Businesses warned to act now as Windows XP deadline looms

There are just two weeks to go until Microsoft pulls the plug on its Windows XP operating system – and businesses are being warned to act now or  face falling victim to hackers and viruses.

Support for Windows XP will officially end in a fortnight’s time on Tuesday April 8, which means Microsoft will no longer issue updates to patch bugs and security vulnerabilities.

It is thought that around 30 per cent of desktop computers are still running XP, meaning that hundreds of businesses only have a short time to act to keep their systems secure to make sure they are safe from viruses.

Centerprise International, based in Basingstoke, Hampshire, a leading supplier of managed computer systems for businesses, says companies need to make sure they aren’t relying on the outdated system. Firms can be fined under the Data Protection Act if their security fails and customer data is exposed.

To help concerned businesses, Centerprise has launched a microsite with useful information about the change at www.centerprise.co.uk/xpeos

Darren Smith, Government and Corporate Sales Manager at Centerprise, said: “Businesses have a responsibility to make sure their data is secure and if they are still running XP then they are at risk of leaving themselves vulnerable to viruses, hackers and system problems. Later versions of Windows have much better security features and will be regularly updated to keep them secure.

“We think it’s very likely that XP systems will be targeted once official support ends. The only way businesses can protect themselves is by moving to a properly-supported operated system. If you hold any kind of data for customers, it’s not something you can afford to ignore.

“Failing to update to a newer operating system may see companies fined because those that hold customer data are required to take measures to protect themselves from hackers.”

Windows XP was released in 2001 and by 2006, more than 400million copies were in use worldwide. Microsoft stopped selling it in 2008, a year after its successor, Windows Vista, was released.

Centerprise International is one of the largest and most respected IT providers in the UK and delivers large-scale IT projects in the corporate, education and government sectors.

For more information about Centerprise International, see www.centerprise.co.uk

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Free seminar to give business leaders advice on data backup

Business leaders are invited to a free lunch and seminar where they can learn more about making sure their data is secure in the event of a disaster.

Award-winning data backup experts ADAM Continuity are to hold a briefing on trends surrounding data growth where free advice will be given on how organisations can make sure their data can be restored if the worst happens.

Many businesses are at risk of losing vital information forever if their technology fails because they do not have protection in place.

The event, to be held at Watford FC’s Vicarage Road Conference and Events Centre on Thursday, March 27, includes a Q&A session on data backup and recovery and is also a valuable networking opportunity for companies in the region.

Speakers include Niall Mackey, general manager of leading cloud security  Topsec Technology, Ian Burleton, head of solutions at ADAM Continuity, and Ronan McCurtin, Managing Director at ADAM.

Ronan said: “With the amount of data used by companies expected to grow by 800 per cent over the next five years, businesses are under great pressure to ensure they have sufficient capacity and the capability to restore their data in the event of a disaster.

“This, combined with the need to have systems operational round the clock and the focus on reducing budgets, means business owners and IT managers need to come up with more efficient strategies.

“A large percentage of businesses do not have their data backed up and of those that do, most have either failed to test their disaster recovery procedures or store their backed-up data on site.

“This is a worrying trend as research shows that half of all businesses which suffer a disaster or data loss with no effective plans for recovery will fail within the first 12 months.”

Doors for the seminar open at 9.30am for a 10am start, and the session concludes with lunch at 1.15pm.

Guests are asked to register to secure a place. To book, call Wendy Mills at ADAM Continuity on 01256 378134 or email wmills@adam.co.uk

Further details of the event are available at http://www.adam.co.uk/news/company-news/watford-forum.html

For more information about ADAM Continuity, visit www.adam.co.uk

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Hounds for Heroes drop in to say thanks for £6,000 donation

Centerprise International staff have raised thousands of pounds to support a charity that provides trained dogs to injured servicemen and women.

Gulf war veteran Allen Parton paid a visit to Centerprise’s Basingstoke headquarters to personally thank employees who raised £5,000 for his charity, Hounds for Heroes.

The money was raised with a series of activities throughout the year. A race night at Basingstoke Rugby Club was the biggest earner, bringing in £3,500, while Centerprise staff raised £1,000 by taking part in the Reading Half Marathon.

Allen Parton with Centerprise staff

Activities ranging from Halloween pumpkin carving to sweepstakes and raffles helped the fund reach the £5,000 milestone, and Centerprise’s chairman Rafi Razzak boosted the total by writing a cheque of his own for an additional £1,000.

Hounds for Heroes, based in Clanfield, Hampshire, was founded by Mr Parton, who suffered a serious head injury in the aftermath of Operation Desert Storm.

It provides specially-trained assistance dogs to injured and disabled men and women of both the UK Armed Forces and the civilian emergency services. They can help disabled veterans with everyday tasks such as emptying the washing machine and doing the shopping.

The charity now has 22 dogs – which it calls “cadets” – at various stages of the training process.

The money raised by Centerprise will fund the purchase price of a dog and its training for at least two years.

Mr Parton said: “I’m very grateful to Centerprise for its support. Just knowing that people care makes all the difference.

“It’s great to be able to go along and meet the people who give Hounds for Heroes their support – it means everything to us.”

Rafi Razzak added: “Allen’s story is very moving and I was pleased to be able to help this worthwhile charity. I’m very proud that so many employees have supported Hounds for Heroes.”

Allen Parton with Centerprise staff

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ADAM announces cloud services partnership with Capital Continuity

Business continuity specialist ADAM Continuity has entered into a partnership with Capital Continuity (CCL) to strengthen the cloud-based services it offers clients.

ADAM now offer a Replication For Recovery service based on the multi-platform Business Interruption Protection Services (BIPs) provided by CCL to help protect its customers from server failure.

CCL’s BIPs technology replicates customers’ servers in real-time to Adam’s cloud infrastructure to ensure that critical IT systems are protected from interruption, failure or disaster.

Replication For Recovery works regardless of the hardware or applications a business uses, and for any amount of data storage.

Should a customer’s servers fail for any reason, the partnership means that Adam Continuity will be able to get systems up and running again in a matter of minutes thanks to CCL’s BIPs technology.

The partnership underpins ADAM’s increasing focus on cloud services and its move away from the traditional “ship to site” model to faster and more cost-effective server replication services.

ADAM Continuity, based in Basingstoke, Hampshire, will continue to offer a wide range of round-the-clock business continuity services for customers, allowing them to recover critical systems within minutes if necessary.

Ronan McCurtin, recently-appointed Managing Director of ADAM Continuity, said: “ADAM is dedicated to providing fast, effective recovery services for customers whose critical systems fail or are interrupted for any reason.

“This partnership with CCL enables us to strengthen our cloud offering and in most cases we will be able to bring systems back online within a matter of minutes – whatever kind of hardware they are using.

“CCL share our vision of virtually seamless, reliable business protection services and we are delighted to partner with them.”

Nigel Hoggart of Watford-based CCL said: “CCL are proud to partner with ADAM Continuity and we are very much looking forward to working with ADAM to help protect its customers’ critical systems.”

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YoYoTech launches incredible value build-your-own PC “starter kits”

Leading PC gaming expert YoYoTech has launched a range of incredible-value “PC starter kits” priced from just £152.99. 

The kits, available from www.yoyotech.co.uk, contain everything needed to build a desktop gaming PC and offer great performance at an unbeatable price.

Each package comes as a build-it-yourself bundle that YoYoTech experts say should take the average beginner no more than two or three hours to put together.

The bundles are an ideal way in for customers who are new to the world of build-your-own PCs - and components are easily upgradeable when users want to increase the specifications of their system.

The kits, which all include a case and power supply, are straightforward to assemble but if customers get stuck, YoYoTech experts are happy to talk them through the process by phone.

The £152.99 Starter Kit i3 offers an Intel i3 4130 dual-core 3.5GHz processor, Asus H81M-Plus Motherboard and 4GB of memory.

At £286.99 the Starter Kit A10 includes an AMD A1-7850K Quad-Core 4.0GHz processor, an F2A88XM-DS2 Motherboard and 8GB of memory.

The Starter Kit i5 at £359.99 is the perfect gaming set-up and includes an Intel i5 4670K Quad-core 3.4GHz processor, 8GB of memory and an Asus Z87-K motherboard.

YoYoTech business development manager Ryan Pearton said: “At YoYoTech we’re well-known and respected in the gaming world for our wide range of PCs, from budget systems offering incredible power at a low price to our blisteringly-fast high-end systems.

“Building and upgrading PCs is a fascinating process and we’ve designed these starter kits to offer maximum bang for your buck. The kits have everything you need to get going, whether that’s as a low-cost way of starting out in the world of PC gaming or as a project a parent can do with their child.

“All the kits have good specifications and of course you can upgrade parts as you go on. And if customers get stuck they can just give us a call and we’ll tell them whatever they need to know.”

Full specs and details of the starter kits are online at www.yoyotech.co.uk

YoYoTech is renowned in the world of gaming PCs and has built up an unrivalled reputation among gamers thanks to its expert knowledge and range of products.

YoYoTech is now part of the Centerprise International group. Based in Basingstoke, Hampshire, Centerprise is a major reseller and provider of bespoke IT systems and services.

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YoYoTech launches incredible value build-your-own PC “starter kits”

Leading PC gaming expert YoYoTech has launched a range of incredible-value “PC starter kits” priced from just £152.99.

The kits, available from www.yoyotech.co.uk, contain everything needed to build a desktop gaming PC and offer great performance at an unbeatable price.

Each package comes as a build-it-yourself bundle that YoYoTech experts say should take the average beginner no more than two or three hours to put together.

The bundles are an ideal way in for customers who are new to the world of build-your-own PCs - and components are easily upgradeable when users want to increase the specifications of their system.

The kits, which all include a case and power supply, are straightforward to assemble but if customers get stuck, YoYoTech experts are happy to talk them through the process by phone.

The £152.99 Starter Kit i3 offers an Intel i3 4130 dual-core 3.5GHz processor, Asus H81M-Plus Motherboard and 4GB of memory.

At £286.99 the Starter Kit A10 includes an AMD A1-7850K Quad-Core 4.0GHz processor, an F2A88XM-DS2 Motherboard and 8GB of memory.

The Starter Kit i5 at £359.99 is the perfect gaming set-up and includes an Intel i5 4670K Quad-core 3.4GHz processor, 8GB of memory and an Asus Z87-K motherboard.

 

YoYoTech business development manager Ryan Pearton said: “At YoYoTech we’re well-known and respected in the gaming world for our wide range of PCs, from budget systems offering incredible power at a low price to our blisteringly-fast high-end systems.

“Building and upgrading PCs is a fascinating process and we’ve designed these starter kits to offer maximum bang for your buck. The kits have everything you need to get going, whether that’s as a low-cost way of starting out in the world of PC gaming or as a project a parent can do with their child.

“All the kits have good specifications and of course you can upgrade parts as you go on. And if customers get stuck they can just give us a call and we’ll tell them whatever they need to know.”

Full specs and details of the starter kits are online at www.yoyotech.co.uk

YoYoTech is renowned in the world of gaming PCs and has built up an unrivalled reputation among gamers thanks to its expert knowledge and range of products.

YOYOTech is now part of the Centerprise International group. Based in Basingstoke, Hampshire, Centerprise is a major reseller and provider of bespoke IT systems and services.

Pictures: The YoYoTech Starter Kit i3, priced at £152.99. More high-res images are available. 

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YoYoTech takes on PS4 and XboxOne with retail launch for gaming PCs

Cutting-edge PC manufacturer YOYOTech today threw down the gauntlet to Sony and Microsoft by announcing plans to sell its range of high-performance gaming machines in retail stores. 

Today (Friday, December 6) at a launch event at London’s Radisson Blu Portman Hotel, YOYOTech announced a reseller programme which will bring its range of gaming PCs into retail websites and on to the high street.

YOYOTech, whose website is at www.yoyotech.co.uk, has just launched its new Warbird Colour range, aimed at taking on console giants Sony and Microsoft in the battle for gamers’ hearts.

YOYOTech’s Warbird M-Cube 1 package comes with a 23-inch display and 1TB hard drive and is far more powerful than Microsoft’s XBoxOne and Sony’s PS4 - despite the bundle being in a similar price range at just £599.99.

The higher-specced Warbird M-Cube II offers a faster processor, 27-inch display and a 60GB solid state drive to complement its 1TB hard drive. It retails for £799.99.

Both systems come with a free copy of hit game BioShock Infinite and are easily upgradeable – keeping YOYOTech machines ahead of the game compared to their console rivals.

Full specs and details are online at www.yoyotech.co.uk/give-your-pc-some-colour

YOYOTech Business Development Manager Ryan Pearton said the machines were aimed at offering a value-for-money alternative to gamers who might be considering a next-gen console.

“While consoles are aimed solely at putting a small, low-cost unit in your living room that can deliver gaming at HD resolutions, the most powerful PCs can drive massive frame rates at the highest possible image quality with resolutions up to four times better than traditional HD TVs,” he said.

“At the moment, the PS4 and XboxOne will be able to offer a similar experience to a mid-range PC, but that won’t last.

“Serious gamers want everything set to ‘max’ to experience their games the way they are meant to be played. That experience is available through YOYOTech’s gaming PCs.”

At the other end of the scale, YoYoTech used today’s event to show off the luxury XDNA Aurum 24K.

At £7,979.79 it is the most expensive machine YoYoTech has ever produced and offers blistering performance thanks to the most advanced liquid-cooled components available – hand-crafted within a gold-embossed chassis.

Ryan Pearton said: “The recession is over, game and simulator developers across the world are pushing through demanding new software and our customers want to enjoy the most advanced programs at blistering speed.

"During times of austerity, people choose functionality above all else. Once the dark clouds pass, aesthetics become much more important - and that's exactly what the YOYOTech Aurum series is about.”

YOYOTech is a renowned outlet in the world of gaming PCs and has built up an unrivalled reputation among gamers thanks to its expert knowledge, range of products and ability to hand-build custom-made PCs.

YOYOTech is now part of the Centerprise International group. Based in Basingstoke, Hampshire, Centerprise is a major reseller and provider of bespoke IT systems and services.

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