1.866.400.4802

Our Blog


Patch Management and the SMB

Posted on August 12, 2012 by Rick Bonito

As mentioned in 4 Basic Security Steps For SMBs, “Security tends to be an area that small and midsize businesses know they need to address but nonetheless leave unattended”.  One of those areas frequently put on the back burner is patch management.  Patch management is the implementation of software updates or security patches that are developed to address security vulnerabilities or flaws and often enable additional functionality or enhance it.  Your business information systems which typically require software patches include operating systems, servers, routers, desktops, email clients, office suites, mobile devices, firewalls, and a vast array of other components in the network infrastructure. Given how much your infrastructure includes, managing all the updates on a consistent basis can be a daunting task.

Larger enterprises employ automated patch management systems to reduce manpower requirements and other companies choose to outsource to a qualified company that performs this service from a remote location.  The SMB can either place this task with the existing IT department to manually implement or it can act like a larger enterprise and utilize a Managed Services Provider (MSP) to implement both an automated service and a remote service.  The advantage of utilizing an MSP for this task would be not only the utilization of staff that are skilled in the deployment of patches across similar infrastructures, but also the fact that monitoring the network and infrastructure typically is included as part of the MSPs monthly contracted services.

An MSP will use the following steps for Patch Management:

  1. Detect Vulnerabilities by scanning your infrastructure for missing security patches.
  2. Acquire the appropriate updates or patches for testing.
  3. Test the software updates or patches in an operational testing environment to ensure that the security fixes work correctly and will not compromise your system.
  4. Deploy the patches to computers and devices on the network.
  5. Review the deployment to ensure its success.
  6. Maintain by actively monitoring your information systems and staying abreast of reported vulnerabilities for your infrastructure.

If you review the steps above you will see how much work can be involved in patch management.  Now think about how often security vulnerabilities are reported/fixed and how often the steps above are repeated over a short period of time.

Not addressing your patch management on a consistent basis leaves your network open to hackers and can possibly lead to loss of data.  Can your SMB afford to lose data?

Posted in Business IT Services, Managed Services, Small Business IT | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and What the Small Business Needs to Know

Posted on August 5, 2012 by Rick Bonito

The Pros and Cons of Adopting BYOD in the Small Business Workplace

Bring Your Own Device is a growing trend among large-to-very large companies according to the Good Technology State of BYOD Report. It allows companies to shift the cost of mobile devices to the employee while increasing employee workplace satisfaction by allowing them to use devices they know and love.

With a BYOD program, the employee pays for all or most of the hardware expense, voice or data service, and other associated costs. While you may think this would cause an uproar among your employees, the Good Technology State of BYOD Report states that “50 percent of companies with BYOD models are requiring employees to cover all costs — and they are happy to do so; 45 percent provide their employees with a stipend or “expense back” option to help subsidize the cost of their mobile device or service plan.” The bottom line is that people tend to be more productive with devices they are more familiar with, purchased with their own hard earned money and are on the cutting edge of technology. They also tend to upgrade the hardware and software technology more frequently when put in control of choosing the device.

So, as a small business, why wouldn’t you do the same and take advantage of the financial and workplace satisfaction benefits larger organizations are seeing?

You can. You just need to learn from the policies and procedures they have in place to safeguard your network and data. When you embrace BYOD, you are embracing a loss of control over the IT hardware and how it is used.

First, you must adopt an acceptable use policy that outlines the rules of engagement and states what the expectations are for use and storage of company data on the personal device in and out of the workplace. You should also mandate company-sanctioned security tools to protect company data and network resources.

Second, you will also want to protect your company if the device becomes lost or stolen, or an employee leaves the company. You own your data and will need to put in place policies and procedures that don’t allow the employee and other parties to walk away with that data. For example, you could require employees to not store data on their devices or require a unique company password to access company data. When an employee leaves, your IT Department or person could wipe out all company data and network access on the employee owned device.

Third, you will want to outline whose responsibility it is to support the employee owned hardware and software. The simplest and least costly policy would be that the employee must be responsible for supporting their device and that the company will be responsible for secure network access.

As with any cost cutting endeavour, there are pros and cons to weigh in order to determine what will work for your small business. However, if you know all the issues you must address up front, switching to a BYOD policy in your organization can not only save you money, it can also increase morale and productivity in your workplace.

Posted in Business IT Services, Small Business IT | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

As a Business Owner – How Valuable Is Your Time?

Posted on July 29, 2012 by Rick Bonito

As a business owner, it is often very difficult to think of how much spending time fixing computer and network problems, planning IT hardware and software purchases, and dealing with possible compliance issues actually costs your business.  You know your time is valuable, but you also believe it is cheaper if you do it yourself or get the assistance of a knowledgeable friend or relative.  Even when you have the assistance of a friend or relative, you’re still spending time coordinating it and making sure your needs are met.  In the end, you are spending time on IT administrative tasks, rather than working on growing your business and revenue.

While you could, like some companies, employ an in-house IT team.  However, hiring one or more employees with this specialized skill set may be cost prohibitive.  There is another option that other companies use and find more cost effective – outsource IT support to a Managed Services Provider (MSP). The advantage is you have more time for initiatives, which support company growth and revenue. Here are some of the ways that you can outsource IT support to a qualified IT Managed Services Provider:

  • Network Setup and Administration: When you have less than 50 employees, you probably don’t have the staff resources to setup a network and oversee network administration on a regular basis or as in most cases unless something goes wrong. Contracting the services of a qualified network administration to oversee this important aspect of your business is much less than the cost of employing an IT staff around the clock.
  • Network Security: Network security is both a necessity and a challenge in today’s business environment. Outsourcing network security tasks to a quality IT Managed Services provider will guarantee your network is continually monitored for vulnerabilities and safe from the latest threats. Outsourcing your IT support to a Managed Services Provider also means that your network stays updated with the latest security patches, firewalls, and intrusion detection systems – keeping your critical data secure.
  • Desktop and End-User Support: Providing ongoing desktop and end-user support is a necessary part of maintaining your business. It can, however, be costly. Having an IT Managed Services Provider in place can lower your costs by ensuring your employees remain productive by proactively monitoring and managing your desktop environment.
  • Data Backup and Recovery: What would happen if you lost all your data tomorrow?  You would likely have a difficult time recovering it and could quite possibly go out of business. An IT Managed Services Provider typically offers data backup and recovery service that securely backs up critical data and provides immediate data access in the event disaster strikes. Data loss is not something you can afford if you want to stay in business.
  • Email Services: We all rely heavily on email for daily communications and quality customer service. 24/7 email productivity and protection is a must, but can be costly. IT Managed Service Providers that provide email services can help you manage, monitor, and protect your email systems at a lower cost than if you did an in-house deployment of the infrastructure.

While you may think that the DIY approach or hiring small staff to manage your IT is the most cost effective plan – hiring an IT Managed Services Provider is more cost effective and ensures that your data is secure and there tomorrow.  Contact us today to learn more about our IT managed services plans.

Posted in Managed Services, Small Business IT | Tagged | Leave a comment

Moving your CPA firm to the Cloud

Posted on July 22, 2012 by Rick Bonito

Not sure whether to make the leap and move your CPA firm to the cloud? What does it mean to move to the cloud?  It depends on who you talk to and what your needs are.  You can have IT services on a private cloud, public cloud or a hybrid cloud (the best of both worlds based on your needs). Your business needs determines which cloud is right for you.

For a private cloud, you pay a cloud service to create a private cloud network in your physical location.  The private cloud consists of the vendor’s hardware, software licenses, back-up solutions and IT support based on your business needs, which you pay a monthly fee to access and use.  The advantages are that your data is secure, your business doesn’t go down if the internet does, and you are not dependent on a service provider’s up time.

The public cloud means that the business applications and document storage are accessed via the internet and physically housed outside your business location.  Again, you are paying a monthly fee to access the applications and your files. The advantage is the applications and storage is typically cheaper than purchasing your own hardware and software licenses.  The maintenance and support is cheaper as well because those costs are built into the monthly fee.  Another advantage is you and your employee’s ability to use these applications is not restricted by physical location – just by their access to the internet.  This also extends your ability to share information and documents with your clients.

Finally, we are left with the hybrid cloud – the one we think is the best choice for CPA firms and small businesses alike.  The hybrid cloud provides you with the security you need for some of your data storage, and the ability to share data with your clients easily and securely, all while keeping your costs much lower.  You decide what applications and files need to stay behind the private cloud and what you want to be accessible to you, your employees and your clients via the internet.  The key to both of these scenarios is that you lower your costs by having the cloud service provider foot the bill for the hardware, software license, hardware and software upgrades or IT staff to maintain it all.

Moving your CPA firm to the cloud means lowering your costs, having the latest and greatest technology at your finger tips and allows you to share and communicate information in real time with your clients.  Above all, it’s scalable and can be easily customized to suit your business needs.  

It’s not a one size fits all proposition. Here are some articles that focus on the benefits of CPA firms moving to the cloud:

What are your thoughts?

Posted in Cloud Computing | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

“Internet Doomsday”, “Black Monday” and Managed IT Services – What do these mean to you?

Posted on July 15, 2012 by Rick Bonito

Have you heard about “Internet Doomsday” or “Black Monday” on your local news, the radio or read about it online? Were you aware of the DNSChanger malware that is responsible for the end of the internet?  If not, apparently you’re not alone.  Depending on what you read or heard, an estimated 300,000 computers have not had the malware removed and could lose their ability to access the internet if not removed properly.  It all started when the FBI took down the gand responsible for infecting hundreds of thousands of PCs with malware.  This malware directed infected systems to rogue DNS servers controlled by the criminals.  By controlling the DNS servers, the criminals could guide users to fraudulent servers masquerading as legitimate web sites web sites.  For example, they could direct someone to a false Bank of America Site and trick them into giving up their account and login information.

The FBI realized, if they just shut down the servers, they could cause a major Internet outage for all of the infected systems.  Instead, they decided to replace the rogue DNS servers with real ones so that users could continue to browse the Internet.  However, on July 9th, 2012, the FBI shut down the temporary DNS servers which lead to the media hype over the event. 

What does this mean for you?  Not knowing where to turn may have led you to needless worry about how July 9th was going to affect you.  You may have spent hours researching solutions running specially developed scans and repair tools on all your desktop computers and laptops. If you had Managed IT Services for your small/medium sized business or organization, you would have spent little or no time on this over-hyped issue. 

With an IT Managed Services plan, your computers and network are automatically scanned for issues like the DNSChanger and other potentially harmful issues.  If an issue is discovered, a team of IT specialists will proactively address the problem, often without causing an outage.  Also, if something does go awry with the systems,  your Managed Services provider  could execute your disaster recovery plan and restore your computer systems with minimal downtime.

Having a Managed IT Services plan in place not only provides piece of mind, it also saves you time and money when you need to address issues like the DNSChanger Malware and “Internet Doomsday”.

Posted in Business IT Services, Managed Services | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Will we ever see a truly paperless office?

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Rick Bonito

The promise of a paperless office has existed for years. Unfortunately, most offices must still use paper on a regular basis. Is the paperless office just a pipe dream that we will not attain?  In a nutshell, no. We are constantly moving toward paperless offices, but it’s just taking us a lot longer than we had expected.

The advantages of paper

There’s a reason why paper hasn’t yet disappeared from most offices: It is useful. Employees at even the greenest of offices—those workspaces most committed to lowering the amount of paper they consume—have uses for paper. Paper is portable. Employees can easily scrawl notes on it. They can fold it up and slip it into their wallets or shirt pockets. Many employees prefer proofreading essential documents in hard-copy form. There is something about proofreading a document on the computer screen that causes some employees to miss important errors or typos.

Less paper than ever

Paper has become less and less important.  A number of our past paper processes can now be performed on a computer. Team communication is handled via email. Even instant messaging has taken the place of paper notes to coworkers. Smartphones and tablets have taken over the need for a physical calendar/schedule system. If you take a glance back at how far business has come in the past decade, it’s pretty clear that paper, while not fully obsolete, is no longer king.

The future

It’s clear that down the road, offices will rely much less on paper. However, will offices ever truly become paperless? Will legal pads and Post-it Notes go the way of the milkman? Maybe. Just look at the milkman: There are still some homeowners who prefer to have their milk delivered to them, but the majority of consumers purchase their milk at their local supermarket.

Paper could end up the same way. While most office workers are relying more on computers, the cloud, and smartphones for their invoicing, writing, and spreadsheets, you can still find those workers preferring the old-fashioned feel of pen and paper.

Posted in General Interest | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Quick Tips to get more out of Your iPhone

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Rick Bonito

We all know what an iPhone is capable of doing. We are able to use this useful device to connect to the Web and see the latest movies and tv shows. We can use it to update our Facebook pages and send out tweets. We can play music, make phone calls, to get directions to the nearest Italian restaurant by using the iPhone. However, you may be amazed at what else your iPhone lets you do. Fortunately, there are plenty of smartphone experts out there willing to share their top iPhone tricks with you.

Saving Time

If you find it hard to type a Web address on the small on-screen keyboard, before clicking in the address bar on your browser, turn your iPhone to a horizontal position. The keyboard will now be larger, making it easier to type an “e” and not a “w”. This is a timesaving tip for making phone calls. When browsing the Web, if you come across a telephone number you need to call, simply tap the telephone number on the screen and your phone will dial it.

More Efficient Typing

This tip from Apple results in faster typing.  When using the on-screen keyboard tap the space bar twice at the end of a sentence. This will automatically add a period and capitalize the next word you are about to type. If you use a lot of special characters, you can get them by touching and holding a letter. You can then select the character you need and insert it into the message.

Quick Printing, Personalized Entertainment

This tip is for those of you that own an AirPrint-enabled printer. You can easily print documents, emails, and Web pages from your iPhone with this machine. To print a Web page simply touch the “Action” icon and choose “Print,” this will send the data to your printer. Printing an email is just as easy; tap “Reply” and select “Print.”

It’s simple, too, to build your own personalized music playlist. From the iPod app, hit the “Playlists” icon and then tap the “Add Playlist” icon. Give this new list a name, and tap any video or song on your iPhone to add it to his new playlist.

Posted in General Interest | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Mystery of Touchscreen Technology

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Rick Bonito

Touchscreens have become an integral part of our everyday life. When we interact with a product that has a touchscreen, we expect it to complete the action we want without a second thought. It wasn’t too far in the past that the notion of a touchscreen was a dream. Yet, today we see it as a standard feature in many devices.

How, precisely, does touchscreen technology work? How do so many of our screens know what to do when we touch the icons shown on them? The answer isn’t that simple. That is because there are several different types of touchscreen technologies, and each of them works in a different way.

Resistive touchscreens

This is the most common and the most affordable type of touchscreen technology today. With resistive technology, screens are coated with an electrically conductive layer. Your fingertip causes the electrical current to alter when you touch the screen. The device’s controller receives the data and preforms the action you requested.

Surface wave touchscreen

This form of touchscreen utilizes ultrasonic waves that pass across the screen. Whenever your finger touches the screen, you absorb part of the wave. This information is sent to the device’s controller and an action is preformed. Simple right?

Capacitive touchscreens

Devices that rely on capacitive touchscreens tend to have the sharpest image quality. Capacitive touchscreens are coated with a material that sends a continuous electrical current across the sensor. The good news is, the human body is also a form of electrical device. Which means that when you touch the screen you absorb some of the current. The device registers this disturbance, causing it to send information to its controller. The device will then perform the action which you requested.

It’s a good thing we don’t have to grasp the touchscreen technology to enjoy it. But it is nice to have a grasp, if only slightly, on how a technology works that we use everyday, particularly as we know that touchscreen technology isn’t going away any time soon.

Posted in General Interest | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Demise of Paper Currency

Posted on December 16, 2011 by Rick Bonito

These days it seems like everything is going digital. Will currency follow suit? It may seem far-fetched to imagine that currency could go completely digital. However, people already depend greatly on credit cards and online auto-payments to pay their bills. Gas stations, parking meters, and even vending machines take plastic now and many people don’t carry cash any longer. So we may not be that far away from ditching paper money after all.

The Bitcoin revolution?

Did you realize there is an increasingly popular digital currency already in “circulation?” Bitcoin, first seen in 2009, is an “unhackable” peer-to-peer digital currency that’s recognized across the globe and can used to obtain goods and services.

Bitcoin is not truly a worldwide digital currency and is not legal tender, so most retailers will not take it. It’s possible that if someone were to develop a rivalling digital currency, Bitcoin could become valueless.

The digital currency model

There are many advantages to ditching paper money. You can’t lose it, you don’t have to worry about having exact change, and there is no need to replace damaged currency, which saves time, energy, and money.

Digital currency is also more secure. If you’re mugged and carrying a fair amount of cash, it is extremely unlikely you’ll ever get that money back. If your credit card is stolen, however, you can quickly call your credit card company, cancel the card and recover most if not all of any fraudulent charges to the account.

Holdouts

Not everyone is sold on the idea of digital currency. A lot of people still don’t use credit cards or even have a computer. They prefer to use paper money, as it feels more real to them. We will just have to see how the world changes and if the luddites out there will change their minds.

Posted in General Interest | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The 2011 Tokyo Motor Show

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Rick Bonito

This year’s Tokyo Motor Show exhibited some interesting, wild, and green concept cars. With efficiency in mind, companies unleashed these eco-friendly designs which are both innovative and rather unconventional. Here are just a few.

Volkswagen

Volkswagen unveiled their newest Beetle and it is ready to rock. Teaming up with Fender, this Beetle is equipped with a sound system that features a 400W 10-channel amplifier, a subwoofer, and two sets of tweeters, one set in the front and one in the back. This car is perfect for anyone who is ready to rock out!

Honda

This tiny electric car is called a “micro-commuter”. It’s only 98.4 inches long, 49.2 wide, and 56.3 tall and has a top speed of 37 mph. Like something from a video game, the driver sits in the middle of the front seat operating the automobile with two joysticks. It carries three people and even though it has a low max speed, its small size makes it ideal for navigating around a dense city.

Daihatsu

While this design from Daihatsu looks like a bus, it isn’t; it’s the FC Sho Case. FC standing for fuel cell. Daihatsu’s revolutionary design contains no rare earth metals, which makes it more economical to produce then other fuel cells. The LCD screen on the outside plays relaxing wave patterns, but when getting into the vehicle passengers must step over these to get in making it difficult for elderly people or individuals with injuries.

Toyota and Yamaha

We see increasingly more scooters on the streets these days as people search for easy and fuel-efficient ways to get around town. Toyota and Yamaha partnered up to take this a step further with an electric tricycle called the EC-Miu. It has Wi-Fi capabilities and can be recharged at charging stations used by other electric vehicles.

This year’s concepts at the Tokyo Motor Show were very green focused. Every year the designs revealed at the show seem to get more inventive. I can’t wait to see what they bring us next year.

Posted in General Interest | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment