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Google Apps File Audit Tool
Baker have just launched a world first free Google Apps file audit tool. This revolutionary report program can scan all your sites, documents and calendars and show you exactly who has access to your information. For network administrators it is an essential Audit tool showing external auditors exactly who has access to what Intranet site pages. This tool is a major step forward to ensure that accidental or malicious user disclosure does not occur. To use the tool for free just click here.
GAA goes gaga for Google Apps
GAA goes gaga for Google Apps
he Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) has moved its e-mail system over to Google’s Apps Gmail for Business in what has been one of the Association’s most successful projects ever. The new e -mail system went live last year and is just one strand of the Association’s ambitious multi-year technology plan.
By any measure, this project was a huge success. Now, 100% of GAA Club Secretaries and all staff in Croke Park – some 6,000 users in all – use Google’s Apps e-mail service to access their mail in the course of their duties. In any given 24 hour period, up to 2,000 club officials log in to their Goggle Apps e-mail account and 75% of all accounts are accessed at least once a week.
“We are really thrilled at the outstanding success of this project” commented Nickey Brennan, former GAA President and currently head of its IT & Communications Committee. “The GAA is a volunteer-led organisation and as such it has a major responsibility to communicate with all its stakeholders every day on all aspects of the Association’s business”. The switch to the new e-mail system went very smoothly and is testament to Google Apps ease of use, Brennan said.
The GAA previously had an in-house e-mail server to communicate with its Officials. Over time that number grew to around 6,000 users, but individual mailboxes had insufficient capacity to store the required volume of messages. Response times from the server were also becoming unacceptable.
The GAA asked Baker Security & Networks, with which it has a long standing working relationship, to evaluate upgrades to its e-mail system in the Spring of 2008. The GAA had expressed a preference for cloud computing, where the service would be delivered over the Internet instead of an in-house hosted service. Following a competitive tender in Autumn 2008, the Association chose Google’s Apps Gmail service, which has now been implemented by Baker Security & Networks.
“Using the Google Apps hosted e-mail service will reduce support costs considerably, plus the GAA will have no administration in terms of servers and no data centre costs, so it made sense to go with that cloud computing model. Globally, GMail has amassed more than 100 million users, so clearly scale was not going to be an issue,” comments Robert Baker, founder and Managing Director of Baker Security & Networks.
A requirement in the tender was that the winning bidder could one day potentially provide an @gaa.ie email address to the entire GAA membership, which amounts to more than half a million people on the island of Ireland.
The move to Google Apps Gmail has been a major factor in helping the Association to reduce its communications costs. “Once the decision was made to implement the Google solution, work on transferring users from the old system commenced immediately. We migrated every user over the course of a single weekend and we wrote specialist software to allow all users bring their old e-mail records over to their new accounts,” Baker says. The GAA, led by its I.T. Manager Declan Fanning and assisted by Bakers, undertook an active training programme across the country on a county-by-county basis. “The key to the success of the project was having a very strong training campaign coupled with a strong Helpdesk,” says Baker.
Baker’s team put in place a frequently asked questions page on the GAA website for the more technically literate members, as well as creating a series of brief video presentations hosted on the YouTube website. These clips lasted between 30 seconds and two minutes, using screen captures and voice-overs to demonstrate how to send e-mails.
The next step for the GAA is to implement other aspects of Google Apps technology for its members. Document sharing is already available, while Google Sites will allow clubs to set up their own web sites and provide relevant information to their members. These services are also being made available through a managed service from Google. This is a big help to clubs as all aspects of the service is now provided from one source making it easier to manage and operate.
Google’s calendar tool, which can be accessed directly from Google Apps, is a powerful way for people to organise their schedules, but where it really comes into its own is for managing resources such as a club’s pitches and facilities. A calendar, accessible to any GAA member on the Internet, can show when the pitch is free and would allow members to book the pitch for an under-14 challenge match, for example. Players could also subscribe to their team’s calendar and receive a free text message whenever it is updated, or with a reminder about an upcoming match.
During the tender process the GAA was very impressed with Google’s additional services such as Google Maps and YouTube. The attraction is obvious – mapping could be used to show the location of any club in the country, while the Association generates large volumes of video from its games.
ENDS
Go Google – Save Oodles Cloud Computing Seminar - Update
Due to overwhelming demand the seminar is now full. If you wish you can continue to register and be early in the queue for the February seminar.
Please Register Here
Go Google – Save Oodles Cloud Computing Seminar
Baker Security & Networks in partnership with Google Enterprise are hosting a Cloud Computing Seminar on Thursday 28th January at 11am in Google’s Irish headquarters at Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4.
The Internet has evolved from a place where business publish and find information into virtual workplaces where employees now create, store and share the information they need to do their work. At this seminar you will see how Google Apps web-based messaging and collaboration platform creates tremendous time and cost savings for your business while providing employees with powerful easy-to-use tools that will improve how they work together securely.
Please Register Here early as places are limited.
A Gift for Christmas
This year Baker again made a donation to the De Paul Trust, to help them fund the ‘wet house’ they run for the Dublin homeless.
http://www.depaultrust.ie/how_to_support_us/ways_to_donate_page1.htm
This is the second year running we have given a substantial gift to this local charity, in lieu of giving gifts of alcohol to our customers. A ‘wet house’ is a hostel for the homeless with drink and drug problems who might not otherwise get into a normal hostel.
http://www.depaultrust.ie/our_services/projects/clancy_nightshelter.htm
We thank you for your business allowing us to make this gift possible.
Baker Launch new Juniper SRX device
Baker has already installed nearly a dozen of the new Juniper SRX firewalls, which it has just recently started selling. The new SRX range break all price performance barriers in the Irish firewall market. Baker see the SRX as a core to their managed service offering. Baker are the only fully accredited Juniper Security partner in Ireland.
Baker now creating Google Apps accounts for .ie Domains
As a Premium Irish partner of Google, Baker is now able to create your Google Apps .ie domains in just minutes. Using a special interface, we now have the ability to comission and enable domains in all regions of the world.
In particular our team are also trained to help you run your mail domains in parallel, (being able to let you use Google, while migrating from your old email server), migrate from legacy servers, enable your legacy mail clients on Google, train your staff, offer help desk support and much, much more.
Read how Baker rolled out Google Apps for the GAA, Ireland’s largest non-commercial organisation.
Also see what the Irish Independent had to say about this.
For Google, call Baker - (353) 01 638 4800.
GAA ploughs in to lead with Google Apps
IT guy Nickey was on the ball at Croker
Thursday June 25 2009
While Nickey Brennan’s term as president of the GAA may have ended, some of the fruits are just beginning to filter through.
Brennan, remember, was really the first modern corporate animal to be the ‘Cais Mor’ at Croke Park, given his background as a senior suit with Avonmore/Glanbia.
One of Brennan’s strengths was his feel for IT innovation and the organisation’s one-time flimsy technology has improved beyond recognition.
While online ticketing and the streaming of games are the sexy, visible parts of the picture, creating a simple and practical framework that can integrate the thousands of GAA clubs — small and large — is no mean achievement. Indeed, the association was one of the first sporting organisations to run its IT network largely through the utilisation of ‘Google Apps’ as against the old traditional server system.
Croker insiders tell me that the association is most pleased that its current IT infrastructure is proving to be robust, low maintenance and cost-effective.
Brennan continues to head the committee that manages this part of the Croke Park business and his foresight in dragging a sometime unwieldy organisation along deserves to be noted.
Baker becomes Google Apps Partner
Ever wonder how much your customers might save when using Google Apps instead of an on-premise system like Exchange 2007? If so, check out the new savings calculator on the Google Apps site:http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/messaging_value.html.
Contact sales@bsn.ie to find out more.
GAA to use Baker to roll out Google Corporate Solutions
Baker selected as implementation partners for massive Google roll out inside GAA.
Baker are delighted to be associated with these two giants, one in the sporting world and one in the technology world. We believe the principle reason the GAA has become one of the leading amateur sports organisations in the World is its ability to adapt. Its new relationship with Google will put it at the forefront of technology and information management.
