SADA Presents Google Apps at Angelbeat

Angelbeat is a series of seminars begun by CEO Ron Gerber. Where most tech seminars are focused on technology professionals and developers, and are full of indecipherable acronyms and techno-babble, Mr. Gerber's seminars are intended to reach out to business and enterprise users. The very people who are wondering, "How do I save money on IT?" In today's troubled economic climate this is a valid concern. The Angelbeat series takes place in several major cities over the summer, and brings together tech professionals, enterprise business executives, and end-users to discuss possible solutions to just this concern.

At the invitation of Google, SADA's own CEO and President Tony Safoian flew to New York for the Long Island Angelbeat event. Tony was attending with Google as a Google Enterprise Partner, and gave a presentation around Google Apps and how it can be used as an Enterprise solution, or software as a service.

To visit the Anglebeat website and learn more about upcoming events that may be in your area, visit their website (www.angelbeat.com) or click here.

Below is the presentation Tony gave at the event:


Following are some pictures from the event:

Google CEO Talks About the Cloud

Google CEO Eric Schmidt talked about computing in the cloud in a recent interview. Following is an excerpt from that interview:

Bartiromo: Mm-hmm. And, of course, Google has been getting all these newkiller apps, whether it's Gmail or Maps or, you know, spreadsheets.Ultimately is the game to compete direct, head on, with Microsoft?

Schmidt: Well, Google is actually trying to be an innovator, and we'realways concerned about competition. We have found that if we can simplyinvent a brand-new product that really solves a problem that really doesmatter to you, we can get your business, we can get your attention, we can getyour traffic and your customers or what have you. We're trying in a new thingcalled cloud computing to offer very powerful Web services that do the commonthings--e-mail, word processing and so forth--where the data's kept in thecloud, it's kept by somebody else, it's managed by professionals. You don'tneed to worry about where you keep all that information. We like that model alot. We're getting traction. It is a competitive threat to other companies,but we think it's a technological breakthrough.

Bartiromo: What about the corporate customer? I understand that there aretests going on right now. What are you hearing from that customer?

Schmidt: We're working with the corporate customers to do the same thinginside their networks as we do with consumers. Now, corporate customers arenot the same thing as consumer customers. Corporate customers have a muchhigher need for reliability, so we'll sign an agreement that guarantees acertain level of service. But then we charge for it. So that's a case wherepeople are willing to pay for something which is free without the level ofreliability. They also have other needs. They need greater security, for allthe obvious reasons. And they also need better integration with all of theother services that their companies have. This is a long process. It's not afast process. But it's very deeply valuable. And those customers we willhave for 20 or 30 or 40 years as they build into our model. We like thatmodel. It's an enterprise play. It's a business that I've been in for a longtime, and one which will ultimately be very, very lucrative through Google.

150 Year Old Computer Comes to Life

While modern computers are a fairly recent innovation, the concept of the computer is far from unique. The idea of a 'thinking machine' has been around for over 200 years. Some of the roots of modern computing can be found in the idea and designs for 'thinking machines' known as difference engines dating back to 1786. J.H. Muller was an engineer in the Hessian army who conceived the idea of a difference engine in a book published in 1786. Muller was never able to acquire funding to research or develop his concept, but the idea persisted. Thirty-six years later inventor Charles Babbage proposed the use of such a machine in a paper to the Royal Astromical Society. The machine proposed by Babbage used the decimal number system and was operated by cranking a handle. Babbage was able to secure funding to begin work on the project, but the British government withdrew their support after Babbage made no progress, but continued to ask for more money. Undaunted, Babbage continued to work on his designs and produced a design for the "Difference Engine No. 2" sometime between 1847 and 1849. This design was never realized in Babbage's lifetime.

The concept of the 'thinking machine' or 'difference engine' has influenced science, both actual and physical' for the past 150 years, and continues to do so through speculative fiction such as Steampunk. Real world interest in the Difference Engine has waned with the advent of computers and the Internet, until recently when the Computer History Museum in Mountain Veiw, CA built the Difference Engine No. 2 under the direction of guest curator Doron Swade.

Click the link below for more information about the Museum's Difference Engine, including a slideshow.

Link: Difference Engine No. 2

Gartner: "Windows is Collapsing; Microsoft Must Make Radical Changes"

Speaking at a Las Vegas conference Thursday, Gartner Research analysts Michael Silver and Neil MacDonald described as "untenable" Microsoft's continuing challenges in developing future versions of the Windows operating system. Silver and Mac Donald predicted that if the Redmond, WA based company didn't make "radical change" to Windows soon, they risked becoming a "has-been."

In their presentation, the two analysts said Windows is "collapsing" and issued the following warning to Microsoft:

"Users want a smaller Windows that can run on low-priced -- and low-powered -- hardware. And increasingly, users work with "OS-agnostic applications," the two analysts said in their presentation. It takes too long for Microsoft to build the next version, the company is being beaten by others (GOOG) in the innovation arena, and in the future -- perhaps as soon as the next three years -- it's going to have trouble competing with Web applications and small, specialized devices."

We've been working on and talking about this concept for quite some time. We call it ZEROi.

Our experience around the use and implementation of Google Apps and other software as a service platforms confirms this. Why have lots of expensive hardware, bloated software and even more bloated operating systems when clean, simple, elegant and robust alternatives will do the job?

Don't wait for the consultants and pundits tell you what's next - give us a call here at SADA Systems at 818.766.2400 to see the future!

Google Eases POP3/IMAP Access for ISP's Moving Existing Users to Google Apps

The battle has been going on for some time now in terms of the legal requirements for ISP’s and other users of Google Apps Partner edition who need to migrate their existing users onto the Google Apps platform.

The biggest risk for any ISP? Churn. No matter how great the Google Apps platform is, ISPs fear that any change which requires a lot of action from their existing users will cause a great deal of frustration, lots of calls to the helpdesk, and ultimately, some percentage of their subscribers taking their business elsewhere. Existing subscribers who were accustomed to getting their email via POP3 or IMAP most likely would want to continue to do so, so it’s imperative that POP3/IMAP access is turned on for those subscribers *at the time migration* automatically!

Until yesterday, this was not possible, as Google required that each user agree to their Terms of Services and enable this function manually. I’m happy to announce, after lots of lobbying on the parts of customers, Partners like SADA, and many internal powers that be at Google, the U.S. Google legal team has finally approved a way for allow the Terms of Services to be rolled into the master agreement with the ISP, in which case, all existing users could have their POP3/IMAP activated at the time of provisioning/migration! This is a major victory, and very effective in reducing the risk of churn, and the complexity of the migration process – especially when you’re dealing with hundreds of thousands of accounts.

Well done, Google team! You continue to show you understand the requirements and needs of your clients and your partners!

Vista, Mac Hacked in Pwn2Own Contest

This year CanSecWest, an annual security conference held in Vancouver, Canada, sponsored a security contest called "Pwn2Own" (pronounced p-own to own). The targets for this year's security specialists were three fully patched systems that included:

• A Sony Vaio VGN-TZ37CN running Ubuntu 7.10
• A Fujitsu U810 running Microsoft's Vista Ultimate with Service Pack 1 installed
• A fully patched and updated version of Mac's OSX running on a new MacBook Air.

A successful attack on any of the three came with a cash prize and the successful team got to keep the hacked machine.

The difficulty of the challenge changed over the course of the three day contest. On the first day the contestants were allowed to attack only the default installation of the operating system over a network. Starting on the second day of the contest the competitors were allowed to make attacks on the target systems by exploiting vulnerabilities in Internet browsers and email. The third and final day of the contest the competitors were allowed to make attacks on the target systems through any popular third-party application.

None of the competitors were able to successfully attack any of the three target systems on the first day. Indeed, according this article on The Register, none of the hackers even attempted to assault the systems on day one.

Of interest to the general Internet and computing community is that the first system to fall was the MacBook, which was running a fully patched version of the latest release of OS X (Leopard). Contestant Charlie Miller was able to bring down Apple's entry to the Pwn2Own contest in two minutes by exploiting a vulnerability in the Safari web browser. Miller took home both the MacBook Air and a $10,000 cash prize.

The target machine running Vista was the next machine to fall. It came down on the third day of the contest when Shane MaCaulay exploited a vulnerability in Adobe's Flash. No one was able to make a successful attack on the target machine running Ubuntu. MaCaulay went home with the Vaio and a cash prize of $5,000.

Does this mean that Mac, and more specifically Safari, is actually the most vulnerable machine out there? Does it mean that Linux, and specifically Ubuntu, is actually the most secure operating system? No, on both counts. It is important to remember that tests such as this are a necessary part of uncovering potentially threatening vulnerabilities. It is also important to note that malware threats such as those used by the competitors are commonplace on the Internet. No system, regardless of operating system, is invulnerable to attack. The best way to protect your sensitive information is to practice common sense in your browsing and email habits, and to keep your anti-virus and anti-spy programs up to date. Back up your data often and avoid opening email messages if you're uncertain of the source. These few simple tactics will help prevent your system from falling to malicious hackers.

New and Free - Google Email Uploader now supports Contacts.

Finally, a great, free tool from Google direct which supports migration of BOTH Contacts and Emails from Outlook.

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/email_uploader.html

If you combine this with the great new and free Calendar Sync tool, this is really all you need to move from Outlook to Google Apps (or, even just use both systems).

Well done, Google team!  This means that the Enterprise can rely less on third party applications for basic and fundamental requirements of moving from one platform onto Google Apps.  This should go a long way of increasing the comfort level for any organization wanting to make the move.  Oh, and it’s all free – which doesn’t hurt either.