Some of the managed IT services that your organization can leverage are so helpful that it would be foolish to not at least consider the option. You might even be surprised by how many services can be outsourced thanks to managed technology solutions. We?ll walk you through some of the best services that your organization can leverage to its benefit. Server and Infrastructure Management Servers are far from the easiest technology to care for. They require near-constant monitoring and management if you want to take full advantage of them. As such, you want to make sure that your technicians are trained adequately, as those who aren?t will not be able to reliably take care of your server technology. If you don?t, you could be staring downtime in the face–a considerable issue for your bottom line. If you can?t afford to hire IT professionals, or you?re limited by your geographical location, it?s easier to invest in managed services. A third-party IT provider can host your servers on their own infrastructure in a secure, off-site location. This makes it easier to maintain and manage them, while also allowing for near-constant access to information through the cloud. Security Management Security is also an adequate way to take advantage of managed IT services. This is particularly due to the fact that security is an extremely volatile thing for a lot of different industries. There are countless threats and vulnerabilities out there, all of which need to be addressed in some way in order to make sure your organization isn?t at risk of an attack. On the off-chance that you don?t have security professionals on staff, you don?t want to leave your business vulnerable. Outsourced security professionals can monitor and maintain your organization?s infrastructure with critical patches and security updates to ensure that security is always top-of-mind. After all, it only takes a single weak link to break your security down. Help Desk Management or Solution Implementation It?s not an uncommon event to see an IT department that has too much work placed on their shoulders. This is because IT management is extremely specialized work that only trained technicians can effectively manage. Therefore, there is some value in being able to lift some of this responsibility off of their shoulders, all for the betterment of the services rendered. Too much work can often lead to cut corners, in which case the work would have to be done again soon afterward. It?s easier and more efficient to outsource at least some of the responsibility of IT management, be it for a help desk or solution implementation, to a third-party provider. This helps your organization get more done with less, all without sacrificing one or the other. Ultimately, the important question that you might have about managed services is the cost versus the value of the services rendered. By outsourcing the solutions, you are removing the responsibility of managing and maintaining them from your day-to-day duties, freeing up more time to invest in other, more profitable endeavors. If your organization wants to take full advantage of all its resources, White Mountain IT Services can help. To get started with our managed services, call us today at (603) 889-0800.

Why is Shutdown So Slow? To fully appreciate why it takes such a relatively long time for a computer to shut down, it helps to examine the process as a whole. Any computer relies on a wide variety of moving parts, so to speak, and there is a level of organization to the shutdown process that protects these many components. A full shutdown allows the RAM to empty itself, the hard drive to wipe its virtual memory, remove all caches and close out all active applications, and finally deactivate the operating system. If your computer is forced to shut down without the opportunity to go through these processes, or in the middle of some important task, you could easily experience file corruption and errors when you try to start it back up again. The Steps of a Proper Shutdown We briefly touched upon the shutdown process above, but it helps to see the complete list of steps (while remembering that, although it isn?t an instantaneous shut down process, it does go pretty fast) to appreciate the lengths that programmers and developers have gone to ensure your computer is protected. First, upon activation of the shutdown process, any applications that are opened are checked to ensure that their data has been saved. If not, the process is interrupted until the user instructs the computer what to do. The computer then allows all services and programs to shut down and confirm that they have closed, before removing the no-longer-needed program data. Then a log is made of anything unusual for the user to reference if the next startup doesn?t go smoothly, and all users are logged out of the system. Then, the user-level operating system is deactivated, any pending updates are installed, and the machine is finally turned off completely. Speeding Up Shutdown Of course, there are a few ways to assist this process in going faster, although most are fairly complex and should only be attempted by an IT professional. One simpler way is to make sure that your programs are all closed out before you begin shutdown, as this streamlines a few of the computer?s initial shutdown procedures. It can also help to not shut down your workstation all the time, but to instead restart it. This helps the computer cleanse itself of extra, unnecessary memory, increasing its speed overall. For more tips, tricks, and best practices, make sure you make a point of coming back to the White Mountain IT Services blog!

Uh oh – your critical business systems are acting up again, and you aren?t sure what?s causing the problem. Fortunately, you aren?t caught up in this alone. There are those that can help you, just like a doctor would if you were ill. However, instead of calling your healthcare provider, you want to call a managed services provider. When you don?t feel well, or something?s wrong, you visit the doctor?s office. They examine you, diagnose the problem, and prescribe a solution. This process has been in place for millennia. Much more recently, it was also adopted by a very different sector: the information technology industry. When most people think about IT, their thoughts turn to a few stereotypes. They either think about the predictable phone calls to tech support that take forever and feel like they do little to move the recovery process along, or they think about the technician who comes in to repair something onsite, making a huge mess and causing a distraction. Naturally, this has made many business owners and users loath to call in IT services, preferring to make do as best they can with what they have. More often than not, this doesn?t end well for the business. This phenomenon has led to a shift in the IT service industry that is now possible thanks to the improved technology we have today and the capabilities it provides us. Now, instead of trying to fix a problem after the fact, we work to avoid the problem in the first place. Think about how many doctors spend a good portion of their office hours – it isn?t performing complicated surgeries and procedures on their patients. More often, it is spent checking up on their patients to make sure they?re remaining healthy. IT services now emulate this approach, saving everyone time and money by catching issues early. This approach is referred to as managed services, and in many ways, it works even better for your IT than it does for your physical health. For a predictable monthly fee, your technology is kept under the careful watch of your provider. This managed service provider, or MSP, can not only monitor your infrastructure remotely, they can often take action remotely to resolve the issue before it actually has an effect on your business? operations. If that isn?t an option, your MSP can send out a technician to discreetly assist you at your location – much like a doctor making a house call would. Also, just as a doctor can proactively prescribe scripts to be refilled, your MSP can proactively review and update your existing solutions to further improve your technology experience. When you really consider it, a doctor?s purpose is to assist us in living as effectively as we can, despite the circumstances. Your MSP?s purpose is to do the same for your business? efficacy by caring for your solutions. Reach out to White Mountain IT Services to find out how else an MSP?s services could potentially benefit your business, and maybe even schedule an appointment for your next check-up. Call (603) 889-0800 today.

It all starts by considering the biggest security issues facing the Internet of Things. We?ll walk you through some of them, as well as what you can do to shore up any potential weaknesses in your infrastructure. The Sheer Quantity of IoT Devices It?s hard to protect yourself from threats when there are so many of them out there. This is even more true for Internet of Things devices. If you consider each and every device that has some sort of connected functionality as an Internet of Things device, you suddenly see why there are so many issues regarding security for businesses. It?s inevitable that at least one of them will contain some sort of threat. If any single one of these devices is infected with malware or ransomware, its presence on your network could become a major issue. What?s worse is that many of these devices are often those that you might not typically expect to have any sort of connectivity. Examples are smart cars, appliances, thermostats, watches, and more. This makes them somewhat difficult to prepare for, as it?s a little more difficult to plan access control around devices that you can?t predict will access your network. Patches and Updates The sheer number of devices also plays a part in regards to patching and applying updates to them. The Internet of Things is so vast that it is impossible to guarantee that all of the devices are using the most up-to-date versions of whatever software operates them. This means that it?s likely at least one of the devices accessing your network aren?t as up-to-date as they need to be. Even worse is the fact that many Internet of Things devices are often one-off systems created by developers for the sole purpose of capitalizing on what?s popular in that moment. This could potentially lead to developers no longer supporting certain devices, as they may not have sold well or weren?t as popular as expected. You might not be able to control and manage devices out there in the wild, but you can attempt to control and manage the devices that access your data on a regular basis. The first step is taking a look at the devices your employees bring to work with them, as well as managing the permissions that each of them has to access specific data on your infrastructure. Furthermore, you?ll need to make sure that all devices connected to your network are up-to-date, as even minor vulnerabilities could become a gateway for threats. Does your business have trouble managing devices and access control? White Mountain IT Services can help. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

Before You Invest? One of the first things you want to do before investing in Alexa as a virtual assistant is to consider the lack of privacy that a user gets when using it. This goes for most virtual assistants out there. Your office needs to be considerate of what they say around the virtual assistant, as you never know what it could tell other people. You could potentially create an uncomfortable situation that accomplishes the exact opposite of what you intended. Therefore, it?s critical that you take various steps toward minimizing the trouble that a virtual assistant like Alexa could provide for your organization. Some of these steps include disabling voice shopping and enabling PIN security. You should also set up your Alexa so that only a specific voice profile can use the device. This keeps only authorized users from being understood by the device. Alexa Manages Your Meetings Once you?ve ironed out the privacy issues sufficiently, you can add your calendar to your Alexa so that it can help you manage appointments. To set this up, go to alexa.amazon.com or open up the Alexa application. Go to Settings > Calendar. Alexa has compatibility with common business suites like G Suite, Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, Office 365, and even iCloud, making it a versatile solution no matter your business? preferred solutions. Once these have been added, you can create an event by saying, ?Alexa, add an event to my calendar.? Alexa can read back your events for the day and answer any questions related to your calendar. Alexa for Business Amazon is capitalizing on the popularity of Echo to create a successful product with Alexa. Nowadays, Amazon issues Echo devices that have Alexa for Business built right into them. Thanks to this, business professionals can take advantage of Alexa?s new capabilities. These include: Performing queries on local databases Providing access to sales data Checking and managing inventory Ordering supplies Setting reminders Managing lists Controlling AV equipment Initiating phone calls Notifying support for IT & building maintenance Amazon has even taken their development of new technology a step further by considering enterprise-level security and management that integrates enrollment tools that can help you manage access to your critical systems. This is part of the Amazon Web Services division, and as such, organizations will have to pay for any devices separately, but the cost of management remains static according to the Alexa for Business model. Alexa for Business is being used by several large businesses that have found a way to make it profitable for them, so the possibility is still there for your organization as well. Amazon?s power play to make the best, most efficient virtual assistant out there is being heard all throughout the industry, so it would be foolish not to at least consider the thought. The Alexa Skills Kit Even if someone who isn?t associated with an Alexa for Business-sponsored company can take advantage of several features built into the Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, or Tap, to create their own personal assistant. Here are some of the apps included in the Skills Kit: Conference Manager: This app is built by Vonage, and it allows your Google Calendar to tell you what your next conference call is. It can also connect you to your call by calling any […]