clarity IT news

VOIP - Voice Over IP Phones

2009-03-02T16:41:00.002-07:00

We're pretty unique at clarity in that we practice what we preach. We use the tools that we recommend. We recommend the tools that we use.

Recently we switch our phone system. We've been using a Lucent Merlin system for 7 years and it was definitely showing its age. We were starting to have reliability issues, the system would lock up, go down, and otherwise not answer the phone.

Well we did research, as we always do, and decided to move to a VOIP phone system. For those curious VOIP stands for Voice over IP. Essentially this is a phone that connects to your network, much like a computer, and instead of talking to a phone switch, it talks to a computer.

We implemented a fantastic VOIP phone system called TrixBox. This thing is awesome. It is completely customizeable. Has a web based portal to adjust your individual settings, including listening to voice mails, changing voice mail follow-me settings. Phone forwarding settings. Heck, you can even tell the system to ignore calls from certain phone numbers.

Finally, and my favorite, feature is that the system automatically attaches every voice mail message as an email attachment, emails it to my iphone so I get it immediately. This is fantastic. If you call the office, anytime, and leave a message in my voice mail, it will be sent to my email immediately. I'm never out of touch.

Hey wait... is that a good thing? It is when you're doing business in 2009.

Call us at 303-573-7489 to setup a demo and see if Trixbox setup by clarity IT solutions is an option for you and your business!

Great Cost Effective Backup

2009-02-10T10:58:00.002-07:00

We're a reseller for Data Robotics, Inc. and their Drobo line of RAID devices. We're offering a February and March special on the Drobo 2.0 with 4 x 1TB Western Digital Hard Drives. This configuration offers a total of 3TB of available storage and is a great solution for small business to add redundant storage to their servers or workstations.

Contact us today at 303-573-7489 or at ineedhelp@clarityitsolutions.net.

Oh yea, the price. Normal retail on this configuration from Data Robotics is $999, under a thousand dollars for 3TB of redundant storage. Our Price $949. That's less than 30 cents per meg of redundant and secure storage.

Importance of Backups

2009-02-04T14:05:00.000-07:00

I know. I know. People are always harping about backups. We're always harping about backups. And there is a good reason why. Your data is your life. Your business. Your ability to communicate. Your ability to produce. Your you.

Every once and a while there's a great reminder of the consequences of not having a backup. Today it is these poor folks:

http://ma.gnolia.com/

Now I never used ma.gnolia.com but I've heard of it, and others I know used it. I say USED as they had no reliable backup of their servers. Servers went down. Data was lost... and now, by the looks of it, ma.gnolia.com is out of business.

A business with no backup plan is a time bomb. Ask a few questions of yourself, or your IT person.

When was our backup last run?
Where do the backups go?
Who is in charge of the backups?
How can I see that they're running properly?
Are they taken off site?
Where do they go?
What is the media?
What does it look like?
How long does it take?
What does it back up?
Do I need to do something different?

Ask yourself, as the business or data owner, what would it cost, in real terms, if I lost my data?

Would I travel the path of ma.gnolia.com?

If you don't know these answers, and your IT doesn't know these answers, call us. We'll find out the answers for you and work with you, your IT staff or anyone to get them.

charles k. davis

president

Changes are a Brewing!

2009-02-03T22:52:00.001-07:00

While clarity has been around for 18 years now, we haven't stood
still. We've been working hard to implement the latest and greatest in
current technologies to better serve you, our customers. We've
implemented a state of the art Trixbox VOIP phone system, we're never
out of touch. We've implemented online ticketing to better track and
support our customer's technical issues. We've moved all of our
systems online for web based access. We've given all of our staff
iPhones for remote access.

These things are great, but without a great staff their just tools
sitting idle in a toolbox. Our current technical staff is our best ever.

Best of all, all of these systems are available for us to install for
you also. Call if you have any questions... and if you like what you
see, we'll do the same for you, and recommend us to others. As usual,
we share the wealth!

tahda!

2009-02-03T22:51:00.001-07:00