330: "A Cautionary Tale" With Richard Wingfield Of Envision Design

Topics:

-This week we have the pleasure of sitting down with Richard Wingfield, owner and Head Geek at Envision Design based in Houston, TX

-Richard is a frequent contributor to the show, not just on air but behind the scenes in frequent communications with the hosts

-After taking the time to emotionally recover, he is ready to share a personal story of data loss with a long time customer.

-Envision Design has minimum requirements for a Synology: + system, 4 bay or more, that support Btrfs (https://www.synology.com/en-global/dsm/Btrfs), which supports roll backs

-Their company keeps an offsite data center in Austin, TX where they can provide redundant backups for their customers.  It is out of the flood zone and drivable to quickly access their data.

-Costs for offsite backup are higher than the large companies like CrashPlan or Backblaze but the personal service and quick turnaround is a compelling sales pitch

-Richard describes some of the options he presents to his clients for data redundancy and backup. He now requires a level of minimal redundancy that he will not budge on. 

-Richard’s story is of a drive failure that went horribly wrong.  This was initially due to a software bug that was compounded by human error.

-As Richard takes us through this, we find there was a software bug with DSM 6 that began syncing local deletions on their Synology to their offsite copy.  Since the client did not want to spend money, they opted for a sync solution on the archive server as opposed to any kind of versioning.

-They relied on Drive Savers to restore data. Unfortunately, after a couple of months of working on it, all of the header information was missing so they received a bunch of files without names or metadata.

-All totaled, the burden of cost was placed on Envision Design and ended up costing them upwards of around $12,000.

-With all this talk of data restoration, Jerry recalls a story of working with Drive Savers and a rescinded commission

-Envision Design sticks with all Iron Wolf drives to populate their Synology devices with.  One of the benefits of additional health data if you go with 4 TB or greater.

-Bonding multiple NICs is another benefit that Richard’s team takes advantage of.

-Cost of downtime is a language that most clients will understand when helping them decide on budget 

-Sam is eager to look into off-site backup storage as another area of recurring revenue 

329: DAKboard & PODMod

Topics:

-Joe is questioned by Jerry about a product that he used for many years called Statusboard for iOS by Panic https://library.panic.com/statusboard/. He has since moved to a solution that runs off a Mac mini in his office. Joe recommends products called Geek Tool & Feedwind to add dynamic calendar content that he displays for clients to see when in his office

-An excellent customizable display solution called DAKBoard https://dakboard.com/site/business is what Jerry uses for his family to run his shared calendars

DAKboard at Casa de Jerry

DAKboard stock photo

Statusboard at PsiMac World Headquaters

-Jerry has an iPod eBay story to share. iflash.xyz sells boards that can be inserted into specific iPods to increase storage. He uses that along with open source software called Rock Box to play FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec ) files. 
https://www.iflash.xyz/store/iflash-solo/
https://www.dcsoundop.com/88-ipod-classic-sd-card-upgrade-w-iflash-xyz-adaptor/
https://www.iflash.xyz/prepare-sdxc-exfat-for-use-with-the-ipod/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-B2DJKKSCA

-Joe & Jerry get philosophical and reflect on how technology has changed over the years

326: Interview With John Moder of Crisp Solutions, LLC - Part Two

Topics:

-This week we continue our conversation with John Moder, owner of Crisp Solutions, LLC in Des Moines, IA

-We kick off the show talking about billing practices, MSP, value based billing

-It took John about 7 months of hourly billing when he started 4 years ago before he started being able to sign his first managed care contract

-John discusses coming up with his formula and the struggles in doing so. Jerry can relate to those difficulties.

-The hosts ask John for his opinion about value based billing on a recent episode with Tim Nyberg. Methods of efficiency and grey areas make it difficult to diagnose.

-Jerry has an tough story to tell with macOS Server 10.10 and legacy software that simply went south.

-NOC (Not Our Customer) is a concept that a friend introduced John to. If a client doesn’t get the value that we add, perhaps they simply are “Not Our Customer”.

-One of John’s customers took on an email migration project on his own, only to raise the white flag requiring emergency assistance over a holiday weekend.

-John is curious about Jerry’s one man show and that ultimately leads to business growth and exit strategies

-Hiring is not only a question of quality, but how it may directly impact your own income.

-No matter who you hire, they will not have the same desire as the owner. This is a challenge many of us know all too well.

-John attended the ACEs Conference this year and took a lot out of the experience that he can apply to his business

-John is very active on the MacAdmins Slack as @jmoder. You can also find him online at crispsolutions.net

325: Interview With John Moder of Crisp Solutions, LLC - Part One

Topics:

-This week we are pleased to welcome John Moder, owner of Crisp Solutions, LLC in Des Moines, IA

-Jerry asks John about his choice going to Synology after moving away from macOS server 

-John discusses his small team and his decision to move off on his own

-Crisp Solutions operates out of a co-working space

-Customer service is John’s focus and a building a “not transactional” relationship 

-Building a relationship with clients is of critical importance 

-Response time and letting the customer know you are aware of their situation makes a massive difference

-Jerry wonders about competition in John’s market and he talks about his relationship with them as well as with the Apple Store in Des Moines

-Building a rapport with the store is an art form that differs for each of us. Strategies are discussed. 

-With Ashleigh’s iPhone needing a replacement, Joe learns some interesting tips about repair costs and trade in values. 

-John is a very active participant on the MacAdmins Slack

-John runs into an odd issue in a Ubiquiti UniFi Deployment with a USG that would periodically stop communicating. He polls the hosts about what their next steps would be. 

-Synology backup solutions and cloud syncing tools are kicked around. John has been testing Synology’s own cloud backup solution, called C2. The thing to be aware of is that the data is stored in Germany. 

-Jerry picks John’s brain about managing Wi-Fi implementations as part of a monthly managed fee

-Ping monitoring and being proactive leads into a story about John’s ability to replace a dead AP before open of business for a customer

-John talks about keeping meticulous notes and making full rates known, even for MSP customers, to remind them just how valuable your services are

-Do you charge for notes or proposal creation? An important topic that you may need to consider. Listen to the crew and their take on the subject.

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323: Catalina Ready - Interview With Jason Dettbarn / Founder & CEO of Addigy - Cloud Based Mac Management Platform

Topics:

-This week we have the pleasure of speaking with Jason Dettbarn, founder and CEO of Addigy Technology. Addigy Technology provides Cloud Based IT Management of Mac Computers.

-Jason left his job at Kaseya to start Addigy in 2014.

-He talks about the annual Addigy User Summit, held in Miami, FL. The dates for 2020 are March 25-27. Go to addigy.com/command to find out more.

-Jason talks about how MDM is the path forward, but you need additional tools that go beyond the configuration profiles of MDM.

-Some of the macOS Catalina changes to watch out for are:
—64-bit application requirements
—Notarized software
—Z shell default

-A very interesting tidbit of information from Jason - Little Snitch is the genesis for Privacy Preferences Policy Control settings that began in Mojave

-Scripting is still a big component and Jason talks up its importance, as well as submissions from the community to assist others.

-The Addigy community is the future of the product and our peers is what makes it powerful: https://support.addigy.com/support/solutions/folders/8000086921

-With the big changes coming to macOS, blocking upgrades may be a necessity and Addigy is a tool that can assist

-The Addigy agent can also assist with peer to peer downloads of large packages, like the macOS installer

-Jerry asks the questions on pricing and how to get started: addigy.com/signup

-The fact that Addigy is a true multi-tenant platform allows consultants to have separate APNs certificates and Apple Business Manager tokens for each of their clients

-Okta integration is here and Azure as well as others are just around the corner. Keep up with Addigy updates to learn the latest and greatest.

320: Ya Gotta Monitor The Monitoring

Topics:

-Jerry follows up with Joe about clients with monthly plans and miscommunications that can occur

-Sam has a story to share about how something related to this occurred to him and he had to rectify this with the client

-Using Daylite, Sam now has checks and balances in place to make sure alerts are functioning.  He does this by using the Forms feature for checklists

-Jerry also has a similar story to share with a Gmail account that needed security features adjusted.  He also discusses the need to “monitor the monitoring”

-VMs need monitoring too!  Joe talks about using Watchman Monitoring on virtual machines

-Joe wants an easy ability to view external displays via tools like Watchman Monitoring or Addigy.  It would help when creating specs for a computer upgrade.

-Joe continues on his wish list of items to include like mouse battery alerts, applications opened over time, etc.

-PSA from Jerry about upgrades.  All consultants with Windows 7 computers should look at upgrading to Windows 10 by January of 2020

-Another tip is an app from Saint Claire Software called Go64.  This will alerts you about apps that are not 64-bit and not ready for macOS 10.15 Catalina
https://www.stclairsoft.com/Go64/index.html

-Joe tries to make sense of names listed in ALL CAPS

-Sam is put out by a client that shortens all names to one letter initials

-What’s worse is people that text Jerry with computer issues and only their number is displayed

-Clients that frustrate us make us rethink the relationship.  Joe may have more patience than Jerry in that regard.

-Google Chrome’s messaging language is still a source of annoyance for Joe

-Always coming back to password management, we discuss phishing attempts in conjunction with old passwords