Month: July 2013

Microsoft has entered the Cloud market providing anytime access to its Office applications when connected to the internet. With “Office 365 on Demand” calendars and emails will be available on the go allowing you to share files and manage teams from anywhere. Additionally, files are automatically saved online regardless of where you access them.

Office 365 can be installed on up to 5 different devices and it comes with a standard desktop version that allows you to work off line. The moment you regain internet connection your work is automatically synced.

Although Office 365 is targeted predominately at business users it will be available to home and education users. Payment for home users is relatively simple with a choice of a one of annual payment of £79.99 or monthly instalments of £7.99. For business users it’s a little more complex. Small business between 1 and 10 employees are charged £8.40 per user per month.  For businesses with 10 to 250 employees you will be charged £9.80 per user per month. For those above 250 employees you can obtain the slightly more expensive enterprise licence providing access for 50,000 users.

So is it value for money? Research has shown that businesses, particularly enterprises, can pay as much as 44% more through Office 365 that purchasing Office 2013 Professional Plus. Likewise for the home user a strong case can be made for buying Office Home and Business over Office 365.

The new software has also drawn criticism in that it can only operate on Windows 7 or 8, does not work with OS X and is incompatible with tablets. People also point to the fact the 5 installs is good but all five devices have to belong to a single user. Finally, with the software being web based you need a good internet connection. If you work in an area that doesn’t yet have fibre broadband you could be downloading the software for a long time.

Whilst Office 365 has some strong points you cannot help but feel that Microsoft has followed Abode with their Creative Suite subscription. The monthly revenues are clear benefits for these organisations but do they represent value for money for the end user. The jury is still out.

Many of us never think about where our products come from, ultimately all of the products originate from raw materials from the Earths crust. Therefore mining and processing is important to Apple and can heavily influence their own production sequences.

All of the Apple products originate from raw materials. Whilst most of the electrical systems, such as parts of the circuits or the LEDs contain rare earth metals, such as Neodymium and Yttrium. Mark Smith, the chief executive of Molycorp, an American rare earth mining company, once said “ Your iPhone doesn’t work without rare earths in there”, the same applies for all of Apple’s products, including the MacBook Pro. Todays technology is dependent on the use of rare earth minerals, however at the moment only one country seems to be benefitting from them. The Chinese maintain about a 90% hold on the rare earth market, much of this is due to reluctance to share mining technology or information, due to their market dominance. Chinese mines such as in the area of Bayan Obo, in Inner Mongolia are extracting much of the worlds rare earth minerals today. The Chinese domination of the rare earth mineral market, allows the country to draw production to China, as companies want to reduce distances the bulky raw materials are transported, which would increase prices. However, the American company Molycorp is set to expand production from mines in the US, whilst African nations, such as Malawi could be in the future potential hotspots.

Although Rare Earth minerals are important in Apple products, so are more common raw materials such as Aluminium. The now iconic Aluminium ‘unibody’ of the MacBook Pros are milled from single blocks of Aluminium. The metal is also used on the iMacs and iPhones to some degree. Unlike other metals Aluminium is not produced through the direct mining of Aluminium. The mineral Bauxite, which is the most abundant mineral in the earths crust, is mined in such areas such as Australia. Five of Australia’s mines account for 23% of global production. Once the Bauxite is mined, it has to be Electrolysed, which is called the Hall process. The Electrolysis cell separates the Bauxite mineral into its constituents, one of which is Aluminium, using an Anode, a Cathode and a catalyst. The whole process is extremely electricity intensive; therefore it can prove too costly for some nations to produce. However, the use of Geothermal heat in Iceland has allowed it to become a forerunner in Aluminium productions, due to large quantities of sustainable Geothermal heat energy for electricity production.

The all-important screen of each Apple product was once also just separate raw materials, whether those were non-metals or metals. The Liquid Crystal Display is made from non-metals, such as Silicon Dioxide and Glass, which is produced from heated Quartz, which is also just Silica. However the LCD screen also contains metals such as Indium Tin Oxide, which is one of the most commonly used Transparent Conducting Oxides. Whereas in Light Emitting Diode screens, non- metals such as Silicon Dioxide  are also used again. However it contains other compounds, which has constituents, which are both non-metals and metals.

Every Apple product is a collection of raw materials over a long complex process of production. Every metal and non-metal plays a specific role in which not many realise. Without one raw material the Apple products would be completely different to what they are now. Today’s modern society are going to become more dependent on rarer minerals and larger quantities of metals and non-metals. Apple technology is dependent on what we are able to dig out of the earth and the mining and processing of these minerals and metals can be just as complex as the production of the apple products themselves.

Whilst big businesses can dedicate money and resources to disaster recovery and business continuity it can be easy for smaller businesses to lose sight of this important task. Here are a few quick ways of quickly and easily protecting your business without spending a small fortune.

1. Surge Protect– A surge protector is a device, such as a multi plug adapter, protects your computer equipment from power surges. On our network installations we include an Uninterruptible Power Supply, UPS. These are like a big car battery that includes surge protection and will keep a system going for 10-15 minutes during a power outage which is enough time to safely shut down a system
2. Onsite Backup– Data is quite simply the most important element of your IT infrastructure. With 6% of all PCs and servers suffering an episode of data loss in a given year coupled with the fact that 60% of companies who lose all of their data will shut down within 6 months, it is essential that you have some form of backup in place.For those without a server this can be as simple as giving each member of staff a memory stick to backup the data portion of their hard drive. If you have a server however, you will benefit from automated or semi automated backup solutions. On our networks we provide a number of hard drives that take a full backup every night and are swapped over every day giving you a bigger scope of backups to recover files. It also allows you to take your backups offsite should the worst happen to your building, fire or theft.
3. Cloud backup– whilst we always recommend an onsite backup solution as a minimum the next level up will be Cloud backup. Done via the internet overnight a Cloud backup protects you from issues such as fire and theft at your business.  It also protects you from human error such as forgetting to switch backups.
4. Email Continuity & Anti Virus – Should your email server go down or your office become unavailable it can take 24 hours plus to integrate changes in the event of your disaster plus it will take up to 24 hours to revert back should you need to. By using a third party company to redirect your email you can have the ability to quickly and easily redirect your email to a new computer, IP address etc should you need to.  The added benefit is that companies can offer email backup; usually up to 30 Days; and anti-spam solutions at the same time.

At GEEX we take Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity seriously and as such are happy to advise on your current solutions and make suggestions to help. Feel free to contact us on 0121 285 0098 or email info@localhost.

Since their origin the digital tablet has grown exponentially. The Lightweight, high tech and fashionable features of the tablet make it the perfect device for professional and recreational uses. Their huge growth is thanks to their lightweight and fashionable exteriors and the ease of their use. No longer do you require a CD to install a program, the app has given all tablet users the ability to do what they want and when they want, although it of course has its limits.

Large technology companies, such as Apple, Samsung and many others, dominate the tablet market; they have been able to propel this piece of technology further than what was predicted. Apple dominates this market with a 39.6% share, due to the iconic iPad; 19.5 million of the tablets sold were iPad. However Apple has declined according to the IDC from 58.1% to 39.6%, due to the increase in up and coming competition.

The competition from the tablets is not only with other tablets, but also other mainstream products, such as the PC. The tablet has been growing tremendously, whilst computer sales have been dropping off. Many analysts predict the tablet overshadowing the PC in the future.

Analyst never predicted such a huge growth of tablets in the female market in the UK. Women are more likely to buy and use and tablets that their male counterparts, according to a Yougov report.  Women own 52% of tablets in 2013, which up by 9% in 2012 in the UK.

The growth of tablets does not seem to be slowing either, now a quarter of UK households own a tablet. It is predicted another quarter are wanting to buy one in the future for their household. Over the next decade the tablet will truly become a technological giant among products, which may be compared to the growth of the pc in the 90s or the laptop in the Noughties.

GEEX offer a brilliant range of flexible leasing plans of the Apple iPad with Retina display. For more information on leasing an iPad fom us, click here…

As a GEEX customer, you are able to lease any form of technology or software you wish to through our Flexi Lease programme. Whilst leasing is an increasingly popular way of funding the use of technology, it is important you understand what a lease is and the advantages that you can benefit from.

Leasing is the act, which allows you to use a piece of equipment for a specific period of time for your business. The lease agreement requires you to make regular payments. Payments can be monthly or quarterly, depending on your own personalised contract. If you want the latest versions of any type of business equipment, leasing your equipment instead of making a cash purchase is a smart decision, especially in these tough times, where outright buying products is not always financially feasible. Choosing GEEX as your leasing provider only further enhances your business technologically.

Leasing enables you to manage your finances more effectively and professionally. Giving you a predictable overview of your money expenses, so you know exactly what your monthly lease costs will be. Leasing allows you to use the equipment that your business is in need of, relieving you of that aggravating wait to save up for it. As leasing lets you upgrade your computer hardware, you can find an upgrade that best suits your business, resulting in your company looking more professional and up to date with the competition. Leasing also offers tax benefits, as it is 100% tax efficient.  On top of all this, when you’ve finished with your lease, you can return the equipment and start a new lease, or buy out the lease and the equipment, enabling you to own all of equipment you had previously leased.

Choosing GEEX for your leasing requirements will be a suitable professional decision, which would ultimately benefit your business. If you have any questions about our equation, please feel free to call us on 0121 285 0098 or email us james@GEEX.co.uk.