Microsoft Office courses: learning environment

The training center "Network Technologies" has been conducting original courses on Microsoft Office applications since 1997.

During this time, thousands of students, employees of large Ukrainian and international companies, have studied at trainings on the use of Microsoft Office applications. Read reviews about the work of the Training Center 

Training in Microsoft Office trainings requires special attention, since we are talking about training a large number of students with different training needs and knowledge levels.

Organization of training for Microsoft Office users consists of a number of stages that allow you to effectively and competently plan and conduct training aws solutions architect associate salary.

Step 1. Choosing a direction of study

First of all, it is necessary to determine what level of knowledge in which applications should be achieved by each employee after completing the corresponding training program.

Visit the Microsoft Office Applications Courses - Go To page .

Training for each of the applications can be conducted separately, but it should be noted that training in second-level courses requires knowledge of the training material of the first-level courses. The availability of such knowledge directly depends on the effectiveness of work in the training and the perception of the material. In addition, any course on Microsoft Office applications requires knowledge of the Microsoft Windows operating system as part of the course.

Step 2. Determination of the training program. Pre-training diagnostics

Difficulty levels

Most of the Microsoft Office courses are categorized by difficulty level and labeled as Part I and Part II.

The volume of the training material of the first level courses is sufficient for those employees who do not often work with Microsoft Office. These courses cover all the basic questions you need to know in your day-to-day application experience.

Second-level courses are designed for those students who perform complex tasks in applications and actively use Microsoft Office applications in their work. Courses of the second level of complexity require knowledge of the material of the first level courses.

For some Microsoft Office applications, the program assumes only one level of complexity, however, the duration of training in these areas may vary depending on the level of training of students.

Pre-training diagnostics

To determine the existing level of knowledge on a particular application, the Training Center "Network Technologies" conducts pre-training diagnostics of users.

Diagnostics can take several forms.

Online testing. In this case, testing takes place over the Internet. Each student passes all the necessary tests and immediately finds out the result. Testing is carried out using the NTExpert testing system .

On-site testing. An employee of the Training Center comes to the client's office and tests all personnel on site. In this case, testing is carried out either using printed questionnaires, or using the NTExpert testing system .

Remote testing. This option of pre-training diagnostics is used if the customer does not have a stable access to the Internet. In this case, all employees receive identical questionnaires or their electronic copy. The results are processed by the instructors of the Training Center.

Based on the results of pre-training diagnostics, the required training program is determined and groups are formed.

Step 3. Scheduling training

After determining the number of people studying in each of the programs, groups are formed. The formation of groups can be carried out based on the specialization of the trainees, for example, a group of employees of the finance department.

The schedule of courses is agreed with the staff of the Training Center 2 weeks before the desired date of training.

Training can be carried out:

on weekdays from 9:30 to 13:00 or from 14:00 to 17:30;

in the evening from 18:00 to 21:15;

on weekends from 9:30 to 13:00 or from 14:00 to 17:30.

Step 4. Conditions of training

Training format Training is carried out in the form of training. This means that almost all of the course time is devoted to practical assignments. At the same time, real examples of the customer can be used in the classroom. The logic of approaches to the use of application tools is considered in detail.

Instructor

User trainings are conducted by certified instructors with extensive hands-on and teaching experience.

Place of training

Training is carried out in specially equipped classrooms of the Training Center "Network Technologies" in Kiev at the address: st. Degtyarevskaya, 48, office. 411. All classrooms are equipped according to Microsoft classroom requirements for authorized courses. Each listener is provided with an individual workplace.

Training can also be conducted at the customer's site, subject to meeting the requirements for the equipment of the classrooms.

Methodological manual

Each student receives a methodological manual, which is a complete outline of the course. All manuals on the use of Microsoft Office applications are developed by the specialists of the Training Center specifically for conducting trainings for users.

Course Completion Document

Each trainee, upon completion of the training, receives a Certificate of Completion from the Training Center.

Step 5. Learning analysis

Questioning

Each student, upon completion of the course, fills out a questionnaire, which allows you to determine the degree of his satisfaction with the training.

Post-training diagnostics

To determine the effectiveness of training, final testing can be carried out for all or for some of the studied applications.

Such testing should be carried out no earlier than one month after the completion of training.

Step 6. Post-training support

Within 3 months after the completion of the training, the specialists of the Training Center provide information support on the course materials.

Business Analysis in the Python Programming Language

Training center "Networking Technologies" has prepared a new curriculum NT-Python for BA "Python language for business analysts. Reporting and Data Visualization for Office Applications ” . The new course is at the junction of two disciplines, programming and business analysis, so it will be doubly interesting and useful.

The daily work of a business analyst is akin to an art, but also consists of boilerplate, repetitive procedures for collecting, analyzing and visualizing data, which can be automated using the Python programming language provisioning engineer.

Python is a scripting programming language. It is convenient to write scripts or sequences of instructions on it to perform monotonous, similar operations. It has rich tools for working with different databases and tools for integration with specialized applications, such as office, scientific computing, IT systems administration or business analysis.

The new 5-day Python programming language course is aimed at business analysts, not programming. It provides knowledge of the basics of programming and working in the PyCharm IDE. A large amount of theoretical information is reliably supported by practical work, including with Oracle and PostgreSQL databases, tools for exporting data to the formats of Excel and Word office applications, as well as to pdf and text scv files.

The Python programming language allows you to quickly create your own, unique tools for working with business data and not be limited to the logic and functionality of Business Intelligence systems. Such a versatile tool will be extremely useful for business analysts.

What is Docker and how does it work

Docker is a Linux container platform. The brand is owned by Docker.Inc, a software company based in San Francisco. Free framework Moby Project is used for standardization and development. The platform itself is offered in two editions. Docker Community Edition is community supported and distributed free of charge. To use this edition, the user does not need to take any steps to obtain licenses. Docker Enterprise Edition is supported and distributed commercially. This edition provides many additional features for administration and security.

Docker is written in the Go programming language. It is a powerful compiled multithreaded language developed by Google. It is used to develop applications for multi-core processors and distributed systems computer system salary.

Docker has several main components.

Docker Client provides command line execution of the docker CLI and interaction with the Docker Daemon.

Docker Daemon or dockerd is an API and provides interoperability with other applications. The main functionality is implemented in the Docker API.

Containerd or docker-containerd is the container supervisor and is used in start, stop, and other commands to manage containers.

Shim or docker-containerd-shim implements a daemonless container model where a container can run independently of dockerd.

Runc or docker-runc makes containers work.

Docker uses CGroup, a Linux kernel engine that manages processor, network, memory, input and output computational resources, processes and process groups, and optimizes file system mounts. In fact, Docker is a container virtualization management layer that performs its functions through the Docker API.

How Docker is deployed depends on the version and type of distribution, as well as the underlying operating system. For example, for Linux, it makes sense to use a standard deployment script. Both Windows and macOS support Linux container platforms. If you need Docker on these operating systems, you need to use the appropriate distribution and command line tools.

Docker is a secure and resilient container platform. All images or containers run on the network, their IP addresses are NATed relative to the primary host, and only the ports that are needed are published. For secure communication with repositories, for example, Docker Hub can use certificates. Docker-based solutions provide fault tolerance through clustering based on Swarm technology. A large number of Docker health monitoring tools have been developed.

Notably, alternatives to the Docker platform, such as the free OpenShift platform supported by IBM and Red Hat, use similar technology solutions.

The Networking Technologies Learning Center implements comprehensive containerization and management training programs on the Docker platform.

AZ-500T00. Microsoft Azure Security Technologies

Microsoft Azure is a cloud platform on which you can deploy infrastructure solutions, databases, applications, services, and functions. It runs the well-known office cloud applications Office 365 and Microsoft 365. Here you can also store and process large amounts of data, use ready-made platform services in order to add additional functionality to custom applications. More than 260 services are running on Microsoft Azure . For convenience, they are divided into 22 areas, including DevOps, analytics, databases, security, blockchain, hybrid environments, artificial intelligence and machine learning, integration, IoT, mobile applications, multimedia, augmented reality, development tools and several others enterprise architect vs solutions architect.

Microsoft pays great attention to information security issues. The company annually invests $ 1 billion in this area. More than 3,000 security professionals work here to ensure data protection and user privacy. Microsoft considers Azure to be the most secure cloud in the world and can demonstrate more certifications to prove the platform's security than any other similar system. We add that Microsoft Azure also complies with the requirements of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The Microsoft Azure platform was built on the "security in mind" principle. All platform services have built-in protection and threat detection tools. Specialized tools have been developed such as the Azure Security Center. The cloud can protect identities, networks, data and other secrets from the most common types of attacks such as DDoS, spoofing, or cross-scripting. It should also be noted that the "human factor" remains the main threat to information security. Microsoft Azure and other cloud platforms declare a “shared responsibility model”. This means that the cloud provider is only responsible for the “low-level” security of the virtual infrastructure and the physical security of the data center. Customers and users are responsible for the security of networks, operating systems, applications, data.

Secure cloud storage of data, including “big data”, has a high level of functionality and scalability. Data protection from unauthorized access and loss is ensured through encryption and replication, while providing the ability to use your own secret keys. Especially sensitive data, passwords, keys, connection strings, and certificates can be stored using Azure Key Vaults.

When working with any cloud service, it is important to remember that invulnerable systems do not exist, especially if they were manually deployed. Microsoft Azure provides the highest level of information security in the industry, but this platform will not be able to protect completely from the problems associated with the "human factor". Most problems in technical systems are caused by humans. Therefore, the best way to ensure the stability and security of cloud services is to install and configure them automatically. Therefore, in Microsoft Azure, everything is automated to the maximum, it provides the opportunity to use managed services or Azure Resource Manager templates. There is no need to manually deploy and configure components, the platform can handle this easily and safely.

For security administrators and information security professionals, there are many features and conveniences. These include Azure AD functionality, a security center, VPN gateway builders, specialized DDoS protection, Azure Information Protection, Key Vault, and an Azure security analytics tool. Sentinel.

Microsoft Azure is a cloud platform. For her, both landline and mobile users are remote. This means that working with them is associated with increased risks. For account management, Microsoft Azure offers a range of services under the general name Azure AD. This one-stop identity management and security platform controls over 1.2 billion identities, performs over 8 billion daily authentications, and protects users from 99.9% of cyber attacks. For account security, Azure AD provides many tools, such as multi-factor authentication, Azure AD Identity Protection with automatic risk and threat analysis and detection.

For hybrid IT infrastructures that combine on-premises and cloud computing, we recommend using the fast private Azure Express Route. This will make it possible to transmit any, even encrypted corporate traffic exclusively through a separate private channel, and not the public Internet.

It is believed that IT and agriculture are the drivers of the Ukrainian economy. It is known that companies operating in these particular industries actively use Microsoft Azure in the IT infrastructure of their enterprises. If for IT companies this fact seems natural, then for large agricultural enterprises it is most likely indicative, demonstrating the advantages of clouds in practice.

Cloud services, including those based on Microsoft Azure, have become a daily routine for Internet users. Applications only for personal computers are becoming less popular, since now we spend 90% of our time at a computer in browsers. In the future, there will be no need for applications for computers at all; Internet access to applications deployed on a cloud architecture will suffice. An important point, in this case, the issues of information and network security become especially relevant.

Summer 10% discount on courses at the training center "Network Technologies"

We spend the summer with benefit in the training center "Network Technologies"! We give a 10% discount on IT courses and business trainings for everyone who does not want to waste time in vain. Study IT all summer long at competitive prices aws solutions architect salary.

If you have been postponing training all the time, a new attractive price is a wonderful reason to improve your skills and gain relevant knowledge.

The discount will be valid from June 01 to August 31, 2020.

Send your applications for training today!

Didn't find the course you're interested in? Write to us and we will find the right course or develop an individual training program, taking into account the needs and budget of your company.

15% Off VMware vSphere Course

TC "Network Technologies" invites you to the NT-VMware vSphere course "Deployment and management of VMware vSphere infrastructure" and provide a 15% discount to all students. Hurry up to take the opportunity are architects in demand!

Start date of the course: 08/10/2020.

The course will cover the most pressing issues:

Introduction to Virtualization and Cloud Technologies

ESXi hypervisor installation and basic configuration

Creating a virtual machine

Installing vCenter with vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA)

Hierarchy of vCenter infrastructure objects. Rights and roles

VCenter Server Maintenance

Configuring and managing virtual networks

Configuring and managing virtual storage

Virtual machine management

Backing up and restoring virtual machines

Resource allocation management

Increased Availability with vSphere HA and vSphere Fault Tolerance

vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)

vSphere Update Manager (VUM)

AutoDeploy

Troubleshooting Overview

The course will be useful for system administrators and engineers who have experience with Windows or Linux operating systems.

Why a public cloud is safer than private ones

You think that a public cloud is inherently dangerous, and that the only way to achieve that level of security in the cloud, meets the rigorous requirements of your organization, is to implement your own private cloud. Do you think this is the correct statement? Unfortunately, there is very little rational about this.

In fact, serious software and hardware vendors are largely responsible for the newspaper duck "The public cloud is dangerous!" - spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) in the market. For the creation of private clouds is the purchase of many devices and applications. The last thing vendors want is for their customers to move to the public cloud, if they are real vendors. Don't be fooled.

Public clouds are generally more secure than private clouds for a number of reasons. And that's why.

Why public clouds are more secure: support skills

Public clouds are more "hardened" against hacking - hackers know where to find the most "tasty" things - of course, inside the public cloud, where the information of many clients is stored. If they could break through the "defenses" of the public cloud, they would get a lot. Therefore, the incredible number of hacker attempts such large cloud services as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and others have been tempered for many years.

Attracting the best security experts - Public cloud providers attract not only hackers, but also talent. If you are a top cloud security expert, where would you like to work: Amazon? Insurance Company? Which manufacturer or government agency? All clear. :)

The use of modern and the latest developments in security - public cloud providers are constantly building new cloud data centers, purchasing equipment and modern software, very quickly pays off due to scale. You do not need to know how their principle is implemented "to the fullest" and "incredibly fast". New developments. In full. Incredibly fast.

Why private clouds are less secure:

Complaints - It's amazing how many businesses think their DMZ

DMZ (demilitarized zone, DMZ) is a technology for ensuring the protection of the information perimeter, along which servers responding to requests from an external network are located in a special network segment (called a DMZ) and are restricted in access to the main network segments using a firewall (firewall , in order to minimize damage when hacking one of the publicly available services that are located in the DMZ (from Wikipedia)

and firewalls (firewalls) can give them proper security. If we are talking about an internal, local network, it probably provides security. Is everything controlled on the Internet? What about email? Not to mention viruses. And what about twenty times the employees uploading malware to the corporate network via phones? Nowadays, the enterprise wants a private cloud, believing that everything they used for the internal network will be crammed into their cloud and have security. Character to them in this!

Implicit Competence of Employees - Of course, your organization has many security people. They all know their stuff. Try this: Throw a big party for them. Look around for two hours. See who is this guy with the lampshade on his head? Ah, he is responsible for the security of your private cloud. :)

Not enough penetration tests - how do you validate to make sure the private cloud or any other part of the IT infrastructure is secure? Very simple: your testers run a series of security tests. Are you hiring a third party to run them for you? If all tests pass, you are safe, right? Perhaps for a few minutes until hackers apply new attacks and hit your security tests. Oops.

Outdated devices / apps in use - you've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on hardware security. In 2009. You are now in a private cloud. Try this: Ask the SPI for hundreds of thousands of dollars to replace these three year old devices. Answer? Maybe next year. Try updating your patches. Perhaps you will succeed. But don't hesitate to compare your achievements with those shiny things that are collected and updated in public clouds every day.

This article is by ZapThink, a consulting, training and leadership company providing service-oriented architecture and cloud computing for private and public enterprises.

Virtual router: what it is and why you need it

What is it service desk analyst job description

A virtual router (or virtual router) is a small virtual machine with special software. Its purpose is to route between a virtual private network (VPN) and the Internet. Actually, the operation of this VPN connection is provided by the virtual router.

We provide such a virtual machine to customers free of charge and manage it ourselves.

What is a virtual router for?

To begin with, let's consider in what ways you can connect a virtual server to the Internet:

1. The virtual server is connected directly to the Internet. In this case, directly on the virtual server itself, the network interface will have an IP address that is accessible from anywhere on the Internet. Usually these are addresses from such blocks:

193.151.89.0/24 (in Germany);

193.151.90.0/24 (in Germany);

193.151.91.0/24 (in Germany);

195.3.204.0/25 (in Ukraine);

195.3.206.64/26 (in Ukraine);

195.3.206.240/28 (in Ukraine).

In some cases, other IP addresses may be used. Note that this list is current at the time of publication of the article, however, it can and will change.

What features does this type of connection have? In this case, we do not filter traffic between the client's server and other machines on the Internet. The client regulates all access policies at the operating system level.

2. The virtual server is not connected directly to the Internet, but to a separate virtual private network that belongs to this client. These networks often have addresses from ranges that are provided in RFC1918:

10.0.0.0/8;

172.16.0.0/12;

192.168.0.0/16.

This list is also subject to change.

Thus, the server receives an address from this network to the interface, and it is the virtual router that provides routing between the private network and the Internet. Note that this only happens when the client wishes this routing to occur, since it is possible to create a private network without access to the Internet.

The advantage of this method is that the VPN allows you to set up a secure and more reliable connection to the virtual server.

How to set up the ability to connect from the Internet to a server on a private network

When connecting through a virtual router, client servers can connect to the Internet (although this can be disabled). But in order to configure the ability to connect from the Internet to a server that is located on a private network, you should already register policies for forwarding incoming connections. This can be done with our help or on your own. How to perform this procedure with our own hands, we told in a separate article . 

In this case, the network services that the client wants to make available will currently be available at one of the addresses from such blocks (although sometimes there may be others):

193.151.88.0/24 (in Germany);

195.3.205.0/24 (in Ukraine);

195.3.207.0/26 (in Ukraine).

When else come in handy for a virtual router and VPN

A virtual router and VPN will also be useful if the client needs to build secure VPN connections with remote sites or mobile users. We have already shared visual instructions on how to set up a site-to-site VPN in the cloud and a client-to-site VPN in the cloud . But you can read in detail about what happens to packets during connections inside the VPN tunnel between the user's office and the environment in the cloud, as well as when connecting outside the VPN tunnel, here .

Virtual versus physical servers: what the experts recommend

Almost every company has a choice between virtual and physical servers. The decision is usually influenced by several factors, including: Tech support engineer job description

personal experience in the past;

advice from colleagues or acquaintances;

user reviews on the Internet and more.

How can you make a smart choice? Our experts, renowned specialists in the IT industry - Spartak Polishchuk , founder of Rubicon , and Roman Gershtun , founder of ProCRM , share their opinions, which were formed on the basis of personal experience and the experience of their clients.

Despite the fact that more and more companies are moving to the cloud, some business owners are still convinced that only the presence of iron in the office guarantees them peace and security for data.

Roman Gershtun also notes this : there is one point that clients often talk about - this is the desire to have their own server and manage it, in a word, to have a certain ownership right. But in fact, if you have your own server, you need to invest in it and constantly look after it. That is why a physical server works well only if the company has its own IT department and the ability to administer these servers, maintain their operability and timely upgrade. Therefore, if you do not have your own IT staff, it is best not to set up physical servers in your office.

Spartak Polishchuk noted that in the IT field, prejudices, in the literal sense of the word, do not exist. Most likely, they can be called fears. For example, fear of the security of their personal data, coupled with a lack of fundamental knowledge of the cloud, can lead customers to use physical servers.

Roman Gershtun

In addition to possible biases, there are still many myths surrounding virtual servers. For example, that clouds are expensive or dangerous. But how is everything really?

Roman Gershtun notes that there are usually three such myths. The first is cost, the second is security, and finally privacy. “Let's consider each of them. For example, that clouds are expensive. What is expensive? When you invest in a physical server, you pay the cost, the work of the system administrator. Then spend money on upgrades and technical support for that server. And with clouds, all these services are already included in the cost of services, ”says our partner.

The second point, as Roman Gershtun notes, is safety: “Let's simulate two situations. Fire in the office or "visit" of intruders. If the server is located in your office, its level of security is significantly inferior to virtual servers. "

And the third point is confidentiality. According to the expert, if even the American Pentagon can be broken, then it is easy to guess which server is more secure: a server of a specialized organization providing cloud solutions, or a server run by a system administrator who may not even have sufficient qualifications to ensure the proper protection level.

Roman Gershtun also expresses the opinion that one should not be afraid that information may be lost on a certain server, but that the data may disappear. This is a much bigger loss than just copying data to another resource. Of course, any cloud service has a much higher level of security than a physical server.

"Of course, any cloud service has a much higher level of security than a physical server."

Roman Gershtun

Let's say you have a choice right now. It is necessary to decide: work on an iron or cloud server? The choice is not easy, therefore, for it to be deliberate, our experts share their experience, what to look for and what characteristics to compare.

Spartak Polishchuk asserts: “With an eye to the future, I would never compare a cloud with a physical server. The fact is that if you need to scale, expanding clouds is much easier than a physical server. This can usually be done in a matter of minutes. A physical server requires significant financial and time costs. For example, one of our clients wanted to scale their server by adding RAM to it. And as a result of the transition of the whole world to new memory standards, he had to look for this RAM in the secondary market, since the motherboard did not support the modern standard. And it would be much cheaper and easier to switch to the clouds. "

Roman Gershtun draws an analogy with a car: you can buy a new one, or you can buy a used one. “When leaving the salon, a new car immediately loses value. Additionally, this vehicle will need to be upgraded. When buying a used car, you save on cost, and less money will be spent on modernization, ”the expert explains. And he says that the same difference between virtual servers and hardware. 

“When you rent a cloud, pay for only the resources you need. Moreover, they can be easily increased. If necessary, you can configure the creation and storage of backups in the clouds, and system snapshots are already included in the cost of services. As a result, you will get safety, reliability and cost optimization, ”notes Roman Gershtun.

Spartak Polishchuk

Of course, there are specific cases when you can consider both physical and virtual servers to work. What exactly are these cases? And what types of business should definitely be preferred over clouds?

According to Spartak Polishchuk, there is a certain law in the implementation of CRM systems that requires data to be placed on physical servers among companies in the banking and medical sector. In all other cases, it is better to use the cloud, for example, to host the boxed version of Bitrix24.

Roman Gershtun says that the main thing is the principle, not the size of the business. “A simple example: you have an IT company that provides system administration services. There is a staff of IT professionals who make up the backbone of the business. Considering a physical server is possible when you have the appropriate staff and the necessary resources for this, - our partner is convinced. "If you are a startup and do not have this opportunity, then, of course, you should give preference to the clouds." Using the clouds, you can save on the maintenance of a staff of specialists and get more profit from the sale of goods or services. “For example, you need to build a website, install a CRM system and automate it all. If you purchase your own physical server, you will need to have staff to maintain it. With clouds, you can easily increase the amount of space, without buying additional hardware and saving time. And now it is the most important investment in business. If you understand that it is more profitable for you than maintaining a state and your own server, then, undoubtedly, you should give preference to clouds, ”Roman Gershtun shares his opinion.

“With clouds, you can easily increase the amount of space without buying additional hardware and saving time. And now it is the most important investment in business "

TuchaFlex + VPS builder test plan. 1C in the cloud

We continue the series of publications about competent testing of Tucha services, today we will talk about the VPS TuchaFlex + constructor . The range of its capabilities is very wide: from virtualizing a small application or an entire office to creating a serious data center for solving large-scale problems. Therefore, we decided not to spray everything at once, but to consider each of the possibilities in more detail. Let's start by transferring the 1C program to the cloud - perhaps the main application of most accountants.

First of all, connect to a remote desktop, as described in our instructions . You will also need a distribution kit with an .exe file of the program. It can be downloaded from the official 1C user support website. That, in fact, is all, now you can start installing support analyst.

1. Copy the distribution kit with the .exe file to the virtual machine and run it.

2. If you are using 32-bit Windows, the first three items in the window of available components should be disabled, 1C: Enterprise Server is enabled, and the rest - as desired.

64-OS ryazryadnoy all almost the same, but the choice will be binding on the two items: Access Components 1C: Enterprise server and server 1C: Enterprise .

Click "Next" on this and the next tab.

3. In the window that opens, check the box next to Install 1C: Enterprise server as a Windows service . Select or create a user, set a password and click Next .

4. On the last tab, click Install .

Now you need to transfer the existing 1C database from the local machine to the server.

5. Open 1C on the local computer, go to the Configurator , in the Administration section, click Upload infobase and specify any folder for uploading.

6. Go to Start > Computer . You will see all available local and virtual disks. In our case, Disks C and D on DESKTOP-RM7A1B0 are local, and Disk (C :) is virtual. Copy the database from the local to the virtual disk in the same way as from a regular flash drive (Copy-Paste).

7. Open 1C in a virtual machine, go to the Configurator , in the Administration section, click Download infobase and select the folder where you copied it earlier.

7 steps to an attractive website

The client today sits high and looks far away. Without leaving the computer, he can carefully probe your company and only then decide whether to do business with you or not. The first place he will look is the official website, so everything should be beautiful there. We've sifted through a ton of tips from seasoned website owners and put together the top recommendations for you on how to win the hearts of site visitors at first sight best tech support.

So how to meet customer expectations to the maximum?

1. Ensure safety

Agree, it’s unpleasant to go to a page looking for information or a product, but find malware? Not the best ad. Take steps to protect against viruses and spam .

Don't forget the SSL certificate. At the beginning of the year, we already wrote that Google has taken seriously the sites with http-protocols, which have a form of payment. Since October 2017, the measures will be tightened, now Google will warn of potential danger even on those unprotected sites where there is at least some form of data entry. Further more, the next step is to mark as unsafe all sites with http. Take care of the transition of the site to https, and we will help.

2. Take a ride with the breeze

Page loading speed is what the reader will pay attention to first. Pages open slowly - goodbye. In fact, speeding up the site is not that difficult, there are enough tools for testing and increasing the speed. The first thing to do is to apply old proven image compression . If that wasn't enough, work on caching or simplify your JavaScript and CSS. In general, there are many ways , use it.

3. Choose a quality hosting

To a large extent, both the security and the speed of a web resource depend on a well-chosen hosting. In addition, a good web host is suitable for hosting not only a website, but also email. So don't make a mistake with the provider, and if you need advice on hosting small web resources or larger projects - contact us, we will always give you a hint .

4. Give information and answers

Content is the soul of the site, and it should be interesting. Selling content is always good, but don't just chase the number of clicks. An interesting article or useful instruction will increase customer loyalty, even if they do not force him to make a momentary order. It is clear that your main goal is to sell the product, but do not be greedy, allocate some space in the list of your publications and for simple interesting things.

Broadcasting should not be one-way. Make a user-friendly feedback form in which a person does not have to fill out a million fields before sending a message. Don't forget about phone numbers and, even better, add an online chat, a great option for those who don't like telephone conversations (and there are many of them, believe me).

5. Refrain from surprises

First of all, these are self-launching videos, especially with sound - it infuriates to the point of impossibility. Sometimes you have to review a dozen open windows in order to find and pacify the "chatterbox".

Second, don't be afraid of white space. Often, site owners are literally obsessed with the desire to fill up all the free space on the page with banners or pop-up ads. Not impressive, friends. Experiments with colors and fonts are also undignified. On the contrary, the recipe is ingeniously simple: white background + black text. The wow effect is, of course, very cool, but most prefer the classics.

6. Adapt to smartphones

The world does not stand still, its inhabitants do too. In our dynamic pace of life, it is important to always stay connected - the future belongs to mobile devices. Be prepared for the fact that every year more and more people will knock on your site from smartphones and tablets, so adapt the layout not only for PCs.

7. Be simpler

When filling the site, do not be "clerks", we do not draw up a will (unless you really promote services for drafting wills). Until you know how to write simply - read Ilyakhov ... or at least our blog. :)

You can add a touch of humor to the design of some standard pages, for example, to error pages. Of course, it is better not to allow them at all , but you will not be insured against everything - the error pops up even with an incorrectly typed address. But even this can be played with benefit.

How to set up OpenVPN on Windows Server

Hello friends! Continuing the topic of VPN settings, today we will talk about OpenVPN, or rather, how to configure it on a server running the Windows operating system. The task, although simple, is multi-step, so we don't waste a minute and proceed.

1. Download the latest OpenVPN distribution from the official website.

2. Then everything is standard - start the installation and click Next . Pay attention to a couple of points.

At the stage of selecting components, make sure that all items from the list are checked.

OpenVPN_1

For example, we chose the installation path C: \ Program Files \ OpenVPN. You can specify any path, but do not forget to substitute the desired value in the next steps of our instruction.

3. Click Install . During installation, the system will offer to additionally install the TAP driver. Do not refuse, click Install again and wait for the installation to complete.

That's all with that. Now you need to generate certificates and keys.

4. Go to C: \ Program Files \ OpenVPN and create an ssl folder.

5. In the folder C: \ Program Files \ OpenVPN \ easy -rsa sozdayde file vars.bat , open it for editing and lead to the same mind: level 1 tech support

set HOME=%ProgramFiles%\OpenVPN\easy-rsa

set KEY_CONFIG=openssl-1.0.0.cnf

set KEY_DIR=keys

set KEY_SIZE=2048

set KEY_COUNTRY=UA

set KEY_PROVINCE=Kiev

set KEY_CITY=Kiev

set KEY_ORG=Tucha

set KEY_EMAIL=vpntest@tucha.ua

set KEY_CN=TUCHA

set KEY_OU=TUCHA

set KEY_NAME=server.domain.ua

set PKCS11_MODULE_PATH=TUCHA

set PKCS11_PIN=12345678

It is better to check the KEY_CONFIG value by the name of the corresponding file in the easy-rsa folder , and KEY_NAME is the full name of the server.

6. Run the command line: Win + R> cmd> OK.

7. One by one, run the following commands in a line:

cd %ProgramFiles%\OpenVPN\easy-rsa

vars.bat

clean-all.bat

vars.bat

build-ca.bat

After that, the system will start asking for confirmation of the data that we changed in the configuration file (point 5). Confirm them with Enter .

8. Run two more commands in the line:

build-dh.bat

build-key-server.bat ****

Where **** is the name of the certificate.

9. Confirm the prompts with Enter .

The system will ask you two questions:

Sign the certificate? [y/n]

1 out of 1 certificate requests certified, commit? [y/n]

Both answer in the affirmative: the Y .

10. Transfer the contents of the C: \ Program Files \ OpenVPN \ easy-rsa \ keys folder to the previously created C: \ Program Files \ OpenVPN \ ssl.

Now to the server settings.

11. Go to C: \ Program Files \ OpenVPN \ config and create a server.ovpn file . Open it and make it look similar:

port 443

proto udp

dev tun

dev-node "VPN Server"

dh "C:\\Program Files\\OpenVPN\\ssl\\dh2048.pem"

ca "C:\\Program Files\\OpenVPN\\ssl\\ca.crt"

cert "C:\\Program Files\\OpenVPN\\ssl\\cert.crt"

key "C:\\Program Files\\OpenVPN\\ssl\\cert.key"

server 172.16.10.0 255.255.255.0

max-clients 32

keepalive 10 120

client-to-client

comp-lzo

persist-key

persist-tun

cipher DES-CBC

status "C:\\Program Files\\OpenVPN\\log\\status.log"

log "C:\\Program Files\\OpenVPN\\log\\openvpn.log"

verb 4

mute 20

The value of the port select any of the available network ports, and dev-node - network interface.

12. Open adapter management in Windows network connections and rename the TAP adapter according to dev-node (in our case it is "VPN Server").

13. Open Windows services: Win + R> services.msc> OK.

14. Find the OpenVpnService service, open it, select Automatic in the Sturtup type field and click Start . Done, the VPN server is running.

Now you need to configure the client.

15. Go to C: \ Program Files \ OpenVPN \ easy-rsa \ keys and clear the index.txt file .

16. Start the command line and run the following commands:

cd %ProgramFiles%\OpenVPN\easy-rsa

vars.bat

build-key.bat clients

17. Go back to C: \ Program Files \ OpenVPN \ easy-rsa \ keys, copy the clients.crt , clients.key , ca.crt , dh2048.pem files and transfer them to the client machine.

18. Install OpenVPN on the client computer in the same way as described at the very beginning of the instructions.

19. Go to C: \ Program Files \ OpenVPN \ config on the client computer and copy there the clients.crt ,  clients.key ,  ca.crt , dh2048.pem files that you transferred from the server.

20. Open Notepad as an administrator and insert the following entry:

client

resolv-retry infinite

nobind

remote ******** 443

proto udp

dev tun

comp-lzo

ca ca.crt

cert clients.crt

key clients.key

dh dh2048.pem

float

cipher DES-CBC

keepalive 10 120

persist-key

persist-tun

verb 0

Use the remote value to specify the server's IP address and port (in our case 443).

21. Save this file as config.ovpn in the C: \ Program Files \ OpenVPN \ config folder.

22. Run OpenVPN GUI as administrator. Right click on the OpenVPN icon in the system tray and select Connect . Done!

In the process, you may encounter some common problems, but all of them can be successfully solved using the logs in the C: \ Program Files \ OpenVPN \ log folder.

That's all. As you can see, nothing complicated, the main thing is not to get confused in the order of steps. :) Take care of safe Internet browsing and store your data on a secure server . And for all near-cloud issues, contact us for advice 24/7 .

Anatoly Dengin, head of the department for the development and implementation of IT solutions SOFTKOM

About the importance of partnership.

For SOFTKOM, the main thing in partnership relations is trust in the partner and confidence that the client, whom we have jointly connected to the partner solution on our recommendation and patronage, will receive an excellent product that will partially or completely cover his tasks and ensure the development of his business ... For business growth and reaching new heights, partnerships play one of the key roles. Partners directly or indirectly help to develop and build new business solutions for our customers.

Our portfolio has a fairly large pool of partners. For example, here is a small part of them: entry level jobs in it

Hardware partners - DELL EMC, HPE, Lenovo, Mikrotik.

Software partner - LEAGUE: Law, Linkos Group, BAS, Microsoft, ESET.

Cloud Partner - Tucha, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Amazon. 

On the principles of choice.

When choosing a partner, you need to pay attention to his history, customer reviews, pricing policy, as well as how this partner can integrate with your business solutions and how you can develop them together. In addition, it is worth paying attention to the work of the people with whom you meet, their competence while solving various problems and issues.  

Among the principles that guide us when working with partners are honesty, quality and transparency of work and services, attitude towards partners and customers.

About inadmissible in partnership.

We consider unacceptable dishonest partnerships, quiet price dumping, transfer of a client to another partner due to personal or financial benefits.

About partnership with Tucha. 

We became a partner of Tucha back in 2012, when we were looking for a reliable cloud provider among companies in Ukraine that would be able to provide the services and resources we needed. Tucha was one of the first companies to provide this solution. And for 8 years now we have been working hand in hand. We are happy to recommend our partner, because we are confident in the quality of their work and the services provided. We always know that, if something happens, we will be able to find a mutual solution for a particular problem.

About Tucha's recommendation to his clients.

Of course, we recommend Tucha to clients. Whether this collaboration makes them happier can probably be evidenced by the fact that almost all of our clients who migrate to the Tucha cloud stay there. 

Shatalina

Elena Shatalina, head of the sales department of the group of companies "Fort"

About the importance of partnership.

We have been working on the market for over 20 years and, of course, many of our partners began to cooperate with us even then. For so many years we have become good friends, and not only business partners and partners.

On the principles of choice.

We always take into account the reliability of the partner, this is one of our main criteria. Over the years, clients have become close and often turn to us for advice on what or from whom to buy. Of course, we cannot recommend unreliable companies to them. The main principles in our troubled times are reliability, professionalism and speed, as well as the ratio of price and quality.

About inadmissible in partnership.

We consider unprofessional, rudeness, bad mood to be unacceptable things. :) 

About partnership with Tucha. 

We met Tucha at a seminar, then we conducted seminars ourselves, where a Tucha representative spoke as a speaker. Our clients became interested in cloud services, and so we began to cooperate. We regularly receive positive feedback on Tucha's work, offer the service calmly and are confident that everything will be wonderful.

About Tucha's recommendation to his clients.

Yes, I can definitely say that the slogan “Recommend with confidence” is perfect for Tucha!

Snapshot is a time machine for your system

Probably, everyone at least once dreamed of rewinding time back, returning to the past about an hour before the moment when something went wrong, and fixing everything. Sounds like fantasy. What if we tell you about a magic pill that can solve this problem? Our cloud has its own time machine and it is called snapshot, or in other words - a snapshot of the system.

Chief, it's all gone

Imagine a typical working day, no complaints about the system. And suddenly the moment "X" comes. The data is attacked by a merciless virus, destroying it, well, or simply encrypting it. It will take, perhaps, tens of years to decrypt, and by that time the information will lose all value.

Some ransomware viruses offer to pay a certain amount to recover information (for example, $ 100 in bitcoins). We strongly do not recommend this dubious method - it is unpleasant and does not give any guarantees. In fact, this is common extortion, in which you can lose both money and data.

As a result, if your provider does not take pictures, the situation is as follows. In the best case, you can reinstall the system yourself or request a new machine to get rid of the compromised one and restore data from backups. Additionally, you will have to configure all the software from scratch. Perhaps by that time we will already settle on Mars :) In the worst case: the system is closed, all data is lost, the chance of their recovery is too small, you have no snapshots and backups, and the provider stays away from your problems.

Drama is canceled

But if you entrust your IT infrastructure to the right provider who regularly takes snapshots of the system, disaster can be avoided. After another attack, don't worry about anything. Just use the snapshot to restore the machine disk to the state it was in when it was created. Done, you can safely continue working and not be afraid of any attacks.

A system snapshot is an image of a virtual machine disk, that is, the entire system with software and data that is stored on it at a specific point in time. It is necessary in order to return the system to its original working state in case of any critical changes support analyst job description.

How snapshots work

When you take a snapshot, the virtual machine is paused. The pause can last from a few seconds to several minutes, depending on the size of the disk and the amount of data that has changed since the last snapshot. After that, the virtual machine is resumed and the snapshot is copied from the main storage to the backup. This takes from several minutes to several hours (depending on the size of the disk). At this time, the virtual machine is operating normally. Then the snapshot is deleted from the main storage, which also implies pause, but less protracted than when it was created. When a snapshot is removed from the main storage, the virtual machine is resumed until the next snapshot.

In Tucha, snapshots are taken mostly outside business hours (from 20:00 to 06:00). But if this is the hottest time for your business, there is always the opportunity to change the time interval. The very same snapshot queue is determined in accordance with such factors: infrastructure load and the relevance of the latest snapshots.

Note: The system can only create one snapshot at a time. Therefore, it is advisable not to specify the exact time of the snapshot so that the system does not bypass your car. The recommended interval is at least 3 hours.

An important option for system snapshots is the noremove and nosnapshot labels. If you check noremove, the snapshot will not be automatically deleted, modified or overwritten. Also, a virtual machine or its disk can be marked with a nosnapshot label, then automatic snapshots for them will not be created until the label is removed.

How long does it take to recover from a snapshot? The only factor that affects the duration is the size of the disc. Depending on its size, the procedure takes 15-90 minutes.

The cost of TuchaFlex + and TuchaBit services includes the last 2 snapshots of the system. If more is needed, additional images can be ordered as needed.

Snapshots versus backups

Some people think that making backups is enough. But in this case, you only create copies of certain files. And when they are restored, the state of the system will not change. For example, in a situation with a virus that encrypts system files, closes access to the database or limits the functionality of your software, backup will not help. But the expanded image on the new machine will fix everything in no time. If, of course, you protected yourself and took pictures before the virus attacked system files.

System snapshots and backups are the best tools to use together. For example, by restoring data from a snapshot for Monday, you can also restore missing files for Tuesday, but from a backup.

conclusions

It is extremely important when choosing a cloud provider, even at the stage of consultation with managers, to clarify whether the provider takes pictures of the system. Not all companies provide their customers with such an opportunity, since its implementation requires additional investments in infrastructure. We decided for ourselves that the safety and availability of customer data is worth it.

How much does it cost to organize remote work for a company

The ability to work from anywhere in the world as efficiently as in the office is an absolute must for many companies. Cloud solutions from Tucha will help to solve this problem quickly and with the least investment (both effort and money). We will tell you how to set up remote work thanks to the clouds, and give specific calculations.

And if you are already ready to transfer the company's work to virtual servers, just contact us and we will organize everything.

What can be placed on a virtual server

In general, you can transfer to the cloud everything that is necessary for the operation of the entire company, one or another of its departments or individual employees. First of all, these are completely all the desktops of employees. You can also install on the server: Technical support job

applications for team collaboration, such as CRM or ERP systems;

accounting software (for example, 1C: Accounting) and financial reporting software (say, MEDoc);

IP telephony;

corporate mail;

almost any other specialized software;

archives, all important documents and files of various formats.

In addition to placing all programs and data on a virtual server, you can connect to the cloud the necessary devices for work, which are usually in the office, for example, a printer or a scanner.

Who can work in the cloud

We wrote in detail about who can easily organize remote work and how to do it in the previous article . In short, remote desktops can be deployed both for those who already work online and for all traditionally office workers. For example, business owners, executives, lawyers, programmers, information technology professionals, web developers, and almost anyone really can work in the cloud. Also various departments of the company: for example, customer support and selection of solutions, marketing and sales, accounting, human resources, partner department and the like.

And, of course, remote work can be organized for the entire team at once, regardless of its size. We will offer suitable solutions for both small teams and large companies.

How a remote office works

A remote desktop is deployed on the virtual server for each user. It hosts the necessary programs, applications and data - the same as on the work device in the office. The user can connect to the desktop in a few clicks from any more or less modern device. There is access to data wherever there is a stable Internet connection in 24 × 7 mode.

How much does it cost to move your office to the cloud

How to navigate the cost of placing an office in the cloud? For this, before starting cooperation, we are most often interested in only two aspects:

1. How many users will work in the cloud?

The answer to this question will help you calculate how much resources you need now. From experience, we have determined that usually up to 1 GB of RAM can handle the load created by one user on a virtual server. So, for example, if 5 specialists will work in the cloud, we will offer a configuration in which at the start there will be 4 GB of RAM. Subsequently, if it becomes necessary to increase the amount of memory, we will simply add the required amount of resources.

2. Where is it better to store data - in Ukraine or abroad?

The answer to this question determines which service you should opt for - TuchaFlex + or TuchaBit .

Services

The facilities of the TuchaFlex + service are located outside of Ukraine (mainly in Germany), in data centers with a security level of Tier 3 and higher. The guaranteed service availability is 99.9%. The service allows you to select any required number of processors, the required amount of RAM and the size of the hard disk.

TuchaBit service will help to place data in Ukraine. Virtual servers consist of blocks (units) of balanced configurations and have a guaranteed service availability of 99.0%. The TuchaBit service is scaled in units, that is, by adding a certain set of resources. 1 unit consists of 1 GB of RAM and 25 GB of SSD storage.

Why storing your data abroad is the right thing to do

This year the pressure on business has increased significantly. In the last few months alone, such large IT companies as Intertelecom, Fs.to, Nic.ua, as well as many smaller market players have suffered. At the same time, contrary to the law, in almost every case, the seizure of servers occurs, which for a long time disrupts all business processes of the company, breaks the infrastructure, especially if the local servers contained data important to maintain operability.

Obviously, the intensity of such actions will only grow, and the danger hangs not only over those who violate something, but also over completely honest businesses that work according to all the rules. After all, until it is proven that the company is not at fault, and the court decides to return the equipment, you can lose all customers, lose orders and personnel. The only effective way out in this situation is the transition to the cloud. In this case, attacks on the IT infrastructure become meaningless - all important data is stored on remote servers, ideally outside the country.

Benefits of moving business data to the cloud

The physical remoteness of servers is not the only plus that cloud technologies provide to businesses. With the right organization, the cloud provides ample opportunities for a fundamentally new construction of business processes in a company, a new level of freedom for employees and managers. Judge for yourself: Help desk technicians job description.

the cloud is a cost savings. Instead of purchasing and maintaining the operability of a large fleet of equipment and network infrastructure, it is enough to rent certain capacities from the provider (exactly enough to cover the needs of the company), and to organize the work of the office, you can use terminals or thin clients, which are significantly cheaper than conventional workstations. Additional savings - on software, maintenance;

the cloud is the safety of data due to the simple creation of backups. The backup-as-a-service add -on is a convenient tool for system administrators to automate the creation of backups of your data. Thanks to this service, the human factor is minimized (for example, the administrator forgot to create a backup in time), and the copies themselves are stored on a reliable remote server. At the same time, backups are available from anywhere in the world, and thanks to the high level of security of the data center, they are reliably protected from force majeure situations;

the cloud is a simple and straightforward expense. With cloud technologies, you can always accurately plan your IT infrastructure costs, since you pay a fixed amount per month and only for the used capacity. No hidden fees, commissions or overpayments;

the cloud is about mobility and freedom. Employees of the company, using cloud solutions, can work from anywhere - from a conference, on a business trip, from home, office, hotel or restaurant. In addition, nothing prevents the creation of an international team in which each of the members can work from their own country, and the results will not be worse than if they were all under one roof;

the cloud is scalability. Changing the allocated computing power (for the changed company size and number of employees) is easier than in any other network infrastructure option. For example, during periods of maximum load, server resources can be increased, and when there is no such need, they can be reduced to save money;

the cloud is reliability. If you choose the right provider, data in the cloud will be protected from all types of threats much better than using local servers. So, for example, we use a data center in Germany to host the servers on the basis of which the Tucha cloud is built, which in terms of security level corresponds to the Tier 3 category. This means that all network, engineering and information components are duplicated and have reserves in case emergencies occur, and service work is carried out without shutting down the servers. The performance of the data center is supported by highly qualified technical specialists, and the round-the-clock support service allows you to solve any problems in the shortest possible time.

Is there a solution to the problems?

Illiterate automation of the service department leads to problems with the service, that is, in fact, it can make your customers the customers of your competitors. Each call to technical support (or just support) is a kind of warning from the user, to which you need to respond clearly, quickly and competently. If you do not react, the appeal will be published on social networks, on otzoviks and in other places where you have to fight for your reputation and prove that you are not a camel. 

There is another unpleasant side effect of dissatisfied customers: eternally dissatisfied customers can lead to the departure of any employee, including engineers, developers, testers, etc. And this is new hiring and new money. Therefore, everything must be done to make the work of the support service simply top-notch - even if it is a bunch of inexperienced students. 

Develop a customer service manual.In no case should this be another formal regulation, it should be a complete, intelligible document written in human language, in which it is necessary to display the main duties of employees, secondary duties of employees (areas where they can take responsibility), routes of calls inside companies, application procedures, description of the software used, the most common application cases, communication style, etc. (full set depends on business). 

Select the technology for organizing your help desk.There is no need to bother and fence complex systems based on Jira, CRM or ITSM systems, get a separate software for the support personnel with which they will be comfortable to work "). Why is using such an application good?

The client can control the process associated with his request: go to his personal account and see the status of the task, executor, requests, comments, optionally - the cost of work, if they are paid. This saves time and allows the client to calm down.

This is how an application with a customized questionnaire may look like - all information is indicated in the required fields, including mandatory ones. ZEDLine Support interface

Visible and invisible for the client (who created the request) records. ZEDLine Support interface

The Helpdesk system is a system that you don't need to talk to, and there are significant advantages in this: you can describe the problem in detail and competently without getting confused or in a hurry; the problem questionnaire itself allows you to remember all the significant details; you can solve problems where it is inconvenient to talk, etc.

Each employee sees the entire scope of work and does not forget about anything.

The Helpdesk system makes communication as personalized as possible, and today it is a significant factor in non-price competition. Whoever is a friend to a client has an income ;-)

The technology alone does not guarantee perfect service, but it significantly improves the speed and quality of the support / service.

Measure! Probably the biggest mistake when dealing with customer support is not measuring performance. This is one of the most measurable divisions with transparent metrics: number of tickets, cost of work on tickets, customer satisfaction, etc. Measuring indicators is an opportunity to evaluate work, reward, introduce a system of material and non-material motivation, and therefore make relationships with service engineers and support employees long-term. It is for this reason that we have implemented a timing system in our ZEDLine Support helpdesk .

How is it done with us customer service analyst

But, of course, there is nothing worse than when the company does not have any technical / service support. Many companies have a rigid, bureaucratic system of work with clients, pay little attention to service and maintenance. Moreover, even service companies manage to keep customers at a wildly low level: with forgotten tasks, not on time, with lost requests. Friends, 2020 is on its way, your customers are fed up with marketing and sales, it is difficult to surprise and attract them, but the most expensive and most difficult thing is to keep them. Support service, support, help, no matter how they are called, is a new edge of the company's toughness in its striving to fight for customer loyalty. So let’s pay attention to the supporters, automate and simplify their work so that customers are satisfied and regular, and your business strives for new heights!