File sharing has many benefits for busy companies but there are downsides too.

If one member of staff is modifying a file the last thing you want is someone else sneaking up on the blind side and making their own alterations. The result is confusion and recriminations all round – plus wasted time.

Now available from Purple Rage Software, PeerLock adds file locking to Microsoft Distributed File System (DFS), which allows organisations to build an infrastructure of co-ordinated and distributed file servers and makes it easy for users to access and manage files across a network.

The two products are a winning combination. PeerLock takes the worry out of file sharing – and could prevent a lot of arguments.

A stand-alone file locking solution, PeerLock ensures that when a user is modifying a file, no other person will be allowed to make changes to that file on any machine that the user has chosen to lock.

PeerLock, which includes real-time detection of file use and immediate remote locking, allows users to concentrate on their files, not the file locking system, and supports office branches and servers in different locations.
Other advantages of PeerLock are:

•    Installation is easy and operation unobtrusive
•    File locking and release is multi-threaded to prevent queuing
•    Failed connection retries
•    Log file reporting

To find out more about PeerLock, contact Purple Rage Software, specialised UK and European distributors working with leading American and European software manufacturers, on 01684 576343 or email enquiries@purplerage.com

Smart software has no Peers in data management market

As your company expands, the ability to effectively store, manage, protect and retain data becomes a major challenge.

NetApp storage system support allows your IT staff to effortlessly bridge the NetApp to Windows technology gap and enables different systems to work together in perfect harmony.

This smart solution is ideal for customers who need an effective tool to send data from an existing Windows or NetApp storage system to a new NetApp system and synchronise data at different office sites.

To meet file collaboration demands across mixed environments, PeerLink uses the NetApp FPolicy ONTAP API to enable real time file synchronisation and file locking between Windows and NetApp systems as well as between NetApp systems only.

Available from Purple Rage, Peer Software is used by nearly half of the current Fortune 100 companies.

PeerLink helps businesses collaborate thanks to its unique enterprise Edition file-sharing and file collaboration solution. This connects any two file server types together so that everyone in your company can always have a local copy without taxing Wide Area Network (WAN) bandwidth.

Purple Rage Software would be happy to give you more information and carry out a full functional evaluation of PeerLink. Specialised UK and European distributors working with leading American and European software manufacturers, can be contacted on 01684 576343 or email enquiries@purplerage.com

Fix this, fix that, my computer’s crashed, I’ve just lost that 5,000 word report I’ve been working on since last Friday.

Sounds familiar? If you haven’t heard any of those groans and grumbles today, you can bet your last memory stick your IT department has.

So why don’t you say ‘I love you’ to your IT folks by buying Deskcenter Management Suite, available from Purple Rage Software.

One of the most comprehensive product portfolios on the market, Deskcenter helps IT managers save time and perform all processes in your company quickly and reliably.

The product allows servers, PCs, assets, configurations and applications to be administered from one central point. All functions are included right from the start and modules are added by changing the license key at any time.

Deskcenters has many advantages – here are just a few to whet your appetite.

OS deployment – The suite allows you to install complete operating systems.

Software deployment – Supply departments, groups or users with the software they need.

File and contract repository – Store, find and connect files, documents and contracts.

Reporting – Run valuable and relevant analysis on collected data.
Real-time system management – Use all the commands that can be run on a workstation.

Service calendar – Manage all support employees’ appointments so nobody is forgotten about, especially that bloke and his 5,000 report.

For more details about how Deskcenter could transform the way your company works, contact Purple Rage Software, specialised UK and European distributors working with leading American and European software manufacturers, on 01684 576343 or email enquiries@purplerage.com

Office bins overflowing with waste paper are a cleaner’s nightmare – and they’re no good for your bottom line, either.

Just think of all those documents your employees needlessly print on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.

You could stand over their shoulders and yell “noooooo!” every time they reach for Control + P.

Or you could take the less stressful option by investing in Print Manager Plus, now available from Purple Rage Software.

It seems there are lies, damned lies and statistics, though you’ve got to admit the following stats are impressive.

A college in Rennes, France, with 1,200 students, 130 staff, 350 workstations and 14 networked printers installed Print Manager Plus two years ago. Since then, they’ve saved between 200 and 300 reams of paper each month and cut down on ink, electricity, printer repair and maintenance costs. And the total saving per annum has been £13,500. What’s not to like?

Print Manager Plus limits users’ ability to print their files and allows you to share networking printing data within your company – whether you are a small business with two printers or a large enterprise with thousands.

You can plan your budget needs and flow data easily or, if you want your computer to take the strain, set it to automatic to activate a built-in scheduler that will send reports and graphs via email and save to a share on the server.

Oh, and if you’re still wavering, manufacturers Software Shelf International have been included in the online directory www.guidemegreen.com for saving more than 150,000 trees a month worldwide. Makes you want to go and hug one right now.

To find out more about Print Manager Plus could save your company money, contact Purple Rage Software, specialised UK and European distributors working with leading American and European software manufacturers, on 01684 576343 or email enquiries@purplerage.com

IMAGINE the horror of losing all your company’s data, how do you protect your critical data?

Your company requires the highest level of performance, reliability, automation and of course cost effectiveness, then look no further.

Available from Purple Rage Software (www.purplerage.com) PeerSync heads the field in terms of performance, reliability and value for money.

Designed for servers, workstations, desktops and laptop computers, PeerSync breezes through file synchronisation, mirroring and replication, distribution, file and database back up.

And as your business expands and IT requirements change, it can be enhanced by complementary products including PeerLock for distributed file locking.

PeerSync provides high-end data backup and recovery, protecting valuable data and offering an ease to use solution for your everyday data retention needs.

Other products in the Peer range are:
PeerSync Workstation – This workstation/laptop synchronisation solution provides real-time and scheduled synchronisation and back up of files to servers as well as other workstations.

PeerSync Server – This file mirroring, backup and distribution solution is installed directly on the server and synchronises from PC to server or server to server.

To find out more about PeerSync, contact Purple Rage Software, specialised UK and European distributors working with leading American and European software manufacturers, on 01684 576343 or email enquiries@purplerage.com

This time round we consider the costs and difficulties of managing printers, and how to control their associated costs.

So, how many printers does your company own? How many people are on staff, and how many pages do they print each day? Do some people use those expensive color printers for everything they print? Try to add up the cost of paper, toner, ink cartridges, the maintenance, wear and tear on the equipment, and you begin to get the picture! Despite this huge expense and its impact on profits, most organisations both big and small just view it as “the cost of doing business” since it’s impossible to control without the right information and tools.

There is an easy solution to these “hidden” printing expenses. They can be easily managed – Print Manager Plus.

Print Manager Plus allows you to monitor Users, User Groups, and Printer usage for a complete print management solution. This system gives you control over these valuable resources, namely printers, paper and toner. No more wasted budget resulting from uncontrolled and irresponsible printing. You’ll be amazed how much you can save by just tracking this outflow.

Print Manager Plus allows you to monitor and reporting on all printing activity on a Windows NT/2000/2003 network. It will track pages being printed from Windows 2003/2000/NT 4.0, 3.51, Windows XP, Windows 98, Windows 95, Windows 3.1, DOS, Macintosh, UNIX (all flavors), and OS/2 clients.

Print Manager Plus installs in seconds on any Windows Print Server or Work Group and is so cost-effective it often pays for itself within 10 days. If you run on budgets and especially if you are responsible for printing, you need Print Manager Plus.

Print Manager Plus:

• Tracks, controls and reports printing usage and costs across networks.
• Budget or restrict users by dollar (or any currency) amount, number of pages per job, job size and file type.
• Restrict printers by number of pages per job, job size and file type.
• Complete cost and usage accounting.
• Complete reporting.
• Client Billing and Authentication Module available.
• Simple licensing. The product is licensed by print server. Each license covers UNLIMITED printers, users and workstations.

If you would like to learn more about what Print Manager Plus can do to hel;p you manage your printers more effectively, please visit http://www.purplerage.com/printmanagerplus. A 30-day trial is also available from our site at http://www.purplerage.com/download1.php?prod=080.

Parallels Desktop for Mac version 3 is now available and better than ever before. You thought the previous versions brought you leading-edge functionality, well check out version 3.

Parallels allows you to run Windows, Linux, and more side-by-side with Mac OS X on any Intel-powered Mac, without rebooting. With Parallels’ award-winning virtualization technology, you can run Mac OS X and your favorite Windows applications at the same time. You can even drag-and-drop files between desktops!

The latest release of Parallels Desktop for Mac comes packed with 50+ new features and enhancements, including SmartSelect, Snapshots, and 3D graphics. Learn more about the new capabilities in the latest release of this award-winning product.

With the latest version of Parallels, you can:

• Use Windows and Mac OS X at the same time… without rebooting
• Run Windows programs like native Mac applications with Parallels Coherence
• New! Open Windows files with Mac programs and Mac files in Windows programs with Parallels SmartSelect
• Share files and folders between Windows and Mac OS X
• New! Browse through Windows folders and access files without launching Windows with Parallels Explorer
• New! Run today’s most popular PC games on a Mac with support for 3D graphics
• Achieve maximum performance by leveraging Intel® Virtualization Technology
• New! Protect your Windows with Parallels Snapshots

To get more details or to download a free trial visit www.purplerage.com/parallels.

Had a very interesting conversation over coffee with an accounting friend this week. He was cursing the problems he’s having with his newish laptop, and lamenting the stability of an old Tosh that’s still working faultlessly. I knew he was thinking about a Macbook Pro as a replacement, but now it seems thinking and getting have changed places. Why? Apparently the word on the grapevine in accounting circles is that if as an accountant you want a very stable platform for running your accounting packages like IRIS and Sage, you cannot go very wrong by getting yourself a Macbook Pro, and a copy of Parallels Desktop for Mac. He described it as bullet-proof!

You get the stability of Mac OSX, the ability to run all Windows operating systems in a Parallels virtual machine, and the option to run a new install of Windows or “virtualise” your old PC into a virtual machine that you can then run in Parallels. Furthermore, you’re able to run multiple virtual machines so if you need to have multiple versions of, say, Sage, to meet the various needs of clients, you can.

Need to keep prying and nosey eyes aware from the applications and data held in a virtual machine, its easy with Parallels. Simply switch the virtual machines network settings to host networking, and its immediately blocked from the rest of the world. If it must have access to the Internet, you can turn it on only when you need it. Pretty hard to hack a system when its not on the network!

A Macbook these days, even with 3 GB of RAM, is pretty much the same price as a good PC laptop. And Parallels? If you go to the Purple Rage store, its only £49.50 inclusive of annual maintenance and support.

MacWorld magazine recently ran a poll of their readership. The question they asked was “Do you want to run Windows on your Mac?” Guess what, 63% said that they would run Windows on their Mac. The really great thing with Parallels Desktop of Mac is you can run Windows on it without affecting MacOS X. In fact you can sandbox Windows so it is only able to run in its own environment without being able to even access the Internet (host networking). Will be interesting to see which version of Windows people buy given that if they are going to run Vista they must buy the business editions. Looks like XP could still be a winner for Microsoft even when its been superceded.

As a UK distributor for Parallels, Purple Rage are offering a free 30 day trial of Parallels Desktop for Mac, the leading virtualisation solution for Mac, which allows Mac users to run Windows simultaneously. To get it simply go to www.purplerage.com/parallels. If you like it you can also buy through our store for 24 hour delivery at £49.50 ex vat. Visit store.purplerage.com.

Over the last few days we’ve had a number of clients asking about Parallels and whether they can run MacOS 9 in a virtual machine. Whilst others want to run Vista. Whilst the latter is mostly certainly possible (with a few qualifications), the former most certainly is not.

Its not that its technically impossible to run MacOS as a Parallels virtual machine. More that Apple does not permit their operating systems to be run on anything other than physical Apple hardware. We understand that whilst this issue has been raised with Apple, nothing has come of it so far. Let’s hope something does in the future, saving users from having to keep old and failing hardware going.

As for Vista, unless you’re running Vista Business, Ultimate or Enterprise, you’re not allowed to run Vista at all in a virtual machine. Not even if you’re running Microsoft’s own VM application! This is very explicitly declared in the EULA that accompanies the software. Seems Microsoft is being either greedy or shortsighted. By excluding the Home editions, potential users will either be driven away by the higher cost, or will simply head straight for the Windows XP second-hand market.

If you want to learn more about Parallels virtualisation software, check out the product page on Purple Rage’s website.