Scott Spiro Blog

Happy Thanksgiving!

As I was thinking about some of the things that I am personally thankful for, I came across an article written back in October by Lisa Terry of VSR Magazine. The article entitled “The I.T. Road Less Travelled” describes a little about the background of CSG and how we became a Managed Service Provider (MSP). 

Over the past year, I’ve made lots of new friends in our industry. Vendors, partners, and colleagues have all come together and helped the CSG team realize tremendous growth in 2008.  I am thankful to all of them for their support.

I’m also thankful for the hard work put in by our team. In addition to his considerable technical prowess, Mark Fitzpatrick, our Executive Director has worked tirelessly to bring a new level of customer service and performance to our firm. Both he and his wife Cheri have enabled CSG to enjoy a great year.

Terese Aiello, our Client Services Manager has worked behind the scenes to streamline massive amounts of information into our PSA tool, keep our engineers and projects on schedule, and keep me on track as well. Thank you for a job well done.

I also would like to thank my friends at Ingram Micro who have worked closely with us to ensure our success. They featured us in their Summer issue of Channel Advisor Magazine (“MSP’s Are Hiring”) as well as presenting Mark and myself with their “Seismic Services” Award this past August. They have also allowed us present to our colleagues and lead “break out” sessions designed to help MSP’s become more successful. Thank you Justin Crotty and Jason Beal.

As I think about 2009, I am excited about our new Sustainable/Green IT initiative that we will be rolling out soon. Green IT of course being the central theme of my blog, I will have much more to say about this subject in the months to come.

For me, 2008 represents a perfect example of how partnerships really work to the benefit of all, and I am truly thankful for everyone’s help and friendship on this Thanksgiving holiday.

Folks, I’m going to deviate slightly from Green IT topics today and talk to you about a monumental event. Well, at least to me. You know it’s funny, I kinda valued my time on an airplane as a golden opportunity to either be very productive or truly relax without worry of anyone being able to contact me. Have you thought about it? Flying gives you an excellent excuse to be completely unreachable and unavailable to accomplish anything while you’re in the air (except learn to use your “out of office” reply system in Outlook).

Well Virgin is about to change all of that thanks to their new wi-fi service called “Gogo” that is being rolled out across the Virgin America fleet. Yesterday, Virgin partnered with YouTube on an inaugural sneak peek flight that brought TV and internet celebreties on board to stream live video at 35,000 ft. Check out the official site.  In fact, they are naming their new plane “YouTube Air”!

This event was followed by a concert in San Francisco. Wow. I have a few practical questions for Virgin America however:

1. What type of security is being offered on these flights? Is there any virus protection in place to secure your machine from viruses or malware that could linger on fellow passengers’ computers?

2. Will wireless work throughout the entire passenger cabin or just upper class?

3. Are there additional fees involved to use the service?

Now, I wonder when they’ll offer this on their Virgin Atlantic fleet? I fly to the UK a few times a year and I want to know how long I’ve got before my “privacy in the sky” is no more and I’ll be forced against my will to be productive again.