What is Single Sign-On? Imagine that you use a single password or username to sign into multiple different accounts, not even those that are necessarily related. This is basically what single sign-on is. It is a centralized authentication platform where you use one set of credentials to access multiple applications or platforms. As explained by CSO, ?In the most common arrangement, the identity provider and service provider establish a trust relationship by exchanging digital certificates and metadata, and communicate with one another via open standards such as Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), OAuth, or OpenID.? You log in once, and that login can be used to sign you into other accounts associated with that login. Think about it like this; rather than authenticate the user themselves, the application asks another application to authenticate the user for them, then allowing the user to access the application as if they had used a username or password pair in the normal way. Why Is Single Sign-On Useful? There are many reasons why single sign-on can be useful. Here are some of the following: Passwords are hard for employees: Employees who have to remember multiple complex passwords and usernames for various different accounts can often make mistakes or forget their passwords. Cloud sprawl is a very real thing: The more applications businesses implement, the more difficult it becomes to manage them all. SSO provides businesses with ways to authenticate users in a way that is beneficial for productivity and security. Easy IT management: IT administrators can more easily revoke privileges for accessing various services or applications, since there is only one pair of credentials associated with SSO. Isn?t That a Security Discrepancy? It?s easy to see how single sign-on could create a security issue if it is implemented incorrectly. After all, what happens when that one credential gets stolen by a hacker? In reality, SSO does the exact opposite. It reduces the attack surface considerably, and with fewer opportunities for employees to create insecure passwords, the likelihood of attacks falls somewhat. In short, SSO is more likely to help than it is to hinder your security. The biggest issue you are likely to encounter with single sign-on is adding new technologies or making adjustments to your IT infrastructure, as SSO implicitly ties together many different services. The biggest benefit you can expect from SSO is by far the improvements to productivity. Since users will be logging in fewer times throughout the day, they can instead focus on getting work done, meaning more opportunities to improve your bottom line. White Mountain IT Services can advise you on the appropriate way to secure your organization and potentially offer solutions for how to approach cloud sprawl. To learn more about what we can do for your organization, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

Why are Sticky Keys a Thing? Not everyone who uses a computer will have the same capabilities. There are a variety of reasons that someone may have a challenge using the device that others may not find to be an obstacle. More specifically to our discussion, there are a few reasons that people may have trouble pressing more than one key at once, like one has to do to capitalize a letter, for instance. Therefore, Sticky Keys allows a user to press a key?like Shift or Ctrl?to use it without needing to hold it to use it as part of a key combination. All you have to do to turn it on is press Shift five times in a row. However, what happens if you don?t want it activated, but you accidentally did so? Don?t worry?not only can you deactivate it again, you can also eliminate the shortcut that creates the problem. How to Turn Off Sticky Keys Fortunately, deactivating Sticky Keys is just as easy as it is to turn them on. All you have to do is press Shift five more times to turn them back off. Deactivating Sticky Keys Entirely If you want to just get rid of Sticky Keys outright, there are a few processes to follow. In Windows 10: Either press the Windows logo key or click the Windows icon in the Taskbar. Type ?Ease of Access? and select Ease of Access keyboard settings from the search results Find the Use Sticky Keys section and toggle the switch to off. You should also uncheck Allow the shortcut to start Sticky Keys to stop them from reactivating. In Windows 11: Either press the Windows logo key or click the Windows icon in the Taskbar. Type ?Accessibility? and select Accessibility keyboard settings from the search results. Toggle the switch next to Sticky Keys to off, and click into Sticky Keys. Toggle the switch next to Keyboard shortcut for Sticky Keys to off. That?s it. You won?t need to worry about Sticky Keys getting in your way after this. If you know someone who struggles with Sticky Keys, share this information with them?they?ll be sure to appreciate it. Make sure you also stop back here for more handy IT tips!

The Current State of Tablets The modern tablet is a much different beast from those from 2014, even if the form factor is largely the same. They look like clipboards with a touch screen, and they typically run a mobile operating system. Like other computing devices, the specifications have dramatically improved over the years. The greatest draw that tablets have for most businesses is the plethora of applications available to them, something which gives them the flexibility to support just about any business out there. To dig a little deeper into the specifications, tablets used for business should have at least four gigabytes of RAM and 64 gigabytes of storage. The Apple iPad is widely considered to be the best tablet for business, as it features the Apple M1 processor. With the software optimization Apple delivers, it is seen as an improvement over the capabilities of the best processor found in an Android-run tablet, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888. These are touch-screen devices, so you should pick one with at least a 10-inch screen; however, you can get plenty done on seven or eight-inch screens, too. How Do You Use a Tablet for Business? A recent poll indicates that about 40%, or two-fifths, of respondents claim to use some sort of tablet for their job. In an interesting twist, many businesses that use tablets aren?t housed in the two largest markets for tablets: the United States and China. Businesses in Europe, Australia, and South America are more likely to use tablets than the former. Here are some of the reasons a business might choose to use tablets: Taking notes Managing social media Creating task lists Point-of-sale Scheduling It?s worth noting that these are the same purposes that many folks in the United States use smartphones for. Tablets give businesses a cost-effective way to improve mobility within the office. One such innovation is to use a tablet as a portable point-of-sale device. These are generally fueled by Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) point-of-sale (POS) systems that are hosted in the cloud and deployed to a mobile device?in this case, a tablet or smartphone. Thanks to the applications available on Apple and Android devices, many tablets can perform business-related tasks that you might normally think would only be possible on higher-end devices. Breaking Down the Competition While the iPad has been the best tablet on the market for consumers, Apple has still managed to double-down on the device as a personal productivity tool. Similar to the smartphone space, Samsung is Android?s go-to choice for tablet development. Microsoft?s Surface tablet is also a great option for businesses, but it comes with a higher price tag and is generally considered to be more in-line with a touchscreen PC than a tablet. Each of these devices have operating systems that work well with other computing platforms and generally offer businesses wonderful opportunities to increase their mobility and productivity. What?s In Store for the Tablet? How much you get out of your tablets will depend on the applications you run on them. Here are some of the different types of applications you might choose to leverage for your tablet: Managing money (Quickbooks, Wave) Inventory management (Sortly, Delivrd) Human resources (Namely, Bambee) Point-of-sale (Square, PayPal Here) Time tracking (Gusto, HotSchedules) Communication & collaboration (Zoom, Slack, Microsoft Teams) Customer relationship management (Spendgo, […]

Before we get into our four tools your business should be looking to utilize in the cloud, we should mention that any type of computing your organization might need can be acquired nowadays in the cloud. With options from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and more, you can now spin up anything from hosted desktops to full-scale big data analytics to artificial intelligence platforms in the cloud. Most businesses won?t need the huge resource-intensive platforms, but can certainly use the following four: Digital Infrastructure For years, only enterprises were able to take advantage of cloud computing on this scale due to enormous data costs that came with it. Today, cloud infrastructure is much more inexpensive and robust. Not only have many of the data security questions been answered, organizations can get tools they simply couldn?t afford to deploy in the cloud. It makes it a very attractive solution for any startup or small business.  Office Suites Business is always in need of ?office? software. That means a robust word processor, a spreadsheet program, a presentation tool, and more. Today, there are several productivity suite options that present these programs and much more. Hosted in the cloud, businesses can not only get the productivity software they need, they can get them integrated into their scheduling, email, and other communications tools.  Robust Communications Speaking of communications, today?s communications software is extremely important. This is doubly true for organizations that use remote employees. Cloud-based email, video conferencing, and telephone services (Voice over Internet Protocol) are just a few options that allow your company to better collaborate, communicate internally and with customers, and even handle some of the day-to-day support of your business.  Storage Every business needs data storage, and if you choose to utilize cloud-structured storage, you get added redundancy built in. The best part of any cloud service is that you can get the computing you need without wasting any. This is no different with data storage. You can scale to need on demand, giving you a cost-effective option to be able to do more.  If you would like to learn more about how your business could use cloud computing to its advantage, give our knowledgeable consultants a call today at (603) 889-0800. 

What Are Virtual Workstations? When you virtualize software, the application itself is hosted on a central infrastructure set up and maintained either by your IT department or by some external, third-party provider. In much the same way, workstation (or desktop) virtualization is when your business? desktop infrastructure is hosted in a central location and deployed through the cloud. Basically, your team?s desktop infrastructure lives in this online environment. As long as your employees have Internet access, they can access their desktops on any approved, secured, and connected endpoint. This also goes for any applications located on these virtual desktops, too. Virtual machines can be run locally on your workstation, allowing you to host multiple operating systems or desktops on a single device, but we will mostly be discussing the benefits of desktop-as-a-service offerings for businesses. What Benefits Do They Offer? One advantage you can expect from virtual desktops is an increased level of security. Since the data for these virtual desktops is stored in one location rather than on the endpoint itself, the threat surface is dramatically reduced, meaning that there are far fewer opportunities for the data to be stolen or put at risk. Due to this enhanced level of security, virtual desktops are also perfect environments for application testing or for running isolated versions of operating systems. If you want to see the impact that an application, patch, or update has on your computing infrastructure, a virtual environment is a low-stakes place to put it to the test. Similarly, you can run legacy applications that might not be the most up-to-date tools out there in secure, isolated environments through the use of desktop virtualization. Finally, virtual desktop infrastructures can be extremely cost-effective for businesses looking to eliminate unnecessary costs. You might suspect that all of this processing requires a ton of computing power, but this is mostly done by the provider in their data centers, so you are saving on operational costs by implementing virtual desktop infrastructures. Get Started with Virtual Workstations Today! White Mountain IT Services can help your business get started with virtual workstations today. To learn more about how this technology can save your business time, resources, and headaches, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.