HTL - IT Support London

We have moved!

info@htl.uk.com — Sun, 23 May 2010 20:47:00 GMT

With immediate effect I am pleased to announce that HTL Group have moved office.

Our new contact details are:

HTL Group
40 Beaufort Court
Admirals Way
London
E14 9XL

Tel: 02070936000
Fax: 02070936001

Techplan customers who use an freephone 0800 number will find their 0800 number unchanged.

New online backup service: what are the benefits?

info@htl.uk.com — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:48:00 GMT

Over 70% of the IT problems uncovered by daily server checks at HTL are related to data backup. The vast majority of these issues are not caused by technical faults but by user issues at their clients’ premises, some of which are as basic as employees forgetting to change backup tapes.

It is easy to take backup for granted. Most companies don’t consider the possibility that data loss will happen to them, however the statistics prove that it’s more common amongst SMEs than larger corporates, largely because smaller business do not take the time to assess the risks to which they may be exposed.

Without a swift and reliable method of restoring data quickly, the consequences of data loss are potentially catastrophic. According to the London Chamber of Commerce’s research, one out of every two businesses that loses data in a disaster goes out of business within two years.

How can online backup help?

Online backup uses the Internet and disk technologies to automatically backup data every fifteen minutes and can therefore deliver point-in-time recovery of server data, kept for a minimum of 30 days. It achieves business continuity and data protection with no need for involvement from IT professionals, removing the cost, hassle and potential for human error associated with tape backups.

Here follow 10 of the top reasons to consider using online backup:

1. Online backup offers comprehensive and reliable data protection. It assures up-to-date recovery of all critical business data, including the backup of data in open files.
2. Backup is automatic, with data being sent to a secure off-site electronic vault, guaranteeing successful disaster recovery.
3. Better control over the process of restoring data gives businesses access to data when and where it’s needed.
4. Improved security for all sensitive data ensures protection during transmission and storage.
5. A complete data protection solution addresses the entire data protection workflow and provides a high level of cost containment.
6. Immediate data restoration either over the Internet or from on-site rapid recovery appliances substantially reduces downtime.
7. Enhanced ability to demonstrate compliance with regulations around information protection through controlled, repeatable processes.
8. Freedom from routine backup and restore tasks frees staff to focus on productivity and profitability.
9. Increased competitive advantage is promoted through improved access to data and predictable cost control.
10. Successful data recovery is guaranteed in writing.

Managing vitualisation to cut costs

info@htl.uk.com — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:20:00 GMT

Managing vitualisation to cut costs - from Microscope

Savings made by implementing virtualisation can be wiped out if it is not well managed, but a number of practices and tools can help your customer avoid that

The nascent tools market for managing x86 virtualised server environments promises to be a lucrative additional revenue stream for channel partners already in this space and, in some instances, may even help to drive solution sales.

This reflects the growing maturity of PC server virtualisation. One signs such maturity is that 18.3 per cent of all new servers shipped in Western Europe last year were virtualised, compared with 14.6 per cent in 2007, according to IDC. By 2010, however, the market researcher expects this figure to have risen to 21 per cent.

Charles Barratt, business development manager at Dataplex Systems, which resells Vizioncore’s management tools, explains: “Even in today’s economic climate, we’re seeing a continuing drive towards consolidation and x86 virtualisation because doing more with less is at the top of everyone’s minds.”

Nonetheless, he believes the market has been over-hyped and penetration levels are not as high as might be expected, meansing there remains plenty of mileage in it yet. “Over the last 18 months, when we’ve done educational seminars and webinars and asked a room of 50 people if they’ve gone down this route, it’s still only between 25 and 35 per cent that have so there’s still a big market opportunity,” Barratt says.

Another sign that the market is maturing is that organisations are now starting to implement the software in production rather than simply development and test environments. But the fact that deployments are beginning to become larger-scale and more mission-critical in nature is generating its own set of problems.

Aad Dekkers, chief marketing officer at systems integrator MTI Europe, explains: “People are investing in trying to make their total infrastructure more efficient. But once they’ve done that and got to a certain level, they find that they need to purchase additional management tools in order to make the system more reliable and to prevent things from going wrong.”

Chris Whiteley, head of product strategy at value-added distributor Avnet Technology Solutions, agrees. “Server virtualisation has been used quite extensively for small stateless applications, but people have to date been a bit more reluctant to employ it for bigger, more critical ones. It’s not just about delivering uptime. It’s about delivering applications to the right levels of availability and performance and that’s where we’re getting to now,” he says.

As a rule of thumb, implementations larger than between 10 and 30 virtual machines tend to require third party management products because the more basic offerings provided by hypervisor vendors, such as EMC’s VMWare, often only go so far.

As a result, customers might find themselves needing to undertake various management tasks manually, which could wipe out cost savings garnered from reduced hardware costs, electricity bills and the like.

Mike Vinten, chief executive of value-added reseller Thesaurus Computer Systems, warns: “The sheer cost of managing small clumps of virtualised servers can become unmanageable and completely out of control. Deployments need to be architected and designed properly, but systems management software is also important to help customers take advantage of potential efficiencies.”

One of the key management issues, meanwhile, relates to so-called ‘server sprawl’ or the proliferation of virtual machines (VMs) in an uncontrolled fashion. Because they are easy to create, some organisations simply build too many without thinking about the implications.

But, Roy Illsley, a senior analyst at the Butler Group, says: “Whether VMs are used or not, they still consume memory and CPU resources so you need to keep abreast of which are working, which are dormant and which you can get rid of.”

Introducing blanket policies can be dangerous, however, he warns. “You can’t just say ‘get rid of anything that hasn’t been used in 20 days’, as one of your VMs might be running a financial application that calculates month-end figures. There’s a lot to consider, but management tools are available to support the process.”

But there are also other areas in which server sprawl can have an impact, particularly in terms of infrastructure such as networking, storage and back-up and recovery. “Virtualised server sprawl tends to be the key challenge, but it has knock-on effects because it bumps into other things like CPU, memory and storage capacity. So you need to take a complete view of the infrastructure as virtualisation will have an impact on all of its components,” MTI’s Dekkers says.

The network is particularly heavily hit, for example, if the choice is made to use VMWare’s VMotion tool for resiliency and high availability purposes – a reason that many people decide to virtualise their x86 environment in the first place.

Should a problem occur with a primary host or should it need to be taken down for maintenance reasons, VMotion can move any given workload to a secondary machine in real-time without causing downtime. But such activity takes up significant amounts of bandwidth, which means the network may either need to be reconfigured or even upgraded to cope.

On the storage side of the equation, however, it may be necessary to deploy shared storage for the first time. While organisations might be able to get away with direct attached storage for small implementations used for development and testing, the larger a virtualised production environment is, the less sustainable such an approach becomes.

This is because, on the one hand, it becomes difficult to re-assign capacity if storage is siloed. But on the other, without introducing a storage area network (SAN), it is impossible to take advantage of VMotion’s capabilities. A SAN stores each VM as a disk image and each physical server has to be able to see them all to know when and where to allocate spare processing capacity as it is required.

When purchasing a SAN, however, it is crucial that organisations size it accurately in relation to workload, or they may find their applications run more slowly. This is because VMs make frequent requests to the SAN, but the physical disks can only spin and process a certain number of input/output operations per second. As a result, if they cannot keep up, performance will be affected.

Planning around storage volumes – or areas in the SAN in which data is stored – is another consideration to bear in mind. If multiple VMs with heavy workloads are all attempting to access the same volume at the same time, performance will inevitably be hit. Therefore, it is necessary to think through how VMs with heavy and light workloads should be mixed to balance the situation out.

But this is where workload analysis and capacity planning tools such as Novell’s PlateSpin and Neptuny’s Caplan come in. They create a usage profile of how existing physical servers use memory, CPUs, disk and network bandwidth and what capacity is likely to be required in a virtualised world.

Other vendors such as Vizioncore and Veeam also offer tools that plug into the management software of other vendors to perform backup and recovery, undertake storage optimisation, process automation and provisioning, performance monitoring and chargeback.

While Vizioncore supports both VMWare and Microsoft’s environments, Veeam’s purchase of nworks means that it can now interface with VMWare’s vCenter, Microsoft’s System Center and Hewlett-Packard’s OpenView systems management software.

Bu Dataplex’s Barrattt says: “We’re starting to see some of the key vendors such as Vizioncore trying to bring their point products into a single framework, and that will be the next big thing. If organisations have to buy lots of point products, it can mean savings go out of the window because of the management overhead. So it’s about developing a single management interface and pulling everything into one console.”

Large established enterprise players such as IBM with its Tivoli system and Computer Associates with Unicenter are also getting in on the act, however, and have upgraded their products to support the management of both physical and virtualised environments at the same time.

But the market will not fully open up until management products can look after multiple virtualised environments from a single console, believes Butler’s Illsley. The problem today is that hypervisors are neither interoperable nor portable, which means virtualisation software from different vendors does not currently work together without separate systems integration activity.

“It’s not such an issue for small-to-medium enterprises as they don’t tend to have mixed estates, but large enterprises want visibility across the whole estate,” Illsley says.

Despite this, Gartner believes the market for software to manage virtualised environments will grow significantly from a low base of $913 million in 2008 to a more substantial $1.3 billion this year.

MTI’s Dekker is equally upbeat about the sector’s prospects. He expects to see double or even triple digit growth over the next two years and views early merger and acquisition activity as positive. “The fact that Veeam bought nworks is a good sign as it shows that it’s serious about building the portfolio required. It’s also a sign that the market is becoming more mature,” he says.

But to realise such potential, it will not be enough to simply sell licences. Avnet’s Whiteley explains: “You have to understand what you want to achieve with applications in a virtualised environment and that’s important because people don’t want to move critical ones until performance and availability can be guaranteed. Management tools can help, but it’s also where finding the right partner comes in.”

Because moving to a virtualised world is a complex technology transition, one of the key roles of a channel partner is to help remove the risk inherent in such a move. To do this involves consulting with clients to understand their aims and rationale for going down this route in the first place.

But it also entails recommending which systems would benefit from virtualisation, which ones would not and how to integrate the two worlds. It likewise involves working out the dependencies between different systems, both physical and virtualised, and the impact on existing infrastructure of moving to the new approach.

While many customers view the introduction of management tools as the second phase of any implementation as a means of ensuring that their systems operate more efficiently, there is an argument for including such offerings in a sales pitch from the outset, however.

“Undertaking server virtualisation can show a demonstrable return on investment, but management tools can help to take the risk out of adoption. So it becomes a sales aid rather than a sale in and of itself. Without such tools, people may just stick with what they know as the risk associated with failing is even higher in a recession than it is normally,” says Whiteley.

While the current economic climate has led some customers to put a blanket stop on all new investments, others are attempting to make their IT organisations more efficient as a means of weathering the storm. But even the latter kind of clients “need convincing,” adds Whiteley. “This is not a walk-in, walk out sale.”

As a result, a key part of any management tools pitch at the moment relates to user education. “When we put out a quotation for a proposal, management tools are almost a line item initially and people often ask if they really need them,” says Dataplex’s Barratt. “So part of the process is about education. It all depends on what customers want to do, but our role is to help them develop a coherent strategy and that means becoming a trusted advisor.”

Growing interest in desktop virtualisation as a follow-up activity to virtualising servers is also likely to spawn a whole new raft of projects, however, and one that is again likely to generate future demand for management tools.

“There’s a big world behind the friendly face of virtualisation and you really need to be able to see the big picture. Initially it’s about installation, implementation and integration with the physical world. But as a continuing service, it’s all about optimisation of the datacentre – and that’s where the expertise comes in,” concludes Barratt.

Microsoft and Nokia Form Global Alliance

info@htl.uk.com — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 14:31:00 GMT

Microsoft - NEW YORK — Aug. 12, 2009 — The worldwide leader in software and the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer have entered into an alliance that is set to deliver a groundbreaking, enterprise-grade solution for mobile productivity. Today, Microsoft Business Division President Stephen Elop and Nokia’s Executive Vice President for Devices Kai Öistämö announced the agreement, outlining a shared vision for the future of mobile productivity. This is the first time that either company has embarked on an alliance of this scope and nature.

Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will begin collaborating immediately on the design, development and marketing of productivity solutions for the mobile professional, bringing Microsoft Office Mobile and Microsoft business communications, collaboration and device management software to Nokia’s Symbian devices. These solutions will be available for a broad range of Nokia smartphones starting with the company’s business-optimized range, Nokia Eseries. The two companies will also market these solutions to businesses, carriers and individuals.

Both Microsoft Corp. and Nokia possess a rare combination of enterprise experience and consumer understanding and, in addition to the collaboration on existing software and services, will use these assets to jointly design a range of new user experiences for future Nokia devices. These experiences will be identified together, and will be created by dedicated teams inside both companies to better meet the growing needs of the mobile professional.

“With more than 200 million smartphone customers globally, Nokia is the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer and a natural partner for us,” said Elop. “Today’s announcement will enable us to expand Microsoft Office Mobile to Nokia smartphone owners worldwide and allow them to collaborate on Office documents from anywhere, as part of our strategy to provide the best productivity experience across the PC, phone and browser.”

“If you are going to provide a seamless and integrated productivity experience on a mobile device, Microsoft is an ideal partner,” said Öistämö. “Together with Microsoft, we will develop new and innovative user experiences for employees of small and large businesses alike, ensuring Nokia’s smartphones are an integral part of the office and home-office environment, and addressing the significant opportunity in mobile enterprise productivity.”

Microsoft and Nokia's collaboration solutions will be available for a broad range of Nokia smartphones starting with the company’s business-optimized range, Nokia Eseries.

This announcement builds on the existing work Nokia is doing by optimizing access to e-mail and other personal information with Exchange ActiveSync. Next year, Nokia intends to start shipping Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile on its smartphones, followed by other Office applications and related software and services in the future. These will include:

The ability to view, edit, create and share Office documents on more devices in more places with mobile-optimized versions of Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft OneNote
Enterprise instant messaging and presence, and optimized conferencing and collaboration experience with Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile
Mobile access to intranet and extranet portals built on Microsoft SharePoint Server
Enterprise device management with Microsoft System Center

“Having these two major players cooperating at this level will help us continue to meet our customers’ needs and reinforces our future business mobility strategy,” said Diane Sanchez, head of Telefonica USA.

“The scope of the alliance between Microsoft and Nokia, and potential value for the enterprise and individual is significant,” said Stephen Drake, VP of Mobility & Telecom at IDC. “By bringing Microsoft’s productivity solutions to Nokia’s large customer base, the two companies should be better able to serve the needs of the growing mobile worker population, which IDC estimates to reach 1 billion worldwide in 2011.”

HTL partners with Techgate to provide Online Backup

info@htl.uk.com — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:15:00 GMT

As the summer merges into autumn, we may see more storms, winds and floods. Do most small businesses realise the effects that this kind of weather can have on them?

Most SMEs use in-house IT to store all their data and emails, and if anything happens to this equipment, it can be out of action for hours, if not days.

Most SMEs do not have the resources to cope with downtime, so are risking loss of profit.
Small businesses may think they are doing enough by having some form of back-up procedure, such as tape-based storage.

This is a bare minimum. Tape backup relies on human intervention, as tapes need to be swapped regularly, taken off-site and stored properly.

If someone forgets to change the tapes, leaves them in the office at the end of the day, or even takes them off-site but leaves them in the pub on the way home, the whole system is rendered useless.

Even if a tape-based business continuity solution has been implemented properly, recovering from a disaster can still incorporate lengthy downtime.

Tapes usually only store files and folders. If the servers themselves have been stolen or destroyed, new ones must be acquired and set up before the tapes can be used.

Companies are often uninterested in looking at business continuity until it is too late.

Many SMEs may not know there are alternatives to tape for disaster recovery, or, if they do, they think that these products are too expensive.

Now, as a reseller of this new partnership, HTL can supplement and replace traditional backup with cost-effective options that take the technology off-site, and store data in the cloud.

This may be easily accessed in the event of server downtime. Instead of buying large IT systems outright, SMEs can outsource their disaster recovery IT. They can streamline IT operations, allowing staff to concentrate on their core roles instead of worrying about changing tapes and testing the solution to make sure it will work in a disaster.

For resellers, it can be a source of recurring revenues. And as the service is automated and uses existing internet connections, once the customer has signed up, the reseller can step back.

As SMEs realise just how much they rely on their IT systems, there will be a growth in interest in technology that can help them to function after a disaster

Compromised Websites reach epidemic Proportions

info@htl.uk.com — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:24:00 GMT

Once upon a time surfers could stay unmolested by malware by staying away from warez and smut. Those days are well and truly over as changes in hacking tactics mean that compromised content on legitimate websites has become the main conduit for so-called drive-by download attacks.

Web security firm ScanSafe reports that two in three instances of web-based malware (68 per cent) it blocked last month came from legitimate sites. ScanSafe blames the increase on attacks that have planted malicious scripts, often exploiting iFrame web browser vulnerabilities, on pukka websites. Hacked sites are commonly used to deliver password-stealing Trojans and other strains of malware onto compromised PCs.

For example, ScanSafe reported earlier this week that some pages on the Wal-Mart website were compromised in the latest phase of an ongoing series of SQL injection attacks. The attack was used to plant exploits of recent Flash vulnerabilities onto Wal-Mart's site. High-profile victims of malware attacks in May alone included Nature.com, Foofighterslive.com, Acer.co.th, Webster.edu and Photopass.com.

This evolution in tactics by black hat hackers means that miscreants are able to quickly 'colonize' thousands of legitimate sites with malware.eports a 220 per cent increase in the amount of Web-based malware over the last twelve months. The volume of backdoor and password-stealing malware blocked by the firm increased by an order of magnitude (855 per cent) between May 2007 to May 2008.

"Over the last year malware authors have moved away from direct attacks — attacks in which they directly interact with victims, via social engineering for example — to indirect attacks accomplished through compromised websites," said Mary Landesman, senior security researcher at ScanSafe.

Central and local government is failing to support the IT needs of SMEs.

info@htl.uk.com — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:23:00 GMT

An article published on Computer Weekly's website caught my eye today, regarding computer support for London's SMEs.

"A national survey conducted by researchers from the School of Management at Royal Holloway University of London found government is failing to give IT advice to SMEs. As a result the businesses are not exploiting IT to its full potential, said the college."

The college began a research project into the issue in 2007, and contacted over 500 SMEs in the food, clothing, manufacturing and financial services industries, with most companies having been established for at least five years.

Dr Romano Dyerson, a member of the college research team, said, "SMEs find themselves in a difficult situation, too small to employ a dedicated IT expert and lacking the resources to buy consultancy advice."

While firms across all four sectors reported very high usage of email and internet, very few firms embraced the potential of the internet wholeheartedly and most did not use the internet to receive customers' orders or to order online.

"The survey finds that SMEs are poorly served by government and policy providers," said Dr Dyerson.

Now tell us something that we don't know! Our government doesn't seem to get its own IT advice right, let alone be able to advise others. HTL has been supporting the computing needs of SMEs for 10 years, and in all that time we haven't seen a useful government incentive. It's the reason so many companies like ours exist. Anyone feeling 'let down' but the lack of government advice shouldn't hesitate to contact us. Our advice is free and impartial and we have helped hundreds of small businesses to exploit IT to its full potential.

Windows XP is on the way out!

info@htl.uk.com — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:22:00 GMT

Windows XP will stop being available on new PCs from the end of June 2008.

Microsoft are keeping to a plan to stop selling the operating system even though consumers reluctant response to the new Windows Vista. Windows XP is being retired to make way for Windows Vista, in which is available in six separate versions - three for home users, two for businesses and one for emerging markets.

Microsoft, after careful review, will end sales of Windows XP products on June 30, 2008 and for customers who want to continue buying Windows XP will have several options from the original equipment manufactures using downgrade rights.

Mainstream support for Windows XP will continue through to April 14, 2009 and additionally, Microsoft Extended Support will continue to be available until April 8, 2014. This is as of similar shock to the database application Microsoft SQL Server that was also recently retired from Microsofts Mainline Support but will continue its extended support until 09/04/2013

HTL announces its Status as a Cisco Select Certified Partner

info@htl.uk.com — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:51:00 GMT

HTL Group is proud to announce its most recent achievement as a Cisco Select Certified Partner, which recognizes the newly received SMB Specialization. The achievement of the SMB Specialization is focused around small and medium-sized businesses (upto 250 users per single location) and demonstrates HTL's technology and business expertise specific to the SMB market.

Stephanie Henner, Channel Development Manager of Cisco Systems states, "The Select Certification and SMB Specializations are designed for partners focusing on Cisco's SMB product portfolio including Cisco's SMB voice, security, and wireless platforms. MAS Consulting's strongreputation in the SMB space along with Cisco's SMB product portfolio
should deliver advanced applications to SMB market that's traditionally only been available to the larger enterprise
customer."

The Cisco Select Certification is an official acknowledgement of expertise for HTL as a certified Cisco partner. The Cisco Select Certification strengthens the partner relationship with Cisco, enabling HTL to participate in the Channel
Partner Program. The Cisco Select Certification provides HTL with an increased level of support from Cisco, including
access to best-in-class products and services, technical support, productivity tools, online training, and resources.

As a Cisco Select Certified Partner, HTL will deliver several added benefits to its customers. Customer benefits include
value-added services, technical expertise, and improved customer satisfaction.

Proven technical expertise: HTL has sales and technical expertise in switching, routing, security, and wireless solutions for SMB customers.

Supply chain problems dog Dell customers

info@htl.uk.com — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 13:36:10 GMT

Originally published by Kevin Allison of the Financial Times, August 20 2007 23:44

Dell customers may have to wait until October for some of their new machines to be delivered, thanks to supply chain problems and trouble perfecting new paint jobs at the struggling computer maker.

The delays, which surfaced earlier this month, come amid concerns about possible industry-wide component shortages ahead of the seasonally busy back-to-school computer shopping season.

Dell said shipments of its Inspiron and XPS M1330 lines of notebook computers were delayed because of problems with new paint applied to their outside panels - a feature introduced earlier this year as part of an effort to re-energise Dell’s flagging consumer PC business.

The notebook segment is also the fastest-growing segment of the PC industry, and accounted for 27 per cent of Dell’s $14.6bn in sales last quarter.

Alex Gruzen, senior vice-president in charge of Dell’s consumer products business, said earlier this month on a company blog that only one of seven new paint colours was consistently meeting the company’s quality standards.

“There was no problem painting hundreds at a time,” Mr Gruzen wrote. “But as we increased the volume, otherwise manageable factors like dust contamination caused our successful yields to decrease.”

The result has been fewer finished painted panels in the company’s assembly line.

Dell said shortages of display screen components had also contributed to the delay in notebook shipments.

Earlier this month, DigiTimes, a Taiwanese newspaper covering the electronics and computer industries, warned that potential shortages of body panels, battery cells and other basic notebook components could hit PC shipments.

However, Dell on Monday stopped short of attributing its problems to a broader components shortage.

“DigiTimes says there’s a shortage, but we’re not going that far,” a spokesman said. “It’s a shortage for us and we are working through it.”

Dell is now telling customers that they should not expect some new computers to arrive until the first or second week of October - or six to eight weeks from the time of purchase. The normal turnaround time for a Dell computer is three to five days.

Dell indicated that it hoped to fill orders sooner, if possible.

Recycling for the RNIB

info@htl.uk.com — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 15:34:00 GMT

RNIB are the UK’s leading charity offering information, support and advice to over two million people with sight problems. They fight for equal rights for people with sight problems and fund pioneering research into preventing and treating eye disease.

Without support, the RNIB would not be able to fund their vital work and therefore rely on charitable donations, fund raising and recycling to help them.

Every year HTL proactively collect used toner cartridges, ink cartridges, and old mobile phones from participating customers. In addition we also hold recycling bins at our offices for local clients. Not only does this help a worthy charity, but also the environment too.

Since the start of this project, HTL have raised a grand total of £15,000.00.

We would like to thank all our customers who contributed to the success of the scheme as without them this would not have been possible. With their continued support we hope that we will continue to raise money.

HTL has an ongoing commitment to environmental care. Whilst we make money for good causes by recycling toners and the like, we also collect old computers, and old computer screens. These products contain components that can be damaging to our environment unless disposed of in the correct fashion.

HTL - Microsoft Certified Partner - 6th year running

info@htl.uk.com — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 12:30:00 GMT

For the 6th year running, HTL remain a Microsoft® Certified Partner

As a Microsoft® Certified partner, we can provide you with the highest levels of technical expertise, strategic thinking and hands-on skills. Being a Microsoft® Certified Partner, we encompass a broad range of expertise and vendor affiliations and our real world perspective can help you to prioritize and effectively deliver your technology solutions.

Why work with a Microsoft® Certified partner?

Demonstrated expertise - as an MCP, we employ Microsoft® Certified Professionals which undergo exams developed by Microsoft®. They have a demonstrated level of technical expertise and the proven ability to deliver solutions featuring Microsoft® products.
Broad range of experience - we offer several areas of technical expertise as well as consulting, implementation, maintenance/support and hosting services. These are only a few of our many services.
Microsoft® support - we have access to 24 x 7 x 365 support for your project whenever you need additional support from Microsoft®.
Real world perspective - we have been in business for 7 years and bring experience to your projects gained from many years of service.

HTL - Microsoft Certified Partner 5th year running

info@htl.uk.com — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 09:23:00 GMT

For the 5th year running, HTL remain a Microsoft® Certified Partner

As a Microsoft® Certified partner, we can provide you with the highest levels of technical expertise, strategic thinking and hands-on skills. Being a MicrosoftÂ® Certified Partner, we encompass a broad range of expertise and vendor affiliations and our real world perspective can help you to prioritize and effectively deliver your technology solutions.

Why work with a Microsoft® Certified partner?

Demonstrated expertise - as an MCP, we employ MicrosoftÂ® Certified Professionals which undergo exams developed by MicrosoftÂ®. They have a demonstrated level of technical expertise and the proven ability to deliver solutions featuring MicrosoftÂ® products.
Broad range of experience - we offer several areas of technical expertise as well as consulting, implementation, maintenance/support and hosting services. These are only a few of our many services.
Microsoft- we have access to 24 x 7 x 365 support for your project whenever you need additional support from MicrosoftÂ®. Â® Support
Real world perspective - we have been in business for 7 years and bring experience to your projects gained from many years of service.

New Service from HTL

info@htl.uk.com — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 09:18:00 GMT

Backup Testing

Companies of all sizes rely on backup software and solutions to be able to restore data that has been lost. Data can be lost for a number of reasons, whether it be due to human, software or hardware error.

Backup software can report that a backup is successful, but the only way to know for certain is to test it. This may be difficult or even impossible for many users who have filled their hard disk to capacity or simply don't have the time or resources. However, testing your backups is such an important activity, as some things can go wrong through no direct fault of your own.

HTL can now offer a backup testing service, in which we attempt to restore your entire tape to a clean server and ensure it's integrity.

This service will offer 100% possibility of restoration from the backup tape. A report of the findings will then be sent to you. Should we find that restoration is not possible, we will include in our report reasons as to why restoration was not possible and the necessary steps to ensure that future backups would restore successfully.

This service is provided at a discounted rate to Techplan clients.

If you have enquiries about this service please do not hesitate to contact us on 020 7232 1112.

HTL Newsletter 25th February 2005

info@htl.uk.com — Thu, 17 Mar 2005 12:29:00 GMT

HTL Newsletter

www.htl.uk.com

25th February 2005

Newsletter Outsourcing

Would you like to send your clients a Newsletter like this one?

It's generally acknowledged that it is about five times more expensive to find a new customer than to retain an existing one. A regular Newsletter can be used to keep in regular communication with your important clients, update them on new products and services, announce special offers and help to increase your company's corporate identity.

Let HTL build your new Newsletter Campaign. Our graphic designers will create a layout consistent with your web site. Email addresses can be managed according to the best practices and privacy policy.

You will receive reports and statistics to monitor the progress of your campaign.

Pricing is based on which services are required and how many emails are sent, but can start from as little as £30 a month.

See example...

Special Offer

HP Dx2000 Desktop and 15" TFT Display - £499.00 (exVAT)

Combining essential features and affordability, the HP Compaq Business Desktop dx2000 microtower is a simple low-cost PC built with proven technology that is ideal for budget conscious users and everyday applications

Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz Processor
256MB / 40GB / CD / LAN
Microsoft Windows XP Pro
15" TFT Monitor Included

At this price you can you afford to kit out the whole office.

HTL Network Operation Centre (NOC) introduces Proactive Warning System (PWS)

It is difficult to predict what can happen to your IT systems. If something goes wrong, HTL NOC will know about it early enough to prevent potential damages and losses.

The HTL PWS provides 24X7 monitoring of critical systems, with updates every 15 minutes. Checks include

Anti-virus system up-to-date
Exchange Information Store up and running.
Backups successful.
Early warning about potential disk space shortage
On-line service availability
Database availability and size checks.
Memory and CPU utilisation.

In addition the system is customisable to include specific checks relevant to each client?s specific configuration.

HTL NOC will react before you even know about the problem.

Techplan Customers can benefit from this service for just Â£1 per day per server.

Should you have any questions or suggestions please do not hesitate to contact us.

Do you receive SPAM and VIRUSES by e-mail?

Globally around 82% of all e-mails, are spam or viruses. Postini E-mail Screening System stops them before they even arrive in your network.

24 hours screening
saving disks space (spam is stored outside your network)
fast implementation within 24h
no ongoing maintenance
no hidden additional costs

Software systems running on your computers can never work as well as this system. They rely on the data reaching the computer and even if they stop the spam from reaching you the damage may already have been done. Directory Harvest Attacks (DHAs) are an everyday security nightmare, where spammers literally hack your server looking for valid usable email address to send their spam to. Unlike conventional solutions Postini protects against these attacks saving both your privacy and your Internet Bandwidth.

Order 1-month free trial version, without any further obligation.

To Download your free white paper about SPAM please click here or service Brochure here

Corporate Referral Scheme

HTL is expanding. For every client recommended by you, who signs up for HTL Techplan, we?ll give you £150 worth of Amazon Vouchers or HTL vouchers.
You can also download our PDF introduction flyer here.. to forward to your friend or business acquaintance.

Remember - our initial consultation is free of charge and without obligations.

Thanks to everyone that has already participated in this scheme.

New Customer

HTL is pleased to welcome our new client Cutty Sark

Better Payment Practice Code

HTL is a signatory to the code

IT News - UK gets official virus alert site

A rapid alerting service that tells home computer users about serious internet security problems is being launched by the UK government.

The service, IT Safe, will issue warnings about damaging viruses, software vulnerabilities and weaknesses on devices such as mobile phones.

Alerts tell people how the threats affect them and what they can do to avoid trouble and protect themselves.

The service will be free and those who sign up can get e-mail or text alerts.

The scheme is aimed at home users and small businesses. The government estimates it will issue security alerts about six to 10 times a year, based on previous experience of virus outbreaks.

Visit the website: