Upcoming Meeting Notice

The Association of Service and Computer Dealers International (ASCDI) is a 30 year old, worldwide non-profit organization made up of companies who provide technology solutions, technical support or value added services to the business community.

Members and non-members are invited to learn how to grow your business, find new business opportunities, hear from industry representatives and enjoy some fabulous networking events at our conferences:

2010 FALL CONFERENCE
October 6 - 8, 2010
San Francisco, CA

Click here for more information on ALL ASCDI MEETINGS, to view the agendas, lodging details, attendee lists and to REGISTER AT THE EARLY BIRD RATE.

ASCDI new members
Meet the new members
ASCDI 2010 European Conference
Archiving
IBM
Opinion
Security
UC

ASCDI new members

The following new members were voted into the ASCDI in June:
Apogee Data Systems  -  USA  -  Steven Keane
Connexion Point MVS Ltd.  -  UK  -  Frank Roche
ergoTrade AG  -  Germany  -  Daniel Messineo
Nemix Corp.  -  USA  -  Steven Kazimirov
Parcel Insurance Plan  -  USA  -  Lisa Lash
Pesko Trading Aps  -  Denmark  -  Peter Skov Larsen
Renovocom Inc.  -  USA  -  Jon Hausam
Smartech Consulting, Inc.  -  USA  -  Victor Tang
Source Data Products Inc.  -  USA  -  Bob Losey
TEKsystems Global  -  USA  -  Kortne Stolicker
www.3ccie.com  -  USA  -  Garth Murrin
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Meet the new members

Parcel Insurance Plan
Parcel Insurance Plan (PIP) offers a 50% discount on shipping insurance rates compared to declared value with UPS, FedEx, USPS, and most other carriers. In business since 1966, PIP provides unmatched experience and stability.  All PIP policies are underwritten by "A" rated Fireman's Fund.  PIP is a wholly owned subsidiary of Brown & Brown Insurance, the world's 7th largest insurance brokerage.  Electronic reporting options are available and claims are paid within 7 days of receipt. 
Visit our website www.pipinsure.com to learn how you can save!


Nemix Corp
Nemix Corp is a supplier of new and refurbished HP, IBM, Sun Microsystems and Dell IT hardware. One focus is the wholesale buy and sell of off lease and surplus equipment. Nemix is able to stock large volume of equipment and do take-outs on an international level. With a large variety of equipment in stock, the company also offers equipment and replacement parts on-line at www.nemixcorp.com. A second focus is solutions - Nemix is also a distributor of new HP, HP ProCurve, and 3COM products and solutions. The company offers a wide variety of solutions including network management and installation, custom server configuration, leasing / rentals, along with asset management and data deconstruction.
Visit www.nemixcorp.com.
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ASCDI 2010 European Conference

The ASCDI 2010 European Conference was held at the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel in Dublin, Ireland from June 23 – 25.   Attendees were greeted with an opening welcome address from the Lord Mayor of Dublin and had an opening modern day Irish dinner.  They heard from CIPTUG Europe, had an IBM, SUN, CISCO, HP and FUJITSU roundtable talking about industry issues, and topped it off with a closing Traditional Irish Party with traditional Irish dancers and lots of Guinness.


Centre for Remanufacturing and Reuse
David Parker discussed CRR's scope and IT reuse initiatives and opportunities.
To view the presentation slideshow, visit http://www.ascdi.com/assoc/documents/meetings/2010dublin/CRRDUBLIN2010.pdf.


Fujitsu
Mark Danis, head of Fujitsu Remarketing, discussed Fujitsu Remarketing Green-in-Life Solutions and the opportunities for the remarketed equipment industry. 
To view the presentation slideshow, visit http://www.ascdi.com/assoc/documents/meetings/2010dublin/FUJITSUdublin2010.pdf

HP
Norman Koo of HP’s EMEA BCS Team presented the new HP Integrity server family.  HP’s BladeSystem strategy rethinks 40 years of racked, stacked and wired infrastructure and eases top pain-points of today’s infrastructures.
To view the presentation slideshow, visit http://www.ascdi.com/assoc/documents/meetings/2010dublin/HPDUBLIN2010.pdf.

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Archiving

Archiving backups: when deduplication just isn’t enough
Unitrends announced a new disk-based rotational archiving subsystem for its archive appliances. It is available with the company’s release 5 version of backup software.  Disk-based rotational archiving (also called disk-to-disk-to-disk or D2D2D) is an alternative to tape-based rotational archiving (disk-to-disk-to-tape or D2D2T) and to replication. This new disk-based rotational archiving protection is available for USB 2.0 and eSATA devices ranging in price from the desktop 1-bay Recovery-Dock for $60 to the 4-bay 1U form factor Recovery-Archive for $895. Barracuda XT SATA-based 3.5” 7200RPM disk drives from 500GB to 2TB are supported in each. Online- and off-line cataloging as well as append operations are supported to increase utilization of disk media.
Visit www.unitrends.com.
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IBM

IBM closes acquisition of BigFix
IBM announced that it had completed the acquisition of BigFix, Inc., a privately-held company based in Emeryville, Calif.  Financial details were not disclosed.  The closing came less than three weeks after IBM's announcement that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire BigFix to accelerate its smart data center and security initiatives. BigFix will become part of IBM Software Group– helping organizations more intelligently secure the enterprise by managing and automating security and compliance updates on thousands of computers around the globe.  BigFix software is also critical to IBM's automation portfolio that controls the ever-expanding data center, including PCs and laptops, in addition to servers, software, storage and physical assets as diverse as cellular sites, water mains and manufacturing equipment.  BigFix is the 11th security-related company acquired by IBM since 2006.
Visit www.ibm.com.
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Opinion

The beast arrives (or, Stop! Don't buy that new server!)
A tractor-trailer pulled up outside my house yesterday and, much to the delight of my 8-year old and the chagrin of my wife, the driver hopped out and proceeded to pull a pallet with a very large box out of the truck and across the street on a pallet jack. “Delivery for Chris Dawson!” I happened to be on a call, so I didn’t pop up to grab what I knew was the server Insight Systems Exchange had sent me to test. I probably should have when my wife asked what the heck it was. “Big computer of some sort, Ma’am,” I heard the driver respond. Yes, it’s a big computer all right.

Insight Systems Exchange sells tier one off-lease equipment and I’ve had great luck with them on desktops. It isn’t often that educational institutions (particularly K-12) need cutting edge computing technology and where I once turned my nose up at refurbs, Moore’s Law has made sure that a well-maintained, rebuilt computer that was cutting edge three years ago is more than adequate to serve educational requirements for another three years. In fact, I now look first at the Insight website before I hit the Dell and HP websites in many cases when designing solutions for clients. Save money, get a full warranty, and keep computers out of an expensive and potentially toxic recycling stream? Sounds like a win all around.

Read more.
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Security

Network admins must beware of Stuxnet: a SCADA system worm
Managing Automation is a periodical with a healthy web presence; the editorial focus has branched out to cover additional topics more familiar to network administrators. Despite this new coverage area, Managing Automation topics are rarely vehicles for malware notification. It was noteworthy then, to see a story begin with: Manufacturers worldwide have been put on notice that an insidious virus targeting supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems is on the loose. It may be standard lingo for such announcements, but Microsoft’s July 16th announcement of Security Advisory 2286198 advised customers to visit Microsoft’s general support portal and to “contact the national law enforcement agency in their country.”

Thought to mainly spread by USB stick, or possibly by network shares, it cannot be defeated by simply turning off Windows autorun; simply viewing an infected file system will install the malware. A security specialist at Tofino believes that this zero-day attack, which affects all versions of Windows, may have been in the wild for a month or more. Preliminary assessments indicate that the malware does not appear designed to cripple infrastructure, but rather to steal information from SIMATIC WinCC / PCS7 implementations. The attack also involved theft of a signed Verisign digital certificate owned by Realtek Semiconductor. This certificate was used to authenticate drivers needed by Stuxnet when it self-installs, though Microsoft has since persuaded Verisign and Realtek to revoke the certificate.

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UC

Psytechnics selected for exclusive Microsoft Technology Adoption Program
Psytechnics announced that it has been selected by Microsoft to participate in the exclusive Microsoft Technology Adoption Program (TAP) for Microsoft Communications Server "14." TAP is an early beta program for select partners and customers who Microsoft has determined are important to a successful release of Communications Server "14." Psytechnics' unique ability to deliver trusted, independent end-user quality of experience (QoE) visibility for unified communications (UC), including video conferencing and streaming, in a simplified, actionable form to IT and operations teams already facilitates OCS 2007 deployments in large enterprise and managed service provider environments. Psytechnics will offer Microsoft Communications Server "14" customers a special licensing opportunity of Experience Manager 5 through TAP and will work closely with them to ensure a safe and smooth rollout of their new UC services, including premium audio, hi-def desktop video and boardroom telepresence.
Visit www.psytechnics.com.
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