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The Boardroom Executive Suites Taps Social Media Marketing

Jennifer LeClaire — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:23:10 +0000

Who says LinkedIn doesn’t lead to publicity? I would probably never have known about The Boardroom Executive Suites latest executive office suites project if Nathan Jansch, the president of the serviced office company, hadn’t reached out through LinkedIn to give me a heads up on the new facility.

So here’s the deal: The Boardroom Executive Suites signed an agreement to open a new executive suite business center at the intersection of Colorado Boulevard and I-25. This makes serviced office facility number two for Boardroom. (The company also has a location at 3773 Cherry Creek Drive in Denver.)

The new center will be located on the 7th floor of the Denver CenterPoint I office building at 3900 E. Mexico Avenue. With 10,300 square feet of office space, the executive suites project will feature 25 individual offices, four 500-square-foot office suites, two conference rooms, advanced VoIP telecommunications, on-demand administrative services, and six virtual office plans. The company also offers meeting rooms and virtual offices.

Read the rest of my story on aBetterOffice.com.

Interview: Charles King on Iron Mountain-Mimosa Tie Up

Jennifer LeClaire — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:55:18 +0000

Iron Mountain on Monday acquired Mimosa in a $112 million deal. The deal makes a great deal of sense both tactically and strategically for Iron Mountain and the price seems reasonable, according to Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT. You can read his perspectives on the deal below:

From a broader industry perspective, Iron Mountain has seen its core business come under a lot of pressure from traditional storage vendors. The archiving space was considered to be pretty un-sexy by a lot of people. There were some tape vendors out there that were certainly making a good deal of money on selling tape arrays and cassettes to companies that wanted their own on-site premises. Before permanent archiving, they would turn to companies like Iron Mountain, which is considered by most to be the leader in permanent archiving services.

But over the past five or six years, we’ve started to see the archiving market become much more stratified, both with higher capacity tape, very aggressive pricing from the traditional tape players as they’ve been pressured by dramatically lower prices in disc archiving solutions like EMC Centera and then the emergence of virtual tape libraries which basically allow companies to seamlessly blend tape and disc archiving into a single environment.

So what is a specialist like Iron Mountain do in a case like that? Its traditional business is being sliced and diced. So it make sense for them to become greater than they were. We’ve seen that in some previous acquisitions in some of the cloud-based archive offerings the company has been offering as well.

The conventional wisdom is that in the storage business certainly is that business information by definition is valuable. So its’ worth the time and effort for companies to save that information in case they need it for a rainy day. That’s certainly the case for compliance-sensitive data. If a former employee brings a wrongful termination suit against a company, and as part of the discovery process their attorney employee or people close to management were referenced, which can be prohibitively expensive and complex. That’s where these e-discovery solutions come in.

Beyond the compliance and e-discovery, the there’s also the whole issue of being able to take information, much of it captured on e-mail or company documents, what we call unstructured information, and be able to search that and leverage it with business intelligent tools and that’s another part of what Mimosa brings. They do offer enterprise technologies that can incorporate e-mail and SharePoint files as well as document files. Their solutions are meant to be used on-site at the company so it basically gives Iron Mountain an enterprise content management solution within the company that could be deployed within the company’s firewall that compliments its external archive services and cloud services strategy.

This is the kind of opportunities that the big companies fully understand. IBM has poured billions of dollars into the development and acquisitions aimed at this same area. The entire EMC Documentum work group or product group is dedicated to this area and SharePoint content management is a really hot topic right now.

With that type of competition, if Iron Mountain wants to stay in the game and make sure it can take advantage of future opportunities they need to be in this space. Mimosa is not a big company. $112 million is not a big price. It gives them a company with known solutions and with an established customer base in the enterprise. It should give them the chance to get a foothold there and bee one of the companies considered as more and more of these deals move ahead.

Security Report Finds Enterprise Infections Up 100 Percent

Jennifer LeClaire — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:57:44 +0000

Microsoft released its latest security intelligence report on Monday — and the picture looks grim for enterprises. Enterprise worm infections rose nearly 100 percent in the first half of 2009 from the previous six months. In the same period, consumers continued to struggle with rogue software.

According to the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (SIRv7), rogue security software remained the single largest threat category for the first half of 2009. Despite progress combating rogues, this is still a major issue for computer users. Also known as “scareware,” rogue security software takes advantage of customers’ desire to protect their computer from threats.

But there is good news for enterprises and consumers. The report highlights a significant decrease in Zlob Trojan infections, from 21.1 million at its peak in 2007 to 2.3 million in the first half of 2009. Microsoft is offering some security best practices to help PC users ward off threats.

Read the rest of my story on Sci-Tech Today.

My Role as “Editor” at aBetterOffice.com

Jennifer LeClaire — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:55:40 +0000

You all know I’m busy on the real estate front. But have you heard of aBetterOffice.com? I’m the editor there, grinding out stories on executive office suites, virtual offices, coworking and the like since earlier this year. If you haven’t check it out yet, run by there and see what’s up. I have been surprised to learn that so many people are still not in the know about the benefits of serviced offices. Enjoy!

Illegal Song Sharing Costs Single Mom $1.92 Million

Jennifer LeClaire — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:18:30 +0000

Microsoft May Bing Google as Wave Grabs Market

Jennifer LeClaire — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:24:12 +0000

There’s been much ado about Microsoft ’s Bing, and plenty of wonder around Google Wave. Although the Internet archrivals’ new offerings don’t compete directly, they do indirectly: Bing with Google Search and Wave with Microsoft’s ecosystem .Currently Google has the largest market share in search and Microsoft is dominant in desktop PC software. Observers wonder if each will cut into the other’s domain or if the status quo will be maintained.

“Bing will certainly take share from Google’s search business, but isn’t strong enough to challenge Google’s overall leadership, making it an approach mirrored by Microsoft’s efforts with Zune,” said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. “Wave represents an effort to displace Microsoft entirely, but has a higher probability of failing completely and is also consistent with Google’s strategy with apps.”

Click here to read the rest of my story on NewsFactor.

Chinese drywall problems hit already-battered market

Jennifer LeClaire — Fri, 29 May 2009 20:56:36 +0000

3Com Challenges Cisco with ‘Flex-Chassis’ Switches

Jennifer LeClaire — Tue, 12 May 2009 13:08:58 +0000

n a move to compete with Cisco Systems, 3Com on Monday added a “flex-chassis” family of network switches to its H3C portfolio. The H3C S5800 Series offers up to 192 10-Gigabit ports or 640 gigabit Ethernet ports and supports embedded extensible application services, including security , wireless and monitoring.With its latest product launch, 3Com is positioning its enterprise switches as a way to improve network reliability, lower total cost of ownership (TCO), and improve application delivery.

“The H3C S5800 is the industry’s most cost-effective and innovative platform for meeting enterprise customers’ networking needs today and in the future,” said Saar Gillai, senior vice president of worldwide products and solutions at 3Com. “Our H3C portfolio is the most modern in the industry — developed over the past four years — so it delivers unmatched price and performance advantages.”

Click here to read the rest of my story on NewsFactor.

Brokers giving home tours by land, air and sea

Jennifer LeClaire — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 20:48:28 +0000

By land, by air and by RV, real estate brokers won’t stint to sell homes in an ailing housing market.

One broker in Florida’s Cape Coral area gives boat tours to show foreclosed homes to potential buyers. Another offers affluent prospects helicopter tours. Still another tours the Southeastern United States in an RV and sleeps in vacant homes to raise awareness of bargains in the ravaged real estate market. Whatever it takes, they say.

Ree Cole caters to high-end clientele through the Skywater Group. The Fort Lauderdale-based brokerage sells jets, estates and yachts. Her yacht- and jet-buying clients are candidates for home sales and vice versa. But these busy, wealthy folks don’t have time to drive around South Florida looking for the perfect mansion along the coastline.

“With a helicopter, I can show my clients homes all over the state in less than a day,” Cole said. “The helicopter also gives them a perspective of where the home is in relation to downtown or the beach or whatever their desired location is. You don’t get that perspective in a car.”

Click here to read the rest of my story on The Real Deal.

HP Integrates Server and Software with Matrix

Jennifer LeClaire — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:50:09 +0000

Hewlett-Packard on Monday unveiled new solutions within its Adaptive Infrastructure portfolio. Despite the convergence theme, some analysts said the direct comparison against Cisco’s Unified Communications Systems is overstated.In any case, HP is making bold promises. The company is claiming its new approach fundamentally changes the way technology is used to deliver business services while also reducing infrastructure costs and data-center complexity.

Dubbed HP BladeSystem Matrix, the solution merges software, server , storage and networking on a single platform that automates service delivery for the data center. Meanwhile, the HP Matrix Orchestration Environment offers a unified management interface to design, deploy and optimize the application infrastructure.

Click here to read the rest of my story on CIOToday.

EMC Launches Symmetrix Next-Gen Data Storage

Jennifer LeClaire — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:04:56 +0000

EMC on Tuesday took the lid off its latest approach to high-end data storage: A new architecture to support virtual data centers. The company also announced a storage system based on the new architecture that it said will serve as a cornerstone of virtual computing infrastructures.Dubbed Virtual Matrix Architecture, the technology integrates industry-standard components with EMC Symmetrix capabilities to enable massive scale to the tune of hundreds of thousands of terabytes of storage to support hundreds of thousands of virtual machines. The Symmetrix V-Max system is the first storage system based on Virtual Matrix. It uses quad-core Intel Xeon processors.

“The shift from physical to virtual computing is being driven by efficiency gains too compelling to ignore,” said EMC Chairman, President and CEO Joe Tucci. “Virtualization’s ability to maximize resources and automate complex and repetitive manual tasks is overtaking the server world and is now happening in the storage world.”

Click here to read the rest of my story on NewsFactor.

Gmail, Calendar Updated for iPhone and Android Devices

Jennifer LeClaire — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:00:16 +0000

Google on Tuesday updated its Gmail and Calendar offerings for Apple’s iPhone and Android-based mobile devices. When users access Gmail and Calendar through mobile browsers, Google promises an improved experience.In Gmail, Google has improved the mobile user interface to make it easier to “message on the go.” The search giant also unveiled what it is calling a Floaty Bar so common actions — such as archive and delete — are only a click away. Messages got a face-lift so labels look more like the Gmail labels users see on a desktop.

“You’ll notice that it’s a lot faster when performing actions like opening an e-mail, navigating or searching. And if the data network drops out on you, rest assured that Gmail won’t,” said Joanne McKinley, an engineer for Google Mobile. “You’ll still be able to open recently read messages and to compose over a flaky, or nonexistent, network connection.”

Click here to read the rest of this story on Sci-Tech Today.

Sun Pulls a Yahoo and Rejects IBM’s $7 Billion Offer

Jennifer LeClaire — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:12:50 +0000

On Friday, IBM and Sun Microsystems were rumored close to an acquisition deal. By Sunday, talks between the technology rivals appeared stalled.IBM reportedly offered about $7 billion, or $9.40 a share, to acquire Sun and all its intellectual property. But according to The Wall Street Journal, merger negotiations between Big Blue and Sun have significantly deteriorated.

Sun’s board rejected IBM’s formal acquisition offer Saturday and sent a notice terminating Sun’s agreement to negotiate exclusively with IBM, according to the Journal. IBM countered by withdrawing its offer to buy Sun. Some news reports suggest company advisers are still keeping lines of communication open.

Click here to read the rest of my story on Sci-Tech Today.

Palm’s webOS Manages Scattered Personal Data

Jennifer LeClaire — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 01:37:13 +0000

Palm’s new operating system is making waves in the mobile arena. When Palm debuted the new Palm Pre last week, it also unveiled the Palm webOS mobile platform.While the initial buzz surrounded the hardware and operating system, it’s the new information-management system that has analysts talking about this week. Synergy is a key feature of webOS that brings information from all the places you store it into one logical view. That means no tracking multiple calendars, contacts or messaging applications.

“Palm products have always been about simplifying lives and delivering great user experiences,” said Ed Colligan, Palm president and CEO. “webOS and Pre bring game-changing simplicity to an increasingly mobile world by dissolving the barriers that surround your information. It’s technology that seems like it’s thinking ahead to bring you what you care about most — your people, your time, and your information — in the easiest and most seamless way.”

Click here to read the rest of my story on CIO Today.

Jennifer LeClaire — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:56:32 +0000