Intrapreneurs are employees that have the ability to see beyond the task at hand. They see the big picture in correlation with the goals of the company and they?re inclined to come up with progressive ideas that will benefit the entire company, including your bottom line. Tim Beerman, CTO at Ensono, provides CIO with a good profile of an intrapreneur that business owners will find valuable. ?These are the employees who want to get their hands dirty and are often the first people to volunteer for a job. Intrapreneurs are not content with the status quo. They often see how things could be part of a bigger picture and come up with ideas to realize this new vision.” With this description in mind, can you think of anybody in your office that has intrapreneural tendencies? To assist you further with identifying intrapreneurs and understanding how valuable they can be for your company, consider the following: Intrapreneurs motivate those around them, challenging others with a fresh perspective and honest feedback. Intrapreneurs are loyal and always look for ways to instill positive change in their organization. Intrapreneurs have the drive and skills necessary to be successful outside of your business, yet they choose to stay and use their skills to grow your company. Intrapreneurs consistently challenge the current business model and invite disruption, motivated by wanting to see the company improve. Intrapreneurs have the ability to spot inefficiencies in the workplace and they?re willing to introduce unconventional ideas and take risks in order to resolve issues. Identifying intrapreneurs should be easy enough; they?re motivated, loyal, and think outside the box. The challenge then for business owners is what to do with them? It may also be a challenge for business owners to embrace such an employee and their ideas, instead of feeling threatened if they come up with a way of doing something that?s better than the way it?s always been done. How can you take intrapreneurs seriously in such a way that encourages them to step up and share their ideas? It?s crucial that you have communication channels in place that allow for this. Otherwise, the employee?s ?intrapreneurial spirit? will be crushed, they?ll see no value in speaking up, and they?ll either put in the minimal effort required to perform their job or move on to another company that values their ideas. Or, worse yet, the ignored intrapreneur will find the motivation needed to become an entrepreneur and start a new company that grows to become a major competitor of yours. Yikes! When it comes to making sure that intrapreneurs have their voices heard and their good ideas implemented, IT professionals can be of assistance. Beerman explains, “An intrapreneur might see inefficiencies within his or her company’s workflow, but may not necessarily have the experience to fully develop a solution. The IT department can then act as a partner to find the right recommendation. When intrapreneurs and IT teams are communicating regularly, there are more windows of opportunity for collaboration. Innovation and collaboration will eventually become business as usual, once initial bridges are crossed.” Implementing this kind of collaboration between intrapreneurs and your IT department may require a major shift in your company culture. Although, seeing how intrapreneurs have the potential to bring some substantial ideas to the table, it?s a […]
We understand that not every organization will be prone to tsunamis or earthquakes, but there are plenty of other disasters that could derail your business? operations indefinitely. Here are just a few of them, and what your business can do to prevent them from being the last disaster it suffers from. FiresAny organization that works with machines running off of electricity will be subjected to the risk of an in-house fire. This could happen for a number of reasons, like overloading a power strip or an unattended candle. A fire can spread quickly, wiping out any physical infrastructure that your business relies on–including your office. Power SurgesMost businesses these days rely on their technology to a certain extent, which puts them at the mercy of electrical storms. Something as sudden as a power surge could fry any unprotected hardware in your office. Just like that, you?ll have a bunch of useless workstations that need either heavy repairs, or to be replaced entirely. That?s not even mentioning all of the downtime that this causes, or other parts of your infrastructure also being damaged by the storm, like your furnace, air conditioning, etc. In this case, one unfortunate event snowballs and escalates into a big problem that can put your business on the line. Hardware FailureWhen businesses talk about natural disasters, they often forget one that could affect all businesses–hardware failure. Technology doesn?t last forever, and in the case of a mission-critical server or workstation failing, it could mean data loss for your organization. Furthermore, it would be very costly to replace technology that has failed, and that?s not even mentioning compatibility issues that could result of such an overhaul. The Solution: Business Continuity and BDRAll of these situations result in a similar outcome: the inability to work following a nasty disaster. To resolve these issues, businesses have implemented business continuity solutions that focus on Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR). With a cloud-based BDR, you can know with certainty that your business?s important data is backed up and stored virtually in the cloud, multiple times a day, in a space that?s both secure and easy to access. BDR allows for backups as often as every fifteen minutes (or more frequently), and restoration directly to the BDR device should the need arise. You can trust us when we say that it?s the best defense against unforeseen events that put your business in harm?s way. To learn more about BDR and business continuity, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.
Consider these three factors when thinking about which cloud solution fits your business needs. Who?s Hosting and Maintaining It?Managing a cloud solution is no simple task, and unless your business is focused on technology, chances are that you don?t have the skills required to manage one. More than that, you certainly don?t have the time to do it, either, and your budget probably doesn?t allow for the hiring of an internal IT department. In cases like this, a cloud solution that?s hosted and maintained off-site by professional technicians is of great value. Out of the three types of cloud solutions available to SMBs–public, private, and hybrid–your organization can make any of them work for hosting and maintenance. Public clouds are stored and hosted in an online space that?s managed by the provider. Private clouds, on the other hand, can be hosted either on-site on your own private network, or virtually in a secure data center. Hybrid clouds combine the best aspects of both types of cloud solutions to offer the convenience of public with the functionality of private. How Much Flexibility Do You Need?It?s natural for a business to grow over time. You?ll likely add more users and other types of technology in the near future, especially as your company becomes more successful and more clients are onboarded. This next factor is one that you?ll only be able to answer if you?ve put considerable effort into thinking about the future of your business. Where do you see yourself in the next five or ten years? Will your infrastructure be able to support change? Thankfully, the cloud is a great tool that helps organizations adapt to changes in both the number of users and the type of devices accessing the data. No matter which cloud solution you get, you?ll have control over the numbers of users and the amount of storage you have. Just keep in mind that the public cloud will likely cost more as your needs expand, while a private cloud will require investment on your end if you manage your own cloud. How Much Security Do You Want?Security is one of the most important parts of running a business, especially when it comes to cloud-based storage. Since it?s located in a virtual environment, it?s easier for hackers to gain access to, and therefore must be protected by security solutions designed to prevent breaches before they occur. The problem, though, is that cloud solutions don?t all offer the same level of protection. How can you know which is right for you? Depending on the cloud solution, you?ll only have a certain amount of built-in security. The public cloud usually only offers a set level of protection since you don?t have the freedom to augment it with external features. Keep in mind that the public cloud is still relatively safe, as public cloud providers tend to have full IT teams behind the maintenance and management of them (plus they risk their own business if they can?t keep their customers? data safe), but if you want to improve security, a private or hybrid cloud solution is your best bet. With additional security features available to you, your business can thrive without having to worry about how protected its cloud-based data and applications are (provided that you are protecting your infrastructure). For […]
Security issues can have any number of causes, meaning that every business needs to have a comprehensive security solution. This doesn?t mean, however, that there aren?t additional, small measures to implement that can give your organization?s security an added boost. Here, we?ll talk about two: keeping your software patched, and identifying social engineering attempts. Applying Software PatchesThis method of boosting your security is a bit of a no-brainer, as patches are literally fixes to security vulnerabilities. Yet, despite how simple it seems on the surface, there are a few levels to consider as you go about patching up your software. First of all, are you prioritizing your patches correctly? It?s simple: while ideally you would be patching up all of your software solutions, you just may not know that there are patches available, or you may not have the time to do so. In reality, there are usually programs on a company?s network that go unpatched. Fortunately, due to the nature of exploits, hackers and other malicious parties tend to reach for the low-hanging fruit instead of putting in the extra work and devise an exploit for each instance of the vulnerability. This could ultimately total up to thousands upon thousands of programs. In a hacker?s mind, it?s much easier to just strike the lowest common denominator and use just one exploit. Nevertheless, you should still do your best to keep every piece of software on your system up-to-date and patched. Just remember to put the most likely targets first on your list. It also helps to keep your systems as clear of unused programs as possible. After all, the fewer pieces of software there are to exploit, the fewer opportunities there are for someone to exploit your software. Plus, that?s fewer solutions for you to maintain and patch, saving you time. Foiling Social Engineering AttemptsSocial engineering is a method that nefarious users will employ to get you to play right into their hands. If you have ever received a phone call or email message claiming that your systems have been jeopardized and you ?need? to provide them with access to your computer for them to resolve it, you?ve likely been the target of a social engineering attempt. From those who reach out online with an offered benefit or warning to those who literally follow employees past locked doors, these malicious users can be foiled through some simple vigilance. Remind employees that they shouldn?t accept an unknown face wandering about the office. Your employees should also exercise caution in their inboxes, as well. If they receive an unexpected email from an unfamiliar source, make sure they know to avoid it. This is just the start of the potential improvements you can make to your security strategy. For more information, be sure to reach out to White Mountain IT Services at (603) 889-0800.
At first glance, a college would be one of first places any hacker would look to steal information. Not only do today?s colleges have vast, powerful networks, they have many people that regularly compute on those networks who don?t take network security into account in the least. Despite the work of diligent IT administrators, the actions of the students and faculty on the network can really cause a lot of problems, so can direct attacks on the same students and faculty. For this reason, many colleges are starting to implement two-factor authentication procedures to ensure that even security-negligent college students aren?t putting their entire organization?s network at risk. Two-factor authentication, for those who do not know, is the practice of requiring two steps to gain access to the network in the form of questions. The design is pretty simple, and has been around for a while. Traditionally, a user would type in a password which would prompt another access authenticator code. That electronic authenticator (also called, fob) would provide the user a code to use to access the door. Nowadays, most of the two-factor authentication credentials can be sent to an individual?s mobile device, as an overwhelming majority of people rely on smartphones. In an article on KrebsOnSecurity, the Director of IT security and Infrastructure at Bowling Green University, Matt Haschak, stated that these attacks had grown from a relatively benign 250 in 2015 to over 1,000 in 2016. These attacks are carried out to steal credentials used to access BGSU?s MyBSGU portal, the main hub for student, staff, and administration affairs for the university. With these credentials, hackers can then infiltrate a system that is populated with thousands of people?s personal information. Bowling Green isn?t the only example. Other universities have recently been targeted by what their IT security personnel calls ?spear phishing? attacks, going after specific people associated with the college. This includes club officers, athletics administrators, and other people who would have access to ?fast cash?. While IT administrators are cognizant of these relatively new threats, they tend to evolve and victimize before anything can be done about them. One instance of this happened at the University of Delaware where scammers are targeting international students. These extortion attempts tell the target that if they don?t pay, they will face deportation under U.S. law. This shows that these attacks are specifically tailored to the recipients, making detection nearly impossible for IT administrators to ward against. ?This is something unusual,? UD IT communications group manager Richard Gordon said, ?This is a scam that had not been seen at other universities before. It shows how these scammers are always looking for ways to try to hit students.? Gordon advocates diligence and integrating some type of two-factor authentication system for all accounts that hold sensitive information. ?If the account information is stolen, then someone can get into your account. But if you have two-factor authentication, then they can?t access it because they need the extra security code. It?s an extra security piece.? While college IT administrators have their hands full, your business is often considered low-hanging fruit for these hackers. If you want to learn more on how to protect your network, staff, and your business from these types of phishing attacks, contact our trusted team of IT technicians today. We […]
