I have to say Tech Talks #3 was noticeably different to the first two. We were in a new venue (Armada House), we had a higher attendance (85 in total) and we had a speaker from the outside… (London). Thanks to SW Computer Services we now have the videos of the talks.

The first speaker was David May who is a British Computer Scientist, a professor at the University of Bristol and the founder of XMOS a semiconductor company. To date he holds 50 patents and his talk examined the progression of microchips and the influence that Bristol, and he himself has had on this development:

Next up was SpiderGroup’s founder James Cook, whose talk ‘The Missing Lync’ examined unified communications and the impact that this will have on the workplace:

Finally, our last speaker was Thomas Power, who created a great deal of hype during and after the event when he gave his opinion on Klout and the future of the web:

The tweets have been continuing ever since on #TechTalks and feedback has been very interesting. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the event although Thomas Powers talk was like Marmite, people either loved or hated it.

Did you attend? What’s your verdict?

If you didn’t attend, join us on our LinkedIn group to be kept up to date on Tech Talks or book your place here

Although Cloud Computing allows you to outsource much of your IT, I would like to stress the importance of support. Yes Cloud Computing is simple and safe, however, like any technology, sometimes things go wrong and in such cases having support is crucial.

Beware: Not all Cloud applications allow you to pick up the phone and report a problem.

Office 365 for example gives you access to e-mail, calendars and document collaboration; an excellent tool. However, their support isn’t very… supportive. In fact it states on their help page that: “There is no support by telephone on technical issues for Microsoft Office 365 for professionals and small businesses.” Instead you can check articles and forum posts, which can be extremely frustrating.

We don’t claim that Cloud Computing is perfect – or that any technology is. We do however believe that your IT should always be looked after. Some companies will add support as an additional service at an extra cost and some will charge you when you need it, which again can be costly.

We include support in our packages for the following reasons:

• If something goes wrong, our clients can simply pick up the phone and report it, which means that the problem gets worked on immediately. For us, it means that if they can speak to us direct they will be less likely to report the problem on Twitter or to colleagues!
• Call out charges can be costly to the client and make invoicing more difficult to track
• We get great feedback. When people speak about SpiderGroup, they speak about our support; how clients always know who they’re speaking to and how friendly our support team are. This is obviously great for our clients and for us.

We don’t want support to be optional, for us it is compulsory and a major part of our offering.

Would you rather pay ever so slightly more per month and have constant support or would you rather pay the bare minimum and  pay extra for support when you need it?

(picture by mrpuen)

SpiderGroup’s Chris Marshall tells us how he uses the Cloud outside of the office:

For the last three years I have been building up my training for an Ironman triathlon, and the end is finally in sight. On July 22^nd 2012 I’ll be part of a group of 1500 people taking part in a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride and a 26.2 mile run. This race could take me up to 17 hours to complete, and requires a lot of preparation not only for the day, but in the time leading up to it.

An important part of preparing for this task (apart from long boring hours on the bike) has been keeping records of what training has been carried out, comparing it to past training and planning for the future. The best method I have found to help me prepare has been to use an online training diary. Every training session is recorded to keep track of distances and times completed. This has helped keep me motivated to undertake sessions when it is pouring with rain, and freezing in the winter. The fact that it is online means that I can update it from anywhere, and check it from anywhere to make sure I am on track towards my goal. The main benefit is that it is an independent witness, unlike my memory it doesn’t selectively forget the training sessions I have missed, and helps to keep me on track.

This method of keeping an online diary is becoming more popular, and the longer I train the better the site becomes as I get a longer history of what has been carried out.

For anyone interested, my website of choice is www.triblogs.com . It is free to use and it is being improved upon all the time, though there are many more out there available.

When you hear of Cloud Computing, one of the benefits you come across is scalability. But what does this really mean to you?

We say: Scalability = Manageable costs and the ability to grow and down-size quickly.

Having scalable IT means that you can add and remove users precisely when you need to. It takes the worry and the expense out of expanding your IT equipment. As your company grows, your IT grows (but without the lump sum investments).

Save Money

If you already have an in-house server, the performance is likely to be affected once you reach 10-15 users until eventually your staff will be unable to access it all. This is the time that you will need to purchase a new server, which will cost you in the region of £1,800-£2,500 making your newest recruit very expensive! If you have a virtual server in the Cloud, it expands easily and quickly without the large sudden investment. With Cloud Computing you simply contact your provider each time you take on a new member of staff and they will add the new person directly onto your system. You do not need to worry about the efficiency of your equipment, licenses or lump sums of IT expenses. Further more, if they leave or you have to downsize the very same procedure can remove them and reduce your IT bill accordingly.

Having a scalable IT system keeps things very simple, and your cash-flow much more manageable.

Is your business likely to grow in 2012? What IT systems do you have in place?

When choosing a new IT system, knowing whether to stick with an in-house system, or to outsource some or all of your IT to an external hosting company can be confusing. The cost comparisons can also be confusing and unclear when initially looked at. Below are just a few high-level reasons why you should consider a hosted solution, rather than an in-house solution.

Costs:

Our hosted solution will give you fixed costs that are scalable and will grow/shrink as you do. These costs are low, predictable and therefore easy to budget.

An in-house solution will involve a large initial investment, often up to several thousand pounds including the hardware, software, licenses, IT resources and the time required to setup. The ongoing maintenance costs can also be unpredictable as in-house staff are not always aware of IT best practice, which can cause issues with long term support.

Resources:

With our hosted solution, no dedicated IT resources are needed. Simple user maintenance such as password resets can be carried out, online, by a non-technical person, plus a dedicated support number is available where highly trained (and friendly) staff are available to help. This allows staff to focus on your core business, rather than fixing IT related problems.

An in-house solution can require a dedicated IT resource, or it can take a non dedicated resource away from their day-to-day job to fix IT issues.

Deployment:

Our hosted solution will allow you to get setup straight away. Our team will work out the best time to carry out the transfer, setup your accounts and help you with transferring data across from your existing system to your new one. We have experience in moving small to large companies, and know the common issues that occur, and how to resolve them quickly and efficiently.

An new in-house solution can take up to four weeks to purchase, setup and deploy, with the inherent teething problems that comes with setting up a new system.

Maintenance:

Our hosted solution is kept up-to-date with all of the latest security patches and updates. We have redundant systems in place, so should there be a failure, the customer facing service won’t be affected.

An in-house solution is normally not setup with any kind of redundancy, so any downtime will result in all services being unavailable until the solution is brought back up. Other issues that can come about with a local solution are security patches not being applied, lack of administration, lack of bandwidth or other problems with your Internet connection that can cause the service to be unreliable, slow or unavailable.

Backups:

Our hosted solution is fully backed up; using multiple backup systems to ensure that your data is kept safe and is available should there be any kind of problem. We also keep backup and live data in separate locations, so in the worst case scenario a copy of your data is kept safe and will still be accessible quickly.

In-house backups are frequently setup and then never tested to confirm that the backup systems are in place. A backup that hasn’t been tested to confirm it is working can give a false sense of security, and be disastrous should critical data be lost. Another question to ask yourself is: Are your backup drives kept next to your server? What will happen to your data should there be a fire, will you lose all of your live and backed up data?

Security:

Our hosted solution is kept up-to-date with the latest security patches to maintain the highest levels of security, with multiple levels of firewalls to keep you and your data safe.

An in-house solution requires constant maintenance to keep viruses and SPAM out of your system.

Most businesses understand the Cloud and what it does, however one of the questions arising is: When should I make the move?

We suggest 4 great times to make a move to the Cloud…

At the very, very start

If you’re a Start-up, now is the best time to investigate Cloud Computing. It saves you worrying about licenses, it’s flexible and it spreads the cost of your IT. (Read 5 reasons that Start-ups are reaching for the Clouds in our recent blog)

When you hire your first employee

Recruitment can be expensive, I’ve done it myself – purchased a new laptop, installed Microsoft Office on it, created an e-mail account and so on. With the Cloud, you could purchase a new laptop, or you can rent them from certain providers and then tell your Cloud agent what you would like on it: Office? E-mail? Sharepoint? They set it up for you – and if that person leaves, they simply remove that user from the system and reduce your bill accordingly. As your team grows, so does your Cloud. It keeps things very simple, and makes your IT extremely scalable.

When your server breaks

Don’t buy a new one, this could cost you loads! Instead use this as an opportunity to move to the Cloud. You will no longer need an expensive server consuming energy. Cloud Computing means you still have the benefit of a server though it is stored and looked after off-site, and then kept safely backed up in the Cloud/Internet.

When you move to a new office

Kitting out a new office with computers, printers and servers can be expensive. Speak to a Cloud Provider about having your new office in the Cloud and see what energy and money you can save.

Cloud Computing is the future for IT in businesses, and transition to it is growing by the day. When will it be time for you?

According to the Home Office Computer Magazine (and a million other websites), 30% of all businesses that have a major fire go out of business within a year.  70% fail within 5 years, both due to the loss of data. I can find no real evidence to support this statistic, however I am certain that backing up is crucial to any business. I know that if I lost my computer when I started my first business, I could have continued to trade but I would have needed to spend about a month recovering lost work, which would have had quite an impact on my cash-flow.

Some good news

Companies are backing-up. Once again I struggled to find studies and so I ran a quick Twitter poll this week asking SME’s 2 questions:

1. Do you back up? And if so, do you back-up on or off-line?

2. How often do you back-up

I initially thought that a large portion would say that they didn’t back-up, making me feel better about not backing up myself until becoming part of a IT team this year.

I was so wrong:

According to the poll: 95% of those answered DO back-up!
90% back-up on line
5% back-up on their hard drive
26% back-up on-line as well as on their hard-drive
68% back up everyday!

I’m so surprised (and impressed) by these figures – I do believe there must still be people out there who don’t back up, be honest, do you?

Anyone who works in events will understand why me (Kerry) and Chloe are very tired this morning! However, I must say we are rather pleased with ourselves…

Over 2 months of planning, 6 weeks of promoting and 1 day of printing, producing and organising led to one good Tech Talks!

(For those who haven’t been, Tech Talks is a technology themed event for small business to learn, network, and be inspired).

The first of our speakers was Jo Reid of Calvium who spoke to us about mobile phone apps. Jo gave us some great ideas about how we could go about having a mobile app for our business and of course, why.

Some tweets throughout Jo’s talks:

#techtalksbristol over 50% of uk now have smartphones! (@arthursoft)

Jo Reid @appfurnace talking about app games company RedWasp & their new gameow.ly/1HmVRA #TechTalksBristol (@DickieArmour)

#techtalksbristol excellent parallel between the liberating effect of the early PCs & now with smartphone apps. (@kevleighton)

#techtalksbristol Great to know Bristol is such a creative and technology hub!!! (@IanThorneBrown)

Up next was Fred George who came across from London to deliver his talk: Developer Anarchy.  He spoke about the organisation Forward, and their approach to management systems; which is, they have none. This one sparked a lot of intrigue!

Some tweets throughout Fred’s talks:

#techtalksbristol I am glad there is a development methodology that describes the way I work. Anarchy. (@JeremyBassett)

@fgeorge52 talking about ‘programmer anarchy’ at#TechTalksBristol – looks and sounds crazy! (@mattrowntree)

Programmer anarchy! Awesomeness!#techtalksbristol (@CVC_Wizard)

Loving Fred George’s passion for his developer anarchy!! #techtalksbristol (@DickieArmour)

Our final speaker, Geoff Roberts, gave an information-packed talk about the vast opportunities in data.

Some tweets throughout Geoff’s talks:

The greatest barrier to success is fear of failure! Like it! #techtalksbristol (@KevLeighton)

Geoff Roberts recommending NetBase for social search ow.ly/i/u5i3 #TechTalksBristol (@DickieArmour)

How to maximize revenue using the RFM model at#TechTalksBristol (@Mattrowntree)

And the tweets continued!

Sadly the venue needed us to vacate at 6 so networking was cut slightly short. Some ventured to the pub afterwards though, Chloe and I included (can we get away with claiming that as expenses…?).

If you wish to get involved in the next Tech Talks on the 25th April you can book your place now, the line-up is a little special…

Thanks to all that came to Tech Talks #2 we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did… And our under-eye bags are not in vain

I have definitely seen a rise in the ‘interest of Pinterest‘ this last couple of weeks. I myself tentatively dipped my toe in last week and was pleasantly surprised.

What is it?

It can be described as an on-line scrap book/pin board, so if you’re a visual person you’ll love it. As far as I can see you can have as many pin boards as you like and I’ve now downloaded a Pinterest Bookmarklet which works really nicely.

Will it work for business?

In my opinion if your business is a visual one then it would work beautifully. Imagine a photography portfolio or an interior designer using it, it would be an amazing way to share work. As a technology business, I’m not sure we’ll see a major benefit. I will continue to use it as I prefer using something as visual as Pinterest rather than a favourites bar for example. I’ve already referred back to my content marketing pin board on a number of occasions.

My verdict

• It’s pretty, I love the design
• Extremely easy to use
• More personal than business
• Great for businesses who have a portfolio
• Handy for saving pages of interest

I don’t think it will compare to Twitter, Facebook or Google Plus for businesses, however, I do believe it will stay put and I will certainly be keeping my profile

Are you using it for business? What are your thoughts?

Have you ever thought about what would happen if your phone or tablet was lost or worse, stolen? What would be compromised? The list could be pretty long if you spare a moment to think about it…

• All your contacts, their email addresses, phone numbers, photos
• All your emails and all the valuable information stored in them
• All your personal photos
• Your Facebook profile if you stay logged in all the time like most users
• Online shopping accounts if you use apps like Amazon and eBay.
• You home address and when you’re away on holiday or business
• Text messages
• Plus lots more!

Due to the increase in mobile thefts reported recently in the press it’s something that’s worth thinking about.

So what can you do to make sure all your data is kept from prying eyes if the worst was to happen? Fortunately these days there is quite a lot of protection available but in most cases you need to take some action before your device goes missing.

1. Your first line of defence is the PIN or gesture lock on your device, make sure it’s turned on and not too easy to guess! On some devices you can choose to have your device automatically wiped after 10 or so failed attempts to gain access.
2. Exchange remote wipe – If you sync your mobile device with a Microsoft Exchange Server it’s possible your IT department can remotely lock your device and/or wipe it.
   
3. If you own a BlackBerry or iPhone they come with their own tools to remote wipe or lock them. If you’re signed up to iCloud with Apple you can even find out your iPhone/iPad’s current location, provided you’ve activated it.
4. There are some third party apps about which allow you to track and wipe your mobile device. Prey has been featured in the press recently here in Bristol when it enabled Police to arrest someone who recently stole a device. Prey will even email you photos of the person attempting to access your device. You need to install and set-up Prey BEFORE your device gets lost or stolen though!
   

Make sure you’re protected today, tomorrow might be too late.