Recent Blog Posts
AirBar Many gadgets just aim to improve the technology you already have in place. If you (or someone on your list) has a laptop you use that doesn’t offer a touchscreen, you can use the AirBar to gain that functionality. AirBar plugs into a USB and has magnets that help mount it under the display. Check out the promotional video: It comes in 13.3-inch, 14-inch, and 15.6-inch sizes to fit almost any laptop, and can be of use for anyone looking to use a touchscreen on a device that doesn?t come equipped with one. Visit http://air.bar to check out AirBar, and to see if it will work for you. Anker PowerCore Power Bank The expansion of mobile technology has brought a lot to the business world. It has expanded the opportunities for productivity, including content creation, collaboration, and many other processes. One problem with today?s devices is that they will run out of power mid-task, threatening the continuity of productivity. A power bank, like an Anker PowerCore gives any remote worker hours of extended juice from their devices, expanding their ability to be productive. The Anker PowerCore has dozens of options that can provide over 20,000 mAh of juice, extending the life of your crucial devices. Visit http://anker.com to learn more. Courant Wireless Charging & Accessory Tray With Qi wireless charging a major feature that many mobile manufacturers have incorporated into their phones, there have been more accessories that bring function to the user. With rumors circulating that Apple is considering going fully wireless by 2021, expect the charging accessory market to ramp up. If you are in the market for a solid charging tray, Courant has developed some high-end designs including their Catch: 3 tray. It provides fast wireless Qi charging and a place to store a wallet, keys and other common accessories on a desk or nightstand. Courant has several options for all budgets. Check out their website at http://staycourant.com. Ember Temperature Control Mug For the coffee lover in your life, it may be a challenge keeping their cup of joe warm. Today there are smart mugs like the one above that is offered by Ember. Users can set the temperature they?d like for their favorite warm beverage (from 120?F-to-145?F) and the mug will maintain that temperature. The mug itself remains cool to the touch and lasts for up to 75 minutes uncharged. If you want to purchase the available charging coaster that will keep the beverage as hot as you need it, as long as you need it, you will need to pay extra. If you want to get one for the coffee or tea-lover in your life, check out http://ember.com. These are just four of the gadgets we?ve found. Do you have any tech gadgets you are looking to purchase for the people in your life? If so, leave links in the comments section below.
What is Operational Backup? Let?s start at the beginning. You know your data, and you know what data you need. One thing that your average employee will not consider in the course of their work is what would happen to it if their workstation–or your company?s server in which they store the information–suddenly fails. They take for granted that you have that under control, right? But, can you? Can you guarantee that your workstations and servers are protected from unexpected power surges? Can you guarantee that a component in your server doesn?t just go kaput, leaving you scrambling for contingency? You can?t, and that?s why you need to have an operational backup strategy in place. Operational backup is using incremental and differential backups to ensure that when something does happen–including system failure, user error, and everything in between–that your organization has a copy of the data that is, at least, close to current. This strategy doesn?t just speak to production data either, it can literally save business communication, marketing data, you name it. For this reason it is a major part of any realistic business continuity strategy. Why are Operational Backups So Important? The best way to explain why operational backups are so important is to talk about the context where a restore would be most needed. While we don?t have any statistics to throw out at you, you?d have to agree that the cause of most data restores is human error. Once we can agree on that, it explains succinctly why operational backups are so important. The times when data is restored isn?t from a flood washing away your entire server room, it?s from a member of your staff deleting a file, or a folder, or a VM, that they shouldn?t have deleted and you have to restore from backup to get it back. Another crucial component of your business: email, needs to be covered by an operational backup strategy. Many people use their email to store important files; and, it?s fairly common to delete a message that you end up needing. By having an up-to-date backup of your email server, deleted messages can be restored quickly. An operational backup strategy can also protect settings through systems like Active Directory. Administrators have some pressure on them to ensure that the data represented there is 100 percent accurate, as it plays a huge role in access control and security. For this reason, information can get deleted and lock employees out of certain things. Since Active Directory is such a crucial system, however, operational backups are needed so the entire platform doesn?t have to be restored and reconfigured. One Serious Problem with Operational Recovery One major problem that businesses have with their operational recovery strategies is the speed in which the data can be recovered. Some backup platforms make it difficult to back up a single file or folder if it is deployed in a virtualized environment. With many businesses using partitioned hardware, it?s crucial that the Virtual Machines running on the hardware are able to be backed up and restored the same as they would be if they were simply hosted directly on a network-attached machine. With disaster recovery being an important consideration for any business with dynamic backups, sometimes operational backups are relegated to conventional restoration methods rather than […]
Printing at Your Business Traditionally, businesses have used the printer liberally. In fact, according to a survey by Buyer?s Laboratory 90 percent of companies don?t bother tracking their printing costs. While this may be surprising to some–especially considering that number makes up for over five percent of a business? total revenue–with so much attention being put into organizational efficiency, printing is often ignored. If your business is one of the vast majority that doesn?t calculate printing costs, you should consider what it is costing your company. Printing costs are not limited to the cost of paper, ink, and electricity. Today, costs include the 15 percent of the time that your IT department spends dealing with printing issues and the 23 percent of help desk calls that deal with faulty printers, or printer-related issues. This money is coming out of your operational budget and you may not even know it. What You Can Do? The first thing you should do, if you haven?t already, is to begin tracking your printing costs. It will be very beneficial to learn just how much money you are spending printing out papers that you may not have had to. Next you will want to consider putting in place a print management solution to help you get more transparency about what your associated printing costs are. Print Management is a strategy as well as a software, but you can?t really have one without the other. A print management strategy will allow you to get control over your organizational printing through controlling access and prioritizing the efficiency of document production. The main point of the print management strategy is to lower operating costs without making it difficult for your company to have the ability to print the necessary documents. Some of the biggest benefits that a print management platform can provide include: Clear Assessment – As stated above, most organizations don?t bother tracking their printing costs. This tool will give you a clear view of your business? print volumes, printer and copier maintenance logs, and print routing information. Management – The print management platform gives day-to-day control over the organization?s printers and user print settings. Paper-to-Digital Conversion – This is where you would determine the utility of printed solutions. If you can transfer them to digital-only ones, you will invariably spend less money on printing. Improved Security – The more control you have over data, the more secure it is. When you rely on paper-based correspondence, there?s a higher chance of a security lapse. Real-Time Tracking – By tracking your print volumes, you can keep costs low, control user print limitations, and more. If you are spending too much money on your business? documents, call the IT experts at White Mountain IT Services today to learn how to curtail those costs at (603) 889-0800.
1. Your company has changed directions or size. Any time a substantial change occurs in your company, it’s time to look at all the services your company uses. If your company is storing significantly more data or just acquired another company, you need more room. Accepting overage fees just to stick with your current plan and provider can be more expensive than it looks at first glance. So shop around based on your new tier of usage (whether it’s bigger or smaller). 2. You’ve added on features or services since your initial signup. Every cloud service provider offers additional services and premium perks. If you signed up for one package but your company needed to purchase additional line items since then, review your plan. Bundle packages are usually cheaper than going a la carte. If your current service provider won’t let you lower your monthly rate, shop around to put pressure on them or to head to greener pastures. 3. Your current service provider is no longer leading the pack. The technology market is highly competitive, and cloud service providers are no exception. Your current company may have offered the highest degree of security in its tier when you signed up three years ago, but now they might just offer middle of the road protections. No matter whether your primary concern is speed, security, or accessibility, keep track of the trends to make sure your service still does the best job of what you need. 4. There’s been a data security breach. Data breaches happen, and it’s going to be hard to find any technology company that hasn’t had some sort of scare. But if a serious data breach occurred or minor potential breaches keep happening, it’s time to get out of there. Switch to a nationally recognized brand that can’t afford the bad press of a breach and so does their best to protect their clients’ (and your clients’) data. 5. Your company needs more flexibility. Just like the first point, your company might be transitioning in terms of size, focus, and cloud demand. These changes might just be part of the business model instead of major alterations. Your peak months might see far more cloud usage than the off-season, and even your company’s internal travel-based or remote cloud access might fluctuate throughout the year. If your cloud service doesn’t offer slightly variable pricing that works in your favor, migrate to a more flexible cloud. 6. You want to switch from a public to a private cloud. If your company is growing to reach enterprise status, a public cloud might not be robust enough to support the growth. If your company is starting to need fine-tuned control and complete access into the “behind-the-scenes” portions of the cloud, switch to a private system. Delaying this switch can slow your company’s momentum. If any of these reasons sound familiar, migrate to a new cloud. White Mountain IT can help recommend the right service for your future cloud and manage the migration. Contact us today to get started.
Don?t Be Afraid of Reusing an Email! How often do you find yourself sitting down to write a response to an email, only to think of all the other times you?ve had to do the same thing, effectively verbatim? You know the messages: the ?thanks, but I?m not interested,? the ?you should have emailed this other person,? or the ?yep, got it, need anything, thanks!? These messages are the modernized cousin of the form letter, so why not use a standardized template for them? Your email platform of choice should have the capability to create these templates for your messages, or as they are referred to in Outlook, ?quick parts.? In Gmail, they are called ?canned responses.? By setting up these templates, you can save your future self a lot of time rewriting the same message. Use Groups! Let?s say you frequently share news with your team and its various departments, or a particular team you?ve put together internally for a project. Whatever the case may be, you want an easier way to send a message to a set group of people. In Gmail, you can create groups to send messages to later, that make a sort of forum in an email message. It really simplifies the task of reaching out to large groups of people in the office regularly. Stay Organized, or in Other Words, Don?t Be Afraid to Archive! One of the most common reasons that even the most organized inboxes get cluttered again: those emails that you just keep around in your inbox. Whether they came in from a newsletter you?ve subscribed to, or if they were shared in a particular email chain that you keep going back to, these emails get in your way. Maybe there was an idea in there that you really liked, as in, this was a good idea, one that could potentially take your business to the next level, even the level after that. But wouldn?t you know it, now just isn?t the right time to do something like that, but we want to someday! So, to make sure that you had the seed that planted the idea when the moment was right, so you could swoop in and embrace the opportunity at some later date, you?ve kept this email? and a bunch of others that also had good ideas. Honestly, how likely is it that you will ever actually put one of these ideas into practice? You?re likely better off deleting messages like these. However, if you really, really want to keep them, try creating a folder called ?Future Plans? After all, your good intentions should be put somewhere. Now, we kid, but don?t miss out on the improvements that small adjustments like these can potentially make. Make sure you subscribe to our blog for more tips to help you get the most out of the technology that drives your business!
