| August 2006 |
| In this issue: |
| -Slipstreaming – A Better Way |
| -Don't Be Left In The Dark |
| -Closing the Digital Divide |
| -Going for The Gold |
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| Compellent Delivers First Storage Area Network With Automated Tiered Storage Within a Single Disk Enclosure |
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| Compellent Technologies, a provider of affordable and modular enterprise storage solutions, has announced
the availability of Storage Center QuickStart ILM, the first storage area network that fully automates tiered storage
within a single disk drive enclosure. |
| Read More |
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| EqualLogic wins SAN Product of the Year Award |
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EqualLogic, the leading provider of complete, enterprise-class iSCSI storage area network
(SAN) solutions, was honored with the SAN Product of the Year at the annual Storage Awards in London on June 29th. |
| Read More |
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| Virtual Iron Receives IBM ServerProven Status |
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| Virtual Iron Software, a provider of solutions for creating and managing virtual
infrastructure in the data center, has secured IBM ServerProven status for its enterprise-class virtualization
and management software platform. |
| Read More |
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| Microsoft’s Vista Build 5472 Shows Continued Improvement |
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Lab tests by eWEEK demonstrate an easy upgrade from Windows XP, some useful new utilities, but that
Windows Explorer remains a work in progress.
Visit the links below to find out more.
eWeek
Slide Show:
Vista Build 5472 |
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| Check out the latest IBM Express promotion |
| Click Here |
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| News You Can Use |
Security Management Advice
Guidelines for Buying Used Equipment
Cyberslacking |
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| New IBM Content Now Available On The NSI Web Site |
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As one of the most important research and information tools ever invented, the Internet is now critical to success. To that end, NSI and its business partners are striving to provide you with the most current IT information.
As an IBM Premier Business Partner, NSI is proud to announce the integration of "live" content on our Web site about IBM servers, storage, and workstation solutions.
Click here to see it for yourself.
All information is updated monthly. We hope you will "bookmark" it and visit often. |
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| TECHNOLOGY SERVICE NEWS |
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| NSI TotalCare |
| Don't Call Us, We'll Call You |
|
 NSI is proud to formally
announce TotalCare, our comprehensive package of Managed Services designed to ensure the security and performance
of your information technology.
NSI TotalCare delivers predictable, business focused IT services that optimize operations, manage risk,
and deliver measurable results. For NSI clients this means reducing many of the “pain points” inherent in your
current IT operation. Such issues include escalating IT budget requirements, attempting to migrate staff
from “fire-fighting” to strategic implementation mode, compliance with emerging IT governance policies with
the least amount of budgetary and operational disruption, effective security protocols, and ensuring maximum
uptime of critical applications, routers, and servers.
Networks not being “watched” by NSI TotalCare are vulnerable either to unwanted eyes, and security
breaches. With NSI TotalCare you can rest easy knowing that we are constantly watching for any new
exploits that could do harm if not addressed quickly.
Several of the following stories provide recent examples of how NSI Total Care has helped some of our customers avoid trouble. |
|
| Who's Watching You? |
| Preventing Intruders |
| No More Crashes |
| Stopping The Attacks |
| Hunting Down The Spies |
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| Hurricanes and Business Continuity |
| Don’t let A Blackout Leave You In The Dark |
|
 Who can forget the scenes of devastation from Hurricane Katrina last year?
Have you taken note of that experience? According to the National Hurricane Center,
a “very active” hurricane is expected for the northeastern seaboard with the Carolinas,
New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut having a “very high probability” of a direct hit.
| Ensuring power for continuity and success |
| The cost of lost business during a power outage can hit hard. From a simple UPS to back-up appliances, learn how to protect your business. |
| Watch Now |
So, more questions...
How would a major power outage affect our bottom line?
How quickly could you recover?
You can't prevent power failures, but you can be prepared for them. You can rely on power protection
equipment from NSI (IBM & Liebert) to help make sure your business operations continue to run. Like
yours, NSI’s business depends on continuous power. We have to know how to ensure reliability.
In addition to equipment, NSI can provide you with power reliability and redundancy consulting, data-center design and
engineering, power and environmental systems commissioning, and much more.
At minimum, be sure to check the batteries on your UPS’s and dust off your disaster recovery plan. Hurricane season is here! Take back control
through preparation and with power protection from NSI. For more information contact Lynn Santin at 800-634-8633,
ext. 332 or email her at ineidab@nsiserv.com. |
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| Slipstreaming – It’s not Star Trek |
By Dominic Mastro
NSI Support Technician |
|
The introduction of Windows XP SP2 is a great example of why someone, anyone, should know
how to slipstream (combining a service pack into a Windows CD).
 Recently I have had the need to get Windows2003 Service Pack1 into a pre Service Pack Windows2003 CD. I have found a nice
utility (see link below) that is easy to use.
For those that do not know, if you have a computer running Windows XP without SP2 and then install XP SP2, your original
install CD is absolutely useless if any files from the installation folder on the CD are needed, or if you need to perform
a Windows Repair from the CD. This will also cause you problems using the non-SP CD whether it is 2000, XP, or 2003 against
an OS that has service packs installed. The only good the original CD will be is if you want to format the drive and install a
fresh OS and then apply service packs afterwards.
While a fresh load of your Home PC or Office Workstation may be acceptable,
this is usually not the case when it comes to servers. So, slipstreaming your Server OS CD prior to needing it is good idea when a
service pack is installed on your OS after you have used a non (or lower level) SP CD originally to install your OS.
A typical computer user can use this utility for the basic slipstream, but there are more options in this utility that a
Network Administrator will appreciate. You will still have your original CD and the all important 'original' product key will
still be valid with the new CD you create.
I have used it against the Win2003-SP1 on a pre SP Win2003 CD and it worked perfectly. Of course, you will need a CD
Burner to create the new CD once your done.
To Download the Utility, click here
For the Instructions, click here |
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| A Sterling Performance |
| NSI Customer Earns Two Gold Medals |
|
 NSI takes great pride in the accomplishments of its customers, whether technology related
or not.
Therefore, we are proud to share with you the news that Raymond A. Geer, Director of
Information Systems for Sterling Corporation (a specialized transportation firm serving the
New England and mid-Atlantic regions) won two gold medals at the recent 2006 North American
Indigenous Games in Denver.
Mr. Geer, a member of the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation, competed in Rifle
Shooting, Masters Division (over 50) taking home the Gold in both the 40 shot prone/50 meter match and 60 shot 3x
(Prone, Standing, Kneeling) 50 meter match.Congratulations Ray! |
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| Vol.3, Issue 3 ©2006 |
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| Health Care Organization Chooses Automated Tiered Storage |
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| After evaluating several different options for storage and server consolidation, Masonic
Care Community of New York ( Utica ) has ordered a complete server consolidation solution from NSI. |
| Read More |
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| Disaster Recovery for Lawmakers |
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It's not what you may think! This story is about technology, not politics.
 NSI has just been selected by the Office of Legislative Management to provide an IBM ds4300 SAN (storage area network) to the Connecticut General Assembly for Disaster Recovery.
NSI was selected on the basis of pre-sales solutions and its prior experience with DR configurations. |
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| NSI Helps to Close The Digital Divide
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| NSI is proud to have been selected by IBM to assist with providing wireless enabled
PCs to the City of Hartford as part of Mayor Eddie Perez' initiative called “Hartford 's People Have the Power”. |
| Read More |
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| NSI Delivers Large Server to The Nation's Largest City |
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On June 15 th NSI received the contract award for a $1.3-million IBM Series
P 595 server from the New York City Department of Finance.
Critical to winning the award was NSI's track record of orchestrating big deliveries under complex circumstances and
within a tight time-frame.
On June 30 th everything was in place, meeting the two week deadline.
The purchase includes 5-years of hardware maintenance from NSI, as well as Operating System (AIX) and software maintenance. |
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| New NSI Account Executive |
|
 NSI is pleased to announce that Jonathan Farmer has joined us as an Account Executive
responsible for NSI Product, Services and Support.
Prior to joining NSI, Jon was a Regional Account Manager for Argent Software selling Managed Service type products, including
Monitoring, Scheduling, Consolidation and Web site analysis solutions for Windows, Unix and IBM System i. He started his
professional career with ESPN.
Jon is a graduate of Southern Connecticut State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism and Marketing.
He can be reached at 800-634-8633, ext. 141 or by email at jonf@nsiserv.com . |
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| Inside Sales Support Team Grows |
|
 NSI is pleased to announce that Lindy Steinorth has joined us working in Inside Sales Support.
Prior to coming to NSI, Lindy was a Branch Sales Support Supervisor for Hewlett-Packard. Before that, she was the
IT Administrator for an Advertising Agency in Stamford, Connecticut.
Lindy has a Bachelor of Arts in Social Services from the University of Oregon.
She can be reached at 800-634-8633, ext. 127 or by email
at lindys@nsiserv.com . |
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