You may have heard about the terrible flooding in Thailand.  What you may not know is that the majority of hard drives are made there.  At least 40% of the world’s production capacity has been wiped out, and more worryingly, a major supplier of hard drive motors as well.

As a consequence, prices have doubled over the last month and look to increase further.  Prices of laptops and desktops have increased by 10%.  Some commentators don’t expect the situation to improve for  at least 4/5 months. 

Hard  drives (HDD) are being replaced by Solid State Drives (SSD). They use similar technology as your USB memory stick.

Manufacturers have overcome some huge technical difficulties and prices are dropping rapidly. SSD’s are becoming standard on higher end laptops and can even be considered as an option for an older laptop to give it a new lease of life or as a system disk on a desktop.

Please ask us for a quote.

Small Business Server  (SBS) 2003 was introduced  in October 2003.   Based on Windows Server 2003 and Exchange 2003 (the email system) it was a huge improvement on SBS 2000.

This time last year we were worried.  SBS 2008 was Microsoft’s replacement.  Based on Server 2008 and Exchange 2007, we were distinctly unimpressed.  Slow and buggy, we thought it was a costly upgrade that our clients could do without.  We couldn’t sell it with a clear conscience and therefore we didn’t install a single copy!

 SBS 2011 uses Window server 2008 release 2, a completely different program to the first 2008 (think Vista vs Windows 7 for servers) and Exchange 2010. There are a whole host of improvements, security enhancements and features which we are happy to go through with you. Successfully installed with a number of clients, it is a required upgrade  when you replace your server.

SBS 2003 will be around for many years to come.  Most companies still use it and although Microsoft no longer “support” it, we can overcome any security issues by using third party products in line with Exchange.

Be warned , Outlook 2011 for the Mac will  not connect to Exchange 2003. 

Call us if you need any further information or advice on 01392 435803

This is our new design