E-Week this week published their "Top 10 Disruptive Technologies Affecting the Data Center". The slideshow is a mix of heady, esoteric terms like "server fabrics" with more tenable concepts like "green IT", and closely parallels Gartner Research's top 10 strategic technologies of 2008. But what is a disruptive technology and how to respond to it?

"Disruptive Technology" is a fairly recent term coined to describe technologies that upset the current state of affairs--whether those are business models, industries, or workflow. Want some examples? The Internet has disrupted traditional media like newspapers and TV. Digital music and the iPod has disrupted the music industry. And Google is doing it to just about anything that touches the Web.

So how can you predict the next disruptive technology? Well, you can't. The fact that they come from "outside the box" means that there is little chance of seeing them coming. As this post points out, the next big thing is never a repeat. That is why disruptive technologies are unexpected and unpredictable.

So the best strategy is agility: responding quickly to this new phenomenon. This requires the ability to learn quickly and not stand on bureaucracy, parochialism, or convention. A capacity for reinvention will be a vital survival trait.

Want even more good news? The pace of change is accelerating. Look over the past ten years since e-mail went widespread: now we have Blackberries and iPhones with word processing, cameras and GPS. Imagine what the next ten years will bring. So industries once isolated or downstream of innovative industries will have to react quicker as disruptive technologies will sweep through like wildfires.

Submitted for your perusal is the sophistication of technology in a small to medium-sized businesses. Can one "tech guy" who comes in twice a month have the requisite knowledge and expertise to cover it all?

• Email and messaging (Exchange/Outlook, Blackberries and other mobile devices)
• Office software
• Printers/Scanners
• Remote access (Citrix, VPN, Terminal Services)
• Internet Access
• Firewall
• Storage
• Backup & Recovery (Tape, Disk, Online)
• Threat reduction (antivirus, spam filtering)
• Patch management
• Monitoring

Then throw in industry-specific and specialized applications like docketing, document management, accounting and finance, sales, CRM, and custom databases. Even more, on the horizon even small firms will have some form of server virtualization, online backup, and enhanced mobile communications.

Needless to say, this is too much for one person to handle. Best would be to have a medium-sized IT company managing your firm's IT. That company will assign an engineer representative for site visits and be the point of contact who intimately knows the client's system, but can call on specialists and experts whenever necessary.

By order of firm management, the IT department is engaged in a major project to overhaul the "backroom" systems to bring greater stability and performance. IT would love to immerse its small band of engineers and sysadmins to tackle the project, but one problem is persistently thwarting them: those pesky users.

An attorney's hard drive failed. Someone can't print their mail merge document. A marketing assistant has a question about Excel. Don't these people realize there are bigger problems to be tackled and IT can't coddle them right now?

This is a trap some IT departments fall into, and quite frankly, they need to get over it. If they don't, they fail. Service is a long series of interruptions. IT departments are in the business of reacting, so they better get good at it. The face of the IT department is the help desk/support center. So if users feel they are being neglected, the reputation of IT will be blemished. The better IT is reacting to the needs of their users, preventing failures, and quickly resolving incidents due to unforeseen circumstances, they will have more time for projects.

In an upcoming blog post we will discuss some ways IT departments can improve their "reaction" time.

Do you want to be the hero that saves the day when disaster strikes? Or the person that goes unnoticed but does all the little things to prevent catastrophes from happenings? If you are in IT, you should want to be the latter.

This came up in an internal meeting recently. Our top engineer used this great analogy:

"Who gets more recognition? The fireman who pounds the pavement and gets residents in her neighborhood to install fire detectors and replace batteries in existing ones, or the one that runs into a burning building and pulls out an elderly lady. The fireman who ran into the burning building may be lavished with praise in the local media, but the one who walked the streets and made sure fire detectors were working in the neighborhood probably saved more lives."

In IT, we should never set ourselves up to be heroes. No doubt, disasters will strike. There are far too many factors and unforeseen events for us to control cost-effectively. The focus of our IT skills and knowledge should not be geared toward donning a cape and pulling a "MacGyver" in the face of impending doom.

Our focus should be on monitoring, periodic maintenance, upgrades and refresh schedules. This also includes a crucial interpersonal aspect: counseling management regarding the importance of maintenance, upgrades, and making time available for preventive measures.

So strive for anonymity in IT. You will likely accomplish a lot more.

Today brings black clouds for the IT department in the form of a new book by noted IT critic, Nicholas Carr.  Mr. Carr, who made his bones last year with an article contending that corporate IT departments don't provide any strategic advantage, has a new book where he predicts that future IT departments will be operated by one person sitting at a computer issuing commands to outsourced providers via the Internet. Alas, the lonely system administrator gets even less respect and will be the Maytag repairman for this century.

This seems to overlook the fact that software and systems have not evolved to be intuitive and easy to use for the end-user. So who will have the skills to help people with IT, freeing them do whatever it is they do best? As a managed service provider (in other words, outsourced IT provider) we know the value of having great technical staff directly aid our customers whether it is with a question about a word processing program or troubleshooting their messaging system. We provide site visits to facilitate interaction with our customers and build relationships of trust and mutual respect.

Now if that is the evolution of the IT department -- a greater focus on the end-user and better customer service -- we are all for it.

Here is what has hit our radar screens in the past week:

Getting Green Computers: Because reducing your carbon footprint is becoming all the rage, how can your IT do the same?  Law.com has a green guidelines for buying and using computers, but most come from computer maker Dell.  If you don't follow one of the recommendations to donate the equipment when you refresh, we suggest you talk to a respected recycler like GigaBiter (full disclosure: they are a SAGE client).

iPhones Making Corporate Inroads: On the heels of Salesforce.com unveiled its iPhone strategy and Google revamping its search page for it, comes this article talking about how the iPhone's ease-of-use is forcing its way inside corporate walls. Integration with Exchange/Outlook may put it over the top.

Give Your IT Workers Some Attention for the Holidays:  It seems that Aretha Franklin and IT staff just want the same thing: respect. Forget the secret Santa, says this EWeek article, they just want to not work in a dungeon and feel like part of the team rather than the hired help.

Growth happens, sometimes in spite of all our actions! Many small firms rely on individual IT consultants or large IT companies specializing in small firms. So what are the signs you are outgrowing your current IT provider? We list the indicators below, focusing on moving from one person IT consultants to larger IT consulting firms with a broader array of services. In a future post we will discuss the decision to bring IT in-house.

One obvious indicator is that they can’t keep up with your demands for services and support. Your growth places increasing demands on them that they may not be able to meet. In the case of large IT companies catering to small firms, you may simply outgrow their targeted services. A growing firm’s technology also becomes more sophisticated, broader, and more specialized all at the same time. A wider array of services in litigation support, message, VOIP, DMS, web sites, and enterprise level applications are required. At the same time, law firms have very focused software applications that require careful setup and support. Larger IT firms with engineers, application specialists, and programmers can provide the breadth and depth of expertise to meet these demands.

Finally, a surefire giveaway that it is time to move on is if you as a firm manager or administrator are leading your IT firm or bringing trends to their attention. If so, time to start looking for a partner knowledgeable in the latest trends in IT like mobile computing, virtualization, online services and others.

Sure, the Annual ILTA Conference is the premier legal tech event on the calendar, but we don't blame you for avoiding the August heat in Central Florida (not near a beach). We sent our rep to seek out knowledge and air conditioning, but with blogging, you don't have to.

Inside Legal Opinions and LexBlog have the rundown of people blogging from the conference. Thanks to these intrepid folks, you can get the latest news and ideas from the conference while sipping your coffee while wearing that comfy, ratty t-shirt in your home office after the kids are in bed.

Here is our Friday installment of what is being said on the Internet that administrators and IT pros at law and professional services firms should know.

Where did my Excel commands go? The transition to Office 2007’s new “fluid interface” is causing some consternation with many who have become accustomed to the keyboard shortcuts and menu commands in Excel 2003. Computerworld published this handy cheat sheet mapping the old locations for commands from Excel 2003 to 2007. For more on what has changed and what is new in Office 2007, check out our free online webinar “Compelling Enhancements in Office 2007” on August 15, 2007 at 2:00 p.m. EDT.

Businesses cautious on Vista upgrade. A new poll says that only 2 percent of businesses are running Vista, and only 9 percent more planning on upgrading in the next three months. Now, we know firms that just went to XP last year, so this wait-and-see attitude doesn’t surprise us. Some reasons cited include old hardware that won’t run Vista and training.

Contracts online, should lawyers be worried? Business 2.0 has an article on a Spanish company putting contracts online to cut out the lawyers. More than that, they are throwing in some value-added with their dashboard that has a timeline of negotiations, comments, and more. Inside Opinions sees the move as complementary rather than completely disruptive.

Census Bureau information to your newsreader. Following up on our post on great government web site mash-ups, Robert Ambrogi points out that the U.S. Census Bureau has RSS feeds and podcasts on a number of statistics like “Aging Population,” “Foreign-born Population,” and more.

For more stories filtered for administrators and IT pros in legal and professional services firms, get our supplemental newsfeed, available here through Google Reader.

If your firm is making the switch to VOIP, make sure you have an advocate for IT on the project, especially someone who has been through a VOIP migration before. If left unchecked, VOIP engineers and consultants can unknowingly run roughshod over the IT network, dictating changes and additional network services that can impart unforeseen consequences if not done correctly.

The IT advocate will protect the integrity and stability of the network and help avoid common pitfalls during a VOIP migration. He or she can:

• create an inventory of what network services would be impacted,
• point out design changes like the proper number of switches.
• properly setup and configure network services that the VOIP systems require, something a “phone guy” may be able to do, but will likely not have the experience and expertise to avoid any adverse effects that impact a pre-existing network infrastructure.

Going VOIP also means ceding some control over the network—especially in hosted VOIP services—and the IT advocate can help smooth that transition. Depending upon the type of service you select, you may lose control over vital network functions like NAT, port access translation, VPN and Citrix service redirections. (Access to internal systems you may have come to take for granted until they no longer operate properly). The IT advocate can help map out how to handle these critical services within the new environment. At the very least, an IT advocate will represent your network interests with the experience to help guide your VOIP installation in a way that will impact your existing infrastructure with as little negative effects as possible.

The company installing the VOIP system will work to provide the best phone system, but the IT advocate will make sure that it doesn’t come at the expense of network reliability, functionality and performance.

This post at Opensource.org is a great introduction to “design thinking.” What is so different about design thinking than analytical thinking, which is so highly prized in IT?

Design is a process to generate ideas to solve problems with creativity and a sensitivity to those who will ultimately use or benefit from the solution. In fact, that sounds much like any problem solving exercise, whether it is wringing more productivity from operations or coming up with the best way to provide remote access for employees. What sets design apart, is its emphasis on the person as the ultimate consumer and visualizing possible solutions to aide others in understanding its impact, use, or benefits.

So while analytical thinking—or breaking down a problem—is great for troubleshooting, design thinking is about building up ideas toward a solution. It also emphasizes visualization of possible solutions to determine the best one through mock-ups, prototypes, demonstrations, and the like. Design thinking is great for solving larger business issues that will require innovation.

On Wednesday, July 18, 2007, SAGE and the IS&T section of the ALA Capital Chapter will hold our second session in a series of presentations on the ins-and-outs of Microsoft’s Office 2007 Suite. This session covers the exciting new feature enhancements to Word and Excel 2007: what is new, what has changed; and what that means for your everyday tasks.

SAGE’s Director of Consulting David Carns and Application Specialist Tony Buffkin will guide attendees through common tasks and show how the new versions of Office and Excel improve productivity and compare to the older versions. They will also discuss issues such as integration with other systems like document management, among others.

The session will be held at the offices of Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker, LLP, located in downtown, Washington, DC at 2120 L St. NW - Suite 700. To register, please contact Kenny Mitchell at 202-383-3402 (email: kmitchell@wbklaw.com) or Scott Forrest at 202-822-8282 (email: sforrest@hsdwdc.com).

We have mentioned before that employees are bringing the technology they use at home or on the road into the firm, a reversal from a few years ago when most people were exposed to new technologies at work. New technologies facilitate new ways of working. This article at Law.com discusses the ability of the “Internet Generation” to multitask and take on responsibilities that were once offloaded to support staff.

“…I inquired whether they were using their secretaries to type letters, make edits to briefs, enter time, etc. The response we got was not unexpected. Why would they give work to somebody else when they could do it just as fast, if not faster, themselves?”

The flip side is whether our support staff and IT are keeping up with them. Supporting staff should keep lawyers and professionals as productive as possible. What could be accomplished if those multitasking capabilities were not wasted on typing and entering time? What can the most connected generation teach the firm about online collaboration and building community using the Internet and digital tools? Of course, the mythic ability of young workers to multitask is a stereotype (like the other stereotypes that they require praise just to do what is expected of them), but can we afford to ignore the ideas of a generation that grew up with computers and the Internet?

You could accuse us of trying to make bank on the iPhone hype, but don’t say this scenario is implausible: In a couple of weeks, the superstar partner walks into IT with her brand new iPhone. And after surfing a few web pages on the firm wi-fi and watching a clip from The Office, she then says, “I want to get my work email on it.”

So what do you do? Can you really suggest the bare bones Outlook Mobile Access (OMA) after she demonstrates flicking through her GMail? Are you forced to enable IMAP after all these years?

Now, the iPhone won’t be replacing Blackberries in the law firm any time soon, but the point is personal technology encroaching on “work” tech. Like instant messaging and wi-fi, these days new tech is being introduced in the law firm from attorneys and staff bringing it from home rather than from the IT department. You probably went with Blackberry back in the day because a hot shot partner saw a colleague's device and wanted one for himself.

To quote a Zen saying: “the only constant in life is change.” In IT and administration, your job is to maintain a consistent, high-quality level of service. Sometimes that means saying no. But the other mandate is to provide tools that make the firm and its employees more productive and effective. That means saying yes and using a little ingenuity. The iPhone promises a very easy user experience for calling, voice mail and others beyond e-mail, which is Blackberries forte. Should it deliver (a very big if), then it is time to reevaluate the firm’s policy—and embracing change.

If not the iPhone, it will be something else.

This Wednesday, June 27, 2007, SAGE and the Information Systems and Technology Section of the ALA Capital Chapter kick off  a series of presentations on the ins-and-outs of Microsoft’s Office 2007. The first meeting covers the basics about Office 2007: what is new, what has changed; and what it all means.

SAGE’s Director of Consulting, David Carns, will cut through the confusion over the many versions of the office suite, the “ribbon,”, the new file formats, and other changes for which your firm should prepare. This session sets the stage for more in-depth reviews of each application: Word, Outlook, Excel, and PowerPoint. The focus will be on preparing your staff and firm for the transition to Office 2007.

The session will be from Noon to 1:30 p.m. at the offices of Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker, LLP, located in downtown, Washington, DC at 2120 L St. NW - Suite 700. To register, please contact Kenny Mitchell at 202-383-3402.

One pitfall people and companies fall into is: if I do something one way, I assume other people do it the same way. Much of the frustration we feel with interfaces, workflows, products, and services result from this faulty underlying assumption. Fact is, different people learn differently. They also approach problems with vastly different strategies.

Let’s focus on learning. Basically, people learn in three ways: audio, visual and kinetic.

• Audio people learn best by listening to people;
• Visual people learn best by looking at something such as diagrams, text, instructions, etc.; and
• Kinetic people learn best by doing something, such as taking notes or doing exercises.

So how do people’s learning methods get incorporated in the real world? Part of our OnSight service includes the Support Center (Help Desk), staffed by Specialists who—in addition to having saintly patience—will tune their learning approach to the individual. Some calls come over the phone where speaking and listening are important, but if the person needs a visual demonstration, we can remote to their machine and show them how to resolve the issue. The Support Center specialists spend a lot of time at client sites, where if someone needs to learn through doing, our specialist can watch over their shoulder as they do it and learn.

Being aware of these differences and tuning your approach to them will result in better training and processes.

CNet yesterday ran a helpful FAQ on virtualization technologies covering what it is, why it’s catching on now, and who are the players in the virtual arena. The article is a handy primer on the technology that is gaining significant steam in IT these days.

If that whets your appetite, we do a little roadshow here at SAGE called “Exploring the Virtual Computing Frontier” on virtualization technologies going mainstream.  The roadshow is going to the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of ILTA this Wednesday, April 25 in downtown Washington, DC. Our uber-engineer Doug Daniel provides a run down of the technology and delves into the costs and benefits, addressing the often touted myth of large cost savings. Based on his experience, Doug will also share the pitfalls to avoid when going virtual, and where virtual environments are heading in the near future.

The seminar is open to ILTA members and the general public. Sign up on ILTA’s web site. You even get a free lunch!

Many of you reading the title are probably chuckling at the perceived paradoxes in it. Who would think “network administrators” and “creativity” would appear in such proximity? This blog post makes an excellent case for constraints as the engine of creativity for technical folk like system engineers and network administrators, and why they gravitate to “emergencies” because they have clearly defined boundaries rather than blue-sky projects that do not.

In the post there is a fun little thought experiment that makes the point about creativity and constraints. Other notable points and suggestions include:

• Everyone wants a stable network and network engineers would like to initiate projects and proactive solutions, but tend to work on the fixes and emergencies since they have clear problem to solve.
• To overcome this, managers should challenge network engineers with “specific forward-looking issues” and ensure they spend time on it.
• Don’t be afraid to throw “business” problems to the engineers (if there really is such a distinction between IT and business these days) along with constraints to focus their efforts on longer term network performance.

People in traditional “design” disciplines like architecture, art, industrial design, etc. have long known the vast power that constraints have to spark creativity. Constraints like budgets, materials, and time have led to more innovation than a blank check and no deadlines. Even in the business realm, Wal-Mart attributes their success in creating the world’s most efficient distribution system from the fact that they had to build everything from scratch in the Arkansas backwater. They had hundreds of constraints—mostly lack of resources—which they eventually found elegant solutions that lead to business success.

Just a quick plug for our SAGE Wisdom Webinars that we conduct every Wednesday afternoon at 2:00 pm Eastern time.  This week we are discussing managed IT solutions using our SAGE OnSight service.  In particular, we will be emphasizing how you don't have to give up control of your IT infrastructure and assets will getting the benefit of managed services, like remote monitoring, support center, and site visits.

If you are interested,  sign-up online here.

Upcoming SAGE Wisdom Webinars will cover Sentinel, our tool to perform daily server checks and some monitoring; managing tech migrations for minimal disruption to the firm, and using extranets like SAGE MindPort for internal projects as well as external ones. Future webinars will cover topics like virtualization, Windows Vista and Office 2007, Exchange 12, and managing newsfeeds.

The Wisdom Webinar schedule can always be found at this link and is updated monthly.

We describe our OnSight service as “Managed IT Services,” but this means different things to different people. So we figured we would be clear on our vision of managed IT service, especially because we think it is a bit unique.

SAGE approaches OnSight from a value perspective first and foremost, not just a cost perspective. You will still save money compared to managing your IT assets yourself, but you really get maximum value when you factor in our site visits and proactive approach like daily server checks, monthly maintenance, and quarterly technology reviews. We feel that the personal touch is essential. That’s why SAGE application specialists and engineers make periodic visits; interacting first-hand with users and management and seeing any problems and opportunities at the ground level.

We also insist on client independence. Our clients own their servers, workstations, and other equipment, we just keep it running in top shape and help them plan to meet business needs. While you may want to give up some responsibility when it comes to IT, you don’t want to feel like you are giving up control. We don’t live up to your expectations, the cost to switch is minimal. We like it that way. It pushes us to keep providing outstanding service; that means outstanding value for clients.

So when we talk about OnSight managed IT services, we mean you manage us. We don’t manage you.

A couple of posts we came across today in the blogosphere made us think about the type of people we hire at SAGE.

Since its inception over ten years ago, SAGE has always hired engineers and staff that are not only experts in their field, but excellent communicators, take the initiative, and place a premium on customer service. We feel that this has been instrumental in SAGE’s success, and why our OnSight service is taking off. You would expect communication and customer service skills in the great folks who man our OnSight Support Center, but it is just as important for an engineer to explain the business and operational implications of complex technical issues and understand the customer’s needs, usually expressed in completely non-technical ways.

This is the culture SAGE has fostered over the years. It doesn’t matter whether one works in IT, law, final services, or the restaurant business. Check out restaurateur Danny Meyer’s hospitality quotient for new hires (via Signal vs. Noise). Meyer sees the hospitality quotient as 51 percent of the job, the other 49 percent being technical ability. For the most part, this is what SAGE looks for in its employees.

• optimism and kindness,
• curiosity about learning,
• an exceptional work ethic,
• a high degree of empathy, and
• self-awareness and integrity.

We also look to our people to take the initiative, because many times they are on-sight at the client and must react quickly but intelligently. We don’t hire sheep. Seth Godin explained the perils of hiring sheep in this screed against what he has termed: “Sheepwalking.” It is a great read for any organization.

We are thrilled to announce that for 2007 we are sponsoring ALISM, the Association of Legal Information Systems Managers. This deepens our support for the IT and legal community in the Washington, DC metropolitan region, as we already sponsor ILTA and the ALA Capital Chapter, as well as our membership in the LFVA. We are fully behind ALISM's mission to facilitate learning and communication among its members.

We'll be attending ALISM's meeting this Wednesday, January 24, 2007.  Also look for SAGE experts at ALISM meetings throughout the year.

In ALISM's own words:

ALISM facilitates the exchange of information regarding the technical and management problems peculiar to the legal automation environment, and to improve the standards and qualifications of information systems managers and their staffs. ALISM provides an environment where members share their experience with other members of the legal IS community and learn about new technology trends. ALISM members learn what other firms are doing, how other departments are run and networking with colleagues.

We are glad to be on-board and look forward to a great year with ALISM.

We are garnering a few interesting insights into the miscommunication that often happens between IT and users from reading Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink. The thrust of the book is that behind people’s locked unconscious is a whole range of pattern recognition and cognitive abilities that allows people to make snap judgments and decisions. More often than not, according to Gladwell, these snap, unconscious decisions are correct. How this applies to the interaction between IT and users can be demonstrated through the common refrain “It just doesn’t work right!” and “I can’t explain it, but it’s not right.”

So what does this mean to unlocking the secret code of user feedback to IT:

• Don’t discount a user’s "gut reaction". Just because they cannot describe their reaction doesn’t mean they are wrong.
• Be able to interpret their reaction: People react to new and different as “bad,” so those first gut reactions may need interpretation. Is the user being presented with something different from the norm, causing some discomfort? Or is there something intrinsically wrong that really needs to be addressed?
• Find a common language. IT has a specialized language to describe their world, something users do not. They do not have the words to describe their “feelings,” and when we try to give them IT’s jargon, it has no meaning for them. Try to find a middle ground you can both understand.
• People are ignorant of the things that affect their actions, but they rarely feel ignorant. When confronted with a feeling but no clear rationale, they will create one. This plausible explanation takes the place of the real pattern their unconscious saw or took exception.
• Try and Try Again. It just may come down to trial and error. Go back, change a setting, rework the interface, or explain the concept in a new way. Then see how the user reacts. Not terribly efficient, but could mean the difference between satisfied and disgruntled users.

We found some validation in ILTA’s 2006 Salary Survey today. SAGE has always focused on finding experienced people with great communication skills and an attitude to learn, investigate, and dig deep. Education and certifications have always been less important as they are no substitute for experience in the field and real world problem solving. This has run counter to many who have placed a premium on certifications and education levels.

No longer are we the lone wolves, according to ILTA’s 2006 Survey. According to law firms surveyed, this is how their ranked the criteria in hiring IT staff:

1. Personality and attitude
2. Technology experience
3. Experience in the legal world
4. Training and certification
5. College degree and formal education.

We would probably substitute “excellent communication skills” for “personality” as a criteria. For SAGE, excellent communication skills mean excellent client service, and the rest should naturally fall into place.

There it is. A blatant plug for one of our services. You knew it had to happen eventually. But we also want to boast about our great people here at SAGE.

Tech salaries came up the other day when talking with a client. Just so happens, E-Week ran a story yesterday on the shortage of specialized IT skills is pushing up salaries. That reminded us that an advantage of SAGE OnSight is that we provide the expert IT staff or augment your current staff. Our clients don’t have to fight for scarce tech talent and their consummate high salaries, because we already do that.

Our OnSight clients rave about the service because of the staff. Our Application Specialists manning the OnSight Support Center have the unique combination of extensive knowledge, great communication skills, and happen to be some of the most considerate people you will ever meet. Then our crack engineers are some of the most intelligent thorough and creative around. Frankly, there isn’t much they haven’t seen in network design and support. Not only are they terrific at troubleshooting issues, but they can explain it in laymen’s terms. We have already done the hard work to identify great IT talent, so you don’t have to.

Looking to learn a new application or upgrade your skills but can’t afford the latest version? The latest version will cost you, but with a little searching, the previous version can be had at a cut rate price or even free. Our troglodytic explorers of the Internet’s dark caves mined another nugget of gold in this list of free software. Many are great system tools like Registry Mechanic. For techs who want to play with partitioning or imaging software but don't have a valid license and don't want to use a questionable copy of the software, earlier versions are a great way to learn. However, if these will be the primary tools for your firm, it is worth investing in current software.

Anyone else have good sources of cheap, last generation software?