Why would you get IT services from different companies, when one can do the job perfectly? If you need computer repair Alpharetta services for one of your computers or network support Alpharetta to put your business back on the right track, then you should look no further than the services which can be provided by the IT Wired company.

Do you need computer repair Alpharetta to take care of a busted computer at home? Then your problems will be over in the shortest amount of time possible. After you make the call, the mobile computer repair Alpharetta team will visit you on site at your home and repair your computer as fast as it can be done, with very little trouble for you.

If you are looking for network support Alpharetta services for your business or home network, you can contact IT Wired for a full partnership as far as these services are concerned. Once you have closed a deal with IT wired, you will not have to worry about the quality or the promptness of the network support Alpharetta services ever again.

No matter if you need a personal computer repair Alpharetta or if you are looking for a partnership concerning network support Alpharetta and IT services for your business, then IT Wired is able to give you the best deal. Why choose a more expensive service, when you can have your local providers do a much better job with lower costs?

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I.T. Wired staff

INTRDUCTION TO SEO
 Internet advertisement has helped generate a large portion of business for many firms. In 1999, $2 billion was spent worldwide in online advertisement, that number today is over $20 billion. The internet is quickly becoming the primary means of advertisement and product promotion for many firms and small businesses. Many companies are now focusing on search engine optimization (SEO) of their websites to drive more traffic and business by getting top search results on the major search engines. Since the invention of the first search engine, there has been much work done by the search engines to create new algorithm that would more effectively filter the search results of relevant content. This article will discuss the most effective strategies and techniques that SEO masters are currently using to drive web traffic.  It will also discuss different methods and strategies that are used to optimize webpages on-site and off-site. This article will focus mostly on Google, however these same techniques will work with most other popular search engines such as Bing, Yahoo, etc…

HOW DOES A SEARCH ENGINE DETERMINE PAGE RANKING (PR)? The algorithm that search engines use to rank websites is kept as a secret. This algorithm is constantly evolving and updating in an effort to battle spam and new SEO techniques. In truth search engines hate SEO! Search engine are designed to provide the most relevant websites based on the text in the body, the title, the keywords, the site descriptionE and the popularity of the website.  Spammers use this to their advantage to either saturate the body of the website with keywords that are invisible to the user when they click the link, creating keyword filled redirect websites, and masking the content of the site, there exists many other black hat SEO practices and search engines are constantly forced to update their algorithm in a fight against the spam and filter quality results.  Search engines until recently determined the page rankings (PR) using META tags, these are tags imbedded into the HTML code of the website, with things like title, description and keywords.  Search engines would look at keyword density in the title, description and the body and rank the sites placing more emphasis on sites with the highest keyword saturation on top of the search results. With Google, came a whole new way of search engine optimization.  Google revolutionized the search engine by determining the websites PR based almost entirely on backlinks instead of the Meta tags and keywords. It still looks at the title of the website and the description, but gone are the days of counting keywords in the description and the body to make sure it meets the “required” keyword density.  These old methods are still used by some search engines; however Google took a new approach that seemed to provide much better search results of more relevant content.  Google now looks at the backlinks as the primary determining factor for page rankings. This new approach fundamentally changed the way SEO is done.      
Google along with Bing and Yahoo puts a lot of weight on backlinks when determining the website’s PR.  Backlinks are a one way link from a website back to the site being optimized.  Google sees a back link as “hey people are talking about this website and linking to it, it must be good and have relevant content!”. So the SEO has been divided into on-site and off-site optimization.  The off-site consist of building backlinks, while the onsite is optimizing the HTML to make it more search engine spider friendly. 

What really determines the hardware requirements for a server? What processor should I get? How much RAM? Do I need a hardware RAID controller? What hard drives should I choose?
To answer all of this we first have to figure out what the server is going to be used for. If we are doing heavy compilation on the server we will need a lot of RAM and a fast clocked CPU, if we are hosting a web server, the CPU clock speed is less important, but instead a server needs plenty of RAM. It’s important to know the minimum requirements for any application the server will be running.

What is a difference between a server and a desktop PC?

So you might be wondering what is the difference between a server and powerful desktop PC running an Intel i7 processor for example? Well there are two main differences, the ability of the server based system to utilize ECC memory (Error Correction Codes) and the sheer size of the memory that most server motherboards will accept compared to a desktop. Because the server usually run 24-7 while utilizing large amounts of RAM and usually operating at almost full capacity, it’s very possible memory errors can occur. To prevent a crash servers utilize ECC memory that uses Triple Modular Redundancy or Hamming Code as the primary methods of detection and elimination of errors. So if this will be a server that will remain on 24-7 and you will need more than 12 GB of rams (usually the maximum that will fit into a desktop PC), I strongly suggest going with a server level motherboard/CPU and ECC RAM.

Some good general guidelines to consider when picking the server hardware:

Is the server intended to handle multiple users, or is the server used in virtualization? If so depending on how many users are logging into the server, having lots of RAM is a good idea I recommend at least 12-16 GB depending on the server configuration and what level of virtualization the server will be performing.

Will the server perform complex calculations/compiling/rendering? If that is the case, I would recommend at least 12-24 GB of RAM and a fast multi core and even dual processes server with at least an Intel Xenon level processes or an AMD Opteron. (More to come on Intel vs AMD server CPU battle)

What is RAID and do I need it in my server? RAID or (redundant array of inexpensive disks) is crucial in a server. In case of a hard drive failure it could cost hundreds or thousands of dollars to restore the server back to its previous state, using RAID a simple drive swap and the server is back to its previous state. The most optimal array for a RAID controller in a server environment is RAID 5 or a RAID 1. A minimum of 3 drives is needed for RAID 5, and at least 2 drives in a RAID 1 configuration is required. I would recommend a hardware based RAID controller instead of a cheaper software based one. Having hardware based controller card removes the burden away from the CPU especially in case of a hard drive failure, having to rebuild the array would can cause significant system slow down if done without a physical hardware controller.

What hard drives should I pick for my server? Usually not only will the larger drives perform better because they have less number of disks so the access times will be faster, but they will guarantee you ample storage for the future. Depending on what your server is used for.

Picking the right server hardware is crucial in achieving smooth operations. I recommend to start by write down everything you want your server to be able to perform today and everything you MIGHT want it to do in the future. Now write down a number with a $ in front of it that will be the most you are willing to spend on this server. This will give you an idea of what type of server this will be and what hardware suites your needs the most, it becomes a balancing act between performance and budget but ultimately you are the only one that can make that decision.

I want to hear what you guys think! Any ideas or recommendations you might have?

As businesses become more reliant on the underlying Information Technology (I.T.) infrastructure, it’s crucial that your I.T. supports your business plan.  When developing an I.T. plan for your business it’s important to understand what I.T. capabilities your business needs.  If this is a law firm, a medical office, or a brokerage firm, it’s important to consider security.  If this a service firm that relies on communication with its customers and employees, it’s important to integrate a central messaging and collaborative software such as an Exchange and SharePoint.

Small Businesses must have a solid backbone when it comes to servers, networks and switches. The correct hardware and software selection could mean the difference between a system that is fast, secure and reliable and a system that has large holes which could become a costly problems.  When picking a server or a workstation always plan ahead! As the size of the businesses increase the same server that could handle 10-15 users logged into it can all of a sudden become overloaded, slow and non-responsive when another 10 computers are added to the network.  Remember its always cheaper to buy hardware that is capable of handling future expansion than to pay double later down the road.

Although last year’s server model IS cheaper today, it might become obsolete tomorrow, as the software developers constantly push hardware to its limits.  Don’t get me wrong however; I’m in no way advocating that spending money to make sure you have the best of the best is a good idea!  You must match your I.T. needs with your business goals, it’s an overkill to buy a server meant to render Pixar movies in record times simply to run your domain controller  and email, but it’s crucial to determine what exactly you want your hardware to do and to always plan ahead! Look for the article "Picking the Right Server Hardware" for more information on what to consider when choosing server hardware.

If your business has multiple computers, they all use email and some proprietary software, it’s always a good idea to start by developing a solid computer network inside the office.  This includes wiring all the workstation outlets with a CAT5 cable and running all the cables back into the server room where it will be connected to the switches. For these computers to have access to the internet they will either have to go through a dedicated server which will function as a DNS server and a gateway to the internet, or a router must be present on the network which will take on the responsibilities of assigning automatic IP addresses using DHCP protocol to each workstation and act as a DNS and a gateway as well. It’s also a MUST to have a hardware firewall on the network to prevent any sort of outside threats.

If running a centralized server, an office must have a domain controlled which users can log in and have a certain permissions accesses granted to them. It’s crucial to take steps to make sure each user on the server does not abuse their privileges or cause harm to the data or pose a security risk.  Before having this setup it’s a smart move to draw out the diagram of what users should have what restrictions and what groups you want to separate all the users in to aid in managing the accounts later down the road. Having a centralized server allows for managers to keep tabs on what their employees can and can’t do, as well as monitor their workstations and update company’s proprietary software from one centralized location. Instead of installing the software on each individual workstation computer and keeping up with everyone’s version numbers, it’s much easier to have the software installed centrally or to push the updates to all the workstations simultaneously.

Another critical point to think about is the backup solutions for your business. As your business grows so does the size of your archives and your everyday data, the one thing to consider when choosing a backup solution is always plan in advance.  It is much cheaper to plan ahead than to have to replace/rebuild your entire backup infrastructure to accommodate more space.  If its lefts on the server and no other place has a backup of the important company files, it could be a catastrophe the next time a power surge happens, or a hard drive breaks on the server. It’s important to have a the data backed up in more than one place, good options to consider is off site backups as well as local in the office backup server.

Once these steps are complete it’s safe to say your small business infrastructure is on the right path.  With time it will become more evident what exact hardware/software you need to run your business, but with a solid network backbone, and a powerful server  it’s a sure bet that your business is ready for growth.

Email was introduced in the early 1980s and today we can’t imagine the world without it.  With the introduction of Microsoft Exchange, we now have our emails, appointments, contacts and calendar synced to our smart phones and office computers and home PCs.  What I however run into is many small businesses owners get talked into hosting their Exchange servers in their own home offices instead of data centers/shared hosting.  When a small business owner calls up an I.T. consulting firm and asks them what would be the best way for them to use their corporate email the very first recommendation is “let’s host an Exchange server in your office!”

There are several reasons why I.T. consulting firms recommend hosting the exchange server in the small business office and it all comes down to money. To setup an exchange, a service firm would charge a premium for the server, upcharge on the software licenses, throw in another 3-5 work hours billed at $120+ / hour on top of that to setup the actual server and you have an I.T. consulting firm that is walking away with over a thousand dollars’ worth of profit all in one day and a few hours!  Sure a server could cost the business owner $1,000, Exchange server licenses of about $600, Window Server $500, virtual server license (VMWare) $500 for a total of over $3,000 in cost to the small business owner just to host email, and this does not include the cost of high speed internet or the price to setup a push to Blackberry mobile devices, nor is this a reliable Exchange environment hosting on a single server. There are several problems with this setup, if the server crash, a hard drive fails, your office internet goes down or you have a power surge, everyone in your company is stuck with no email, contacts, appointments or anything else your exchange does.  The truth about exchange is it requires high end server hardware and redundancies such as two physical domain controllers and a separate server just for Exchange itself, so that’s a total of 3 high end servers, to have a reliable Exchange server environment. This is price effective in a large organization with an I.T. staff to service and troubleshoot any problems; however small business owners it would be absurd to spend this much money to host an unreliable exchange.

You might be wondering what the solution could be?  Well its simple, it’s called Shared Exchange Server hosting.  How this works you might wonder?

Server virtualization has totally revolutionized the I.T. industry (more on this in another blog post).  What virtualization let’s hosting companies do is using their physical servers, they can emulate or run multiple Windows or Linux based virtual servers on one physical server.  This allows for shared hosting companies to be able to host multiple domains for different users/firms not only using multiple physical servers, but also emulating multiple virtual servers on the same hardware!  This basically means you share the same server hardware with many companies/users that are also using the shared exchange hosting with your particular hosting company.  The advantages to this is significantly reduced cost of hosting, as this effectively limits the number of physical servers a hosting company needs to have.  What this means to you as a small business owner is HUGE up front savings, you only pay a flat monthly fee per user, and the peace of mind that most hosting companies guarantee 99.99% of up-time.

Most firms that do shared exchange hosting don’t lock you into any long term contracts, it’s strictly month to month, the fees are anywhere from $10-30 a user per month.  The best part about this is the servers are located in a secure data center, with many redundant backups on multiple servers which eliminates the dreaded SPOF (single point of failure).  If one of the physical servers crashes in the shared hosting environment, other servers on the network will take up the slack of the crashed server so there will be no disruption of services for the end user. 

Things to consider: 

How large is your firm?   If you have over 100 employees it makes more sense to host your own exchange servers, 100x$30 that is $3,000 per month that you could be spending on exchange!   I would definitely recommend going with the exchange server in your home office.   Although the up-front cost could be a sticker shock considering you would need at least 3 physical servers to host a reliable Exchange environment, plus all the licenses, so the price tag for something like this could be close to $10,000, but having this done however will pay for itself in the long run.  If your firm is small and only has 5-10 employees and you would like to integrate exchange, the shared hosting option would be a definite solution!

How technically savvy is your staff?  Here is the problem, once you have exchange setup in your office, if anything crashes or some kinks need to be ironed out, it would be crucial to have a technical person on staff or have a contract with a firm that can manage your exchange setup on site.  This is something to also consider when hosting your exchange server, if a server crashes or something goes haywire you as a small business owner will have to pony up cash to have it fixed.

What are the advantages of going shared hosting route?  This one is obvious; the cost and reliability!  Because you are sharing the same server hardware with many other companies/users this means that to add another account to the server costs the hosting firm only pennies.  You have zero up front cost and only pay a month fee per user.  The hosted exchange is managed and operated entirely by the hosting firm, this means that any problems they might experience with their server will be addressed quickly with almost no interruption to you as the end user.

To sum this up

If you’re an owner or a manager of a large firm with 100+ employees, it would be a very smart investment to have an in-house exchange servers setup as this will save lots of money down the road; however if you are a small to medium size firm I would highly recommend to look into shared exchange server hosting, this will not only save lots of money, it will also eliminate much headache that is usually associated with in-house hosting of an exchange. 

If you have any questions or comments, we would love to hear them!