Viruses are everywhere in this day. They slip past the defenses we put up, mess with our system, and even steal our information. Its a billion dollar black market for some, a set of hi-jinx for others.

For me, its a thorn in my side. 75 to 90 percent of the SMB calls I go on are for removing a virus/trojan from a PC or Laptop. Every time I get asked the same questions. How can we stop this, why did it get through, etc. Unfortunately, I don’t have a good answer for them.

I explain that tis a war. That virus writers are always a step ahead. Antivirus companies have to see the virus so they can stop it, and even that doesn’t always work.

The only way to be safe completely is to not use computers, cell phones, paper, ipads, and anything else that can hold a record. That isn’t going to happen. So I tell them to make sure updates are applied when they come out, and to be on the cautious side concerning web sites. Then a month or two later, I am back out to them removing another virus.

Everyone is talking about Cloud computing. Put things up on The Cloud. SMBs save money by moving to The Cloud. The Cloud is not everything its cracked up to be though, as one of the biggest cloud providers has recently shown.

Before we get into the heart of this op/ed type piece (I do try to use facts, but the thoughts are my own), let us take a basic look at what cloud computing is generally being marketed as. The basic idea is that you remove the server from your location, put it on the Internet through a secure host (the biggest names hosting are Microsoft, Amazon and Google), therefor giving you the ability to work from anywhere, not have to worry about server maintenance, or having an IT department( there are other aspects such as MSPs, Backup to remote data centers, and more that do not apply to this article). To quote the movie Murder by Death, “Interesting theory, one small problem. Is stupid, is most stupid theory I ever heard!”

Why is it so stupid (In my opinion). For a few reasons. First and foremost is security. Take a look at the recent problems with Google and China and you will see what I mean. The hacking, the lack of being able to harden a server yourself (or letting an IT company you can hold responsible), the lack of control. Take a look at what is going on through some of the security sites, not just the small spattering you hear from mainstream media(which will not always tell you the full story due to corporate connections). Now you might say, but I’m small why would someone want to hack me, and that is not the reason you would be hacked. It could be a side effect of being hosted on a much more visible target (again, Google, Microsoft, Amazon etc…).

Once you get past the security aspect, you run into, what happens to your data overall. Who owns it? If you got out of business, does it get destroyed properly? What if you decide to move off the cloud to a local server, does the hosting company have to keep copies of your data due to regulations? A lot of those types of issues are easily solved through contracts, but are you reading through the contract properly. From personal experience with Off-Site backups, the company I work for and our partners put in writing that the data is our clients, and if they want it destroyed due to changing services, going out of business etc… we can do that. This is just data backup though. What about when your whole server is up there?

Finally the reason the cloud is not ready for prime time is infrastructure. Mostly ISP speeds and costs. think about it, you start saving money by bringing your server up to the cloud, but find that access times to files, to e-mails, is extremely slow, and that cuts down on your productivity. The fastest you can go is going to be the slowest link in the chain.

Most businesses are still working off the T1 assumption. A T1 is 1.5Mbp downstream and upstream. This really is not a lot compared to the sizes of files, amount of data being transmitted, and other small factors such as number of people sharing that line. If you are on the cloud, you no longer have just e-mail constantly streaming in, but authentication protocols, Active Directory communications (if its a Microsoft server), Word documents, Quickbooks data (if needed) and much more. Think of it this way, the average home Internet speed is 12Mbp down, 1.5 Mbp up. Faster on the downstream, same on the upstream, which would be your clog. A T1 averages $500-$1000 per month. Home Internet costs around $30-$70 per month but does not have the Quality of service needed to be reliable for could computing. Fiber Internet is the solution (60+Mbp down and up for $1000=$1500 per month right now), but availability of it is spotty at best. Until this bottleneck is fixed, no matter how secure it might be, or guarantees about the data ownership are resolved, I cannot recommend could computing.

The biggest thing to realize is that there is give and take in everything. To really come up with savings, you have to figure in items such as security, lost time due to connectivity, plus you still need someone to be able to take care of your local PCs. A good local IT consultant in the long run is still a better option for most SMBs. A Managed Service Plan with a local IT firm is probably the best, cause its a one low cost solution that covers most everything, and you can budget for because the cost is locked in for the length of the contract. Think about that before you go cloud hopping.

So Cisco has gotten tired of being thought of as a big business solution only. They bought Linksys a few years ago, and now have come up with Cisco Small Business.

It is an interesting prospect. The have taken the Linksys business line, some of their Cisco brand offerings, and some new products, given them special SKUs, and wrapped them up in a nice package along with a special small business support line. Yep, most of the SMB offerings no longer will get smartnet, but will have the SMB Support, which is supposed to be people who understand integration and troubleshooting in a small business environment. Sounds like a nice neat series of products.

The offerings are nice, but as usual there is a small catch. To get the best deals there are 2 tests to pass to become a Cisco Select Partner, one step up from the Registered Partner. The problem is finding study material easily for these 2 tests. Don’t worry, they are only $65 per test and you can have one person take one test and someone else take the other.

Being a Select Partner seems to be where the value really shines. That amount of access you get to Cisco increases, the kickbacks become worth while, and you can sell their Unified Communication System, which integrates most anything you could want.

The products themselves are typical Cisco, and while some are real good values, most seem to be upper level stuff with some of the functionality stripped out.

Still, it is nice to see Cisco realizing that they have missed a huge market out there on price points.

It is being reported that Symantec is coming out with a new SMB version of Endpoint Protection. Pardon me if I don’t start jumping for joy.

I do install a lot of Symantec for clients, and I have dealt with their current Endpoint SMB solution. It does work, but at a very high cost. The management system in it is anything but intuitive, adding desktops to the management console and managing them through the console is not simple. The database for the Management system continuously grows to the point where I have had to make sure it is installed only on a data drive, and not to install the Endpoint Manager on an OS partition.

Other odd things I’ve run across is the way it comes out of the box, you need to go in and tell it not to scan your backup drive, especially if it is an SSD drive. I’ve had many issues with Symantec’s own BackupExec because the drive is in use due to Endpoint scanning it all. Then there is the firewall and the way on a server it starts blocking ports that you tell it to leave open. Some software packages do use special ports for legitimate communication purposes. As far as support goes, don’t get me started on the poor support resources Symantec has for all of its products.

Since Endpoint now does allow back reving to the older 10.2 AV solution, I tend to put 10.2 on because it causes less problems.  Less overhead, easier to manage, and it just works.

I know I’ll wind up having to deal with the new version, I just hope that the upcoming beta testing is open so I can place it on my test box and see whether it is worth it, or should I start recommending a different SMB solution. I know that my clients need the protection one way or another.

I figure what a decent way to start off the week with some links to some tips, tricks, and news.

First off is the news that Microsoft’s Free E-book Offer is back. Starting this Wednesday, April 15 and going through April 22, you can download 2 books from Microsoft Press, completely free. The more interesting one to myself is the Windows 2008 Small Business Administrator’s Companion.

Keeping on the Windows 2008 track Microsoft’s Technet Blogs have decided that this months weekly tip series is on Windows Server 2008. Week 1 and Week 2 have been posted and I have to admit, this is some real good information. Some of it seems quite simple, but as I’ve said before, how many times have you stupidly overlooked like the simple? I know I do quite often.

Finally it seems that the economy has hit the SMB Summit this year. Susan Bradley has more information at her blog, or you can just go to the SMBTN Blog. I say go and check out Susan’s blog anyways as she always has interesting posts with some good information.

And that is it for this Monday morning. More to come during the week, as I get to delve into the idea of 1:1 computing for schools.

So after all is said and done there is still more to do.

You all should find some sort of Backup and Disaster Recovery plan for your clients. I’ve started to look at the one we offer at work and realize that it can be a life saver for any business.

Think about it, a good one will make sure that you are protected and can be back up and running in an emergency within 48 hours. Have only up to 48 hours of downtime is short as it is. Less business lost, less downtime, quicker recovery for the business. It should be a no brainer, which is why I’m surprised at how many businesses decide its not worth the money.

I guess we can’t win them all, even when we try to be proactive.