The Ten Second Test That Will Save Your Organisation Thousands

As we go about helping organisations we see a lot of virtualisation being used to save money on server hardware. But we are also seeing plenty of virtualisation used in ways that is going to eventually cost more than it saves. In short we are seeing some organisations suffer the midrange explosion that we warned about in our previous blog post.

That is - the idea of "free" servers is sometimes leading to the deployment of servers for roles of dubious value.

"If the server is free what's the harm?" I hear some readers ask. The problem is it's not what the server costs to buy that matters, it's what it costs to own. Further, as you add more and more computer systems complexity can have an amplifying effect on the cost of ownership of systems deployed.

When an organisation has to pay for "tin" upfront this acts as a natural restraint on over provisioning. When servers seem to be free sometimes this restraint is absent.

So, here is the 10 second test that will save your organisation thousands. Before you add a new virtual server for any ongoing production role to your design or architecture ask yourself this question - "If I had to pay for the tin would I still design it this way?"

If the answer to that question is not a solid yes then you need to re-think your approach.

Virus That Wont Go Away

Got an infection that just wont go away?

Has your computer got a virus that just wont go away? You've tried disinfecting it, scanning it with different anti-virus scanners and had a friend (or us!) look over it and for a little while it seemed okay, but then it all went bad again?

In this blog post we talk about 3 other possible problem sources that you might need to check.

Other Computers

If you have other computers on your home network then they are a potential source of the infection. It's a bit like having nits in the house - to eliminate the virus completely you will need to isolate all the computers and individually disinfect them before reconnecting them to the home network.

Don't forget to pay particular attention to computers that connect wirelessly. In these cases it is easiest to either turn off the wireless access point, or disable the wireless adapters on the affected computers.

As a general rule if one computer on your home network is infected it is fair to assume they will all need some attention (if they are all Windows computers).

Infected Router

It's possible that the problem isn't your computer at all, it's your Internet router instead.

Some older Internet routers have security flaws that allow hackers to break into them over the Internet. In these cases a hacker may have broken into your router and reprogrammed it to direct your computer to sites were it gets infected. Needless to say this affects all computers on the network.

If you have an older router (normally anything less than 3 years old is unaffected) and virus infections keep on coming back it is probably worth replacing your router, or at least reloading the firmware and changing the default passwords (for many people buying a new router will be much simpler).

Pretend Anti-Virus Software

Sometimes people find themselves being tricked into installing anti-virus software which really isn't anti-virus software. As a general rule of thumb if a site pops up a message saying "your computer is at risk" or something similar, it is selling "junk" anti-virus software. Rather than stopping viruses this software often does the opposite and loads software you don't want on your computer.

If you don't have any anti-virus software, and you use your computer just for home use we strongly recommend AVG Free Edition. Even if your computer is used for work the commercial version is good value.

And if none of that helps we can always have a look at your computer for you. Our fixed price service includes a deep-scan anti-virus check which eliminates viruses that onboard AV scanners can't get rid of.