It's hard not to hand it to Google. Even as the company struggles to put out a compelling business application suite for its enterprise customers, it just keeps plugging away at its mainstay offerings and making them better. Originally sort of a novelty in the world of free online mail services, GMail keeps on growing, adding more free storage and more useful features all the time. That's why I've used it as my primary e-mail service for the last couple of years, taking advantage of its intuitive indexing tools for all of my various business mail accounts.
The latest complement to GMail's arsenal is the welcome addition of IMAP support, which makes it easy to keep all of your machines and mobile devices in sync with your GMail account. To enable IMAP in GMail, click Settings at the top of the page, then choose the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab. In my account, IMAP was already enabled when I went to look for it. Then just open the mail client on your PC or mobile device and enter your GMail settings (instructions can be found under the radio buttons in the GMail IMAP settings menu) and you're all set. Now you can use any mail client you like to keep your devices in sync through GMail.
Adding IMAP to GMail takes a big step toward making Google Apps a more thought-provoking solution for the business environment. Of course, the rest of the apps have some serious growing to do, but this development has given me yet another good reason to keep my business communications flowing through GMail.
You don't have to be a big company to have 24/7 access to your data from anywhere. If you're on a budget, you can create your own VPN using a simple download for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Leaf Networks lets you set up private networks and share just about any device over a network.
Creating a private network with Leaf Networks is easy. Download the software from www.leafnetworks.net, install it on the host and client machines. Then click the Share tab to get started. Choose Permissions for Private Network, then select the users you'd like to give access to. From the client machine, select Networks and choose Connect to Computer to connect.
Leaf Networks creates a peer-to-peer connection between the client and host systems, even behind a firewall. I'm not sure I'd trust it with highly sensitive customer data, but for always-available access to important, non-proprietary business files, it's a great way to keep your network within reach.
Looks like a Hamachi like software.
I am using WallCooler VPN, it is the same idea but gives me access to my whole office network (instead of the PC).
I need a VPN access to my company network for few users and don't want a hardware or hosted solution (too expensive).
Tried GoToMyPC and Hamachi, but they just give you access to the PC.
WallCooler so far is the best solution I found.
Have you also evaluated WallCooler? how would you rate it?
JDW.
Forgot to tell you where to find WallCooler VPN:
http://www.vedivi.com
Whether you?re building a business from scratch or upgrading an aging IT infrastructure, assembling a piecemeal server farm is neither the most efficient, nor the most cost effective way to go. Once the exclusive province of larger enterprise networks, blade servers -- slim, power-efficient computers that coexist in a larger enclosure -- are not only affordable enough for small companies, but also easier than ever to deploy.
HP?s new BladeSystem c3000 is an excellent example. The 6U enclosure houses up to 4 full-height devices or 8 half-heights, letting you configure your own server system with a variety of blade server modules. In a typical small business configuration, the c3000 can be configured with several BL460c servers for various purposes, such as Web, messaging, and database servers. Meanwhile, the enclosure can also house Ethernet switches, shared storage modules, and tape drives, letting you serve the infrastructure needs of a 50-person office from a single box.
With the c3000 enclosure priced at around $5,500, dual-core server blades priced from $2,300, and six-bay storage blades at $1,600, the BladeSystem lets smaller businesses get started with a modular, growth-ready IT infrastructure for as little as $10,000, leaving room in the enclosure for future servers and storage devices, and making it easy to expand your infrastructure as your business grows. And unlike large enterprise server enclosures, the c3000 plugs right into a standard wall outlet, saving potentially thousands in power delivery costs.
This month, the PC world is getting a whole fresh batch of Linux distribution upgrades as Ubuntu, Novell's OpenSUSE, and RedHat's Fedora are all set to release new versions. So you're bound to hear a lot of Linux buzz in the weeks to come. But is all this excitement anything more than another round of open source hype? The answer, perhaps surprisingly, is not this time. Once valued only in the server room, Linux has evolved into a robust end-user platform with a vast software ecosystem, a variety of advanced desktop interfaces, and support for a wide range of PC hardware. Does this mean it's time to consider desktop Linux for your business? The answer to that, not surprisingly, is more complicated.
If you're an IT pro, you don't need me to tell you why Linux hasn't been taken seriously as a desktop OS. For most businesses, Linux's most prized attribute?its community-driven development?has also been its Achilles heel. Who wants to put their network?or their job?in the hands of a nearly anonymous, loose-knit band of egalitarian developers who won't guarantee their products' suitability for any purpose? Of course, that argument was most compelling when it came coupled with a hodgepodge of mismatched, ill-fitted utilities masquerading as an OS interface. In the last few years, Linux desktop interfaces such as GNOME and KDE have come a mighty long way, with features that rival?and in some cases surpass?any version of Windows.
The four pillars of a good business OS are stability, security, usability, and compatibility. Unfortunately, I've yet to meet a single OS that fully embodies all of these characteristics. Windows is the current gold standard for compatibility, but its security flaws are legendary. Mac OS X is imminently user friendly and generally secure, but runs only on Apple's fashion-over-function hardware. Meanwhile, Linux is phenomenally stable on a wide array of systems, is nearly invulnerable to viruses, and hardens easily with the help of readily available utilities. And while it's still got some growing to do before it can serve the most hapless end users, the GNOME 2.2 interface is so Mac-like, it's scary.
With the release of Ubuntu 7.04 (aka Feisty Fawn)?the current platinum standard in open source desktop Linux, soon to be replaced by version 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon?the argument about Linux has changed. It's no longer a question of whether Linux is ready for the desktop, but whether desktop users are ready for Linux. And that, my friends, is a thorny, contentious question. Could your business benefit from desktop Linux? Probably. But whether the switch is worth the trouble depends on a variety of factors, including the size of your business, the software you run, and the relative savvy of your users.
It's fair to say that the smaller your business is, the more likely it is to thrive in an all-Linux environment. Fewer users mean less training time and fewer surprises during the switch. Meanwhile, smaller networks mean fewer legacy servers to contend with, which minimizes potential hassles with Samba support. Of course, business-oriented desktop distributions such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop and Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop sport plenty of support for Windows server technologies. Nevertheless, it's simply easier to support smaller networks than larger ones.
If your business depends on Windows software, such as Windows-specific accounting and inventory packages, Linux may not be for you. But if, like the overwhelming majority of small businesses, your users spend their days mousing around in the usual assortment of Microsoft Office apps, the switch to Linux would be painless, simple, and a whole lot less expensive than perpetuating your Office enterprise licenses indefinitely. After all, every major Linux distribution comes with OpenOffice.org preinstalled, which offers the same level of intuitive performance as Office 2003, and makes a whole lot more sense to most users than learning the ribbon interface of Office 2007.
Now, I'm not suggesting that any of you run out and switch your users from Windows to Linux now, or anytime soon. But I am saying this: The image of Linux as a nerd-only OS that takes eons to learn and requires constant support is both outdated and wrong. The conventional wisdom that Linux is somehow inherently unworthy of the desktop is, at best, a myth. At worst, it's a shackle that keeps your business from exploring what amounts to an increasingly viable option. Meanwhile, Windows Vista is rapidly destroying the illusion of Windows as the safest, most stable, and most cost-effective desktop OS. If you're fretting over all the hardware upgrades required to eventually move your enterprise to Windows Vista, it should be at least a little reassuring to know that there's another option out there. One that costs as little as nothing, is incredibly secure, and makes far better use of the hardware you already own.
A correction to a previous post.
Dear readers,
Last Friday, I posted a commentary about the shortcomings of the iPhone with respect to business computing environments. Unfortunately, in my hasty exploration of the iPhone's software, I overlooked an important feature of the device and erroneously stated that the iPhone does not include support for virtual private networking. In fact, it does include VPN support. I also misstated that the iPhone does not open Word and Excel documents. What I had intended to say was that it cannot edit them. I deeply regret these errors, and I offer my sincere apologies to all of the readers of Networking Know-How and PCWorld.com.
The original text of the post follows.
Sincerely,
Robert
iPhone for Business: Forget It
For months now, you've scarcely been able to pop open a web browser without spotting a few iPhone stories raving about the abilities of Apple's new shining star. That could spell trouble for IT managers working in the service of gadget-obsessed, impulse-driven executives. Here's why.
For business users, an ideal phone should be able to do four things well: voice calls, messaging (including e-mail), file attachments, and web browsing. Like almost any other phone, the iPhone is as good at calling as you should expect. And for web browsing, it's great. But for e-mail and file attachments, it's simply a dog in wolf's clothing.
Most consumers won't find much fault with their iPhone's e-mail support. It handles IMAP and POP3, as well as a variety of webmail services such as GMail and Yahoo Mail. But if, like the preponderance of large enterprises, you run Microsoft Exchange, forget it. Sure, you could work around this problem to get e-mail to your users' phones by configuring their accounts for POP3 access as well, but that just gives them the latitude to delete messages willy nilly, which is bound to mean more support calls for you. The iPhone also cuts users off from useful Exchange features such as group scheduling.
At the same time, the iPhone lacks support for Microsoft Office file attachments, which means that, unlike the Blackberrys, Moto Qs, and Blackjacks you may have now, it can't open a Word document or Excel spreadsheet at all.
In addition to these major shortcomings, the iPhone currently offers no VPN support, so you can forget about giving your users secure access to internal network resources from the road.
But the worst problem with the iPhone is likely to be its reliance on Apple's iTunes, which it uses for updating everything from its calendar to its system software. At this point, I've yet to meet a single IT manager who would be willing to add iTunes to his or her list of supported apps. And while the iCal calendar format may be gaining ground in the consumer space, it still lacks compatibility with many business scheduling systems, which means many business users won't be able to get their calendars onto their handsets.
So the next time your CEO comes bounding into your office demanding an iPhone to complement his slick self-image, take heed. Fashionable and advanced though it may be for consumers, the iPhone simply isn't ready to do business.
So, what you meant to say was, the iPhone can read, but not edit, Word and Excel documents? Surely you meant to say that neither can the Blackberry (without third party software), right?
Of course, the Q and the Blackjack are also unable to edit Word or Excel documents without third party software.
WM5 Smartphone does not come with editors or viewers for Word or Excel. Motorola and Samsung (and most other vendors) bundled third party software to provide that functionality.
Google announced yesterday that it will begin offering e-mail security policy management and message recovery services to enterprise customers using its Google Apps Premier Edition suite of services. Does this mean it's time to switch your company's services to Google?
Still officially in beta, Google Apps is intended to serve as a one-stop-shop for admins and users to get quick access to mission critical services such as e-mail, shared calendars, and business software for text documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. It also includes Google Talk for chat and the ability to create and host simple websites. But the service, which is comprised almost entirely of features already available freely through Google's many consumer channels, offers few compelling features to enterprise admins.
Strictly taking into account the back-end services that separate Google Apps Premier Edition from Google's ordinary consumer apps, the distinct offerings include a customized Google Start Page (sort of like an intranet site, only hosted by Google), bulk account uploading and management, SAML single sign-on for Google services, IMAP migration, and APIs for managing your users' Google accounts through your existing reporting and management system. You also get 25GB of e-mail storage per user, which is a big step up from the usual 2.9GB. The addition of Postini policy management and message recovery rounds out the current list of services.
Google Apps works in unison with your existing hosting service (or internal hosting), rather than serve as a replacement for it. So rather than move everything to Google, you'd simply update your MX records to activate the e-mail service, for instance (a process that's difficult to accomplish without interrupting e-mail service for your users along the way). Unfortunately, many of the features you've come to expect from a mail server?either internal or hosted?are just plain absent from Google Apps. So simple tasks like setting up forwarding accounts become a convoluted hassle. Meanwhile, the cost of $50 per user per year seems like a false economy compared with the flexibility of most hosting solutions, or even your own servers.
All of this would probably be a more compelling solution if Google?s apps were actually any good. But Google Docs is a pitiful substitute for Microsoft Office. Sure, Google Calendar is pretty handy (I use it exclusively these days) and Gmail's interface is friendly if you get to know it. But for the IT world, it?s just not an acceptable stand-in for the mature apps you're already using?whatever they may be.
It's refreshing to see a company like Google continue pushing a fresh approach to IT management, but it's far too early to recommend Google Apps Premier Edition for real business networks at this point. Realistically, based on what I've seen so far, Google Apps won't be ready for prime time anytime in 2008. To constitute a real alternative for most businesses, the service will have to step up its offering from a piecemeal e-mail and apps buffet to a smorgasbord of all-you-can-eat hosting power. But there may yet be good news ahead for fans of Google?s other services, as the company's history of web app innovation gives us plenty of reason for optimism in the more distant future.
