Dear Reader, 

Fall is a time marked by cooler weather and shorter days, but it's a season where more than just the leaves change colors. Many organizations are scrambling to complete their objectives for the year, and as a result, many may feel increased pressure to complete strategic projects faster and smarter. From our experience of helping top Bay Area technology companies, we know this can be a challenge if you and your team are continually bogged down by day-to-day operations. In this issue of the newsletter, we are happy to introduce our new Infrastructure Managed Services, a solution that allows IT organizations to outsource the day-to-day maintenance of their servers. Learn how this solution can help free up your organization's employees in order to focus on high-impact projects. Take a closer look at a vital person behind the service, Ryan Munson, our Managed Services Architect, to learn how he utilizes his technology expertise and passion for statistical analysis to better serve you. As always, we also have many more perspectives and articles in this issue that we hope you will find interesting and useful.

Warm regards,

The Executive Leadership Team at Taos

IT Considerations in Mergers and Acquisitions

By Kathy Burkle, Executive IT Management Consultant with Taos' Office of the CIO Practice

The Merger and Acquisition (M&A) market is showing signs of life.  Due to some positive shifts in the economy, businesses are again evaluating their portfolios and developing strategies for growth and profit improvement. Start-ups and small businesses view an M&A transaction as the predominant exit vehicle, and venture capitalists and private equity firms remain open to investments in small to medium businesses.  In fact, a strategic acquisition or shedding of a less-than-stellar division or unit is often the solution of choice when driving toward satisfying the shareholders.  However, it is well documented that close to 70% of mergers and acquisitions fail to meet expected results.  Read more...

Taos' Infrastructure Managed Services Provide Continual Cost Improvements

By Jeff Lucchesi, Executive IT Management Consultant with Taos' Office of the CIO Practice

While Infrastructure Managed Services are not exactly a brand new idea, the way Taos is approaching the service is truly distinctive.  This service offers classic infrastructure operations work, e.g. managing servers and backups, handling storage and performing monitoring services, all 24/7 by 365.  However, where Taos' service is setting itself apart from its competitors is in its ability to continually improve and drive costs out of customers' operations.  Read more...

Boot Technology in Windows Vista
and Windows 7

By Jack Chen, Sr. Windows Consultant and Practice Leader

The average computer user takes for granted the fact that every time a computer is started or rebooted, it must load the operating system. The process is relatively transparent to the user, but the details of this process vary depending on the system's hardware and firmware and whether the system is booted from a disk drive, a USB drive, a network location (PXE), or some other source.  Read more...

Ryan Munson Provides Technical Savvy to Taos' Infrastructure Managed Services

By Erin Boyd, Staff Writer

When Taos entered the Infrastructure Managed Services space, we knew we needed to find an unprecedented way to provide this service.  Leaning on our long-standing reputation of always doing what's right for the customer, we were able to quickly formulate our niche for this service - provide the full spectrum of standard infrastructure management services, but also include higher level expertise so that we are continually improving our clients' operations and, ultimately, saving them money.  Read more...