During challenging times, optimizing the IT infrastructure becomes imperative for competitive advantage and, ultimately, survival.

Based on the proven ROI and business success of virtualization for server consolidation, many organizations want to extend their virtualization efforts to encompass the entire datacenter- from the OS to the network to the management of critical business information assets.

This playbook provides IT decision-makers with a step-by-step overview of the benefits, challenges, technology options, and best practices for datacenter virtualization.

The following are ranked the Norton Top 10 Riskiest Online Cities:

1. Seattle, WA
2. Boston, MA
3. Washington, D.C.
4. San Francisco, CA
5. Raleigh, NC
6. Atlanta, GA
7. Minneapolis, MN
8. Denver, CO
9. Austin, TX
10. Portland, OR

The rankings were determined through a combination of Symantec Security Response’s data on cyberattacks and potential malware infections, as well as third-party data about online behavior, such as accessing wifi hotspots and online shopping.

• At the top of the rankings, Seattle claims the dubious distinction of America’s leading riskiest cybercrime city, placing near the top in categories such as cyberattacks and potential infections; online behavior that can expose people more to cybercrime, such as online shopping and banking online; and wireless Internet access.
• Boston and Washington, D.C. follow in second and third place.  Both cities experience a very high level of cybercrime, perhaps due in part to their large number of WiFi hotpots.
• High-tech hubs San Francisco and Raleigh are ranked fourth and fifth.  San Francisco tops the list for riskiest online behavior and highest number of WiFi hotspots per capita.  Many of these cities are considered some of the most tech-savvy cities in the nation, proving that even skilled and experienced Internet users are at risk when it comes to cybercrime and online insecurity.
• Rounding out the top 10 are Atlanta, Minneapolis, Denver, Austin and Portland.  According to the Norton research, Atlanta residents experience the most cyberattacks and potential infections.  Minneapolis and Portland are near the top for risky online behavior, while Denver and Austin score high across the board.

“With more people than ever relying on the Internet to stay in touch, shop and pay their bills, feeling confident and secure in our information-driven world is vital,” said Marian Merritt, Norton Internet Safety Advocate. “This study highlights the cities most at risk of cybercrime and reminds individuals, families and businesses across the country of the hazards they face each time they go online.  We’re here to educate consumers about how to protect themselves and ideally never fall victim to cybercrime.”

Of the 50 U.S. cities examined, Detroit came in as the least risky online city.  Motor City’s residents were less likely to participate in risky online behavior compared to other cities in the study, and it also ranked low in cybercrime, access to the Internet, expenditures on computer equipment, and wireless Internet access.  El Paso, Texas and Memphis, Tenn. came in second and third, respectively, on the list of least risky online cities.

“Despite people’s familiarity with technology and the Internet, this study shows that everyone is exposed to a certain level of risk when they are online,” said Bert Sperling, founder and researcher of Sperling’s Best Places. “No matter where you live – be it Seattle or Detroit – it’s important to be vigilant in everyday online behavior in order to protect yourself against cybercrime of all types.”

Methodology

To develop these rankings, researchers at Sperling’s BestPlaces analyzed data for each city including the number of cyberattacks and potential infections (data provided by Symantec Security Response), level of Internet access, expenditures on computer hardware and software, wireless hotspots, broadband connectivity, Internet usage and online purchases.

The Norton from Symantec Top 10 Riskiest Online Cities study analyzed 50 of the largest cities in the United States, by population defined by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Full survey content and additional details regarding methodology, criteria and sources are available upon request.

Complete Rankings – Cybercrime Cities

1. Seattle
2. Boston
3. Washington, D.C.
4. San Francisco
5. Raleigh, N.C.
6. Atlanta
7. Minneapolis
8. Denver
9. Austin, Texas
10. Portland, Ore.
11. Honolulu
12. Charlotte, N.C.
13. Las Vegas
14. San Diego
15. Colorado Springs, Colo.
16. Sacramento, Calif.
17. Pittsburgh
18. Oakland, Calif.
19. Nashville-Davidson, Tenn.
20. San Jose, Calif.
21. Columbus, Ohio
22. Dallas
23. Kansas City, Mo.
24. New York
25. Indianapolis
26. Albuquerque, N.M.
27. Miami
28. Omaha, Neb.
29. Virginia Beach, Va.
30. Los Angeles
31. Cincinnati, Ohio
32. Houston
33. St. Louis, Mo.
34. Phoenix,
35. Chicago
36. Baltimore
37. Oklahoma City
38. Philadelphia
39. Jacksonville, FL\la.
40. Tulsa, Okla.
41. San Antonio
42. Milwaukee
43. Cleveland
44. Tucson, Ariz.
45. Long Beach, Calif.
46. Fort Worth, Texas
47. Fresno, Calif.
48. Memphis, Tenn.
49. El Paso, Texas
50. Detroit

You can access detailed information on the study here.

Dell’s Global Channel chief Greg Davis accepted the Network Storage Award at the XChange Solution Provider conference.  In effect, it’s a ‘people’s choice award’ too, because it measures overall solution provider perception of products and services and is considered a premier resource used by VARs to evaluate the leading technology vendors in the channel today.

Of course, Dell shares the award with members if the PartnerDirect program, because they have been significant contributors to the growth and success experienced in the storage space.  Click HERE to see why.

Upgrade to Windows 7

Norwood, Massachusetts 6/15/2009 – The MSPAlliance (MSPA) the International Association of Managed Service Providers (www.mspalliance.com), today announced that Corporate IT Solutions has become a member of the MSPAlliance.

The MSPAlliance is the oldest Managed Services group and the only Accrediting and Standards based body for the Managed Services Industry. With over 8,000 members world-wide, the MSPAlliance is a very powerful and influential global organization, working to promote the managed services industry to the business consumer. MSPAlliance member companies’ are able to achieve Green IT Certifications, Disaster Recovery Certifications, and ultimately achieve MSPAlliance Accredited Provider Status.

“Corporate IT Solutions is proud to be an MSPAlliance Member.” said Mark Tango, V.P. of Operations. “Our organization works very hard to maintain a solid core of conscientious business practices and technical excellence within the Manged Services Industry. ”

“We are honored to have Corporate IT Solutions as a member of our association,” said Charles Weaver, MSPAlliance president. “By upholding the Managed Service Provider’s Code of Ethics and high technical standards, Corporate IT Solutions will help ensure the integrity of our profession.”

ROUND ROCK, Texas, June 24, 2009— Dell today announced the winners of its 2009 Enterprise Architecture (EA) Partner of the Year Award, marking the inaugural of its annual channel partner awards program.

The EA Partner of the Year award recognizes Dell partners for excellence in partner effectiveness. Award winners are evaluated on their innovative approach to customer service, sales success and ability to serve customers as a dedicated Dell partner.

Winners in the U.S & U.K. all conveyed an extraordinary commitment to Dell’s EA Partner program by working closely with Dell’s sales team to execute on significant wins while delivering on Dell’s customer promise of innovation and efficiency. The award program also recognizes several regional winners. In the U.S.,

Corporate IT Solutions is included in the exclusive list of winners.

“It delights me that we’re able to recognize our most innovative partners’ ongoing commitment to our certification program through the first annual EA Partner of the Year Award,” said Bob Skelley, director, PartnerDirect Global Enterprise Architecture Certification Channel. “Our national and regional winners all display the attributes of a great partner and are examples of how to partner successfully to secure new, significant wins by leveraging the certification program and serving as trusted advisors to their customers.”

The entry-level storage arrays, servers and professional services are aimed at helping channel partners simplify sales, deployment and management, and gain market share over rivals HP and IBM.

Dell today launched a new series of storage solutions under its EqualLogic brand to help partners better serve the SMB market and increase market share against rivals Hewlett-Packard and IBM.

“The iSCSI market is a bright spot in IT spending,” says Travis Vigil, senior manager for Dell’s EqualLogic product line. “We’ve definitely seen that reflected in EqualLogic’s year-over-year growth, which in the first quarter of 2009 was up 71 percent compared to the first quarter 2008.”

IDC Research estimates Dell/EqualLogic currently claims a 36 percent revenue share of the external storage market, which is growing at about 40.5 percent per year. Vigil says these numbers prove that Dell’s growing much faster than the overall storage market and is within two market share points of competitors HP and IBM.

Driving this growth is the increased pressure on customers to limit acquisition costs and operating costs, says Vigil. The EqualLogic PS4000 series of storage arrays include the PS4000E with iSCSI connectivity, the PS4000X with 10K SAS connectivity and the PS4000XV with 15K SAS connectivity.

The new storage arrays, which start at $10,000, offer a less expensive infrastructure option for SMBs that combines many enterprise-class features with ease-of-use and easy scalability, Vigil says.

The PS4000 arrays offer high-end features such as storage virtualization, thin provisioning, server virtualization integration and advanced management capabilities, Vigil says. In addition, solution providers and their customers are offered investment protection, since the PS4000 series integrates with legacy EqualLogic storage environments as well as the PS6000 storage array targeted to enterprise customers.

Vigil says that the PS4000 arrays offer seamless integration with all major hypervisors from virtualization vendors VMware, Citrix and Microsoft’s Hyper-V. The PS4000 also includes the capability to manage virtualized storage deployments from customers’ native hypervisor console, whatever vendor they choose.

Jeff Boardman, solutions architect at Dell partner Corporate IT Solutions, says his company has been using a PS4000 demonstration unit for a few months, and is thrilled with the capabilities and the customer opportunities the product will provide.

“As an engineer, it can be frustrating when vendors introduce an entry-level product because most of the time they cut out all kinds of important features,” Boardman says. “But with the PS4000, the only limitations are the amount of bandwidth that can travel over iSCSI and the number of units that can be stacked together.”

In essence, Boardman adds, EqualLogic is allowing solution providers to target smaller customers with a solution that doesn’t eliminate any important features.

Boardman says he doesn’t find the P4000’s limitations a drawback, since most SMB customers that Corporate IT Solutions would approach wouldn’t need high bandwidth or a large number of SAN appliances.

“This absolutely makes sense for SMBs, or even for enterprises that have branches or remote offices,” he says. “This product is a great starter track, so SMBs can have an affordable solution to get virtualization or other SAN projects off the ground more easily.” The PS4000 will also allow Corporate IT Solutions access to smaller customers they wouldn’t have been able to approach with other solutions, he says.

“And as our SMB customers grow, if they need additional capacity and functionality, they can simply add a PS6000 into their infrastructure,” he says.

In tandem with the launch of the PS4000 series, Dell EqualLogic has released enhancements to the PS series storage array management software. During a Webcast held June 17 to discuss the launch, Brad Anderson, senior vice president of Dell’s Enterprise Product Group, said the new software will be available to any new or existing Dell/EqualLogic customers, as long as they have a valid support contract.

The new PS series storage management software includes increased integration with VMware virtualization deployments and will also add integration with VMware’s vSphere 4.0 platform announced in May 2009.

“Aside from EMC, which owns part of VMware, we are the first vendor to include these kinds of features and integration with VMware ESX and vSphere 4.0,” Anderson says.

Dell also announced new ProConsult storage services, which will provide Dell’s nearly 49,000 channel partners with greater opportunities to resell optimization, planning and management services for storage environments, says Greg Davis, Dell’s global channel chief.

The ProConsult Data Management service quickly diagnoses problems and recommends storage solutions that help customers’ infrastructure be more efficient, says Bob Skelley, global head of Dell’s Enterprise Architecture certification group. The Data Management service can identify and eliminate unused capacity, more quickly provision available storage, and strengthen compliance with internal policies and external regulations, Skelley explains.

The ProConsult Disaster Recovery solution helps customers plan and implement an effective and affordable DR program that makes the best use of existing and new technologies, while also helping to allocate personnel resources and streamline business processes, he says.

Three new next-generation enterprise servers—the T410, R410 and T710—round out the new product launches from Dell, according to Greg Davis, Dell’s global channel chief. Taken together, the new solutions and services will simplify sales, deployment and management of virtualized data centers and storage environments, making both Dell and its channel partners more profitable.

“With these launches, we’re aiming to bring new solutions that address the needs we hear most from our partners: Make [solutions] easy to sell, simple to get up and running, and help me do more, faster, with limited resources,” Davis says.

Computerworld – Dell Inc. today announced the latest in its line of iSCSI storage arrays — entry-level models aimed at small to medium-sized businesses and enterprise branch offices, and for backing up virtualized server environments.

Dell said the EqualLogic PS4000 Series of virtualized iSCSI storage area network (SAN) arrays bring enterprise-class features contained in higher-end PS-series arrays to SMBs and remote offices. Such features include thin provisioning, tighter integration with server virtualization software and advanced management capabilities to link remote data replication back with central data centers.

Dell also announced the NX3000 array, which is a PowerVault 3000 server for sharing files across Windows and Linux clients. The array comes with deduplication software and can be used as a gateway device to convert an EqualLogic storage array into a network-attached storage array.

The EqualLogic PS4000 Series integrates with existing EqualLogic PS series arrays, which allows it to be integrated with other storage arrays. “It’s investment protection. The PS4000 has less scalability than the PS6000, so should you outgrow it, you can add PS6000 and continue to grow or can do conversion of PS4000 to PS6000, which will be offered later this year,” said Travis Vigil, senior manager for EquaLogic Product family at Dell.

Because the PS4000 arrays are managed by the same software as the other PS-series arrays, all of the boxes can be managed through a single, central administrative interface, Vigil said.

The array comes in three models: the PS4000E, which uses 7200 RPM SATA II drives available in 250GB, 500GB or 1TB capacities; the PS4000X array, which has 10000 RPM SAS drives available in 400GB, and will in July offer 450GB and 600GB capacities; and the PS4000XV arrays, which have the best performance in the PS4000 line with 15,000 RPM SAS drives available in 300GB and 450GB capacities. The PS4000 series can be configured with single or dual controllers and RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10, and RAID 50.

The PS4000 series arrays start at $10,000 for a PS4000E with eight 250GB drives and a single controller. By comparison, the PS6000 series array starts at $17,000.

The Dell EqualLogic PS4000 series includes integration with Advanced Multi-Path I/O functionality in vSphere 4.0, offering load balancing of storage requests between the virtual machine host and Dell EqualLogic PS Series storage arrays.

The array also comes with auto-snapshot Manager/VMware Edition 2.0 software, a data protection feature of Dell EqualLogic PS Series iSCSI SANs that enables online backups and restores of VMware virtual machines and VMware Virtual MachineFile systems. The software also offers secondary disaster recovery sites to be brought on line automatically in the event that a primary site goes down.