Introducing Microsoft Online Services

Posted in: Application Delivery, C-Level, Deskside, Green Technology, Messaging, Offers, SaaS, Storage, Third Octet News, Virtualization, Words by thirdoctet on July 28, 2010 | No Comments

In today’s competitive global market, businesses need technology that enables flexibility and cost-effectively adds value to their organization. Internet-based hosted services provide a way to meet these objectives. They deliver feature-rich productivity tools to users while helping to relieve the burden of managing and maintaining business systems—freeing up IT departments to focus on initiatives that can deliver true competitive advantage.

Microsoft has a long history of developing and delivering innovative software and services for businesses and individuals. Designed to meet your unique business needs, our software-plus-services vision brings together the best of rich on-premise applications and flexible online services to give you ready access to the latest messaging and collaboration tools – without costly deployment and time-consuming maintenance. Microsoft Online Services reliably delivers 99.9 percent scheduled uptime and carries a financially backed service level agreement.

Let Our IT Resources Work for You

Microsoft Online Services gives your business the powerful productivity capabilities of Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, Microsoft Office Communications Server, and Microsoft Office Live Meeting —all hosted online and all up and running quickly and easily without the upfront costs of an on-premise deployment. The suite of productivity tools enables your workers to communicate and collaborate effectively, while enabling your IT team to focus on more business-critical tasks. And with services hosted by Microsoft, you can have peace of mind knowing that experts are managing your IT and that your services will be available when you need them.

Features and Benefits

Microsoft Online Services makes it easy for you to leverage and rapidly deploy familiar Microsoft server products as flexible services.  These hosted services—the Business Productivity Online Standard Suite—include the following:

Provide employees access to e-mail, calendar, and contacts from virtually anywhere, at anytime, on desktops, laptops, and mobile devices—while helping to protect against malware and spam. Exchange Online can be rapidly deployed, flexibly expanded, and is designed to be securely administered using a powerful yet easy-to-use Web-based console.

Share documents, contacts, calendars, and tasks in a single location. Based on Microsoft Office SharePoint_® Server 2007, SharePoint Online delivers rich collaboration capabilities that enable team members to flexibly and efficiently collaborate, find organizational resources, search your intranet site, and manage content and workflow.

Connect with colleagues and customers through real-time meetings, training sessions, and events using only a PC with an Internet connection. Hosted Web conferencing services from Microsoft Office Live Meeting give your employees the power to collaborate wherever they are, to set up project meetings, brainstorm ideas, and collaborate on whiteboards without the cost and hassle of travel!

Enable users to find and rapidly connect with the right person from the applications they use most. Office Communications Online provides streamlined access to rich presence and instant messaging capabilities that are centrally managed by IT and work seamlessly with a range of Microsoft Office system programs.

How It Works

Each Microsoft data center, located strategically throughout the world, houses a highly reliable complex of equipment that provides seamless connectivity to the Microsoft Online suite of services. This global network of geo-redundant data centers provides around the clock access to your business-critical collaboration services, and helps keep your data safe.

 With Microsoft Online Services, your IT staff retains control over the services offered to your end users. Microsoft Online Services work seamlessly with Microsoft Active Directory, so you can continue to manage user policies centrally and control which services are available via your existing users. A single administrative panel—with consoles for provisioning, usage, monitoring, and support—enables simple and centralized management. And your users can enjoy the convenience of a single sign-on to access all their hosted services.

Visit www.microsoft.com/online today for your free 30 day trial, or contact us for more information.

Start putting our IT resources to work for you!

Windows 7 Migration, Rethink the Desktop

Posted in: Application Delivery, C-Level, Communicate, Deskside, Virtualization, Words by thirdoctet on July 14, 2010 | No Comments

Citrix XenDesktop™, the leading desktop virtualization solution, gets your company to Windows® 7 faster at far less cost. By centralizing the control of desktops and apps in the datacenter you can roll out updates instantly across the enterprise. XenDesktop includes application virtualization for app compatibility and allows you to leverage your existing desktop and server infrastructure. The benefits of virtualization continue long after your company is up and running on Windows 7. Once you’re out of the costly, frequent refresh cycle, you’ll discover how easy and cost effective it is to keep your entire enterprise up-to-date.

Third Octet is a Proud Sponsor of the Inaugural Takhar Open

Posted in: Events, Third Octet News by thirdoctet on June 15, 2010 | No Comments

Hosted by the Honorable Harinder Takhar, MPP for Mississauga-Erindale and Minister of Government Services, Third Octet is proud to support the Inaugural Takhar Open at the majestic Lionhead Golf and Country Club in Brampton on June 17th.

Third Octet is Moving!

Posted in: Third Octet News, Words by thirdoctet on April 22, 2010 | No Comments

After a year of calling Toronto our home, we’ve outgrown our space.  As much as we’d rather not leave, we’ve found an amazing office north of the city to call our home.  Starting May 1st, our new office will be located in Vaughan.  Stay tuned for our updated address.

Expanded Education and Training

Posted in: Third Octet News, Words by thirdoctet on March 19, 2010 | No Comments

Third Octet is pleased to announce expanded training and education offerings effective spring 2010.  These introductions will not just be limited to the Information Technology spread, but also to include courses for Business Process Improvement and Leadership and Business Skills.

Within the Information Technology spread, new offerings will include courses for:

• Microsoft
• Citrix
• Cisco
• CompTIA
• Security
• Telecommunications
• Help Desk Institute

For Business Process Improvement, watch for:

• Project Management
• ITIL
• Business Architecture

The Training and Education page will be receiving modifcations over the next several weeks to account for these course introductions.  Stay tuned.

Citrix XenDesktop 4 Wins InfoWorld 2010 Technology of the Year Award

Posted in: Application Delivery, C-Level, Deskside, Industry News, Virtualization, Words by thirdoctet on January 14, 2010 | No Comments

1/14/2010 » Santa Clara » Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTXS) today announced that Citrix® XenDesktop™ 4 has been honored as an InfoWorld 2010 Technology of the Year Award winner. Selected by InfoWorld Test Center editors and reviewers, the annual awards identify the best and most innovative products on the IT landscape. Winners are drawn from all of the products tested during the past year, with the final selections made by InfoWorld’s Test Center staff. All products reviewed by the Test Center are eligible to win.
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Thinking of switching from VMware to XenServer or Hyper-V? Think Project Open Door from Citrix.

Posted in: C-Level, Industry News, Virtualization, Words by thirdoctet on October 14, 2009 | No Comments

BOSTON » 10/14/2009 » Citrix Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CTXS) today announced a new program called Project “Open Door” that offers advanced virtualization management along with free support, training and conversion tools to customers switching servers from VMware ESX or vSphere to Citrix® XenServer™ or Microsoft® Windows® Server 2008 Hyper-V™. With more than 70 percent of enterprise customers now using multiple hypervisors in production(1), demand for the Hyper-V and Citrix XenServer virtualization platforms continues to grow. In fact, over the past 30 days the number of large enterprise customers who have activated XenServer for production use has more than doubled, and now represents 20 percent of the Global Fortune 500.  Project Open Door makes it easier for customers who want to switch out existing VMware servers for the rapidly growing XenServer and Hyper-V platforms, offering advanced virtualization management for both environments, along with free support, training and conversion tools to make the transition as simple as possible.

“XenServer and Hyper-V are clearly the fastest growing virtualization platforms in the industry today, each appealing to a different set of users,” said N. Louis Shipley, group vice president and general manager, XenServer Product Group at Citrix. “With the price of virtualization continuing to rise from other vendors, more and more enterprise customers are switching a portion of their production servers to the Citrix and Microsoft virtualization platforms. Project Open Door helps these customers achieve more agile datacenters by offering them advanced virtualization management through our Citrix Essentials for XenServer and Hyper-V solution, as well as assistance in making the transition smooth, easy and cost-effective. With more virtualization choices than ever, we encourage customers to shop around and make the right choice for their environment.”

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Citrix Drives Mainstream Adoption of Desktop Virtualization with XenDesktop 4

Posted in: Application Delivery, C-Level, Deskside, Industry News, Virtualization, Words by thirdoctet on October 7, 2009 | No Comments

SANTA CLARA, CA » 10/6/2009 » Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTXS), today announced Citrix® XenDesktop™ 4, a groundbreaking new product designed to make virtual desktops a mainstream reality for hundreds of millions of corporate employees for the first time ever. Unlike first-generation solutions that were applicable only to a narrow set of users, XenDesktop 4 with its new FlexCast™ delivery technology is the first product in the industry to support every major desktop virtualization model in a single, integrated solution – a breakthrough that enables improved ROI, simplified management and extends the benefits of virtualization to every employee in the enterprise. XenDesktop 4 further simplifies desktop computing by integrating all the capabilities of Citrix XenApp™, enabling customers to deliver on-demand applications to physical or virtual desktops as a seamless part of their overall desktop strategy. To ensure every user gets a high-definition experience at all times, XenDesktop 4 also includes significant enhancements to its industry-leading HDX™ technology. It also builds on the company’s 20-year partnership with Microsoft, simplifying the management of virtual desktops through Microsoft System Center, and adding multiple enhancements that further extend the value of Microsoft Windows and Windows Server platforms. In total, XenDesktop 4 adds more than 70 new features, significantly enhancing its performance, security and readiness for large, enterprise-wide deployments.

“2010 will be a watershed year for desktop virtualization, ushering in a new era that will revolutionize the way we work, live and play,” said Mark Templeton, president and CEO, Citrix Systems. “25 years ago, the personal computer turned the world upside down, radically improving individual productivity and communications. That world is about to change again. People today need to work in entirely new ways, powered by the connectivity of the internet, an explosion of new devices, and the limitless promise of the web. And they need to do it without being confined to ordinary desktops that are locked to an office, a device, or a network. Desktop virtualization has the power to make all this possible. That revolution begins here, today. And it starts with the new XenDesktop.” (see video message from Mark Templeton)

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Happy Second Birthday Third Octet.

Posted in: Third Octet News, Words by thirdoctet on September 4, 2009 | No Comments

In June 2009, Third Octet Inc. turned two years old!  We managed to survive through one of the toughest economic downturns in quite some time and that is a direct result of our proven skills, services, solutions and, more importantly, from the dedication and faith of our partners and, especially, our clients.  We thank you immensely. 

And, on that note, we decided to celebrate our two year birthday with the introduction of a brand new website, complete with Web 2.0 functionality.  It’s not only a gift to Third Octet, but also a gift to you, our clients and partners.  We’ll be showcasing client testimonials, and spotlights on partners and solutions while providing a more efficient and cosmetically appealing website.

Enjoy!

Third Octet takes root in Toronto’s Liberty Village

Posted in: Third Octet News, Words by thirdoctet on | No Comments

Third Octet is proud to announce our moving to the Dufferin Liberty Centre in Toronto’s trendy Liberty Village.

Liberty Village History

The King Liberty Lands once formed part of Garrison Common, lands that were set aside for military use. Fort York was built at the mouth of Garrison Creek, and in 1871 the provincial government allocated 20 acres of land south of King Street and west of Strachan Avenue for the Central Prison for Men.

There are only two remaining buildings from the prison; the prison’s Roman Catholic chapel, which was built in 1877, and the prison’s paint shop, which was incorporated in the A.R. Williams Machinery building. The chapel was later used by the John Inglis and Sons, when the lands became a thriving industrial centre.

By the early 1980’s, industry moved out or closed and the lands become a vacant brownfield site. A process began in 1999 to transform this former industrial site into a new downtown community that connects to the surrounding community.

The King Liberty neighbourhood will be a mixed-use community with live/work buildings, offices, residential and retail uses that will be contained in a mix of building types including townhouses, towers and mid-rise buildings.

A number of heritage buildings including the Chapel building and the A.R. Williams Machinery building have been retained and will reflect the neighbourhood’s past. Three public parks are being built including a linear park along the rail corridor, a gateway park and a central park which will contain the restored Chapel building. In addition to the park spaces, publicly accessible plazas will contribute to the open space in the community and will add a north-south pedestrian connection. East Liberty Street will be the main corridor in this new community.

Situated at 219 Dufferin Street, in the Dufferin Liberty Centre, our office reflects the history that forms a key foundation of Toronto. Previously a manufacturing site for electrical lights sent overseas during and after World War I, the Dufferin Liberty Centre was converted to facilitate office space, complete with industrial-age character, and information-age conveniences.

Be sure to pay us a visit when in the neighbourhood and to update your address book contact information.