Cloud computing as a whole has been one of the most transformative technologies for businesses. With so many companies (upward of 90 percent of modern businesses) using some type of cloud computing, more companies than ever are really leaning into the technology and use it for mission critical business processes. Let’s take a look at some of the ways businesses can secure their cloud resources.
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Small businesses today are in a prime position to thrive, thanks to a surge in innovative technologies that are affordable and work to boost efficiency. In the past, access to cutting-edge technology was often reserved for large corporations, but today small businesses can now gain quick access to these technologies and can have a real positive effect on the way they go about doing business. Let’s take a look at some of the best technologies small businesses can use to try and compete with the big boys.
File sharing is a big deal. When you try to send your friends a meme or share a video with them and it doesn’t send… that can be extremely frustrating. When it comes to business file sharing, miscommunication can cost quite a bit. Today, we will look at two concepts in small business file sharing and how they help a small business.
Cloud computing has become a common tool, especially Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Hosted software provides robust options that make sense to all companies, including anytime-anywhere availability, scalability, and provider management of the underlying hardware. In today’s blog, we want to discuss a couple of tips people can use when working with cloud computing.
Other than the innovative jump from tape, data backup hasn’t seen too many great leaps forward, so to speak. Sure, businesses don’t have to worry about resource-intensive manual backups anymore, but the standard approach is so rock-solid that innovation isn’t necessarily needed at this point. Today, we are exploring the backup and disaster recovery process and how modern-day solutions have made an effective tool even better.
Many organizations have become reliant on cloud computing due to its cost efficiency and accessibility to computing resources. However, complications with data security often arise. One way to gain control and maintain accessibility is to use a private cloud. This article explores why a business might choose a private cloud over more affordable public cloud platforms.
Doing business using the cloud is now commonplace, but every business is different and needs to fit its IT infrastructure to its operational requirements. This is possible, but trying to fit a one-size-fits-all solution into a complicated operational structure will cause more harm than good. In this month’s newsletter, we wanted to give five general tips to consider when you want to deploy the cloud in your business.
Cloud computing has become a massive benefit for modern businesses, but every company has unique needs that require tailored technology solutions. A one-size-fits-all approach can be detrimental and leave you wasting money or worse—not getting the value out of your investments. In this month's newsletter, we offer five key tips for effectively deploying cloud services in your business.
Everyone knows that a telephone system is a core component of a well-functioning business. Unfortunately, many businesses’ telephone systems haven’t advanced, but the way people do business has. If your business is paying a premium for its telephone system and isn’t getting the collaboration benefits needed to stay competitive, the answer might be VoIP.
Running a business has definite highs and lows. When things start spiraling seemingly out of control, it’s important to maintain the confidence that with the right decision-making and conscientious action, you can get through any problem that a business faces. In today’s blog, we’ll discuss some of the technology that can help you get through tough situations.
For competitive people, hearing the words “can’t win ‘em all” is infuriating. You want to win! These words, however, are completely true. Sometimes in business, you just lose. You may not be able to meet every deadline or win every sale, but there are things you can do to put your business in the best position to meet your goals. Today, we thought we would list a few things having the right technology strategy can do to help your business.
The cloud is a remarkable innovation that businesses of all industries and sizes can utilize to scale growth and operations. How you use the cloud, though, will change depending on your company's specific pain points and requirements. How can you invest in a cloud solution that ticks all your boxes? It starts with assessing whether you want to utilize a public, private, or hybrid cloud infrastructure.
Software is an important part of any business’ toolset, and for small businesses, Software as a Service, or SaaS, is the most cost-effective way to take advantage of it. The most profitable companies in the world run on SaaS, and so too can your business. Let’s go over some of the most powerful solutions your organization can implement in the realm of software and how they can benefit your success.
PDF, which stands for Portable Document Format, is a type of file that business professionals are all too familiar with. While most are aware of and appreciative of this file type, they likely are not aware of some of the more fun and useful features afforded to them. Let’s explore just what PDFs are capable of, including how to make and edit them.
With communication rising to the top of many businesses’ priorities list, it’s no wonder that Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, is one of the most powerful ways to revitalize your company’s communications infrastructure. If you’re still using your old traditional telephony solution, buckle up because you’re about to find out how to ditch it for good.
Technology can bring a lot of value for businesses, but sometimes it can be difficult to nail down exactly what can make a business run optimally. There are a lot of options, but all that means is that there are a lot of things that can potentially go wrong. Let’s take a look at some of the technology that small businesses are using to support the new workplace and create better opportunities.
There are rules for doing business that most people understand. That status quo has been around for a long, long time, but as technology advances, it does more than connect parts that weren’t connected before; it can break down some of the old notions about the ways businesses are run and give people who think outside the box a leg up going forward. Let’s look at three ways business leaders are innovating how they do business.
As conditions within your business change, it’s likely that your plans might need to change before their end results come to fruition. The decisions you made last fiscal year, or even last quarter, might no longer be relevant due to the rapid pace of evolution that happens with business technology. Let’s go over how you can get the appropriate technology solutions for your business without falling behind.
Through cloud-based technology, your business can change the way it operates in countless different ways, all of which can benefit you in the long run. If you haven’t yet considered cloud-based solutions for infrastructure, then you could be missing out on some of the greatest innovations of the past decade. Here are some ways your business can start to leverage the cloud to its advantage.
We write a lot about the cloud; for good reason. It is one of the most utilized and valuable technologies available to business. The cloud plays a pivotal role in elevating mobile productivity, offering diverse services and features that empower users to access, collaborate, and efficiently execute tasks. Here are three key ways in which the cloud contributes to mobile productivity.
It was only a few years ago when many of us in the IT industry simply did not trust the cloud. There was too much at stake and there simply weren't the robust options that have come in the subsequent years. Obviously, this has changed pretty rapidly and today’s cloud options are quickly becoming the norm.
Cloud computing has undeniably become one of the most important tools a business can use. Most businesses use some form of cloud computing, with 4-of-5 using multiple SaaS applications, virtualized computing environments hosted in the cloud, or other cloud-based tools. Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of using cloud computing.
The cloud computing landscape has witnessed remarkable advancements, offering businesses and individuals a wide array of advanced cloud options. These cutting-edge technologies have revolutionized the way we store, access, and process data, empowering organizations to achieve unparalleled scalability, flexibility, and cost-efficiency. This week, we will delve into some of the most prominent advanced cloud options available today, highlighting their key features and benefits.
We have not been shy about expounding upon the benefits of the cloud for businesses, as these benefits are both considerable and accessible. That being said, not even the cloud is completely perfect, and there are security errors that can easily be made.
Let’s go through these security errors to see if any sound familiar to your situation.
The cloud has turned out to be a complete game changer for the way people compute. For any business, this can offer opportunities that would not be possible without cloud computing. This week, we take a look at the different types of cloud computing with an eye toward how small businesses can gain value from choosing them.
While one of the big selling points of the cloud has always been how cost-effective it can be, it is important to remember that this isn’t always the case. There are situations where the value that a business gets from the cloud isn’t really worth the price of admission. Let’s take a few moments to break down how you can evaluate the value that the cloud can offer you, and how to use this data to your advantage.
Most businesses who utilize the cloud report that they have managed to cut costs while still getting the resources they need to perform to spec. Businesses can use the cloud for processing and storing data, as well as application deployment, making it a very dynamic solution to a business’ needs. However, you cannot make decisions based on cost alone. Here are some other factors to consider.
Television has come a long way since its inception, and entertainment is more accessible today than it has ever been before. Technology has played a large part in the dissemination of this entertainment, so we thought we’d take a look at how the cloud has contributed to making television the cornerstone of leisure that it is today.
Cloud computing is a major growth industry as businesses and individuals look to use the computing strategy to either save money or get resources that they would typically not be able to commit to. With cloud computing becoming more and more integrated into business each year, it stands to reason that the once Wild West of cloud computing would start to see a lot more regulation. This week, we’ll take a look at how the cloud is regulated and what to expect out of cloud regulation down the road.
Keeping a business running is no easy feat, with dozens of moving parts and considerations to maintain at any given time. Arguably, this has never been more true than it is now, when you combine current inflation and labor shortages with the technological options businesses now have. In short, it can be exceptionally confusing…and challenging in terms of budgeting it out.
Software makes or breaks businesses, so your software strategy should be implemented with sound logic in mind. One of the ways you can make the most out of your limited resources and budget is to consider cloud-hosted Software as a Service offerings. With SaaS, you can implement better software that is more accessible, flexible, and manageable than the traditional method of hosting.
Do your employees have a hard time with the technology that you’ve provided them? Are your digitization efforts lagging behind? Are the systems your business is using coming up on their end of support date? Old technology can cause major problems for a business. In this week’s blog, we go through some of the signs that you may need to upgrade your business’ technology.
The cloud has helped countless organizations all over the world establish themselves as powerhouses of their industries through dynamic and flexible solutions. One of the biggest reasons why the cloud is so effective—particularly for growing companies—is because of how scalable it is. Let’s examine how this scalability can help your company succeed despite how much it grows.
Rarely is there a problem that a cloud solution cannot fix, and as such, businesses are more often turning to the cloud to find ways to handle the many challenges presented to them on a daily basis. Is this reliance on the cloud a good thing, or does it hold businesses back? Let’s take a look at what can happen as a result of overreliance on the cloud.
With cloud computing working wonders for small and medium-sized businesses of all types, you may gain confidence in finding hosted platforms that can help your business. Make no mistake about it, the cloud can work for your business in one way or another. This week, let’s go through how cloud options can help you improve your business’ computing.
The cloud is a great business tool and resource, enabling businesses to offset a lot of their IT workload onto these providers. If you haven’t migrated some or all of your business’ technology to take advantage of the cloud, it is certainly something to consider.
If you’re already considering it, we wanted to offer a few tips to help make the process more effective for you.
The server is the heart and brain of a business’ computing infrastructure. So much so that a failure can cause catastrophic effects on your business. If you are at a point where you are thinking about adding a server to your infrastructure, or replacing one that is a little long in the tooth, you now have less of a dilemma than you may have had previously. This doesn’t mean that it is not a serious decision, but today you have options on how you want to go about deploying your new server. This month, we thought we would go over some of the pros and cons that come with adding new infrastructure and whether purchasing a new server outright is the right decision for your business.
Since it first entered the mainstream in the mid-2000s, cloud computing has become a cornerstone of businesses of every size and shape. The big question that remains, however, is what your business could lean on the cloud to do. Let’s go over the multitude of options that the cloud opens up for a business.
Your business depends on software for many of its day-to-day operations, whether it’s an email system, productivity suite, or other specialized software. When it comes to acquiring software, you have two options: the traditional method of acquisition, i.e. buying it from a vendor, or subscribing to a Software as a Service solution. What are the differences and how can you make sure your organization is getting value out of its investment?
Cloud computing has been touted as one of the most innovative and important technologies for smaller businesses as they look to compete with larger organizations. How it makes this possible is by offering the dynamic computing environments that can help bring these smaller businesses into the information age without saddling them with massive infrastructure costs while doing so. That’s not to say that the cloud is cheap by any means, and this month we will discuss how cloud computing is a great option and how if it isn’t managed properly, it can be problematic for the businesses that rely on it.
The cloud is far and away one of the most beneficial technologies that a modern business has at its disposal. Unfortunately, the same can be said for modern cybercriminals. The cloud has given cybercriminals new opportunities that are important to acknowledge—as well, of course, to protect your business against.
When you think of the government, you don’t immediately think of an organization that is at the forefront of innovation. Sure, they have all that money at their disposal, but most of it goes here and there to try to help the people of a constituency; and, frankly it isn’t terribly efficient. What may surprise you is that governments are embracing cloud services and it tends to benefit everyone. Let’s see how governments are taking advantage of cloud computing.
The cloud is one way that businesses are changing their operations for the better. Not only does the cloud enable organizations to function in drastically different ways from the status quo, it also gives businesses countless opportunities to reduce costs. Here are just a few ways you can expect the cloud to reduce your expenses and improve your return on investment for IT resources.
Look, we are big fans of the cloud, especially for data storage, but you shouldn’t implement the cloud without a solid security strategy. Whether you are using it for your business’ data storage needs or just to take backups of your infrastructure, you’ll still need to keep various facets of security in mind for your cloud storage. It all starts with figuring out how secure your cloud provider really is.
Disasters are more common in the business world than you might think, be they natural disasters that level your office or simple electrical problems that spark a structural fire. A business-threatening disaster could occur at any moment, and it is your responsibility to ensure that it doesn’t put your business’ future at risk. To this end, we recommend you have plans for off-site operations, even if only temporary.
Cloud computing has been a hot topic in IT circles for a few years. First because of the skepticism that many IT professionals had for the practice, and now that it is a mainstream business technology, ways to boost security to protect the organization who has embraced this computing strategy. We’re here to tell you that while cloud computing is convenient, flexible, and seemingly affordable, there are instances where having physical machines makes more sense for a business.
Most everyone uses the cloud in some capacity, even if it’s not a professional one. Simply put, the value it provides even on a consumer level is astounding, and this is even more so with business applications. The cloud makes it much easier for organizations to manage their resources compared to hosting them in-house, but a problem has surfaced with some companies suffering due to what’s called “cloud sprawl.”
Cloud computing is being used by nearly everyone nowadays, and most of the time it presents a lot of value that can’t be found with purchasing, managing, and maintaining an in-house computing infrastructure. As an organization begins moving more and more of their computing to the cloud, there is a situation that arises that industry professionals call “cloud sprawl”.
Smart devices have brought about unprecedented amounts of connectivity in aspects of running a business or owning a home that never could have been dreamed of in the past. People can now unlock their front doors, turn up their thermostats, and even switch the lights on and off through their smartphone. Unfortunately, the part that people don’t like to talk about with these applications and devices is security—big surprise, right?
The cloud is a great opportunity for businesses to increase accessibility of data and enhance productivity, especially while remote, but for those who do not know how to approach it, the cloud can be intimidating. Today, we are going to make the case for a private cloud solution and why you should consider it as a viable option for your business, even if it does not seem like it at the moment. You might be surprised by what you learn!
Data backup is something that some organizations think they can do without, simply because they believe that it’s only valuable to have in the event that something wrong happens. Well, we’re here to break the bad news that if something can go wrong, it most likely will go wrong… at least at some point. With automated cloud backups, however, the chances of some unexpected emergency ending your business are drastically reduced.
Remote work carries with it a different set of risks than does a traditional workplace setup. Being forced to move in that direction only exacerbates the issue of figuring out how to operate under what people are calling the “new normal”. This month we thought we would go through a couple of the risks that come with having your staff working remotely, and what to do about them.
After the past few years, the hybrid workplace has risen in its perceived value, the benefits of allowing employees flexibility in where they work from becoming very clear. That said, while the hybrid workplace is much closer to a reality than ever before, there are a few hurdles that must be cleared first.
The cloud is a great tool to improve the accessibility of applications and data, but with so many options available to businesses, it can be a bit intimidating to get started with it. Let’s go over some of the various types of cloud solutions available, as well as some of the more well-known services that you might find helpful.
When it comes to implementing new technology solutions, it’s easy to get distracted by all of the great possibilities and miss all of the challenges that it represents. The cloud in particular represents countless chances to improve operations and enhance efficiency, but the side of this is that there are many issues that could arise during the cloud migration process. Let’s consider some of these challenges and how we can help you get around them.
All businesses require software of some sort, but utilizing software comes with its own fair share of frustrations. How do you manage all of the licenses? How do you even afford the often high capital expense that comes with equipping all of your users with the programs they need? Thankfully, the cloud comes to the rescue once again with what’s called Software as a Service.
When you are looking to implement new technology solutions for your business, the last thing you should do is skip the planning process. You need to carefully consider all of your options, your business’ specific needs, and the various benefits that can come from all of these options. Today we will discuss how your business can choose the best technology that suits your organization and its operations.
Businesses use cloud resources all the time; and, they use them for many different reasons. Some use them because they have to support a remote workforce, some use them so they don’t have to come up with large swaths of capital or don’t want to pay interest rates for financing their central hardware. Some only use them sparingly to fill in the gaps created by product and service demand.
The cloud is a well-established option for businesses to embrace nowadays. So much so, in fact, that the benefits of migrating their data environment to the cloud have encouraged many to take the plunge (or would that thematically be ascent?) into cloud-delivered services. These transitions don’t come without their issues, of course. Let’s go over a few of the most common challenges that a business encounters when performing a cloud migration.
Regardless of their size, businesses need access to some considerable amounts of data nowadays. This means that even small businesses have situations to consider that not only carries data considerations, but operational considerations. Considering many businesses have shifted to a remote workforce (or some variant of it), it stands to reason that an organization’s hardware investments have to be more strategic than ever before.
When we talk about the cloud, what springs to your mind? The cloud might sound like a business buzzword, but in reality it’s one of the most important components of a technology infrastructure, especially in today’s online environment. Considering the ongoing pandemic and unpredictability that the situation brings, you don’t want to wait any longer; you should have started thinking about implementing the cloud yesterday.
Whether you are just a fledgling small business just trying to get your feet off the ground or a larger-scale enterprise with a multitude of clients, one thing will always remain the same: in today’s business world, the cloud is king, and it has the potential to change the way that your business operates for the better.
When someone decides to join the ranks of the entrepreneur, it can be very intimidating regardless of what type of business they are starting. Technology can help, but finding the right technology isn’t always as easy as acquiring a server. This month we thought we would outline three technologies that every new business should consider.
Today’s technology provides businesses with more options than they’ve ever had, including where they want to host their critical infrastructures. This decision will often boil down to between an onsite hardware implementation or utilizing the cloud. Let’s consider the differences that your decision needs to reflect.
Do you realize how much paper you use each year? Do you realize how much paper you have stored in your office? Do you realize that none of that is necessary? Today, digital filing systems as a part of a document management strategy can keep you from wasting your business’ resources on paper, filing, and printing. Here’s how:
Hardware is expensive, this much is certain. When a small or medium-sized business is looking to get the most bang for buck from their technology investments, they have to consider hardware to be the most crucial part of the equation. One option that businesses can take advantage of today is to use virtualized environments. Whether these computing environments are hosted onsite or in the cloud, a business can extend the usefulness of their IT budget by utilizing them. Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of virtualization on your business.
Cloud computing has been one of the most utilized tools for business in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it crucial for businesses to give remote access to tools and one effective way to make that happen was to look to the cloud. This has expanded an already booming market and presents businesses of all sizes with the opportunity to get the computing they need without huge upfront costs. Today, we’ll take a look at the cloud computing market and how you can leverage hosted computing solutions to improve your business.
The cloud has been a good resource for business for quite a while. Just how good? Currently, nine-out-of-ten businesses operate with some type of cloud-hosted solution. In fact, by the figures, we’re looking at a cloud-hosted future. We thought it would be interesting to take a look at some of the cloud computing stats and trends to paint a picture of just how the cloud has grown up.
Businesses have many problems they need to solve. With technology, the process typically starts with identifying a problem, researching solutions, and finding one that will successfully work to solve the problem. Traditionally, when dealing with technology, a company would procure the hardware and hire technicians to implement the solution and deploy the services needed. If they had to borrow money to do it, they would because the profits would presumably be more than the payments even with banks tacking on interest.
A lot is made about cloud computing and its cost and time saving benefits, but when your business is small, a lot of times, it could just be looked at as an unnecessary addition to your computing infrastructure. Today, we thought we would go through a few ways that even the smallest of businesses can utilize cloud computing.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues around us, many businesses have found themselves seriously reconsidering their business’ infrastructure, pondering the switch from onsite hardware to cloud-based options. While these hosted options can offer businesses relief from a costly hardware refresh, it is important to acknowledge that cloud computing may not be a one-size-fits-all panacea. Let’s take a closer look.
The cloud has proven to be an extremely useful tool for modern businesses. Not only does it provide anywhere-anytime access to applications, processing, storage, and more, it also delivers those products as a service, allowing an organization--or an individual--to budget for recurring costs rather than major upfront ones. This provides your organization with functional, supported, and secure computing environments that eliminate a lot of the support costs that traditional computing environments require. It sounds like a perfect scenario for small and large businesses alike, but things aren’t always what they seem, as a lot of cloud users have found that they have incurred several hidden costs by using cloud platforms. Today, we take a look at these hidden costs.
The key to running a successful small business is keeping costs down and production/service delivery efficient. This is easier said than done. Some tools have been developed to boost productivity and efficiency while others are built to eliminate downtime and manage risk. Let’s take a look at some of the technology your business should be using.
We spend a lot of time considering cloud solutions, and as a result, we have a very easy time seeing how much they can do to help support your office’s productivity (especially now, when it isn’t really recommended that anyone congregate in the office). That’s why, for this week’s tip, we wanted to go over how you can help even your remote workforce be more productive by using cloud technology.
March 31st is World Backup Day, which makes it the perfect opportunity to share the benefits of implementing a complete backup plan. Unfortunately, the current COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant business interruptions make World Backup Day only too timely this year. Here, we’ll examine how these times make a business continuity strategy and data backup all the more important to have.
All types of businesses use cloud resources as a part of their IT infrastructure. It allows them to turn what was once a major capital expenditure into a controllable operating cost; and, it does it while offering solutions to almost any business problem. The one drawback that most IT professionals agree on is how to gain enough control over a cloud platform to ensure that the platform is secure.
Cloud solutions are extremely popular among modern businesses, whether they rely on public cloud resources or maintain their own in-house private cloud. Some businesses, however, elect to take the middle ground and use a “hybrid” cloud solution. Let’s take a few moments to determine if your business could benefit from this approach.
Microsoft has a well-developed reputation for creating software that enables users to achieve their work objectives, especially in the business setting. Here, we’re diving into a few capabilities of one such software title, OneDrive, to review some of the features that a user might want to take advantage of.
As important as it is to keep your technology up-to-date, it can sometimes be prohibitively expensive to do so throughout your entire business. If you have found yourself in this position, one option you may consider is to resort to hosted desktop solutions. Here, we’ll go over what a hosted desktop is, and how it can serve companies well.
Cloud services have proven to be extraordinarily useful for businesses of all types. With an immense amount of options to choose from, businesses can get anything from AI to Windows in the cloud. With so many services available, sometimes businesses will pay for computing resources that they don’t use, cutting into their available operational capital. Today, we take a look at how businesses throw capital away by not keeping a close eye on their cloud-based resources.
When you look at the cloud service business model, it can be easy to wonder how it is so beneficial to businesses - or really, how it fiscally can be. After all, dollars to donuts, the monthly service charges most likely add up to less than a business would spend for another, comparable service. To understand how the cloud does this, it may help to look at something that often occurs in the office.
Microsoft offers solutions that have a proven history of being assets when businesses adopt them - but like most any solution, what may fit well for one, may not fit well for all. Here, we’ll consider one of Microsoft offerings to help you determine if it is the right solution for your needs and requirements.
Cloud-based databases are valuable for businesses on plenty of levels, but when you consider how much risk you expose your organization to by using a public cloud over a private solution, you suddenly start to realize that the ramifications could be far beyond repair. Compared to the public cloud, a private solution presents a greater opportunity for security, flexibility, and customization.
If your business is looking to use technology beneficially, the ability to store data is going to be a major consideration you are going to have to confront. After all, not having enough storage space, or having too much, can be major problems for most businesses. Today, we’ll ask some of the most pressing questions you’ll need to answer to get the right (and the right amount of) storage space for your needs.