Cisco for Small Business – An Example Network Case Study
Tuesday, June-30-2009
This article is part 2 of a 2 part series: Part 1 is at Why Is Cisco Equipment a Smart Investment for Small Businesses?
Moving from the broad over view lets now move into demonstrating some of the direct benefits of the more commonly implemented features of Cisco router and switches by using a simple, small office scenario as a case study.
Typical of a small organization is there are departments for financial matters, marketing and sales and one or more managers. The personnel in each of these areas has specific computer function and data needs with some being in common such
Posted by mike.shafer on 06-30-2009 at 08:06 am
Posted in All:Recent, Cisco, IT for SMB with 1 Comment
Having worked at IT consulting on a part time basis since 1986 and full-time for the past seven years I've had the opportunity to work with a lot of small to mid-sized organizations varying in size from the one person home office to entities with revenues in the mid-eight figure range and just under 100 employees.
At first blush there would seem to be vast differences in the networking needs of each but in fact I would argue there's not. At least not in my opinion. Fact is I recommend Cisco equipment for the smallest home office and up and the 
Here's the question. Where's the "wow" in your customer service experience? Last fall while on vacation I had the "no wow" experience that's the focus of this piece.
Being I'm not finding it any easier to stay reasonably fit and trim now that I'm in my mid-50s I took up serious bicycling in the summer of 2008 and in the process I discovered I really liked the idea of traveling a la two wheels sans motor. As the timing would have it one of the newest gems of the SW PA area is a bike trail that allows one to start 
It should go without saying that customer service is a major factor in the IT consulting business and in fact one might think it's a major factor in, well, any business. Not many surprises here you say? And I would argue that companies are literally "betting the farm, or more precisely the company, on the long-term quality of their customer support. Given the experiences I have had of late in this area apparently quite a few rather well known US firms aren't convinced of this. One can only ask "what are they thinking?"
Maybe that is the right question. What ARE 
I suppose it's some sort of indicator that I'm becoming an old..., well not a youngster anymore, that I can reflect on having lived through about five of these recession things to date. To be specific there was the mid-70's, 81-82, early 90's, post-dot-com period of about 2001-03 and now the current financial hiccup that the main stream media has largely already declared the equivalent of a financial Chernobyl.
Moreover it seems that it's de rigueur that the only answer to these less than sunny economic patterns is a massive group think on cost cutting. You can hear the choir singing 
Whatever your feelings are regarding the massive stimulus bill that has been signed into law, there is one thing that directly benefits businesses. The 179 Rule has reverted back to the 2008 levels, meaning that there is 50% bonus depreciation for the year and the maximum deduction amount went from $125,000 back to $250,000. While it is still early in the year and the economy is unpredictable, businesses can directly benefit from tax deductions for leasing new and used equipment.
Note: Business Tips & Trends posts are provided for informational purposed only. As always, anyone wishing to pursue ideas provided here 
If you've been on the Internet more than a month or two, you've likely by now received an email similar to the one below. The emails almost always predict some dire consequences and horrible fate to those who fail to comply immediately. Be advised - the dire consequences and horrible fate only await those who do reply to such emails.
The email shown here is what is known as "a phish" or "phishing attack." While this one in particular is an attack on those having a PayPal account, phishing attacks have been conducted on virtually all well known financial institutions including