Know Wi-Fi Options. In order to be productive while away from the office, you need to make sure that you?ll have access to stable Internet/WiFi. Many companies use VPNs to create secure connections from their networks to a mobile device. If you?re staying at a hotel, make sure that they?ll have WiFi to meet your needs. Reading through the hotels reviews on pages like Yelp! or Trip Advisor will let you see what other guests have said about WiFi signals. Bring Extra Accessories Just in Case. It never hurts to have an extra set of technology accessories like LAN cables, Micro-USB cords, charging bricks, portable mouses, etc. You?ll be happy to have an extra when you see that buying one from an airport or tourist destination costs a small fortune. Avoid Checking Your Devices. Even if you?re not going to work while traveling to your destination, it?s important to keep devices needed for work in a carryon, rather than checked into the cargo hold. Think about how upset your boss would be if you were authorized to work remotely over the holiday but had your laptop or tablet cracked or lost before you even got to your destination. Beware of Free WiFi. Believe it or not, there are actually people who wait around for someone to logon using an insecure WiFi Connection. Open WiFi should be avoided whenever possible. Having your identity stolen is bad enough. Don?t put your customers? personal information into jeopardy because you wanted to check your email. Turn Off Autofill and Password Management: While it is certainly convenient to use a password manager for work purposes, it?s a good idea to disable it while traveling. If someone steals your device with a password manager on it, you?re basically giving them a key into your personal information, your company?s information and your clients? information. Having to type passwords manually for a few days will be worth it. Use External Harddrive or USB To Back Up Regularly on the Go: Imagine having worked on a project throughout your vacation, only to learn that your device was damaged or misplaced – and now you have nothing. If you?re not connecting to your network regularly, your work may not be backing up properly. Bring an external or USB drive along to save any progress you might have made. Even if your computer does backup regularly on its own, it?s better to be safe than sorry. These are just a few of the things that you should be doing when working while traveling – or whenever you?re working away from the office. If you have any questions about using your technology on the road, make sure you check with your IT team or call us at (603) 889-0800.
To help you determine this, we?ll go into detail on two key considerations that a cloud solution and an on-site infrastructure share: cost and control. CostMoney can start wars, change hearts, and (more pertinent to our concerns) make or break a business. Due to the power that money has over your business, you will want to make sure that it is spent wisely. In this concern, an outsourced cloud provider has the advantage over trying to maintain an in-house infrastructure. This is simply because trying to maintain and update your setup independently will be extraordinarily expensive. Consider the amount of computing power your business requires, and imagine how much it would take, financially, to maintain these in-house. Not only can an in-house device be expensive itself, but powering it and keeping it in full working order make that financial obligation even more pressing. On the other hand, an outsourced provider will only charge a flat monthly rate (barring a few exceptions) that is easy to predict and budget out. Compared to operating a server in-house, these prices are considerably lower, and allow you to invest your savings into improvements elsewhere in your business. ControlIt only makes sense that you want to have some sort of control over your infrastructure–after all, your business functions are dependent on it, so the prospect of relinquishing direct control is understandably nerve-wracking for many. If this is your biggest concern, maintaining an in-house architecture would be your best bet. Doing so allows you a hands-on perspective of your IT and its management. This feature essentially boils down to trust, and whether you are willing to entrust your business essentials to a third party or would prefer to keep a close eye on them. The Best of Both WorldsIf both of these options sound like the best path, reach out to White Mountain IT Services. We can examine your needs and design an IT plan to suit them. Give us a call at (603) 889-0800 to get started.
Are you prepared for an office disaster? If a fire, flood, or robbery irrecoverably damages your computer equipment, will you be able to get up and running again? The first requirement, of course, is that you have all essential data backed up, but that’s not necessarily enough by itself. One business in four that closes because of a disaster never opens again; some estimates are even more pessimistic. Those that do may suffer significant loss of business, with some customers never returning if restoration of service takes too long. A good recovery plan needs to include concrete steps for recovering all data and resuming operation, with a realistic estimate of how long it will take. To be useful in case of a disaster, at least one backup copy has to be offsite. A backup drive in your office is useful for recovering corrupted files, but if your computers burn or are stolen, it’s very likely the backup will be too. Use a reliable backup service and make sure you know how to get files back from it. Choose a service that has a good reputation and encrypts all data in transit and in storage. You should also keep a disk image backup of your primary drive. Simply restoring files to a new drive won’t necessarily replicate your original operating environment. Keep the image backup stored offsite in a secure place. Encrypt this backup too, as with anything important that you store offsite. Make sure that you have the passwords and keys that you’ll need to perform the recovery in a safe place. If you keep them on the premises, put them in a locked, fireproof box that can’t easily be stolen. If they’re off the premises, make sure they’re stored securely. Plan for how you’ll inform your employees, customers, and business partners of the situation. If their contact information was all on the lost computers, this could be difficult. Keep a copy of it in another place. Make a realistic estimate of how long it will take to restore your data and resume operation. First you have to set up a new computer and copy your saved disk image to it. After that, you need to restore all your data from the backup; this might take days, depending on how much you have and how fast your connection is. If you have to restore multiple computers through the same Internet connection, it could take a long time. Finally, you’ll need to verify that everything is working properly before going live. You’ll need to consider what it takes to catch up with lost time. If you send out reports on the first of the month and a disaster brings your systems down on that day, you need to get those reports out as soon as you recover, not on the first of the next month. Make sure it’s possible to do this. Estimate what the process will cost. You’ll have to buy new computers, replace furniture and supplies, and weather an interruption in revenue. Hopefully insurance will cover most of the loss, but you need enough money in the meantime to get through. However good your plan sounds, you need to test it to make sure it works. A full test, including failover and restoration of data, may not be feasible, but you […]
As technology takes an increasingly important role in many businesses, the role of a Chief Information Officer (CIO) becomes more central to the core operation of the business. The CIO answers directly to the board of a corporation, the CEO, or the CFO and, as such, has a wide influence over internal issues that go beyond IT management. Governing of information goes beyond governing simply information technology. Most companies that have a heavy investment in information technology create a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to play the role of visionary leader in the area of technology and product architecture. CIOs are not always technology managers by background. They can be technology aware business managers able to bridge the cultural and process differences between technology delivery and business users. According to recent surveys, a majority of IT leaders report a shortage of high-level personal skills among their management. CIOs are often the people who reduce the gap between IT professionals and non-IT professionals in order to make these relationships productive. The organizational and personal development skills of the CIO are increasingly valued in organizations that meld technology with other business organizational functions. The CIO must balance roles in order to integrate technology into the organization and work toward competitive advantages for the company. The CIO has responsibilities in the area of finance, professional recruitment, policy and strategy development. Many CIOs have especially strong management skills. In many, business acumen and strategic perspectives take precedence over technical background. Many CIOs are appointed from the business side of the organization. Many have MBA or MS in Management level training. As information gains greater importance in organizations, the prominence of the CIO as a key person in formulating strategic goals for organizations as grown. Many CIOs are adding additional executive titles to. This trend is often referred to as “CIO Plus.” As the role of the CIO broadens, and responsibility increases, the risk in the job also increases. The CIO takes responsibility for a lot of the errors and breakdowns that cause company losses. In 2014, when 40 million credit card details and 70 million customer details were stolen by hackers at Target, it was the CIO who took responsibility and had to resign. Much of the burden on CIOs is risk management. The CIO must be knowledgeable about their industry so they can adapt and reduce the chance of error. Many companies are changing from product development and sales to an emphasis on services. The models of increasing numbers of former software and technical companies are changing to Software as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service, and Business Processing Outsourcing. In those companies, the role of the CIO has been changing toward that of a third-party manager for the organizations. The CIO has to possess the business skills to relate to organizations as a whole, more than just a limited set of technical skills. The CIO role is changing to include anticipating trends in the marketplace and insuring that the business navigates these trends. The evolution of the CIO followed the evolution of IT. When the main frame was king, the CIO (or whatever they called them then) were strictly back office. CIOs worked to automate office functions to reduce head counts. They tightly supervised programmers who were busy writing home-grown software. This generation of CIOs had technical backgrounds. They were most often recruited from outside […]
Where is your company headed, and what kind of IT system does it need to reach its goals quarter by quarter, year after year? Many businesses don’t know how to address this question with the appropriate depth and strategic thinking. CEOs, executives, managers, and small business owners may know where they want to take their company, but may not have a clear idea of the IT decisions they’ll need to make along the way. Companies are also facing a plethora of technological changes that affect everything from marketing to cyber security, and they need to decide which tech solutions to adopt and how to prioritize them within their budget. Without strategic IT planning, companies face various disadvantages: Wasted money on unneeded hardware and software. IT decisions that don’t align with business needs and objectives. A lack of focus and organization, and an emphasis on short-term thinking. A failure to anticipate technological developments and their effects on the company. An inability to prioritize projects and expenditures that are most necessary at any given point. Poor communication between IT personnel and the rest of the company. How can an IT road-map help? Your company’s IT road-map is a master plan for how you’ll use technology to support your business operations and goals over the coming three to five years. The document clearly spells out your strategic IT planning, providing a detailed overview of the projects you wish to undertake and the decisions you’re prioritizing. Employees holding leadership positions in your company can use this document as a basis for discussing, planning, and guiding decisions. It’s an excellent collaborative tool, ensuring that everyone is on the same page. It helps your IT personnel work closely with employees in other departments to make the decisions best suited for your company. How can you create an IT road-map? Creating the road-map will involve input from company leadership and from your IT team (which includes your managed services provider and any in-house personnel). As for the content of the road-map, start by answering the following questions:What are your company’s top priorities? Make a list of the important goals and milestones you want to reach, and the ways in which you envision your company developing. Even though this list isn’t specific to IT, but applies to your company more generally, it will give your IT road-map coherence and remind you of the purposes underlying various IT decisions. What IT projects or major tasks do you wish to undertake in the coming months and years? Organize these into a timeline that includes estimated start and end points and other information about the resources required (e.g. budget and personnel, including the employees overseeing each project). You can also categorize the projects by different IT areas. For instance, one category can be anything pertaining to your network architecture, and the modifications you want to make to it; another area can involve your e-commerce platform and how you want to develop it and keep it secure. What are your justifications for each project? Spelling out the specific reasons for each project will help you prioritize them, position them appropriately in the timeline, and identify projects that you may want to delay, modify, or scrap. Especially for projects scheduled in the coming year, the justifications should be well-developed and detailed. For example, if you’re planning to adopt a new kind […]
