New York City Opens New Data Center

Posted on March 12, 2011 by dzineit

The city of New York has opened a brand new consolidated data center aimed at combining information from more than 40 government agencies. The new data center is expected to save the city nearly $100 million in the next five years.

The new 18,000 square-foot facility, located in downtown Brooklyn, was unveiled last week and, according to officials, will initially house consolidated data from 19 agencies within the next year. The move is part of the "NYC Simplicity" initiative aimed at making government more efficient, innovative and customer-friendly.

Until now, New York City operated dozens of data centers, without basic capabilities. These centers lacked 24/7 support, fire suppression, emergency recovery, and security. However, the new center, created through the Citywide IT Infrastructure Services Program, will enable the city to expand shared services, reduce costs, and provide modern, reliable, redundant, secure and green technology services.

Officials say that the initial cost of the data center will be $11.7 million, which includes hardware, software, equipment, facilities build-out and leasing costs.

Currently, the data center hosts the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment's IT operations, the Department of Sanitation's IT Service Desk, and the Department of Education's 'HR Connect' application. These systems support approximately 140,000 users and their consolidation, according to officials, will save roughly $200,000 annually.

The City of New York is working with IBM to migrate agency data to the new consolidated data center and expects the consolidation of 14 of its 50 agency data centers by the end of 2011.

In addition to the new consolidated data center, the city is currently developing a collaborative, unified citywide IT strategy in which agencies will share operating systems, servers, and development and collaboration tools in an effort to reduce hardware and personnel costs.

Dual Rail KVM | Technology Blog

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Blekko Aims for Google with New Publisher Tools

Posted on March 12, 2011 by dzineit

Blekko, the new search engine that aims at eliminating spam search results by allowing users to search a subset of the web through its proprietary slashtag technology, has announced a suite of cool new publisher tools. Publishers can now visit Blekkogear (www.blekko.com/ws/+/blekkogear), the company’s online source for free Blekko tools, including the new Live Link Roll and embeddable search box.

The Blekko Link Roll is an embeddable site widget that shows links to a site as they happen in real time, assuring that SEO is being done by the rules.

In many ways, links are a badge of honor. They are essentially an external validation of a site by the linking party.

When the Blekko Link Roll is featured on a website, it shows off the various links that the site’s content is generating, in real time.

Links play an important role in SEO and the link widget allows sites to show link transparency. Recently, some top companies got some bad press for fooling search engines into giving them a higher ranking that they didn’t deserve.

In addition to the link widget, Blekko is also offering an embeddable search box for site owners to create a customized search experience tailored to specific content and specific sites. The goal is to allow publishers to curate search sources, based on their own expertise, and return spam-free results.

Blekko launched in November promising to create a new kind of search experience that would rival Google and Bing by eliminating spam and personalizing the experience. Since then, the company has attempted to rid the web of spam, but more importantly to topple Google, but success has been slow. These new free tools are a great way for Blekko to continue to spread the word to the unconverted.

Copyright 2011 dzine it, inc. website marketing All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Google Algorithm Tweaks Have a Negative Effect on Content Farms

Posted on March 11, 2011 by dzineit

Now that some time has elapsed since Google took aim at content farms, some websites are really feeling the pinch. The goal of the algorithm changes, according to Google, is to offer higher quality search results.

A content farm is a company that employs large numbers of writers to generate large amounts of content specifically designed to satisfy algorithms for maximum search engine exposure.

It's not simply the fact that a content farm produces a lot of content tailored to search engines, but the fact that much of the content is poor, often irrelevant and not useful.

Google has said that the algorithm changes will result in sites with shallow or poorly written content, content copied from other websites, or information that people don't find that useful, being demoted and the change has already had an effect.

Google has said that the changes would affect approximately 12 percent of its search queries. An example of a content farm, according to company officials, is Demand Media, which operates a number of websites including eHow.com and Trails.com.

A new report states that the following websites were the top ten on the losing-end of Google's new algorithm:

' wisegeek.com
' ezinearticles.com
' suite101.com
' hubpages.com
' buzzle.com
' associatedcontent.com
' freedownloadscenter.com
' essortment.com
' fixya.com
' americantowns.com

It will be interesting to see what other websites are affected by this change. Only time will tell of Google's algorithm changes really work.

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A Warning About Wasting Money on Bad Website Design

Posted on March 9, 2011 by dzineit

Many small businesses will spend a substantial amount of their marketing budget on website design projects this year. However, business owners need to beware of poor website developers and designers.

Even with good planning, many small businesses will end up wasting money on bad website design and development this year. As businesses begin to finalize their Internet marketing budgets and prepare to start spending money, it is important to keep a few things in mind. We have had record numbers of clients that have contacted us to salvage web development projects that have gone wrong.

As a result, we've created the following list of tips to avoid getting ripped off:

Educate Yourself. A small business owner doesn't need to know everything about website design and development. However, having a general understanding about what it takes to create a successful website can go a long when choosing a website development firm.

Pay a Fair Price. The bottom line is that a professional website design or development project costs money. Getting the best deal or the most bang for your buck, is not the way to approach a website development project. I always tell our clients, you get what you pay for. Please keep that in mind.

Research Potential Candidates. Be sure to review the website designer's portfolio. Determine whether or not the designs are aesthetically pleasing, functional and error-free. Do not be afraid to check references.

Learn to Integrate. It is imperative nowadays for small business owners to know how to and be able to manage their website content and integrate it with social media tools, analytics and external programs that your company utilizes in the course of business.

Agree on a Proposal. Every website designer and developer should supply its clients with a scope of the proposed project that will specifically outline what will be delivered and how much it will cost.

By following these guidelines, small business owners can avoid getting burned by poor website design and development companies.

Copyright 2011 dzine it, Inc. website design All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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