It’s really amazing, the list of technologies individual end users are able to adopt without the need for the IT manager’s help or consent is certainly increasing. Clearly the iPhone and iPad craze has entered all of our workspaces and some companies are now embracing this technology, others are still fighting to understand how it will really work.

This consumerisation of IT is really going to have a significant effect to such an extent that the relationship between traditional IT and information workers will start to disappear as entire business units begin to make their own technology decisions. We’ve already seen Google Apps, Drop Box, MS 365 and other cloud services being used with IT management approval and this trend is on the increase!

Events recently accelerated somewhat for Transputec’s Technical Infrastructure Manager.

Anish Patel, and his pregnant wife Darshna. Anish received a call at work to say that her labour had started so he dashed home intending to take her to hospital. However upon arrival 15 minutes later it transpired that baby had decided not to wait for a hospital appointment. Anish had no option but to adopt a hands-on approach and deliver his own baby.

When the paramedics arrived it turned out that Anish now had more experience, as neither of them had previously delivered a baby. Upon her arrival, the midwife suggested that Anish should complete the delivery by cutting the cord himself!

So Anish and Darshna are pleased to announce that their son Arjun was born on his due date of Friday 10 February. Arjun, named after a Hindu god and weighing 61b 9oz (3.15kg) at birth, is a healthy baby. However brother Kishan, when asked to describe his brother had a one word reply, “noisy”.

See the video below.

Its a question thats being asked more and more, can I achieve a DR of my server environment in the cloud based on an OPEX model? The answer is yes there are some really great ways of achieveing this. One key product thats really very cool and works a dream is StorageCraft's Shadow Protect. This is a simple solution and one that operates on a monthly service. If you need to look up more information , its worth checking out further information here. For a free trial fill click here.

On the 9th of April 2012 Microsoft via the Windows Team Blog have taken the time to notify us that it is now two years until windows XP and Office 2003 are officially out of support and suggest that if customers still have windows XP and Office 2003 installed that it is time to start planning your migration to windows 7 and office 2010, in order to meet the demands modern users to provide a platform to work from anywhere at any time while companies have an increasing requirement to secure their data and increase flexibility, productivity and manageability.

With Windows 8 on the horizon many businesses will be tempted to wait however given that there are only 2 years remaining of support for Windows XP now is the time to be planning and testing the migration to Windows 7 as this will keep you in support, provide significant benefits to your employees and administrators and prepare your applications and infrastructure for supporting Windows 8 and beyond.

With all this consumerisation of IT and new devices coming out, I am constantly being asked can we use devices like Apple Ipad or Android tablets to run windows based applications. The simple answer is yes. Some people have already achieved this with simplistic ways like remote desktop where you are literally taking over a windows pc or a server and relaying the screen , mouse and keyboard information. However there are better ways where a more controlled option is available.

The answer is simple, it really does for most scenarios. However there are some areas where VDI is simply not an option. There are other solutions that can offer the benefits of centralised management but offer the flexibility of "fat" computing. Solutions like Virtual Computer, who have introduced a new term now called Intelligent Desktop Virtualization (IDV). Before any successful VDI or IDV project its worth performing a pilot to see how it really works for you. There are some great options for pilots and its worth talking to your partner or our teams to figure out the options available for a "try before you buy" in this exciting area.