A Little Background FinTech traces its roots back to the start of modern security. Technology has played a significant role in the financial sector. Think about it, most of the modern financial services that we all utilize got their starts decades ago. Credit cards were developed in the 1950s to alleviate the burden (and security risk) of carrying cash; and when it wasn?t completely practical to eliminate cash, an innovation was made to develop the automated teller machine (ATM), that allows people to withdrawal their cash quickly without the hassle of standing in line at the bank. The 1970s saw further innovation. Using new communications technologies, stock markets that had functioned in the trading pits of fixed securities commissions for decades became electronic for the first time with the establishment of the Nasdaq. Swift was soon established to fix problems traders were having with inter-state money transfers. FinTech was ratcheted up a notch in the 1980s with the establishment of the first online brokerage, the first online banking system, the first online catalog shopper, and the first personal finance database. By the mid-to-late 1980s personal computers were becoming a staple in American households, and with them, a whole cache of new applications were developed that helped people understand and manage their personal finances. When the Hong Kong stock markets tanked on October 19, 1987, it immediately affected European markets, and eventually the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted almost 23 percent. Known since as ?Black Monday? it was sobering proof that the massive innovations that had been made to FinTech had connected world markets. By the time the Internet, like the PC before it, became entrenched as a household staple, FinTech had also been established. In 1998 many of the largest commercial banks set up transactional websites that allowed people and organizations to do their banking. These innovations, over decades, are largely taken for granted today, but remain landmark innovations in the way financial systems and transactions work. When you consider that technology has made it easier to move money, telling you that it has made it easier to invest money wouldn?t be that big of a surprise. Today, people have the resources available, if they have the capital, to make more sound and faster financial decisions. In response, institutions have used the wholesale improvements to risk management, investor relations, trade processing, and analysis to fuel a rapidly growing financial services sector that now makes up upwards of 20 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product. Current FinTech So as we?ve moved onto the first part of the 21st century, and people are able to take advantage of remote computing through the use of the smartphone, you begin to see innovation working for the individual as much as you see it working for the financial services organization. New products like mobile wallets, payment apps, automated retirement planners, crowdfunding platforms, and online lenders have been designed to allow people a higher degree of access to money, whether it be their own or not. These innovations aren?t necessarily a turn away from FinTech?s traditional focus on institutional banking but aligned with the overall increase in promoting individual engagement. That?s not to say that some of the more intuitive and popular FinTech applications aren?t working in direct competition with traditional banking institutions. The past […]

The Charged-Up History of Electricity As one might imagine, wires have been getting in people?s way since electricity was a widely adopted thing. This was one of the conundrums that Nikola Tesla, the underappreciated inventor and engineer, spent a considerable amount of his life trying to solve. Eventually, he devised a device that would leverage magnetic fields to transfer electricity, a device we know today as the Tesla coil. Unfortunately, some guerilla marketing from his electric rival, Thomas Alva Edison, turned the public opinion away from Tesla?s approach and towards Edison?s. Basically, Edison took a murderous circus elephant named Topsy that was to be put down and volunteered to do it with Tesla?s electricity. However, not even the film Edison produced of Topsy being exposed to alternating current (a key facet to Tesla?s European-inspired approach) was quite enough to prevent AC from becoming the standard. Eventually, Tesla?s coil was improved upon further. It ultimately found a place in contemporary radar systems. Yet, even as the technology became more powerful, it was difficult for a market to be found wherein to use it. This had the apparent effect of wasting the work done by the people of multiple private-sector businesses, as well as NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy. Enter the Smartphone One of the biggest obstacles to the progress of wireless charging was the fact that, while wireless charging is logically connected to mobile devices, there was a lack of truly mobile devices until recent years. Cellular phones changed that, as the device was now meant to be fully portable, or in other words, mobile. Other devices quickly followed suit with charging capabilities. However, even this revitalization of wireless charging due to mobile phones couldn?t change one fact: there was always going to need to be a wire. Even the most recent wireless chargers need to be plugged in before they will work, and really, what?s the real difference between plugging in a device, and setting it down just so? What it Means to Really Be Wireless In order for any technology that we develop to be marketable, it?s pretty much required to meet two key criteria: it has to work, and it shouldn?t do too much damage to the user. While this might seem like a relatively low bar, that bar has yet to be met, or even a product introduced that tries. This lack of trying doesn?t reach quite all the way up the chain, however. Companies like Energous in Silicon Valley, Ossia from Bellevue, Washington, and uBeam from Santa Monica, California, have all worked on technologies that do meet the criteria outlined at the beginning of this section. As they find more success in developing uncoupled power solutions, a new paradigm takes form. Someday, it may not be uncommon to see wireless charging spreading to devices other than smartphones. More and more IoT devices, like wearables, as well as medical devices, like hearing aids, may someday not need a dedicated charge cycle during which it can?t be used. However, until then, we will all have to wait. Until that day comes, wireless charging will either be ineffective or underutilized? but what devices would you like to be able to charge wirelessly in the future? Tell us which and why in the comments!

Voice over Internet Protocol Gone are the days when you would be tethered to your desk using a corded phone. Nowadays, voice chat applications can be downloaded and installed on mobile devices, desktops, or laptops so that users can make or receive calls to their work number on their own personal devices. From a communication standpoint, you simply can?t beat Voice over Internet Protocol, as it allows you to cut out your old phone lines and replace them with services that run on your Internet connection. Since VoIP apps work on mobile devices, communication can happen either in-house or on the go, making it a valuable communication tool. Instant Messaging What about situations where you need an immediate answer on something important, and it can?t wait for an email but it?s not worth making a phone call over? Instant messaging is valuable for this purpose, as it allows your users to communicate in mere seconds without feeling like they are distracting anyone or pulling them away from something important. Instant messaging applications can be used on just about any mobile device, so they can be valuable tools to stay in communication during collaborative projects. Shared Cloud Applications If you?re using cloud storage, you can collaborate on projects quite easily. This is thanks to cloud-based productivity suites like Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive. For example, you can work on documents in real time, and they are updated for every other user that is working on it. This helps you edit documents, update spreadsheets, and work on presentations with everyone else who needs to be involved. Plus, information, data, and applications can be accessed on any connected device, allowing for even more flexibility and connectivity than before. This makes communication and collaboration much easier in the long run. Unified communications and cloud software solutions are great ways to ensure your employees are always connected in a plethora of ways, all of which allow them to get in touch with each other whenever it?s needed. To learn more about unified communications, reach out to White Mountain IT Services at (603) 889-0800.

Here are four topics that you will want to consider when designing and implementing a data backup system. Know What Data You?re Backing Up The biggest question that you will have to ask yourself is how much of your data you?re going to back up. Of course, the answer should always be ?as much as possible.? Having said that, any legal obligations you have for specific compliance regulations must be prioritized, as left unchecked they could cost your business even more in lost revenue as you may be subject to fines and other expenses. Ensure Adequate Security Practices One of the most dangerous backup security practices is to keep them stored on an in-house infrastructure that?s vulnerable to being compromised by external threats. If a hacker can infiltrate your network, it?s likely that they can also infiltrate any unprotected data backups that you have in place. While it?s helpful to have an on-site backup that can be used in the heat of the moment, it?s more effective to keep your backups stored in an off-site data center that is encrypted and protected properly. Know Where Backups Are Stored One of the most critical parts of data backup is where you?re storing your backups. While it?s convenient to store them on-site, you risk damages to them. We recommend that you follow the 1-2-3 data backup rule. You keep three copies of your data in total–one on-site for easy access, and two off-site, either in a secure off-site data center or in the cloud. Remember, the best failsafe for your business? data infrastructure is to have copies of it somewhere where they can reliably be restored. Test the Reliability of Your Systems Speaking of reliability, your backup systems are useless if they don?t work as intended. The last thing you want is to experience a data loss incident and then fail to restore your data when it?s needed most. You should frequently test your business? backups so that you can be confident that they work as intended. Otherwise, you?re simply flirting with disaster, at the mercy of what boils down to luck and hope. White Mountain IT Services can equip you with a Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) solution that is designed to take frequent backups and store them in safe and secure off-site environment for rapid recovery in a moment?s notice. To find out how you can take advantage of this great solution, give us a call at (603) 889-0800.

What is Big Data? The modern-day data revolution is often referred to as big data. Big data is much more than just the data itself; rather, it?s the analysis of this data that matters. If you keep track of how your data changes over time, you?ll be able to better adapt your business practices to meet the changing needs of the industry. These changes mean that businesses are going to have to take an analytical approach to improve operations, and data is the key to unlocking this untapped potential. By taking advantage of big data, you?ll be able to get the most out of your budget and workforce, as well. Small organizations are finally starting to understand data analytics and why they are so important, even if their needs are somewhat simpler than large corporations. Small businesses just simply don?t have the assets to implement strategies as effectively as a large company, or they just don?t have the processes put in place to properly analyze and quantify the data. Even if they are using similar solutions as larger enterprises, it all comes down to whether they know what they are getting out of the solution. There are two questions that need to be asked before you commit to big data, and they are the following: Why haven?t more small businesses implemented big data initiatives? What would it take to get your company?s data to work with you? Small Businesses with Big Data Small businesses have traditionally been major proponents of new technologies, and the reason for this is that they often need them to stay competitive. Thanks to innovations in data analytics, smaller organizations are looking at alternative ways to ensure that their technology efforts aren?t wasted on solutions that don?t offer value. Instead of investing in technology solutions just because it?s a major hit in their industry, they are instead looking at services that provide more practical and customized use for their particular organization. By taking advantage of the right technology, small companies can implement solutions at a moment?s notice. Since they are flexible enough to make decisions on the fly, they don?t have to worry about stepping on anyone?s toes because they didn?t go through the proper channels to implement a new solution. This type of agility allows small businesses to look at data and make decisions much more quickly and efficiently. It just goes to show that you don?t have to be a large organization or enterprise to effectively listen to the what the data tells you. Make Investments in What Matters While it?s great to identify that you need to implement a full-scale big data solution for your organization, it doesn?t matter unless you actually do it. No matter what your business decides to implement for analytics, you?ll inevitably need to invest a considerable amount of time and capital into it. Big data can help your business know when to run promotions, how to react to consumers, and how to judge the value received from your technology investments. Numbers make things much more cut and dry, and allow for a better way to measure value. White Mountain IT Services can help your business better take advantage of technology solutions. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.