Novell's Open Enterprise Server (OES) is Novell's next generation Netware solution offering network services such as file, print, storage and client machine management combined with the advantage of Suse Linux Enterprise Server. In todays IT enviroment many companies face the challenge of controlling infrastructure costs and managing mixed IT environments. OES is ideally suited to address these needs at an affordable cost.

Its amazing how many SME's still do not spend the money to put a proper firewall in place and simply rely on their ADSL modem for the protection of their company network. Relying on your ADSL modem for firewall functionality is a bad idea, because it can end up costing your company money!

Email signatures are an important part of any corporate branding strategy. Every mail that your organisation sends out, is an opportunity to communicate your corporate brand values with your existing, or new clients. In the past managing email signatures has been a problematic process. Corporates were either forced to rely on each individual setting up their email clients to automatically attach signatures, or had to make use of expensive solutions to implement this on the server side. Your brand is your identity, without it you’re just another company.

Once again the world is gripped by doomsday news. Ever since the Y2K bug, it seems that every year we have some analyst telling us that the end is nigh.  If you are like me, you have started to become immune to all this wild hysteria, usually designed to promote the sales of the product or service of the company, or industry, that sponsored the report. However, be that as it may, one thing all this fear-mongering does highlight, is the need to have a plan in place for your business, should any of the doomsday scenarios come to pass.

Cash is always a scarce resource for any business, but especially  small and medium businesses (SMEs). This is particularly true in today's tough economic environment, with it complete lack of available credit. One of the ways to conserve cash, and still enhance your business's IT infrastructure, is to take advantage of open source, and the many free cloud computing services that are offered on the Internet today.  One such service is OpenDNS, a free DNS service.

Userful Multiplier is a great product that enables you to turn 1  PC into 10 workstations! Each workstation allows a user to have their own workspace and applications. The product can be used to provide Linux desktops:

• to admin or secretarial staff
• call centre agents

or, with the use of Userful Desktop it can provide a secure, locked down desktop to users in:

In today's economic environment many companies are being forced to look again at their infrastructure costs, and ask where can we save money, without loosing functionality and features? In some ways, the downturn is good for business, as we are forced to review our current cost structures and find ways of doing more but at the same time spend less!

The ability for an SME to provide Virtual Private Network (VPN) access to its staff, allows for significant productivity  gains. So what is a Virtual Private Network (VPN)?

While reading up on other Linux migration stories I came across this you-tube video. It's the same story being repeat, again and again all over the world. As always the company followed a phased roll-out of its migration from proprietary solutions to Linux.

Another success story of a large scale Linux migration that is leading to massive cost savings emerge this week.  The French police force, know as the the Gendarmerie, began its move to Linux in 2005. Like  most organisations the Gendarmerie took a gradual approach to its Linux and Open source software roll-out, allowing time for users to adapt to the new software.

Successful Linux Migration Strategies involve a phased approach

The first steps they took was to migrate users as follows: