Posts Tagged ‘virtualization’

axon IT Warns Businesses to Act Now to Avoid Winter Disruption

Posted by Anna on Monday, November 7th, 2011

IT solutions provider axon IT is advising local businesses to act now and get set up for remote working so that employees are able to effectively work from home in the event of another big freeze.

Technical Director at axon, Graham Fern, said: “There’s already talk of another bad winter ahead of us and when the snow falls, the roads gridlock and staff are stuck at home, businesses start to lose money fast. If companies act now and get set up for remote working through a cloud computing solution, they can ensure that productivity remains high and loss of earnings low, should we encounter another big freeze.”

Using cloud-based computing, businesses can put a remote workforce in place which enables employees to securely access and share company data, emails, calendars and contacts from anywhere with an internet connection – meaning they can work from home if the weather prevents them from getting into the office.

Microsoft technology also allows real-time communication between users via instant messaging, audio and video calling, live web conferencing and online meetings, while hosted telephony means business owners can receive calls made to their company telephone number, from anywhere they can connect to the web.

Fern concluded: “We strongly urge businesses to act now to safeguard against potential loss of earnings through the winter months. Remote working is simple to set up, cost-effective and offers increased flexibility and productivity while ensuring seamless business continuity.”

Press Information:-
For more information, photography or an interview with the senior management team please call Anna Nicholls at axon IT on 0845 313 0025 or email alnicholls@axon-it.com.

Are you Ready to make Virtual a Reality?

Posted by Anna on Wednesday, April 6th, 2011

If you’re considering making the move into the virtual world but are yet to be fully convinced, read on below to see how virtualisation might be of benefit to you and your business……

  • Reduced Costs - By replacing multiple pieces of hardware with one single server, your maintenance costs drop dramatically. You will also see a significant reduction in your electricity bill from running and cooling numerous machines.
  • Increased Flexibility – By securely storing all your files, data, applications and emails in one central location you will equip your business for remote working. Employees will be able to log on and access everything they need, no matter where they are on the globe.
  • Tighter Security – By unifying the virtual machine security under the same security management console with which you controlled the physical network, your business will become more secure with all applications and data stored virtually in one place. You can also implement and control higher levels of security access so you know who is accessing your data at all times.
  • More Environmentally Friendly – By maintaining fewer servers you will reduce the amount of energy you use for cooling, which not only saves you money, but decreases your company’s carbon footprint. Energy used through server idling is also reduced, meaning that your power consumption drops, along with your impact on the planet.

Going For Gold and Getting There First!

Posted by Anna on Thursday, January 20th, 2011

axon IT is extremely proud to have been awarded Microsoft Gold Partner Status – Virtualization Competency. Not only that, but we’re the first business in the North West to have received such an accolade.

It means that we are now the only IT solutions provider in the region endorsed by Microsoft to offer virtual and cloud computing-based solutions.

Last year, Microsoft announced some serious changes to the way it assesses its partners, meaning that all previous Microsoft Partners have had to re-apply for their status, choosing a competency relevant to their specific business. So we re-applied, and we chose virtualization.

It wasn’t easy – our engineers have taken 25 exams between them to help gain the accreditation. But the hard work has paid off!

Distorted Display on Dell Latitude XT2 running Windows 7

Posted by Andy on Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

This happened to me last week when I upgraded a Latitude XT2 from Windows Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Ultimate.

After the upgrade everything seemed fine. All applications were still intact and working as they should be. However, when I docked the laptop and attached a second display, the second display became very distorted. Over time, the display gradually got worse, to the point it was completely un-useable!

My first obvious thought was that there must be a problem with the video card drivers. Updating these didn’t make a difference, even though the date gap between the two was over a year old! I updated the chipset drivers, but again no joy.

After some serious research I discovered that the problem was down to virtualization being enabled in the BIOS. Windows 7 chipset drivers don’t work well when this is enabled and this is what causes the distorted display problem. I disabled virtualization and straight away, the problem was solved.

Dell is currently working to release a chipset driver to fix this issue, but for the time being, disabling the virtualization in the BIOS is the only solution.

axon IT Makes Virtual a Reality for Bridge Insurance

Posted by Anna on Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

axon IT  has signed a contract to supply two virtual servers to Manchester’s Bridge Insurance Brokers in a deal which has successfully cut costs for the insurance brokers by significantly reducing their server footprint.

Bridge – one of the NW’s largest independent corporate insurance brokers and risk advisers – will now reduce its eight  physical on-site servers down to two, and take on two virtual servers in axon IT’s Manchester data centre.

The move will assist Bridge in cutting costs, improving flexibility and safeguarding all business information against power failures, fire, theft and other such concerns which can have major operational and financial impacts upon a business.

Scott Fosberry, Chief Information Officer for Bridge Insurance Brokers – located in Central Manchester – commented on the deal; “Going virtual can be a daunting task, but axon have taken all the stress out of the process by deploying a complete virtualization solution which has been fully tailored to our needs. Not only has the process helped to cut costs, but we now have all our vital company data stored securely off-site providing crucial business protection in the event of an emergency.”

Graham Fern, axon IT Director said, “More and more companies are realising the benefits of virtualization. By replacing multiple pieces of costly hardware with virtual servers in our data centre, Bridge will see huge cost savings – not to mention the reduction in running costs associated with running and cooling physical machines.

“In addition, Bridge’s business critical information will now be fully protected in the event of data loss through fire, flood, theft or equipment failure, providing Bridge with the contingency planning they need to keep the business running in the event of an emergency.”

Press Information:-
For more information, photography or an interview with the senior management team please call Anthea Fosti at Zeus Public Relations Limited on 01260 271429 / 07971437042 or email anthea@zeuspr.co.uk.