Managed IT Services: Implimenting and Supporting IT Systems » Percento

HP wins $2.5 billion contract with NASA

admin — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 15:04:00 +0000

Hewlett-Packard has won a contract from NASA worth up to $2.5 billion.

The contract was awarded Monday and calls for Hewlett-Packard to provide and manage up to $2.5 billion worth of PCs, software, peripherals, and associated end-user and IT services for the space agency over 10 years, according to a NASA press release. Specifically, HP will offer services to support NASA personnel in business, science, research, and computation.

HP beat out longtime NASA contractor Lockheed Martin to pick up the lucrative project.

“Our team is disappointed that NASA selected another solution,” Sheila Collins, a spokeswoman for Lockheed, said in a statement e-mailed to Bloomberg. “We submitted a ‘best-value’ solution based on our knowledge of the program and our understanding of NASA’s mission. We continue to serve NASA on other contracts.”

This isn’t HP’s first contract with the space agency. In 2007, the company took home a seven-year contract worth up to $5.6 billion to provide PCs, printers, and other hardware to any federal agency through NASA’s Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement program.

Source

Winner of the iPAD – Texas Credit Union League!

admin — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 14:53:41 +0000

Congratulations to Ms. Yvonne Kershner – Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer with Brazos Valley Schools Credit Union!

She is the WINNER of a new Apple iPAD from the Percento Technologies drawing at the Texas Credit Union League 2010 Leadership Council.

Thank you to everyone who joined our drawing.

Information Technology Company

admin — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:00:19 +0000

Percento Technologies is an Information Technology company. We provide a full range of information technology outsourcing solutions, such as managed IT services, information technology consulting services, IT monitoring and maintenance, and other services. Our consultants can help you plan and implement a system that is tailored to the specific requirements of your business and includes the information technology services you need.

Information technology consulting services involve strategic consulting to help you avoid unforeseen expenses and maximize return on investment. Our consultants begin by mapping your systems and understand your projected growth to determine your future needs. Using this information, we create a plan, so the network scales with your organization as your company continues to grow in the future.

Information technology outsourcing has additional benefits, such as a greater return on investment, enhanced security and increased equipment lifecycle. Services like monitoring and performance management help to ensure your company’s resources are allocated effectively. This helps to increase efficiency and brings greater return on investment. We have managed informational technology solutions that can be tailored to your specifications.

Our information technology company offers many other professional services, including IT system audit, disaster recovery planning, asset management, IT integration and more. We offer information technology services to ensure network security and backup solutions to protect your vital information. Percento will review your network to evaluate threat potential and identify areas of vulnerability. We can provide IT monitoring and maintenance through information technology outsourcing to ensure you are always running at optimal capacity and fully protected.

L.A. weighs plan to replace computer software with Google service

admin — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 15:35:04 +0000

If OKd by the City Council, the plan would shift protection of internal data and public records from the city to the Internet giant. The LAPD has raised concerns about shielding arrest information.

Frustrated by a slow and antiquated computer system, the city of Los Angeles is weighing a plan to replace its e-mail and records retention software with a service provided by Google, a move that could allow the Internet giant to retain sensitive records transmitted by the police and other municipal agencies.

If approved by the City Council, responsibility for protecting the internal data and public records would be shifted from the city to Google, according to a report submitted this week to a council committee that will weigh the proposed $7.25-million contract.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa favors the effort to modernize the e-mail system, which his spokesman, Matt Szabo, described as “Pac-Man-era technology.”

The current system “has got to be the slowest, most inefficient, crash-prone e-mail system in the history of mankind,” Szabo added.

Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Lt. John Romero said it would be inappropriate for his agency to comment while a contract is being negotiated. But acting City Administrative Officer Ray Ciranna, the city’s top financial advisor, said the LAPD has raised questions about Google’s ability to shield sensitive arrest information.

“Of all the city agencies, they certainly have been the one that’s the most concerned,” Ciranna said. “They don’t want any information that, for any reason, gets un-encrypted and you have sensitive information being leaked out.”

Washington, D.C., is the only major city using Google e-mail and office applications, but others are contemplating a switch, according to a Google official. The applications and data would be housed on Google servers, not on city property, and accessible via presumably secure Internet connections.

‘Cloud computing’

That system, known as “cloud computing,” would eliminate the need for the city to store programs or information on individual in-house computers. “Government agencies at all levels — federal, state and city — are looking to cloud computing as a way to advance innovation while decreasing costs,” Google spokeswoman Aviva Gilbert said.

The contract, which could cover a maximum of five years, would need approval from the full council and Villaraigosa’s signature. A high-level official with the city’s Information Technology Agency, which has handled the bidding process, said he expects the LAPD to join the Google e-mail system once it receives assurance from the state’s Department of Justice that arrest records will be protected.

“Until they get the full approval, they can’t join the e-mail system,” said Kevin Crawford, assistant general manager of the technology agency.

The contract will come up for review Tuesday before the council’s three-member Information Technology and General Services Committee.

Gilbert, the Google spokeswoman, said cloud computing has proved to be reliable and secure, with Motorola, Genentech and other companies adopting it.

Still, questions about such applications were raised by the media earlier this week after Twitter Inc.’s cloud-based computer system was broken into and confidential documents were copied. The hacker appears to have guessed the password for an employee’s personal e-mail account and worked from there to steal confidential company documents.

Internally, city officials also have asked whether Google, as keeper of the records, would be forced to respond to public information requests. “Release of this data by Google without appropriate review by the city attorney could compromise the city’s position regarding pending or potential litigation,” the report states.

City officials hope to have the Google system installed before Dec. 31. If the council misses that deadline, the city could be required to pay for continuing maintenance on the current GroupWise e-mail system. City workers have complained that the existing system crashes frequently and lacks sufficient memory, among other things.

Peter Scheer, director of the California First Amendment Coalition, said the switch to Google also could improve access to public information, especially by attorneys or reporters.

Google has “remarkably sophisticated” search capabilities and provides a huge amount of database storage at minimal cost, Scheer said. “If you’re asking for information, it’s more likely you’ll get a more complete and accurate response to your request, sooner rather than later.”

Paul Weber, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents the city’s police officers, said the LAPD has not discussed the proposed contract with his union and cautioned it to move in a “deliberate manner.”

‘Serious breach’

Last month, the league accused the LAPD of a “serious breach of privacy” involving officers in the 77th Street Division’s Gang Enforcement Unit. Officers in that unit who were being audited found that their names and serial numbers had been sent to recipients of the Police Commission’s meeting agenda, according to a letter to officers.

“If the department were to have their information compromised, it would seriously impact the public’s confidence in our department and impact our ability to police the city,” Weber said.

Scheer said it’s in Google’s own financial interest to ensure that data remain secure. If the company’s systems suffer any sort of breach, they could potentially lose billions of dollars of business. “The bigger Google is, the more careful they are going to be about protection of rights and privacy and rights of access,” he said.

Source: LA Times

Moving Beyond the Firefighters

Brian Covell — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 13:35:58 +0000

Most companies without IT departments and many companies with IT departments manage their IT assets following the “Firefighters method”, but what is the Firefighters method?

The Firefighters method is action by crisis, and is one of the least productive possibilities both for the IT department and the company as a whole. It refers to the practice of leaving things alone until they fail, and with the level at which technology is integrated in today’s business world causes major issues.

Percento, through our Proactive Support Agreements, utilizes our Outsourcing Division to develop routine system maintenance to help keep your IT systems running smoothly. Just as you shouldn’t wait until your check engine light is on to change your oil, your IT system maintenance shouldn’t wait until after problems have presented themselves.

The Percento proactive approach is easy to rationalize for clients who utilize our Outsourcing Division as their IT department; however, this is not the only way we can assist firms in utilizing a Proactive methodology.

Our Professional Services division teams are well versed in the methods and IT processes which lead to adopting a Firefighters method, which in turn allows our teams to know what to do before the Firefighters method becomes your only option. Our audits can help your IT department determine what is needed to stop managing by crisis, and even help identify if additional resources, even part-time resources, are necessary to process Proactive preventative system maintenance.

Click here for more information!

Vista or XP – A Customer Choice?

Brian Covell — Wed, 14 May 2008 19:21:08 +0000

Since its initial release, a war has raged between Microsoft Windows Vista (Vista) and its predecessor Microsoft Windows XP (XP). This war has been brought about by the only two universal constants, change and the market’s resistance to that change. Looking back several years, the resistance to Vista is taking many of the same forms as the last battle between two Microsoft products.

Back when XP was first released, I remember countless calls from users wanting me to assist them in switching things back to the “familiar” classic interface. I also remember complaints that nothing worked with XP, and that the platform was quite unstable. Fast forward to today and we find the same song, second verse.

Recently Microsoft announced that it intends to remain firm on the decision to stop production and licensing of new XP programs, a decision which was originally pushed back by consumer demand. Many still hold out hope that Microsoft will once again push back the discontinuation of XP, but should they? The internet is littered with “expert” articles comparing XP and Vista.

Groups and reviewers who have run countless benchmarking programs are trying to prove “once and for all” that XP is better than Vista, and declare that Vista has no place in the market. However, in almost every case of these reviews, the deck has been stacked against Vista as they once were against XP when it was first released to the market.

In the end, the revolutionary features for which Vista allows and the options it makes available for use will be realized as more and more software is developed with Vista’s capabilities in mind; and as history proves, people will become familiar with the change and get used to Vista… That is until it is time for it to be replaced, and once again the cycle of change and resistance to that change repeats itself.