Richard Tubb's Blog, page 94

Friday Favourites – 13th September, 2013

On a Friday I try to post my favourites from the week – links to cool content and tools that I’ve found or had recommended to me. Cool stuff I’ve found this week, ending 13th September, 2013:-

WhichAirline.com – There are plenty of cheap flight checking web-sites, but sometimes the cheapest flight is not always the best option. WhichAirline allows you to check all the flight options to/from a specific airport so you can choose to view flights listed by duration and cost.
NFC Ring – An innovative Kickstarter project for a Near Field Communication (NFC) ring worn on your finger and which can be used to unlock doors, mobile phones and to transfer information. What’s more it never needs charging, ever!
Expensify – Expense reports that don’t suck! Take a photo of your receipts with your Smartphone, upload to Expensify and it will “Smartscan” the receipt and extract all the relevant details into your expense report. I’ve been using Expensify for a few months now and it saves a lot of time and effort processing your expenses while on the road – no more lost receipts!

Do you have any cool content or tools to share with me? Why not e-mail me, Tweet me, or share with me on Google+ and I if I feature them in my blog you can be sure to give you credit! Have a great weekend!   photo credit: jmawork via photopin cc

Linux for MSP’s – Is Open Source The Best Fit For Your Client?

I’m fortunate enough to know and work with a lot of very successful IT Solution Providers and Managed Service Providers (MSP’s) who focus on the Small & Medium Sized Business (SMB) market. Up until recently that group of businesses was comprised almost exclusively of MSP’s who sold and supported what many of us would consider “traditional” IT solutions, i.e. those provided by Microsoft.

Non-Microsoft MSP’s

Now though, I’m seeing IT business who show no interest in selling or supporting Microsoft solutions – they are focusing on Apple, Google, or in the case of Keith Edmunds of UK based Tiger Computing, Linux.

Tiger Computing focus exclusively on helping clients with Linux systems. They don’t try to “convert” Microsoft businesses across to Linux, they simply focus on working with clients who have chosen Linux and want professional help supporting those solutions – and for Tiger Computing, business is booming.

Linux for Small Business

So how is Linux and in a wider view, Open Source technology as a whole, a good fit for Small Businesses?

In my interview with Keith we discuss:-

Why businesses use Linux over the traditional Microsoft solutions.
How the advent of Cloud Computing means people are no longer as worried about which Operating System they use.
The benefits to MSP’s of focusing on a niche rather than trying to be a “Jack of All Trades”
How MSP’s can partner with Tiger Computing to support their clients who use Linux

You can find Keith Edmunds on LinkedIn or via the Tiger Computing web-site.

I hope you enjoy our conversation which you can view on video or listen to or download via Audio Podcast below.

 

TECHNICAL NOTE: If you’re having problems listening to audio here, disable any Ad-Blockers and make sure you have the latest version of Adobe Flash. If you’d like to download an MP3 audio copy of this interview to listen to away from your keyboard, then click the download button above or visit http://snd.sc/1cZdeCN

 

photo credit: dsearls via photopin cc