So if you are a PMI member who hasn’t checked the site in a while or just interested in project management you are sure to take something away from all of the fun things happening this week. For further information and PMI training visit the PMI section of our website or the AZ-PMI link above.

• Force10 technology complements and accelerates Dell’s datacenter solutions portfolio, enabling it to offer customers a broader range of enterprise offerings

Dell today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Force10 Networks, Inc., a leader in high-performance datacenter networking. Force10’s networking capabilities complement Dell’s datacenter solutions portfolio, enabling it to offer customers a broader range of enterprise offerings.

Dell has taken significant steps over the past three years to expand its enterprise portfolio to offer customers a complete range of datacenter products and solutions. This includes developing an integrated stack of leading server, storage, networking and services resources to help customers streamline operations, reduce IT costs, manage data growth and simplify management. The acquisition of Force10 and investment in networking is a natural complement to Dell’s server strength. Dell is the leading x86 server provider in the United States and No. 2 worldwide, according to first quarter 2011 IDC data.

Force10 Networks Leadership

Force10 is a global technology leader in datacenter, service provider, and enterprise networking. It is nearly a $200-million company, based on trailing 12 months revenue, with approximately 80 percent of its business in North America and operating in over 60 countries worldwide. Force10’s Open Cloud Networking is based on open standards, automation and virtualization and is very consistent with Dell’s design philosophy. Force10’s technology allows customers to transform their network infrastructures into an open, reliable and scalable datacenter and cloud computing fabric.

Force10 provides global service and support capabilities around the world through a direct sales force and an extensive network of channel partners and systems integrators. Much like past acquisitions of Compellent and EqualLogic, Dell is committed to maintaining and growing Force10’s channel program. Force10’s customers include leading Web 2.0 and Fortune 100 companies, Internet portals, global carriers, leading research laboratories and government organizations with some of the world’s most demanding network environments.

Distinguishing characteristics of Force10 include:

• Flexible, open automation and management

• Massively scalable core datacenter network at a fraction of the cost

• Automated policy configuration and mobility

Dell Leadership in the ‘Virtual Era’

In the ‘Virtual Era,’ Dell delivers an open and integrated approach to datacenter solutions. As part of this approach, Dell’s networking philosophy drives performance that can radically reduce costs by significantly streamlining operations. Force10 solutions provide enterprise performance and resiliency while reducing overall total cost of ownership (TCO), simplifying network deployment, and supporting open, standards-based systems and management solutions. Dell and Force10 have had a successful partnership for more than six years, providing datacenter customers with open, capable and affordable networking solutions.

Dell’s intelligent infrastructure management vision enables orchestration of the underlying server, storage, and network resources in an open fashion, agnostic of whether they are physical or virtual, local or remote, Dell or ecosystem-provided, while ensuring that automated control of those resources is responsive, economical, secure, and resilient.

Force10 was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with research and development operations based in Silicon Valley. Dell also plans to keep Force10’s existing operations in Chennai, India as it continues to invest in additional engineering and sales capability to grow this business.

The transaction was approved by the board of directors of each company. Additional terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction remains subject to customary conditions and is expected to close in late summer.

Quotes

“Today’s datacenter networks are too complex and require too much manual intervention. What worked in the past is no longer viable in the virtual era,” said Brad Anderson, senior vice president, Enterprise Solutions Group, Dell. “Dell’s approach of offering customers open, capable and affordable solutions aligns with Force10’s approach to offering customers new levels of flexibility, performance, scale and automation which is fundamental to changing the economics of datacenter networking.”

“We are excited to work with Dell. Combining Dell’s global scale, reach and enterprise portfolio with our innovation in high-performance networking provides our customers the best end-to-end solution for today’s and tomorrow’s data centers,” said Henry Wasik, chief executive officer, Force10 Networks.

An analyst call with Dave Johnson, SVP, Corporate Strategy, Dell, Brad Anderson, SVP, Enterprise Product Group, Dell, Dario Zamarian, VP General Manager Networking, Dell, and Henry Wasik, CEO Force10 Networks, will be webcast live today at 8:45 a.m. CST and archived at www.dell.com/investor.

About Force10 Networks

Force10 Networks develops high-performance datacenter solutions powered by the industry’s most innovative line of open, standards-based, networking hardware and software. The company’s Open Cloud Networking framework grants Web 2.0/portal operators, cloud and hosting providers, enterprise and special-purpose datacenter customers new levels of flexibility, performance, scale and automation—fundamentally changing the economics of datacenter networking. Force10 Networks operates globally, providing 24×7 service and support to its customer base in more than 60 countries worldwide.

About Dell

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) listens to customers and delivers worldwide innovative technology, business solutions and services they trust and value. For more information, visit www.dell.com.

(Dynamic Worldwide Training is a Force10 Authorized Training Partner, and provides Force10 Technical Training globally. Visit: http://www.dwwtc.com/force10/ )

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(Kindle promotion is not valid with any other DWWTC specials or promotions. Kindle offer available in the United States only while supplies last.)

Contact Dynamic Worldwide Training, and Get Your Kindle today!

Some of us may not be as comfortable with the idea of having an email bypass the Inbox and go directly to it’s dedicated folder, thus the new Microsoft Outlook 2010 tool, Quick Steps.

Quick Steps is a tool that works similiarly to Rules, but gives the user an opportunity to see the email in their Inbox before filing it away in its own folder.  An email enters  through the Inbox, is read by the user and when the user is done reading the email, they apply a customized Quick Step that applies an action to the email.  Quick Steps can be as simple or complicated as you need them to be and can be used on multiple emails at one time.

To set up a Quick Step, click Create New in the Quick Step group of your 2010 Ribbon.  The Edit Quick Step box will appear.  Name the Quick Step and select an action from the drop down list available.

After selecting an Action or multiple Actions, click Finish and your Quick Step is now ready to use.  You will see the Quick Step in same Quick Step group  of the 2010 Ribbon.

For any emails that you would like to apply your Quick Step, select the email in your Inbox and click on the appropriate Quick Step to apply the action and organize your email.

To learn more about Microsoft Outlook 2010 Quick Steps visit our: Microsoft Outlook 2010 Training courses, presented by Dynamic Worldwide Training.

Big companies like American Express, Enterprise Rent A Car, and SalesForce.com are customers of Force10. So if you run a charge on your American Express card, your running it though their equipment. Do you search on Yahoo? You Yahoo’d through Force10.

Most of the top social networks use Force10 equipment. Eharmony uses them too. Force10 also powers the New York Stock Exchange, 1.6 billion trades daily, so they need a reliable network to keep track of all those trades. So you probably already use their equipment.

Force 10 is also a leader in Open Cloud Networking, with open API’s, that unshackle your network from a proprietary vendor. Open standards protocols, open source. So no matter what size your network is, no matter what kind of a network you want, you can drive your architecture to maximize performance without compromising on price.

With open standards, all your servers talk to each other. Open Cloud Networking and open architecture mean that Force10 network equipment will support any computer storage solution, so long as they also support open networking.

Visit Force 10 Networks for product information, and for information about Force 10 Training, visit www.DWWTC.com/force10/

Here’s how you do it: First start off by entering in the basic appointment content, and double click to open the form entering in the date and time. Next, click on the Recurrence Button, (for Outlook 2007 go to the Appointment tab and click on the Recurrence button in the Options) Then in the Recurrence Pattern section choose whether it’s weekly or monthly. You then will be able to choose weekly, bi-weekly, or even greater spans, leading to monthly. You can then choose a termination date, say for a school class, or it can run forever. Then click OK, and your set. Now look at your calendar and give yourself a pat on the back!

For more information on Microsoft Outlook 2007 Training or Microsoft Outlook 2010 Training “ visit: www.dwwtc.com.

How to Freeze Column Headings
Column headings will disappear when scrolling through a big worksheet, and it’s easy to lose your place. So, to lock them into place as you move down the rows do the following: (Excel 2003):

1. Select the row directly below the headings, and click “Window Freeze Panes” -  In Excel 2007, click “View tab”
2. Choose the Freeze Panes button,
3. Select “Freeze Top Row”.

How to Fit Columns and Rows in Excel
When you paste or enter numbers and text into Excel,  cells don’t automatically expand to fit their contents. Here’s an easy way to auto-fit columns and rows:

1. Hover your mouse over the header border between the column and the adjacent one to the right, or between two rows at the far left of the worksheet.
2. Wait for the re-size icon to appears, and then double-click.

How To Find Page Breaks in Excel
Have you every tried to print a worksheet and it goes all wrong, and then you use preview mode, and you have to go back and forth?  The way to avoid that is to set Excel to display page breaks.

1. In Excel 2003 worksheets click “Tools Options View”
2. Under Window options, check “Page Breaks” and click OK.
3. In Excel 2007 this option is the default, but if your page breaks are not displaying: Click the “Office button”, Select “Excel Options”,  select “Advanced” in the left pane, scroll right to “Display Options”, Check “Show Page Breaks”, click OK.

I hope this make your day a little easier, and don’t forget to bookmark!

DWWTC provides Microsoft Office Training in Phoenix, as well as nationally. For information on all of DWWTc’s Microsoft Training offered, go to www.dwwtc.com/microsoft/

There are 5 ways to survive Juniper Networks SRX Bootcamp and come out smelling like a rose!

1. Students should have basic networking knowledge and an understanding of the OSI model and the TCP/IP protocol suite. Make sure you review your basics.
2. Make your travel plans in advance. You don’t want to get caught up with last minute bookings.
3. Get a hotel that’s near your training facility. You may not want a car  too. So, the less time you put between you and the classroom the better.
4. Get a good nights sleep each night.  It’s tempting to go out partying, but stick to your plan, and you’ll be fresh and alert each day.
5. If you missed number 4, then it’s even more important to get a early start so you eat a good breakfast and have some coffee so you don’t miss a beat.

And that’s it! If it just sounds like common sense, that is because it is. Go get ‘em tiger!

For more info visit: Juniper Networks Training and Juniper SRX Bootcamp