How to get the most out of your computing investment

1. How to get the most out of your computing investment
Introduction
Over the years, the price of computers has fallen but at the same time, overall IT expenses for
businesses have increased. These costs are mostly attributed to support and subscription services that
are necessary to maintain the stability and security of the computers and network. Today, the total
support cost over three years frequently exceeds the original cost of the hardware and software.
Since 1995, Lanlogic has worked with its customers to control these costs, trying literally dozens of
different approaches. Some have worked well and others were complete disasters. At the same time,
we have studied the industry’s Best Practices, originally designed for large enterprise customers, and
scaled them down to meet the needs of smaller businesses. Some products, such as HP Openview and
Microsoft’s SMS, are just too unwieldy and expensive for most business while others such as centrally-
managed anti-virus solutions are perfectly suited for most organizations. In the end, we have proven
that we can significantly reduce the total cost of ownership and minimize downtime by following the
following guidelines.
The key to maximizing your computing investment are:
• Purchase name-brand hardware with adequate RAM and hard disk space
• Purchase the extended warranty
o Internal parts are now proprietary and you cannot pick up replacements at a retail store
• Laptops, which account for more than 50% of new system purchases, are generally un-
repairable unless you have an extended warranty.
• Schedule regular replacement of hardware. Older computers, like cars, require more support
than newer computers and it makes sense to replace them before they break.
• Use a centralized, controlled and monitored antivirus application for all computers and servers
• Use a network-based email spam and virus filtering service
• Use a quality firewall that protects you while you are online
• Use a centrally controlled and monitored patch management system
• Use imaging software to quickly set up new machines and restore sick ones
• Use UPS power protection for servers and network equipment with auto-shutdown signaling
• Use a backup system that supports taking the data offsite (tape, online, disk)
• Use a daily full backups when possible to maximize restoration potential
• Monitor server event logs to proactively catch problems before they are service affecting
• Use SSL or VPN for all external access to your network
• Host your website offsite; this will eliminate the potential security vulnerabilities associated with
having port 80 open to your network
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2. How to maximize your desktop/laptop investment
What computer to buy
We recommend that you use Dell or HP desktop computers. Both companies have good prices and
above-average service. The computer hardware business is in a constant state of change. If you buy a
clone today, it will have different components next month with a potential for all kinds of crazy
interactions. By going with a name brand, you have a much greater chance that all of the components
will work together and last for the life the machine.
For laptops, we recommend Lenovo T-series or Dell’s Latitude line. These laptops are significantly more
rugged than the others, and they will hold up to the extra abuse of being taken out of the office and
used at home and on the road. We have proven by our own customers’ experiences that the usable
lifespan is typically a year longer in normal business applications than other laptop brands. Do not
purchase consumer laptops from Best Buy or Frys even if they are from Dell or HP. They commonly
come equipped with Vista or XP home and are filled with trial software that the industry calls CrapWare.
Updating one of these machines and cleaning out the extra software can easily cost $500 eliminating
any cost benefit.
When purchasing a new computer, it is important to order enough memory (RAM). 1 GB is the
minimum for Windows XP; 2 GB is the minimum for Vista with 4 GB recommended. In general, anything
more than 4GB is unnecessary for a typical desktop or laptop computer.
Since all of this hardware is proprietary, we strongly recommend purchasing the extended warranty.
Other than replacing a hard drive or memory, it is generally not practical to repair a name-brand
computer if it is not under warranty.
How long will a computer last?
Computers can last for years; many people still have machines at home that are 7 or more years old.
The problem is that in a business environment, computers are typically used all day. This causes parts to
wear out more quickly than on a typical home computer. The most likely parts to fail are those that
move - disk drives, CPU and power supply fans. These motors all have bearings that will all eventually
wear out. In addition, the operating system becomes bloated over time, causing the machine to
become slower and slower. The industry consulting company Gartner, did an exhaustive research
project and concluded that the cost of maintaining a computer goes up over time and that the optimal
time to replace one is at the 3 year mark. The research is one of the reasons that most extended
warranties are set to 3 years. In our experience 4 years is a good compromise for servers and desktops.
Because they see so much more use and abuse, we agree that 3 years is the magic number for laptops.
Our customers who proactively replace their hardware on our recommended schedule have far fewer
unplanned outages, and actually spend less on IT than those that try to get the last bit of life out of older
machines.
www.lanlogic.com 248 Rickenbacker Circle, Livermore, CA 94511 888-LANLOGIC

3. Lanlogic Recommended Hardware Replacement Schedule (desktops/laptops):
Desktops 4 years
Laptops 3 years
Maintaining Performance and security on a computer
When a computer becomes infected with a virus, it will, at a minimum, suffer performance issues and
reduce productivity. More often it runs the risk of infecting other computers on the network or being
hijacked and used to send out tons of spam, which ultimately will get your email domain blacklisted. In
many cases it can also result in the loss of confidential or proprietary information and identity theft.
To avoid these potential problems, all computers connected to a network or the internet should meet
two basic security requirements – antivirus/spyware scanning software installed and regularly updated
and operating system patches regularly applied. As we all know, security holes are continuously being
found and exploited and all vendors release patches to fix these security vulnerabilities on a regular
basis. Antivirus software can do nothing to protect you against new viruses if it is not regularly updated.
The simplest way to keep both of these updated is to set the anti-virus/spyware application to
automatically update nightly and to have the operating system update weekly. The problem in real life
is that, for any of a number of reasons, one or both of these actions fail and proactive monitoring is
required to ensure that you are protected.
We have fought these issues with our customers for years and have found that the best way to manage
both antivirus/spyware and operating system updates is from a central server. For just a little more cost
than the home antivirus versions, we can use an enterprise product that will allow us to push the
updates and, more importantly, monitor which computers have received them which have not.
For operating system updates, Microsoft offers a free tool that can monitor and centrally manage
updates. It is called Windows Server Update Services or WSUS and it automatically updates not only the
operating system, but also other Microsoft applications such as Office and gives us a console to see that
status of all machines.
The next step in protecting your machines is to filter email before it hits your server and to inspect and
filter your users when they are on the web.
Protecting your Data
Unlike servers, most desktop and laptop computers are not backed up at all which is dangerous since
surveys show that 70% of many organizations critical data is on individual user machines. If you lose
your hard disk you may lose your data. Southwest Airlines recently reported that 12,000 laptops are lost
each week in American airports and only 33% of these are ever reclaimed.
We recommend three ways to backup your work station data:
1) Use Windows folder redirection to keep a copy of your “My Documents” folder on the server
2) Use Lanlogic Desktop Backup to copy your system data to either a local or remote server
3) Use imaging software to make a “clone copy” of your entire machine and store it on a local USB
hard drive or on a local server.
www.lanlogic.com 248 Rickenbacker Circle, Livermore, CA 94511 888-LANLOGIC

4. Our experience has shown that Windows folder redirection works well for desktops, Lanlogic Desktop
Backup for laptops that are taken out of the office, and imaging software for users with complex
software installations where down time is very painful and expensive.
How to maximize your Server investment
Because servers are powered on around the clock, and they are often the center of a network, it is
critical that they are treated differently than a typical desktop computer.
Key issues here are:
• Good quality name brand hardware with 24x7x4-hour onsite support
• Appropriate processing power
• High quality disk systems with RAID protection
• Adequate RAM and disk space
• UPS power protection with automatic shutdown
• Automatic Virus protection with updates
• Daily backup that is ideally stored off site
• Regularly scheduled operating system updates
• Proactive monitoring of disk space, services and event logs
• Appropriate environmental and physical controls
• Limit access from the internet
What server to buy
Good quality, name-brand hardware with onsite support
We recommend that you use Dell or HP Servers. All of the reasons that we recommend quality
hardware for your workstations apply to servers, but even more so. Since a failed server can affect all of
your users, it does not pay to cut corners here. Support is generally offered next business day or 4
hours 24x7. Servers never break when it is convenient for your business, so you need to assume that it
will happen at the worst possible time - month end, year end, just before that big project is due. For this
reason, we recommend that you pay the premium for 24x7x4 onsite support. We have never been
involved with a down server and had our customer say they wished they had bought the cheaper
support agreement.
Processors
Almost any new server today will have a 64 bit bus which is required by many of the new Microsoft
operating systems. The processors at a minimum are dual-core, with quad-core also being available. In
most cases, a dual-core processor is all that is needed, unless you plan on running virtual servers or
applications that can take advantage of multiple processors.
High quality disk systems with RAID protection
The two main types of hard disks that are available are SATA and SAS. Both will work with the
appropriate RAID card. SATA is less expensive, slower and less reliable than SAS. Both are viable
www.lanlogic.com 248 Rickenbacker Circle, Livermore, CA 94511 888-LANLOGIC

5. options, but you should expect at least one disk to fail in a SATA array during the 4 year life of the
system. For this reason alone, we believe that SAS is the better alternative for servers. One of the most
common reasons for a server to go offline is that it runs out of disk space. We recommend sizing them
approximately two times what you initially require.
Adequate RAM and disk space
Today, 4GB of RAM should be considered the minimum; Exchange 2007 or virtualized servers can
require significantly more.
UPS power protection with automatic shutdown
Servers require power protection. Luckily we are past California’s rolling blackouts of the 2000 and 2001
Energy Crisis but you should assume that your office will lose power at least once a year. Server
applications, unlike those on your desktop, are designed to be running all the time and many do not
respond well to unexpected shutdowns. Applications like Exchange and SQL use open databases and log
files that can easily be corrupted if not shut down gracefully. The simplest and easiest way to provide
power protection for your server is to use a UPS that will use a USB cable to signal the server to shut
down. In cases where you have more than one server connected to the UPS, a network card in the UPS
and software on the server will handle the shutdown process. We have performed dozens of expensive
disaster recoveries which could have been prevented with a simple UPS setup to shut down the servers.
A note about batteries, they wear out! A good rule of thumb is to replace UPS batteries every three
years. They are not overly expensive and can save thousands of dollars in recovery costs.
How long will a server last?
Servers, like desktop computers, can last for years. Also like desktop computers, the cost of an aging
server is often much higher than the cost of a newer server.
Lanlogic Recommended Hardware Replacement Schedule (Servers):
Lanlogic recommends the replacement of all servers after 4 years.
Maintaining Performance and Security on a Server
Automatic Virus protection with updates
Automatic antivirus protection is an obvious need, since the servers are on all of the time and connected
to a network. The antivirus application needs to be carefully installed so that it does not affect
applications like Exchange that continuously write to log files; otherwise corruption can potentially
occur. Updates for new virus files should be done daily to ensure your server is protected from a new
exploit. All anti-virus applications require an annual subscription for the virus definition updates. This is
a critical service and should be included in your annual IT budget.
www.lanlogic.com 248 Rickenbacker Circle, Livermore, CA 94511 888-LANLOGIC

6. Daily backup that is stored locally and off site
Backups are one of the most difficult and painful aspects of any system administrator’s job. The
problem is that backups need to be constantly monitored and tweaked since they fail on a regular basis.
This is something that needs to be monitored daily; it unfortunately is not something that you can set
and forget.
Within the industry there is much discussion on where to backup your data. The least expensive
approach is to back it up to an external USB hard drive. This has the advantage in that it is also quicker
than tape to do a recovery when needed. The problem is that all of your backups wind up on one piece
of hardware that is most likely sitting next to your servers. What happens if there is a fire or theft?
Many people ask about using multiple USB drives for their backups and then rotating them off site.
While this works in theory, the problem is that it is very labor intensive. The reason is that when you
remove and replace the USB drive, the host server will often not recognize the new drive. We have all
had this happen on our computers; you plug in your USB camera or external hard drive and nothing
happens. We have become accustomed to removing the USB cord, waiting a few seconds and then
plugging it back in again and everything works. The problem with backups is that they generally run
after hours and you don’t know there is a problem until the job fails that night as it tries to attach to the
missing drive.
The only way you can reliably use multiple USB drives for backups is if someone onsite swaps the drives
and goes into the server and checks to see that the drive has been successfully mounted. The extra
labor needed for this step and the risk of failed backups is the reason that we do not normally
recommend this approach.
The two other options are to use an online backup service or, to backup to tape and take it offsite. The
online services typically have a local disk for storage and then use your internet connection to send the
data offsite. The disadvantage with these services is the monthly cost for offsite storage and the
amount of time it takes to retrieve your files when needed. At the moment, the most common backup
solution is still tape but online services such as Lanlogic’s Desktop Backup may soon replace it.
Tapes need to be changed daily unless you have a multi-tape changer and then the maximum amount of
time you should wait before taking a tape offsite is one week. In a perfect world, tapes should be
changed daily and sent off site daily. Most people that do take the tapes offsite start by taking them
home. In our own experience, this is not the ideal because the tape winds up being kept in your hot
trunk and frequently don’t make it into your house at night. A better solution is to use one of the
backup courier services such as Data Safe that will pickup and return tapes to you on a scheduled basis.
The cost for weekly service with a total of 14 tapes in storage at any time is around $275 a month. An
alternative is to keep the tapes in your office in a locked fire proof safe in a different location than your
servers.
A note about tapes, they wear out! There are many moving parts inside and the tape is only good for
approximately 200 uses. It is important to proactively replace tapes to ensure that they are working
when you really need them. A good rule of thumb is to replace tapes every two years.
www.lanlogic.com 248 Rickenbacker Circle, Livermore, CA 94511 888-LANLOGIC

7. Lanlogic’s Business Continuity Server Backup Solution:
We recently started offering a product that combines local hard drive backup, offsite storage and
uniquely disaster recovery. Instead of the traditional approach of using software agents to backup the
files and applications on the server and then copying them to a disk or tape, this solution makes a copy
of the actual hard disk. As often as every 15 minutes, it copies only those blocks on the disk that have
actually changed since the last backup. At the end of the day it sends the delta of all changes off site to
a secure data center. In the event your server or application fails, we can log into the backup server and
in as little as 30 minutes actually convert the disk images to a virtual server and restore service. The
performance of the virtual server may be slower than the original physical server but your applications
and users will be working. This allows us to work with the hardware vendor during normal working
hours to repair the server and once we are sure it is functioning correctly we can move the virtual server
back to the original or new hardware. This approach can reduce a server outage to only a few hours and
the full repair from as much as week to as little as a day.
In the event of a complete disaster like a fire of hardware theft, we can restore your data in our office
via our high speed internet connections to one of our in house spare backup server and then to
wherever your new servers will be located even if they are different models or even from different
manufacturers.
Like all backup solutions daily monitoring is needed to ensure that the backup are working correctly.
Included with all Lanlogic Business Continuity Server Backup solutions are daily monitoring and monthly
test virtual server mountings so that you are assured your critical data is being backed up.
Regularly scheduled operating system updates
Operating System updates along with up to date antivirus protection are critical to the protection of
your servers. Unlike workstations, it is not practical to have patches automatically applied to your
servers; you want to control when and what is applied. Microsoft releases patches weekly but we find
that applying them after hours once a month gives you the best value in terms of cost and protection.
With our Complete Care service these updates are applied remotely after hours by our engineers
working remotely. We have had customers elect to do these themselves; it is not hard, but inevitably it
becomes a forgotten task, overshadowed by all of the other critical issues needed to keep your business
running.
Proactive monitoring of disk space, services and event logs
As noted earlier in the discussion of disk space, one of the most common reasons for critical services
shutting down is lack of disk space. We use a monitoring tool that alerts our support engineers
whenever the free space drops below 20%, well before it will affect system performance. In addition,
we monitor the status of various services and any errors in the event logs. By doing this, we have
reduced the number of unplanned outages with our customers by over 90%.
Appropriate environmental and physical controls
This should be obvious, but it is amazing the number of times that we see servers set up in an electrical
room or closet without proper ventilation and physical controls. Access to your servers should be just as
secure as where you keep your inventory and critical business and HR information. The ideal
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8. temperature for servers is between 68 and 78 degrees. Anything over 80 degrees will start to affect the
life span, and anything over 90 degrees for any length of time will ultimately result in a system crash.
One key thing to remember is that most office HVAC systems do not run during the weekends, when the
office temperature can be very high during the summer. Supplemental cooling or exhaust fans are often
needed. A general rule of thumb is that any time you have more than two servers you will likely need to
address cooling.
Limit access from the internet
The internet is a great tool that has changed our lives but at the same time, it opens your network to all
of the bad guys not only in your city, but also around the world. The best way to minimize this risk is to
use a good commercial-grade firewall and limit what traffic can come in from the outside. Mail is
obviously needed and most companies also support a VPN (virtual private network) for employees
working from home. We set up remote access to email via the web using an SSL (secure socket layer)
port, the same technology you use when making online purchases.
We strongly recommend that you do not host your website on your office network. The cost of hosting
a website is as little as $10 a month and it eliminates the potential of your being attacked over the
standard TCP/IP port 80.
Summary
By following these recommendations we have proven that your overall IT spending will be reduced
because you are minimizing the remedial repair work and minimizing disruptions to your staff and
customers.
• You minimize the risk of a down server and if a server does go down, you can get back up and
running in a timely manner.
• You keep your staff productive because their computers are up and working efficiently. A slow
computer can have a significant impact on productivity; a down server can cause a complete
disruption to your operation.
• You minimize the number of billing surprises and can budget accordingly
• You ultimately are able to support your customers better because your internal systems are
working reliably.
If you would like to discuss any of our
recommendations, please contact us today.
www.lanlogic.com 248 Rickenbacker Circle, Livermore, CA 94511 888-LANLOGIC