Technology Unwrapped

A firewall is an essential part of any business IT system. This physical piece of hardware secures your access to the internet, helping prevent unauthorized and malicious users from accessing your system and files. In the past, businesses worried about external actors gaining access to their systems. Today, it is just as important for businesses to make sure that the people within their organization are using the internet securely.

Managed service providers (MSPs) can provide a lot of value for companies that need outsourced IT support. A managed IT services contract details the ongoing services the MSP will provide to the company. And, while these service contracts offer a range of benefits for organizations, not every business is getting the full value from their contract. Below, we’ll detail how you can get the most value from your MSP contract, as well as discuss signs that your MSP is helping you get your money’s ...

A network outage causes downtime that can significantly impact your company’s bottom line. Not only do performance issues impact business productivity, but if they are tied to security issues, there may be more at stake — like your company’s data and reputation. That’s why network monitoring is a necessity for any small to midsize business. With a network monitoring solution in place, your business can stay ahead of performance or security issues and fix them before they become a bigger ...

A cloud-based (hosted) business phone system can provide a number of benefits compared to traditional on-premise solutions. Not only does a cloud-hosted phone system offer numerous useful features, but it also comes with significant cost savings. While saving money might be what sparked your initial interest in this type of phone system for your business, let’s talk about what you get for the money you do put into your cloud-hosted system.

Most business owners and managers understand the important role that secure passwords play in protecting business data and accounts from being compromised. When you consider that business technology users maintain an average of 191 passwords, it only makes sense that not every organization wants to take on the considerable feat of ensuring their staff create unique and complex passwords for every application and account they have access to. Nevermind regularly updating all those passwords every ...

The workforce is changing, and so is the way we do business. While some organizations still run traditionally, with employees in the office from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., other businesses are providing more flexible work environments that allow them to accommodate both their customers and their employees. With these changes comes a need to update legacy technology systems that were only built to support the conventional way of doing business.

Is your business experiencing growing pains? Growth within small to midsize businesses can rapidly change the way it operates. And this can start to put a lot of pressure on your internal IT team — whether that’s one person or a small group of staff helping out. It may be time to evaluate your technology needs and choose a path that will grow with your business on into the future. So, how do you know if your company is ready for this next step? Here are 10 signs it’s time to hire an IT managed ...

Are you paying too much for IT support? The answer may surprise you. The average cost of IT support for small businesses depends on the size and unique technology needs of the company. Though there is no magic number that each business should pay for tech support, average IT support costs and opportunity costs of not hiring professional help can give you a rough idea of how much you should be paying for support.

If you’ve read about cloud computing for your business, you’re well aware of the strategic benefits it offers, from improving data security and disaster recovery to scaling resources for your business when they are needed. But as you dig deeper, you’ll come across mentions of the terms “public cloud,” “private cloud,” and “hybrid cloud” — it’s important to know the difference before you settle on an option for your organization. Here’s what you need to know about the difference between public ...