Contour Blog

CONTACT:          
Rocco Guerriero
Contour Data Solutions, LLC
roccog@contourds.com
484-235-5135

Inc. Magazine Unveils Exclusive List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies-The Inc. 5000

Contour Data Solutions, LLC Ranks No. 1190 on the 2011 Inc. 5000

CONTOUR DATA SOLUTIONS NAMED TO INC. 5000

Philadelphia PA, September 30, 2011–Contour Data Solutions, the leading provider of Data Management Solutions in Delaware Valley area, announced that the company was named to the Inc. 5000 list for the second time after only four years of business.

Rocco Guerriero, CEO and Founder of Contour Data Solutions, commented on making the list for the second year in a row: “We’re happy to again be included on this exclusive list of growing companies. We’ve expanded our business and grown our team, all the while remaining focused on the platform and services we provide to help our customers.”

 This year Contour Data Solutions placed in the top 1200 at #1190.

Robert Bell Jr., Director of IT at Harte-Hanks Inc., comments: “Contour provides us with unbiased analysis and purchasing of best-of-breed vendors. I look forward to our continued relationship and I cannot recommend them enough for anyone who needs a trusted partner.”

 About Contour Data Solutions, LLC

 Contour Data Solutions is the premier provider for Strategic IT Solutions and Data Management.  Contour is comprised of senior technology experts. The core focus of Contour’s business strategy is the customer.  Contour takes the time to know your team, know your technology, and know your business.  

Contour helps you bridge the gap between the business and technology to avoid costly delays in projects and misaligned expectations.  They will work with your team to identify the business goals, the budget constraints, and the technology integration issues.  Contour will take your defined strategy and work with their extensive partnership network to get you the right deals on the products and technology you need to fulfill that strategy.  In the end Contour will make sure that your solution is the right solution today and for the long term.

About Inc. Magazine    

Founded in 1979 and acquired in 2005 by Mansueto Ventures LLC, Inc. (www.inc.com) is the only major business magazine dedicated exclusively to owners and managers of growing private companies that delivers real solutions for today’s innovative company builders. With a total paid circulation of 712,961, Inc. provides hands-on tools and market-tested strategies for managing people, finances, sales, marketing, and technology. Visit online at Inc.com.

OVERVIEW:

1. $/IOPS for EFD positioning

2. DD670 product announcement

3. THANKS TO OUR PARTNERS from George Hope

4. EMC Reports Record Q2 Revenue

NOTE: If you have any Avamar customers wanting to upgrade to vSphere 4.1, please be mindful that we currently do not support vSphere 4.1 with Avamar 5.0.2.  There is a new SP release that will hopefully be released before the end of August to support it.

1. $/IOPS for EFD positioning

When trying to explain the difference between $/GB and $/IOPS, I often get asked for real world examples.  So 1 of my peers put together a simple little table that shows two examples – 5TB of capacity verses 5,000 IOPS.  Feel free to reuse. You can also simplify it by showing fewer drives and omitting the list price column.

The attached spreadsheet also includes a spindle calculator I use to determine # of spindles.  This is helpful for explaining RAID overhead.  Just change the # of reads and # of writes to get the result.

1. DD670 product announcement

Below is a summary of the DD670 product. I have also attached an email which, along with links to DD670 information, also includes links to other BRS product introductions, white papers, etc.

View web version

Q3 Product Announcement: Introducing New EMC Data Domain DD670 Deduplication Storage System

Today, we announced the EMC Data Domain DD670, a new midrange deduplication storage system that drives continued price/performance advantages into the Data Domain product line, allowing you to compete more effectively and further promote backup redesign with deduplication.

EMC also announced a new 2 TB drive expansion shelf option for specific Data Domain deduplication storage systems and a new deduplication storage expansion option for the EMC Disk Library for mainframe (DLm) system. The public announcement also included the Disk Library 5000 series, which began shipping in Q1 2010.

Announcement Highlights

· New EMC Data Domain DD670 is now the fastest and most scalable deduplication storage system in the Data Domain DD600 Appliance Series, increasing throughput by 100 percent and more than doubling raw capacity from 36 TB to 76 TB.

· New 2 TB drive expansion shelf option for the DD670, Data Domain DD880, and Data Domain Global Deduplication Array reduces rack space required for expansion shelves by half.

· New Deduplication Storage Expansion option for DLm—Based on the Data Domain DD880 deduplication storage system, your DLm960 customers can now gain the benefits of inline deduplication for their backup and archive workloads.

The new DD670 and ES20 2 TB drive expansion shelf are orderable now through the Data Domain ordering system and will be available in Q3 2010. Please engage your BRS Sales Representative for ordering.

The new Disk Library for mainframe DLm960 Deduplication Storage Expansion option is now available in Channel Express for ordering and shipping. The cabinet for the Data Domain DD880 and the required connectivity kit is orderable in Channel Express by selecting the DLm960 “deduplication” option.

Learn More: Get Your Sales, Technical, and Education Resources
New and updated content to support this announcement — including FAQs, customer presentation, data sheets, art files, and more — is available on Powerlink in the subsections of the following path:

Home > Products > Hardware/Platforms > Data Domain

Home > Products > Hardware/Platforms > Disk Library Family

Drive Demand. Drive Revenue.
Grow your business today with Velocity Powered Campaigns — flexible, customizable, and affordable demand generation programs:

· Capitalize on market opportunity — Help your prospects solve today’s IT challenges.

· Differentiate your business — Select campaigns that reflect your specialized IT capabilities.

· Maximize profitability — Build awareness and generate leads to fuel your business.

Together, EMC and our valued Velocity Partners can offer solutions right now that will solve your customers’ greatest challenges and prepare them for what comes next. For more information or to begin executing your Velocity Powered Campaigns please visit the Velocity Partner Marketing Guide.

© 2010 EMC Corporation.
42 South Street, Hopkinton, MA 01748. All rights reserved.

2. THANKS TO OUR PARTNERS from George Hope

A reminder of our Q3 Channel Strategy Webcast on July 30^th at 11:00 EST.  The meeting is our town hall where Gregg Ambulos will review the last quarter and where other speakers will present on new products, campaigns and benefits for growing your business in Q3.  Check out the short video to hear more about it from George Hope.  You can also click here to go directly to the registration page.

3. EMC Reports Record Q2 Revenue

The following news release was issued by EMC this morning. Feel free to spread the headline via your social media network with the following link: http://www.emc.com/about/news/press/2010/20100721-earnings.htm

EMC  REPORTS  RECORD  SECOND-QUARTER  REVENUE;

QUARTERLY  PROFIT  MORE  THAN  DOUBLES

Second-Quarter Highlights

· Record second-quarter consolidated revenue up 24% year over year

· GAAP net income up 108% year over year

· Record second-quarter non-GAAP net income up 66% year over year

· All-time record year-to-date operating cash flow and free cash flow

· Strong year-over-year increase in gross and operating margins

HOPKINTON, Mass. – July 21, 2010 – EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC), the world leader in information infrastructure solutions, today reported record financial results for the second quarter of 2010. Consistently strong execution across the business and healthy customer demand across all geographies contributed to EMC achieving its third consecutive quarter of record revenue and reporting net income that more than doubled on a year-over-year basis.

For the second quarter, consolidated revenue was $4.02 billion, an increase of 24% compared with the year-ago quarter; GAAP net income attributable to EMC increased 108% year over year to $426 million; and GAAP diluted earnings per share were $0.20, up 100% year over year.  Non-GAAP¹ net income attributable to EMC for the second quarter was $596 million, an increase of 66% compared with the year-ago quarter, and non-GAAP¹ earnings per diluted share were $0.28, an increase of 56% year over year.

During the quarter, EMC expanded gross and operating margins substantially on a year-over-year basis.  The company achieved all-time record year-to-date operating cash flow and free cash flow of $2.1 billion and $1.6 billion, which grew 44% and 47%, respectively, compared with the year-ago period.  The company completed the quarter with $10.3 billion in cash and investments.

Joe Tucci, EMC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, “The strength and demand that we saw during the quarter is testament to the value our customers see in our information infrastructure and virtual infrastructure solutions and the massive opportunity before us.  The IT industry is in the midst of a major transformation to cloud computing and, ultimately, to a more agile way to consume and deliver IT.  Never in our history have we had a stronger team, more compelling vision, or more innovative set of technologies, services, and partnerships.  As a result, EMC is in an excellent position to lead this dramatic shift in IT and provide our customers with a clear path forward on their journey to the cloud.”

David Goulden, EMC Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, said, “For the second consecutive quarter, EMC once again turned a ‘triple play’ by gaining market share while investing for the future and increasing profitability.  With this, we also expanded gross and operating margins and generated all-time record year-to-date operating and free cash flow.  Moving forward, we remain confident that we have the right business and operating model to continue delivering annual double-digit revenue and earnings growth over the long term.”

Second-Quarter Highlights

Second-quarter revenue highlights included strong customer demand and double-digit revenue growth for the market-leading high-end EMC Symmetrix storage product portfolio, which increased 32% compared with the year-ago quarter, and EMC’s mid-tier storage product portfolio², which grew revenue 33% year over year.  Within EMC’s fast-growing Backup and Recovery Systems Division (BRS), the combined second-quarter revenue run rate for EMC Data Domain and Avamar backup solutions exceeded the billion-dollar revenue run rate the company reported in the first quarter of 2010. VMware (NYSE: VMW), which is majority-owned by EMC, contributed second-quarter revenue of $673 million, increasing 48% compared with the year-ago quarter. Additional second-quarter highlights included strong customer demand for EMC’s RSA information security solutions, which grew revenue 18% year over year, and the company’s broad portfolio of consulting and professional services.

EMC consolidated second-quarter revenue from the United States reached $2.1 billion, an increase of 28% year over year, representing 53% of consolidated second-quarter revenue.  Revenue from EMC’s business operations outside of the United States reached $1.9 billion, an increase of 19% year over year, representing 47% of consolidated second-quarter revenue. Within this, revenue increased 18%, 20% and 22% year over year, respectively, in EMC’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA); Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ); and Latin America regions.

Business Outlook

The following statements are based on current expectations.  These statements are forward-looking, and actual results may differ materially.  These statements do not give effect to the potential impact of mergers, acquisitions, divestitures or business combinations that may be announced or closed after the date hereof.  These statements supersede all prior statements regarding 2010 financial results set forth in prior EMC news releases.

All dollar amounts and percentages set forth below should be considered to be approximations.

The following statements regarding 2010 financial results have been revised from the statements disclosed by EMC on April 21, 2010:

· For 2010, EMC expects to exceed its previous outlook of $16.5 billion in revenue, $0.84 in consolidated GAAP diluted earnings per share, and $1.18 in consolidated non-GAAP diluted earnings per share, which excludes the impact of restructuring and acquisition-related charges, stock-based compensation expense, and intangible asset amortization.

· For 2010, consolidated restructuring and acquisition-related charges, stock-based compensation expense, and intangible asset amortization are expected to be $0.02, $0.23 and $0.09 per diluted share, respectively.

· 2010 GAAP and non-GAAP research and development (“R&D”) expense is expected to increase between 18% and 19% over 2009.  Excluded from the increase in non-GAAP R&D expense is stock-based compensation expense of $46 million and intangible asset amortization of $10 million.

· GAAP operating income is expected to be 14% to15% of revenues for 2010, and non-GAAP operating income is expected to be 20% to 21% of revenues for 2010.  Excluded from non-GAAP operating income are restructuring and acquisition-related charges, stock-based compensation expense, and intangible asset amortization, which account for less than 1%, 4% and less than 2% of revenues, respectively.

· The consolidated GAAP income tax rate is expected to be 19% for 2010.  Excluding the impact of restructuring and acquisition-related charges, stock-based compensation expense, and intangible asset amortization, which collectively impact the tax rate by 2%, the consolidated non-GAAP income tax rate is expected to be 21% for 2010.  The expected annual GAAP and non-GAAP income tax rates assume that the U.S. research and development tax credit will be re-enacted in 2010.

The following statements regarding 2010 financial results remain unchanged from the statements disclosed by EMC on April 21, 2010:

· Transition costs to a more efficient cost structure are expected to be $50 million in 2010.

· Total non-operating expense, which includes investment income, interest expense, and other expense, is expected to be $90 million in 2010.

· EMC expects to repurchase up to $1.0 billion of the company’s common stock.

Supporting Resources

· EMC will host its second-quarter 2010 earnings conference call today at 8:30 a.m. ET, which will be available on EMC’s web site at http://www.emc.com/about/investor-relations/index.htm

· Additional information regarding EMC’s financials, as well as a webcast of the conference call, will be available at 8:30 a.m. ET at http://www.emc.com/about/investor-relations/index.htm

· Visit http://ir.vmware.com for more information about VMware’s second-quarter financial results.

About EMC

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is the world’s leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions that enable organizations of all sizes to transform the way they compete and create value from their information. Information about EMC’s products and services can be found at www.EMC.com.

RIM: Just released Blackberry enterpise server express for ibm Lotus. Enterprise Express gives you free Enterprise support. This is perfect for a small business that don’t want to pay big bucks. Another good part is you don’t need an expensive data plan to Sync one another.

Sounds Good to me!!!!!!!!!

I currently Use it and haven’t had a Problem yet.

Isilon is a leader in the fast-growing Scale-out Network Attached Storage segment
Combined revenue from Isilon and EMC Atmos is expected to reach $1 billion run-rate during second half of 2012
Acquisition expected to be accretive to EMC’s non-GAAP EPS in 2011
HOPKINTON, Mass. and SEATTLE, Wash. – EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) today announced the signing of a definitive agreement under which it will acquire Isilon Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: ISLN), a fast-growing “Scale-out NAS” (network attached storage) systems company, based in Seattle, Washington. Under terms of the agreement, EMC will pay $33.85 per share in cash in exchange for each share of Isilon for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $2.25 billion, net of Isilon’s existing cash balance.

The boards of directors of both EMC and Isilon have unanimously approved the terms of the agreement. The transaction, which is subject to customary approvals, is expected to be completed late this year, is not expected to have a material impact to EMC’s full-year 2010 GAAP and non-GAAP diluted EPS and is expected to be accretive to EMC’s non-GAAP 2011 diluted EPS.

Isilon is known as the leader and momentum player in the fast-growing “Scale-out NAS” segment, which IDC projects will grow on average approximately 36% annually reaching an estimated $6 billion dollars in 2014(1). Together, EMC’s Atmos and Isilon’s solutions will offer customers a highly scalable, low-cost storage infrastructure for managing “Big Data.” Big Data is a term used to describe the massive amount of data produced by a new generation of applications in markets such as life sciences (e.g. gene sequencing), media and entertainment (e.g. online streaming), and oil and gas (e.g. seismic interpretation) to name a few.

Isilon’s scale-out NAS systems are designed to begin small and scale quickly and non-disruptively up to 10 petabytes in size, with extremely high levels of performance and availability. EMC Atmos object storage provides the perfect complement to Isilon for massive globally distributed environments and object access to data for usages like Web 2.0 applications. Together, Isilon and EMC Atmos provide customers a complete storage infrastructure solution for managing “Big Data” in private or public cloud environments. EMC expects the combined revenue of these two highly complementary storage offerings to reach a $1 billion run-rate during the second half of 2012.

Joe Tucci, Chairman and CEO, EMC Corporation, said, “The unmistakable waves of cloud computing and ‘Big Data’ are upon us. Customers are looking for new ways to store, protect, secure and add intelligence to the vast amounts of information they will accumulate over the next decade. EMC, in combination with Isilon, sits at the intersection of these trends with leading products, solutions and services to help customers get the absolute most out of what cloud computing has to offer.”

Pat Gelsinger, President and COO, EMC Information Infrastructure Products, said, “EMC brings unique value to Isilon through our highly complementary portfolio, engineering depth, financial strength and global sales reach. Isilon will enable EMC to accelerate our storage revenue growth and serve our customers across a broader range of the storage systems market. EMC will invest in all aspects of Isilon’s business to accelerate growth and take advantage of the fast-growing market opportunity ahead.”

Sujal Patel, CEO of Isilon, said, “Our excitement about the opportunity to become part of EMC’s world-class team cannot be overstated. EMC’s track record of successfully acquiring, integrating and growing leading companies and the complementary nature of our technologies are undeniable. I am most excited about Isilon’s ability to now leverage EMC’s unparalleled market reach and portfolio of leading technology assets to build on our already significant success in this fast-growing space. Together, Isilon and EMC are ideally positioned to take our company to the next level and accelerate Isilon’s growth and technology adoption by customers around the world.”

In connection with this announcement, EMC is reaffirming all of its previously issued business outlook for 2010 that it released on October 19, 2010, including the following: For 2010, EMC expects consolidated revenues of $16.9 billion, $0.91 in consolidated GAAP diluted earnings per share, and $1.25 in consolidated non-GAAP diluted earnings per share, which excludes the impact of restructuring and acquisition-related charges, stock-based compensation expense, and intangible asset amortization. For 2010, consolidated restructuring and acquisition-related charges, stock-based compensation expense, and intangible asset amortization are expected to be $0.02, $0.23 and $0.09 per diluted share, respectively

Having to interact with so many different PCs makes it all the more advantageous to keep a core set of tools with you at all times. Many useful tools can be run from a portable storage device and some have even been specifically designed to run on portable storage devices. The former are what I call "portable compatible" and the latter can be considered "stealthy". That is, some apps can work on a portable device but are likely to add edits to the local registry while "stealthy" apps make no changes to the registry and ostensibly leave no traces behind. With that said, here are 10 things that I believe every Windows Administrator should have on their USB thumbdrives:

1. The Sysinternals Suite

As of June 2009 there are 66 tools in the suite. A thorough understanding of each of them is improbable (unless your name is Cogswell or Russinovich), however some of them have more readily understandable uses than others. For instance, Process Explorer allows you to see deeply into each running process, its CPU history, which executable was used to launch the program, where it is and what switches were used when launching. PsExec allows you to run any process on a remote system. Ever wanted to run another computer's command prompt from your machine? PsExec is the tool to do it with! Conversely, PsKill can kill remote processes without having to install a utility on the remote computer.

As a bonus, each of the Sysinternals tools are available "live" at "live.sysinternals.com\tools" which is essentially just a file share open to the internet. You can access any of their tools from a command prompt or the run box by using a standard UNC path like this: \\live.sysinternals.com\tools\[toolname]. Furthermore, since it's a file share, you can map a drive to that UNC path and give it a drive letter (thanks go to Ed Bott for cluing me in to that one). Even if you lose your thumbdrive you can still have easy access to the latest and greatest sysinternals tools on any computer with a network connection!

2. Windows Support and Resource Kit Tools

There's a bit of confusion about this topic. Before Vista and Server 2008, the resource kit tools were bundled with their respective resource kit book series (E.g. the Windows XP Resource kit) but they could also be downloaded from Microsoft's web site. The support kit tools were included with the OS installation media and could also be downloaded from Microsoft's web site. Nowadays, while both Vista and Server 2008 have resource kit tools, it seems that at the time of this writing they can only be acquired through purchasing the Vista or Server 2008 Resource Kit book set.

Furthering the departure from normalcy, it appears that the term "Support Tools" has been abandoned in favor of the term "Remote Server Administration Tools" (RSAT). Instead of downloading the toolset separately they are now "built in" to Server 2008, but you have to add them first through the Add Features Wizard. If you want to copy them to your USB drive, the only way that I know to retrieve them is to install the category of RSAT tool that you want and then search through WINDOWS\System32 for the desired tools. It seems that there is no single collection of updated "Support Tools" (or RSATs as they're now known) that you can download. If it sounds cumbersome to move the tools to a thumbdrive it's because it is. If anyone else has a better way, please comment! If you choose to use the Server 2003 / XP support tools you'll need to unpack the support.cab file from the support\tools folder on the installation media. My preference is to simply open it with Windows Explorer and drag 'n' drop the entire cabinet file's contents into a folder on my USB stick. There are several .dll, .vbs, .chm and other files included. The tools weren't designed with portability in mind but they should work (I say "should" since I haven't ever had to use each and every tool from a portable device nor do I know anyone who has).

3. All Purpose Network Scanner

Nary does a day go by that your average admin doesn't have to scan a network, IP range or port scan a node. Having a good network scanner handy can greatly expedite the network troubleshooting process. I prefer to use SoftPerfect's Network Scanner which does not need an installer and can run without administrator credentials.

Other key features include the ability to list file shares (including hidden shares), send WoL packets, remote shutdown PCs, detect your external IP address, scan for logged on users and more. However, If you want something much more powerful that can do more security oriented audits, you could use the portable version of nmap 3.8.

4. Portable Web Browser

Having your own browser with its own preferences and bookmarks is nice but having it available to you on any PC is even nicer. There are portable versions of several of the popular "non-portable" web browsers such as FireFox Portable and Opera-USB. Those two browsers specifically state that they do not leave any personal data behind on the local system's hard drive. There are also some more obscure offerings such as portable versions of Avant, Maxthon and Sleipnir. For even more security, you could try the xB Browser from XeroBank. The xB browser is designed to work with either the Tor network or the arguably more secure XeroBank anonymity network.

"What about IE!" some may be howling. While there's no official portable version of Internet Explorer, there is a possible alternative. Using FireFox portable, you can install IE Tab and switch to the explorer rendering engine as needed. Using this method I was able to update an XP Pro machine using the Windows Update website (which rejects all browsers except Internet Explorer) using Firefox portable. However, I was unable to empirically test if IE tabs edits the registry (I suspect that it does). Whether traveling between a home and work computer, staying secure on a public machine or helping out Grandma with her new gaming rig you'll be happy to have a trusted web browser that's always there for you.

5. TrendMicro HijackThis

What Windows admin hasn't had to deal with some kind of suspected malware infection regardless of whether or not an anti virus product was in place? Servers or clients, it makes no difference. Having some kind of anti malware detection program with you at all times is a must. Originally coded by Merijn Bellekom and later sold to Trend Micro, HijackThis has become one of the foremost tools used in the fight against malware. While not a "stealthy" portable app (it leaves registry edits behind) the .exe is completely self contained and can run perfectly fine on a portable drive. Best of all it's completely free and there is no EULA prohibiting it from being used in a business environment like there is for other free anti-malware products (Adaware Personal and MalwareBytes Anti-Malware, for example).  The program's primary usage is to scan key locations in the Windows registry and various places on your hard drive and then make a log file of the entries and files that it finds. The things that HijackThis finds may not be bad in and of themselves (in fact, most are innocuous). The real power of HijackThis comes from the community of volunteer logfile analyzers and the automated www.HijackThis.de web site.

HijackThis also includes some lesser known features such as a startup list generator, process manager (similar to task manager), the ability to delete a file on reboot, the ability to delete an NT service, scanning for hidden data streams and an Add/Remove programs editor (handy to delete entries for the occasional application that uninstalled but didn't remove its entry in the Add/Remove Programs list). Because of the power of HijackThis and the potential for disaster if you delete the wrong files, please read some tutorials before you jump into it. This is an excellent guide to start with.

6. OpenOffice Portable

Wherever you go and whichever computer you're using at the moment, the ability to create and edit a diverse array of document types is crucial. You never know when you'll need to hand craft a quick XML file, quickly modify your boardroom presentation or create a spreadsheet that aids in the creation of scripts (similar to Coach Culbertson's mass user creation script facilitated by an Excel spreadsheet in the Train Signal Windows Server 2008 Active Directory training videos). OpenOffice is the premier Open Source Office Suite for Windows, Linux and OS X and, thanks to the folks at PortableApps.com, it now comes in a portable format. It includes Writer (text document creator), Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (slide presentation creator; think PowerPoint), Draw (self explanatory), Math (mathematical formula creator) and Base (database creation tool; think Microsoft Access). Open Office can open many document formats including Office 2007 .docx and .xlsx files. It can also save files in Office 2000 format (no further up the Office version chain, though) as well as a host of open formats.

7. Terminal Emulator

Many devices (especially networking equipment) have an RS-232 (Serial), SSH or Telnet interface (horrors!) that you need to connect to in order to do some deep hacking. One of the more popular terminal emulators is PuTTY and now it comes in a portable version: portaPuTTY. PortaPuTTY has been conveniently modified to store configuration and session data in flat files rather than the registry.  There's also the similarly named PuTTY Portable which is a PortableApps.com application.

The main PuTTY application has been forked to produce KiTTY, which itself is not portable. However, (you guessed it) it has been further forked to produce its own portable version: Portable KiTTY. KiTTY includes some more features than PuTTY so check the feature list to see if they would actually be useful to you. Another free option is TunnelierPortable or TunnelierU3 (designed to work with U3 devices) which are based on Tunnelier from bitvise (which officially approves of these "fan projects"). However, make sure to read the Tunnelier license agreement to understand under what circumstance you are obliged to purchase a license.

8. Password Manager

Keeping track of passwords is hard and as a result people tend to write passwords down on slips of paper and "hide" them in a secure place (for the record, placing sticky notes under your desk phone is not a secure place). As a result, many people reuse the same password or small pool of passwords for many different accounts so they won't forget them. Password managers can aid in the implementation of better security by allowing you to have complex passwords for each account without having a memory like Kim Peek. KeePass is an open source tool released under the GPLv2 license and is one of the more popular password safes. Fortunately, it also comes in a portable edition. KeePass database files are encrypted with twofish or AES 256 encryption algorithms so if you lose the USB drive, it would be exceptionally difficult for someone to crack the file. Version 2.0 of KeePass supports keeping the password file on an HTTP/FTP server which could conceivably increase the portable uses for the application. Another portable password manager is the closed source RoboForm 2 Go.

It is offered in a U3 and a non U3 format. They even offer their own custom RoboForm USB key. RoboForm can fill in long registration forms with one click, it can synchronize your passwords between computers and it claims to be able to defeat keyloggers. There are two editions of RoboForm 2 Go; a free version and a Pro version. The free version cannot be used in a business environment for more than 30 days. Since RoboForm caters to fillin gout long web forms it is designed to closely integrate with your web browser in the form of a toolbar. It runs in the background from the portable storage device with a SysTray icon being the only visible indicator of it's existence outside of the browser. For even more portability, you can use the RoboForm Online service that stores your passwords in their cloud. There are many more password managers out there for you to evaluate, but those are two of the more popular titles. Now you can have unique massive passwords on your switches, domain controllers and other important devices and not worry about being locked out because you can't remember passwords that are more complex than the name of Star Trek characters.

9. Remote Desktop / VNC client

The ability to remotely control a distant PC is undeniably valuable. But what if you find yourself on an unfamiliar computer? Wouldn't it be nice to have pre made RDP connections with you wherever you go? Or have a familiar VNC client with you at alltimes? It would be nice, however, there is a surprising dearth of portable RDP and VNC clients available. TRAVEL@Clip (yes, it's supposed to be typed that way) is one of those few.

TRAVEL@Clip is a $25USD program that allows you to establish RDP connections (no VNC support) without the need for administrator rights. It keeps all settings in an encrypted file on the USB drive and does not make any changes to the host PC. It can save up to 9 separate connections. I was surprised that I was unable to find any stable freeware/opensource portable RDP tools, so it looks like you'll have to spend a little cash for RDP mobility. There is one possibility worth noting: ChrisControl. Intended for use on a Windows PE disc, it is said to not write settings to the registry. It purportedly allows you to connect to remote PCs via RDP or VNC. It was even supposed to be able to install an UltraVNC server on the remote computer if it wasn't already installed and uninstall it when you disconnect. That feature sounded exciting and even reminded me of Dameware Mini Remote Control's remote installation and uninstallation features… except for one important point: Dameware works. I tried two versions of ChrisControl and was never able to get it to work. Others on the web have stated that it worked fine for them. I only mention it here because you might have better success with it or future versions (if there are any) might make it work smoother. As for VNC tools that are specifically designed for portability, well, if there are any they're well hidden. It seems that most of the major VNC viewer applications are "portable compatibe" meaning that they will work from a portable storage device but none of them are advertised to not touch the local machine's registry. That may or may not be acceptable in your environment. The various major VNC viewer applications are Tight VNC Viewer (look for the package with the description "Viewer executable, does not require installation"), Real VNC viewer and UltraVNC Viewer.

10. Network Protocol Analyzer

Wireshark, seemingly everyone's favorite protocol analyzer (Although Microsoft's Network Monitor is pretty cool too), now comes in portable format. Well… pseudo-portable. For Wireshark to work it needs the Winpcap package to be installed. Every time you launch Wireshark portable it checks to see if the Winpcap driver is installed and if it isn't it asks to install Winpcap (of course, you'll need proper permissions on the computer to do that). When you exit Wireshark portable, it courteously uninstalls Winpcap in an attempt at leaving the computer as untouched as it possibly can. If you can live with those caveats, then you can wade knee deep in raw streams of network traffic on any computer you touch. If you can't live with that, you'll have to use a tool that utilizes a method called "Raw Sockets" which has some limitations but should be fine for most situations. IP Sniffer is a decent utility that utilizes raw sockets. Another raw sockets option is NirSoft's SmartSniff.

I'm sure that if you include those 10 things on your thumbdrive you'll be solving problems quicker, saving the day more often and hopefully getting home earlier. Since thumbdrives can be easily lost, consider creating a script using Task Scheduler and RoboCopy (built-in to Vista and Server 2008, included in the Server 2003 Resource Kit tools) to periodically create a backup. For even more portable applications you might want to look into the PortableApps project which has a huge collection of applications that are said to leave no traces of themselves whatsoever on the host computer. Who wouldn't want to be able to play Sudoku from their thumbdrive? Enjoy!

by Wesley David (Source www.petri.co.il)