Risks Involved with Renewing Software LicensesIt?s important that all businesses have a solid plan to approach software licensing issues. This means taking an accurate assessment of the risks that are involved with managing software license problems. Here are three of the biggest culprits: Downtime: One of the most immediate issues associated with software licenses is that they can run out at any given moment, especially if you don?t take the initiative to renew them before they expire. Imagine this scenario: your team is working full-throttle to finish a project, but then the software is made unavailable because it?s no longer licensed. If this happens, your team could lose precious momentum while waiting for IT to resolve the issue. This wasted time translates to downtime, which has a negative effect on any strict budget. Shadow IT: In the above scenario, let?s say that your team doesn?t want to wait for IT to resolve the issue. This may cause them to look into alternative solutions that may not be approved by management. This is what?s known as shadow IT; solutions that are implemented without the proper oversight. When this happens, infrastructures could be put at risk of being compromised, while ignoring software licensing requirements. Legal issues: Employees may get the idea that they can find a illegal copy of the needed software online at a cheaper price (or free). While your employees may only be trying to help, their intentions are irrelevant, primarily because if they download a ?discounted? or ?free? version of a particular software on the Internet, it may not come from a legitimate source. In other words, you run the risk of your employees resolving the issue in a potentially illegal way. If your business is found to have a pirated copy of a software solutions, you could be subject to nasty fines that are easily avoidable. All it takes is an unexpected audit to completely drown your chances of success. If your organization finds it difficult to handle software licenses, we?re here to tell you that there?s an easier way to manage your business?s mission-critical software solutions. With our remote management and maintenance solution, we can manually update your business?s crucial systems, making sure that they remain secure from potential threats. We can also arrange your software licenses in a way which lets you update them at around the same time. This way, you?ll never miss a critical update or software license renewal ever again. For more information, give us a call at (603) 889-0800.

First, a quick review of the two options: HDD: Hard disk drives have been around since IBM introduced the technology in 1956, and utilizes magnetism via a mechanical arm with a read/write head to store data on a spinning platter. This spin dictates the performance speed of the drive. Drivers today typically will achieve either 5,400 or 7,200 revolutions per minute. SSD: Solid state drives are a much more recent innovation, storing information in microchips controlled by an onboard, embedded processor. This processor is referred to as the controller, the quality of which ultimately controls the speed at which the drive operates. Since there are no moving parts, this is the preferable choice for laptops, as jostling will not affect performance, as it will in a HDD. Of course, to a company, the how the drive operates is not nearly as important as the how well, or the how much. Weighing one option against the other will help to narrow down the proper solution for a particular business? needs. To do so, a quick review of the stats will be helpful. Capacity: An incredibly important statistic to consider, as it is the entire point of utilizing a storage device. HDD can range in notebook devices from 500GB to 2TB, as far up as 6TB in desktops. SSD in notebook devices generally cap out at 1TB, and max out in desktops at the same. Speed: The copy/write speed of HDD can be anywhere from 50 to 120MB per second. This is dwarfed by a SDD?s typical speeds of at least 200 MB/s, sometimes up to 550 MB/s. Regarding how much time it takes to open files, HDD file opening speeds lag by about 30 percent behind SSDs. Cost: Being a long-established technology, HDDs typically cost about $0.06 for every gigabyte of storage space. While the price of SSDs has been dropping in recent years, the cost per gigabyte is still at $0.24 per GB, making SSD a considerably more expensive option. Power Draw/Battery Life: HDDs lose this bout, drawing an average of 6 or 7 watts compared to the SSD?s 2 or 3. This gives SSDs significantly superior battery life. Depending on your business?s financial state and priorities, there are different paths to take when selecting a storage device. If capacity and price are larger concerns than speeds, a hard disk drive may just be the route to take. If there is a want for technology to function faster and there is some financial ?wiggle room,? a SSD is certainly the preferable choice. Ultimately, it is your responsibility to select a storage solution for your business?s IT needs. Our technicians can give them professional guidance into which solution fits their information storage needs the best. If interested, give them a call at (603) 889-0800 and set up a consultation to discuss the preferable IT solution your business needs.

The break-fix IT model is one that has simply lost its flavor in the business environment. Organizations are leveraging technology in previously unprecedented bulk, and are now more reliant on technology than they ever were before. They want a more dynamic solution that doesn?t rely on them investing heavily in new technology whenever something breaks down. That, and the increasing amount of efficiency and productivity that organizations demand, requires a more conscientious approach to managing their technology solutions. Thus, managed IT services were born. Designed to proactively manage and maintain technology, the managed IT service model seeks to take a more active role in the upkeep of your business?s technology. In comparison, the break-fix IT model takes a reactive approach, only stepping in when major problems surface. Managed IT prevents the problems altogether by handling minor issues at their roots, preventing expensive downtime. Here are some of the top reasons that small businesses are choosing managed services as a quality alternative to traditional break-fix IT solutions: Fewer capital costs: Technology is expensive. There?s no getting around this fact. Naturally, you want to replace your technology as little as possible due to the immense up-front costs of doing so. This means that you need to take exceptionally good care of your technology if you want to limit your expenses in the long run. Plus, the amount of money that you invest in your managed services agreement can be recorded as an operating expense, further mitigating your capital costs. Reduced management responsibility: One of the key benefits of the managed IT service model is that your business doesn?t need to spend as much time dealing with technology repair problems, and can instead focus on improving business operations. In other words, the responsibility of handling your technology is taken care of for you, so you can concentrate on what matters most: running your business. Quality technology maintenance: If your team doesn?t regularly handle IT maintenance, and you don?t have an internal IT department, chances are that your technology isn?t getting the attention it needs in order to stay up to date. By outsourcing this responsibility to a managed service provider, you can rest easy knowing that your IT is being handled by seasoned professionals. If your business is ready to start handling your technology the smart way, give White Mountain IT Services a call at (603) 889-0800.

Rather than using telephone lines to transfer and receive calls, VoIP uses the Internet to send your voice to the recipient. Considering how most businesses need an Internet connection in the first place, using VoIP is simply utilizing a technology that?s necessary in order to eliminate an unnecessary expense. Differences Between VoIP and Traditional Phone SystemsDoes your business utilize VoIP? If not, you should consider doing so as soon as possible. It?s a great way to cut down on your operational costs and improve workflow. Here are some of the main differences and advantages that your organization can experience from using VoIP as a part of your communications infrastructure. Additional features: While your traditional phone system might support services like caller ID, user blocking, call forwarding, conference calling, etc, VoIP offers all of these services, plus some. Unlike the traditional phone system, which you need to be close to the receiver to use, VoIP works right from your desktop PC, laptop, or smartphone. As long as you have an Internet connection, you can use your work number from anywhere, allowing for flexibility that the traditional phone system envies. Plus, VoIP offers several other features, including video conferencing, which can be very helpful for bridging the gap between employees while working remotely. Decreased costs: If you?re paying for both a landline and an Internet connection for your office, you?re essentially paying for one too many services. Considering that landlines are often bundled with other services that you may not necessarily want, it?s more affordable and efficient to simply use VoIP as your preferred communications solution. Add in the fact that you can say goodbye to long distance, and you have a convenient and cost-effective package. Flexibility: Traditional phone systems require an immense amount of work to add new lines to an infrastructure. Depending on your office?s setup, new phone lines need to be installed, and you might even need to remodel your office. Both can be expensive, but with VoIP, you don?t need to waste time or money on improving your infrastructure. As long as your Internet connection and internal network can sustain the traffic and strain, VoIP will work as intended. If your organization is ready to implement a solid new communications infrastructure, a VoIP solution can go a long way towards improving operations. To learn more, give us a call at (603) 889-0800.

The team, hailing from MIT?s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, developed a security platform combining the strength of human involvement with the effectiveness of artificial intelligence. Given the name A.I.?, this new platform is capable of detecting 85 percent of incoming attacks while reducing reported false positives by 20 percent. How A.I.? combines AI and human involvement is actually quite genius. To begin, the ?untrained? machine reports a sample set of results to a human expert. These results are informed by machine learning and are checked against the 200 most important problems. The human expert then checks over and corrects the machine?s work, with the intention of finding mistakes and false positives. Subsequently, the human-checked results are inputted to A.I.?, the machine learns, and the next set of tests will have fewer errors. This process is then repeated with the security platform adapting each time to look for what its human teacher looks for. In a paper presented at the IEEE International Conference on Big Data Security, research scientist Kalyan Veeramachianeni summarized, “You can think about the system as a virtual analyst. It continuously generates new models that it can refine in as little as a few hours, meaning it can improve its detection rates significantly and rapidly.” Of course, the precedent of effectiveness set here by combining human expertise and oversight with A.I. has far-reaching ramifications for other A.I. initiatives currently in development; initiatives that have both humanity?s best and worst interests in mind. Although, for now, those of us in the IT world are celebrating this A.I.-enabled technology for being one giant leap forward in security analysis accuracy. It?s important to keep in mind that a platform like A.I.? is still years away from being available to the average business. Therefore, we recommend that you stay on top of your network security by following best practices, which combines automated software solutions and human vigilance in order to combat the latest threats. White Mountain IT Services is standing by to assist you with all of your company?s network security needs. To equip your business with the most comprehensive IT security solutions on the market, call us today at (603) 889-0800.