I'm proud to announce that Carrobes IT have been named as a Premier Partner with our communications provider, HighNet.

Based in Inverness, Highnet allow us to offer the same telecoms and data connectivity solutions as BT but at a lower cost and with better support. As a benefit of our new status, I recently attended Highnet's Premier Partner event in South Queensferry and gained an insight into the new products, services & platforms that will be made available soon. Many of these changes will allow us as a Highnet Partner to have greater access to their systems allowing us to improve the service we can offer you, our customers.

Let's see… Yesterday was bright sunshine and not too chilly, today we wake up to snow. Got to love the Scottish weather!

Sometimes, technology is like buses – you don't use a particular technology for ages and then several people all want/need it at the same time.

An example of this is Powerline Networking, where instead of laying CAT5 network cable around your house you use the existing mains cables built in to your walls. This is ideal for when you don't have the budget to run lots of cables (like one of my recent customers) or you live in a building with three-foot thick stone walls (like another) which mean that CAT5 cabling is impossible/ridiculously expensive, and wireless just isn't going to happen unless you have access points in every room.

The customer I have worked with recently who has the thick stone walls had consulted with a number of other IT providers in order to have network access across their whole building. As it stood, they simply had to have two broadband lines and no network access in certain rooms. With the addition of Powerline networking devices, they now have broadband and network access in each room that requires it and can move their laptop from room to room while still using a single broadband connection meaning that once they are happy that it is working satisfactorily, they can cease their second broadband line and save some money.

All of this was achieved quickly and simply using the Powerline devices. Your first device plugs into a mains socket near your broadband router (or other network device) and you connect it to the router with a standard network cable. Plugging other devices into mains sockets elsewhere in the building (provided they are on the same circuit – consult your electrician if necessary) allows you to connect networking devices (switch, wireless access point, etc) to that Powerline device and receive the network signal from your router. No configuration is required – it is literally 'Plug & Play!'

So if your current IT provider tells you that they cannot network your whole building up, why not get a second opinion and see if Powerline networking can do the job?

Carrobes have recently signed up as a Trend Micro partner, partly because they have a fantastic AV/Firewall product, but also because they offer a Managed Service package that allows us to offer you security software for a monthly subscription. This gives you the advantage that you do not have to spend a large amount up-front on annual renewals, as well as allowing us to monitor the status of your security software to ensure that you are never at risk.

Up until now the only product that has been available in this manner is the Worry-Free Business Security Standard/Advanced which requires a server to install on. Well, at the start of May, Trend released their Worry-Free Business Security Hosted product which allows those without a server to take advantage of the product. On top of this, we are now able to offer WFBS Hosted as part of our Managed Services package which means you can have access to WFBS on a monthly subscription regardless of whether you have a server or not.

So there's no need to spend a huge amount on your security software in one go and be locked in for a year. Why not give us a call and what we can do for you with Trend & WFBS.

People have been asking me lately, "what is managed service and why should I care about it?"

Well, put simply Managed Service is like having a mechanic constantly checking that your car is running smoothly, keeping the oil & fluids topped up, and replacing failing parts before they break completely. So why should you want something like that for your computer systems? Component faults and software issues can be expensive things – when your PC is broken it is not only costing you the price of the repair, but also the loss of productivity and/or earnings while you cannot use that PC. That can add up to quite a cost! With Managed Service, you are not paying an hourly rate for your repairs because it's included in the package. On top of that, any downtime is greatly reduced because your Managed Service provider is watching your systems and looking for the signs of component failures and software glitches that could put your PC out of action. Your provider can even be on-site with the replacement parts before you are even aware of a problem.

Obviously, this being IT no-one can guarantee that your computer systems will never go wrong, but with a Managed Service agreement you can sleep soundly knowing that downtime will be both rare and quickly dealt with when it does arise.

Well, it's taken a little while and it's currently gone midnight, but the new Carrobes IT site is finally up and running. The old site was created in Joomla and had some major performance issues which probably put off quite a lot of visitors but this site seems to be running a lot better.

On top of that, there's also a lot more content on this site regarding the services we offer, along with an improved contact form and the ability to sign up for our Newsletter. So take a look around the new site and let us know what you think.

And remember, we are here to help with your IT queries so give us a call if you need us!

It's a time of doom and gloom for small businesses if you listen to what the media have to say. At times like these, we Small Biz owners are all looking at ways of saving money and one of the easiest targets is the IT support costs.

The first question I ask a small business owner is usually "Who supports your computers?" (Not least because that's the service I'm offering...) But far too often, the reply isn't "Company X" or "ABC Solutions" - it's "a friend of a brother's cousin who knows a bit about computers" or something similar. This worries me a lot because more and more of your business's critical information (accounts, customer records, etc) are held on PCs these days and these business owners are entrusting the safety and security of this vital data to someone who might not actually have a clue what they are doing!

Usually this leads me to a further set of questions which I'm always interested in the responses to:

• How much is your data worth? and
• What is your backup routine?

The first question is a very important one. Most people, when working out what their IT setup is worth to their company simply put a price on the physical kit. This might amount to roughly £3000-£5000 for a small office. But take a moment to work out what the data stored on that equipment is worth; again, this can comprise of accounting data & VAT returns, customer details, sales and purchasing records, etc. Now work out how long it would take to re-enter all of that information if your data was lost through fire/theft/act of god and multiply that by the hourly rate of your staff - that's simply what it would tangibly cost to have your staff re-enter all of that information. Then you have to look at how much you would lose in lost sales, potential HMRC fines and so on. Realistically, the full value of your data is roughly the same as the value of your business and the statistics at the end of this entry back that up.

This leads on to the second question of the set - What is your backup routine? How many small businesses fall into the trap of "It's working now so I don't need to worry about it" or "I'll get around to it tomorrow - I need to work on X." It's so easy now to implement a straightforward backup routine that doesn't cost the earth that there should be no excuses. Even the need to remember to take tapes or pen drives offsite can be eliminated by using a secure online backup service.

So the two things to remember in these challenging times are:

• Don't head straight to the IT budget when looking to save money. Using a reputable an experienced IT provider such as Carrobes IT can still save you money, especially if your hardware fails!
• Your data IS your business so make sure you back it up regularly. Talk to us at Carrobes IT and we can guide you on the most cost-effective strategy.

Data Loss Statistics:

Out of all companies that lose their data in a disaster, 90 percent are out of business within two years, and nearly 50 percent never reopen their doors at all after the disaster (Source: University of Texas).

6% of ALL PC's will suffer an episode of data loss in any given year (Source: Gartner Group).

More than 60% of corporate data resides on individual PC desktops and laptops (Source: IDC).

Up to 15% or more laptops are stolen or suffer hard drive failures (Source: Gartner Group).