Cloud Computing and the Modern Business When I think about cloud computing, the first thing that comes to mind is the scalable nature of it. Say you have 25 employees…14 of them need productivity suites, five need graphics programs, and six need them both. Well not only can you gain access to all those types of software titles through the cloud, you can pay per license needed. In this case the company would purchase 20 versions of productivity software, billed per user. This would give each of them access to all the productivity applications as well as cloud storage associated with the suite. In this way it makes it much easier for businesses to control their computing costs. Breaking down cloud computing options for business, it becomes important to understand the difference between public and private cloud platforms. The public cloud resources are like the options listed above. They include Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS) options. Essentially if it is hosted in another company?s data center and you don?t have access to the actual hardware, you are dealing with a public cloud solution. A private cloud solution is typically hosted onsite or in a colocated data center. Since the company itself is responsible for the management and maintenance of the private cloud, and tends to be much more expensive in both hardware and management costs, there needs to be a good reason to want to invest in a private cloud platform when there are cost effective options on the public cloud market. One is that the company has physical control over the computing infrastructure and the way the server and endpoints access data. The most popular reason businesses roll out private cloud environments is that it keeps sensitive information under direct control – a major point of emphasis for IT administrators that head up regulatory compliance and other security-minded campaigns. The Hybrid Cloud For a while, the hybrid cloud was simply the use of some public cloud resources and some locally hosted cloud resources, but today?s hybrid strategies go far beyond that. The modern business needs its data and infrastructure to perform in an agile manner. Since businesses need to adapt to certain realities quicker than businesses of the past, combining the access to both locally-hosted and public cloud-hosted resources, and having them be able to integrate with each other becomes essential to the business? ability to achieve its goals. Being able to tie together all of your organization?s computing resources under a single data management platform is advantageous for any company. Hybrid cloud strategies allow businesses to not only utilize cost-effective public cloud platforms, but also provide security and control over their more sensitive data. It also provides value for the organization that isn?t so sure about moving their most important resources over to the cloud. Cloud computing provides enhanced accessibility, but it may not be for everyone. Ultimately the hybrid cloud provides companies with financial and workload flexibility that no other IT strategy provides. If you would like to learn more about the hybrid cloud, or talk to one of our knowledgeable professionals about integrating cloud computing into your business? IT call White Mountain IT Services today at (603) 889-0800.

Have Better Agendas How does your business currently conduct meetings? Perhaps you go in with a specific topic in mind, or maybe they are weekly meetings that are held whether you have something of substance to say or not. Either way, it?s best to go in with an agenda (and stick to it) if you want the most productive meetings. Use Better Technology Technology can give your meetings a kickstart when they are otherwise simply people sitting around a table and having a chat. You can use media, including slideshows and infographics, to provide context for the conversation. Furthermore, if meeting in the office isn?t an option, you can implement mobile technology and web conferencing software to keep your team connected regardless of where they are located. Hold an Open Forum People like to feel involved in meetings, and they will enjoy them more when their involvement means something. You can open up your meetings at the end for people to voice concerns or make statements. This can, in turn, open up a dialogue that may not otherwise have been created. Does your business need a hand elevating its meeting game? White Mountain IT Services can help. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

Malware Malware, or malicious software, can be particularly troublesome for organizations. The types vary from both extremely passive to extremely dangerous, with the most notable of which being ransomware. Ransomware can potentially lock down your organization?s network or files located on it using encryption, providing the decryption key only when a ransom is paid. We urge you not to pay the ransom, as it?s only furthering the agenda of hackers by you paying up. Instead, we recommend adequate preventative measures that keep ransomware at bay in the first place. Ransomware tends to spread via email and spam, so be sure to warn your users about clicking on links or attachments that are unwarranted and suspicious. Data backup can certainly help, as well. Phishing Attempts Malware isn?t the only threat to be spread through spam and email. Phishing attacks are often spread in this fashion as well, in which a user accidentally hands over credentials or sensitive information that can be used to access accounts or other data. These phishing attacks can often be elaborate and difficult to detect. Sometimes they can take the identity of your IT department or your business? senior figures. Never hand over credentials for any purpose unless the inquirer can legitimately be identified. Password Hacks By password hacks, we mean any of the high-profile hacks that have been known to spread like wildfire in the media. You may recall some of the major data breaches that have leaked sensitive information, including passwords, to the public. These passwords often wind up on the black market, where they are bought by hackers. If you ever suspect that your users have had their data stolen during these breaches, it?s important that they change their passwords as soon as possible. Denial of Service Attacks Denial of Service attacks are when a server is overloaded with traffic to the point where they are no longer able to function as intended. Distributed denial of service, or DDoS attacks, are often used as weapons to cripple infrastructures and bring services to a halt. Botnets–large groups of infected computers–are used to constantly ping servers with traffic to bring them down. Man in the Middle Man in the Middle attacks can happen when an attacker directly influences or interacts with the communications between two parties. This can happen over an unencrypted wireless network, and it?s particularly dangerous because both parties believe they are interacting with each other rather than the hacker in the middle. Drive-By Downloads Not all downloads that happen on a device are made with the device owner?s consent. Sometimes a piece of malware can trigger a download without asking for the user?s permission, as well as without the user understanding the consequences of downloading said file. Sometimes all it takes is clicking on the wrong tab, download link, or dialog box. Drive-by downloads are so dangerous that steps are being taken to thwart them when possible. Don?t let your business fall victim to these threats. To find out how your business can protect itself in times of danger, reach out to White Mountain IT Services at (603) 889-0800.

Break/Fix For the business that depends on a number of different computers, networking equipment, and other technology, it can be a challenge keeping all of it working for you over any period of time. Components fail, business? needs change, and innovations in technology present different (often better) opportunities. When something breaks, you fix it, it?s as simple as that. In IT this is called the break/fix model. The break/fix model to IT management is precisely the same method that you use with your car. Your car breaks, you take it into the shop, they fix it, you take it home. Sometimes there is enough wrong with your machine, or the break/fix technicians are so busy, that you have to leave it for a number of days. This is not ideal, obviously. It?s one thing to not have a car for a few days as there are definitely options in which to get around while your car is in the shop. If you business? server is broken, however, the time that it takes to get something fixed is all downtime; and, it is expensive. Downtime Just how expensive is downtime? There are all types of figures bantering around, but the cost of downtime is specific to your business. If you run a small five-chair hair salon and your point-of-sale computer goes down, it may hinder your ability to conduct business as you normally would (e.g. you may not be able to accept payment cards), but it’s not going to stop you from cutting hair. If you run a 40-person design firm and your server breaks, however, then you are in a real bind. If you don?t have a contingency, you might as well send everyone home for the day, because every dollar being spent on payroll is probably going to not yield much productivity. You may be thinking, ?what are my options? If technology is going to fail at some point anyway, how can I keep downtime from happening?? The answer is by outsourcing your IT management. Companies like White Mountain IT Services can do a lot of things to keep your organization?s downtime to a minimum. Outsourcing When you outsource your IT, you aren?t reacting to broken technology any longer – you are being proactive. White Mountain IT Services?s technicians remotely monitor your network and infrastructure around the clock using state-of-the-art monitoring and management tools. With these tools? built-in automation, we are able to keep a constant watch over all of your technology investments. This provides a degree of foresight. There are very real signals when any piece of technology is trending toward failure. Most of the time, our certified technicians can make adjustments and keep your technology working properly, but if a failure is imminent, we know it. This gives you the time you need to put your contingency plan in action BEFORE you see any downtime. Additionally, our technicians are experts at dealing with IT for business. This puts them in the position to find you the right solutions at the right price, and the experience needed to implement major IT alterations proficiently. The best part is that this service is billed as a flat monthly rate. Instead of trying to drum up the money to pay for IT support, you have a figure that is predictable for a reliable service. While it true […]

Physical Signs When your technology starts to grow older, you might notice some signs of physical wear and tear, even if you can?t see it immediately. You might hear your hard drive humming a little louder than you?re used to, or you might hear a fan working a bit too hard. All of this could mean that your machine isn?t doing so well, especially if there is a considerable amount of dust buildup and it?s quite old. The older your devices get, the more you should be on the lookout for these warning signs–especially if it?s a hard drive over a solid state drive. Digital Signs Digital signs are one of the easiest ways to identify whether your computer is suffering from some kind of issue. If a good restart doesn?t affect the issue at all, then there might be something on the digital end that?s complicating it. Check to see how your computer handles its average workload. Sometimes all it takes is opening up too many tabs in your web browser, too many software solutions being open, or frequent crashes to clue you in that something is wrong. What You Should Do As soon as you notice something out of the ordinary with your device, you should reach out to your business? IT resource. The issue with this is that some small businesses can?t afford on-site resources for this purpose, so critical maintenance might be ignored for too long. Downtime and data loss could occur if you wait too long to address issues with your business technology. Therefore, we recommend that you reach out to White Mountain IT Services as soon as you think your technology might be on its way out. We can even remotely monitor your devices for operational deficiencies so you?re never surprised when your device is finished. You might even be prepared for it, too! To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.