Monthly Archives: June 2011
-
Syndication
-
June 28, 2011
Microsoft Office 365 Arrives
By New SignatureOffice 365 incorporates the latest technology platforms from Microsoft including Exchange 2010, SharePoint 2010 and Lync 2010.
Now that Office 365 has been released, customers can more easily migrate into the cloud at their pace, with rich hybrid scenarios that eliminate many of the common pain points found with alternate providers. Some of the key new features of Office 365 include:
- True web-based versions of popular office applications such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint
- Co-authoring so that multiple people can edit the same document at the same time
- Instant message conversations can become video chats with the click of a button, or full meetings with whiteboards and presentation without expensive hardware
- You can now purchase Office2010 on a subscription basis so that when updates are released, you’re automatically eligible for them, lowering your software costs
- Greater control over email with staff-editable distribution groups and conversation view
- Outlook Web App now works across all major browsers instead of being limited to just Internet Explorer
- Rich co-existence (hybrid) mode so that staff can be migrated into the cloud without any decrease in productivity or time
- One password to access both network services onsite as well as cloud-services, whether in the office or on the road
- Instant messaging integrates natively with public IM providers such as AOL, Yahoo and MSN so that employees don’t need a separate IM client for those communications
We could go on and on, but the best way to experience the features of Office 365 are to call or email New Signature and we can setup a trial site in minutes. Best of all, with this upgrade, there’s no reason organizations should delay moving to the cloud. Because of the hybrid mode option, you can immediately provision certain staff in the cloud and have them working side-by-side with on-premise staff without missing a beat, or slowing down their experience.
New Signature is a premier Microsoft cloud partner, and now with Office 365 we’re able to provide customers access to a new and powerful messaging and colloboration platform.
-
June 24, 2011
Public and Private Clouds with Microsoft System Center Codename “Concero”
By New SignatureNew Signature helps many of our clients understand cloud computing, develop strategy and take advantage of the reliability, flexibility and security of the cloud. Companies large and small are beginning to see the advantages of managed services, but often from different directions: small organizations are able to enjoy the economies of scale, high availability and disaster recovery options large organizations have had in place for years, while large organizations are able to roll out new software more rapidly, and remain agile, using less internal resources.
Inevitably, the question becomes: when to migrate servers from your location to a highly available colocation facility (the “private cloud”) and what services would be better served by a public cloud partner such as Microsoft, Amazon or Google. For small organizations that haven’t begun the process of virtualization, consolidation and conversion to hosted services, the answer is simple: jump on the public cloud. For larger groups who’ve already begun the process, things seem more nebulous: how can they ensure their existing investment in datacenter technologies continues to reap rewards even as they expand into the public cloud.
To help organizations manage multiple clouds, Microsoft has now built a cloud-management solution that spans both public and private infrastructures: Microsoft System Center Codename “Concero”.
Concero will allow administrators to seamlessly manage both virtualization solutions powered by on-premise (or colocated) virtualization servers as well as Azure-powered cloud services all from a single console, even for sites with multiple VM host servers. By consolidating all virtual services and servers in a single console, Concero allows managers to seamless transfer workloads without multiple steps. For organizations that are thinking about utilizing cloud based services based on Azure, Concero allows applications to be built and used in-house with on-premise Azure equipment and then scaled up to the Azure cloud if needed. Even more exciting, Concero’s framework is open, allowing Microsoft to incorporate future cloud providers should they decide to.
If you’re thinking about increasing uptime, reliability or performance, New Signature is the premier cloud partner for you. System Center Concero will go a long way to easing many customer’s transition to the cloud, whether public or private!
-
CSS pseudo-classes and pseudo-elements – Part 2/2
By Seamus LeahyI am back with more pseudo-classes and pseudo-elements as a follow up to my last post on the topic. Most of them are for enhancing form UIs, which go along nicely with HTML5’s introduction of new form features.
Pseudo-classes
:default
Selects the default option among a set of buttons, content menu items, or select list. You can use this to highlight the default submit button (generally the first one) in a form, indicating to the user what action will be taken if they hit the Enter key to submit the form.:valid
Selects form fields that have passed validation – in realtime. You can use it visually mark a field as valid. It is also useful for debugging what passes as a valid field such as an empty email field is valid as long as it is not required.:invalid
The companion to :valid. It selects form fields that do pass validation.:in-range
Selects elements with values that are within the set bounds or within a set of values. You can use it with the number fields that have a max and min set to indicate if the user enter a value that is acceptable.:out-of-range
The companion to :in-range. Selects form fields with values that are not in the range or set. -
June 23, 2011
New Signature Helps Working America Relaunch “My Bad Boss Contest” Website
By New Signature
Working America, the community affiliate of the AFL-CIO, today relaunched its “My Bad Boss Contest,” once again looking for the worst of the worst in bad bossdom. New Signature created the visual identity and design, illustration, style guide and performed the HTML/CSS cutup for Working America’s new iteration of this wildly popular website.Working America’s My Bad Boss Contest is an opportunity for workers to speak out about the difficulties they face every day on the job. Visitors can share stories about their worst Bad Boss experience—and have the chance to win some great prizes. Each week visitors to Working America’s My Bad Boss website will vote for the worst of the week. Prizes will be awarded each week and the grand prize will go to the worst of the worst chosen.
-
June 17, 2011
CSS pseudo-classes and pseudo-elements – Part 1/2
By Seamus LeahyIn this article we will review CSS pseudo-classes and pseudo-elements. It may not sound exciting from the title, but for us UI/CSS folks, it’s both exciting and powerful. Let’s dive in:
CSS Selectors
I am obsessed with CSS selectors and have been so over the past ten years. I just love making clean rules for clean HTML to get impressive results on the web. However, I have noticed that selectors aren’t utilized as much as they can (and maybe should be!) – even with their usage in jQuery and other libraries. Let’s look at both pseudo-classes and pseudo-elements. (more…)
-
KnockoutJS – Bind Your UI Elements to Your Data
By New Signature
Knockout is a JavaScript library that helps bind your UI elements to your data. As the data is changed, the UI elements that are attached to will be automatically updated. It differs from jQuery UI in that it does not provided widgets, but instead it sit between your widgets and your database. This is a great tool to use when building websites, like the New Signature designed and built Factory Farm Map, where state changes in one portion of the homepage, and the rest of the homepage UI is informed and updated.It is easy to show Knockout in action with a Hello World example. This example has two text fields, for first and last name, that when the user updates either of them, another part of the UI is updated that shows their full name.
HTML
<p>First name: <input data-bind=”value: firstName” /></p>
<p>Last name: <input data-bind=”value: lastName” /></p>
<h2>Hello, <span data-bind=”text: fullName”> </span>!</h2>JS
// Here’s my data model
var viewModel = {
firstName : ko.observable(“Planet”),
lastName : ko.observable(“Earth”)
};
viewModel.fullName = ko.dependentObservable(function () {
// Knockout tracks dependencies automatically. It knows that fullName depends on firstName and lastName, because these get called when evaluating fullName.
return viewModel.firstName() + ” ” + viewModel.lastName();
});ko.applyBindings(viewModel); // This makes Knockout get to work
At New Signature we are experimenting with Knockout and using it as another powerful tool in our arsenal of JavaScript libraries that let us build highly interactive websites and applications. Contact New Signature today if you are looking for a company that uses JavaScript to make the web to amazing things!
-
June 16, 2011
AFL-CIO Launches “Collective Bargaining. Real People. Real Impact.” Campaign Website
By New Signature
New Signature worked collaboratively with the AFL-CIO to visualize the “Collective Bargaining. Real People. Real Impact.” Campaign Website. The New Signature team then created the compelling visual design and user interface. We then built the website using the powerful and flexible WordPress publishing platform.The website features three videos produced by the AFL-CIO and Laughing Liberally that use comedy to highlight the importance of collective bargaining to all Americans. Social media integration played an important role in the site design, to encourage visitors to share the videos and the website.
The site also acts as a compelling and comprehensive resource on everything you need to know about collective bargaining and the latest news on the topic. This includes a range of multimedia content, including news, editorials, reports, compelling graphs and documentary videos of real workers discussing the positive impact that collective bargaining has provided them.
-
June 15, 2011
TechNet Virtual Labs – Learning Made Easy!
By New SignatureBusy IT professionals are often challenged to continue learning the latest and greatest technologies, but only given limited time to do so. Enter TechNet Virtual Labs, which New Signature’s experts have long used as one mechanism to quickly evaluate and test Microsoft’s newest products and technologies through a series of guided, hands-on labs that can be completed in 90 minutes or less. Best of all, there is no complex setup or installation required, and you can use TechNet Virtual Labs online immediately, free.
Many of Microsoft’s most popular products are available on demand for anyone with a windows live ID, such as SharePoint, System Center Operations Manager, Exchange, System Center Configuration Manager, and Windows 7.
The format of the lab is very similar to any Microsoft training class you might attend:
- You have a machine with software installed
- You have a script to follow along with
- Performing different tasks
- Observing cool new features
- When you’re done the system resets and you have gained some critical new knowledge!
If you are interested in learning more about some of the Microsoft technologies listed above New Signature offers instructor-led in-person and online training. New Signature is a Microsoft Certified Learning Partner and Microsoft Gold Partner. If you are an IT professional seeking to grow your expertise, contact New Signature today to learn how we can help you.
-
June 14, 2011
Exchange Server Deployment Assistant Joins the Cloud
By New SignatureNew Signature has been a huge fan of the Exchange Server Deployment Assistant since Microsoft released it. With the advent of Microsoft Office 365, though, a more powerful scenario has been enabled through a change in the architecture of Microsoft Exchange itself: true hybrid cloud/on-premise functionality.
In the past, during a migration to cloud-based email hosting, some staff would remain on the old system, while others were on the new one. During that phase of the migration, staff on different sides of the dividing line would experience losses of functionality including a lack of free/busy information, the inability to share calendars and contacts, as well as different methods to access mail remotely. For these reasons, New Signature has always performed a highly rigorous prerequisite check to ensure that we migrate staff who need to share that information in a group.
With Office365, the equations changes dramatically: now on-premise servers can link seamlessly with their cloud counterparts, allowing full integration and obscuring from staff whether they are “in the cloud” or still on-premise. (Of course, if they are on an on-premise Exchange 2007 server, and get moved to an Office365 server, they’ll immediately notice the new features in Exchange 2010!)
Because the various solutions, from cloud to hybrid to on-premise can be challenging to architect out, the Exchange Server Deployment Assistant has been updated to include this latest scenario. After a few simple questions, it’s easy to build a best-practices design for any of those three scenarios, allowing your IT staff to focus on the migration itself, rather than worrying about the architecture itself.
Contact New Signature today if you are considering utilizing Office365 for highly available, highly scalable messaging and we can help you plan the solution that best fits your needs!
-
June 11, 2011
New Signature Invited by Microsoft to Participate in the System Center Orchestrator 2012 Community Evaluation Program
By New SignatureMicrosoft System Center Orchestrator 2012 promises to bring a wealth of new capabilities to the System Center integration, orchestration and automation solutions, and alignment with Microsoft Private Cloud offerings. In a nutshell, Orchestrator is an automation platform for orchestrating and integrating IT tools to drive down the cost of datacenter operations, while improving the reliability of IT processes. It enables IT organizations to automate best practices, such as those found in Microsoft Operations Framework and Information Technology Infrastructure Library.
New Signature is thrilled to participate in the System Center Orchestrator 2012 Community Evaluation Program (CEP). Participation in this program will help New Signature experts get up to speed quickly on the new functionality introduced to the product since its predecessor Opalis 6.3. One of the key values of being a participant in the CEP is the access New Signature will have directly to the Orchestrator product team. For each topic the associated product manager will be available to answer our expert’s questions and explain how the functionality came about, how it works and what the use scenarios are.
Contact New Signature today to learn more about how we can help you use System Center and Opalis (and soon Orchestrator) to enable integration, efficiency, and business alignment of your datacenter IT services.