Rove iT Blog: We Manage That

Smartphones taking over business computing

2010-07-22T17:57:33Z

Smartphones are taking over business computing.

This article in eWEEK muses that smartphones are giving tablets and notebooks a run for their money. They site the nine business drivers that will push corporate IT departments toward adopting mobile computing-focused strategies. Cool to read. Reason 7 "Reduced IT Workload" really, are smartphones easier to manage than notebooks? Reason 9 "The Lugging Factor" Here at Rove we're all too familiar with this one - we get sick of lugging when we can have it all in the palm of our hand.

Great slideshow eWEEK. See the whole thing here.

Let us know what you think.

Windows IT Pro Magazine gives Rove Mobile Admin a 5 Star Rating

2010-07-12T20:01:34Z

Windows IT Pro Magazine — the leader in the Windows technology publication industry — completed their review of Rove Mobile Admin and...PROS: Easy to set up; makes remote administration a breeze; supports the software you’d expect it to, plus tons more. CONS: None.

Rove Mobile Admin was commended for its clean interface and its ease of use.

If you feel the same way, be sure to add a comment to the Review.

The dueling disciplines: IT and business

2010-07-06T13:43:09Z

Summertime brings about a hiatus in TV. Seems like the tech publishing houses are doing a few re-runs of their own as well. This eWEEK slideshow summarizes the findings in Susan Cramm's book "8 Things We Hate About IT."

For example, "IT leaders hate when the business treats IT professionals like untrustworthy servant-genies." Really? Quite interesting. You be the judge.

See the eWEEK slideshow.

What IT differences were brought about in 2009?

2010-06-29T17:01:35Z

This article summarizes a survey conducted with almost 500 IT budgeters in midrange and large organizations.

Large and midrange organizations tended to differ dramatically in their 2009 IT investment experiences. In larger enterprises, application and Web platforms got more dollars than the companies had originally planned to spend, as did corporate applications such as ERP, business process management, and collaboration that helped boost productivity and resource utilization.

Read the full article in CIO insight.

ottawa it community awards night hits the spot

2010-06-23T13:37:11Z

What a fantastic evening yesterday. I had the pleasure of participating in the Ottawa IT community awards night. This event was hosted by three groups:

OttawaSQL.net -Professional Association for SQL Server (http://ottawa.sqlpass.org/)
Ottawa .NET Community (http://www.ottawacommunity.net/)
Ottawa Windows Server User Group (http://owsug.ca)

And it was sponsored by Like10inc (www.like10inc.ca), Dream digital (www.dreamdigital.com) and Cistel (www.cistel.com).

It's always great to network with the local IT community and catching up with Microsoft IT Pro Advisors Rick Claus (@rickster_cdn), Christian Beauclair (@cbeauclair) and Pierre Roman. Microsoft MVPs Bradley Bird (@bbird1974) and Colin Melia (@colinizer) were also out in full force.

The event was enjoyed by a full-to-capacity crowd.

Well done Ottawa IT!

ROVE MOBILE ADMIN 6.0 COMING TO A SMARTPHONE NEAR YOU

2010-06-16T19:59:33Z

Are you ready IT Admins? We're signing up Rove Mobile Admin customers to our beta trial program for Rove Mobile Admin 6.0. The response is fantastic - had 5 sign-ups within minutes of pressing the send on our request email.

You can register by visiting: www.roveit.com/beta/register.aspx

What will be featured?

Support for Microsoft Exchange 2010
Symantec NetBackup -- use Rove Mobile Admin to review backup jobs and their status, and to control job execution
CA service desk ticketing -- search, view, edit and create tickets all within Rove Mobile Admin

Plus some great performance and usability improvements:

A re-architected BlackBerry client built for speed
Simplified connection to Remedy Service Desk ticketing -- no third party tools needed
A faster, more efficient connection to VMware Infrastructure Management -- resource pool administration now supported, installation of vSphere PowerCLI no longer required

AND, we've also announced a beta trial program for a new Rove Mobile Admin client containing a real-time dashboard (more about that later this week...)

In praise of unsung IT heroes!

2010-06-15T16:44:26Z

So true Michael Krigsman, for all we put them through - the same questions over and over, problems that could have been avoided if only we'd listened, the calls and emails - we're lucky we still have our trusty IT Admins. Indeed we must remember that IT is often understaffed and over-worked, and folks in the trenches are just trying to do a good job.

Here's Mike's full blog post

Spotlight on 10 issues to watch for when implementing Windows 7

2010-06-09T20:58:13Z

Did you catch this one from [ci] channelinsider? It's a spotlight on 10 issues to watch for when implementing Windows 7. This is a good one. Many of you have completed Windows 7 roll-out, are planning it or are in the middle. Read the full article and let us know what you think. Did Don get it right?

IT solution provider M&A market heating up

2010-05-31T19:53:54Z

This article in ChannelInsider peeked my interest. Do you think its beneficial to see IT MSPs merging? Would it mean better or worse service for their customers? Read the full article.

Done, done and one - Android client released

2010-05-20T21:25:11Z

As one of my team members Matt would say, "Done, done and done". Rove Mobile Admin 5.1.8907 provides OTA download of our Android client. Update your server anytime. Beta testers loved the speed and the gui on their Android devices. For our press release and other activities, I had the absolute pleasure of speaking with a few of our customers to obtain quotes/references. In our customers' minds we're thought of as "priceless" and "our lifeline to our network when we're away...". We love to hear the value we're bringing to the IT community. If you are not yet a customer we'd love to have you. If you are curious about our Android client, were hosting an All-Android-All-The-Time product demonstration. It's at 1:00 PM EST on Wed the 26th. Registration is open. If you are using a BlackBerry or iPhone or Win Mobile device you will still get a lot of info so please join us. You can download the trial and see it on your specific device. See you there!