A Great Season for Racing!

Welcome, Welcome one and all to the Namtek Speedway! We're going to have an amazing race here today folks, let's get started by introducing our driver's and their teams! On Team PAN-thers (Palo Alto Networks) we have Darryl Jameson, driving in Absolut-ly Terrific's (Absolute Software) red rocket, and Trish Singer, driving the HiSoft-5 (HiSoftware) purple pearl. On the other side we have Team DangerDefense (Department of Defense), with driver Brian Benedict in the Titus Titan (Titus Labs) blue barracuda, and Joe Lubelczyk in the NitroNitrous (Nitro Security) silver bullet.

The drivers have already started circling the speedway today, with the red rocket, Darryl Jameson and Absolut-ly Terrific, in the lead. Behind Darryl we have Brian and the blue barracuda, Joe with the silver bullet and finally Trish with the purple pearl in the rear.

This race is destined to make history, folks- stick around for all the thrills, chills and…. CRASHES! We'll see you next time!

And now, a quote from the 2006 Pixar movie, CARS:

Bob Cutlass: We're midway through what may turn out to be a historic day for racing.

Darrell Cartrip: Bob, my oil pressure's through the roof right now. If this gets any more exciting, they're gonna have to tow me out of the booth!

Bob Cutlass: Right you are, Darrell!

Landwarnet 2010 – Providing Global Cyber Dominance to Joint/Combined Commanders

This evening three of our own, Keith Turgeon, Jim McDonald and Joe Lubelczyk, will hop a plane for the Landwarnet 2010 conference in Tampa bay, Florida. This conference is the premier forum to bring Government and Industry together to openly communicate commercial best business practices and government implementations. Along with Namtek Corp. in booth 214, many of our partners will be participating as well. The picture relating to this blog illustrates who those partners are and what booths they will be in as well. We're very excited to have the opportunity to meet with all of the presenters and see what products the other venders have to offer. A blog post to follow the event will detail all of the happenings during their stay.

"Supporting our Troops 100%"

IMC Networks

Recently Namtek had the pleasure of interviewing Robyn Waldorf, Director of Sales US West, of IMC Networks. She was generous enough to answer our standard interview questions and let us know some more about their amazing company and all the products they have to offer.

~What is a brief description of your product?
IMC Networks designs and manufactures a wide range of optical access and media conversion solutions for almost any networking application. Our product line consists of over 1,000 different solutions; from your basic copper to fiber media converter to intelligent edge access devices that deliver next-generation Optical Ethernet services to business and residential customers. Our products are Made in the USA and carry a six-year comprehensive warranty, with the exception of our SFP transceivers, and are sold worldwide through a network of authorized distributors and resellers.

~What are three things you are excited about with this product?
• Our line of Unidirectional Media Converters provides secure, one-way transmission of critical data. We provide these units for highly secure government and military networks where high-level and low-level data is stored on the same network.

• Our engineers are constantly developing new platforms and integrating new and cutting-edge features that add to the functionality and flexibility of our product line.

• IMC's products continually outperform those of our competitors. We are always getting inquiries from companies that have deployed our competition's product, and have come to realize that our ISO certified manufacturing process isn't just a piece of paper. It means that our products are built to the highest possible standards, and every one of our employees stands behind that.

~What is a shining moment your company had recently?
In 1989, we designed the world's first media converter, which at the time, we called a LAN extender. Since then, we've designed and manufactured numerous other industry "firsts," including modular repeaters and hubs, managed media converters and USB-powered media converters. IMC Networks recently celebrated our 22^nd Anniversary in the computer networking industry. And in spite of the economic downturn, 2008 & 2009 were our highest grossing years ever. These shining moments led up to where we are now.

~What is a quick, funny story you can think of about your products/company?
Some of our customers believe that IMC stands for Intelligent Media Converters. And although we do carry a complete line of intelligent, managed media converters, IMC actually stands for It's My Company, as founded by our CEO, Jerry Roby. According to Jerry, when he was brainstorming ideas for the company's name over two decades ago, a close colleague of his gave him a hat as a birthday present in which he had IMC – It's My Company - embroidered on it; and the name stuck.

~What excites you about the future of this market?
According to market analysts, the domestic demand for carrier Ethernet equipment is expected to grow steadily over the next 5 years. This forecasted growth will allow IMC Networks to bring even more competitively priced, next-generation products to our already vast product lineup. Through continued sales and support from Namtek, IMC will be poised to capture even more of the U.S. market share.

Conserving Office Energy – Save the Earth and Same Some Cash!

It seems like everyone’s favorite phrases these days are “Green Initiative” or “Save the Planet!” So why is this a big deal now, as opposed to 50 years ago or more? The average use of energy has been 335.9 million BTU (British Thermal Units—about the amount of energy it takes to heat one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit) PER PERSON from 1980 to 2006. That’s a lot of energy! The USA’s energy consumption is three times higher than where it was in 1950, mainly due to the invention of computers and the internet. In fact, computers consume 13% of the total amount of energy the United States uses every year. That’s a lot if you think about all the other electronic devices that we use—toasters; washing machines; hairdryers; gas pumps; street lamps; deep-fry cookers; microwaves; blenders; TiVos; latte machines; the list goes on and on.

What does all this energy production mean for our Earth? When an electronic device is over-used, it will often go out of commission and become what is known as electronic waste, or e-waste. In 2006, the USA produced over 3 million tons of e-waste, partly because of the 30 million computers that are thrown away each year. Most of this e-waste is exported to poorer countries, such as Ghana, where because of the trash, seven out of 10 children has too much lead in their blood. Not only can e-waste be hazardous to the health of individuals, but it also leads to what are known as “greenhouse gases.” Greenhouse gas can be created from the use of electronics, and from e-waste. Greenhouse gas, in layman’s terms, is a gas that absorbs and emits radiation into our atmosphere. In small doses, these gases were not doing the Earth much harm. In fact, they were a natural occurrence in our ozone. However, with the extreme amount of gases being created recently, the Earth’s ozone layer is depleting, leading to higher levels of UV (ultraviolet) rays, global warming and all the other scary things you hear about on the six o’clock news.

So how can we save the planet from what appears to be “destruction by electronics?” One simple way to save energy every day is unplugging your electronics when they are not in use. A largely unknown fact is that electronics, even when they are considered “power-off” can still be using 15% of their total used energy in stand-by mode. This is often referred to as “vampire” power. It has been estimated that a computer in “powered-off,” mode can use more energy in the 16 hours that it is not in use than in the eight that it is being used. That wasted energy adds up-- a total of $3 BILLION every year on energy bills.

Unplugging electronics is by far the easiest way to prevent all this from occurring, but doing so can be tedious and easily forgotten. While some companies have invested in green initiatives for their data centers (energy-star air conditioning systems, server virtualization, etc.), they often neglect to invest in a solution for their individual workstations. These stations can use up to 50% of total energy, often because nearly ALL employees forget to shut off and unplug the electronics in their vicinity.

With all this in mind, what can be done? Belkin, the leading manufacturer of computer peripherals and power/surge protection products, has come up with an amazing solution. The Belkin ConserveSurge with Timer eliminates the “stand-by” power by automatically shutting off the power to the outlets in the evenings and on weekends. The ConserveSurge with Timer features eight surge protected outlets—two that are always on (use these for desktop clocks, fax machines, and CPUs), and six outlets that are “switchable” (these can be used for less important pieces such as desktop printers, cell phone chargers, monitors, etc.) The ConserveSurge with Timer comes with a power button/timer than allows for 11 hours of uninterrupted power, with a flashing indicator when power is about to be shut off. This can easily be bypassed with a push of the button. The ConserveSurge with Timer is extremely end-user friendly, with an immediate out-of-box instant use, and since it is so simple it is compatible with everything that has a standard U.S. plug.

With all the negatives of global warming, greenhouse gases, and ozone depletion, it’s imperative that this country begin working towards a new future of energy consumption. Namtek Corp. and Belkin are committed to this idea and are ready to answer any questions involving the ConserveSurge with Timer. Let’s help save the planet, and put a little money back in our pockets (from all that saved electricity off your bill!)

Timothy Titus and Titus Labs!

First of all - Feliz Cinco De Mayo!

Namtek is very excited to announce a partner-ship with Titus Labs, a great company located in Ottawa, Canada. They offer an amazing message and document classification tool that is really well put together. We recently got the opportunity to interview Nicole Baker, the Public Relations Manager, and she filled us in on all the details!

· Could you give me a brief description of your product?

Titus Labs Message Classification is a classification and policy enforcement tool that ensures that all Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Web Access messages are classified before they can be sent. Labels are fully customizable to meet internal and regulatory marking standards, and can be used to indicate any type of information, including such things as data sensitivity (Public, Confidential), department (HR, Finance), and retention period (Archive for 30 Days). Users add classifications with a simple and intuitive interface that is integrated into their regular Outlook workflow. By enabling users to classify their emails when they create them, organizations can add structure to the vast number of emails that are sent every day.

· What are three things you are excited about with your product?

1. We offer a solution to our customers that is easy to buy, easy to deploy, and easy to use.

2. What started out as a required solution for military and government is turning into a requirement across industries, and a growing market around the world.

3. Recently we’ve added some functionality that will allow content scanning of all email for sensitive information, or personal information such as social security numbers, credit card numbers, etc. Our product now not only provides the basic classification and marking required by military and government organizations, but also acts as a data loss prevention and data spillage prevention tool. We’ve received great feedback from our customers as they see this as a way to further ensure secure information sharing.

· Tell me about a shining moment your company has had

Titus Labs is known internationally for our email security solutions, which have become the de-facto standard for many military, government and commercial organizations in over 28 countries around the world including the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium – the list goes on. 100,000 users within US Central Command (CENTCOM), including troops on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan; 100,000 users at the Australian Department of Defense; 250,000 users at US Veterans Affairs, and 150,000 at US Air Force are using our solutions. Titus Labs was recently awarded a contract by the Canadian Department of National Defense (DND) for 90,000 licenses of Titus Labs Message Classification, which will be used by DND as their standard enterprise email security classification labeling software. It’s exciting to be successful around the world, and gratifying when that success comes back home!

· What’s a quick funny story you can think of about your product/company?

You may think our organization, Titus Labs, is perhaps named after Titus the Roman Emperor of the Flavian Dynasty; however, there is a much more personal connection to the name. The name comes from the children’s story ‘Timothy Titus’ which was a favorite of a young Tim Upton (our CEO) when he was a child.

· What excites you about the future of this market?

The need for email security classification is growing worldwide, with organizations in all sectors recognizing the importance of protecting themselves. Titus Labs has designed a solution that is simple and intuitive to use as it is not always office workers using our product – it’s also being used by soldiers amid all the distractions of a live military theatre. Titus Labs is excited to be a part of this growing market and to be recognized internationally as a leader, providing products which meet the needs of government, military and large enterprises. We are eager to continue our expansion into additional markets in Asia and Europe, and to build upon the growth we have seen over the last five years.

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Once again, we were pleased having spoken with Nicole from Titus Labs, and we are thrilled with the direction they are moving in. If you have any more questions about Titus Labs, you can visit their website at: http://www.titus-labs.com/index.php

Zmanda, Inc. and Open-Source Back-Up

Here at Namtek Corp. we have had many great opportunities to meet and experience new and exciting companies. One of those great companies is Zmanda, Inc. -- an open source back-up company with many thrilling new ideas when it comes to keeping your information safe, secure, and easy to retrieve in the horrible event of a data loss.

We recently met with the Director of Eastern Region Sales, Ron Leonard, who gave us a training seminar about his product and what Zmanda can offer to our customers. After the meeting, we were able to interview Ron about some of the more interesting topics we were interested in knowing about.

Would you give me a brief description of your product?
Zmanda is the leading provider of open source back-up and disaster recovery software.

What are 3 things you are excited about with this product?
• Use of open formats! It keeps our customers always in control of their data.
• Intelligent backup scheduler! It relieves system administrators from guessing of an optimal backup schedule for their environment.
• Use of Cloud Storage as an alternative to Tape and Disk! We do support tape and local disk for backup archives as well.

Tell me about a shining moment your company had recently:
Our company has achieved several milestones over the years. We now conservatively estimate somewhere between a half-million to one million systems worldwide protected by our technology.

What’s a quick funny story you can think of about your product/company?
People ask us frequently how we arrived at "Zmanda" as our name. Well, the company is built around the Amanda project - which is the world's most popular open source back-up project. Founders of the company wanted to have a name which was close to Amanda, but had a vision which was broader than that of the Amanda project. So they flipped the "A" to "Z", and called the company Zmanda. Interestingly, a few months after the company was founded, a journalist wrote an article on Zmanda titled "A to Z of Back-up!"

What excites you about the future of this market?
Back-up is a huge market and the need for back-up will never go away. In fact, as more and more of our personal and professional lives become digital, the importance of back-up will increase even more. We are also delighted to bring the benefits of open source to the storage software market - which has been traditionally beholden to expensive proprietary vendors.

It was a pleasure being able to meet and speak to Ron, as well as have the training session to learn as much as we could absorb of this awesome product. For more information, please visit the Zmanda, Inc. website at http://www.zmanda.com/ .

USMC Conference and Jack Rabbits!

The 10th Annual IA/IT USMC Conference went off without a hitch this year, with over 200 vendor's and contractors showing up to meet and greet with the USMC and with each other. There were a number of new and exciting OEM's and vendor's showing up this time, and Namtek participated in and saw plenty of great technologies.

This year’s conference was held at the J.W. Marriott in gorgeous Desert Springs, California. It was held during 80° weather-- it couldn't have been more perfect. Plenty of people were taking advantage of the wonderful weather in the pools and spas located on the grounds of the JW Marriott. But the real excitement was inside the amazing ballroom that held the conference.

There were many great stories that came home from this trip-- however, one stands out above the rest. One of Namtek’s fearless leaders, Keith Turgeon, has a knack for easily avoiding animals while driving. His cunning reflexes allow him to quickly lean on his car horn in order to signify to the oncoming mammal/reptile, “Hey, I’m going to hit you if you don’t move out of my way.” Bearing all this in mind, while driving into the conference such an event occurred-- a very large jack rabbit, whom I have dubbed “Nammy,” bolted in front of Keith’s vehicle. Using his masterful horn skills and infinite wisdom, he alerted said jack rabbit of his presence, which apparently scared the jack rabbit into jumping into the air. Now, this wasn’t just any jump, no sir. This jack rabbit jumped a full 5 FEET into the air in front of Keith’s vehicle before moving out of the way!!! While the record for jack rabbit jumping is 20 feet, I can only imagine that 5 feet must have looked QUITE intense!

All in all, Jack Rabbit event or not- the conference was a major success and Namtek is thrilled with all the new opportunities that have been presented. Stay tuned for a few interviews with companies such as: Zmanda, Titus Labs, Websense, and more!