CPR e.news - October 2011



Cloud Solutions for Small Businesses

How to Create a Strong Password You'll Actually Remember

Embracing the Cloud with StorSimple

CPR Learning Center Specials

Upcoming Events:
•	Hands Free I.T. - Technology Advantage & Cloud Solutions Webinar
•	SharePoint 2010 for Developers - First Look Clinic
•	ITMA November monthly meeting
•	Cloud Solutions for Small to Mid-Sized Businesses Seminar

Phone Numbers: Grand Rapids: 616.575.8500 Kalamazoo: 269.375.9094 www.cprgr.com Follow us on these social media sites:

Cloud Solutions for Small Businesses

Are you a business with fewer than 50 employees with an interest in cloud solutions? Hear how CPR has become the number one provider in Michigan for two solutions from Microsoft and Intel.

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Microsoft Office 365 includes Exchange 2010 email, live video chat & SharePoint in the cloud.

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Intel Hybrid Cloud Server is a pay as you go on premise server virtualization solution.

These two solutions combined with CPR support provide small businesses with enterprise level technology and support at a fraction of the cost and on a pay as you go model. Join us for a free Breakfast Briefing Seminar on November 16th to learn more about how these cloud solution can benefit your small business.

How to Create a Strong Password You'll Actually Remember
Pop quiz: See if you can guess which password is more secure -- Tr0ub4dor&3 or correcthorsebatterystaple. The first password is a jumble of letters (both uppercase and lowercase), numbers and characters, with a few numbers substituting for letters. The second is a string of four common words -- correct horse battery staple.

So. Which is the better password? Keep in mind that hackers can design programs to run thousands of password guesses per second....

If you picked the second one -- the string of common words -- give yourself a gold star! It's the stronger, more secure password. It's also easier to remember than the first. And it goes against all of the password advice we've been given to date.

"Through 20 years of effort, we've successfully trained everyone to use passwords that are hard for humans to remember, but easy for computers to guess," writes Randall Munroe, mathematician and creator of the brilliant XKCD.com, "a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language."

According to Munroe's calculations, the jumbled password could be cracked in about three days by a program running 1000 guesses a second -- child's play, in other words. The same program would need 550 years to guess the second password, which has roughly 44 bits of entropy (compared to the other's 28).

What does this mean to you? It means you can stop picking (and forgetting) gobbledygook passwords. Instead, choose a few generic words (avoid proper nouns like your dog's name or your hometown) and commit them to memory. Time required? Less than a minute. Brain cells required? Very few. Now your passwords are stronger AND easier to remember.

Embracing the Cloud with StorSimple
By "embracing the cloud" with StorSimple you can immediately impact storage and related infrastructure costs, improve agility and elasticity, with data protection, compliance, & control.

Why StorSimple?
StorSimple is only company that delivers an enterprise cloud storage appliance certified by both Microsoft and VMware. The appliance delivers automatically tiered primary storage, cloud archival, cloud data protection and cloud disaster recovery in one box. StorSimple is installed in ten minutes, causes no changes to on-premises applications and reduces storage infrastructure costs by up to 80%.

StorSimple offers:

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Enterprise Class Storage/Military Grade Security

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Solid State Disk Performance with the Cloud Elasticity and Economics

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Instant Thin Provisioning of Massive Live Archives

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Fast Backup and Near Instant Restore Using the Cloud

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Fast Multi-Location Disaster Recovery without Tape

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Simple Integrated Management in one box

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Optimized Storage and Data Protection for applications

Hear first hand from a West Michigan client that has successfully implemented the StorSimple solution. Join us for an Executive Breakfast Briefing at Rockford Construction's offices on Tuesday, November 8th.

Special Training Offers Microsoft Official Courseware Available CPR has a number of Microsoft Official Courseware books in stock. We need to move some of our inventory to make room for newer class materials. Topics include:
•	Exchange 2007	•	SQL 2008	•	Visio 2003
•	Excel 2007	•	Access 2003/2007	•	Word 2007
•	SharePoint Server 2007	•	Outlook 2007	•	Windows Vista
•	SharePoint Services 3.0	•	PowerPoint 2003	•	And more…
•	SharePoint Designer	•	Project 2003/2007
If you'd like to purchase any of these books, contact Karen Forester at Karen.forester@gocorptech.com for more information.

For the most up to date list of upcoming events, seminars and webinars, visit our Events page on our website at http://www.gocorptech.com/IT-consultants-seminars.php

Hands Free I.T. - Technology Advantage & Cloud Solutions Webinar
Wednesday, October 19, 201112:00pm – 12:30pm Eastern Time

There is a lot of talk about “moving to the cloud” these days. Corporate Technologies has a portfolio of services that are uniquely tailored to meet the needs of small to medium sized businesses.

Learn how many functions of technology can be securely and affordably managed remotely. This 30-minute webinar will demystify the cloud and provide a clear vision how lean businesses are managing and maintaining their technology while focusing on growing their businesses.

SharePoint 2010 for Developers - First Look Clinic
Wednesday, October 19, 2011

9:00am – 11:00am
Location: CPR's offices, Grand Rapids, MI

This free first-look clinic explains the new and improved product features as applicable to Developers. It explains how SharePoint Designer 2010 supports creation of applications and how SharePoint Server 2010 extends a platform to build solutions. It provides an overview of Developer tools, features and services toward Data and Programmability, and programming enhancements in SharePoint Server 2010.

ITMA November Meeting - Identity & Access Management
Thursday, November 10, 20118:00am – 12:00pm
Location: CPR's offices, Grand Rapids, MI

According to Wikipedia identity and access management encapsulates people, processes and products to identify and manage the data used in an information system to authenticate users and grant or deny access rights to data and system resources. The goal of IAM is to provide appropriate access to enterprise resources. The Wikipedia definition makes it sounds easy! In reality, IAM requires a well thought out plan and is constantly evolving with the changing world of I.T.

This session will explore IAM best practices and insight from West Michigan I.T. professionals who are well versed on the tools, business role, structure, challenges and successes of Access and Identity Management.

If you'd like to receive email invitations to upcoming meetings, contact Melissa Engle or call (616)464-9720.

Cloud Solutions for Small to Mid-Sized Businesses - featuring Office 365 & the Essential Technology Bundle Wednesday, November 16, 2011 8:00am – 11:00am Location: CPR's offices, Grand Rapids, MI
There’s no question, “the cloud” is more than just a buzz word. There are many cloud options available for small to mid-sized organizations. How can your business leverage the offerings and benefits of the cloud? Join CPR for an informative cloud discussion featuring Office 365 and the Essential Technology Bundle - a hybrid cloud solution powered by Intel technology.

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