Top five IT channel lessons for the quarter
Barbara Darrow, channel advisory board, Google, IT channel products and technologies, Microsoft, Oracle, public cloud, Sun VARs remain extremely cautious on public cloud computing and are obsessed with which vendor giants will remain standing after more expected M&A activity.
Alvaka Interview with LA Times on Laws Impacting Web Businesses(Los Angeles Times)
Question: I've heard that most business laws are designed to regulate large corporations. I have a small online business. What laws do I need to be aware of?
Maintaining your customers’ security amid layoffs
The down economy means many of your customer companies are going to go through layoffs. Kevin McDonald explains why and how to maintain your customers' security amid layoffs, and what the consequences are if you do not.
Have You Heard the Word About ‘Sexting?’
“Sexting” is a term used to describe the act of sharing or receiving sexually explicit nude or partially nude photographs by teens through the use of mobile phones. It has been occurring since cameras and picture messaging became part of the mobile phone experience. Adult awareness, sheer market ubiquity and some very public cases have brought this issue to the top of the public mind. Albeit disturbing to many, it is a “sexy” topic that cannot be avoided. So, why is sexting a big deal?
How can the stimulus package benefit solution providers?
The recently passed economic stimulus package is a bit of a mystery to many people, including solution providers. In this edition of Patrolling the Channel, Oli Thordarson, CEO of Alvaka Networks, and Tim Jemal, CEO of Jemal Public Affairs, break down the stimulus package and discuss how it will affect solution provider businesses.
She’s Online, Digging Up Your Dirt
Imagine you've met an amazing woman. You enthusiastically exchange info with her, but when you call a few days later, she doesn't pick up or call you back. What happened? She probably did what every modern woman does: She googled you. Thanks to debauched Flickr photos, a boneheaded blog remark, or racy posts on your Facebook wall, she's concluded that you're a cad.
Smoke testing is a term used to describe the testing process for servers after patches are applied. 
Estimating an average time for patching servers and PCs can be a bit tricky. It can vary from one month to the next, depending upon the number and complexity of the patches released by your software vendors. You must consider all versions of operating systems and have a complete inventory of all your application software to do this job correctly. Our experience has shown that manual patching of systems takes on average of about 1.5 hours each.
This is a basic cost calculator for you to compute your typical monthly cost for patching your servers, PCs, laptops, tablets and associated application software. It also forms the basis for you to begin calculating your Return on Investment for software patching, or for comparison with alternatives to the manual process of patching operating systems and application software—such as Patch Management as a Service, also known as Vulnerability Management as a Service.