Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) uses your Internet connection to send your voice to the recipient rather than the traditional telephone line. As you can imagine, this adds a certain element of flexibility in and of itself, but there are many more reasons why this flexibility is important for a business. Here are three of them. VoIP Helps Your Business GrowAs your business grows, so can your VoIP solution. When you set up your VoIP infrastructure, you?ll have a specific number of users and devices to consider at first. This helps you get a better feel for what kind of bandwidth and network traffic you can expect to deal with. However, there?s also the potential to add new users and devices as they are needed, which makes growing less of a pain than it would be for a traditional telephone system. With VoIP, you don?t have to run cables or knock down walls to make room for new offices or desks. Since VoIP uses your Internet, you can use a wireless or wired connection, as long as your bandwidth can accommodate it. If not, check with your ISP or invest in a new wireless router. VoIP is More DynamicConsider how the flexibility of VoIP affects your business?s ability to perform while out of the office. Since VoIP can be used on any device, be it a smartphone, laptop, or desktop, it?s exceptionally more useful than a traditional landline. Furthermore, VoIP allows you to use your work telephone number on your personal smartphone without setting up advanced call forwarding systems. This is (obviously) preferable to carrying around two smartphones. Furthermore, since it runs as an application on your device, you can turn it on and off as needed, allowing you to keep your work and home life separate as much as you want. VoIP Offers More FeaturesDoes your traditional phone line offer instant messaging capabilities? How about real-time video chat and conference-calling? This is one of the main reasons why VoIP is such an advantageous solution. There are plenty of additional VoIP features that can change the way that your organization communicates both on or off-site. VoIP also offers several, if not all of the services, that are offered by traditional telephony providers. Plus, you?ll never pay for features that you don?t want or need, unlike telephone providers who often bundle services together. Does VoIP sound like a worthwhile investment for your business? If so, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800. We?d be happy to help you get started with a new way to communicate.

As a result, a business can?t afford to risk operating on the Internet unprotected. Fortunately for intrepid entrepreneurs and online operators everywhere, there are solutions expressly designed to protect them against such malicious malcontents: web filtering and firewall solutions. Web filtering and firewall implementation work as opposite sides of the same coin while a user navigates online. A web filtering solution is a fancy term for a specialized program that examines web pages to check for threats or other potential problems before the user can access the site. Based on predetermined rules, the filter can block portions of the page from sight, or just bar access entirely. Firewall solutions are portions of a system or network that prevent those without authorization from accessing its contents while still permitting communications to be sent outwards, providing your data protection against hackers and spyware. Depending on the system setup, a firewall solution could be a piece of hardware, software, or a combination of the two. It?s not uncommon for businesses to utilize web filtering and firewall for reasons other than security as well. For example, are you concerned that your employees have been less-than-diligent during work hours, perhaps visiting retail or entertainment websites when they should be completing their work-related duties? Web filtering can allow you to block their access to such sites while on your network. Furthermore, by preventing spyware and other unwanted bits and bytes of data from entering your network, a firewall can help keep your business operations running at full efficiency–allowing your employees to more easily reach their peak productivity. White Mountain IT Services can help you ensure your computing activities are safe, secure and streamlined to best benefit your business activities. Plus, we can help you be sure that your solutions are up to snuff. Give us a call at (603) 889-0800 to ask about our networking security solutions today.  

As a result, a business can?t afford to risk operating on the Internet unprotected. Fortunately for intrepid entrepreneurs and online operators everywhere, there are solutions expressly designed to protect them against such malicious malcontents: web filtering and firewall solutions. Web filtering and firewall implementation work as opposite sides of the same coin while a user navigates online. A web filtering solution is a fancy term for a specialized program that examines web pages to check for threats or other potential problems before the user can access the site. Based on predetermined rules, the filter can block portions of the page from sight, or just bar access entirely. Firewall solutions are portions of a system or network that prevent those without authorization from accessing its contents while still permitting communications to be sent outwards, providing your data protection against hackers and spyware. Depending on the system setup, a firewall solution could be a piece of hardware, software, or a combination of the two. It?s not uncommon for businesses to utilize web filtering and firewall for reasons other than security as well. For example, are you concerned that your employees have been less-than-diligent during work hours, perhaps visiting retail or entertainment websites when they should be completing their work-related duties? Web filtering can allow you to block their access to such sites while on your network. Furthermore, by preventing spyware and other unwanted bits and bytes of data from entering your network, a firewall can help keep your business operations running at full efficiency–allowing your employees to more easily reach their peak productivity. White Mountain IT Services can help you ensure your computing activities are safe, secure and streamlined to best benefit your business activities. Plus, we can help you be sure that your solutions are up to snuff. Give us a call at (603) 889-0800 to ask about our networking security solutions today.  

Here are three of the biggest benefits of outsourcing your server hosting in our cloud, and why it?s important to consider. Server Hosting Means Less ResponsibilityHosting a server on-site means that it?s your responsibility to manage and maintain it. If you don?t have the technical know-how, or the time and resources dedicated to your server?s upkeep, you could be risking more than you know. An unexpected downtime incident could result in hefty maintenance or replacement fees, and that?s not mentioning the amount you?ve spent on wasted time. When you outsource the management of your servers to a third party, your business doesn?t have to worry about any maintenance. The service provider takes care of your server?s upkeep for you, which frees up more time so you can focus on your business. Server Hosting is Less Expensive and More EfficientWhen you host a server on-site, you?re paying for all of the utilities associated with it. Server units aren?t necessarily resource-friendly machines. They eat up a ton of electricity and often require air conditioning to ensure that overheating doesn?t become a problem. All of these costs add up, and when you consider that maintenance costs also figure into the equation, hosting your own server seems like it comes with a clear cost difference compared to outsourcing. When you outsource your servers to managed service providers, we can do either one of two things; we can help you host it on-site, or we can host it in the cloud so that your employees can access the applications and data stored within through a cloud connection. Server Hosting Means More OptionsOne of the major problems associated with server management comes from the fact that you need to be intimately aware of which apps work with certain server operating systems. This often makes it difficult to upgrade to a new operating system without first taking into account what type of legacy software you?re using. Hosted servers are often virtualized and can run instances of various server operating systems for use with all sorts of applications. This makes it so that your organization has to worry less about the problems associated with server management. If your business needs assistance with server management and hosting, feel free to reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

More Endpoints Means More Open DoorsWhen you add new devices to your organization?s infrastructure, like a new workstation or server unit, you?re adding a component that could potentially be used by a hacker to infiltrate your network infrastructure. Therefore, it becomes a top priority to secure any and all devices that you plan on adding to the network, regardless of whether they can be seen as a security red flag or not. The fact remains that any device can be used to initiate an attack, and you need to plan accordingly. This is particularly important to consider when dealing with mobile devices. Just like the number of workstations or servers that you have can provide opportunities for hackers to infiltrate your network, so too can mobile devices. This means that you need to apply necessary patches and ensure device security to retain maximum security. With a mobile device management solution, you can manage and maintain your mobile devices, including which apps can access data. Most importantly, you?ll have the opportunity to remotely wipe devices that have been compromised or lost, allowing you to keep your data safe from those who might pose a threat. More Software Means More UpgradesLet?s say that you add a new piece of software to your organization?s infrastructure. While it might be great for improving operations, it comes with the same shortcomings of any new software solution. Applications require patches and security updates that are issued by their developers whenever new vulnerabilities or performance problems are discovered. Therefore, the more software solutions you use from multiple different developers, the more likely it is that you may miss an important upgrade. One way that you can make this change more manageable is through implementing a remote monitoring and management solution. With this service, White Mountain IT Services can remotely monitor and maintain your organization?s software solutions. This includes deploying patches and security updates without a costly on-site visit. It?s actually worth mentioning that most technology troubles can be resolved remotely, so it?s in your organization?s best interest to implement a remote monitoring and maintenance solution. You?ll save more in the long run by taking a proactive approach to your IT management. To learn more about mobile device management or remote monitoring and maintenance, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.