Efficiency through Technology and Quality by HPD Global SaaS Solutions

These days it is most important to take the business battle to strategic design. Some concerns with the Economy as it is are to find cheaper ways to increase efficiency without hurting quality. Technology is one strong avenue to do that through. Some careful attention should be given by management into various areas surrounding this. Consider the following:

What areas of your work flow can be automated?
How utilized is your present technology?
Have you considered efficiency through leverage of technology?
Could you double your output with quality by doing things different?

These questions help us better determine as management what areas we should push to resolution on a more level approach. I am going to make a bold statement about our present economic situation. I believe that the businesses the utilize creativity, strategic design, and technology toward doing things smarter (different) will be the companies that take us further into the new millenium and will be tomorrow’s successful companies. You have heard that the best way to win is thinking outside the box. Technology when implemented successfully with intelligent engineers will not only yield success but a peace of mind. You will want to ensure that you deal with solid Technology Experts when making these changes. To an extent it will involve vision and entrepreneurship, but it can be done. So this will be an area that all technology management will face if they have not faced it so far. It is the dynamics of where Global Business is going, you just have to think outside the box and be the first to the fight. HPD Global has multiple SaaS solutions you should contact us to save money.

Performance tuning the Windows System Drive

From time to time the old issue of alert or log spamming will come up.  With it the usual performance degradation and CPU throttling issues as well.  During these times, it is best to find the large temp or log files and remove them from your Windows System Drive, for return to performance stability (RTPS).  This can be done through Windows Search.
 
Press Windows Key then press S
 
If you have downloaded Windows Search you will need to on the left side select Search Companion.
 
Click all files and folders
 
From there then:
Click What size is it? Double arrows to expand
 
Then you can put in the size of the files.  You can search for different file types as well such as (*.tmp, *.tpm, *.chk, *.log)
 
Select all (ctrl+a) then shift+del.
 
Also you can modify system paging to use one file rather than many when creating the paging file.  This will help improve drive performance as well as minimize on orphaned files.  That can be done in System Properties – Advanced – Under performance click settings – than advanced tab – click change – set the minimum and maximum to 1.5 times the physical memory – click set – reboot for changes.
 
This should help you remove unnecessary files while optimizing system performance.

Great Tool for Windows Server Active Directory Exploration

Are you PCI Compliant?

More and more businesses are going virtual each day and put their business to work for them 24 hours a day.  With, e commerce in expansion in mind it becomes totally imperative to establish standards of security.  The Payment Card Industry or PCI has established pretty clear standards for companies that wish to utilize this fast growing and highly lucrative line of business.  Funded by Visa and Mastercard primarily; PCI was developed to ensure consumer confidence in purchasing goods and services over the internet.  Whether you are a small or large corporation and you have an established online business, you are expected to be PCI Compliant.  Failure to do so can cost your business profound costs in litigation, fees from Visa and Mastercard, and loss in potential business.  It simply is not worth the risk to your business to lack in due diligent security.  As a solution, HPD Global IT Consulting offers Enterprise-wide PCI Compliance SaaS solution to businesses that are small as well as large.  We implement all DSS standards and provide you with a security baseline to start you off with security due diligence.

More and more these days it is becoming totally necessary to be compliant with Industry and Government standards or face paying huge fines that many businesses do not survive financially.  The security threats are real and more and more we are hearing about this in the media.  Security crackers have caused billions in damages, we can only estimate how much is kept away from the public eye and government by private organization who pay hush money to keep customer satisfaction up.  PCI compliance really covers a lot of areas in which its possible for Card holder information to be stolen.

The core of the PCI DSS is a group of principles and accompanying requirements, around which the specific elements of the DSS are organized:

Build and Maintain a Secure Network

Requirement 1: Install and maintain a firewall configuration to protect cardholder data
Requirement 2: Do not use vendor-supplied defaults for system passwords and other security parameters

Protect Cardholder Data

Requirement 3: Protect stored cardholder data
Requirement 4: Encrypt transmission of cardholder data across open, public networks

Maintain a Vulnerability Management Program

Requirement 5: Use and regularly update anti-virus software
Requirement 6: Develop and maintain secure systems and applications

Implement Strong Access Control Measures

Requirement 7: Restrict access to cardholder data by business need-to-know
Requirement 8: Assign a unique ID to each person with computer access
Requirement 9: Restrict physical access to cardholder data

Regularly Monitor and Test Networks

Requirement 10: Track and monitor all access to network resources and cardholder data
Requirement 11: Regularly test security systems and processes

Maintain an Information Security Policy

Requirement 12: Maintain a policy that addresses information security

Of course each and every requirement is probed further during an audit to ensure necessary security due diligence is in place.  It truly does take a lot of hard work to build a security baseline and managerial understanding, let us help lessen the headache with our secure Cloud Services.  Contact us today.

Virtual IT (VIT) Cloud Services

Hello World most see as a build verification test after the successful coding completion of a program.  The context in which I wish to use it today is in relation to Virtual IT (VIT), Cloud Services, SaaS, SOA.  HPD Global IT Consulting has always believed in being 100% US Owned and Operated while providing solid, sustainable and effective Virtual IT.  So let me show you how we do that for you, we live eat and breath in the Internet which is all you have to worry about, for example we come to you over the Cloud.  Our cutting edge solutions will guarantee removing headache out of IT, we do this by automating intuitive and smart actions in response to routine day to day IT Business practices in the ideal IT department.  See we have modeled and fine tuned best practices so we understand IT so well we can provide and replicate IT success and ROI virtually over the internet as we have done many times before.  So what this means is huge cost savings to you the Business Owner and sustained affordable IT.  Our goal is really to not sell you anything additional like many other IT consultants, our goal is like yours, affordable cheap IT.  Would you like to have the feel of a performance stable Fortune 100 IT Department?  Would you like to know that your IT works properly and is accessible when you need access?  Are you tired of paying high amounts of money when a system breaks and a technician has to come out on site to repair it?  Partner with us and let us compliment your existing IT Department.  Although we operate 100% virtually, we are very real and can prove to you solid ROI.  Sign up or give us a call so we can answer all your questions and give you more information about how we can make your IT make more sense.

What to do and not to do when IT Consulting, especially for good customers

Consulting can certainly be a rewarding endeavor.  In my career I have come across consultants from all different backgrounds, specialties, and areas of expertise.

However, on occasion you will find either the new consultant, the ineffective reseller, dot.bomb washout, or crook who somehow has convinced their customer that they can consult in a field or technology that is far out of their specialty.

How to Spot a Fake / Flake in IT Consulting

These types of consultants are pretty easy for other consultants to spot but not always easy by the customer.

Typically, these types of consultants do the following:

1. They make exaggerated claims or have very high prices as their business model is set to make money and run.
2. They will not give you a specific answer on anything, but will likely stretch jobs out and show no progress.
3. They will try to recommend solutions that are not truly solutions to the issues you have, as it shows their area of skill lacks project match.
4. They can try to change your mind in a 180 degree manner to do something that either takes longer or is simply not related.
5. They will make a lot of claims but have no follow through to confirm them.

If you are doing this now, STOP!  Consider the following:

1. Do you want to risk a lawsuit?
2. Do you want to continue to embarrass yourself and the customer?
3. Do you think that you are truly doing the customer any good by wasting their time and money?

If you are considering telling a half-truth, consider the following:

1. Do you want to risk your reputation and knowledge as an IT Consultant?
2. Do you wish to lose this customer and others this customer could have referred along with customers who they know and you work with?

Let me propose the following to the Consultant in this fiasco:

1. Find a way to communicate to the customer that you made a mistake, you want to come completely clean of this and do the right thing which is get them the help they needed to begin with.
2. If you have not put yourself into a bad situation, consider being upfront and honest with the customer by stating something to this effect:
   I don’t feel comfortable consulting in this area, but let me check with my friends and see if we can help you with your IT needs.

or

1. I do not know this technology sufficiently to help here, but I would love to help you find someone that can as I know it can be difficult sometimes to find experts in this area.

   This will not only build trust with your customers, you will likely not lose their respect and you have the possibility of coming back to help in an area they need help in, making a referral fee on the consulting firm you referred, or even getting additional business because of your honesty and your willingness to help the best you could without impeding progress.

   If you are without friends in the IT Industry who can help you succeed, send me an email I’d be happy to help, as we have 30+ years of experience in the IT Industry and certainly can help.

Good luck with your future endeavors

CES 2009 Show Recap and Vegas

The Technology presented at CES 2009 was pretty cool, but also had a lot of fun in Las Vegas:

So let me tell you about my experience.  I had gone out on business to CES 2009 and was sponsored by a rather large firmware corp there I won’t mention.  Needless, it was interesting.  I had made a lot of networking contacts including those of Microsoft and plan on going back my own next year. I had stayed at Circus Circus hotel which was in all honesty the dumpiest hotel I had seen, but got to stay there for free.

So CES was rather interesting:

I was looking at green technologies and there were many of them, longer lasting batteries, batteries with quick charge up times and long shelf-life along with the capabilities to power up laptops, cell phones, etc.  Also saw bio-friendly batteries.  There was pretty cool portable technologies running lightweight software and power.  Microsoft seemed to strive to show their cloud services off (population data compiling).

Fun in Vegas:

Here is what I did:

1. Saw Circus Circus presentation, which was a rope balancing trick, very impressive by a Brazilian performer
2. We saw a partial view of the Bellagio Fountains
3. Went on a Venetian gondola ride while being sung songs in Italian by a swiss Italian man.
4. Took a late night walk in the Caesar’s Palace Forum shops which was relaxing and soothing with hearing the water fountains run
5. Went to some shows we got for free:  Bite (passed on it), the V – show, tried to see the pirate ship battle but was too windy.
6. Drove around in a convertible got some air with the rag-top down one day when it was sunny and warm
7. Went to a lengthy and boring time share presentation, glad we didn’t buy
8. Saw a little of Paris and New York New York from the outside
9. Thought on business and prospective business goals
10. Relaxed and ate at nice restaurants
11. Went to the Wax Museum which was cool and fun
12. Ran into a few adult stars, a-hem moving on.