunch days that's worth quite a lot.

So if you are thinking about replacement servers think about renting.

You don't like spending money on computers during an economic downturn. I can sympathise with that because we don't like doing that either. But beware of creating a problem for yourself further down the line.

One Riverbank client recently complained that their computers were running slowly. One of the reasons behind this was that many of the machines were over five years old. Because the company doesn't have a programme of regular replacement of ageing computers they have reached a point where they will soon be forced to spend a lot of cash replacing around half of their computers.

You need a policy for computer replacement. A reasonable policy could be a life span of four years for desktops and three years for laptops. If times are hard you can then stretch that by an extra year. But at least you know what you need to budget for every year and you avoid a pile-up of costs.

There is plenty of hype around cloud computing, but are companies actually doing it? Many large firms are apparently holding back from making a drastic change to their IT systems, preferring to wait until others have gone before them and made their mistakes. Many smaller businesses are hesitant about making their entire business dependent on a single Internet connection. They are also worried about security – why would they place their intellectual property in an environment where they have little or no control?

What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing delivers an entire business’s IT via the Internet. Drivers pushing companies towards cloud computing include the need to reduce capital expenditure and the desire to cut out complex IT installations from their offices. There is an undeniable attraction in never having to buy another server, and instead just paying a single monthly fee for a guaranteed IT service.

Others companies might adopt cloud computing for the flexibility it offers. If they have a seasonal or variable business it makes a lot of sense to use a service that can be turned up and down as required.

This week three of our customers' servers suffered disk failures. But no-one was affected. The reason was that we are monitoring their networks - the monitoring software gave us advance warning of problems so we could take preventative action.

Disks fail more or less at random so having three in one week is like the old joke about waiting for a bus - you spend ages waiting for one then three come along together. But it's a good illustration of the way that IT support is changing, and indeed the way it should be. Your support partner works hard in the background, almost unnoticed, to maximise the reliability of your IT system.

Maximium reliability of your IT delivers maximum uptime for you so you don't even notice your IT. It's just there at the heart of your business helping you do your work.

Riverbank clients are starting to be upgraded to the faster broadband service, ADSL2+. What it means is the prospect of a faster Internet connection at no extra cost.

Whether you will actually see a benefit depends on a number of factors including the distance from your office to the telephone exchange and the hardware in your office. All Riverbank-supplied hardware is ADSL2+ compatible.  

The upgrade should involve no more than a disconnection of 20 minutes. We are advising each client of the date of this upgrade. But be aware that with any change there is a risk of disruption, so if the date assigned to you for upgrade is a particularly crucial day it might be safest to ask for a different date. 

The hype around cloud computing could be reaching a peak, but are companies actually doing it? Many large firms are apparently holding back from making a drastic change to their IT systems, preferring to wait until others have gone before them and made their mistakes. Many smaller businesses are hesitant about committing their entire business to a single Internet connection. They are also worried about the security of trusting their intellectual property in an environment where they feel they have little or no control.

But fortune favours the bold, so should you be brave and take the plunge into cloud computing? Are you even sure what it is or what it's supposed to do for your businesss?

Cloud computing is the first of the Riverbank lunchtime workshops for 2010. If you would like to understand what lies behind the hype, what it can and can't do for your business, and whether now is the time to be brave then come along to "Cloud computing -  what's in it for me?" on Tuesday 30 March. Contact Amber Juffkins to reserve your place.

Dell have a 0% finance deal on offer for server purchases. The finance deal can include software and Riverbank services, but must have a total price of at least £10,000 to qualify. The offer runs until the end of April.

 Contact Chris Jones for more information.