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Time to move away from classic email hosting

info@intuitiveit.com.au — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 01:00:00 GMT

It’s time. You've been thinking about it for a while now as you've seen other people search and find emails from their phone that date back decades while you can’t receive the email from your client that was sent this morning.

It’s your email hosting and you know it. It’s old and clunky and doesn't give you all the features you need.

Well there is a very simply solution for you and your business. It’s time to upgrade.

A little history

When email became a business tool, basic email services were provided with your website hosting. This kind of email hosting served its purpose.

It was cheap, you generally received 10 or email accounts and it was easy to connect your Outlook Express to it. This kind of technology was called POP. It simply kept the email on the server until you performed a send and receive and then it was on your computer.

In later years, POP was surpassed by IMAP. This allowed you to keep a copy of all your emails on the server as well as your computer and any other devices. This meant that if you lost your computer you had a copy backed up in the cloud.

Even though as a service it is better than POP, POP was still used by most ISPs because your ISP didn't want to have to pay for the extra storage to keep all your business’ emails.

Up until 5 or so years ago, the enterprise had a monopoly on the true business grade email. This involved the ability of syncing not only just your email, but your contacts, calendars and notes as well. However, for most businesses, this meant you needed a Microsoft Exchange server (or one of the other varieties). This was expensive to setup and maintain so most businesses kept their email on POP or IMAP.

Email is business critical

Recent events involving Melbourne IT and their major issues with email hosting has many small businesses up in arms. Many businesses struggle to function without email and this has hurt them badly.

The good news is there is no need to use old, outdated technology or pay for more than what you need. These days you can have the best of both worlds.

Google and Microsoft...To the rescue!

Google Apps and Microsoft 365 are both examples of why you should say goodbye to POP and IMAP and embrace the concept that all your business data can be accessed from any device and as long as you’re connected to the internet, you'll have the most up to date emails.

Both Google and Microsoft provide cloud hosted email. This means your contacts, calendar and emails are stored on their data centres. These data centres have incredibly high up times. Microsoft 365’s last quarterly uptime was 99.98%. This means emails were inaccessible for 24 minutes during that 3 month period! That’s a bit better than Melbourne IT users being down for 3 days.

Storage is another reason to move to either Google or Microsoft, with the tech giants providing 30 GB and 50 GB of storage per mailbox respectively. Most ISPs provide something between 50 Mb to 250 Mb which is 1,000 times less storage than Google or Microsoft.

It’s more than just email

In addition to hosting your email data, they will also provide with the ability to sync and share your business documents and files, not only across your devices but across your team and even external parties.

They'll also provide a high quality spam filter service as part of your subscription. Although not perfect, they learn from past spam message and will catch the bulk of the unsolicited emails.

They also provide a web interface so you can access your email and files even if you don’t have your laptop or smart phone with you.

Is there any reason not to switch over? No is the short answer.

How much is it?

Costs are $50/mailbox/year for Google and $60/mailbox/year for Office 365. If you upgrade your Office 365 plan to $100/mailbox/year you'll also have access to the latest version of Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook) for the life of your subscription.

Google’s online competitor to Office (Docs, Sheets, Slides and Gmail) are included in the cost of your subscription. Getting use to working in your browser the whole time is the only thing you need to account for here, but that can be done in a month.

So you could argue that the cost of service is prohibitive. And yes, it is more expensive than your current email hosting.

The question you have to ask yourself is, as a business, what happens if you don’t have email access for 4 hours, or a day or a week? What is the cost to your business then? In fact, you don’t need to ask yourself, just read the comments here.

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It's not a bug, it's a feature

info@intuitiveit.com.au — Sun, 02 Mar 2014 01:00:00 GMT

IT'S AN OLD STORY: Developer writes code. Code taps vendor API. Vendor changes API without properly documenting the effects of the change. Developer gets burned.

Originally published by Info World

By Randall C. Kennedy
November 21, 2001

Such was the case during our recent performance testing of Windows XP (see "Waiting for Windows XP," Oct. 29). It seems that Microsoft decided to change the default behavior of certain MDAC (Microsoft Data Access Components) for the new Windows, with the net result being a significant change in how SQL Server database connections are established. Instead of using Named Pipes as the Network Library, as MDAC does in Windows 2000, MDAC 2.7 -- the version used in Windows XP -- defaults to TCP/IP.

This change may seem innocuous, but only until you consider how a sudden switch of network libraries can affect application behavior. The TCP/IP library for SQL Server consumes more CPU cycles than does the Named Pipes library, especially in transactional scenarios where requests are batched together to improve performance. More CPU time for the libraries means less CPU time for the application. It's not hard to see how the introduction of an unexpected external load (more demanding libraries) can adversely affect a heavily tasked system.

Looking for answers

We discovered this phenomenon quite by accident while testing client/server database workloads on a Windows XP PC. Although throughput to and from the server was excellent, the processing overhead involved in maintaining the SQL Server connection began to overwhelm the PC. Multitasking test scenarios that required only seconds to complete on Windows 2000 were taking several minutes on Windows XP. It wasn't until after several conversations with Microsoft that we learned of the change in default MDAC behavior. And, as it turned out, we were indeed executing a test script -- an OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) database connection string -- that relied on the original behavior, namely, defaulting to Named Pipes.

The story might have ended there had we not decided to dig deeper. For starters, we wanted to know exactly when the change became part of a shipping MDAC release. Was Windows XP the first product to feature the revised libraries? Were there other products or service packs that might feature the update? We also wanted to know where and how the change was documented. Changing a default behavior and then documenting it is risky enough; changing a default behavior and leaving the change undocumented (or poorly documented) is unforgivable. It's the kind of irresponsible indifference that ultimately alienates developers.

We eventually learned from Microsoft that the change first appeared in MDAC 2.6, the version that shipped with SQL Server 2000 (Windows 2000 ships with MDAC 2.5) and that the change in default behavior was made, ostensibly, at the request of several of Microsoft's larger corporate customers. As for documentation, a thorough review of the release notes for MDAC 2.6 and MDAC 2.7 revealed no mention of the change. Neither did an exhaustive search of Microsoft's Knowledge Base. In more than 200 articles on MDAC we found not a single mention of a change to the default network library. In fact, Microsoft was hard-pressed to find a reference itself. In the end the company referred us to a single Knowledge Base article, one focusing on an otherwise unrelated topic (ODBC), where the reference was made mostly in passing.

So there we were. We had identified the source of the performance anomaly: A poorly documented, one might argue undocumented, change in the default behavior of a key MDAC component. We almost let the issue die right there, but something Microsoft said kept gnawing at us: The change to the default network library first appeared in MDAC 2.6. This version of MDAC, we learned, was released specifically to support new features in Microsoft SQL Server 2000. All of this evidence begged the question, if Microsoft is frequently updating MDAC to support its server products, how would the introduction of a change such as that in the default network library affect a more servercentric solution, such as a database-driven Web site?

Back to the test lab

Naturally, the only way to find out was to build an actual Web site and test it; and that's what we did. Using our soon-to-be released ASP (Active Server Pages) workload simulator, ASP Stress, we conducted a series of tests to gauge transactional database query performance using a dual-processor Pentium III Web server running Windows 2000 with MDAC 2.7. By monitoring the server's CPU utilization counters via the Windows Performance Monitor application, as well as our own ASP Stress transaction timer, we were able to measure the impact of a switch from Named Pipes (the Windows 2000/MDAC 2.5 default) to TCP/IP (the Windows XP/MDAC 2.6 and MDAC 2.7 default).

And impact there was. Although overall server CPU utilization rose by a modest 8 percent using TCP/IP, context switches per second -- a measure of the operating system's ability to juggle multiple tasks -- dropped by more than 150 percent for a 10-user workload. In real-world terms, this meant a 10 percent to 15 percent loss in overall SQL Server transaction performance as we scaled the server from 10 users to 25 users and finally to 50 users.

Needless to say, this is the sort of unexpected behavioral change that can cause a particularly busy Web application to start dropping connections or, in extreme cases, to crash. And it happens because Microsoft switched defaults to appease a few of its preferred customers. To be fair, we can't blame Microsoft for trying to keep its top IT partners happy. That's just good business. But it certainly should have taken the time to clue the rest of us in about the changes.

The moral of the story is this: Never put trust in a default behavior, especially when a sudden change to that behavior could have an adverse effect on application performance. Of course it doesn't help that most examples of Microsoft SQL Server connect string code omit the Network Library parameter, thereby encouraging developers to rely on the default value. Although it's true that many IT shops will catch such changes during qualification testing (assuming scalability is part of the test matrix), we can't help but be concerned when Microsoft starts to tinker with such an integral part of its key server products such as SQL Server, and developer tools such as Visual Studio, both of which often incorporate updates to MDAC.

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Microsoft's Distributed Computing Timeline

info@intuitiveit.com.au — Sun, 02 Mar 2014 01:00:00 GMT

Is your UPS smart enough to protect your servers and data?

info@intuitiveit.com.au — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

You may already have a UPS, but this only half the solution. If your UPS isn't "smart" enough to realise it is running on batteries, the server will just run the batteries dry. Once the batteries have been exhausted, the server shuts down abruptly and the chances of data loss are still present.

Mobile Phone Health Scare: The Whole Story

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 19:13:00 GMT

The past few weeks have brought about great debate regarding mobile phones and the potential health risks they have. But what are the facts?

The 2011 Budget and What It Means for Australian ICT

Fri, 13 May 2011 18:07:00 GMT

Intuitive IT has a look into the ICT side of the 2011 Australian Budget.

HOW TO: Fix Error message: “The User Profile Service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded.”

Wed, 11 May 2011 11:36:00 GMT

Has the error message "“The User Profile Service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded” ever alerted you while trying to log into your Windows 7 or Windows Vista PC? If it has then don’t worry, we’re going to show you how to fix this problem for good.

Art4iPad Competition!

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 14:29:00 GMT

Find out more information on the Art4iPad competition where you could be the lucky winner of a 16GB WiFi Apple iPad!

Our New Home

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 15:08:00 GMT

Intuitive IT has moved it's office location into the heart of Fitzroy. Click here to view photos of the new office building and space.

Android Market Malware Scare

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 12:09:00 GMT

Google removes 58 malicious apps from its Android Market and activates a kill switch to remove all apps from user phones.

How to Plan and Execute the Perfect Office Move

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 12:57:00 GMT

An easy guide on how to move office equipment to a new location.

Future trends of the internet

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 16:22:00 GMT

What will the internet bring in 2011? I recently stumbled across a blog that might have a bit of insight into the digital trends that we may all face in 2011.

Linking Facebook to the Correct Business Page

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 12:03:00 GMT

Having problems linking your Facebook employment information to the correct Facebook business page? We show you how to solve this problem in just a few simple steps.

New Vulnerability in Internet Explorer

info@intuitiveit.com.au — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 01:30:00 GMT

Microsoft has warned that its Internet Explorer browser is at risk of a newly discovered vulnerability.

The company has yet to develop a permanent fix for the security hole but does have a temporary fix that prevents hackers from exploiting a hole to install malicious scripts.

Intuitive IT helps build Queensland flood appeal website

info@intuitiveit.com.au — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 01:30:00 GMT

From late yesterday afternoon to the wee hours of this morning, we were feverishly working away on our computers building the Victorian Restaurants Unite, Queensland flood relief initiative.

New look Intuitive IT Website

info@intuitiveit.com.au — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 01:30:00 GMT

Today we launched a new look for our website. With a cleaner interface, font change to Century Gothic and modified colour scheme, I think the site has increased in readability and professionalism.

Telstra Mobile claims account due in 2 days is overdue

info@intuitiveit.com.au — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 01:30:00 GMT

Telstra stops you making additions to your account when there is an outstanding amount to be paid. That's fair. What's not fair is when they stop you from making additions when the account is due in 2 days time.

Tool to check (and fix) your Facebook privacy settings

info@intuitiveit.com.au — Wed, 19 May 2010 00:30:00 GMT

Because of the convoluted and confusing way Facebook has designed the privacy settings it is hard to tell what is secure and what isn't.

Luckily the people at http://www.reclaimprivacy.org/ have created a tool that will show you how your private information is shared and then allow you to fix it.

Fixing it can be as simple as clicking a button or just checking to ensure that the settings are as they should be.

Best Business Laptop is MacBookPro - Linkedin experts

info@intuitiveit.com.au — Mon, 17 May 2010 00:30:00 GMT

I have to return the laptop to one of my clients that was allowing me to use it. Thus the need for a new laptop.

I thought I’d do some crowd sourcing and ask the LinkedIn.com experts to see what they thought the best business laptop is.

The question I asked was:

I'm in the market for a new laptop and looking for some ideas.

Looking for a 15" business laptop that can run multiple apps at once with grace.

Some apps will be memory and cpu intensive so it needs to cope. Good keyboard & battery a must.