As most people know, data backup is important, and when things go wrong you’ll be glad your business has it. The thing is, it’s not enough to have a copy of your data when you need to restore it, you’ll also need a recovery strategy. This is because getting your data back working for you is arguably as important as any other part of the process. Today, we’ll take a look at data recovery strategies that will get your business back on track after a disaster.

If there is one thing that you could take away from our blog it is that data backup is an integral part of any business continuity strategy. Unfortunately, there are so many different parts to it that it’s not surprising some data could slip through the cracks if not maintained properly. If you’re not actively taking measures to keep disasters from derailing your business’ progress, you stand to lose more than some data. Let’s take a look at some of the critical parts of a data backup and disaster recovery process and why it is essential to give them a test regularly. 

The realities of the past year have made some businesses look to adjust their operational strategies. Many businesses that are, look to technology deployments as a way to make these adjustments. If the deployments don’t go as planned, however, it can have a major impact on business operations.

Everyone knows that printing is costly. They come from nearly every direction: paper, ink, machines that seemingly always need some type of maintenance, the list of costs goes on and on. Some businesses, looking to get away from rising printing costs, and from paper files in general, are starting to do their best to eliminate printing and filing costs. Let’s take a brief look at how going paperless can save your organization money in the long run.

It's no secret that small businesses are facing one of the toughest periods in decades. The COVID-19 pandemic and many other issues have made them change the way they approach operations, sales, and other aspects of their businesses. Today, they need to explore more strategies that can support customers who also have had to adapt. Today, we’ll talk about a couple of the trends we expect to see in IT in 2021. 

Social media has turned out to be a culture-defining technology. The massive amounts of people that use the services each week, and the large amount of time people spend on these platforms, makes them important resources for the lion’s share of businesses. The fact that the average user spends around two hours and 24 minutes per day perusing their social media gives businesses opportunities that weren’t available to them only a few short years ago. Today, we thought we would give you a look at how different sizes of SMBs utilize this technology. 

Over the past year, entrepreneurs have focused on how to do business during the global COVID-19 pandemic. The public health crisis has been an opportunity for fraudsters and hackers, and the result has been an increase in losses (compared to the second-worst period on record) by over 50 percent. Let’s consider the situation, and how it is—unfortunately—getting worse.

Do you have any idea when the last time your copier was serviced? Do you know if the software your business depends on has been updated and patched? If you have no idea about the answers to these questions, you may be staring disaster in the face. This month we thought we’d discuss how you can ensure that your technology is managed and how you can keep your business from being jeopardized by a catastrophic operational problem. 

If there’s one trend that is going to continue having an impact on a business’ technology, it’s mobility. People are simply doing more while mobile, having the technology to shop, manage their finances, and yes, work productively. Let’s pause and consider how a small business could leverage this mobility to its benefit.

Many business owners understand the benefits that technology can have for a business, but just can’t bring themselves to commit to implementing that technology due to the cost, either in capital expenditures or in the shift in operations. The fear of not being able to successfully integrate certain technology will, over time, hold your business back. Today, we’ll describe why it’s essential to have a technology strategy, and how to stick to it. 

Situations happen all the time to businesses that can really put a lot of stress on their ability to sustain operations. These situations don’t often remediate themselves. Simply put, every business needs a business continuity plan; and one-in-five don’t have one. This month, we thought we would break down a successful plan into its components to try to give businesses that may not have a plan, the basics needed to establish one.

Professional services include some of the oldest professions in the world, and some of the newest. Regardless of what kind of professional services business you run, it is hard to continue to meet your customer’s needs without incorporating some technological changes. Furthermore, there are new innovations that can help your business thrive. Let’s examine some of this technology to see if it could benefit your business.

When the stay-at-home orders were reigning down early in March, people weren’t sure just how long precautionary measures would last. Now that a large percentage of the workforce is either out of work, just returning to work, or working from home after nearly 100 days, it has proven to be one of the most challenging periods for businesses in contemporary business history. Today, we’d like to flip the narrative a bit and talk about three technology solutions that can fix some of your business’ problems in a time when there are plenty to fix.

Businesses are now in the process of reopening. While there are sure to be growing pains and setbacks, this also provides an opportunity for these businesses to make many adjustments and improvements to how they operate. As you reignite your operations (or make the preparations to), it will help to do so with the support of modern technology and the processes it enables.

If you were to look at any company’s list of priorities, chances are that “productivity” could be found somewhere at the top of the list. Current circumstances being what they are and many processes shifting as a result, this productivity is likely more of a challenge than normal. As any bit of saved time can increase productivity, we’re dedicating this week’s tip to a minor change you can make to accomplish this goal.

If you consider it, it’s amazing how much trust people have in Internet-based companies. They not only believe that these companies will fulfill their expectations, but that they will work to provide protection for some of their most valuable and sensitive information. Let’s take a look at some of the data collection practices that companies use and what they do with that data. 

As technology has developed, the tools available for businesses to use have gained considerable benefits. One particularly paradigm-shifting advancement, the cloud, has allowed businesses access to better solutions than ever before, and with the bonus of making them easier to manage. Let’s go over a few such solutions that many businesses are now embracing.

For the past decade, cloud computing has grown fairly rapidly, but as a new decade, and a pesky virus has people (and businesses) leaning on hosted computing solutions more now than ever, it seems like a good time to review the types of cloud options that are available, and how they provide value to businesses just like yours.

The cloud cast by COVID-19 wouldn’t seem to have very much of a silver lining at all, but if one looks very closely, there is the faintest one there. As more and more people are subscribing to self isolation and similar practices, remote work has become a more pressing need. In response, many Internet service providers and mobile data carriers are taking action and putting changes in place that actually resemble net neutrality.

With technology becoming more and more important to the success of your business, it becomes crucial that your staff gets reliable technology that will effectively run the programs they need, while giving them the level of mobility their position demands. This month we thought we’d take a look at the myriad of computing options that the modern business has when it’s looking to buy computers for its staff.