Our post last week discussed how "time-to-restore" is the primary factor in data backups. Here are some solutions for speeding up the process.

D2D2T - Disk to Disk to Tape. Many of our clients use this solution. In the event of a server failure (and not a disaster that destroys the server room), the last backup is local and can be restored from a local resource rather than pulling it over the Internet or having devices couriered to the site. These backups complete much more quickly since internal connections (LAN, USB 2.0 ESata, Firewire) are faster than the Internet connection. Meanwhile, the remote backup can be pulled over the Internet for redundancy. 

Bare Metal Restores. When a server fails, getting the server back up and running is time consuming before the restore can even start. It might take 4 to 6 hours to install Windows and its service packs, install applications (Exchange, SQL), then install the backup agents and start the restore. This type of "rebuild" always has long time delays finding the software media as well as configuring the machine (drives, install paths, data paths). With bare metal restore capabilities you typically can boot to a CD and begin restoring the machine much quicker.

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.

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.

There are many different flavors to managed IT Services. SAGE OnSight falls into the category, but managed IT services come in many flavors and it is important for each organization to find the service that best fits its needs. Following are some more subtle points to consider when looking at managed IT service providers.

Personal Factor. Trust and confidence in your IT provider is vital in managed environments. You want someone on the other end of the line who is not only knowledgeable, but also responsive and trustworthy. It’s also nice to see them in person too.

Lock In—or Barriers to Exit. These can be contractual or monetary. Contracts can range from a few months to three years or more, and according to many lawyers we know, some are rather ironclad. Good service providers will require only a one month termination notice if the relationship is not working out after the initial contract period. Also consider the cost of creating a network if you decide to separate from a provider that completely outsources your IT. The infrastructure you once had now has to be rebuilt, from the E-mail server to the Citrix box, and it all comes with a price tag.

Speed and Responsiveness. While the Internet is great for working over great distances, network latency can affect the speed and responsiveness of your systems. Slow systems mean frustrated users.

Turnaround Times. How quickly will the service provider turn around new user accounts or have workstations set up for new employees? Good service providers know your time is valuable and people need to be productive as quickly as possible.

Control Issues. Many administrators who once lorded over the domain are sometimes locked out when the outsourced IT provider takes over. Instead of rolling up the sleeves and figuring out the problem, you are sending a service request. Many service providers monitor your systems and often know of a problem before you do, but you want prompt service if you are no longer in the driver’s seat. Also, having eyes into the system only increases your confidence if you can verify what the service provider is telling you.

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.

If you are like us and are fanatical about customer service, then almost all of your energy and resources is focused on clients and customers. When focusing on others, you tend to let yourself go. We all figure our coworkers and employees will understand because the firm is focused on the clients. We always hurt the ones we love.

We suggest stopping the pain, or at least mitigating it, because ultimately the pain your employees and coworkers feel will affect their interactions with clients and customers. Employees frustrated with an unstable network or feel neglected because their software questions go unanswered will not and cannot focus on the client and work most productively.

This is our mea culpa. The SAGE Web site is—in a sense—busted. We are in the middle of a redesign and it was important to update the home page quickly, but client commitments have delayed completing the site. We are just now getting around to completing it, but what was supposed to be a couple of weeks has stretched to a few months. Not only are customers and prospects probably wondering what is going on, but a few employees have been waited for their pages to go live.

Try to find a balance between superior customer service and a little “me” time, because ultimately they are all connected.

The good folks at ALISM have invited us to talk about virtual computing for their 2/21 Luncheon in Washington, DC. SAGE's own Doug Daniel will be surveying the landscape, exploding some myths, and discussing the real advantages virtual computing has for law and professional services firms.

Be sure to sign-up over at ALISM's web site, ALISM.org.  Registration is $25 for members, $45 for non-members.  It's a real deal when you figure in that lunch is included!

Virtual computing has been around for a long time, but only recently has it become one of the most exciting areas of IT. Below are just some of the virtual computing news on the Web in the past few days:

• The virtualization market is very real and growing;
• You may be just getting into virtualization, but others are already pushing "Virtualization 2.0";
• Leading virtualization software developed VMware has released with a small and medium business (SMB) bundle;

We will be touching on those news items and more.  We hope to see you at the February 21, 2007 ALSIM Luncheon.

We have exhorted the use of simple sketches and mock-ups to help clients and users better imagine and comprehend complex systems or new ideas of which they do not have a common ground in which to relate. We uncovered an article from the June 2005 issue of Fast Company magazine that discusses how “design” in the broadest sense, helps form and communicate business strategy.

“People need to have a visceral understanding -- an image in their minds -- of why you've chosen a certain strategy and what you're attempting to create with it. Design is ideally suited to this endeavor. It can't help but create tangible, real outcomes.”

In other words, people need concrete examples to grasp the meaning and import of the strategy being pursued, whether that is the advantages of a virtual server room, or a new way to provide service internally. It clears any confusion over competing interpretations of however you explained the strategy in words. With that grasp, people not only can get behind the strategy, but also are better prepared to participate and advocate on its behalf. And it is a process—essentially a prototyping process—that unlocks ideas and suggestions in your people who otherwise would be unable to give feedback.

“Once you spot a promising idea, you build it. The prototype is typically a drawing, model, or film that describes a product, system, or service. We build these models very quickly; they're rough, ready, and not at all elegant, but they work. The goal isn't to create a close approximation of the finished product or process; the goal is to elicit feedback that helps us work through the problem we're trying to solve. In a sense, we build to think.”

The next time you find yourself proposing a new strategy to a client or internal group, a simple diagram or mock-up may be the difference between your plans being understood and supported, or withering away in obscurity.

The question surrounding the impending release of Microsoft’s Office 2007 is whether it is worth the price of upgrading. The “old” version makes documents, spreadsheets and presentations just fine, and the documents are compatible. Office 2007’s most compelling feature is the “Ribbon,” an new interface that replaces the menu system that has become unwieldy from years of plugging in features that few people used.

The new interface alone is worth the upgrade, but only after you get over the learning curve. Other benefits include some cool integration between Outlook and Exchange, and an overall streamlining of what had become badly bloated software. (If you want a second opinion, check out this review.) Learning the new interface means investment in training on the front end, which will get returned in greater productivity on the back end.

Also be aware that customizing toolbars in Office 2007 will require a higher level of technical expertise than in previous versions. Customizing the ribbon interface will require knowledge of XML and/or COM add-ins. This means that getting a developer involved may be necessary, but certainly will help speed the process along. If you have a highly tailored Office installation, development time and costs should weigh in the upgrade decision, but not if your setup is largely out-of-the-box.

Are the days of classifying knowledge over? Are the days of the once might taxonomy numbered? Upstarts like desktop and enterprise search, folksonomies and tagging are gaining the limelight, and overturning old ideas about ways to classify data. When Microsoft Vista’s becomes widespread and everyone has desktop search, will we really care about a myriad folders and subfolders? Given the proper meta data, a folder for just the client-matter may not even be necessary.

Zappos, the online shoe-retailer, is embracing search and taxonomic messiness in the physical world: their warehouse. Instead of complex organization schemes, Zappos is just filling in the next empty rack and recording where the merchandise is located in a database. The warehouse employee fulfilling an order simply queries the database and grabs the shoes wherever they are.

If Zappos can make it work in a warehouse, then with maturing search tools, the proper metadata and new ideas like tagging, certainly a little messiness in the file server can actually be an advantage.

So who will speak up for old-fashioned taxonomies? Let us know in the comments.

If the Apple iPhone’s innovative “multi-touch” interface stands up in real world use, it may usher in the shift in computing from desktops to handhelds. Laptops are already poised to overtake desktops the business world in the next few years, and sales have surged for smartphones like the Blackberry and Treo. The iPhone promises to overcome the last hurdle to widespread adoption of handhelds for most computing tasks: the interface.

We’ve discussed handheld devices and the supporting “information cloud” of data, information, and reference material that Blackberries/Treos make possible. Even laptops cannot compete with the mobility afforded by fitting snugly into a pocket. High speed cell networks and Wi-Fi have solved the bandwidth bottleneck, so the last hurdle to accessing the information in the cloud on a handheld was the interface: the stylus, small keyboard, and small, low-resolution screen. According to one tech pundit:

“[Apple CEO] Jobs is breaking the tyranny of the keyboard and trying to break the tyranny of the cursor as well. We've been able to get computers into our pockets for a very long time, but the issue has always been, 'what do you do with it?' You don't have a keyboard, you don't have a stylus and your thumbs are too big to type. This is the first serious attempt to break the tyranny of input. Until now, everybody's always focused on output -- is the screen big enough or sharp enough -- and the screens are high-resolution and bright. We've conquered that. Now the limiting factor is input.”

Simple input, fully capable high-speed web browsing, and reading documents on a widescreen display are all major advances in handheld computing. So whether you think the iPhone is the real-deal or over-hyped, if you or your employees want to be unchained from the desk, you should be rooting for the iPhone to succeed.

Here are few items that peaked our interest on the web today (including one that sucked us into Apple hype machine).

• Inside Legal Opinions has a great post about innovative lawyers and law firms that is well worth a read. Industry pressures, technology, and plain old unconventional thinking are pushing these law firms and lawyers in new directions, even proposing to get rid of the partner-associate structure.
• Say what you will about Apple in corporate (or business) environments, you have to give them credit for pushing the envelope. Today they unveiled the much anticipated iPhone and appear to have exceeded people's unrealistic expectations for the device. Sporting a new “multi-touch” interface that does away with physical buttons, the iPhone rethinks the whole mobile phone/mobile computing experience. Plus you get an iPod. We’ll watch the initial previews of the new interface, but if the phone lives up to its promise, Apple and Cingular could find people clamoring for these phones in June.
• Microsoft’s new Office 2007 releasing Jan. 30 also comes with a new document format, the clumsily named Office Open XML (or OOXML for smooth-sounding acronyms.) Problem is, it will not be backward compatible with earlier versions of Office unless an upgrade pack is applied to those pre-2007 versions. Still it remains unclear how the document conversion will happen between Office 2007 documents and older versions of the software.

Here are a couple of ideas to get you motivated for another work week. This article on O’Reilly Radar discusses the importance of an ideal or mission in motivating your team. If your team believes in something more than just working for a paycheck, higher quality, better ideas, and more productivity will follow. Whether the ideal is “outstanding customer service”—our mantra here at SAGE—our “we do it better than everyone else,” there are a host of ideals for your team to aspire to. By giving your people something to believe in, your organization will get higher customer service, quality, and greater involvement. The trick is making them believe, but that stems from the management’s sincerity and adherence to the ideal itself.

So now that you have a motivated team, when was the last time you had a blank check on a project? Yeah, we have never had one of those either. While we like to bemoan the shackles time, money, and management place on us, Chris Anderson of “The Long Tail” fame talks about something we have known for years but too often forget: those constraints can be the source of inspiration. Ingenuity is about overcoming challenges, and IT and ingenuity should go hand-in-hand. So before you complain about a small budget or a small team, think about how your constraints can be a source of inspiration. Just one example: SpaceShipOne—human spaceflight on a shoestring team and budget.

Today brings a number of thoughtful blog posts from around the Matrix. Each probably deserves some commentary—but since we can’t decide which—today we will just point you to them. Hint: Look for these topics in upcoming posts.

People Search for Yahoo using Google. Many users don’t know the difference between the browser address bar and the Google search box, so they get to Yahoo by typing it in Google’s search box and clicking on a result. This is emblematic of IT’s inattention to users work habits and failure to guide and instruct them properly.

Following up on that thought, little things make a big difference in people’s perceptions. Malcolm Gladwell first popularized the “Broken Windows” theory of crime enforcement, where importance was placed on cleaning up small details (like broken windows) before they contribute to larger ills and everything spirals out of control. This post equates that approach to web site and software development, and stresses the importance of momentum. We would suggest that in applying “broken windows” to IT, such as fixing quirks like slow login scripts that annoy users, is about improving user and management perception of performance. Not to cover up bad performance or quality, but combat negative perceptions when performance and quality are really quite good.

A grassroots movement of using personal e-mail and IM accounts like GMail and AIM rather than corporate accounts appears to be gaining momentum. The boon for the user, not having to learn new software or deal with bugs each time a new client or back-end server is changed, plus more storage.

Finally comes this report that small and medium enterprises down under are balking at the high price of Windows Vista and Office 2007. Evidently the Australians believe “they got all they really needed from earlier versions…” What say us Yanks?

All these links are saved on the del.icio.us/sagesol network open to all our readers.

Virtual computing environments are one of the most exciting developments in IT in years. Recently, SAGE hosted a seminar on virtual computing with the Capital Chapter of ALA.  The seminar was a big success, and now we are taking that seminar to you.

The session starts with an overview of the technology and its applications, and provide a survey of configurations, products, and platforms. We share our insights into the best applications for virtualization, and the various platforms and software currently in the market. The session delves into the costs and benefits of the technology, addressing the often touted myth of large cost savings. Based on our experience, We will also share the pitfalls to avoid when going virtual, and where virtual environments are heading in the near future.

The seminar covers:

• What is virtualization? Common configurations, products, hardware platforms and system requirements.
• Uses for virtualization, including development, consolidation, disaster recovery, etc.
• Pros and cons of virtual server environments.
• Maximizing performance in virtual computing.
• Myths and realities regarding the economics of virtualization.
• Real costs of going virtual for firms of various sizes.
• Complementary technologies for virtual server rooms like SANs, and remote power control.

If your firm is interested in learning more virtual computing, please contact Karin Magness at SAGE and we will bring the roadshow to your company.

What do you think of our new home page? For now, beauty is indeed only skin deep, as the rest of the site is still awaiting a refresh after three years. While the site has held up very well over that time, we had some pressing needs that required we focus on the home page. Our goals were:

• list all our services and products up front;
• better describe our services and value-added for the legal and professional services firms.
• integrate with our Wisdom Journal blog and Events; and
• highlight our services like OnSight, MindPort, and affiliate partners in a compelling fashion.

There are a few features that will be added before the year is out, like the ability to resize the text, complete accessibility, and improved navigation controls in the vignette area. The new home page also suggests the design direction the rest of the site will head.

Please give us your feedback on the new home page? What do you like about it? What improvements would you make?

In our post on “Musing on the Coming Web Desktop,” we mentioned one hybrid scenario where web apps with desktop functionality reside on the firm Intranet, rather than the Internet itself. John Milan’s post yesterday over at Read/Write Web discussed another type of hybrid, a cross between a web app and a desktop application.

That got us thinking: we have done precisely that! MindPort+Review, our online document review and collaboration tool that integrates with our MindPort extranet solution, is indeed that sort of hybrid. With MindPort+Review, the data—in this case, documents and their metadata—reside in a MindPort project, which is an online repository. The MindPort+Review tool is a desktop application that provides enhanced functionality for searching, sorting, filtering, and grouping documents. The desktop app also has tools for creating and maintaining custom coding (metadata) and advanced retrieval tools like pick lists, saved searches, and search folders. Since the data is online, people can collaborate on the documents anywhere they have an Internet connection.

When we created MindPort+Review, we just thought that was the best method to provide collaboration and the functionality of a desktop. Because the solution worked, we didn’t consider that it is pretty far out there on the leading edge of web technology.

• If you are still not down with RSS, we added a way to get updates through the e-mail with Simply Headlines, a nifty little service that delivers newsfeeds in a newspaper layout to your inbox once a day.
• We also made it easy to save Journal posts to del.icio.us, but better yet...
• ...we are sharing our del.icio.us bookmarks with our readers. Check out what our stable of experts in IT engineering, support, programming, and design are reading on the web. Del.icio.us even turns it into an RSS feed, so you can get updates in your new browser or favorite newsreader.
  

Today, Doug Daniel and George Nicholson are giving a seminar on the maturation of virtual computing technologies for the ALA Capital Chapter's Information Services and Technology section. Server rooms of the future will be incorporating virtual machines in addition to physical servers. From the presentation, here are some of the uses for virtual computing:

• Test and development
• Server consolidation
• Production servers
• Remote office
• Disaster recovery
• No more “desktop” servers
• IT agility and responsiveness

Doug and George make the point that forget the hype of huge savings that many virtual computing vendors tout, the real payoff is in the agility and responsiveness that virtual computing affords the IT department.

We will be posting with more from the seminar, so keep checking this blog.

A while ago, we posted about the importance of mock-ups to overcome the lack of imagination most users have when it comes to new ideas and projects. This post at Creating Passionate Users about how reducing fear is the killer app, made us rethink the value of mock-ups.

Mock-ups fill that great unknown in the user’s imagination—and fear of the unknown is one of the greatest sources of anxiety. As professionals comfortable with technology, we sometimes forget the fears our users and customers jave when it comes even to the simplest technologies. Will I be able to understand the product? During training, if I don’t understand it, will I look like a fool in front of my peers. Will the technology project work, and if not, how much will that cost? People fear of being left behind, whether professionally, by the market, or their peers. And they fear of being caught unawares, or being “out of the loop”.

So if reducing fear is the killer app, your users deserve to be mocked much more! Use sketches, diagrams, and wireframes to vanquish that great unknown which is causing your users so much anxiety. If your manager is afraid a technology project won’t work, provide her with a proof-of-concept. Provide hands-on demonstrations to acquaint users to new software. Simply keeping people informed of developments—like the timelines for technology migrations or providing project status—will greatly reduce their anxiety. In fact, they will thank you because they have one less unknown variable to contend with in their busy schedule.

eWeek’s Baseline Magazine has compiled their Top 10 pitfalls to avoid in project management, based on over 200 case studies. While the list is geared towards large corporate projects, legal and professional services firms are particularly susceptible to these:

• #2: Processes and technology aren't synched up.
• #3: Poor data quality leads to increased costs.
• #6: Poor design results in data-entry errors.
• #8: A system is rushed into production too quickly, resulting in duplication of effort and bugs.
• #10: A system's interface is hard to use

The complete list and accompanying case studies are well worth the read. So if we were to compile a similar list for legal and professional services firms, what do you think would break into the top 10?

Oh, the allure of the sales pitch. That attractive male or female salesperson running through a carefully orchestrated script, artfully demonstrating that their software will solve every difficulty you can possibly imagine. And that’s the problem. But don’t just blame the vendors, according to a new study your users and technology committees are just as much to blame.

The study found that users are equally guilty of valuing capability over usability when choosing software. Sure, vendors try to justify upgrades by packing niche or highly specialized features into software versions, which then distract and overload users. When making purchasing decisions, however, users equate more capabilities to a better product. But when using the software, they complain about its usability because they are overwhelmed by the features and the overall complexity. So they are Dr. Jekyll during the sale, but Mr. Hyde when it comes to using it. This is apparently true for novices and experts alike.

One conclusion we draw is that IT needs to take a greater role in educating and focusing users (and technology committees) on the core functionality they are looking to meet. What the study didn’t mention was that the users won’t blame themselves for the purchase decision, they will blame IT. Ultimately, the software becomes IT’s responsibility anyway, so IT managers better manage the purchasing decision from the start.

So do you buy a 32-bit server for Exchange 2003 alone or a 64-bit one that can eventually host Exchange 12? If you go the 64-bit route, you also will need the 64-bit version of Windows Server, as well. Oh, by the way, Microsoft suggests also going with new multi-core processors, probably 2 of them, and being able to max out memory to 16GB when you upgrade to Exchange 12.

Crucial to the success of any technology project is getting feedback from users and interested groups (like the technology and management committees!) Sounds easy, but during the early phases of the project when feedback will have the greatest affect at the lowest cost, users are the least equipped to provide it. At an early stage of the project, we assume that users will have the imagination to envision the final product and how they can use it. This assumption is wrong, however, because while users are imaginative in their own ways, they are not when it comes to designing and implementing new technology.

To overcome this lack of imagination and get better feedback early when it costs less to make changes, the user needs to be "mocked," and mocked often. They need mock-ups, prototypes, and other visual aids to help them conceive the finish project and how it will integrate into their work. These aids don't need to be elaborate: sketches, diagrams, wireframes, and simple proof-of-concept demonstrators often bridge the gap between conceptualizing the proposed idea and the finished product. A simple mock-up is often enough to spur valuable ideas from your test users and groups that will make the finished product much more useful. As the project progresses, you can provide more iterations of prototypes and demonstrators leading to alpha and beta tests. By providing low cost mock-ups early on, costly revisions when the project is nearly completed can be avoided.