NetStandard Corporate Blog

KC IT Community Gathers

2009-07-02T13:02:00.007-05:00

NetStandard was one of the sponsors of Stallard Technologies’ 2009 Networking Event on Friday, June 26, at Stallard’s offices in Overland Park, Kan.

As you can see from the video, the event was a great opportunity to establish new business relationships and reconnect with colleagues and friends. In addition to networking, attendees networked and enjoyed Kansas City barbecue prepared on-site, a variety of beverages and Sheridan’s Custard.

In addition to NetStandard, co-sponsors were 1102 Grand, Cavern Technologies, Hyper Five Web Hosting, Systems Maintenance Systems and the Software and Information Technology Association of Kansas.

Thanks for Stallard Technologies for their hospitality and the opportunity for NetStandard to participate.

NetStandard is proud to be part of the Kansas City IT community. According to a study just released by the Milken Institute, IT companies in the Kansas City metropolitan area employed nearly 20,000 people and paid nearly $2 billion in wages. Figures are from 2007, the most recent year available.

The IT community’s significant contributions to Kansas City’s high-tech industry helped place Kansas City at No. 31 in the Milken Institute’s analysis of the top high-tech economies in North America.

Annual Business Excellence Award for 2009

2009-06-23T14:29:00.001-05:00

NetStandard Inc., a Provider of Outsourced IT Departments, Receives Annual Business Excellence Award for 2009

Kansas City, Kansas’s, NetStandard was presented the annual Business Excellence Award for 2009 by Secretary of Commerce David Kerr. The award honors the Kansas business that best upholds the state’s ideals of leadership, service, and economic contributions.

Kansas City, Kan., June 22, 2009--NetStandard Inc., a leading provider of outsourced IT departments based in Kansas City, Kan., was presented the annual Business Excellence Award for 2009 by Secretary of Commerce David Kerr at the State Capitol in Topeka. The award honors the Kansas business that best upholds the state’s ideals of leadership, service, and economic contributions.

“We are honored and humbled to receive this prestigious award,” said Jeff Melcher, NetStandard’s CEO. “In addition to our corporate mission of providing world-class technology services to our clients, we are committed to actively giving back to our community.”

Since Melcher and President Walt Lane founded NetStandard in 1996, the company has become the leading provider of outsourced IT departments for companies in the heartland of the United States. NetStandard also is active in the community and supports such organizations as the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Lakemary Center, Ronald McDonald House, Youth Front, and the Police Athletic League of Kansas City.

NetStandard Inc. was founded in 1996 and provides outsourced IT departments nationwide through its headquarters in Kansas City, Kan. NetStandard’s additional offerings include data center services and hosted business software for small- and medium-sized businesses.

IT as a Strategic Asset

2009-06-23T09:00:00.014-05:00

NetStandard is committed to enhancing the performance of small to medium sized businesses through the implementation and management of technology. This includes solutions designed to optimize productivity and enable business agility. Most businesses view technology as a necessary evil but after partnering with NetStandard, they evolve to see technology as a strategic weapon that can be used against their competitors.

To assist customers through this process, NetStandard has an experienced team of professionals certified by Microsoft to install and support SharePoint, Dynamics GP, and Microsoft CRM.

Specific investments in 2009 have focused on expanding the staff of certified consultants who are skilled to deliver comprehensive business management solutions as well as solutions to optimize core infrastructure.

The most popular infrastructure optimization project in 2009 has been virtualization. Virtualization reduces the power, cooling, and ongoing capital investments required to operate an IT infrastructure and offers additional capabilities including high availability, scalability, and simplified disaster recovery.

The most popular business application implementations have been enterprise resource planning and collaboration, workflow, and business portals using SharePoint. These investments are being made by companies who recognize that IT can be the business enabler that allows them to “do more with less” and positions them to effectively meet the demands of future economic recovery.

NetStandard leverages Microsoft Dynamics technologies to deliver comprehensive business-management solutions to our customers. Over the last year, the team has expanded to add more depth and breadth to our skills.

The solutions include the ability to:

Build and manage customer relationships.
Respond promptly to customer needs.
Adapt to changing market demands and new opportunities.
Automate and standardize recurring tasks so they can be consistently executed, managed, and monitored.
Allow employees, trading partners, vendors, and customers to interact with your business electronically, transcending departmental, organizational and geographic boundaries to access business functions at any time, from any location.
Provide current, complete information so that customers can make sound business decisions based on appropriate factors.

The solutions can be delivered in a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, hosted by NetStandard, OR installed and operated on equipment owned by the customer. Regardless of the approach selected, these options are designed to provide customers with the flexibility to pay for solutions either as a traditional capital investment or through a monthly recurring cost.

NetStandard welcomes the opportunity to assist in the identification and implementation of the tools your company needs to grow and succeed.

June 2009 Business Applications Team (from left): Greg Maltby, Theresa Stoops, Peggy Keens, Bob Brown, Michael Bourdess, Greg Reid, John Leek. Not Pictured: Dustin Domerese, Wes Weeks, Matt Hodes, Scott Thompson.

Securing Your Windows Servers

2009-06-11T09:04:00.008-05:00

In order to secure your computer network, it’s essential to harden your network servers and workstations. This is done through:

establishing strict security settings
disabling unnecessary roles and services
preventing the installation of any unneeded software applications, and
keeping the operating system up-to-date with the most current security updates and service packs.

Microsoft has tried to make a portion of this task easier through the release of its Security Compliance Management Toolkit Series. The Toolkits address the following operating systems and applications:

Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2)
Windows Vista SP1
Windows XP Professional SP3
2007 Microsoft Office SP1

A key component of the Toolkit Series is the GPOAccelerator Wizard. It’s a free automated tool, and according to Microsoft:

The GPOAccelerator creates all the GPOs [Active Directory Group Policy Objects]that you need to deploy the recommended security settings for your environment. This functionality saves many hours of work that would otherwise be needed to configure and deploy security settings manually.

A Group Policy Object or GPO is a collection of policy settings which define security, user rights and system behavior. The GPOAccelerator Wizard creates the GPOs automatically based on Microsoft’s recommended Security Baseline Settings. Once created, you can then use Microsoft’s Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) to install the new GPO’s and check the results.

If you would like to learn more, check out Microsoft’s TechNet Security Blog.

2009 Governor’s Award of Excellence

2009-06-09T16:05:00.000-05:00

Contact: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Melissa Thoenen, MThoenen@NetStandard.com, 913.262.3888 or

Laura McCabe, Laura@mccabenewmedia.com, 913.488.4690

NetStandard Inc. a Provider of Outsourced IT Departments

Named Finalist for Prestigious 2009 Governor’s Award of Excellence

Kansas City, Kansas’s, NetStandard is the metro area’s only finalist for the state’s 2009 award honoring Kansas businesses that best uphold the state’s ideals of leadership, service, and economic contributions.

Kansas City, Kan., June 9, 2009--NetStandard Inc., a leading provider of outsourced IT departments based in Kansas City, Kan., has been named one of only five finalists out of 179 nominees for the 2009 Governor’s Award of Excellence, one of the state of Kansas’s highest business awards presented annually to the Kansas business that best represents the state’s ideals of leadership, service, and economic contributions.

“We are truly honored to be nominated for this highly-coveted award,” said Jeff Melcher, NetStandard’s CEO. “In addition to our corporate mission of providing world-class technology services to our clients, we are committed to actively giving back to our community.”

Kansas Governor Mark Parkinson will announce the recipient of the award Thursday, June 25, at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park.

Past award recipients include such notable Kansas companies as Black & Veatch, Capitol Federal Savings Bank, Olathe Health Systems, and Koch Industries.

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NetStandard Nominated for State Business Award

2009-06-01T15:49:00.003-05:00

NetStandard is a finalist for the 2009 Governor’s Award of Excellence, one of the highest honors the state of Kansas can present to a business.

In addition to being one of only five finalists, out of 179 nominations submitted, NetStandard is the only Kansas City-area company to be a finalist. The award is presented annually to the Kansas business that best represents the state’s ideals in leadership, service and contributions to the economy.

“We are truly honored to be nominated for this important award,” said Jeff Melcher, NetStandard’s CEO. “In addition to our business mission of providing world-class technology services to our clients, we are serious about actively contributing to our community.”

Past award recipients have included such notable Kansas companies as Black & Veatch, Capitol Federal Savings Bank, Olathe Health Systems and Koch Industries.

Governor Mark Parkinson will announce the recipient at the annual Kansas Cavalry Encampment on Thursday, June 25, at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park. The event is sponsored by the Kansas Cavalry, a volunteer group of business and economic leaders who promote Kansas as an attractive location for business.

If you are a NetStandard client, we’d like to thank you for your support. If you’re not a NetStandard client, we hope you contact us so we can show you how we can manage your technology so you can focus on running your business.

The Kansas Department of Commerce has additional information on the nomination.

Fire Suppression: Protecting Data by Protecting Equipment

2009-05-27T11:18:00.003-05:00

In protecting computer equipment from fire, the last thing you would use is a system that would destroy the equipment that it’s designed to protect.

Water-based systems are effective for protecting overall structures. But within a data center, water will destroy equipment. Depending on the gas used, a waterless system may protect the equipment but would be harmful to humans or the environment. A gas may protect equipment during a fire but leave a residue that harms the equipment.

NetStandard’s state-of-the-art data center uses a fire suppression system that’s equally advanced, using a gas that can extinguish a fire in seconds and won’t harm equipment. Most importantly, depending on the event, the data center can continue to operate without interruption

NetStandard’s fire suppression system uses heptafluoropropane, or HFC-227. This gas is also known by its trademarked name of FM-200.

FM-200 extinguishes by removing heat from the fire. The gas is stored in pressurized cylinders and is delivered through a network of pipes and nozzles throughout the data center.

If discharged, FM-200 can be dispersed by opening doors and ventilating the data center for a few minutes. This means that the data center can continue to operate, particularly if the fire was minor or if the suppression system was activated as a precaution.

FM-200 is a hydrofluorocarbon and does not damage the environment by depleting ozone. It was developed to replace gasses that deplete ozone, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). In the concentrations needed to extinguish fires, FM-200 is not harmful to humans. In fact, it is used as a propellant in metered-dose inhalants, such as the ones used to treat asthma.

With NetStandard, your data, and the equipment in which it resides, is protected 7x24x365.

Conficker Infection Shows Need for Continued Vigilance

2009-05-18T08:55:00.002-05:00

On April 1, security experts feared that the Conficker Worm would unleash destruction worldwide. Although that date passed with few incidents, a recently disclosed infection shows the need for continued vigilance.

An expert revealed at a recent security conference that several hundred machines and critical medical equipment have been infected at hospitals in the United States. According to published reports, the infected computers were older machines running Windows NT and Windows 2000. They were in a local area network that had access to the Internet but was not supposed to.

What’s your risk exposure? Have you accounted for every possibility? Are you at risk with older equipment or outdated network structures?

NetStandard can help you determine your risk and devise a solution. With our Managed Services offering, we can host and manage your network and systems at our state-of-the-art data center.

Reducing risk is an ongoing activity and goes beyond a current threat like Conficker.

Technology Fiesta a Great Success

2009-05-12T17:09:00.006-05:00

The weather looked iffy the night before, but NetStandard's Ocho de Mayo Technology Fiesta turned out to be un éxito grande -- a great success.

Thunderstorms Thursday night gave way to a spectacular spring Friday as NetStandard's customers, partners and staff enjoyed Mexican food, music and that famous Sheridan's custard.

Thanks to our technology partners, including Barracuda Networks, Cisco, Fortinet, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft and WatchGuard, who helped sponsor the event and were available for one-on-one meetings. Thanks also to Jose Pepper's and Sheridan's for the outstanding food, beverages and dessert.

But a special thanks goes out to all our NetStandard customers who attended. We hope you enjoyed your afternoon and look forward to continuing to serve you.

If you weren't able to attend, make a note in your calendar and look for an invitation next year!

NetStandard Nominated for Small Business Award

2009-04-30T08:21:00.000-05:00

The Kansas City Kansas Area Chamber of Commerce has named NetStandard as a finalist for the 2009 Small Business of the Year award.

It’s a clichÈ to say that it is an honor just to be nominated, but in this case it’s really true. We are proud to provide world-class technology and services to small- and medium-sized businesses. And because we are a small business, we understand the need to provide excellence to our customers all the time.

If you are a NetStandard client, we’d like to thank you for your support. If you’re not a NetStandard client, we hope you contact us so we can show you how we can manage your technology so you can focus on running your business.

Winners will be announced at the Small Business Awards Luncheon on Friday, June 5. The Kansas City Kansas Area Chamber of Commerce has additional information on the luncheon and how to register.

Read more about our nomination at the Kansas City Business Journal.

NetStandard Security Expert Discusses Conficker, Security

2009-04-24T09:57:00.003-05:00

NetStandard’s Christian North was interviewed for a story that aired on KMBC-TV about the Cornficker Worm. Conficker first appeared last fall and was written to exploit a security gap in Microsoft Windows. The worm’s programming indicated a change scheduled for April 1, which security experts feared would severely damage computers and systems worldwide. However, few problems were reported as the deadline passed.

Although Conficker’s damage didn’t happen, it’s important to note what did happen. As Christian discusses in the clip, NetStandard continuously monitored its systems, and the systems of its clients, for the first sign of suspicious activity. In addition, help desk staff were prepared to escalate any calls that indicated that a user’s computer was affected.

Conficker’s Potential for Damage

Security experts are not sure what Conficker will be used for, but its potential for destruction is astronomical. The worm updates itself about every five minutes and is always waiting for its next instructions. Identity theft is the top concern, due to Conficker’s ability to become anything.

If you are experiencing problems downloading the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) because of Conficker’s restrictions, you can download a copy from NetStandard’s servers. It is the most current update offered by Microsoft as of April 1, 2009, and should aid you in removing the Conficker Worm.

For more information on the Conficker Worm, please visit Microsoft’s Website.

The Benefits of NetStandard Managed Services

NetStandard Managed Services gives you world-class technology, plus the engineers, consultants and IT architects needed to keep your system operating at all times. This frees you up so you can concentrate on running your business, not running your technology.

With NetStandard Managed Services, you benefit from predictable IT costs, system efficiency and a single point of contact for your systems and applications if something happens.

Christian North is typical of the level of professionalism you can expect from NetStandard. As a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Christian meets stringent standards established by the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium. He knows the latest threats and the available strategies to keep your system protected.

Many on NetStandard’s team have similar designations. And as an organization, NetStandard is a certified technology provider with all the leading technology companies, including Microsoft, Symantec and Citrix.

For more information contact us.

NetStandard Expansion Will Benefit Existing and New Clients

2009-04-24T09:01:00.003-05:00

We are proud to announce that NetStandard plans to add 20 new jobs in the near future.

From the beginning, NetStandard has focused on providing world-class technology and services to small- and medium-sized businesses. This strategy has paid off, and we need to outfit our facilities with additional infrastructure to support that growth. This includes equipment and staff.

Adding these positions will not only help us serve new clients, but our existing clients will benefit from our ability to provide even more advanced services.

“The management of technology and application hosting that we offer our clients is unique for today’s environment,” said Jeff Melcher, CEO and co-founder of NetStandard. “Our customers find that by utilizing our team for their technology needs, their time and energy is freed up and more efficiently focused on their key areas of business – something that is essential to surviving in the current economy.

Read more about our expansion at the Kansas City Kansan.

NetStandard can help your business. Learn more about NetStandard’s managed services, data center hosting and business applications. Still have questions? Contact us.

Information on these positions will be posted at the Career Center as it becomes available.

Business Value to Thrive in Difficult Economic Times

2009-04-18T17:02:00.017-05:00

Economic conditions demand action on the part of business leaders to increase efficiency and performance in order to thrive in the current difficult economic landscape. NetStandard, an SMB itself, has spent a great deal of time discussing how we can help our customers grow and prosper during these challenging times. Customers are demanding better solutions that reduce costs, save time, and increase operating efficiencies. Reduced availability of loans and operating cash flow can make achieving these goals a challenge. Here are key questions we hear from customer executives:

How do I continue to meet customer service demands with a reduced workforce?
How do I increase efficiency with limited ability to get loans or excess cash available for capital investment?
How do I grow my business, find new customers and leads, and achieve financial success when I've reduced staff and still have to service my existing customer base?
My company lacks the ability to invest in tools to assist with process improvement—how do we optimize business processes?
My IT staff is reduced—how will I manage the new technologies needed to optimize and gain operational efficiencies?

As we worked through these comments (and others), we considered what could produce solutions that will help customers continue to thrive. In summary, we have focused our efforts in 2009 to the following:

Software as a Service Solutions. Software as a Service solutions require no capital outlay for hardware and software. Once implemented, NetStandard's SaaS solutions are continuously monitored, patched, upgraded, supported and managed. Customers gain the ability to leverage a team of experts that they could not expect to staff in-house.

Note that customers must invest capital in the costs to design, define and implement both organizational process changes and system customizations required to implement those operational efficiencies. NetStandard has focused the initial offerings (first launched in June 2007) upon business tools essential to running any business. This includes customer relationship management (CRM) designed to ensure optimized sales processes; enterprise resource planning (ERP) to optimize company resources; collaboration tools; information portals; interactive work flow; document management; mobile communications, and more.Additional SaaS solution providers will be focused in business segments like financial management, healthcare, and more. NetStandard is currently in negotiations with a number of SaaS solution providers to join the NetStandard Hosted SaaS Solution Alliance. The goals of the alliance will be to help SMB's compete, grow, and prosper using SaaS as a tool.

Hardware as a Service Solutions. Hardware as a Service delivers hardware and software for a monthly rental fee. There is no need for companies to invest in more IT infrastructure: they only need to rent the capacity they need for a monthly fee. Remember this: "Friends don't let friends buy servers and software" . . . buy Service.

IT Managed Services. Customers can actually improve IT service levels, ensure regulatory compliance, add services, and reduce costs by outsourcing IT to NetStandard. Don't be confused by other ITMS providers who take money and deliver only what could be achieved by continuing with an internal staff member. All ITMS solutions are NOT created equal. Join the legions of worldwide companies who are now ITMS customers at NetStandard . . . delivering Fortune 500 IT services at an SMB price.

Everything NetStandard does is intended to assist small and medium sized businesses grow, compete, and prosper through the implementation and support of technology. Please contact NetStandard to discuss how NSI can help you optimize grow and prosper during these difficult economic times.

Security Update for April 2009

2009-04-13T11:26:00.003-05:00

Written By: Robert Jenkins -CISSP

Security in the NEWS

In the past few days, there have been multiple stories of sobering import regarding potentially troubling security issues. First, there was the mysterious GhostNet. As reported by The New York Times on March 28, 2009, researchers for the Information Warfare Monitor:

... opened a window into a broader operation that, in less than two years, has infiltrated at least 1,295 computers in 103 countries, including many belonging to embassies, foreign ministries and other government offices

Symantec has published an online video showing how the GhostNet toolset works.

On March 31, a Congressional subcommittee held a hearing on the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). The head of the subcommittee stated:

The payment card industry and issuing banks should be ashamed about the current state of play and doing everything possible to immediately institute improvements in infrastructure.

Soon after, The Wall Street Journal released an article on April 8, entitled “Electricity Grid in U.S. Penetrated By Spies”. TheWSJ wrote:

Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, according to current and former national-security officials.

Skepticism has been expressed over the timing and purpose of the release. According to Forbes:

Some suspect that the timing behind the security officials' new revelations may be intended as a tactic to coax private utility companies into participating in cybersecurity regulatory initiatives currently under review.

Forbes also quotes Alan Paller, director of the SANS Institute:

The threats that the reports describe, however, are far from exaggerated ...

A day after the WSJ article, we were told that the Conficker worm:

... has been reprogrammed to strengthen its defenses while also trying to attack more machines.

Some believe that the stories have been released to support the proposed Cybersecurity Act of 2009 and a companion bill which would create the Office of the National Cybersecurity Advisor and give the president the power to basically shut down the Internet.

Regardless of the motive of the stories, our computer infrastructure is vulnerable, and every company which operates a computer network must protect the security of its information assets. There is no solution which can render a computer network invulnerable to attack. However, there are basic common sense steps which can be taken to make any company much safer.

Microsoft Convergence National Conference Update

2009-03-11T16:00:00.001-06:00

I'm writing you from the annual Convergence Conference held at New Orleans. The CRM sessions at Convergence have been great. Microsoft has given great insight into their newly released CRM Accelerators. The CRM Accelerators are a pre-packaged set customizations used to quickly address common needs and requests in the CRM software. For example, the Business Analytics Accelerator, provides a set of SRS Dashboards linked to the core information in your organization. The sales and marketing dashboards allow users to quickly view key performance indicators and useful metrics relevant to their position in the company.

Also, the eService Accelerator allows for web based case management by customers as well as a fully functional Knowledge Base search engine. This tool will allow customers to see the status of their submitted cases, update their contact profile, and search through the CRM Knowledge Base for common issue resolutions. The eService Accelerator will save your customer service personnel time, through automation, while allowing you to provide great service to your customers. This is just a few examples of the CRM Accelerators and how they can help your business. Microsoft will be releasing more Accelerators as well as enhancements to the current Accelerator packages in late April. The great thing is that they are ready to install and most of all, they are FREE to CRM users.

We have also seen the power of CRM with the Microsoft Messaging platform. This truly is the future of both internal and external communications for businesses. This full suite of products from CRM and SharePoint to the Microsoft Messaging platform give users the power of Document Management, Collaboration, and CRM Automation while integrating with the way you already communicate today. This is accomplished by integrating MS Messenger chat service, VOIP Communications, and Live Meeting video conferencing services all inside of the CRM and SharePoint systems you use every day. It allows your employees and customer the flexibility to communicate with ease while integrating with your CRM system to track historical communications with all customers. I'm off to another session. Will be back to Kansas City and in the office next week.

Planning Pays-Off for a Successful SharePoint Deployment

2009-03-11T15:24:00.000-06:00

When launched in 2001, Microsoft was successful in providing end-users the opportunity to dynamically create team web sites. The sites were able to host document libraries, task lists, and calendars for project teams and other work groups. These initial collaboration sites did not require significant planning or forethought. The functionality was basic and easily configurable at the team level with the users driving the strategy for how sites would be used and managed. That was then and this in now. Today, SharePoint has the ability to be the connective tissue that brings together applications, workflow processes and data from across the enterprise to a single desktop. SharePoint provides a self service environment where office workers can take control of information - how it’s organized, who gets access to in, and how it’s displayed.

As Microsoft continued to evolve SharePoint in the 2003 release, there was some confusion in businesses as to how best to use the tool. With the launch of SharePoint 2007, and the improved integration with the Microsoft Office suite of products, SharePoint finally has its legs and can start really working for organizations. Taking full advantage of today’s SharePoint technology and enabling it to drive business value requires the development of a thoughtful implementation plan and roadmap. Can you implement SharePoint without a plan? The short answer is “Yes”, but the smart answer is “No”. Organizations that do typically end up with little more than the team sites that were developed with the initial releases of the product.

SharePoint 2007 can bring the organizations the ability to build integrated workflows, develop dashboards with key performance indicators (KPIs), and bring enterprise applications together that improve the quality of execution and efficiency of the operations. Driving this value for the organization just requires time to develop a strategic roadmap for integration. Before you embark on the SharePoint journey, NetStandard would strongly encourage you to build that roadmap for success.

Long Term Storage

2009-02-18T08:12:00.008-06:00

DataSafe is a system that sends backup data from a customer's internal network over their Internet connection to the NetStandard's DataSafe Vault located in our SAS70 type II certified, high-availability data center. DataSafe continues to enable companies to meet the data protection demands of legislation including Sarbanes-Oxley, Gramm-Leach Bliley, PCI and HIPAA.

Most customers are seeing growth of data storage requirements exceed 40% year over year. With that growth, their back-ups continue to increase. In response to this need, NetStandard is announcing the availability of DataSafe Backup Lifecycle Management™ feature.

In response to this need, NetStandard is announcing the availability of DataSafe Backup Lifecycle Management™ feature. BLM manages data during all backup archiving processes, separating the data into varying levels of protected data: current critical data, which is permanently stored online for fast recovery; and archivable important data that may be needed at a later time but is not likely to be accessed in the near future. Backup data stored in an archive means it is not immediately retrievable like backup data stored online, but it is significantly more economical than storing it online.

As every company’s digital data is growing at an increasing rate, companies are experiencing mounting storage costs, so they are looking for cheaper storage options for their less critical backup data. DataSafe BLM allows customers a lower cost service for archiving long-term backups, which can be quickly retrieved from the BLM archive back to the customer. BLM also allows service providers to help customers with their data compliance requirements, as BLM manages the movement of the different types of data as well as assigning dates for the final destruction of specific data, along with issuing destruction certificates.

In order to save on storage costs, companies often and mistakenly choose to store the less critical backup data offline in their own vault, while their critical backups remain online in the vault of their service provider. Alternatively, they opt to delete the non-critical data altogether. However, there are many problems associated with both of these options:

The customer can never retrieve the data that has been deleted.
The customer may be in breach of data compliance laws if the data is deleted.
It is cumbersome to manually separate the critical backup data from the long-term backup data.
If the customer wishes to retrieve archived backup data from their own vault, the data cannot be transported back to the online storage medium from where it is easy to restore the data.

NetStandard’s BLM can negate these problems for end users with DataSafe BLM. The tool meta-tags the less critical or older backup data before it is archived offline, so that archived backup data can easily be restored to the online medium. BLM also intelligently manages the movement of data from the online storage to the BLM archive, whereby backup data which is no longer critical (i.e. not required day-to-day, older and perceived as less valuable) is automatically moved to the archive, but is still accessible. The end user benefits from a less expensive archival solution that manages the data for them and allows easy access to the archived data.

DataSafe Continues to Deliver These Industry Leading Features...

Data Protection
Data loss or corruption can be disastrous for companies. Privacy is currently on the forefront of most peoples minds. In fact, regulatory requirements demand that data be protected. With NetStandard we can assure you that your data will be kept private and will be protected.

Multiple Operating Systems
DataSafe can back-up Windows, Mac, Linux/Unix, Novell, and AS400 (iSeries) files quickly, securely and safely.

Real-Time Database Back-Ups
DataSafe can back-up MS SQL, MySQL, and Oracle databases in real-time.

Message-Level Message Store Back-Ups and Restores
Backup of messages from Microsoft Exchange, Novell Groupwise and IBM’s Lotus Notes.

Agentless
DataSafe usually requires installation of client software on only one stand-alone Windows desktop on your premises. Deployment is easy and fast. DataSafe Specs

DataSafe Security
HIPAA and Sarbanes Oxley Compliant. Authentication, strong encryption and non-escrowed keys provide the peace of mind for you to know your data is safe. Data is encrypted in flight and at rest.

Remote Data Back-Up Optimization
All transmitted encrypted data is compressed and de-duplicated and only changes to files are transmitted to the remote backup store. This means more data can be easily backed up over your company's existing Internet connection. After initial back-up, 20:1 or 30:1 transmission efficiency.

Multiple file generations
DataSafe enables you to keep multiple versions (you decide how many) and retrieve protected files from DataSafe easily and safely.

Ease of Use
Customers find that the graphical user interface makes file back-up and restore a snap. The ability to review reports online eases the pain associated with daily back-up and restore.

Reseller Sales Channel
DataSafe offers support for individual customer invoicing, customer specific data analysis and reporting. These features are all delivered through an easy to use online web portal.

The primary causes of data breaches

2009-02-17T15:41:00.004-06:00

Security Update:

Written by: Robert Jenkins - CISSP

PGP Corporation and the Ponemon Institute recently announced the results of its fourth annual U.S. Cost of a Data Breach Study. The study states:

… the cost of a data breach continues to rise. Increasingly more organizations are losing business as a result of a breach, with 69 percent of a breach cost attributed to lost business… While organizations have learned how to respond to a breach more cost effectively, customers are increasingly prone to terminate their business relationship due to lost data, producing consistently higher abnormal churn rates.

… As information risk management becomes important across the enterprise, the investment required to prevent a data breach is dwarfed by the resulting costs of a breach. With average breach costs totaling $6.6 million and the source of many breaches (such as laptops and USB flash drives) critical to productivity, the return on investment (ROI) and justification for preventative measures is clear.

The report lists the primary causes of data breaches. At the top of the list, are lost laptops and other data devices, accounting for 49 percent of breaches.

Privacyrights.org provides a Chronology of Data Breaches. Search through the site for data breaches resulting from lost or stolen laptops, and you will find many incidents noted. As indicated by the Ponemon Institute study, a centrally managed encryption solution is crucial to protecting the data residing on laptops, USB flash drives and PDAs.

Obviously, encryption alone is not enough. Key loggers can still capture passwords typed into the laptop and screen scrapers can take screenshots of data displayed on the monitor. Thus, the importance of a risk management program becomes clear. Reasonably foreseeable risks such as those just mentioned should be identified and countermeasures implemented. As part of your risk management program, you should determine whether your PC security software blocks key loggers and screen scrapers. And what other security risks do your mobile users face? This is a question you must answer. Moreover, due to the constantly changing threat landscape, your organization’s risk assessment process must be conducted on an ongoing basis.

As a side note, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published recommendations for cell phone and PDA security. NIST publications are a helpful resource.

Please feel free to contact us anytime about technology and security-related issues. NetStandard is a PGP partner. We can discuss encryption solutions, as well as firewalls, intrusion prevention systems and anti-virus applications.

A World Without Multiple Sclerosis - MS Society Kansas

2008-12-29T11:04:00.001-06:00

The mission of the Multiple Sclerosis Society is to stop the devastating effects of MS, offer more services for people with MS and provide education and MS advocacy. In this video, health care professionals, loved ones and funders and donors have gathered at the Kansas MS Society's "A World without MS" exposition to help find the cause and cure of the crippling disease. Share on this video how MS effects so many lives and what a world without MS would mean.

What is a Virtual Machine?

2008-12-29T10:58:00.002-06:00

In this video, VMware Senior Partner Systems Engineer Jim Yanik explores how virtual machines work, how they can take a Virtual Machine, encapsulate it, move it from one physical server to another, or completely isolate it. Partitioning, isolation, hardware independence and encapsulation, Yanik explains, are the key to understanding VMI

VMware Educational Training Seminar

2008-12-29T10:43:00.007-06:00

In this video, VMware Senior Partner Systems Engineer Jim Yanik discusses VMware's industry-leading virtual infrastructure platform and how going virtual can benefit businesses big and small.

Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, VMware is the global leader in virtualization infrastructure software. Listening to Yanik, it's easy to understand why all of the Fortune 100, 90% of the Fortune 1000, and over 100,000 small- and medium-sized businesses take advantage of VMware.

VMware customers trust virtualization to more efficiently utilize server resources and to optimize management of their IT datacenters. This video helps to explain how you can achieve the same dramatic savings.

With VMWare and NetStandard, you will you no longer need to buy expensive hardware, to heat and cool sever sites and pay for maintenance, so consolidating servers can offer huge saving in energy costs and cut IT costs by 50%. Consider how long it takes to deploy a new server. It can be weeks from the time you decide you need it until it arrives. Then, there is costly set-up and maintenance. VMWare VI3 can be installed in mere moments, rather than days or weeks. And VMWare VI3 gives unprecedented control of resources to IT professionals; allowing administrators to assign processor power and migrate virtual machines with a just a few clicks and without effecting the end-user's experience.

Together, NetStandard and VMware offer customers guaranteed 99.99% uptime once they choose VMWare VI3 hosted virtual servers. NetStandard can prepare VMware Enterprise Edition servers for customers in under an hour, offering a secure environment on shared virtual hosts, using virtual LAN, firewalls and storage. Press play on the video to hear VMware and NetStandard share their customer success stories and to learn how you can take advantage of the latest advances in virtualization

Virtualization for SMB’s - NetStandard Inc. Interview

2008-12-29T10:22:00.005-06:00

Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, VMware is the global leader in virtualization infrastructure software. In this video, VMware Senior Partner Systems Engineer Jim Yanik discusses VMware's industry-leading virtual infrastructure, and how going virtual helps businesses big and small.

By replacing physical server hosts with virtual servers, companies eliminate the need to buy new servers for each new application. Instead they can leverage the existing underutilized capacity in their server hosts. As NetStandard's own John Leek notes, "Friends don't let friends buy servers."

Yanik further discusses the dramatic improvements in disaster recovery offered by virtualization. He explains how virtualization makes recovery from hard drive failure, flood or fire far simpler and much more reliable. With the VMware NetStandard partnership, even medium-sized and small businesses can afford the peace of mind that comes with having real, testable disaster protection. Additional benefits Yanik describes include how mobile users can use the virtual platform to access their server's IP without having to carry around laptop filled with valuable and proprietary information.

2009 Customer Information Technology Imperatives

2008-11-23T14:00:00.008-06:00

A recent publication highlighted IT imperatives for 2009. We’ve talked a great deal about how NetStandard is striving to provide Fortune 500 quality IT services to small and medium size business, but in reviewing the list, NetStandard can highlight our ability to address IT imperatives for customers. That includes those in regulated and unregulated lines of business and those that are medium and small. From virtualization to information security and analysis, we stand ready to address your company's short and long-term goals.

Information Security Management
NetStandard offers a comprehensive set of services around security including device encryption tools, UTM solutions, and partners to deliver 7x24 SOC services. Customers need to maintain appropriate security for their business and regulated requirements. These include firewalls, anti-spam, anti-virus, anti-malware and encrypted network connections for partners and those inside the network.

Network security assessments by our certified security team will identify the risks and possible mitigations to ensure critical data remains safe.

Business Intelligence
Informational reports represent an entry level approach to BI. BI permits deep analysis of data in an attempt to glean information that helps make strategic and tactical business decisions. NetStandard’s business applications team assists in the analysis of business data using tools like Microsoft Office Sharepoint Services, FRx, Crystal Reports and Excel Reporting Services to analyze and present customer’s with information needed to run their business and make business decisions.

Privacy Management
Do you keep any information that is subject to regulatory requirements?(health care, personal credit information, etc.)? Due care must be taken to shred paper which may contain sensitive information and to provide physical security to the facility and information. Technology can also be leveraged to protect electronic information. Some of the tools include disk-based encryption , SSL, IPSec and point-to-point VPN’s, intrusion detection and security monitoring.

NetStandard's security team can be leveraged to identify potential risks and mitigations to ensure data remains private.

Business Process Improvement, Work Flow and Process Exception Alerts
Process improvements can position a company for growth and produce quantifiable financial benefits. NetStandard leverages toolsets like workflow found in MS CRM, Sharepoint and Dynamics GP to optimize processes for small and medium size businesses and to reduce the amount of paper processed.

Making process changes are important, but so is exposing Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) that let's companies manage compliance with business processes and monitor the benefits of those process improvements.

Identity and Access Management
If your employees access many systems (inside and outside the company), it is difficult to manage 10, 20, 30, 40 passwords at a time. One company with which I’m familiar had 193 applications and users were managing 15-20 separate identities (user ID and password). Small to medium size companies can leverage some lower-cost tools if they find they are managing more than 4-5 individual identities per employee and may benefit from some products that securely manage user ids and passwords and enforce more stringent policies. Products including Citrix Password Manager, Citrix Access Gateway, Microsoft Active Directory and some desktop identity management products can provide benefits to clients that need to address this issue. The NetStandard security team can help you identify your companies requirements and ensure data remains secure and lowers your total cost of IT support.

Secure Data File Storage, Transmission and Exchange
Customers must protect proprietary data. NetStandard offers products that address these issues including DataSafe online back-up. DataSafe encrypts and stores back-up data using 256 bit AES encryption and using a key known only to select customer personnel.

NetStandard also offers disk encryption products for laptops, desktops, and portable media devices. Products from PGP and Microsoft provide affordable solutions for small and medium size businesses that need these capabilities. The best solutions are those that manage supportability with the need for data protection.

Data transmissions and exchanges can be protected using SSL and IPSec VPN’s either point to point or through individual access to files and information. Tools like the Citrix Access Gateway can be leveraged to enforce workstation policies and provide secure authentication and access. Firewalls can provide VPN connections including individual access by mobile users using SSL VPN's.

Engage the NetStandard security team of CISSP’s to help assess corporate network risks and to understand how to mitigate identified risks.

Business Continuity Management and Disaster Recovery Planning
Most companies have elected to purchase business continuance insurance rather than spending the money to address business continuity and disaster recovery. Individual companies must make their own decision.

If your company determines that business continuity and disaster recovery planning are important to ensure the viability of your business, Netstandard stands ready to provide solutions to deliver everything from work area recovery to data replication and disaster recovery.

To address disaster recovery, NetStandard delivers a number of alternative technologies designed to ensure important applications and data are recovered. NetStandard’s solutions leverage technologies from VMWare, FalconStor, IBM and more that are designed to optimize the balance between recoverability and cost.

Business continuity solutions are also offered including those from Agility Recovery Solutions. Agility will deliver IT equipment and even workspace in portable trailers to ensure a business can continue to function after a disaster.

Audit Process Improvement
Getting ready for a regulatory audit? Processes and controls are important, but must be appropriately applied to each business. NetStandard offers business process and security audits designed to focus on making improvements to your business and your business' security posture.

Electronic Data Retention Strategy
Data and information retention policies identify how long customers must retain data. Retaining data longer than necessary wastes disk space and introduces legal risks associated with lawsuits. NetStandard offers DataSafe as a way to encrypt and store your data for a predetermined length of time. Other products from Microsoft and others are available to address and enforce policies to address archival and deletion of data beyond retention dates.

Improved Application and Data Integration
Companies can benefit from the productivity gains and information integration benefits of key applications. The applications offered through the NetStandard Enabled Business ™ provide an integrated suite of applications that provide seemless access between e-mail, enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, business intelligence and business collaboration tools.

Enhanced Business Reporting
NetStandard’s business applications team works with customers to analyze business data using tools like Microsoft Office Sharepoint Services, FRx, Crystal Reports and Excel Reporting Services. This information can be presented on demand to those in the organization that wish to make business decisions. to analyze and present customer’s with information needed to run their business and make business decisions.

Document, Forms, Content and Knowledge Management
Businesses that excel at managing information improve productivity, scalability and efficiency and at the same time improve customer service. Since business processes almost always involve paper, the challenge is to reduce paper as much as possible and manage both paper and electronic processes in parallel to achieve efficiencies. NetStandard has deployed a number of reengineered efficient processes in Dynamics CRM installations as well as ERP deployments with Dynamics GP. Sharepoint provides another platform to optimize processes.

Training and Competency
Its important for companies to understand the key benefits they can receive from leveraging new technologies. This understanding can only be developed through effective training. NetStandard provides lunch and learns and one-on-one consulting designed to assist customers in building understanding of the technologies they can deploy and how to employ those technologies to the customer’s benefit.

Mobile and Remote Computing
Enabling people to work from anywhere and at any time is the goal of mobile and remote computing. NetStandard is a Citrix Gold partner and supports technologies like Citrix XenApp and the Citrix Access Gateway that partner to deliver secure access to corporate data.

Alternatively, firewall solutions include UTM bundles that provide individual secure VPN access to corporate data. NetStandard supports firewall solutions from Cisco, Juniper, Fortinet and Watchguard that provide access from mobile devices to corporate data and applications using fat client access, Windows Terminal Server 2008 or Citrix XenApp.

Another approach is to leverage NetStandard’s SaaS offerings to enable employees to access the same applications in the office or out of the office. All of it is maintained by NetStandard and monitored 7x24x365 and housed in NetStandard’s N+1 data center.

Customer Relationship Management
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) includes contact management, calendaring, practice management, sales history, email integration, workflow integration, and marketing campaigns. NetStandard’s solution leverages industry leading price/performance from Microsoft Dynamics CRM and offers additional security and functionality of GaleForce. Microsoft Dynamics CRM enables implementations of automated processes that provide a comprehensive view of customer relationships and enables organizations to manage all aspects of their interactions with customers.

Collaboration – Information Portals
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides a single, integrated web portal that enables employees to efficiently collaborate with team members, locate and access organizational resources, search corporate information, manage content and workflow, and leverage business insight to make better-informed decisions. Collaboration enables teams to work together effectively, collaborate on and publish documents, maintain task lists, implement workflows, and share information.
• Portals Create a personal "MySite portal" to share information with others and personalize the user experience and content of an enterprise Web site based on the user’s profile.
• Enterprise Search quickly and easily finds content in the corporate network.
• Create and manage documents, records, and content.
• Workflow business processes and forms allow users to create workflows and capture information to automate and streamline your business processes
• Business Intelligence (BI) allows information workers to easily access critical business information, analyze and view data, and publish reports to make more informed decisions.

Web Deployed Applications
NetStandard offers a growing suite of “cloud computing” solutions. These include Linux and Windows servers rented on a month-to-month basis and sometimes called hardware as a service (HaaS). These servers can be rented with operating system licensing month to month for production, development or testing needs. Using HaaS, customers can leverage NetStandard's highly redundant data center to deliver any application. The infrastructure employs redundancy and virtualization technologies to maximize the availability of systems.

SaaS--Customers who employ Software as a Service (SaaS) can enjoy secure access to applications from anywhere they have an internet connection, a solution managed professionally 24 hours a day and 7 days a week by the NetStandard staff and housed in NetStandard’s SAS70 type II audited high availability data center. NetStandard currently offers a suite of integrated applications: MS Dynamics CRM, Dynamics GP, Windows Sharepoint Services, Exchange E-mail, MS Office 2007, MOSS, GaleForce (Wealth Management) and more to come. These solutions free customers to focus on their business utilizing a cost per user per month. If the number of employees shrinks, their costs shrink, if the number of employees grow, their costs grow at a predictable incremental pace. They also benefit from NetStandard’s commitment to deliver a consistent, reliable and cost-competitive platform.

Moving Beyond MS Office 2003
Newer office automation platforms like Microsoft Office 2007 provide the next generation of productivity improvements. NetStandard offers services to install and upgrade desktops and servers with the latest releases of software OR move to a SaaS model where hosted solutions deliver the hardware and software licenses to deliver current solutions delivered and maintained by NetStandard.

Virtualization
Virtualization provides the ability to consolidate workloads onto fewer physical servers, desktops and storage devices. This provides an avenue to save significant money in hardware and support costs freeing business capital to focus on specific business needs.

Application virtualization technologies like Citrix XenApp and coming solutions from Microsoft, provide an avenue for reduced support costs and improved performance for mobile and remote users.

Tablet Computing
Tablet computing provides technologies like hand writing recognition. NetStandard represents tablet products from Dell, Lenovo and HP.

Unified Communications
Unified communications services includes audio, text, fax, instant messaging, VoIP, web conferencing and e-mail. NetStandard delivers solutions from Microsoft and Cisco and is testing solutions from the open source community.

Conclusion
Contact your NetStandard Technology Manager or Solution Consultant to discuss how NetStandard can help your company during 2009.

Sauder Custom Fabrication Selects NetStandard Inc. to Implement Microsoft Dynamics GP Suite

2008-11-12T08:38:00.000-06:00

Small town company is experiencing the support of fast and easily accessed information which is expected to increase efficiency in monitoring company costs.

Kansas City, Kansas - October 10, 2008- Sauder Custom Fabrication has chosen NetStandard to bring the power and efficiency of Microsoft Dynamics GP Advanced Management Suite to its business and IT systems. The powerful and flexible business management solution was paired up with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 with Microsoft Dynamics Business Portal, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, PaperSave Pro and Scribe Insights; the best in business intelligence. The premier custom fabrication company chose to connect all of their business management tools with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and Microsoft Windows Server 2008. Sauder evaluated software from Oracle and SAP before selecting Microsoft Dynamics.
The new technology will handle key business processes for Sauder Custom Fabrication, which is based in Emporia Kansas. The company, which demands the highest levels of quality, integrity and dependability at every point of operation, has high regard for NetStandard Inc. and the quality services provided.
According to Steve Standerwick of Sauder Custom Fabrication, “We went with Microsoft because of the name and the familiarity that all of our employees have with their other products. This system will be replacing an old AS400 system with dummy terminals that has been in place for over 20 years,” continues Standerwick “We are very excited about the availability of information and ease of use with the new system. It will enable us to monitor our costs much more closely and have all costs associated with a project at our finger tips.”

The company expects the move to Microsoft Dynamics GP to provide significant value and aid in the strict adherence to client specifications and industry codes, which is of the utmost importance to them. NetStandard Inc. is pleased to have helped meet the needs of Sauder Custom Fabrication with the implementation of the flexible features of Microsoft Dynamics GP and aid in their continued success.

“Microsoft Dynamics products provide the most out-of-the-box benefits for our customers, along with an architecture that enables us to put our knowledge and experience to work for Sauder Custom Fabrication and our other customers,” said John Leek, Chief Technology Officer at NetStandard Inc.
NetStandard Inc. is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner headquartered in Kansas City, Kansas which offers a full slate of Fortune 500 quality services, enhancing small and mid-size business through the implementation and management of technology.

“Microsoft invests heavily in our partners to ensure they have all the latest information and resources at their fingertips to develop the world’s best solutions for our shared customers,” said Michael Park, corporate vice president for U.S. Microsoft Dynamics at Microsoft Corp. “NetStandard Inc. has demonstrated know-how helping Sauder Custom Fabrication and its other customers generate business value with Microsoft Dynamics products.”

Microsoft Dynamics is a line of financial, customer relationship and supply chain management software that helps businesses work more effectively. Delivered through a network of channel partners providing specialized services, these integrated, adaptable business management solutions work like and with familiar Microsoft software to streamline processes across an entire business.
About NetStandard Inc.
NetStandard is a premier technology provider dedicated to delivering the greatest value and highest quality service to every customer. Their focus is on improving business productivity through three primary areas: IT Managed Services, high availability data center services and Business Applications. Their state-of-art facility is located in Kansas City.

FREE Microsoft Dynamics CRM Event

2008-11-06T13:26:00.001-06:00

Don't miss this FREE event on December 4, 2008, and learn how Microsoft Dynamics CRM can increase productivity and generate revenue.
You will learn how NetStandard and Microsoft Dynamics CRM work together to provide a comprehensive Customer Relationship Management solution that addresses issues and concerns across departments. And with all departments working together, your people will be able access and manage all the information they need to boost sales, increase profits, and keep customers happy.
Register today and learn how NetStandard and Microsoft Dynamics CRM can help you make the most out of every opportunity. Call 913-262-3888 x292 or click HERE to register.