Business Application A clearly defined policy serves three business specific purposes: Expectations ? A good policy will establish the behavioral expectations of the employer regarding all email sent or received with corporate-owned equipment and services, as well as company email addresses. Security ? All policies should emphasize the need for users of all corporate-owned equipment and company email address to employ common sense awareness regarding modern cyber-threats. Well written policies will underscore that it is ultimately up to the user to ensure company equipment and email systems are not leveraged for malicious purposes. Liability ? A detailed policy will reduce a business?s liability by establishing that well-defined expectation?s, as well as consequences that will follow if/when the policy is breached, were clearly spelled out to all users upon employment, and routinely throughout their tenure. Technology Monitoring & Restrictions Regardless of the infrastructure used to provide email services (cloud, hosted, or on-premise), technology-based monitoring and communication restrictions must be utilized to ensure compliant business use. Restrictions should include: Suspicious Email ? Whether inbound or outbound, all suspicious emails need to be blocked. Blocking suspicious inbound emails will protect the organization from phishing and malware attacks.  Blocking suspicious outbound email will safeguard a business?s email domain reputation ? preventing it from being blacklisted and interrupting email flow. Emails Containing Protected Information ? The communication of protected information across digital media is heavily regulated in many industries ? HIPAA, SoX, and PCI-DSS are the most common examples. Technology restrictions must be in place to monitor for, and prevent the public exposure of, personally identifying information, financial information, Social Security numbers, private medical information, etc.  Failure to comply with these regulations, especially in the wake of a breach, comes with heavy financial penalties. Harassing & Unlawful Correspondence ? Threats and harassment (cyberbullying) is a well-documented issue in the US that comes with steep fines and penalties, depending on the outcome. Emails containing vulgarity or harassing/threatening language must be monitored for, reported on, and blocked to protect a business from civil and criminal prosecution.  Additional Items For Consideration There are several additional items your business should consider when creating a comprehensive policy: Training ? Many Federal regulations require that a business establishes and documents a routine training program to ensure that all staff members, individuals that may use corporate-owned equipment, and all users of company-owned digital communication systems are provided training covering the areas discussed in this article, as well as industry-specific topics. Insurance ? Even the best plans, policies, and practices cannot account for all eventualities or future threats. Maintaining a sufficient level of liability insurance is the only way to safeguard your business when something unforeseeable occurs. Assessment ? Certain regulations, such as HIPAA, require an organization to routinely review their policies, training, monitoring systems, and technology used to prevent the communication of protected information or harassing communication. Regulations aside, it is a good idea to, at the least, review your policies and procedures internally on a yearly basis. Takeaway  The general acceptance of email by businesses as the go-to tool for internal and external communication requires many companies in various industries to create and enforce well-documented policies to protect themselves, their customers, and their users. These policies should include language to cover common issues, such as expectations, security, and liability. Further monitoring […]

Many businesses still rely on the age-old practice of break-fix IT. These organizations are usually small and medium-sized businesses that don?t have the time or resources available to regularly resolve technology problems. They don?t fix issues until they absolutely have to, which can lead to problems becoming bigger than they need to be. SMBs often can?t do much to fix the problem, and they usually have to break their budget or hire expensive tech support to resolve the specific issue. Both of these situations are likely to cause trouble for your business, and technology that?s not properly maintained can lead to unforeseen consequences. For example, if your workstations aren?t being updated with the latest patches and security updates, you run the risk of a data breach, which could lead to data loss, theft, and hefty compliance fines. Another example would be your technology experiencing hardware failure, leading to both downtime and data loss. Businesses that can?t recover their lost data have a life expectancy of only one year following a data loss disaster, so replacing old technology only when it fails isn?t an option. In contrast, proactive managed IT helps businesses prevent issues that can explode into bigger, and more costly, problems down the line. This usually entails the complete and total management of all technological assets that a business has, including server hosting and maintenance, email management, network security management, backup and disaster recovery deployment, and so much more. The common ground for all of these services is that they?re designed to take the burden of technology management off of the SMB, so they can focus on what matters most; the business, and its continued operation. White Mountain IT Services is what you can call a managed service provider, or MSP. We specialize in helping organizations like yours manage their technology in cost-effective ways. By doing so, you can eliminate the unpredictable nature of managing your own technology and outsource the responsibility to experts who specialize in doing so. Rather than waste your IT budget on the up-front costs of new hardware and software solutions, you can instead invest this money into services that are budget-friendly, monthly payments. You essentially turn your business?s capital expenses into operating expenses. For more information about managed services or White Mountain IT Services, you can give us a call at (603) 889-0800. Our technicians would be happy to help you determine which path to choose.

So, what can the cloud offer in terms of lessons for your internal IT operations? How the Cloud Differs from Traditional ITThe cloud specializes in taking traditional elements of IT and transforming them into software solutions. In other words, these solutions are stored in the cloud and deployed on a per user basis. Basically, taking advantage of the cloud and virtualization technologies allow for greater agility, which your internal network can attempt to replicate. Since the cloud is a service that?s easily outsourced, businesses can take full advantage of cloud solutions without worrying about the upkeep or management of them. Compared to your business?s in-house network, the cloud is a more efficient manner of data deployment. As reported by CyberTrend: The reason why the cloud was able to arrive on the scene and help companies outsource so much of their infrastructure is because it can often offer performance and other benefits that internal IT teams simply can?t match. Traditionally, IT teams have had to deal with a ?procurement process? where they have to ?go out there, attain the hardware, and get it configured,? which requires quite a few manual activities to actually get everything online and to move the necessary workloads. In short, cloud computing is vastly more effective for both the deployment of data and applications, and the maintenance of your organization?s software solutions. White Mountain IT Services can help your business achieve the same level of success with both your cloud-based infrastructure and your own in-house IT. By outsourcing the hosting of your cloud and network infrastructure needs to us, we can increase your business agility and allow for far greater flexibility and cost savings. For example, virtualizing your business?s desktops allows you to use thin clients, which cut down on electricity and capital expenses. Furthermore, it?s much easier to deploy updates and patches, as the desktops are deployed from the cloud. By hosting applications in the cloud, you also open up the ability to work from home for your staff, further saving on energy costs. For more information about how White Mountain IT Services can simplify your network infrastructure and effectively utilize cloud computing, give us a call at (603) 889-0800. Together, we can help your business?s profits shoot sky-high.

According to Forrester Research, there are three major goals that businesses want to achieve with the cloud. Keep in mind that these might not apply to all small or medium-sized businesses, and every organization has their own specific wants and need for their cloud computing solution. Decreased administrative burden: Businesses that need to take advantage of the cloud generally want to handle the least amount of management. This is especially true for small and medium-sized businesses that have a limited budget and even more limited time and resources. Businesses that don?t need to focus on the management of their cloud solution can instead devote that time to being productive with their cloud, increasing the return on their investment. Increased implementation speed: Businesses wanting to use cloud computing, want to implement it as quickly as possible. They don?t want to spend time planning out the structure or deployment; rather, they want a fully functional solution that?s already planned out and ready for deployment within a moment?s notice. Enhanced security, with minimal expense: Businesses still want the most security possible out of their cloud solution, but they want it at a reasonable price. The ideal cloud solution will have a quality amount of security, with the least amount of work and expense on the administrator?s part. What these guidelines tend to describe is a public cloud hosted by a service provider. The public cloud is designed to provide the most functionality with the minimal amount of work on the business?s part. This means that the management is often handled by a third party, rather than an in-house IT management team. In contrast to the public cloud, a private cloud is one that?s usually hosted in-house, which provides a business with more control than is normally possible with a public cloud. The private cloud allows for businesses to add external security features that minimize data leakage. Furthermore, the private cloud is generally designed specifically for your business, so you know that your business can maximize its return on investment over the long term. However, organizations can still take advantage of private clouds by working with a managed service provider, like White Mountain IT Services. We can host and manage your private cloud solution for you, allowing your business to reap all of the benefits of a private cloud, without sacrificing functionality. Better yet, we can equip your business with a hybrid cloud, which takes the best aspects of both the private cloud and public cloud, and combines them into one convenient package. For more information about how to approach and implement cloud solutions, give us a call at (603) 889-0800.

Personal devices are practically impossible to leave out of the office these days. So many business executives rely on their smartphones to communicate, it?s as if the device has become a fully integrated part of the organization. In truth, BYOD scares some organizations due to the uncontrollable nature of unregulated mobile devices. What they don?t know is that there?s always going to be risk present when making changes to the way you do business, especially if you?re adding more devices to your network. While BYOD does indeed present a risk, there?s a reason why BYOD has grown to be so popular. Nowadays, BYOD is a common occurrence in the office. Once people got over their initial paranoia surrounding BYOD, they realized that the trend could be used much to their benefit. For example, end-users are more satisfied when using their own devices in the workplace. More often than not, they would rather use technology they?re familiar with, rather than a workstation that?s frustrating to maneuver around. Furthermore, businesses that have BYOD policies just seem to get more done. When employees have access to their work accounts and tools, they?re more likely to work from home and when traveling, which means there?s a possibility for more work to get done. This helps make progress on important initiatives that might not be possible with their current schedule. One of the often-forgotten benefits of BYOD is that it takes a big load off of your internal IT department. Since your end-users are supplying their own technology for the workplace, this saves on the costs of purchasing and setting up new hardware solutions for every employee you have. If you?re concerned about software being unavailable for your team, think again; the cloud and virtualization services allow for remote access to critical business systems and data, making BYOD an even sweeter proposition. Of course, this is also a double-edged sword. Since you?re relying on your team to apply critical updates to their own technology, you run the risk of them not applying them. While it?s certainly more likely that they?ll be performing maintenance and other updates, since they actually own the devices, it?s not a given. This also means that even if some of IT?s responsibilities are put in the hands of workers, there are still roles that IT must play in order to ensure that BYOD is still a secure and effective alternative to company-provided tech. One component of a comprehensive BYOD policy is using a mobile device management solution. This entails minimizing risk associated with allowing mobile devices to have access to sensitive information. Our mobile device management solution is ideal for organizations that need application management, file sharing, and data security for mobile devices. If your business needs help organizing a solid BYOD plan, a mobile device management solution from White Mountain IT Services is a good first step. To learn more, give us a call at (603) 889-0800.