December, 2008

More on Managed Services

So I’m starting to see more and more companies coming up with Managed Services divisions in their IT consulting business as of late. Looks to me like some people see dollar signs and figure they can just jump on the band wagon and provide great service. This bothers me for a variety of reasons.

People new to the Managed Services game better know what they’re getting into, because if you’re not prepared you can easily make a bad name for your business in a hurry. If you quickly get the reputation for providing sub par service then other aspects of your business can suffer. Also if the service is not provided properly it can help sour the market for other businesses by inadvertently giving the name “Managed Services” a bad name based on just one company providing bad service.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there are many people out there that can provide this service adequately. But I have seen (and they shall remain unnamed) some companies pick up the “Managed Services” mantle when they really have no business doing so. Instead they’re probably going to make a little money up front, and then cause their clients grief further down the road at the expense of their clients.

Managed services done properly should be a win-win situation for both parties (consulting company and the client). The consulting company reasonably makes some money off of the consulting and in turn the client receives a valuable service that is worth their hard earned dollars and helps their everyday business.

I hope the wannabes in this field are quickly identified and thrown out by the market. My 2 cents!

-RP

3 Major Cables cut in the Mediterannean

So 3 major cables were cut in the Mediterannean causing massive slowdowns and service disruptions to the Internet in certain areas of the globe. This is very similar to the cuts in February. The question is, was this intentional?

I think since there is no way to adequately protect these cables, they are at the absolute mercy of anyone who would want to sabotage them. The question is why? I guess I could think of all sorts of conspiracy theories but I’m really not that kind of guy. Instead if it was intentional, I’d just like to say to the people who did it - get a life!

If it was accidental, then we need to look at strengthening the cables in some way so they are not accidentally cut in the future. On the other hand, that would be a huge job to secure that much cable considering how far this stuff runs from point A to point B and could end up being prohibitively expensive.

-RP

Steve Jobs stepping away from MacWorld!

So here’s something strange, Steve Jobs is not doing the keynote at MacWorld! This is very strange considering this is where he would typically make major announcements. Also MacWorld is a huge deal for Apple lovers around the world.

This is definitely a disturbing trend, first Novell cancels BrainShare and now this. Is this a sign of things to come? Will we see more and more large conferences getting cancelled in favour of online webinars and communities? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for the online stuff, but I still think there is a place for conferences where people get to look at products and interact with each other in the real world.

I hope the rest of the industry doesn’t start going this way, this could be a sign of our tough economic times hitting the IT world.

-RP

PayPal Canada comes up with a way to combat scams!

So recently PayPal announced a new security measure for PayPal Canada. It’s called a security key.

The way security keys work is that you go to login to the resource in question and when you go to login it asks you for a second factor of authentication - in this case the security key. You push a button on your security key and it displays a number which you then type in and you gain access to your resource.

This kind of authentication should be used more frequently in my opinion. Anyone can look over your shoulder and see your password, or guess your password if it’s a week password using social hacking but with a security key you really up the level of security for yourself.

I encourage people to use two factor authentication, not just with your PayPal but to try and implement it with other resources that you need to secure in your networks.

-RP

Passed yet another Cisco exam!

Hi folks, so I passed yet another Cisco exam. This is the 642-383 exam. This exam is specifically written by employees of companies that are Cisco partners. It is the Cisco Express Foundations Field Engineer exam and is a requirement for certain levels of partner status.

The exam was infinitely easier than writing the CCNA and anyone who passed the CCNA should have absolutely no problem writing this exam.

There are two other exams that a company needs to write as well, the similar one for sales people and there is another one for system engineers. All three exams together are part of a partner level requirement for Cisco.

On the bright side of all this exam writing, I like these requirements even though they are a chore to get through. Why is that? Because it validates a companies ability to provide Cisco services to the industry. It’s a great idea! Now if only they got people to double check the mistakes in their exams….

-RP

BlackBerry Storm sells out at Telus in Canada

So here I was all ready to get a BlackBerry Storm for my wife when it comes to Canada. I diligently signed up for the alerts from Telus to be the “first” to be informed when it came to Canada.

Instead what happened was the Storm came and left and apparently I was the last to know. Admittedly I had my head deep in the books from studying for various certifications and I was out of touch with the outside world. However I was led to believe I’d have some heads up time from Telus which I didn’t get.

Instead, Telus sent me an email letting me know they are already sold out. Oh well, guess I’m waiting for the next batch that ships. On the bright side Telus offered me 50 bucks towards a new Storm when they come out to apologize for the impending wait.

-RP

Novell cancels BrainShare!

Hi folks, this just in from the conference world - Novell has cancelled BrainShare! This is a huge deal!

For those of you that don’t know, BrainShare is the most important conference for Novell over the past 20 years. For them to cancel this sends a message to the public clearer than any words that might be spoken. Novell is in trouble.

They are talking about switching to online learning etc. but nobody believes for a second that Novell is willingly doing this because BrainShare was always the best way to showcase everything that is Novell.

I for one think that Novell should seriously re-think this and bring BrainShare back!

-RP

BlackBerry Device software version 4.5 available for Canadians

Recently the latest software revision came out for our BlackBerries for us Canadians that use BlackBerries. Also for you BES users, the latest maintenance release is out and it provides HTML email support.

I recently tried these updates out and I have to say I love them. My BlackBerry Curve now reads email as HTML emails, something that has been available in other devices for quite some time. Also the new 4.5 update added video support to my Curve by using the camera as a video camera. It’s always nice getting new functionality like this without having to pay extra for it!

The one downside from the update I noticed is that my BlackBerry Curve would almost completely drain it’s battery in half a day. My BlackBerry Curve used to run for at least a day and a half to two days before that based on my usage. I quickly went through my settings and set a few applications to query less frequently. I also deleted the ESPN and CNN applications. After I did that everything went back to normal battery time. It seems like some of these applications didn’t take to the new update well and started indirectly causing a battery drain. On a side note, I always leave my bluetooth on so when I get in and out of my car it automatically synchronizes with my car’s bluetooth cell phone ability. This battery drainage wasn’t an issue before so I refused to accept the fact that it was the bluetooth causing the drain. I’m glad I took the time to troubleshoot it because now everything is good!

 -Cheers, RP

Passed the CCNA exam (640-802)!

Just in case people are wondering, I finally passed my Cisco CCNA exam! Got 94% on it.  For those of you intending to write this, I wouldn’t take it for granted. This is not the easy CCNA exam from the days of old, this is a brand new CCNA exam that Cisco has updated and it is meant to chew you up and spit you out if you are not prepared. They also only give you 90 mins. to write the exam which isn’t a  lot of time based on all the detail in the questions you have to go through.

The study resources I used to pass are:

·         Previous career experience with Cisco Routers and Switches

·         Boson Cisco Router Simulators

·         Cisco Press Books

·         Cisco Practice Exams that came with the Cisco Press Books

·         Lots of Red Bull J

The exam has quite a few mistakes in it that aren’t apparent if you don’t know the material. If you know the material well enough you will catch the mistakes in the questions and then all you can really do is make a 50/50 guess as to what the right answer is based on guessing what the intended question should have been. I know that sounds awful but it’s the harsh reality. The exam that I wrote had at least 4 to 5 mistakes in the exam that I could see.

-Cheers, RP

IT Industry Certifications and Standards

Hi folks, this is going to be a bit of a rant. Over the years I’ve written many exams and certifications and the one thing that is common amongst them is that they have almost nothing in common in terms of quality and standards.

I have written many an exam and done quite well on them in my IT career but I still feel that there needs to be some sort of governing body that should manage quality control and insure consistent testing standards across the board just like we do for Universities and High Schools.

All to often I find exams full of spelling and grammatical errors, or just plain wrong answers that would make the beginner test taker panic out right if they were dipping their toe into the waters of certification for the first time. By having a governing body to ensure that these certifications are created and done properly, I think we would eliminate a lot of the crappy tests out there and also eliminate a lot of the “paper” certified people out there as well.

Also all to often companies use certifications not as a point of learning but as a point of marketing instead. Hoping to prod the people who have the certifications into becoming drones of pushing their product just because they have the certifications.

-RP