Many businesses need to deal with a lot of vendors in order to keep their doors open - enough that, at times, it might seem that the most time and energy is spent juggling these vendors. That doesn’t have to be the case, however, at least where your technology solutions are concerned.
Business owners and managers are always looking to save a buck. Since the cost of doing business continues to climb, looking to the cloud for their business-critical applications is one way to extend operational capital. The cloud offers several solutions to help the modern business keep their costs down, and one service that can be very valuable is Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). VoIP, specifically hosted VoIP, can help you reduce your communications costs in many ways, including:
Mobile devices (as their name would suggest) go everywhere, including the modern office. As such, it is likely that your employees will want to take advantage of their capabilities to accomplish more of their responsibilities and tasks. This can be advantageous to your business, assuming that you have a well-thought-out mobile device policy in place.
About a decade ago--when managed IT services were just starting to gain traction--one of the major selling points was that break/fix was expensive, because not only was the machine you needed fixed, broken, your business had to eat the cost of downtime. Now that many businesses have benefited from the proactive approach to IT management, and managed IT services are a big part of business for a lot of companies, one question is left unanswered: What happens when technology breaks under a managed IT services agreement? This month, we’ll answer that question.
In just over a week, Microsoft is retiring two of its most popular operating systems - although this shouldn’t be news at this point. Microsoft has consistently been reminding Windows 7 users that they need to upgrade before January 14, running a major campaign to do so, but there are still a quarter of all desktop users that haven’t done so.
It’s pretty easy to ignore the printers around your office - until they run out of toner/ink, or jam, or just disappear from your network for seemingly no reason. Okay, it’s easy to ignore printers most of the time. Unfortunately, business owners do tend to ignore their printers, and this can get really expensive over time.
Few things are more frustrating and annoying than a slow computer. There are a lot of things that can slow a computer down, too: viruses and malware, excess applications running in the background, even time can seem to turn a relatively fast computer into a slow-as-molasses impediment to productivity.
If your computer is overall healthy but starting to slow down, there is one simple upgrade that can make a whole world of difference.
By the time you read this, Microsoft is shortly going to retire both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 operating systems - assuming that you are reading this before January 14. If you still are utilizing these software in your business at this point, you need to upgrade, or else deal with the security consequences of dealing with unsupported software. Here, we’ll review your options.
We all use computers to run our businesses every day, and data has become a key factor in what most businesses do. Even smaller businesses have begun to use their data for strategic purposes, and in doing so have started a trend that has taken the world by storm. Let’s take a look at the data services that are designed to inform business owners and decision makers on how their business is actually working and how to improve operational effectiveness.
There are numerous backup strategies. Some are attractive for their affordability, some for their comprehensiveness, but regardless of the strategy you use, it will need to fit the kind of work that you do. Some businesses need to make considerations for the amount of data that is created, and what would happen if it were lost. This is where an operational backup strategy comes into play. Let’s take a look at what that means.
Automation is sometimes misconceived as a troublesome or unreliable addition to business. It’s not about replacing people with machines, it’s about getting more done with the people you have. Having an attitude that doubts technology and believes nothing can replace human processing can quickly put you at a disadvantage compared to your competitors.
As hokey as it sounds, the Internet almost transcends other pieces of technology. While estimating the economic impact of the Internet is a formidable feat, Cisco came up with 19 trillion dollars - 21 percent of all the money in the world. So, with access to a resource this valuable, it’s silly not to make the most of it.
Here’s something that may surprise you, Windows 7 is still one of the more popular operating systems. This is troubling since Microsoft is shutting off support for the OS on January 14, 2020.
We are all in the cloud. The concept of cloud computing and cloud storage has revolutionized the way businesses handle data storage and software distribution. We have helped many of our clients utilize cloud-based services, and these days, most of us are connected to this entity labeled as “the cloud” in one way or another. The question is, how can we tell if our data is safe?
With cybersecurity talent at such a critical shortage, data breaches that expose millions of people’s sensitive information are routine occurrences. It is one of the biggest problems that the modern business faces. Since shortages have businesses of all types scrambling for cybersecurity personnel we thought we’d put together a list of five things that every person should know about how to keep systems secure.
There are plenty of technologies that come to define the point of time in which they were developed. The printing press, the light bulb, the automobile, etc. Today, we live in a time where new, and potentially transcendent technologies seem to be a dime a dozen. In the past twenty years we’ve seen the development of the mobile device, broadband technology (both wired and wireless), social media, blockchain and cryptocurrency, all the way to self-driving cars. None of these technologies (even YouTube) has the promise that Artificial Intelligence has, however. Let’s take a look at how businesses are using AI to improve their business right now.
Technology is trending, there’s no doubt about that, but if you are a decision maker at a small business, technology solutions aren’t typically developed for your business in mind. As a result, it can often be difficult for the SMB to get tools that are scalable enough to make sense for them, while also getting powerful options that will actually work to improve some part of the business. This month, we’ll take a look at three trending technologies that small businesses are starting to use regularly.
In business, having contingencies for potential problems tends to be advantageous for the business that wants to stave off ruin. When you are dealing with information technology--specifically data--ensuring that it is protected against loss in the face of the litany of threats out there is an undertaking in itself. A disaster recovery strategy is created to govern the processes a business develops to recover to restore operations in a manner that will keep the business in business. This month we take a look at two of the core variables of a disaster recovery strategy: RPO and RTO.
Here’s a fact that you’ve heard before: data loss is a nightmare for your business, and ransomware is the boogeyman. Once your data has been breached, your company’s reputation is damaged in perpetuity. That’s why it is important to confront these fears and start prioritizing data security.
If you asked the layman on the street about cloud computing, you may get some surprising answers. Some people may actually believe that the computing resources are stored in the clouds in the sky. Obviously, that isn’t the case, but one thing is certain: not all cloud strategies are understood by the people that use them. This month we will take a look at the different types of cloud computing and how they can actually work for business.
Everything DiSC
