Industry Updates
IBM Power on Public Cloud
IBM Power Systems have been well known for the superior performance against x86, better scalability, higher system utilization, end to end full stack security, as well as long-standing leadership in reliability. Over 20,000 clients globally rely on the IBM Power platform for their mission critical workloads and many of them have been looking at cloud solutions to help accelerate business transformation.

However, a broad presence on tier 1 public cloud for running IBM i/AIX applications was not available until very recently.
Imagine you are:
  • a medical practice that can’t book appointments because your server is down
  • a law firm that needs specific case files, but whose files were recently “locked up” by Ransomware
  • a retail business that needs to process hundreds of transactions due to a hacking attack that targeted your client credit card data

How will you stay in business? How will this impact your customer experience? Most importantly, how will this impact your revenue targets?

Blair Vulnerability Asset Management uses automated scanning software to identify security holes in your network, devices, servers, firewalls, and applications. We then provide you with a report that classifies and categories these vulnerabilities so you can address them based on priorities.

Are Rising Security Threats Putting Your Company's Data At Risk?
Fast Track to Office 365
Our Microsoft Certified Experts can walk you through your migration, from planning and design, all the way to migrating your last mailbox.

With Exchange 2010 reaching its end of support on October 13, 2020 , this is a great time to explore your options and prepare a migration plan.
  • Migrate fully to Office 365. Migrate mailboxes using cutover, minimal hybrid, or full hybrid migration, then remove on-premises Exchange servers and Active Directory.
  • Migrate your Exchange 2010 servers to Exchange 2016 on your on-premises servers.
  • (Recommended) If you can migrate your mailboxes to Office 365 and upgrade your servers by October 13, 2020, use Exchange 2010 to connect to Office 365 and migrate mailboxes. Next, migrate Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2016 and decommission any remaining Exchange 2010 servers.
  • If you can’t complete the mailbox migration and on-premises server upgrade by October 13, 2020, upgrade your on-premises Exchange 2010 servers to Exchange 2016 first, then use Exchange 2016 to connect to Office 365 and migrate mailboxes.
In December 2019 OneAffiniti surveyed businesses across all major industry verticals about their technology budgets and spending priorities for 2020. The survey shows that IT purchasing decisions are solidly based on real-world issues. New technologies are important, but so is traditional infrastructure.

The 2020 Business IT Trends Annual Report is built on responses from 726 individuals in IT decision-making or decision-influencing positions in North America, Australia/New Zealand (ANZ) and the United Kingdom (UK). This report identifies the key trends in the data and provides commentary to place the findings within a broader industry context.
Promotion
I ntroducing IBM Power System IC922
An Inference Server Engineered to Put Your AI Models to Work
Are you looking to implement AI? Remember that AI is not your typical IT workload and has different data centre requirements. Your current IT infrastructure might not cut it for AI.

First released in January 2020, the new IBM Power® System IC922 will offer you:

  • Fast Insights: Use trained AI models to quickly turn new business data into AI insights.
  • Future Ready: Leverage flexible purpose-built inference infrastructure today with the ability to scale with tomorrow’s business needs.
  • Optimized for AI Software: Use the same AI software (PowerAI Vision) designed for POWER9 across the Power AC922 and Power IC922.
  • Enterprise Security: Security features built into the hardware and software stack.

John's Corner
Today's businesses are undergoing various phases of digital transformation (DX) and many of them are grappling with issues like modernizing applications, building the right cloud strategy, and addressing challenges to maintain business continuity. Over and over again, we've seen the importance of conducting a technological assessment to determine the long-term feasibility of critical IT components. With proven methodology, the Blair technical team provides a step-by-step approach that analyzes the entirety of your I.T. environments and business requirements to identify issues and gaps and provide opportunities for improvement.

Whether you’re trying to solve a performance issue, make design changes or move to a new solution, Blair's technical assessment will help you make more informed decisions.  Contact us  today to book an assessment.