The majority of users surveyed indicated that the flexibility that the Cloud brings to their business is the most alluring factor that would make them consider adopting the Cloud. This view was particularly correct amongst the businesses with less than 20 employees.

The cost only became the major driving force for organisations that were planning to increase their Cloud service adoption or looking at how they currently access technology throughout their infrastructure.

Organisations that have already adopted Cloud services are on the whole very satisfied with them with the major services being deployed being email, back-ups and disaster recovery in addition to storage and web-hosting services. This level of satisfaction serves as great encouragement for existing users to expand their Cloud use to other areas of their IT Operations.

Have you or your company made the move to the Cloud yet? If so are you satisfied with it and would you consider expanding to cover a wider range of services? Leave us a comment and let us know your experience with the Cloud.

This idea should prove popular with those who struggle to find the four figure sum to buy the software outright but like to keep up-to-date with the latest versions of software or want to try out the new software.

Adobe realised a statement along with the news: “Today also sees Adobe debut an affordable and flexible subscription-based pricing plan, attractive to customers that want to get current and stay current on Creative Suite products, have project–based needs, or try the software for the first time,”

The pricing list at the moment is as follows:

Adobe Photoshop: £28 per month

Adobe Design Premium 5.5: £72 per month

Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection: £116 per month

This news comes at a time when Adobe are announcing their new Creative Suite package 5.5 which, when on sale later this month brings a number of enhancements to InDesign and Dreamweaver in addition to others.

The SP1 update will give minor security updates to Windows 7 even though some have already been made available via the Windows Update Function. The update will also include support for the RemoteFX & Dynamic Memory Features.

RemoteFX is a feature designed to improve the visual capabilities of Windows 7 Remote Desktop clients connected through the Hyper-V role to a Windows 7 virtual machine. Improvements with this update include many 3D graphics capabilities as well as some OpenGL, full motion video, and USB redirection support for Hyper-V Windows 7 virtual machines.

Dynamic Memory will allow administrators to increase the virtual machine density without compromising its security, scalability and performance.

“Together, these technologies will drive down the end-point cost and reduce endpoint power consumption to as little as a few watts,” said Microsoft in the blog.

If you are interested in reading more of our articles, feel free to visit our Articles page.

If you are interested in partaking in some Windows Server 2008 Training Courses, take a look at our range of courses or give us a call and one of our trainers will be more than happy to talk with you.

MCITP: Server Administrator (Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Server Administrator) is the leading certification you can achieve for Windows Server 2008. Having this certification on your CV makes a big impression on potential employers as it proves to them that you are more than capable of handling, using and troubleshooting Servers. It will also distinguish you from others applying for the same job who have similar experience but don’t have the certification.

Some of the roles that you could apply for after gaining the certification include Windows Server Administrator, Network Administrator and Server Systems Administrator.

Certification can also lead to a bigger pay packet and your job satisfaction will be sky-high with research suggesting that people with Microsoft Certification show more competence, have better productivity and are more highly regarded by their employers, co-workers and clients.

To aid in the achievement of the future budding Server Administrators out there, we have put together a special MCITP course package which will fully prepare anybody interested in gaining this certification to take the required exam needed to attain this certification. This course packages consists of the following 4 courses:

Course 6421, Configuring & Troubleshooting a Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure

Course 6425, Configuring Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Domain Services

Course 6426, Configuring Identity & Access Solutions with Windows Server 2008 Active Directory

Course 6430, Planning for Windows Server 2008 Servers

If you choose to take these 4 courses separately, the cost would equate to £2800 excluding VAT, however if you choose to take them as a package and pay for them all at once, we will offer them to you for the reduced price of £2248 excluding VAT, a saving of over £600!

The package can be taught in a minimum of 15 days and has the full benefits which accompany all of our Training Courses.

For previous articles, please visit our Articles page.

The mobile phone operator 02 has announced plans to bring in a seamless, fast and FREE Internet Wi-Fi service for the general public, regardless of which mobile operator they are currently with.

Under the plans, 02 aims to create a Wi-Fi platform which in theory will create at least double the amount of Wi-Fi hotspots that are currently on offer through BT Openzone and the Cloud. Additionally, o2 says that it is increasing its investment in its mobile network by a quarter this year alone in order to offer users to access a whole new range of ‘smarter’ services and experiences.

According to 02’s New Business Development Director Tim Sefton, only 20% of people who have access to free public Wi-Fi currently actively use it due to barriers such as uncertainty of whether the Wi-Fi is free or not and the variable quality that is currently on offer.

Managing Director of Broadband.co.uk, Edd Dawson commented that what 02 are potentially doing is getting people off of the 3G mobile network and onto a Wi-Fi connection, which could be one of the reasons why they are bringing it in for free. It will be good for people the more Wi-Fi locations available, especially those using Smart-phones; it is much more desirable than using the 3G network.

Despite all these new Wi-Fi hotspots popping up, Mr Dawson still believes that fixed broadband services already in operation will not be affected due to the fact that people would still like to have the bandwidth to themselves whilst not on the move.

So which service would be more beneficial for you? Will you be sticking with 3G or hopping onto the Wi-Fi networks?

If you would like to look back over some of our previous articles, visit our Articles page.

This 12 month trial scheme aims to help the 9.2 million adults in the UK who currently have no access to the internet or a computer for one reason or another. One of the most common reasons, according to the government not to have a computer and/or an internet connection is the high prices which are associated with the technology.

This factor has led to several previous schemes to try and get people online with the last one being the ‘Home Access’ scheme which was aimed at giving pupils from poorer backgrounds free laptops. However, 8 months after it began, the government axed it.

Under the Race Online 2012 scheme, prices for a refurbished PC will start at £98 along with subsidised internet connections being made available for £9 a month. The computers will operate with open source software such as Linux and include a flat screen monitor, keyboard, mouse as well as a dedicated telephone help-line for those who need a hand with their new machine. The price will also include a warranty and delivery.

Remploy, the organisation specialising in helping disadvantaged and disabled people find work are also in charge of distributing these packages. According to research carried out by the scheme, it suggests that getting online can save people over £500 a year if they choose to pay bills and things online as well as giving them access to jobs which are only offered online.

If you are interested in our articles, please feel free to read any of our previous articles.

However, according to security firm NetWitness, the network sprang back into operation in January of this year and doesn’t seem to have changed anything about the way it handles its spamming campaigns.

Rustock’s sudden reappearance has also been picked up by another security firm Symantec Hosted Services. According to their analysts, Rustock is responsible for 25% of all spam circulating world-wide and was expected the reach the 67 billion junk mail mark in just one day of operation after its restart.

It was also noted that before the drop in activity, Rustock was sending out spam mail relating to a group known as the Canadian Pharmacy whereas now, the spam seen now relates to a group known as Pharmacy Express. It is well known that spammers frequently attempt to lure buyers in with offers of cheap pharmaceutical products.

Whilst the 67 billion figures seems rather large, it is worthwhile to note that before Rustock started winding down its operations, it was sending out upwards of 200 billion spam messages a day worldwide.

So for now, only time will tell if the current figure will rise to similar levels and all our inboxes will be filled with spam.

Want to read previous articles? Then feel free to visit the articles section where an archive of our previous articles can be found.

Even though the weather has been particularly bad this winter, this hasn’t stopped us in providing the training required by our delegates. Although it has prevented a few delegates from reaching us, our flexible approach to training meant that they were able to call us up and reschedule for no extra charge.

Let’s look back at some of the things which have happened in the past year:

We had the release of Microsoft Office 2010 in June of this year, which we are now happy to be able to offer our delegates Training Courses in each of the individual programs: Excel, Word, Project etc.

We added Windows Server 2008 courses to our ever-growing list of Training Courses and spoke about Microsoft Certification.

Over the course of the year, we have published a wide range of Microsoft Office Articles & Business Articles as well as a library of invaluable Hints & Tips for each of the Microsoft Office Programs.

We would also like to thank all of you for training with us and for your support throughout the year and wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Both Apple and HP already have established their technologies with Apple offering its AirPrint technology and HP with ePrint. Google Cloud Printing will become available with the next version of its Internet Browser Chrome.

The end of printer drivers?

With the introduction of Google Cloud Printing, Google Apps will no longer have to rely on the Operating System & Drivers to print documents and manage print jobs.

Apple and HP are determined to gain the same ease of use with their technologies and lose the need for printer drivers as well as the tedious and time-draining set-up processes which are currently a necessity to have a smooth running printing system.

In Google’s technology, users will be able to associate printers with their Google Account using the service. The printers stored in the technology are treated in a similar fashion to how documents are in Google Docs so it is extremely easy to share the printers with your colleagues, family and friends, wherever they are in the world.

As well as the printer being stored on a persons account, there is also a record of that particular printer’s capabilities which will give any user the opportunity to select the options appropriate to their particular print job. For example, for one job you might want to print out a document but then afterwards you choose to print out a photo too. The photo would need different options applying to it.

Once the service receives the print job, it will send the job on to the printer and receives regular updates on the progress of the job which it in turn makes available to the app.

Google describes the service as the ideal experience for printing, without the need for any PC connection or print driver at all.

But is it too good to be true?

As great as all this new technology sounds, there is one rather large problem. The fact is that at present, no printers capable of this exist yet; meaning the only thing holding Google back is the waiting period before printer companies decide to join the party.

However, once all the right software and hardware are in circulation, it will make the whole job of printing a whole lot easier than it is at the moment. No need for wires or to have time wasted setting up the printer. It is definitely something to keep an eye on in the coming months.

Would you like to learn more about Cloud Computing? Read our article: Pros & Cons of Cloud Computing

Would you like to read more articles? Then feel free to visit our Articles Page to read our previous articles.

The big surprise is that even though there is a great demand for these items, the UK was found to be among the cheapest countries providing these products and services to their inhabitants.

At the end of last year, the study shows that UK households were amongst the highest adopters of land-lines as well as fixed broadband connections and mobile connections at the end of last year. This was also true regarding Digital TV services.

If you would like to read some of our other articles, please visit our Articles Page.

If you would like to become more tech savvy with our help, visit our Technical Training Courses page.