Network Velocity

The cure for software upgrades?

A software upgrade can be a major disruption to a business. We've listed the revisions to Microsoft's core businesss products going back to 1995. Windows Servers Office Exchange (email) SQL (database) Windows 95 Windows NT (1993) Office 95 Exchange 5.5 SQL 7.0 Windows 98 Windows Server 2000 Office 98 Exchange 2000 SQL 2000 Windows 2000 Windows Server 2003 Office 2000 Exchange 2003 SQL 2005 Windows XP Windows Server 2008 Office XP Exchange 2007 SQL 2...

City of Los Angeles Chooses Google Apps

The Official Google Enterprise Blog has a post about the City of Los Angeles choosing Google Apps for their new Email system that will serve 30,000 city employees. The entire post and video are available via this link. Some highlights from their post: Important decision. 15 proposals were submitted. The top four candidates gave oral presentations to city officials. The City Council unanimously chose Google Apps. Improved collaboration. Much of the city's work requires multiple people ...

The power of Google Apps: Forms

In this post we'll take a look at the power and ease of use of Google Apps Forms. We'll cover creating a form, viewing the data in a spreadsheet and using that data to create graphs. But first, a quick intro video:  Forms allow any Apps user to create a custom form for gathering information. Forms can be used for anything, from vacation requests or ordering lunch to complex business processes or client surveys . The sky is the limit. Below is a screenshot of creating a sample form: Notic...

Google, Security and your Data

When speaking to clients about Google and Cloud technologies we are often asked if client data will be safe when using Google Apps. With the recent news about Microsoft and T-Mobile losing client data many people are quick to judge all Cloud services as less than trustworthy. This is not true! Don't judge all companies by the bad experiences of some that make headlines. However, always do your due diligence. We've done our due diligence regarding Google Services and we want to share it with y...

Saying No to Microsoft Exchange

Microsoft Exchange has been the dominant business Email Server Platform since the late '90s. Today and going forward, Network Velocity is saying NO to Microsoft Exchange. Now hold on, let us clarify this statement. We currently manage dozens of Exchange Servers which will not be going anywhere anytime soon, but we are taking a stand that if a client needs to upgrade their system or is looking to purchase their first Email solution that our company policy will be to recommend Google Apps. ...

Google goes to market with Google Apps

Google is launching a nationwide marketing campaign around Google Apps. Click here to learn about Network Velocity's service offerings for Google Apps or to register for one of our webinars. Here's one example of the nationwide Google campaign. (I find it amusing that Google, the king of online advertising, is using billboards to advertise their products)

Google Chrome – the OS

Google has announced that Google Chrome will be available as an Operating System. Google states their goal is to provide the fastest possible Operating System that will serve users who mainly use the Web. We can't write enough about how Google is changing the Information Technology game. Most of our recent blog posts have been about Google because Google continues to make big news! As soon as we saw the ability for Chrome to make application shortcuts we suspected Google would take it t...

Google announces that Google Apps is now out of Beta

According to this blog post Google has finally removed the Beta tag from Gmail and Google Apps. The move signals a more aggressive stance by Google in their pursuit of Google Apps business clients. With recent improvements in integration with iPhones, BlackBerries and Microsoft Outlook Google is flexing some business centric muscle by declaring Google Apps ready for production environments. From our experience and the experiences of the clients we've migrated, Google Apps is a compelling ...

Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook

In early June 2009 Google announced that users can now upload Microsoft Office 2007 documents and spreadsheets to Google Apps.  This was a big step for Google by adding value to Google Apps in terms of Office 2007 compatibility. Google has dropped another bombshell with Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook.  This is big news! Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook allows users to use Outlook as their interface to Google Apps hosted email. While we consider the Google interface to be supe...

Valeo chooses Google Apps for their 30,000 users

Google announced today that they have inked a deal to provide Google Apps to Valeo. With 30,000 users the Valeo implementation becomes one of the largest Google Apps installs to date. This deal signals the capabilities and cost savings large organizations are finding with Google Apps. Those same types of savings are available to businesses of all sizes. More about our view on Google Apps for business is available here. The full Google story is available here. Congrats to all invol...