Genentech Inc. is a leading biotechnology corporation, which was founded in 1976 by venture capitalist Robert A. Swanson and biochemist Dr. Herbert W. Boyer. It is considered to have founded the biotechnology industry. One of its founders, Boyer, is a pioneer in the field of recombinant DNA technology
Considering their mission, for Genentech quality and reliability are mission critical. When the firm was looking to replace collaboration suite, they turned to Google Apps Premier Edition. Genentech had plans to build a multi-millions of dollars new data center but because of their use of Google Apps and other cloud computing solutions that project was no longer necessary and the funds were re-purposed to their core mission of making great biotech discoverys.
Genentech VP of Information Technology Todd Pierce found that Google Apps is the only collboration suite that met his requirements of being 100% online, fully integrated and at a lower price point when compared to other solutions. Pierce was also impressed by Google's disaster recovery features, that he can access from anywhere in the world. With Google's regular updates that are pushed "behind the scenes" to the product there's no need to install the usual software patches; Google's solution gets him "out of the upgrade business."
For more information on how Google Apps can make the difference for your firm, please contact Michael Higby at SADA Systems, Inc. at michael.higby@sadasystems.com.
New Laws Target Tech in California on New Year's Day
A new year always means new laws taking effect on January 1st. Here are a couple set to kick-in just as you swill your first celebratory champagne at the stroke of midnight tonight.
If you engage in the dangerous practice of "driving while texting" SB 28 makes it an infraction to write, send, or read text-based communication on an electronic wireless communication device, such as a cell phone, while driving. This addressed a quirk in a previous law that mandated hands free driving that somehow left out written communications.
Another new law, SB 1567, requires portable GPS devices that are affixed to a vehicle windshield to be placed either in a seven-inch square in the lower right corner of the windshield or in a five-inch square in the lower left corner, while the vehicle is being driven. Motorists may still mount a GPS device on top of the dashboard as long as it doesn't block their view of the road. The device must not be placed so that it interferes with the deployment of an air bag. The fine for a violation is approximately $108 including penalties, depending on the county.
Happy New Year from all of us at SADA Systems, Inc.!
Microsoft Offers Student Edition of Office Ultimate at Super-Discount Price
Eligible students may take advantage of Microsoft's Ultimate Steal.
Microsoft has cut the price to students only by 91% of the estimated retail price. The new price for students is $59.95. This is a huge steal, especially when compared to the usual retail price for the same software. If you are an eligible student (and SADA recommends you jump on this if you are) and would like to take advantage of this offer click here.
To be eligible for this discount you must be enrolled at an eligible university for at least 0.5 credit hours and have a valid email address either ending with .edu, or a valid email address with one of the listed eligible institutions. If you meet the eligibility requirements then you are ready to order Microsoft's Office 2007 Ultimate edition at a dramatically reduced price!
Facebook and Google launch competing identity services
If you're like most moderate-to-heavy Internet users, you probably have an account with Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. You may also have a number of different online email accounts. Like most people you probably do some of your banking and shopping online. You may also be making use of online applications through service such as Google Apps or Zoho Office. All of these myriad services that are meant to make managing our lives and businesses more convenient have at least one thing in common; all of them require user authentication. This is usually managed with a username and password. Management of all of these user credentials can turn into an administrative nightmare for even the casual Internet user. Just trying to remember which password is associated with an account can be a real headache. In part to combat credential confusion Google and Facebook have launched competing projects that allow you to use one identity to log in to your account on any (participating) company's website.
Facebook's web 2.0 identity management product is called Facebook Connect, and went live on December 4th. The launch of Facebook Connect slightly edged out the launch of Google's competing product, Friend Connect by only a couple of hours. However, both services went live the same day, and they offer very similar benefits. Both services depend on web developers to add the web-based application to their website.
Facebook Connect offers the following advantages to companies or developers who implement Facebook's service on their websites:
Trusted authentication: Users can connect their Facebook account to a participating company or website using their Facebook credentials. Authentication permissions are controlled by the user.
Real identity: Facebook users represent themselves in the social network with their real names and real identities. With Facebook connect users connect their real identities to any participating website.
Friend Linking: Quite possibly the biggest benefit to using Facebook Connect is their enormous social component. Websites that add Facebook Connect will tap into an enormous potential audience/market through the Facebook community.
Google Friend Connect differs from Facebook Connect in that it's not linking to any single identity or community. Google Friend Connect offers the following benefits to anyone who adds this service to their existing website:
The websites to which Google Friend Connect may be added are not limited in any way. Google Friend Connect may be added to blogs, merchant sites, or mashups.
Adding Google Friend Connect does not require any programming. Friend Connect can be added by downloading two files which are then added to your web server. After that you may add gadgets to your website easily by picking the one you want, and inserting the code through easy copy and paste.
Google allows users to sign in using their credentials from an existing Google, Yahoo, or Open ID account.
What does this mean to you? Ultimately it could mean that you may only need one or two sets of credentials to do anything on the web. That depends heavily on the rate of adoption for these services. It also means that the web is going to 'go social' in a meaningful way. You may register with the website of a favorite restaurant using your Google Friend Connect or Facebook Connect credentials only to find that a lot of your friends have likewise signed up to receive updates from the same restaurant.
One of the first 10 Google Apps for Enterprise partners worldwide and initial contributor to the Google Apps Open Source provisioning toolkit, SADA Systems, Inc. has developed a proven track record in implementation of Google Apps solutions. SADA works with a diverse client base to create custom, leading edge solutions that strategically meet client business objectives.
Founded in 1950, Denver Seminary offers a number of masters and doctoral level programs for clergy, counselors and other faith workers. The Seminary is home to nearly 900 current students and has graduated over 4000 alumni.
Challenges
Prior to adopting Google Apps, Denver Seminary did not provide its students with email accounts. Staff and faculty email was served through Microsoft Exchange however the Seminary did not see that as an appropriate solution for student email. Denver Seminary chose to use Google Apps Education Edition to fulfill this need and turned to SADA to help with deployment and implementation.
Solutions
SADA first reviewed Denver Seminary's existing IT environment. They assisted Denver Seminary with the sign up and initial account setup for Google Apps Education Edition. SADA then configured the seminary's MX/DNS records, and set up a Dual Delivery system for staff members already on Microsoft Exchange. SADA deployed its Google Apps User Provisioning/Synchronization and Web Single Sign-On tools. Each of these tools allows Denver Seminary IT staff to provision and synchronize Google Apps accounts through it's Active Directory (AD) and gives the Seminary's users access their Google Apps accounts with their AD credentials.
Results
By implementing Google's and SADA's solutions, Denver Seminary has an email solution that comes with lower IT administration costs, higher user satisfaction, and increased productivity. This peace of mind allows Denver Seminary IT focus on more strategic initiatives.
"SADA Systems was a pleasure to work with," says Jason Adams, Director of IT for Denver Seminary. "I am impressed by their relationship with Google, something I didn't feel other vendors had. They brought experience and knowledge which was extremely important and helpful in getting us up and running."
He continues, "We are using SADA's fully hosted solution - they took care of everything, there was very little for us to do. And with the few resources we have that makes a huge difference - without breaking our bank! I would recommend SADA Systems to everyone looking to deploy Google Apps in their environment."
Previously, if you received a message in Gmail that had a PDF file attached to it, your only real choice to view the document was to install a PDF viewer to on your desktop or view the file as HTML which usually often did not include most of the original content.
The Google Operating System blog reports that Gmail has now adopted the PDF viewing functionality from Google Docs allowing users to view the PDF file (including zoom and search) within their browser. The only limitation at present is that the viewer will only display up to 100 pages in a document.
SADA was proud to have some of our recent Google Apps work featured on the Official Google Enterprise Blog which covers Google solutions around enterprise information, search, and apps:
One of our more active partners so far is SADA Systems, Inc. SADA is involved in many Google Apps projects, most recently helping Virgin Mobile USA develop a custom hosted Single Sign-On solution in just three days.
SADA also assisted Kings, Krebs, and Jurgens, a New Orleans-based law firm, in their recent deployment of Google Apps. Working side-by-side with the firm's IT staff, SADA ensured that the Google Apps deployment complied with the firm's legal requirements for retaining old emails. They also implemented a dual delivery email configuration that continues mail delivery to the legacy system as the firm evolves to Google Apps.
Finally, SADA helped Kent State University provision accounts and migrate data to Google Apps Education Edition for more than 120,000 students, faculty, and staff.
