SADA Systems named as one of the first Ingram Micro Cloud Services Network members!

SADA loves spreading the word about the cloud which is why we SADAians rejoiced as Ingram Micro named us as one of the first members of the newly minted Ingram Micro Cloud Services Network. In addition to providing traditional IT services for the past decade, SADA Systems has been delivering cloud computing solutions to companies and organizations worldwide since 2007. Our inclusion in the Cloud Services Network allows VARs and solution providers to connect and partner with an us to learn how to leverage the cloud computing technology, develop cloud solutions for their clients and and discover ways that SADA can apply its years of cloud expertise to accelerate business initiatives.

"Ingram Micro is really responding to forces in the market and demand for cloud expertise. A lot of VARs don't have in-house expertise and are looking to connect with someone because they see this opportunity but can't capitalize on it," said Tony Safoian, president and CEO of SADA Systems. "We hope to establish some relationships with VARs who don't see cloud fitting into their strategy in terms of capacity development for some time."

A survey conducted last summer by Ingram Micro revealed that 80% of VARs plan to include cloud services in their future business plan, but less than 20% consider themselves cloud services providers. The Ingram Micro Cloud Services Network aims to promote cloud education and usability in the VAR community. SADA intends to help educate and support VARs and solution providers in the cloud computing space in turn allowing them to build their business in this budding industry.

Kudos for the Virgin America win

You know, a lot of people having been patting us on the back for our Virgin America Google Apps migration and deployment project. Thanks for all the kudos! We're certainly enjoying the limelight here in beautiful North Hollywood (just above the Hills).

But did you know that this was not our largest Google Apps migration to date? Nor was it our first Virgin corporate project? Here are some fun facts about Google Apps partner SADA Systems:

• Our largest Google Apps migration and implementation was for Kent State University (go Golden Flashes!). We provisioned over 130,000 users using our custom opt-in feature where students and student could voluntarily choose to move from their legacy email platform to Google Apps email. Read more about the Kent State Google Apps migration project.
• In addition to Virgin America, we also assisted Virgin Mobile with their Google Sites corporate intranet and single sign-on user access.
• SADA Systems has the most published Google Apps success stories of any partner.

If you or your organization is thinking about moving the cloud just like Virgin America, let's start a conversation! Shoot us a message at sales@sadasystems.com or call us at 866.997.0000. No obligations--just say "Hi!", "Great job with your recent project!" or send us a joke. The SADA team loves a good laugh :)

App Solutions Comparison: Single-Sign-On Password Sync vs. AuthMagic for Google Apps

A Google Apps Solutions Comparison:

Password sync for Google Apps has been a long standing issue for Google's otherwise comprehensive business suite. With the release of AuthMagic for Google Apps, we took a step forward and produced an in-depth examination of our two password sync options: Web Single Sign-On for Google Apps with Password Sync and AuthMagic for Google Apps.

SADA has worked with businesses large and small in the past and understand that different companies have different needs in terms of capabilities and customization options. It's important to evaluate your own businesses' needs and understand our tools capabilities in order to fully take advantage of its offerings. A brief comparison:

Feature	Single Sign-On for Google Apps with Password Sync	AuthMagic for Google Apps
Microsoft Active Directory Password Sync	Yes	Yes
Non-AD / LDAP Compliant Password Sync	Yes	No
Custom Branded Login Page	Yes	No
One Set of Credentials to Remember	Yes	Yes
Multi-domain login support	Yes	Yes, with multiple instances
IMAP Compatible	Yes	Yes
Mobile Apps Compatible	Yes	Yes
Google Talk Compatible	Yes	Yes
User login prevention on suspension in directory (AD or LDAP)	Immediate	Manual
AD password change triggers password update in Google Apps	No	Yes

To learn more about our password sync for Google Apps options, read our detailed Google Apps Solutions Comparison: Single-Sign-On Password Sync vs. AuthMagic for Google Apps at CloudToolKit.com.

AuthMagic for Google Apps - Password Sync Solution Now Available

IT professionals rejoice! A solution to that pesky password sync issue is at your fingertips.

Password synchronization between the on-premise and cloud servers for one user takes approximately 4 minutes. Now imagine that its the end of the quarter and the organization you oversee is going through its password rotation policy again. Dreading the sync time for 500+ accounts? Fugetaboutit!

Authentication Magic for Google Apps can result in an up to 80% time reduction meaning that you will save time, money and resources. At an attractive base price of $2995, we offer one of the most powerful, secure and easy to use app on the market. Alleviate the strains of:

• Automated password rotation policy
• Environment changes
• Active directory changes on premise
• Improving password strength
• Lengthy password lock-outs/resets
• Fickle and forgetful employees
• Stealthy password-stealing ninjas
  

We have yet to encounter instances of the last bullet point, but we are confident in our solution’s level of awesome.

Interested in saving time and money for your org? Please contact us at sales@sadasystems.com. Thank you!


Your friendly neighborhood IT superheroes,
SADA Systems

Where in the World is User Renamer for Google Apps?

Renaming Google Apps user accounts is a challenge that customers from all over the world face. For example, when an employee or team member leaves an organization, he or she leaves important documents, presentations, reports & client lists stored in their email and computer. Existing Google Apps users would have to perform tedious Gmail backup and migration to transfer the necessary files to the appropriate persons. With the User Renamer for Google Apps, rename the account to the individual who will be taking of their responsibilities. You will, however, still need to remember the new guy's name.

This is where the User Renamer for Google Apps comes in. The sign of a great tool is one that is intuitive enough that, regardless of language barriers, age and computer literacy level, literally anyone can use it! And that is what we are seeing with our awesome little app (modesty is not one SADA's greatest virtues). Enterprises and small businesses from all corners of the globe benefit from this $10 piece of code. Let's see where the User Renamer has been!


View Where in the World is User Renamer for Google Apps in a larger map

A huge thank you to the companies, businesses and organizations that helped make the Google Apps User Renamer into an international sensation! Cảm ơn, merci beaucoup, Obrigado, Спасибо, Dziękuję... thanks!

If you are using the User Renamer app in a country we did not list, let us know in the comments. Looking forward to seeing this list grow!

P.S. Look out for our newest, coolest password syncing tool AuthMagic for Google Apps launching this Sunday, Aug 1!

100 Downloads of the User Renamer for Google Apps

On Friday, July 23rd, we celebrated the 100th download and install of our User Renamer for Google Apps. In true SADA fashion, we broke out the champagne, had a few martinis (courtesy of our awesome CTO), laughed, cried and toasted to our 100th downloader! Stay tuned for comments and success stories!

What drives SADA in creating these apps is facilitating the overall end-user experience after Google Apps migration and implementation. With over 10 years of IT experience, we understand how frustrating something simple like a Google Apps user account renaming can be. Renaming or transferring a Google Apps account used to be an IT nightmare. To sum it up, you would need to manually backup Google Docs, export calendar items, export contacts, download email messages, create new account, import Google Docs, import calendar items, import contacts, re-download email messages and finally delete the old account. This is a lot to do just to change the name, but because our User Renamer App has automated this, it's a breeze.

There are a hundred and 1 reasons why you would need to user our Renamer App. Here are a few of our favorites:

• You were swept off your feet on an off-shore business trip by a charming native. You're seeing the world through rose colored glasses now, but unfortunately Google Apps will not recognize your new last name.
• A Lehman Brother's executive left the company abruptly. Transfer all important contacts, correspondences, meetings and docs by renaming the account to the poor intern who will be taking over the responsibilities.
  
• You re-watched Superbad for the 100th time and decided that you really, really like the last name McLovin. Enough to legally change yours to it.
• Your family name has been disgraced due to a particularly sticky scandal your distant cousin was involved in. A lifetime of bad PR or a quick and painless name change?
• Your name, Isabelle Patty Freely, is unfortunately abbreviated as I.P.Freely on your company email. Request a less embarrassing abbreviation quickly with our app!
• You done goofed and misspelled your email address in Google Apps! Consequences will never be the same. Or will it? No need to alert the cyberpolice on this one--just download and install our Renamer App.

Got an interesting use for our app? Let us know in the comment below!

Google Apps Gmail Can't Interpret Emails Sent by BPOS / Microsoft Online Services - winmail.dat issue

As the pace by which organizations are migrating their email to the cloud, all types of anomalies and gotchas are discovered by our engineers - and this is expected. This is all new, after all.

One of the most surprising, however, is the simple fact that email sent by the BPOS / Microsoft Online Services exchange servers is unable to be interpreted by recipients who use Google Apps Gmail. Since its creation, email has had the key benefit of being very standards based - users from any platform X have been able to send emails to users on any platform Y with general ease.

Now, we’re not the first to report this issue - in fact, discussions around the Google Apps Gmail & MS Online issue seemed to have been taking place since December 2008. Also, Google Apps Gmail is not the only destination server which seems to have this problem when receiving email from BPOS (interpretation issues from Groupwise & Lotus Notes have also been reported). This is a known issue in Microsoft Exchange servers - however, in the on-premise world, this is a setting that’s possible to configure. In the BPOS world, it is not.

What does it look like?
What do emails in Gmail look like when sent from the BPOS platform? See below:



Essentially, all content (text images, etc...) gets translated into a illegible winmail.dat file.

You read the same email inside of Outlook, using POP3, IMAP, or even the Google Apps Sync tool for Outlook, and the email looks just fine.


Technical Cause
The reason this happens is because BPOS servers default to sending email in a Microsoft-proprietary Rich Text Format called TNEF. And on the recipient side in Google Apps, this is only reported when mail flows through Postini / Google Message Security servers. In fact, when BPOS sends emails to retail Gmail addresses, the emails are interpreted just fine.

• BPOS to Retail Gmail = Success
• BPOS to Google Apps Gmail, no Postini = Success
• BPOS to Google Apps Gmail, with Postini, email read via Browser/Default Interface = FAIL
• BPOS to Google Apps Gmails, with Postini, email read through Outlook (POP or GASMO) = Success

Proposed Solution
Below is a proposed solution as posted on the TechNet blogs. We have attempted this, and worked closely with Microsoft and Google for a resolution, but there does not seem to be a known resolution at this time.



No resolution: Reply from Microsoft Online Services Support
Concerning your service request 100609-000749 thank you for the message header. I appreciate it. I researched this issue further and unfortunately, the issue why you cannot receive e-mails sent from a Microsoft Online company is that TNEF data sent by our servers is not supported by Postini, your message filtering service with Google. TNEF data is not a ratified standard data format for message data by the RFC organization. The best point of contact will be Google and see if they can enable support for TNEF data on your filtering service.

Issue Workaround:
• Due to TNEF data not being supported by Google, BPOS users sending to Google e-mail account is not supported.
• Please contact Google to discuss enabling TNEF compatibility on your Postini filtering service.
• Migrate completely to Microsoft Online will resolve issues also.

No resolution: Reply from Google Apps Support
This is a known issue with the TNEF format messages in Gmail shown as winmail.dat attachments (sans search will bring up a lot of results). The solution is not to send messages using TNEF format to Gmail recipients. This is the KB describing how to setup Exchange not to send Winmail.dat file to Internet Users:


http://support.microsoft.com/kb/138053

It is impossible for Gmail to fully support TNEF format since limited information about this format is disclosed. As the MSFT support puts it: "... TNEF data is not a ratified standard data format for message data by the RFC organization ..."

You will need to open a support request with Microsoft Online Services to configure these settings. Actually I found this post online about the similar issue:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/onlineservicesexchange/thread/5392fd81-471f-4338-9559-a79f9f2bd828

Tony Safoian Discusses the Strategic Value of Online Space

Bytes by TechNet, an IT Professionals and IT Solutions discussion forum hosted by Microsoft, recently invited SADA Systems CEO, Tony Safoian, to talk about data migration and implementation of Microsoft's cloud based services. SADA is one (1) of only nine (9) Elite Accelerated BPOS Partners in the Country specializing in Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Services (BPOS) suite and related cloud migration and integration services. Listen as Tony discusses common concerns and challenges that routinely plague enterprises as well as small businesses with on-premise solutions and the outstanding successes to be achieved by migrating to cloud based technology.

For example, password resets and management are a huge strain on IT resources. SADA Systems provides a quick and painless solution with AuthMagic for Microsoft Online Service/BPOS that seamlessly synchronizes passwords any time an end-user changes their Active Directory password. Easy for users, easy for IT.



What are some immediate benefits to moving to the cloud?

• Reduced IT costs
  
• Increased efficiency
  
• Improved strategic value of IT initiatives
  

And we'll leave the rest to Tony:

The Impact of Google Apps for Government

Google released a new edition of Google Apps designed specifically with security measures to handle the policy and data needs of the public sector. Google Apps for Government offers the first cloud computing applications suite accredited by the U.S. Government and certified by the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) delivering confidence to all government departments, agencies and organizations looking to migrate to the cloud.

This marks a monumental day not only for Google Apps as a platform, but for all of cloud computing. We believe this accomplishment is going to pave the way for other cloud providers to bring to market similar offerings. From our experience working with various government customers, we know how demanding their security and data requirements can be once they decide on Google Apps implementation. Therefore, we feel if platforms like Google Apps become well adopted by government, all other organizations will feel even more confident about the security and validity of the cloud at large.

SADA Systems has been assisting various levels of government and public education customers in Google Apps migration and the Google Apps for Government announcement will certainly foster confidence and interest in cloud technology migration.

AuthMagic now for Google Apps!

Coming on August 1st, SADA Systems' AuthMagic for Google Apps will enable your organization to synchronize your local Active Directory Passwords.
AuthMagic will consist of two modules:

	DLL Filter DLL filter captures the user's password, and securely transmits it to web service. Install DLL filter on all domain controllers.
	Web Service The web service synchronizes user's password with Google Apps. You can install the web service on either hosted or a on-premise Windows web server.

SADA's AuthMagic for Google Apps will be both simple and lightweight given there are only two modules to deploy. The DLL Filter and web service will also come with full logging functionality as well as the convenience of hosting the web service anywhere. As is to be expected from SADA, security is always a top priority. AuthMagic for Google Apps will be secure by design and the passwords are never transmitted in clear text. Those who purchase this tool can control which users will get their passwords synchronized through filtering rules.

Lastly, in true SADA fashion this tool is made to serve all of our clients, hence the affordable price point. For more information, please visit our CloudToolKit Website.