If you run a business, chances are that you’ve thought about moving to an online productivity suite. The two most popular in recent years is Google’s G Suite and Microsoft’s Office 365. Touted as “innovative” and “the next big thing,” Microsoft’s productivity suite is a revolutionary concept when it comes to operating systems and computing. But why should you choose Microsoft over the other guys? Because: It’s cloud-based. Doing all your computing in the cloud means that you always have access to your files as long as you’re connected to the Internet. All of Office 365’s tools will work on any PC/Mac, tablet, or smartphone. With O365, you can use the online versions of the productivity suite, or install them to your device.  It’s secure. Whether you’re using the version of O365 installed on your machine, or the cloud version, you’ll get the best level of security and encryption. The same set of Rights Management Services applies to both. None of your files can be accessed without the proper user credentials that are set up and monitored by Microsoft Azure. This provides the best security and control over your Office 365 data. Data is backed up. Microsoft’s Office 365 offers its own form of checks and balances, 24/7 support that’s always on-call, and OneDrive to store all your files. But it’s always a good idea to have an extra layer of protection by using a Managed Services Provider (MSP) who can monitor your backups and add an extra layer of security if your data is compromised or lost. Office 365 offers major advantages over others. As with anything worth doing, there are pros and cons when moving your operations to the cloud. However, there are some major advantages when using the Microsoft Cloud: You can work anywhere. If you have an internet connection, you can use your data from anywhere and on any device. You can check emails, access files, and work on a project all from the same place – even if that place happens to be the other side of the world. Easy collaboration between coworkers. How many times have you had multiple people working together on the same project only to have one version go missing. With Office 365 you can avoid this. Collaborators can work on the same file and get changes in real time. You can also share files as links right from OneDrive, rather than as attachments. Access to the latest versions of programs. Imagine having access to the most current versions of Word, Excel, and Outlook without having to pay extra or reinstall programs. All the most recent versions of everything in the Microsoft Office Suite are available with an Office 365 subscription. Great security features. How secure the Cloud is for you depends on what security measures you have in place. With Office 365, there are quite a few built-in security features to keep your data safe. These include: Encrypted email. Only the intended recipient can read an email. Data loss prevention. O365 checks and ensures that sensitive data (like your social security number) doesn’t get sent out via email. Mobile device management. You can control Office 365 on your employees’ phones, and protect company information. Advanced threat analytics. O365 learns and protects company data, and alerts you of suspicious activity on the network. Alongside all the advantages of using Office 365, there are also a few cons: Subscription-based model. You must pay a monthly or annual subscription for your Office 365. If the Internet is down, your data is down. Because Office 365 is cloud-based, if the Internet goes out, you could be without access to your data. Plus, if you have a slow connection, working with a cloud-based system isn’t ideal. Most people don’t use all of its features. Most users don’t use everything that Office 365 has to offer. They only use email, file storage, and access to Office programs. This isn’t a terrible thing, but it means you’re paying for features that you aren’t using. Microsoft throws in some great extras. Office 365 comes with 1TB of storage space in Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage service, free web hosting and the tools to use it, and a full 60 minutes of Skype each month for making landline calls. Microsoft Office 365 is a very good example of not only what a cloud service can be, but what more businesses are turning to for their cloud needs. Cloud computing is becoming a big part of more companies’ tech strategy, and Office 365 is an excellent way to jump into the cloud. Our IT experts can walk you through your Office 365 set up. Give {company} a call at {phone}, or email us at {email}, and we’ll make sure you get the full benefit of this great service.   

Best Practices for Testing Data and Application Backups.     Data protection is essential for all businesses today. The most important reason is to prevent monetary loss. If you lose your information it can lead to reduced productivity, lost sales, a harmed reputation, fines, or even financial judgments. Another reason is the increase in regulations. Governments throughout the world are imposing new regulations on electronic communications and stored data. You can face dire consequences for noncompliance. Loss of critical data can be construed as a violation of these regulations and may result in fines and legal action. Data Protection Requires Business Continuity and Reliable Backups. A proactive and well-thought-out business continuity plan is something that all system and data administrators must embrace. A layered and proactive data protection strategy can mean the difference between disaster and recovery. When it comes to creating a strategic business continuity plan, data and application backups are one of the most important elements. The reasons for implementing reliable backup solutions are endless – software bugs, failed hardware and user error are just some of the ways your data can be unintentionally altered or deleted. There’s also the persistent risk of malicious activity and attempts to destroy, steal or encrypt business data by cybercriminals or disgruntled former employees. Data Protection Insurance: Don’t Just Backup, Test! If you don’t test your backups regularly to ensure their working, you’re only doing half the job. Don’t wait until there’s an actual disaster.  If you do, you may find that your backups weren’t reliable and your essential data is lost. That’s why regular testing of backups for your software, hardware and everything in between is absolutely critical. When a data disaster hits, it can be overwhelming and stressful. Worrying about whether or not backups are going to work should be the last thing to worry about in a crisis situation. Backups are designed to offer peace of mind, and – if implemented correctly and tested regularly – they can make all the difference in a data crisis. Server vs. Virtualization: The Evolution of Backup Testing The key to testing backups is to run drills to determine if your data was successfully restored. For a long time, this process was limited, tedious and time-consuming. When using physical servers for different applications, data restoration had to include a lot of additional hardware. Plus, the environment could only be restored in a very limited way, meaning a full restore of an entire business network rarely occurred. However, with today’s virtualization, the testing and restore process is now much easier to deploy. Virtualization allows for company data and applications to be organized in a more streamlined way. When using a centralized, virtual machine (VM), recovery from a backup is easier and more reliable. Why Test Your Backups? To validate that the restore processes you put in place actually work – Peace of mind is priceless. To create a benchmark to ensure the recovery process can be completed as intended – This also allows you to develop recovery time objectives (RTO) for future reference. Regular testing processes and results can be shared with business teams to confirm application recovery targets can be met, or resolved if there are imperfections. Testing Backups: What Programs and Hardware Should You Test? Now that you understand the importance of testing business backups, let’s dive into the specifics. When it comes to testing backups, there are a variety of different levels of recovery to consider. Let’s explore the key areas where your business should be testing backup and recovery processes: File Recovery This is likely the most common concern for business owners – “Will I be able to recover individual files from my backup?” The reality is, file backup processes are easy to deploy on both physical and virtual servers in addition to backups of file servers. It really just comes down to recovering data by file type. There are plenty of tools to automate this process, which we’ll explore in more detail later on. VM Recovery For businesses that rely on virtual machines (VM), implementing and testing backups is critical. This is obviously specific to virtual environments as opposed to physical ones. Recovering a virtual machine is relatively easy because everything is centralized. However, you must consider where the VM will be used for recovery. Attempting to recover the VM in the same production environment creates technical issues like network IP and SID conflicts in Windows systems. The best strategy is to restart the VM in an isolated environment using the subnet on the hypervisor. It’s also important to keep in mind that recovering VMs with new IDs can impact applications and licensing – It’s always best to be proactive and consult with your software providers for terms and conditions. Physical Recovery  As noted, physical server recovery is more complex, and testing will vary based on the how different platforms are configured. In addition, recovering applications to the running hardware requires an outage – Because of this, businesses carry out these tests less frequently. If you’re on a physical setup, it’s critical to schedule the time for testing to ensure hardware can be recovered effectively in the case of a disaster. Data Recovery Depending on the backup tools you deploy, specific data recovery should be tested for efficiency as well. For example, if you have data backed up at the application level (rather than the entire VM), that data should be restored and accessed in an isolated environment. Application Recovery Software applications are the core of a company’s digital operations. However, testing application backups can be challenging – especially for larger businesses. Application backup testing requires an understanding of the relationships between individual VMs and physical servers. However, it can be done, and as with some of the previous recovery types we’ve mentioned, it’s best conducted in an isolated environment and on a separate network. It’s no secret that the more extensive the testing, the higher level of risk – However, backup testing can be an amazing tool for

We like tech, it’s what we do. As the holiday shopping season kicks into overdrive, we are bringing you 12 of the most requested, most wanted tech gifts for 2017. Check back each business day between now and December 19th for another must-have tech item and why you should check it out. In 2015 Sphero released their app-connected robot, BB-8, to tie-in with Star Wars The Force Awakens. Now, with this year’s release of The Last Jedi, Sphero has done it again with two new droids, R2-D2 and BB-9E. R2, of course, moves on treads and can move sideways if wanted or he can bring out his third leg and use it to lean back and navigate tougher terrain like carpeting. R2’s head turns, and he has plenty of lights and sounds from built-in speakers, something BB-8 didn’t have. You can draw a path with your finger on the app and R2 will follow it. There’s also a button to have R2 “flip out” so to speak, where he shakes and makes noise before falling over. Like its droid brothers, the BB-9E droid uses the same app as the other two and can be controlled via app or voice commands. The three droids are in scale with each other and 12-inch action figures. Sphero is planning to add new ways for the droids to interact with each other and their surroundings. Right now, you can have them watch Rogue One or The Force Awakens, and the droids will react at certain points thanks to scripted points in the movies and the app listens for these cues to cause the droids reactions. If you’ve got a Star Wars fan on your list this Christmas, no doubt they’ve already got these little guys on their list. At just $180 for R2-D2 and $150 for BB-9E, they are affordable enough to get both…assuming you can find one. As is the case with most items on our list of Top 12 Tech Gifts, these droids are in short supply but revered by Star Wars fans all over. Happy Holidays and good luck on the tech hunt from all of us here at {company}.

We like tech, it’s what we do. As the holiday shopping season kicks into overdrive, we are bringing you 12 of the most requested, most wanted tech gifts for 2017. Check back each business day between now and December 19th for another must-have tech item and why you should check it out. If you’re anything like most Americans, you want the latest and greatest tech but can’t always afford it. TV’s for instance. You want to experience this new 4K technology that everyone is talking about but there is no way you can afford $3,000 for a TV. Never fear, there is an alternative. The TCL S405 49” 4K HDR TV proves you don’t need to break the bank to experience 4K. Offering similar picture quality and brightness to the Samsung Q7F, the TCL offers fewer levels of lag than the pricier Samsung and comes with Roku TV! You can play Gears of War 4 in 4K or stream Netflix in stunning 4K resolution. All this will run you $360 for the 49” model, and upwards of $800 for the 65”. It doesn’t sport a hub for your HDMI like the Samsung Q7F, but it does have three HDMI ports and a single USB on the rear side. Still, I’d gladly sacrifice a port or two if it meant saving thousands of dollars. Not only does it save you money, but now you have enough to get that new iPhone, right? Happy Holidays and good luck on the tech hunt from all of us here at {company}!

We like tech, it’s what we do. As the holiday shopping season kicks into overdrive, we are bringing you 12 of the most requested, most wanted tech gifts for 2017. Check back each business day between now and December 19th for another must-have tech item and why you should check it out. If the new iPhone seems a bit pricey for you, don’t worry. The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ offer similar technology but with a cheaper price tag. Much like its competition, the S8 offers a 5.8-inch display, but unlike that other phone, it curves around the edges of the phone producing the first true infinity screen on a smartphone. The phone does 4K video, has a 12MP rear camera (8MP on the front), uses facial recognition to unlock, is water and dust resistant, and charges wirelessly. All features that the iPhone X sports. But unlike the iPhone, the S8 can expand its memory from 64GB to 256GB via memory cards, allows multiple windows so that you can multitask (text while watching a movie?), and contains a headphone jack. Also, you aren’t restricted to one method of unlocking. There is also a fingerprint scanner and the use of a PIN. The biggest difference here is that the S8 comes in a bigger model, the Galaxy S8+ which has a 6.2-inch screen for only a few dollars more. Both versions make use of Samsung’s new Bixby AI, their answer to Siri that learns from you and can do things like translate languages and point out landmarks when taking photos. The Samsung Galaxy S8 will run you $750 for 64GB (upgradeable to 256GB via the memory card) while the S8+ runs $840. Both versions come in Arctic Silver, Orchid Gray, and Midnight Black. Happy Holidays and good luck on the tech hunt from all of us here at {company}!