We’ve all been there: the Wi-Fi drops during a high-stakes meeting, or the TV remote ignores your commands for the tenth time. In a moment of pure frustration, you give the device a love tap, and—as if by magic—it starts working again.
Whether you call it percussive maintenance or just asserting dominance, that physical jab feels like a victory. While that slap might provide a temporary fix, you’re actually playing a high-stakes game of planned obsolescence.
Most of us have at least heard that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. In other words, proactivity is pretty much always the better strategy. Despite this, we’ve observed that many businesses still avoid investing in their IT until something breaks—the exact opposite of proactivity—and wind up losing in terms of downtime, recovery time, and reputation, along with the financial implications these factors introduce.
This is precisely why we’ve designed our services to serve as preventative measures against the root causes of downtime, helping you be more proactive and reduce overall costs.
Building a gingerbread house is a perennial tradition in many, many households. Those with experience know that precise, careful preparation leads to a successful, long-lasting final product, while rushing and cutting corners usually leave you with a crumbling, fragile mess.
Much of the same can be said of your business’ data. This essential operational resource is terrifyingly susceptible to a litany of threats and issues that could easily bring your processes tumbling down… hence, why the 3-2-1 Backup Rule is a core element of successful business continuity.
Let’s take a moment to consider the recipe for a reliable, disaster-proof backup, and how it aligns with the process of making a gingerbread house.
We all have too many accounts nowadays. Between our personal lives, work, and practically all the entertainment we consume, there are dozens to keep track of and manage… and then there are the ones that charge us for a service they offer. The stacking costs of these services are bad enough, but if you see them start to double or even triple in a given month, you may be experiencing a common problem that is simple enough to solve.
To do so, we need to clarify the difference between creating an account and logging in.
Remember tape backup? For some SMBs who have moved on, this form of data backup is a clunky and frustrating relic of the past. But if you aren’t remembering it and are instead still dealing with it, you might be experiencing some operational frustrations of your own. Today, we want to cover a better solution—one that takes the unpredictability out of business continuity.
It’s everyone’s worst nightmare—checking your pockets or purse, then checking them again, trying to feel around for your smartphone, but it’s not there. Where did you leave it, or where did it fall out? Or worst of all, did someone steal it? Regardless of how you lost your smartphone, you need to take these three simple steps to ensure whoever finds it can’t steal your data.
It is remarkable how much more capacity our data storage tools have than they had upon their initial invention, and how much data we’ve amassed in that time. The first-ever commercial hard drive was the size of two refrigerators, and held a mere five megabytes of data. For context, that’s about five photographs. Today, hard drives hold exponentially more data, and it is critical that you are doing everything you can to protect this data from any circumstance, from fire, severe weather, or cyberattack.
So, are you? Too many business owners aren’t sure… but there’s a way you can be.
How do you know when it’s time to fire one of your vendors? Better yet, how do you know when you’re better off firing your IT vendor to find a better option? These kinds of situations can be stressful, but they’re not impossible. We’re here to help you make the call, as well as to offer a better alternative that saves you time, energy, and money.
What would you do if your entire infrastructure were impacted by ransomware all at once? Do you have a contingency in place to address this risk, or are you going to “wing it” in the face of such a threat? The smart answer is that you’ll be prepared, and a data backup and disaster recovery solution (or BDR) plan will help you do just that.
A backup is mandatory for any business, but not all backups are the same. You’ll want to be prepared for more than just a simple server crash; you’ll need geographical redundancy that can protect your business even in the face of disasters that destroy your servers or physical location. Yes, local backups are helpful, but you’ll need the power of geographical redundancy to overcome the most horrific disasters that could strike your business.
A lot goes into a successful network security strategy, and when there isn’t a clear head honcho at the top of the chain of command (from a network security standpoint, anyway), things can get a little murky. The security that comes from a modern firewall, however, is vital, and all businesses should strive to implement it. Here are the four key elements of a modern cybersecurity strategy and how a modern firewall contributes to the digital security of your business.
When something goes wrong with your company’s technology, the last thing you want to do is be the one at fault. Unfortunately, that’s what comes with the territory in the world of business IT. If you’re sick of technicians who make excuses rather than own up to their mistakes and correct their course, read on. We’re going to showcase just what accountability in IT looks like and how we strive to embody it.
How much time do you waste every day while trying to find specific files? Chances are, it’s more than you’d like, and one quick glance at your digital workspace would tell us you have some tidying up to do. Today, we want to share three tips to help you be more organized and productive with your digital workspace.
Proactive IT is something we harp on a lot, and that’s because it works… especially compared to the alternatives. However, what does proactive IT mean, and how can you get the most out of your business technology?
Perhaps more importantly, how can you make sure your technology doesn’t become a liability rather than an asset?
Productivity is one of the most common business goals today, with many doing everything they can to optimize it. In fact, today is officially World Productivity Day, highlighting the significant importance placed on this specific metric.
Despite this, productivity can often feel unattainable… regardless of how busy one is throughout the day. Let’s fix that and consider three habits that will greatly support your work and help make the most of your time.
As a business owner, you wear many hats. You're the CEO, the head of sales, the marketing guru, and often, the de facto IT department. It's understandable that with so much to do, dealing with a sluggish computer or a temperamental software program gets pushed to the bottom of the to-do list. A laissez-faire attitude towards your technology can have serious consequences, however. Today, we’ll go through why being lazy with your IT causes more harm than good.
Do you ever wonder why some businesses seem to have endless technology problems? It’s not by accident. It's often a matter of not having the smart, simple habits in place to combat issues that present themselves. Let’s take a look at three ways that your business can avoid big technology headaches.
For small and medium-sized businesses, a data backup plan might seem difficult or even impossible to implement without the right in-house IT expertise. That’s no excuse to neglect data backup, though. Today, we want to share the 3-2-1 backup rule, which is an ideal standard to aim for.
You see it everywhere, again and again: how much return an investment into proper business technology will bring, with little to no context behind these claims. We want to fix that.
Let’s examine why so much information about modern IT options can be less than helpful, and see if we can’t clarify what it means. Simplifying tech for the businesses we work with is one of our primary goals, after all.
While it’s the longest-running joke in the world of IT, the question “Have you tried turning it on and off again?” is still an important one to consider when things are going awry. There’s a good reason why it’s such well-known advice, too: turning your device off can help solve a significant amount of technical issues. Why is this the case, and what can you learn from it?
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