Welcome back to another edition of The Trigon Times. It’s been an exciting quarter here at Trigon Technology Group! We’ve undergone a company restructuring to better service our clients, allow us to scale for continued growth and make Trigon an even better place to work. In addition, we’re investing in giving back to the community while actively working with many non-profit and charitable causes. Our continued growth and maturation as an organization can directly be attributed to the incredible clients, vendors, prospects and friends that we interact with on a daily basis. For this, we thank you!

We’ve seen hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and tornadoes in the past few months… locusts are surely next! Please see our article below explaining how technologies, like cloud computing and virtualization, are making disaster recovery plans more accessible to small and mid-sized companies. We also address IT security in response to the seemingly daily reports of hacking and electronic fraud. Fantasy football is back… do you know what your employees are doing online while on the clock?

As always, if you’d like more information on any of the topics covered in our newsletter, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Also, if you want a specific topic covered in our next edition, please send us an email at solutions@TrigonIT.com. Be sure to check out the blog on our website every day for original content, technology news and compelling insights from our very own Engineers.

Disaster recovery solutions -- more accessible, and more necessary, than ever before
used with permission from the Microsoft Small Business Site

Very few of us would hide our life savings under our mattress with confidence that those funds would remain safe and sound. Financial institutions provide us with a plethora of options for the safekeeping of our money, so it's crazy to think that we'd opt for hiding all of our cash in the bedroom.

The equivalent of hiding cash under a mattress is actually fairly commonplace in many businesses. Companies frequently store all of their data and information in just one place, leaving them vulnerable to dire consequences should catastrophe, whether physical or technical, occur. Unfortunately, few companies that undergo significant data loss resulting from a disaster can pull things together quickly and effectively enough to survive long-term, further underscoring how imperative it is for businesses to have effective disaster recovery solutions in place.

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IT Security Policy: A Must Have
by Blake Britton, Vice President of Axxys Technologies, Inc.

I know we all feel that we do our best when it comes to securing both the physical and tangible assets of our businesses. Most companies feel that by simply locking doors, controlling who has keys and alarm codes, changing passwords, and engaging in other basic security measures they are doing their best to protect the business. I am not a physical security officer, or loss prevention specialist, but I do know about "basic" IT policy and how it can help your business protect its "information" assets.

So here are the questions of the day: Does your company have an enforceable IT security policy? Who is directly responsible for the management and enforcement of this policy? How often is this policy reviewed and updated?

These are all very serious questions that every business must answer. In a lot of cases the "information" businesses possess is one of their most valuable assets.

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4 Tips to Extend the Life of your Laptop Battery
by Christopher Elliott
reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Small Business Center

On a recent stopover at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, I flipped open my laptop PC, hoping to chip away at the 7,000-some e-mail messages that had accumulated since leaving Anchorage, Alaska, four hours earlier.

"Don't even think about it," my laptop screen flashed back at me contemptuously (I'm paraphrasing the error message a little here). "I'm out of juice."

And then, before I could find an electrical outlet — Sea Tac has recently increased the number of available outlets, by the way; finally a reprieve for business travelers whose budget for airline club membership has been cut — the laptop expired.

The irony, of course, is that I had spent most of the previous week researching this column on how to extend your PC's battery life while you're on the road.

In a 2002 survey by chipmaker Intel, 57% of laptop users said they wished their batteries lasted longer. And that is wishful thinking, according to Isidor Buchmann, president and founder of Cadex Electronics in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He suggests that although batteries become about 10% more efficient every year, the average PC's power needs also increase by about the same amount. Result: The average battery life is still painfully short (just three to four hours for most laptop models).

But you don't have to end up sitting in a waiting area, staring at a darkened screen, like I was. Here are four tried-and-true tips to extend the life of your laptop battery. Why should you take advice from a guy who couldn't keep his own unit charged? Read on if you want to hear my sad excuse.

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Do you know what your employees are doing on the Internet?
By Brian Renter, President, Universal Information Systems

The importance of the Internet to the daily operation of businesses and organizations has increased significantly over the past few years. Most companies have one or more critical business functions that depend entirely on the speed and availability of their Internet connection. Ensuring a reliable and fast Internet connection has become an almost universal priority for companies.

Unfortunately, many new recreational (or non-business) uses of the Internet have been developed that compete directly against a company’s desire for a fast Internet connection. Streaming music or audio, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, on-line banking, fantasy football, among others, consume the bandwidth intended to run critical business applications.

Business Continuity Tip

Storms Brewing

Hurricanes are one of nature's most powerful and destructive forces generating heavy rainfall, destructive winds, flooding and tornadoes. Hurricane Irene became the first hurricane of the 2011 Atlantic season as it moved over Puerto Rico early Monday morning. Irene is projected to strengthen over the next five days before reaching Florida and the Southeast U.S. between Thursday and Saturday.

With several storms brewing in the Atlantic, it is important to prepare now. Download the Hurricane Preparedness Checklist to help prepare your business, employees, and community.

Quote of the Month

I have never been jealous.
Not even when my dad finished fifth grade
a year before I did.

- Jeff Foxworthy

Just for Laughs