CiTalk February 2010

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CiTalk IT news and updates to put your business ahead of the rest. February 2010. CITOC - To Efficiency and Beyond. www.citoc.com

Service: The New Center of Computing
Imagine services that are intelligent enough to anticipate your needs, based on a real-time understanding of your location, time of day and preferences. In the future of computing, the search for information will be done for you, not by you. You'll use Web browsers to access a wide range of 'cloud services'--computing services available on demand, over the Internet.
We call this 'everything as a service.' The true power of the cloud happens when there is continuous interaction between your device (your smart phone, notebook computer, TV) and the network, and they jointly act on your behalf.
Here's a simple example: Say it's 2 p.m., and your calendar shows you're booked on a flight to Toronto at 6 p.m. Your device should anticipate what information you'll need for this trip and proactively gather it for you -- a weather forecast for the Toronto area, a status update on your flight, a recommended route to the airport based on up-to-the-minute traffic conditions, and so on. In this scenario, the big step forward is the pervasive, proactive and highly personalized nature of cloud services.

Five trends to watch
As we move to a lifestyle where everything will be delivered as a service, there are five trends that are worth paying close attention to:
1) The digital world will converge with the physical world. Cloud services will be increasingly aware of the context you're in, right down to details such as the time, the weather, where you're headed, and which friends or business colleagues are nearby.
2) The era of device-centric computing is over. Devices will continue to play an important role, but in the next phase, they become interchangeable -- and the cloud services become the focal point.
3) Publishing will be democratized. A global Internet population of 1.2 billion people now has the tools to produce everything from books and magazines to music and videos. You will soon have the ability to print, on demand, any book ever published.

4) Crowd-sourcing is going mainstream and will change the rules of the game forever. Fortune 50 companies will access top talent across the globe via the Internet, saving millions of dollars in professional services, from fields like accounting, advertising, law and engineering.
5) Enterprises will use radically different tools to make key business decisions. A merger is taking place between the structured data that fuels business intelligence and the unstructured data of the Web.
As 'everything as a service' evolves, the technology industry will build a higher level of intelligence into the next generation of devices, networks and software, creating more dynamic services that enrich our everyday lives and improve how we do business. Soon, you will have full control to customize your computing environments and shape your experiences, and CITOC will be there, guiding you every step of the way. Used with permission from the HP Small and Medium Business Center

Featured Product: Blue Coat® PacketShaper®
When it comes to managing multiple applications and an enterprise network, there's no better tool than Blue Coat's PacketShaper. This bandwidth management device provides deep insight, making it easy to track and manage all types of applications. In addition, you can ensure customer-critical applications get the bandwidth they need to perform at their peak.
With Blue Coat's PacketShaper, you can:
*Manage and monitor bandwidth with a user-friendly interface
*Prevent network blocks
*Control bandwidth use
*Prevent unauthorized traffic
*Identify and isolate infected PCs
*Optimize access to centralized systems and applications

To learn more about Blue Coat's PacketShaper, contact your CITOC representative today.

Case Study: KMG Chemicals

KMG Chemicals produces and distributes specialty chemicals to carefully focused global markets. The company more than doubled its size when it purchased two related manufacturing facilities, one domestic and one in Europe.

At the time, KMG had one network server and no IT department. Within two short months, CITOC designed and installed a scalable system in a SOX compliant data center. During the following nine months, CITOC led the extensive IT efforts necessary for the successful assimilation of the newly acquired businesses.

Get to know
Alex King
Years at CITOC: 2
Education: Texas A&M University -- Nuclear Engineering Program
Family/Pets: Wife, Lerin; son, James; dog, Mary; and 2 cats, Bear and Streak
Favorite Movie: The Philadelphia Story
Hidden Talent: Can play the bagpipes
Hobbies: Music, cooking, camping and reading

Just for Fun:
In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.

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