►Better Together? 
Better Believe It!
used with permission from the
Microsoft Small Business Center

When I was much younger, I had a 1971 Mustang fastback I nicknamed "Sleek." I loved that car, so much that I hung onto it way past its useful life span. I became my local mechanic's best friend, bringing my treasured wheels in every few months for yet another repair.

I finally wised up and traded it in for a brand new Mustang. As soon as I drove off the dealer's lot, I kicked myself for not having traded up sooner. My new ride was built better and had standard features that weren't even available as options on my previous car. I could count on it to start up on even the coldest Chicago mornings (and trust me, they can be very cold). What's more, it had more acceleration than old Sleek, an important attribute when trying to pass someone on the Dan Ryan Expressway.

So, here's the question for you: Have you hung onto your business software for too long, as I did with Sleek? If you're still running Windows XP or an older version of Windows, it's time to take a good look at the options for upgrading. See what new features, new speed, and new reliability can mean for your workplace.

Let's start with the obvious. Your previous Windows platform has been a loyal and trusty performer. But like Sleek, it's coming to the end of its useful life. I can even tell you the end of support date for Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows 2000: July 13, 2010.

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I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.

Abraham Lincoln
 

►Just for Laughs

Where will you conduct business today? Chances are that you, your colleagues, or your employees will spend time out of the office. These days, it's not necessary to spend eight hours in the office to put in a full-day's work.

How Things Will Change: Work When and Where You Want
Imagine if you had full, secure access to all your business data, applications, and resources from anywhere, on any device, and at any time. Many small and medium-sized business (SMB) owners already do. They've extended their office networks to allow themselves, their colleagues, and employees to work from anywhere they happen to be.

Cisco SMB Solutions enable easy access to your company's business data, phone system, applications, and resources via secure, wired, wireless, and fast Internet connections. Cisco offers a range of SMB solutions that help ensure:

• Employees will stay securely connected to the office and to each other. Cisco SMB Solutions enable workers to securely access the network from anyplace in the office. You can also allow employees to work from home, at a customer site, even the airport, which helps them turn potential downtime into productive time.

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Security breaches continued to make big headlines in 2009. And the outlook for 2010 is that we are likely to see more Internet-based breaches as more activity occurs online via browsers and e-mail. That's largely because the paradigm has shifted in the way we work, behave as consumers and even interact with each other. As more systems and devices become interconnected, we're harnessing new ways of communicating, accessing shared systems and information. But this progress also exposes organizations to risk by creating more entry points for hackers.

According to Daniel Holden, project manager at X-Force, IBM's renowned security research organization, "The simple fact of the matter is there are more and more hosts, more and more people on the Internet every day," Holden explains. "There are more applications put on the Internet every day. It is going to get worse just because of the numbers involved." Holden should know. The X-Force team is one of the best-known commercial security research groups in the world. This group of security experts researches vulnerabilities, develops assessment and countermeasure technology, and advises the public on emerging Internet threats. And it does so by analyzing millions of intrusions and billions of Web pages annually.

So how do you safeguard your company against security breaches that U.S. Secretary of State Clinton has described as being the electronic equivalent of weapons of mass destruction? Understanding where security threats are most likely to hit can help your business take the appropriate measures to avoid becoming a cybercrime statistic.

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Midsized companies are moving toward an infrastructure that is optimized and responsive to help them meet new business demands. This article in our series looks at the short- and long-term benefits of cloud computing and how midsized companies can start integrating some cloud services into their existing IT environments.

In an increasingly interconnected world, the number of interactions among devices and systems is growing rapidly. As these connections multiply, businesses need to meet the demands of employees, partners and customers for greater access to systems and information. This environment places more pressure on midsized businesses and their IT resources.

By offering a scalable infrastructure and capabilities available as services, cloud computing models enable companies to realize a more dynamic infrastructure, one that can satisfy resource demands when and where they arise. Cloud models can also help businesses become more nimble and work smarter through more agile and cost-effective access to technology and information.

Businesses of any size can benefit from adopting a cloud computing approach. Larger organizations may opt for a private cloud, which holds large amounts of computing capacity behind a firewall and is typically accessed over private networks.

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