As a business owner, you’ve probably heard plenty about how the cloud can improve operations and make your life easier. While it’s certainly capable of doing both, it’s important to understand what, exactly, the cloud is. How do you select the proper solution for your organization’s specific needs?
Security is a critical part of running your business, especially in a world where organizations require technology for most any task. In fact, some of the most dangerous threats are known to hide within a company’s network, waiting for any opportunity to strike. With the right preventative measures, you can keep your network safe from catching threats before they hit your network in the first place.
Just as anything else will, a computing device will need some TLC to keep it physically clean and in tip-top shape. In order to clean your system safely, you will need proper tools, and the know how to properly clean your PC.
It seems like everything available today can function with a USB connection, be it a thumb drive, device charger, or a desktop device--there are even USB-powered mini fridges meant for a single soda can. Unfortunately, “everything” includes malicious devices and malware.
Technology continues to grow more advanced, and with it comes major pain points that need to be resolved. Today’s modern businesses will need to adapt by implementing new solutions for both themselves and their customers or clients. In this fashion, eBay has begun to implement an assortment of new features to assist with the customer experience.
With the use of portable personal music players and streaming services like Spotify, Google Play Music, and Pandora, unobtrusively listening to music in the workplace has become much easier--but has it also made it easier for employees to be more distracted from their tasks? Additionally, assuming that music does create a boost in productivity, why does it do so?
Is your organization still relying on antiquated tape backup to keep your data safe? A more reliable, less time-consuming alternative known as image-based, or “snapshot” backup, could change the way that you look at disaster recovery. In fact, image-based backup has the potential to optimize your business’s data continuity.
You’re already a business owner, but let’s say that you want to pick up some new skills. You want to be known as an expert in a new field, and you’re pretty dedicated to doing so. Perhaps you’re familiar with the 10,000 hours rule, which attempts to explain how someone becomes a master of a particular craft. Well, we hate to burst your bubble, but this rule might not be as simple as it sounds.
A mouse can be very handy when it comes to navigating around the documents you have to work on, but it can also slow you down. Fortunately, key command shortcuts exist for situations just like these, and as Windows 10 has continued to improve, more shortcuts have been included to accomplish more tasks with improved efficiency.
Compared to traditional telephone solutions, software-based phone systems have become a major opportunity for businesses to cut costs and improve efficiency. Even if traditional phone systems have their uses, VoIP still wins out by eliminating unnecessary costs and simplifying your business’s physical infrastructure. You might find that VoIP has a place in your office, too.
As the U.S. election rapidly approaches, many citizens are strongly concerned with who they’ll vote for. Unfortunately, not enough of these same citizens are nearly as concerned with what they’ll vote on, as the electronic voting machines utilized in many polling places are notoriously insecure to breaches.
Flexibility is an important part of the modern work environment, especially as technology has made it much easier to work anytime, anywhere. Employees understand that this flexibility exists in many industries, and they want to reap the benefits of a flexible work environment. However, it’s not that easy; there are quite a few pitfalls that can easily take a stab at your business’s productivity.
Halloween is a time when creatures like ghosts and goblins are celebrated rather than feared. Even adults use the holiday to lighten up and enjoy themselves, as they’re well aware that the monsters so often seen and heard about in stories are fictional. Unfortunately, the fact remains that there are monsters hiding in plain sight all around us, playing on the fears and misfortune of others--namely, hackers.
It’s not an understatement to suggest that hackers are a hindrance to business. They take what doesn’t belong to them, and worse than that, they use that stolen information to make off with money, misrepresent individual actions, and ultimately, just cause a degree of added entropy that any business simply doesn’t need. Recently, with the hacker group Anonymous consistently in the news and dozens of corporate hacks resulting in millions of people’s personal information being compromised, hackers have been an increased part of the public consciousness.
For the busy business owner, audiobooks are a godsend. They’re the perfect way to intake information while performing a must-do task that doesn’t require you to think, like commuting or folding laundry. But what’s an audiobook aficionado to do if they’ve got a book or document that they want to listen to that hasn’t been made into an audiobook?
Even if you already have Microsoft Office, did you know that there are multiple ways to use Office which could potentially save you money? It’s the difference between using the traditional Office apps, versus the subscription-based model provided by Office 365.
When a business undergoes a hardware refresh, it often comes saddled with unexpected costs and downtime. This is sometimes caused by hardware failure, or from unplanned-for data migration. With the advent of virtualized servers, businesses now have a better way to recover from the woes of server refreshes. Rather than purchase new hardware, it’s more economically viable to go with a virtual server that’s hosted in the cloud.
You wouldn’t think that sitting at a desk all day could have many detrimental effects to the body, but the opposite is actually true: remaining stationary throughout the day, especially in a slouching position, can cause considerable stress and discomfort. This discomfort, in addition to decreasing morale, can be a distraction that cuts into the productivity of workers throughout the day.
Disasters are commonplace in the business environment, especially when you work in a technology-heavy office. It’s not a question of if you’ll ever experience a hardware failure; it’s a question of when you will. Regardless of how your business functions or what sector you fall into, there will always be disasters that you should be prepared for.
Has your business moved to the cloud yet? If not, you’ve got some work to do--it’s only a matter of time before the need for the cloud completely overshadows your organization. Thankfully, it’s only challenging to move to the cloud if you don’t have a group of professional IT technicians helping you.
