Are you ready for some football… technology? When you think about NFL technology, you probably think that their budget and innovative capabilities is way out of your league. Surprisingly, some of the most important parts of the game rely on technology that many of us use every day. Tablets: Gone are the days of coaching staff printing black-and-white images during the game. Available to the entire NFL in 2014, coaches are given league-provided, specially configured, and weatherproof Microsoft Surface tablets that allow them to access high resolution images in real time. NFL provides these tablets to ?dissect? the opponent’s offense and defense. The adoption of tablet use is strictly controlled by the NFL in order to maintain the traditions and integrity of the game. In fact, it?s so important that the NFL commissioned Microsoft to develop an application exclusively used by coaches from the sideline. Additionally, each club can provide tablets to players to be used as electronic playbooks or to view position-centric game film. Electronic Medical Records: Over the past few decades, the NFL has been taking steps to protect players from both the long and short term effects the game has on their body. Many retired players feel repercussions of game injuries decades later. The NFL has put an emphasis on the health and wellbeing of their players. One of the ways they do this is through the use of pads and helmets that have the capability to record physical activity and relay it to the individual’s electronic medical records. In the event of an injury, it’s possible for doctors and athletic trainers to use data recorded by the gear to evaluate and diagnose possible injuries, like concussions. Proactive Monitoring: When watching a Football game, you?re actually watching the product of a massive infrastructure that is properly maintained and monitored. It?s probably not something most people think about – but it?s true. Stadium technology is closely monitored and any issues must be resolved as quickly as possible, especially on game day. Imagine if officials couldn?t access their instant replay because someone failed to notice that a wireless signal between the live feed and replay booth had an issue. Needless to say, NFL operations are vigilant about preventing technology issues. Bonus – Funding Innovation: There are other technologies that the NFL puts to use that have no place in the SMB Market. Through the HeadHealthTech Challenge, the NFL tasked doctors, engineers, and scientists to come up with innovative methods of preventing, treating and diagnosing a concussion. After submitting an idea, the NFL and their partners review the technology and determine a winner. Even though funded by the NFL, the innovations submitted are not proprietary and available to the medical community. As stated on their website, the NFL Football Operations ?faces a delicate balance: determining how to innovate while respecting and preserving the game?s traditions, integrity and competitive equity.? All use of technology is heavily regulated by the NFL. What are your thoughts on the use of common technology by the NFL? Let us know in the comments.
If Security Isn?t Top-of-Mind, It Should BeIt is no longer any secret that data security is a crucial consideration for any business, big or small. Whether its financial information, personally identifiable information, or any other kind of data that a business might accumulate, it has value to a cybercriminal and therefore needs to be protected. An MSP like White Mountain IT Services is well aware of the risk of cyber threats, and so will have the solutions to help protect your business from them. Whether they assist you in properly configuring a firewall or monitor your solutions for any indication that something is out of place, your MSP can help maintain your security solutions and ensure that anything that slips past them is detected and resolved as quickly as possible. With a managed IT approach, business owners can worry less about their business? security– and more about running their business–because the responsibility of ensuring the business network is secure falls to the MSP. Is The Continuity Of Your Business Ensured?Sure, securing a business against online threats is all well and good, but what about the other factors that threaten a business? survival? Factors like natural events–storms, tremors, floods, fires…all of these events can put a business in jeopardy. Additionally, once the event has passed, a business will need to be sure they can still access their critical files or the business will die a painful death. White Mountain IT Services has the solutions to keep this from happening as well. With a focus on both backup and disaster recovery, a business can be sure that their data is safe from hazardous events and weather conditions. We make sure a backup is taken at regular intervals throughout the workday, ensuring minimal productivity loss if something were to happen, and we store that data in multiple locations to help keep the disaster from wiping out both data and backup. A company can even access and work from their data directly from their backup until it can be restored to their new location. Regular Reporting To Keep You Up-To-SpeedWhile in business, it is ideal to know just where your business stands. White Mountain IT Services?s reporting can help you do just that. Whether it helps you keep track of your inventory or helps you ensure that your systems are all protected, our comprehensive reports will allow you to track your company?s progression and status. Keeping Your Business CompliantDepending on your industry, you may be beholden to assorted regulations and compliances meant to preserve your employees?, your clients?/customers?, and your own safety and security. A managed IT approach from White Mountain IT Services can help you to be sure that your IT is in line with these regulations and compliance measures, allowing you to focus on improving your business in other ways. White Mountain IT Services is always here to help you improve your IT. Give us a call at (603) 889-0800 to discuss the solutions we can offer you.
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 […]
