It seem however that not everyone is happy about this buy out. TechCrunch today have shed some light on to the possibility of massive backlash and mass deletion of accounts by the instagram community worried about the information that Facebook will obtain and potentially use for all sorts of purposes.

To read more on this, check out the article on TechCrunch here: http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/09/insta-backlash-twitterverse-overreacts-to-facebooks-instagram-acquisition-users-delete-accounts/

You can also read the original announcement on instagram blog here: http://blog.instagram.com/post/20785013897/instagram-facebook

During that stressful time, no data was lost, and all staff were immediately able to relocate and work remotely, with full access to all information and software.  It was a seamless transition, and similarly simple to return to premises once nature started to behave.

The alternative just doesn’t bear thinking about.

Keeping up with technology is almost a full time job in itself.  In order to save you a little bit of time, we have a list of the differences between the more traditional Dedicated Server and the newer trend of Cloud Computing.

Remember to weigh up what is going to be best for you, and your business.

1. Invisibility
2. Minimal response time
3. Business strategy alignment
4. Industry understanding.

Firstly, invisibility.

The best IT support for your business is the one that you never see.
You know its there, because everything is working the way it is meant to, business is operating at 100% uptime, and your hardware and software is always up to date, but it doesn’t interrupt you, or your office.

And whenever an improvement becomes available which would suit your business, you seem to have it already. Doesn’t that sound good?

Then there is response time.

Occasionally you will need to speak with someone, you have a problem right away, and need help immediately. Ideally, your IT support will be there for you, accessible and proactive, with fast response times.
They should understand that business needs technology to perform around the clock.

And wouldn’t it be good if your IT provider understood your business strategy, and your industry in general.
Being pro-active in making recommendations based on your own vision, planning and strategy, making improvements to your technology that impact the bottom line, these are all areas that your IT support provider should provide without you having to ask.

We all know that fully functioning network and computers are vital in today’s market, and that business owners worldwide just want it to work so they can continue to run successful and profitable operations.  Follow our guidelines to get the perfect partnership for your IT requirements

In the wee hours of the morning for us here down-under, Facebook opened the timeline feature for business (and other) pages.

So what is a timeline. Most Facebook savvy users would have already activated their timeline profile for their personal profiles, for those who have not, check out this link: About Facebook timeline

Timeline adds many new features to a Facebook page and or profile, most noticeably is the image real estate available via the huge 851 X 351 pixel banner at the top of a profile or page. This will obviously make it much easier for brands to make their page their own, however there is a small catch which will upset a lot of people, and that is the default landing page is now gone! You will no longer be able to have new likers/visitors land on your fancy like page when they first check out you page.

However it is not all bad news, some other cool features of the new timeline include the ability to finally private message likers and the ability to pin posts to the top of a page for a week for added exposure. One important thing to remember is that it is a good idea to get on board early with this, as Facebook will very shortly be making timeline for pages mandatory and I can tell you, it will completely change the way your page looks in a bad way if you don’t beat them to the punch.

To add the timeline feature to your page or to simply preview it go here: Add timeline to my page

If you would like more info on how a Facebook page can benefit your business and add another inbound marketing avenue, contact us here!

With speeds up to 50 times faster than your average broadband connection it seems like an obvious choice, but don’t hold your breath for availability just yet. With Aspley currently the only Brisbane suburb on Telstra’s website as under construction for the NBN, it could be quite some time before the rest of the river city are fibre connected.

For more information and plan options, check out Telstra information here:

http://www.telstra.com.au/bigpond-internet/national-broadband-network/our-plans/

The new version of the Windows operating system due to be released later this year, is rumored to come pre-installed with the new DropBox alternative, that will give users the ability to sync their documents images etc without having to manage multiple repositories or use third party tools.

Read more here: http://www.itnews.com.au/News/291025,microsoft-skydrive-app-to-take-on-icloud.aspx

Perhaps one of the most precious commodities to a laptop / notebook user is battery life! How many times have you been in an airport or at a cafe burning time before that flight or next appointment, your laptop is about to take an untimely power nap and you cannot for the life of you locate a power point? Well turns out the good people at Microsoft would like to help you squeeze every little bit out of your Windows 7 laptop as possible.

Windows 7 has a great little hidden tool that can provide you with an energy report on your computer. It has a couple of steps, but provides great insight into areas where you can conserve battery to get more out of you laptop.

First step is to open up command prompt. To do this simply click on the start menu, and in the “search programs and files” box type “cmd” then press enter, as shown below.

One the command window opens simply type the following text into the window and press enter

powercfg -energy -output %userprofile%\Energy_Report.html

See below for an example:

Windows will then sit there for 60 seconds examining the computer and analyse the power settings and consumption. When finished you will see file on your desktop called Energy_report.html. When you open this file it lists areas of convern and other power related information.

It may seem a little confusing at first, but it does do is provide recommendations as to things you can change to gain better battery power efficiency out of your laptop. Hey it also makes you that little bit greener!

GFI Software provides a single best source of web and mail security, archiving and fax, networking and security software and hosted IT solutions for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMB) via an extensive global partner community. GFI products are available either as on-premise solutions, in the cloud or as a hybrid of both delivery models. With award-winning technology, a competitive pricing strategy, and a strong focus on the unique requirements of SMBs, GFI satisfies the IT needs of organizations on a global scale. The company has offices in the United States (North Carolina and California), Canada, UK (London and Dundee), Austria, Australia, Malta, Hong Kong and Romania, which together support hundreds of thousands of installations worldwide. GFI is a channel-focused company with thousands of partners throughout the world and is also a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.

Effective IT is excited to be partnered with GFI and look forward to discussing with our clients how we can utilise the GFI product suite to better support and protect their businesses.