What Are Your Options? Nowadays, cloud computing has become reliable enough to do about any type of computing your company needs. With this fact, you now have to decide whether adding new hardware to your server stack is the best option; or, should you seriously consider deploying virtual environments through the cloud. Let?s go through some of the pros and cons of each. New Onsite Server Before we talk about some of the considerations that go into hardware purchases, let?s talk about some of the pros and cons of deploying onsite servers. The first, and probably the most important benefit of utilizing onsite hardware is that you have complete control over the infrastructure. Not only can you set it up the way you want, you maintain access and don?t necessarily need an Internet connection. This can be extremely beneficial if you house sensitive and proprietary data.  Since the business environment has changed substantially over the past several years one of the leading talking points in the discussion between cloud and on-site infrastructure is the question: who needs access to it? With a lot of people now being able to work remotely, they need access to company data. This creates two big issues: How do you get your new onsite server set up reliably and ready to work for your company? How do you get remote workers access to the data and applications they need on that server? These are important questions and ones that any business that decides they would like to get the benefits of hosting their own servers have to immediately confront. After all, if you don?t set your infrastructure up effectively, you will be constantly tinkering with your IT and it won?t bring your organization the value it should.  Cloud-Based Servers Over the past several years, cloud computing has become a mainstay for businesses of all types. Before that, enterprise businesses were the only ones that were able to take advantage of these hosted servers, as the costs associated with data transmission?the way many of these systems are charged?were seen as prohibitive to businesses and organizations with smaller technology budgets. Prices have dropped substantially and now, with the needs of many businesses including catering systems to remote workers, cloud servers are now one of the most utilized by all businesses. Obviously, if your servers are outsourced and hosted in a public cloud environment, you lose the capabilities to set up your machines. For most business purposes such as application deployment, communications, and collaboration, this doesn?t have the ?risks? it once did. Additionally, cloud-based infrastructure can always be scaled to the amount of computing and storage your business needs, putting an end to the constant hand-wringing over software licensing and storage costs.  What you will absolutely need to take full advantage of cloud-based servers is a reliable and fast Internet connection. This can be a sticking point, especially if your organization likes to use innovative new communications platforms hosted in the cloud. Your end-users may not always have access to the type of bandwidth needed to reliably take advantage of the cloud-based tools. As far as cost goes, the cloud-based infrastructure doesn?t demand that your organization make huge financial decisions with their IT infrastructure, but it does require that you pay the per GB or service subscription fees […]

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.