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TEDxDetroit: One room, 2500 people – and a million great ideas.

How many big ideas, inspiring stories, and cool performances can fit under one roof? I’d have a hard time coming up with a solid answer, but if yesterday’s TEDx at the Fox Theater is anything to go by, the answer is “a lot.” This year, Red Level joined a cross-section of forward-looking area companies—manufacturers, technology firms, venture capitalists, marketing agencies and more - in sponsoring this annual gathering of bright minds and great talents. Amazing new automotive concepts like Elio Motors and musicians and poets like Ahya Simone and Darius Simpson really wowed our audience this year. I’ve been involved with TEDxDetroit for six years, helping to organize each annual event - and, not incidentally, trying to make sure that as many people as possible in our region know about it. I’m happy to say that it’s been working, and working well. 300 people attended the first TEDxDetroit event in a college lecture hall six years ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:58+00:00

Dell ” Rugged Extreme” Laptop Takes “Work Anywhere” Literally

By now we’re all pretty well acquainted with the idea of “work anywhere.” In practice, though, “anywhere” does have its limits—but with it’s Rugged Extreme laptop series, Dell is looking to push back at them. Unless you’ve spent some recent time in the military, on a construction site or working as a police officer, you probably haven’t seen laptops like these. The Rugged Extreme boxes are sold as being waterproof, dustproof, shockproof, resistant to extremes of temperature—in short, pretty well impervious to any of the daily hazards that stand to reduce ordinary laptops to expensive paperweights. These aren’t designed for whipping through spreadsheets down at the neighborhood Starbuck’s. They’re designed to be taken just about anywhere that work needs to get done, and to perform perfectly even in some pretty brutal conditions. The Rugged Extreme laptops are built and tested to military specifications, and have been shown to ...

Edward Aube2023-02-16T16:01:58+00:00

Three Keys To Boosting Your IT Budget

We know the deal: It can be the best of times for your company, but you’re still hearing from upstairs that there is simply “no budget” for the IT projects, personnel, or services you need. Your increasingly urgent requests escalate from simple requests to SOS signals, and you still hear the same thing: “No budget. Maybe next quarter.” Or next year. Or, you think to yourself, next century. Meanwhile, your IT infrastructure and applications aren’t getting any newer, the help desk requests aren’t slowing down, and the list of sidelined projects isn’t getting any shorter. Or maybe you often find yourself passing a tin cup around “begging” for budget from department managers to fund IT projects. How long will it be, you wonder, until you resort to holding together your company’s information nerve center with little more than duct tape and crossed fingers Don’t give up just yet. Effective communication—and ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:59+00:00

The Clock Is Ticking on Windows Server 2003

So I am sure by now you’re tired of seeing blog posts – and scare tactics – created by Microsoft evangelists about Windows Server 2003 . I understand – but if so many companies weren’t still running these servers and holding onto them for dear life, bloggers like me could move on already. Honestly, when there are only 30 days until all support ends, it’s no joke if you haven’t even begun your migration away from 2003. As of June 14, there will be exactly thirty days until Microsoft pulls the plug. Over, finished, done. Regular support has been finished for a while now, but now paid extended support will also fall by the wayside. The minute that happens, you will be officially on your own with regard to this venerable platform. Windows Server 2003 has served us well: Following its launch on April 14, 2003, users started enjoying its expanded networking ...

Robert Tessanne2023-02-16T16:01:59+00:00

Thunderstruck? DRaaS Steps Up When Disaster Strikes

AC/DC said it best,—“You’ve been Thunderstruck:” your expensive DR plan has been pushed back into the next fiscal year, like it probably was for the previous 3 years. If you had only known about a more cost effective method to provide your organization with true DR, the company might have bought into it. Fortunately, there is such an option. You already know that disasters of various types can strike your business at any time. Fires, floods, lightning strikes, malware attacks and other calamities can and do happen. Thankfully, these aren’t frequent occurrences for most of us – but when they do take place, woe to the unprepared. In my last blog post, I discussed Backup as a Service (BaaS) and its ability to safeguard data and get problem-plagued companies up and running again within a reasonable time frame. BaaS is a great safeguard for companies that are able to ...

Robert Tessanne2023-02-16T16:01:59+00:00

U.S. Federal Government Data Breached – Can You Protect Your Organization

The U.S. federal government has joined Target, Home Depot and Sony as the latest major organization to report that their systems have been breached by hackers. The damage? Notifying up to 4 million current and former federal employees that their personal financial data may have been compromised. Gone are the days when IT could simply build up a massive, defensive wall of protection and believe that the data living behind it would be safe from attack. Organizations now need to shift their security strategies from "if" to "when" their systems will be breached— and design their cybersecurity plan accordingly. According to a 2014 report by the Ponemon Institute, a research organization specializing in privacy, data protection, and information security, some 43% of companies experienced a data breach in the preceding year. Michael Bruemmer, vice president of credit information company Experian's data breach resolution group and sponsor of the ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:59+00:00

Crystal Clear Communication: Five Easy Tips of IT Pros

Do you ever feel misunderstood? Well, the bad news is that you might be. If you’ve been an IT professional for any length of time, you’ve probably seen the signs when you’ve dealt with non-IT colleagues. No matter how patiently you try to get an idea across, it seems like the other side just doesn’t get it. Chances are, they probably don’t, and that can lead to problems. Imagine being plunked down in a foreign country where you don’t understand the language. Well, chances are good that your non-IT colleagues feel like that sometimes when they’re dealing with IT people and issues. IT people are a special breed. Being successful in this field means that you’ve spent a lot – a lot – of time immersed in topics, technologies and language that the Average Joe hasn’t made any effort to know about, let alone understand. Along the way, you’ve probably ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:59+00:00

Technology Takes The Lead In Detroit’s Rebirth

As we all know, Detroit has taken its share of hard knocks in the last few decades. Not so many people know, though, that Detroit’s resurgence is already well under way. In fact, there is a special group led by my friend @terrybean called 313DLove that is coming together today to celebrate all things Detroit. Technology-based businesses are also helping lead the resurgence of Detroit. Through our sponsorship of the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Detroit Regional Policy Conference 2015, Red Level was able to get a firsthand look at how a host of technology-driven companies are creating jobs and economic growth in Detroit and throughout Southeast Michigan. At the conference, we were able to demonstrate how some of the leading-edge technologies we work with can empower local governments and nonprofit organizations – and we were able to see the important contributions that local universities, organizations, and other companies were bringing to the table. The Chamber describes the Detroit ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:02:00+00:00

Is IT helping grow your business or holding it back?

Information technology is supposed to help business run easier. So why does it seem to run businesses at so many companies? From constant updates, changing demands and new hardware, keeping up with IT can feel like life on a hamster wheel, dictating the pace and growth of business rather than facilitating it. One thing I hear constantly from business owners is "I don’t want IT controlling what I do." "I don’t want to be buying new equipment every three years. I don’t want to be upgrading equipment and software every year. I don’t want IT to be a problem. I don’t want it to dictate how I grow my business." Sound familiar? Studies show information technology remains one of the largest barriers to growing businesses. Expansions often aren’t possible without new technology, which requires an investment that should go to the expansion itself. It’s time to get off the hamster wheel. ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:02:00+00:00

Reality-Proofing Your Business: Backup As A Service

Remember last year’s floods that turned some of our Detroit-area freeways into actual lakes? The unexpected floods of 2014 submerged streets, cars, basements – and some businesses, particularly those that weren’t prepared for the possibility. Some have never recovered. Well, as the Eurythmics sang, here comes the rain again. Spring is in the air – and so is the possibility of more torrential rains. Unfortunately, most of us don’t receive a sign from above to build an ark and keep two of everything on it when deluges or other disasters are looming ahead. It’s not literally true that “anything can happen,” but it sometimes seems that way – especially when random chaotic events disrupt our routines and our lives. The 2014 floods were a wake-up call to many businesses who suddenly started looking into flood insurance. A lot of the savvy ones started thinking about offsite data backup solutions as ...

Robert Tessanne2023-02-16T16:02:00+00:00

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