Windows 7 uptake will spike in 2011
Windows 7 uptake will spike in 2011 with economies starting to recover and windows 7 will lead the way to recovery. 2010 was the year everyone kept a hold onto XP, however we sense 2011 will be different more companies will want to move over to windows 7 and keep a competitive edge over their rivals . XP was launched some 9 Years ago and uptake was very slow back then people were against change. We are at the same crossroads we faced when XP was released however back then relablity was an issue until SP1 however this time Windows 7 is the finished product .
Windows 7 currently has 25% of the OS market share and Mircosoft has sold nearly 300 million licenses which is quite impressive.Most business tend to plan their OS upgrade’s around hardware refresh programs which tend to be 5 yearly cycle or less. A report by Gartner recently predicted over 250 million Desktops will be migrated over to Windows 7 between 2011-2012. The report also highlighted that demand for Windows 7 support will start to outstrip supply.
Over the coming year we will be taking a closer look at Windows 7 has we help organisations migrate to windows 7.
Starting from today we will be posting tips & tricks to help you make the move to Windows 7.
Google Docs allows file uploading
Google made a big move with its Google Docs proudct by allowing any file type uploads. This will allow Google Docs users to upload photos, movies, music, zips and any other files. Google also increased the file upload limit for the standard file types such as documents,presentations and pdf files. Any other file types that cannot be converted to Google Docs have a upload limit of 250mb per file .
Google Docs’ product manager Vijay Bangaru said that the new size and file type allowances serve to make Docs a replacement for USB drives, allowing users to access their files between computers.More than 1 million businesses use Google Apps, the suite of software-as-a-service for business email, information sharing and security.
If you are looking for next generation communication and collaboration tools for less then Google Apps is the right set of tools for your organisation.Whether you’re looking to update your legacy, costly messaging solution, or just looking to improve your existing solution with more advanced collaboration tools, Google Apps Premier Edition provides you the tools to communicate and collabrate anywhere in the world .
Contact us now and see how we can help you cut your IT costs by 50%.
Some of the benefits of Google Apps are listed below :
User benefits include:
- Data accessible from anywhere, on any computer platform
- 25GB of email inbox storage per user with powerful search capability
- Simple and fast collaboration and messaging tools
- Data is never lost, even if your laptop dies or is stolen
- Sharing mechanism within Docs, Sites and Video enables a new level of collaboration
Business benefits include:
- Decreased cost
- Increased employee productivity, enabling faster decision making.
- More flexibility to deploy changes and innovations fast and get on with business
- Focus resources on strategic initiatives instead of operational activities
- Attractive IT environment for the younger generation of employees
IT user benefits include:
- No hardware or software to install or maintain
- Very low fixed cost per user
- Intuitive applications that many users are already familiar with – little training necessary
- Ability to move users incrementally
- Savings of license fees, hardware and data center costs
- Open platform for integration
Google DNS challenges OpenDNS
Google unveiled its own DNS query system on Thursday’s as the search engine giant embeds itself into the heart of the internet.
A domain name systems translates a web address into numerical IP addresses thus locating the site you requested. You can think of this as switchboard which redirects your request to correct location. It converts your easy to remember address such as www.cecosolutions.co.uk to a unique IP address e.g. 77.127.90.100 thus allowing computers to communicate with each other and working together fulfill your request .
Currently your ISP assigns a set of DNS addresses to your router and these can tend to be slow and unresponsive at times. Using different services such as OpenDNS or Google DNS would take less time to resolve your request because these service store the IP addresses of millions of websites whereas your ISP would store less and then refer to other servers on the internet.
OpenDNS servers store the IP addresses of millions of websites in their cache so it would take less time to resolve your requests.
If you’re web-savvy and comfortable with changing your network settings, check out the Google Code Blog for detailed instructions and more information on how to set up Google Public DNS on your computer or router.
I would recommend you change your settings on your computer and have a test.
How to change to Google DNS:
Go to Control Panel>Network Connections > Choose your Network > Rightclick properties > then select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) > Click Properties.
You will see a window like the one below – this is the Internet Protocol window. Select “Use the following DNS server addresses” and enter the desired DNS server(s) in the space(s) provided.
Microsoft Windows
DNS settings are specified in the TCP/IP Properties window for the selected network connection.
Example: Changing DNS server settings on Microsoft Windows Vista
- Go the Control Panel.
- Click Network and Internet, then Network and Sharing Center, then Manage network connections.
- Select the connection for which you want to configure Google Public DNS. For example:
- To change the settings for an Ethernet connection, right-click Local Area Connection, and click Properties.
- To change the settings for a wireless connection, right-click Wireless Network Connection, and click Properties.
If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
- Select the Networking tab. Under This connection uses the following items, click Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4), and then click Properties.
- Click Advanced and select the DNS tab. If there are any DNS server IP addresses listed there, write them down for future reference, and remove them from this window.
- Click OK.
- Select Use the following DNS server addresses. If there are any IP addresses listed in the Preferred DNS server or Alternate DNS server, write them down for future reference.
- Replace those addresses with the IP addresses of the Google DNS servers: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.
- Restart the connection you selected in step 3.
- Test that your setup is working correctly; see Testing your new settings below.
- Repeat the procedure for additional network connections you want to change.
