Hardware refreshes are often a time of great turmoil for businesses, particularly because of the cost of new servers and the time it takes to migrate data from one location to another. Thankfully, with the advent of virtualized servers, businesses have a viable alternative to the outright purchase of expensive, new hardware solutions. Instead, a virtual server that?s hosted in the cloud offers not only a more immediate reprieve, but can also significantly reduce costs for your organization in the long run. Server virtualization is the act of separating the computing resources of the server itself and allocating them within a cloud-like infrastructure, where they can be delegated and managed according to the specific needs of your business. Server virtualization is particularly helpful for organizations that have a limited budget and don?t have the time or resources to manage multiple hardware solutions, as it?s simple to outsource the care of a virtualized server environment to a third party. Here are three major reasons why virtual servers are your next go-to IT refresh. Virtual EnvironmentsOne of the major boons of using a virtual server is the ability to create multiple computing instances on the same virtual machine. For example, if you have a mission-critical application that only works on a specific operating system, your organization can have a virtual machine dedicated to running it. This prevents the need to purchase an entirely separate server unit just to run one application, and the cost of operation and maintenance along with it. Save on Operating CostsAnother key benefit of virtualizing your servers in a cloud environment is that you?ll be hosting less hardware on your infrastructure. Servers eat up a ton of electricity, and you need to keep them cool with air conditioning in order to guarantee longevity. This in turn creates higher energy costs that can put unnecessary strain on your budget. With server virtualization, you can consolidate your infrastructure onto one device, rather than spread across multiple servers and network components, significantly cutting down on operational expenses. Effectively Manage ResourcesThe convenient part of virtual machines is that you can manage their workloads through a cloud-based dashboard to optimize efficiency. You?ll be able to monitor workloads and adjust them in real time, so as to keep operations moving forward in the best way possible. You can do this remotely, or have a third-party provider do it for you, which is entirely dependant on whether or not you have the IT staff on-hand to handle it. If you?re considering a hardware refresh for your server infrastructure, be sure to consider virtualization, you might be surprised by how much money and time you can save. To learn more, reach out to White Mountain IT Services at (603) 889-0800.

To give you an idea of just how much time workers spend on the road, consider this statistic from the U.S. Census Bureau; in the United States, the average commute is around 25 minutes each way. This equates to almost a full hour each work day being lost to fighting traffic. It?s also worth noting that 50 minutes of drive time is just the average commute–you shouldn?t have to look too far around the office to find employees that spend significantly more time than this getting to and from work. There are some fairly significant disadvantages to commuting, and when you compare them, you begin to see how this accepted practice may actually be holding your business back from reaching its full potential. Commuting Eats Away at Your EnergyEvery productivity-minded person understands how each person has a limited amount of energy that they?re able to give each workday. Having to spend a significant amount of this energy doing something stress-filled like fighting traffic can be frustrating, especially when one finds themselves lacking the energy to do more important things, like spending time with their family. It can also be equally frustrating when you start the day on a good note, only to have a bad traffic experience on the way to work that puts you in a bad mood for the rest of the workday. Commuting Causes Exhaustion and Sleep DeprivationNot only can spending so much time behind the wheel be exhausting, but it can also cut into precious sleep time. A lack of sleep can be devastating when it comes to two important areas. In the workplace environment, a sleep-deprived worker is prone to making costly mistakes. Also, during the commute itself, a sleep-deprived driver is at a higher risk of falling asleep behind the wheel, which can have some disastrous consequences. By finding ways to give your staff more time to rest, like removing the commute, you?ll help negate these risks. Perhaps one of the biggest misconceptions about remote workers is that implementing the practice will cost your business too much money. However, the reality of remote work is that it actually improves your bottom line by decreasing operational costs. For example, consider the resources around the office that you won?t have to spend money on if an employee worked from home; a move like this will save on electricity, computer hardware, and even having to rent office space altogether. One CEO who has found this to be the case is Sara Sutton Fell of Flexjobs. She states in an interview with Inc that 47 percent of her staff works remotely, saving her organization around $78 million. As you can see, even a small business stands to gain some level of cost savings from having a remote workforce. All of these points considered, making the decision to ditch the commute is an easy one to make, which means that the next step is to make sure that your remote workers and your office are utilizing the right technology that allows for a smooth and secure remote work experience. To make sure that your company is fully equipped to enjoy the benefits of never having to commute again, give White Mountain IT Services a call today at (603) 889-0800.

White Mountain IT Services is proud to announce the launch of our new website at COMPANYWEBSITEURL. The goal of the website is to make it easier for our existing clients to submit and manage support requests, and provide more information about our services for prospective clients. Our current clients who can access our ticket client portal can now use their email and password to log into the site to make filling out forms easier, access special content, and gain access to our ticketing system. We’d also like to welcome everybody to our blog, and we encourage you to leave comments.

ATMs in Connecticut and Pennsylvania have recently become complicit in identity theft schemes issued by hackers. The machines themselves have been found to be equipped with periscope skimmer devices attached inside, particularly in machines which have openable lids that provide easy access to their inner workings. The device is installed so that it can probe the magnetic strip on the card as the machine reads it. Users might only need to withdraw $20, but they have so much more to lose. It?s estimated that the device?s battery can last for up to 14 days per charge and that it has enough storage capacity to steal 32,000 card numbers. The one good thing about this device is that it doesn?t seem to collect PIN numbers. Instead, this scam may be part of a preparation for a real heist. There may not be a PIN collection device on this version of the skimmers, but it?s still a good habit to cover the PIN pad with your free hand while you plug in your code. You never know who could be watching. Scammers are crafty and may have hidden cameras on the device to steal information, or they have hacked into the native camera remotely to spy on you while you input your credentials. Even if you don?t suspect that you?re being watched, it?s always better to err on the side of caution. What?s worse is that those chip cards that your bank replaced your old cards with probably won?t be of much use, as most ATMs still need magnetic strips in order to accept and process the card as legitimate. These skimmers can?t usually be identified by sight, as they?re often installed internally to avoid the prying eyes of cautious users. The most practical advice for avoiding ATM scams is to consider the thought process of a criminal who may try to exploit one of these machines. Consider its location–if the ATM is surrounded by people at all times, like those that are found in supermarkets or public places, chances are that it won?t become a target. Now, if it were located in a secluded rural gas station tucked away in the back hallway, it?s more likely that someone would tamper with it. Consider if it?s top-accessible, allowing cybercriminals access to its innards. These are all variables that you should be on the lookout for. Therefore, it?s recommended that you use only ATMs that are placed in high-traffic areas where there are plenty of witnesses who might notice if someone tampered with the machine. It?s also important to avoid ATMs that are easily accessible; rather, just use one which is embedded into the wall, like the one in your bank?s drive-thru. These are great for multiple reasons: 1) They?re well-lit, 2) They are high-surveillance zones, and 3) Hackers have a hard time getting into them. If you?re dealing with your business?s finances, it?s probably best that you handle your financial services through the tellers that aren?t automated. Another option is to go about your business online, shielded by the safeguards that White Mountain IT Services can prepare for your organization. To learn more about our cybersecurity services, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

But first, let?s talk about why tape backup isn?t good enough in today?s business environment. Storing data backups on magnetic tape reels has long been a standard procedure, but compared to more modern data backup practices, tape has fallen short of today?s expectations. Tape backups are resource-intensive, and as such, they need to be performed at the end of the workday to avoid slowing down the network. Furthermore, due to how resource-intensive tape backups are, they can only be taken once–meaning that you could potentially lose up to a day?s worth of productivity and accumulated data. The DifferenceImage-based backup is vastly more efficient and more manageable than traditional tape backup. Image-based backup lets your business take a ?snapshot? of your organization?s data, which is then sent to several locations either on or off-site for safe, secure storage. These snapshots record data that?s been changed recently rather than take a whole backup like how tape would work; these smaller backup sessions are less resource-intensive and can be performed more frequently during the day–even as often as every 15 minutes. Perhaps the greatest boon of using an image-based backup system is the fact that it?s automatic and relies less on users to be effective. Your team doesn?t need to set and run the backup at the end of each workday; you can set them to run automatically. Of course, you still have to check the backups and make sure that they work properly, but the fact remains that you have backups taken and ready to go. When it comes to backup and disaster recovery, your business can?t cut any corners, and doing so could become a problem down the road. Even the slightest disaster like a power outage could lead to major data loss. That?s not to mention other common disasters that could cost your business capital in more ways than just data loss. Hardware failure, floods, and fires could lead to not just data loss, but expensive hardware replacements and damage to your IT budget. The damage caused by the resulting downtime is also a major problem, and one which absolutely cannot be ignored. White Mountain IT Services can equip your business with a backup and disaster recovery solution that?s specifically designed to work for your organization. Depending on your needs, you can back up your data to several off-site locations, including a secure data center and in the cloud for rapid data recovery. Furthermore, in the event of a disaster, you can restore your backups directly to the BDR device, and it can act as a temporary server while you work out the finer details of replacing your hardware. All in all, it?s the ideal solution for a small business that relies on data to keep operations going. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.