Mr. Dimpz Blog

COMDDAP 2009

COMDDAP is an association of the country's top information technology businesses. Its primary objective is to promote the sustainable development of the of the country's information technology industry through voluntary collaboration of its member companies. It is the goal of COMDDAP to be able to provide its members general views and updates from different sectors - private and government, and highly regarded individuals to further uplift the morale and knowledge of its organization.

The vision of promoting and elevating the standards of Information technology (IT) in the Philippines fueled a group of prominent computer companies to form the Computer Distributors and Dealers Association of the Philippines or COMDDAP. Its initial member-companies represent the world's leading makers and providers of computer products, solutions and peripherals.

In 1997, the manufacturing sector - represented by industry leaders Hewlett Packard, Epson and Compaq, among others - was integrated into the COMDDAP membership, making the association a more diverse representation of the IT sector and thus the new name, COMPUTER MANUFACTURERS, DISTRIBUTORS AND DEALERS ASSOCIATION OF THE PHILIPPINES.

Last July 2,3 and 4 COMDDAPP held at Apo View Hotel Davao, it advertises the advances of the new technologies. The event featured new products from different manufacturers that exhibits their new designed models of computer related products such as notebooks by neo, printer enhancement for business solutions, motherboards for servers, new designed harddisk by western digital company, and media CD’s, and DVD’s. There are also exhibits of newly designed computer monitors and System units from different manufacturers which attracts many visitors. One of the important events is seminars from different companies and groups that promote their new products and other services to the market. And I attended three different seminars; first is the Thin Clients from Hewlett Packard, the second one was Windows server 2008 by the EDUPRO, and the last is the Open source and the free source seminar.

This are the list of sessions that I attended:

1.Thin Clients by HP (Hewlett Packard)
The speaker in this seminar was Leonard Zapa, the Market Development Manager in Remote Client Solutions Group.

HP Thin Client is a computing device desktop and a solid state device. It does not have hard drive on it. According to the exhibitor, it is more reliable, stable and last longer compare to the thick desktop . Thin clients are actually “thin” that benefits space, it has 8 USB ports, 2 USB ports are kept inside its casing for the purpose of protecting the USB devices such as flash drives against accidents. A thin client needs a server, a central device where the operating system is installed.

Since it does not have a hard disk inside, it is not susceptible to virus attack and power failure. Because the operating system is actually not installed on the device.According to the speaker thin clients are just an extension monitor to the user but with advanced features. Clients work when it is connected to the server via networking and it accesses the server when the user login’s on the device. When the user do something on the device the client works like it has an operating system installed on it but actually it only access the system over the network to the server. According to the speaker it has the ability to detect viruses because once a virus is detected it automatically shuts downs and reboots, and the virus is gone.

Benefits that the thin clients offers:
Enhance Security
Easy Manageability
Environment Friendly
Lower Over-all Cost


Thin Clients only needs 11watts to 20 watts of power, so it saves up to 80% of your energy expenses compared to desktop computers. Since it does not have a harddisk inside, it generates less heat and extra cooling is not a requirement.

Here below are the factors to be considered in analyzing the total cost of ownership according to Mr. Zapa:

a.) Hardware cost
b.) Power consumption
c.) Heat dissipate
d.) Space saving

Thespeaker added that the life span of the thin client is longer than the desktop computers because desktop spans only 3 years of service, HP Thin client spans 5years guaranteed. HP Thin client offers more reliability and cost effective for business solution and thin clients give extra security to the system.

2. Windows Server 2008
The speaker of the seminar was Mr. Lee L. Gorospe, Technical Trainer from EDUPRO Inc.,
He discussed about Active Directory Roles,Active Directory Rights Management Service,Read Only Domain Controllers,Hyper-V,Network Access Protection and Server Core.
The speaker shows us how windows server 2008 provides the user an ease to perform these task on real operation.

Read Only Domain Controllers: one of the new improved feature of server 2008 that gives an option for deploying a new domain controller that can be deployed at a perimeter or branch office recommended for sites that are lacking IT personnel or physical, security and provides three benefits namely: Increased productivity, a solution for sites/office that has no or poor physical server security, and lower impact on theft or Error.

Hyper-V: Hypervisor based virtualization is another improved feature of Windows Server 2008 is the virtualization. Virtualization reduces costs, increases hardware utilization, optimizes your infrastructure and, improves server availability.

Network AccessProtection (NAP): NAP is a platform that enforces compliance with health requirements for network access or communication. NAP is available in Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Windows Vista and, an upgrade of Microsoft Windows XP with service pack 3.

The communication method can be of the following:
Internet Protocol security (IPsec)-protected communications
IEEE 802.1X-authenticated network connections
Remote access virtual private network (VPN) connections
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) configuration

In this session, it provides us information about the new advancements of the Microsoft Company and updates us to the new platforms and systems soon we will be using.

3. Open Source for Business Applications
According to the speaker ,Open Source is the software that is free of use, in which the original source code is openly available for users to examine and modify, to use to run, reinstall the software, modify and enhance the software, and redistribute for better use and performance.

One of the best examples mentioned by one of the speaker is the Ubuntu. Ubuntu is an operating system consisting of free and open source software. With Ubuntu you can surf the web, read email, and create documents, spreadsheets and more! Ubuntu is powerful and flexible for business, education and home use.

According to the speaker, Open source software is different from free software even though they are the same as free. Open source software is considered distinct from free software, which is also open source but can be used for any purpose and without any costs or restrictions. Both open source software and free software are different from software provided for free (freeware) by commercial software manufacturers that do not allow access to the original source code.

I learned a lot from the discussions and known different latest gadgets. I hope next year there will be COMDDAP EXPO again..ehehe