Erik Eckel

Small businesses needing shared calendaring and contacts, secure file sharing, email hosting and more would be well served considering Apple’s Mac Mini with Snow Leopard Server. The specially packaged unit can power office operations whether users operate Windows machines, Macs and/or mobile devices.

Data backups rank among the most important of technology operations. Automated offsite backups, such as those powered by Mozy Pro, help ensure critical business data—including documents, spreadsheets, email, databases and financial information—is stored safely in a second location without the need for a staff member to manually rotate tapes, external hard disks or other media off site. MozyPro adds e-mail alerts, a thorough reporting dashboard and more to the mix, all at a reasonable price.

You can avoid problems and gain peak efficiencies by following certain practices when upgrading a server. Erik Eckel offers this field-tested list.

Optimizing a slow-performing system requires a number of diagnostic and repair steps, often with interruptions along the way. This basic checklist will help you cover all the bases.

IT professionals, at least the smart ones, are increasingly abandoning old school data backup routines in favor of automated disk imaging software. Whether backing up workstations, laptops or servers, Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 is a proven and reliable method for scheduling the creation of accurate disk images. Check out this gallery to learn more about Acronis’ client and server application.

Checklists can help IT consultants bring order to the chaotic and hectic environment in which they frequently operate. Here are tips on implementing checklists.

SonicWALL’s TZ 100 is a small business workhorse firewall. The devices boast significant security, VPN and encryption technologies to provide a secure and reliable solution for connecting remote and branch sites together. The TZ 100 is also an excellent option for connecting small businesses to the Internet.

PCmover targets individual users and organizations needing to migrate data, settings, and applications from one computer to another.

Small businesses that require a unified threat management solution, without the hassles of per-seat or per-node licensing, will find serious capacity packed inside the Firegate 100 Series firewall. Add votes of confidence from the Proteus|OCM Penetration Testing Team and Tolly Group, and you have a single device that can manage an SMBs’ complete security needs, including firewall, SSL VPN, antivirus, antispam, and content filtering.

Disk fragmentation slows workstation and server performance, delaying file access by up to 80 percent. Auslogics’ Disk Defrag assists businesses and enterprise organizations by reducing administrative time necessary to optimize disk performance and protect against lost data and unnecessary wear and tear.

AVG promotes AVG Anti-Virus 9.0 as faster, easier and safer to use. The claim is no boast, especially considering AVG Anti-Virus Professional 8.5 was already among the leading antivirus applications available to organizations worldwide.

Jitterbit Enterprise MX 3.0 is an open source application and data integration platform that can link a variety of software packages to help enterprise business analysts better manage business information. Jitterbit, designed for large-scale enterprise integration, enables business analysts to manipulate its flexible and intuitive interface to manage cloud computing, on premise application and data integration projects.