Explaining Azure (and the Cloud in General) As you?ve probably figured out already, Azure is a set of cloud services offered by Microsoft. Take about any type of computing platform that you could need, and Azure has an option for it. Organizations can run applications, buy storage, security, and support and alter the way their company operates with the use of the public/hybrid cloud platform. This provides the accessibility and the tools any business could need to further their organizational productivity goals. Azure has solutions for a number of business problems, including The Internet of Things Artificial intelligence Enterprise resource planning Blockchain Databases Private cloud platforms DevOps Mobile management E-Commerce Regulatory compliant platforms and reporting Collaboration Data warehousing Big data Business Intelligence Line of business applications Productivity applications (SaaS) Development (PaaS) Data backup and comprehensive archiving Marketing Digital media Gaming If you can believe it, there are more uses for the Azure cloud platform. This array of services and uses gives any organization an option to get the scalable computing construct that they need to push their business initiatives forward. Of course, before implementing any sort of cloud solution (even Azure or AWS), you?ll want to first assess your options. If you?re new to these types of platforms, you will want to test them to ensure they will meet your performance and budgetary needs. At White Mountain IT Services, we suggest working side-by-side with an IT professional. Their experience with cloud computing, business computing, and computing of all types can help you find exactly the solution you need to solve your business? problems. If you want to talk to one of our certified experts about if Azure is right for your company?s needs, call us directly at (603) 889-0800 today.
In the past few decades, data storage technology has leapt forward, as a brief comparison of capacity to time passed can show us. Take the standard 3.5-inch floppy disk, and its 1.44 MB (megabyte) capacity. While this was enough to hold large text files, this wasn?t even enough to contain an MP3 file on a single disk. Compare this to the typical CD, which can hold about 650 MB, or a DVD?s 4.7 GB storage limit (which equals that of 3,342 floppy disks). A Blu-Ray disk can store about 10 times as much as a DVD. Of course, this is diminutive compared to Google?s total data storage capacity of over 15 exabytes. This equals approximately 15,000,000,000,000 megabytes, or about 10,416,666,666,667 floppy disks worth. How Your Storage Needs Vary by Intended Usage Before you decide upon a storage device to use, you should take the time to consider what you will need from your solution. For instance, if the computer we?ve been putting together is going to be introduced to your workplace?s network, it?s likely that there is a central location or cloud solution that is used as a primary data storage. In this case, your device won?t need much onboard storage – basically, just enough for the operating system, any non-cloud-hosted programs you use, and some extra space for file storage. You?ll want to invest a bit extra in your storage if your computer is for personal use or a home office – especially if you plan to use it for video production, as the specific files types involved will require dedicated storage. What?s the Difference Between HDD and SSD Storage? Your storage solution will be made up of at least one of these two kinds of devices: hard disk drives (HDDs), or solid-state drives (SSDs). Each have their pros and cons, which will come into play depending on your situation and your plans for your new device. Hard Disk Drives HDDs are the legacy storage components, having been used for thirty years. By leveraging spinning magnetic platters and an arm to read data from and write data to this platter, they work quite similarly to a record player, albeit at a much, much, much faster speed. While HDDs have high capacities, they aren?t the most energy-efficient, and tend to be very fragile – both reasons that laptops frequently eschew HDDs. However, they are still cheaper than the alternative. Solid State Drives SSDs don?t have any moving parts, with any and all data recorded electronically. While they have historically come at a higher price point than an HDD, there are many benefits to balance this out. They are hardier and more reliable than a hard disk drive, work faster, and (due to their lack of moving parts) deal with less wear over time – which cuts down on their failure rates. The major downside to a solid-state drive is the cost/capacity ratio, and how quickly higher-capacity drives can get to be expensive. For reference, as of this writing, a HDD with 3 terabytes of storage costs less than a SSD with a third the storage. Considering Your Storage Needs Your required storage will greatly depend on the intended use of the device, as we touched on before. How much sense would including an SSD make? If your PC isn?t used […]
Understanding the Employee Perspective To make sure your employees stay productive, you first need to look at their duties from their perspective. Depending on their motivations and goals, your employees will have a different reason to want to do a good job. Some might be in it for the long haul, thinking of your business as a career. Others might only be using it as a stepping stone toward achieving their ultimate goal. Understanding where they fall on this spectrum is imperative to getting the most out of your workers. If you give your employees the ability to invest themselves in your company for their own benefit, you might find that they are much more productive and efficient with their time. If you give them the opportunity to learn new skills that they can carry with them in the future, you may find they are more devoted to their work. After all, there?s one thing that?s certain: an employee who is unfulfilled and uncertain of their future with a business will be less productive, leading ultimately to their departure in search of greener pastures. Augmenting Productivity Productivity is a necessity to maintain operations without losing out on profit, so you should establish the following guidelines to ensure that your employees remain cognizant of their own work ethic. You might have to rely on them to self-police themselves at times, since if you micromanage too much, they might grow to resent your management style. Here are a couple of ideas to get you thinking about how to get the most out of your employees: Establish KPIs for friendly competition: Key performance indicators help you establish guidelines for how much you want your employees to get done throughout the workday. These are generally used to ensure that projects and tasks are on time and on budget. While it could easily be marketed as the bare minimum to strive for in terms of productivity, you should instead look at it as an opportunity to instill some friendly competition amongst your staff. With KPIs being visible and transparent in the workplace, your employees can really own their work and use the information to better themselves. Implement a content filter to keep them on task: A content filter can keep the endless content of the Internet at bay so that your employees can stay productive. A content filter can keep users off of social media and streaming services to help them be as efficient as possible with their time. You can even implement them on a per-user basis, meaning that problem employees can be remediated while those who don?t make a habit of it can enjoy the fruits of their labor every now and then. White Mountain IT Services is a staunch believer in the power of technology to make your business as productive as possible. To learn more about how we can help, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.
This might sound pretty boring, but you can do a LOT to control your users and protect your business. On the other side of the coin, if your Active Directory isn?t set up very well, you could be leaving things wide open, preventing you from meeting industry compliance regulations or granting your users with more access than they really should have. We?re going to discuss some of our Active Directory best practices, but a quick disclaimer first: there isn?t a one-size-fits-all solution for all organizations. Depending on your security needs, the type of permissions you need to have, and any compliance regulations your business falls under, some of these policies won?t apply as-is for you. Still, if you are coming from a situation where you don?t have anything (or hardly anything) in place, this is a great place to start. Nobody Needs to be an Administrator When users log into their PC on your domain, they are logging in with their domain account, which is centralized in Active Directory. Not a single user on your network, whether it?s the owner of the company, or your onsite IT person, or the Pope, needs to log into Windows on a daily basis with administrative privileges. This includes both privileged access as the Domain Admin, AND as a local admin on that particular machine. Why? It?s just too risky. This overrides all other settings and there is just no reason for it. Instead, we suggest following the least privilege administrative model. Each user should only have the minimum permissions to complete their work. You can always elevate access temporarily if needed. Otherwise, if a user gets a virus, that virus will have the same access the user does and could do a lot more damage because the user has access he or she didn?t need in the first place. The virus has the capability to spread across the network, whereas if the user?s permissions were locked down, the virus would only have a minimal impact. This means that everyone on the network, including the business owner, IT staff, and/or the Pope, log in as a regular non-administrator to do their normal day-to-day work. If they need to get administrative control, they can log in with a separate admin account. Keep that administrative account secret, safe, and carefully guarded (by the Swiss Guard if need be). Force Strong, Complex Passwords and Set Password Expirations Human beings are terrible at creating and memorizing complex passwords. Unfortunately, hackers, or at least the tools that hackers use, are very good at guessing passwords that aren?t complex enough. Quick tip: Teach your staff to use passphrases instead. Combining multiple random words is actually more secure than using an eight-character complex password. Keep in mind, the words need to be very random. Here?s a quick example: Bad Passphrase Examples:classofeightyfiveEyeofthet1g3rgameofTHRONE$25November24!1982pizzaisdelicious42 Good Passphrase Examples:SstructureBalloonmamm0thPeanutbutterdoghousellamatown5!ExileSausageYodelNoodleMagnet!82BLUEdisneyhockeylasagna64captainamericapancakesbbqALF80 Back to Active Directory, you should require passwords to be long – at least 12 characters and lock a user out after three failed attempts. Forcing passwords to expire every 30, 60, or 90 days is a good idea too, and Active Directory can remember the password history to prevent a user from rotating back to last month?s password. Delegate Permissions to Security Groups, not Individual Accounts This is something we catch pretty often when we audit […]
Determine the Computer?s Role Before you get too far into the specifications, you should know why you are purchasing new hardware. Are you looking to upgrade the systems in your office? Do you need new systems for a startup enterprise? Are you just looking for one computer to do some very specific task? Understanding why you are buying a system can dictate your priorities in regard to specific hardware. The CPU The CPU is how your computer processes all the actions and data that you ask it to. Since most people know what a CPU is, we?re not going to go into detail about it. The processor–actually microprocessor–is the core component of a computer?s CPU. Most CPUs feature microprocessors manufactured by one of two companies, either Intel or AMD. Let?s take a look at the processors you may find in a new PC: Intel Intel is the largest processor manufacturer in the world. It has recently begun to tier the processors they build, providing consumers with an easier-to-understand menu of processors to choose from. Here are the newest products: Intel Core i3: Ideal for low-end work, like editing documents, checking email, and surfing the Internet. The latest generation of Core i3 should also suffice to stream video on YouTube and Netflix. Intel Core i5: The i5 processor is a little more powerful than your average i3, as it can handle some light photo editing and gaming. It?s a decent choice for your average office workstation. Intel Core i7: i7 processors are more high-end for video editing and gaming. Intel Core i9: i9 is a tier that has only just recently surfaced. For the average business? needs, it?s overkill, but it?s perfect for 3D animation, rendering, gaming while streaming, scientific calculations, and so on. The price tag is just as high as you would think. AMD California-based AMD may be dwarfed in market share but has taken advantage of Intel?s inability to keep up with demand and has expanded its market share with its Ryzen line of processors. AMD has also begun to tier their options, providing consumers a general idea of what processors will fit their computing requirements. Options include: AMD Ryzen 3: To put it simply, this is AMD?s version of the Intel Core i3 processor, capable of editing documents, surfing the web, and? not much else. AMD Ryzen 5: The Ryzen 5 is about on par with the Intel Core i5, and while you might pay a little bit more for it, the performance of your desktop will improve substantially. AMD Ryzen 7: The Ryzen 7 is similar to Intel?s Core i7; this is where you?ll start to see costs increasing quite a bit. AMD Threadripper: This is where the overkill starts. The Threadripper is capable of handling heavy loads like 3D animation, gaming while streaming, and other intense computing that your average desktop doesn?t need to do. How Much Does the GHz Matter? The speed of a CPU is measured in Gigahertz (GHz). Until the manufacturers started tiering their products, consumers had to keep an eye on the speed of the device. While you still find some higher-end commercial processors clocked lower than you?d expect, you still can be confident that if you are shopping by tier, you are getting the right product for your needs. Do […]
