Growth is Natural for Successful Businesses Businesses invest a lot of capital into their computing infrastructures, including their servers, storage, productivity solutions, and other tools. All of this complex technology must be managed and maintained by your staff, making for a significant time and labor investment, as well. The cloud changed all of this. Businesses seemed to be wary of the cloud at first, as they were fearful that it would put data at risk. These days, however, it?s a moot point. Businesses use the cloud for all kinds of services and features, even some organizations you might not expect. The cloud provides several opportunities for businesses to change the way they operate. Whether it?s virtual servers, workstations, data storage, applications, or more advanced tools like business intelligence or artificial intelligence platforms, the cloud offers no shortage of tools for the modern business. It?s so dynamic and useful that some companies opt to house their entire infrastructure in the cloud, and better yet, it?s done in a secure and reliable way. Cloud Scalability Is the Key Let?s take a step back in time and remember the days when businesses would have to purchase multiple software licenses for each individual workstation on the company network. These licenses would be purchased once a year, and they would be incredibly expensive for short-term resources. The cloud changes things by allowing you to adjust your solutions according to the immediate needs of your business. You can purchase computing solutions from a provider on a month-to-month basis, and all it takes is creating an account to get started. Types of Cloud Scaling Here are some ways that you can expect cloud scaling to look for a modern business: Vertical Scaling: Vertical scaling entails adding resources to your cloud platform, like adding a new user to your productivity suite or email platform. It can even get as complex as increasing the specs of your virtual servers. Horizontal Scaling: This type of scaling involves adding new servers to a cloud computing environment. You might see this type of scaling when organizations implement more advanced or more powerful tools, like a PBX server for VoIP. Diagonal Scaling: This type of scaling is like an all-of-the-above method, manifesting when you have to add new resources to each of your servers due to an increase in use. If you?re waiting for someone to tell you what the best way to approach cloud scaling is, you?ll be waiting a while. It will depend on what type of business you are and what your needs are. The best part is that scaling is flexible in nature, so you can make adjustments as needed. White Mountain IT Services can help you make any necessary changes to your cloud infrastructure. To learn more, contact us at (603) 889-0800.

Why Do So Many IT Projects Fail? According to Boston Consulting Group, even with so much excitement surrounding digital transformation initiatives, nearly three-quarters of businesses fail to reach their goals, sometimes even suffering from dire consequences as a result. This number suggests that digital transformation is not so simple, but if you?ve ever tried to pull off a major IT project, you already knew that, didn?t you? Failed projects can come at a steep cost. Not only are you paying for additional time and solutions spent rectifying the situation, but you are also paying frustrated employees to solve the problem for you, something which puts a damper on morale and your profit margin. A great opportunity can quickly become a time and resource sink. There are four primary reasons why digital transformation projects fail, according to Tsedal Neely of the Harvard Business School and Julia Lamm of PricewaterhouseCoopers. They are the following: A workplace culture that is resistant to change: Employees who simply don?t want to see change happen will exacerbate the challenges with digital transformation. To circumvent this, you need to both educate and incentivize employees to use the new systems in place. One way you can do this is to stop using the old system altogether, forcing employees to adapt to the new change. Leadership that is not fluent in technology: It?s important that whoever is at the helm of the ship knows how to steer it. So too is this the case with digital transformation initiatives. After all, it?s hard to advocate for a new system or infrastructure if you don?t know what it?s all about. We recommend that leaders work with technology professionals to ensure that they understand the ins and outs of what they are trying to accomplish with a new solution. Doing so can make advocating for the new technology much easier. Poor data analysis: Businesses need to make informed decisions, something which often requires data analysis to pull off. You should purposely collect data that can inform the types of decisions you are hoping to make for your company?s technology infrastructure. Lacking customer involvement: One thing businesses should be doing is involving their consumer base in the digital transformation process. This can be described as a dual transformation in which new solutions are designed for consumers while also allowing consumers to become well-versed in the new solutions. Don?t Let Your Projects Fail! As you might suspect, many of these issues outlined above can be rectified if you simply work with a technology professional or managed services provider who can assist with the more technical aspects of the implementation. This is where White Mountain IT Services comes in; we can help your business with each stage of the implementation process, from conception to realization. To learn more about how we can help any of your digital transformation plans become a reality, give us a call at (603) 889-0800 today.

Let?s discuss why VoIP is phasing out traditional telephony, particularly for businesses. VoIP Offers Improved Flexibility One of the biggest problems with your office landline is the fact that you need to be in the office in order to use the phone?something that takes away from your capabilities while working remotely. VoIP uses the Internet to transmit the call data, which means it can be hosted on your workstation and your mobile phone, allowing you to answer calls wherever you happen to be working. As you might imagine, this heavily influences your productivity. VoIP Offers a Comprehensive Collection of Features While most additional features and capabilities that traditional telephone services offer come at an additional cost, VoIP includes them?and adds more than traditional telephony is able to. You get instant messaging, video conferencing capabilities, and dozens of other baked-in features by adopting VoIP?with no extra charge for services you don?t need or want, or for long-distance calls. VoIP Offers Precise Scalability Traditional telephone systems are challenging to scale, simply because of the need for ports and lines to connect across the office and the limited space available to do so. Plus, there?s only so much room in the office for people to set up their desks. VoIP helps eliminate these challenges, again, by utilizing the Internet and making it far simpler for new extensions, accounts, and hardware to be added Interested in Trying Out VoIP? Reach Out to Us! If implemented correctly, VoIP is a hugely beneficial technology to introduce into your business. We?ll help you manage it to pull even more benefits out of it, while you?re able to focus on your day-to-day tasks. Learn more about our various services by giving us a call at (603) 889-0800.

Cyberthreats Can Masquerade as Cybersecurity Companies Believe it or not, hackers have the gumption to impersonate cybersecurity companies and trusted resources in an attempt to subvert even the most careful employees. One such phishing campaign has been detailed by the security researchers at CrowdStrike, a company who has had their name dragged through the mud by cyberthreats impersonating them. This particular campaign had users calling a fake helpline to get support, which in this case means that the hacker remotes into a victim?s computer while the user is helpless on the other side of the line. The worst part is that for someone who isn?t necessarily scrutinizing the message, it could be seen as legitimate. The email contains language about outsourced security providers, something which is increasingly common nowadays, abnormal activity, and potential compromise, all of which could be misconstrued as true if you aren?t careful. The phony email contains a case number and contact information to address the concern. When the victim calls the number, the hacker installs a remote access tool onto their device, allowing them to gain access to the device at their leisure. What?s the Motive? As for the motive behind such an attack, it?s not necessarily clear at the moment. It could be that the attackers simply want to infect systems for later remote access. It is also possible that they want to profit off these infections by selling access to infected devices to the highest bidder. In any case, it?s a dangerous situation to be in, and certainly one that you should be wary of. What Should You Do? In just about all circumstances, your security company or department is not going to contact you in the way addressed above. It?s incredibly important that your employees know this, too. To keep you from making the same mistakes outlined above, we recommend you do the following: Verify the sender?s identity through secondary methods Look for spelling errors, grammatical issues, or inconsistencies Contact your own IT department, not the one in the email White Mountain IT Services can be your trusted IT resource, and we promise we won?t have you call some phony support line to get the help you need to secure your infrastructure. We?ll take care of the details behind the scenes so that you barely have to worry about it in the first place. To learn more about what we can do for your business, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

What is Sova? As an Android banking malware, Sova can provide criminals with back-end access to devices so they can cause all kinds of problems later on. Although it was originally released in September 2021 in an incomplete stage, it was still able to steal usernames and passwords through tactics such as keylogging and false overlays atop popular mobile applications. Sova is more dangerous nowadays, as it is capable of deploying malware to infected devices, along with having a whole other lot of nasty features. It is remarkably flexible in that it can replicate over 200 banking and payment applications, as well as target cryptocurrency wallets. Sova is also able to take screenshots of infected devices and record audio through their microphones. So, yeah, Sova is just a little scarier now. Security researchers at Cleafy state, ?The ransomware feature is quite interesting as it’s still not a common one in the Android banking trojans landscape. It strongly leverages on the opportunity that arises in recent years, as mobile devices became for most people the central storage for personal and business data.? Furthermore, Sova can weasel its way past multi-factor authentication measures by intercepting MFA tokens, even if the user has deployed multi-factor authentication to protect themselves. How Can You Avoid This Threat? Sova and other Android malware variants typically spread through fraudulent applications hosted on the Google Play store. If a user downloads the app, they are infected by Sova. We encourage all users to practice a certain level of caution and scrutiny with any downloadable applications, and you should never download an app from anywhere other than a trusted first-party source. It helps to look at reviews and descriptions of applications as well. With mobile device management tools at your disposal, you can protect your business from mobile threats like Sova. With powerful enterprise-level security, you can whitelist or blacklist applications, remotely wipe infected devices, and so much more. With these solutions in place, you won?t be afraid of mobile threats. To learn more, contact White Mountain IT Services at (603) 889-0800.