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Whether you view insurance as a scourge on society, a mere annoyance, or even an actually valuable service, cyber insurance as a concept is relatively new even by insurance standards. Cyber insurance was first offered by Lloyds of London back in 2000 (possibly inspired by the Y2K bug) and became more widely available by the mid-2000s.

The cybersecurity threats of phishing attacks, email impersonation, and ransomware are not new challenges faced by organizations in the Canadian marketplace.

According to Statistics Canada, there are over 44,000 tech companies in Canada... but not all of them handle business IT. Managed IT Services provide support for a company’s business IT and technical infrastructure.

Developing a movement mindset should be a top priority for organizations of every size and structure. Adding more frequent light-intensity physical activity during the workday— such as intermittent standing—is beneficially associated with physical and mental health, which can address pressing issues such as absenteeism, presenteeism, rising healthcare costs and even employee satisfaction. Movement doesn’t have to take individuals away from their workstations. Organizations can incorporate movement with sit-stand workstations to enhance productivity and to help employees thrive.

In the fall of 2020, the world of work as we knew it was turned upside down by a global pandemic. The effect of COVID-19 was to rush companies into teleworking, otherwise known as telework. Zoom meetings, pyjama days, the intrusion of the workplace into our family environment: the transition of work from the office to the home had left many shaken.

As you already know, most companies use the Microsoft Office suite, which includes Word, Excel and Outlook. For the past few years, this suite of tools has been offered to us in the cloud and allows us to work collaboratively, no matter where we are or what device we are working on.

Business owners have been hearing about the substantial increase in cybercrime in recent years with many attacks successfully breaching major infrastructure systems and gaining mainstream media exposure. While some cybercriminals prefer to target larger organizations, many of those organizations have responded by investing heavily into cybersecurity solutions to fortify their defenses to such a level that they become less appealing targets.

With the increasing sophistication and scale of ransomware attacks, hiding your head in the sand and hoping not to be among the victims is, without doubt, a doomed strategy.

AI (artificial intelligence) is starting to play a key role in cybersecurity defence systems for small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs). Most businesses are becoming aware of how prevalent phishing attempts, identity theft and ransomware attacks have become in recent years and one of the ways to help businesses put a stop to it, is by sharing the technology industry’s response to more sophisticated attacks.

Microsoft 365 is a Cloud product line that a significant number of businesses worldwide leverage daily, such as email and voice communication, inter-company documents, sales, reporting, and many other types of company data.

Managed Print Services (MPS) are services offered by an outside provider that addresses all the parts of your business’s print-related functions, including printers, copiers, scanners and fax machines. 

« Hackers Don’t Break In, They Log In. » Day after day, adversaries connect to their victims’ services and applications using means such as:

• Stealing user credentials through phishing campaigns.
• Trying passwords from leaked datasets, in case a user has reused the same password on other services.
• Attempting to log in to multiple user accounts using one of the passwords on the most used password lists (password spraying).

In the early days of computing, artificial intelligence was little more than a dream. Scientists and researchers could only imagine a future in which machines could think for themselves and perform complex tasks with ease. But over the past few decades, AI has evolved into something far greater than anyone could have imagined. Today, it plays a crucial role in businesses around the world, and Canada is no exception. In this article, we will explore the evolution of AI and discuss its potential impact on Canadian businesses.

Can choosing a different way to print in your office be healthier, reduce your environmental footprint and cost you less?

Knowing where your business stores sensitive data is a must for any organization that’s serious about its cybersecurity. Unfortunately, more often than not, that’s just not the case. Alas, what most organizations seem to share is that they don’t actually know where the files are or what’s on them. Storage libraries are set up and share permission handed out for access, but from then on no one pays it any attention.

There has been a lot of hype about Cloud computing transforming the way small-to-medium-sized businesses do business. Proponents of the Cloud say that Cloud computing has levelled the playing field, allowing SMBs to finally compete with bigger companies despite their limited financial resources and staffing.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed life as we knew it, in many ways, forever. While its impact on our day-to-day lives has been huge, the impact has been even more severe from a business perspective. The social distancing norms, staggered operating hours so as to limit crowds, the masks, shields, barriers, and whatnot! From the business continuity perspective, companies had to adapt themselves to the new normal fairly quickly. 

Here are 6 benefits of Cloud computing you need to understand AND that you can take action on, right now!

Undoubtably you’ve heard of Multi-factor Authentication (MFA), or one of the other names, such as Two-factor Authentication (2FA), Two-step Authentication (2SV), among others. Although these are all technically different in some ways, they all are based on the thought that there are three categories of computerized security:

• Type 1 — Something you know: Your passwords, PINs, code words, etc.;
• Type 2 — Something you have: Smartphones, USB drives, keys, token devices, etc.;
• Type 3 — Something you are: Parts of the body that can be scanned, such as fingerprints, facial recognition, voice verification, etc.

Hardware, software, cables, signals and power are critical IT elements that when done well provide a robust and redundant technical infrastructure from which to operate a business. However, more and more we find organizations that have a solid IT foundation but are struggling with Security, Privacy and Business Productivity challenges related to their IT operations. This should not come as a surprise as our view on IT within small and medium sized business is greatly swayed towards the technology itself. This tunnel vision approach, where technology is the solution, leaves many critical aspects of what the business truly needs untouched. 

You have certainly heard about the recent security breaches that affected large Quebec companies such as Desjardins or Promutuel. These companies lost an astronomical amount of money while seeing their operations paralyzed. Small and medium-sized businesses are also affected by various computer attacks, but the media obviously do not talk about it.

You saw the headline, and you’re thinking to yourself, just three things? Is this some joke? No, how you choose to do those three things will define how effective your cybersecurity is.

For decades, the large metropolitan centres of Canada such as Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, Calgary, and many more have been hailed as the epicentre of Business in our country, with an average population of 2.85 million (2021) it’s been difficult to ignore the opportunities available in these growing cities. But over the past year and a half, the shift to a hybrid “work from home” office has disbursed this growth and population to neighbouring urban areas. 

Many small businesses believe their risks are reduced for a cyber attack because they are smaller or don’t have data attractive to hackers. 

Certain events cause upheaval in many aspects of our lives. The pandemic has been one of these events. Many now talk about "the new normal", it’s clear many realities of our daily lives have been altered forever. In business, upheaval is an opportunity to reinvent yourself. So we decided to take a look at the technological changes this pandemic is causing across the Canadian landscape.

Did you know that 66% of small businesses have no tested business continuity and disaster recovery in place. Stop losing customers due to downtime and stop letting downtime destroy your brand reputation.

In September 2020, The Government of Canada released a bulletin titled “Modern Ransomware and Its Evolution” alerting SMB’s across the nation of a drastic increase in external attempts to extort and withhold critical data / infrastructure from a diverse set of local industries. The ten-page document highlights the evolution of ransomware and the threat it poses on the business community.

For several years, cloud technology has been one of the most talked about subjects in business technology circles. By now, most small-to-medium sized business (SMB) owners have heard that cloud computing is transforming the way their peers do business, and they’ve been inundated with talk of how the cloud enables small businesses to cut IT costs and operate more efficiently.

The purpose of this article is to bring you up to date with an alternative solution when it comes to improving or replacing your servers.

With Microsoft 365, businesses of all sizes can leverage an extremely powerful communications, file sharing and business productivity platform. So, why do so many Microsoft 365 deployments fall short of their full potential?

At some point in your workday, you’ll come across unused computer screens that are in screensaver mode; this could happen when you are going into a conference room or when you are returning to your desk, for example. These idle screens are dynamic communication channels that can be used to send important messages to your employees, whether they are in the office or at home.

With people working from home, there is speculation as to where the modern business is headed in terms of remote, on-premise and hybrid staff. 

What to expect from a modern phone system? Connectivity! That is right. A modern phone system allows you to stay connected wherever you are.

Cyberattacks regularly make the news. Every day, businesses, regardless of their size, fall victim to hackers. No one is safe. According to the U.S. National Cyber Security Alliance, 60% of small businesses who are targeted by a cyberattack file for bankruptcy within the next six months.

Do you offer appropriate support and training to your staff enabling them to use the corporate tools provided adequately and efficiently?

Many employers have implemented teleworking since last March, a new reality that comes with its share of justifiable cybersecurity concerns. Does your company allow employees to work from home? Below, you’ll find an overview of the issues to consider while implementing best practices around operational security.

There’s a good chance you’ve heard about the massive security breaches affecting large companies such as Garmin, Equifax, Desjardin, and Lifelabs. Damage from these breaches will impact their businesses for years to come in a multitude of ways.

Did you just migrate to Microsoft 365? Whether you are a business owner, HR manager or in charge of IT, managing this kind of project can be a real puzzle. Indeed, when a business changes platform or undergoes a major update, the team and efficiency are often impacted by a longer adaptation period than initially planned. Productivity is strongly affected, and wasted time is common.

So, you are at that stage of your business where you have finally decided and accepted that you need the services of a MSP. Makes sense, considering that bringing a MSP on board can help save you time, resources and money. Plus, having a MSP manage your IT requirements lets you focus on your business and its growth, without worrying about rising IT costs. Having a MSP brings a lot of flexibility and scalability to the table for you. 

The cloud is getting more and more traction. Microsoft is no exception. Several businesses are opting for Microsoft 365 as their cloud. This solution provides email services, file servers, collaboration tools, videoconferencing and so much more.

How many times have you read or heard the phrase, ’the world will never be the same’ this week? For me it has been a dozen times at least, and the thing that keeps bothering me about this idea, to parrot Neil deGrasse Tyson, is that the world is never the same from moment to moment it has always been in flux. 

You’ve probably already have several lines of defence protecting your IT system. But, there is one area that is often forgotten and is frequently used by malicious intruders.

Earlier this year, the Millenium Micro National team received an emergency call from a larger Canadian organization that was the victim of a cyberattack. Through our immediate engagement, we were able to successfully help the client through their crisis allowing them to resume normal business activities.  

Are you one of those for whom blockchain technology is still rather abstract? If so, I strongly recommend this article since blockchain is one of the technologies to watch for in the coming years. In fact, it could even revolutionize several industries, including banking and insurance.

WiFi is ubiquitous, accessible and part of your everyday life. We all talked about how insecure WEP was years ago with the change to WPA2. What did that mean to you, not much really, but it reduces the chances of someone intercepting your WiFi.

Small-to-medium sized businesses and large enterprises may seem worlds apart, but they face many of the same cyber-security threats. In fact, in recent years, cyber-criminals have increasingly targeted SMBs. This is because it’s widely known that SMBs have a smaller budget, and less in-house expertise, to devote to protection.

Your business’s performance is undoubtedly one of your priorities. How can you optimize your IT expenses while making sure your computing environment is managed effectively? The solution might be using managed IT services. This solution has many advantages, and we will explore them in this article.

Just about every month now another large company makes the global headlines when they get their doors kicked in by cyber criminals, and we have our personal information stolen. No doubt, you also hear of many local companies and institutions in your area having their security breached, and it seems to be happening more and more lately, even with all of the warnings and extra precautions we are trying to take. 

The prefix “cyber” is a generic term referring to everything that is connected to the internet. The term cybersecurity defines what is linked to the protection of your business’s users, ideas and data.

It’s no longer a secret that our country is facing a labour shortage that is confirmed for the next 12 years. We have entered the decade of the talent war where it is becoming increasingly common to see small and medium-sized businesses slow down their growth, restaurants close their doors or retail businesses change their business hours due to a lack of staff. The good news is that there are several options for surviving in this environment and here they are!

The Internet of Things (IoT) has been a frequent topic in the media lately; and why shouldn’t it be? The recent advancements of micro-computers and processors that have led us to the age of connected smart devices we currently know has been nothing shy of astounding. More importantly accessibility, familiarity, and ease of use for these devices has helped close the gap between trained professionals and a typical home user.

As we enter a new decade, the workforce is changing drastically, both in demographic and behavioral tendencies. Millennials soon will make up the majority of the workforce and “by 2025, 3 out of every 4 workers, globally, will be a millennial,” (source: TIME Magazine). Millennials and Generation Z have a preference for working remotely and utilizing collaboration enabling tools.

Walk away from your computer?
Windows Key + L — You will quickly secure your PC, also beneficial when someone unexpectedly walks into your office and you don’t want them to see your screen.

The quality of a server’s components is far superior to that of a workstation, the server is designed to run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for several years. A workstation, on the other hand, is designed to run an average of 8 hours a day.

Risks of diminished stock in the supply chain plagued the Canadian channel in 2019. Increased costs due to the threat of U.S. Tariff’s, a continuing Intel Chip shortage, and now, manufacturing delays on hardware due to COVID-19 in China, have all brought unique challenges. Due to these external factors hitting on a global scale, it is critical that organizations have a sophisticated procurement partner that can manage change while staying in front of all threats to supply chain stability.

Along with the digital revolution, web users changed both their behaviour and their buying habits.

Do you still have Windows 7 on your computer? Windows 7 will reach the “End of Life” stage January 14, 2020.

Recent news articles about Cyber Attacks on municipalities in Canada and the U.S. reveal a depressing reality about the information systems and practices of many municipal governments.

In IT, as in many fields, it is important for companies and organizations to consult an expert before undertaking a project or a purchase of technology equipment. It is certainly very easy to do an online search to find the equipment and software that will seem to meet all your needs, but it is just as easy to get the wrong products and then end up with a multitude of problems and additional costs.

Friday, June 7, 2019 5:05am, my life changes forever. I receive a call from one of my associates. He informs me that there is a fire in the shopping center where our offices are located. Flames of more than a meter emerge from the door of our warehouse and a dense black smoke escapes from the roof covering more than half of the mall.

A single person responsible for IT, even when specifically trained for the job, is not the same as a full IT department or even an outsourced Managed Services Provider, which can draw on a large pool of diverse technical staff. The small in-house IT group (or person) cannot provide the range of support needed to maintain a firm’s critical infrastructure — critical to daily business activities and critical to long-term revenue streams.

Success comes with objectives! In order to stay on top, one must meet, exceed, re-evaluate and delete those objectives. We’ve seen Microsoft set some spectacular objectives for the technology space this past year with significant ramifications for the business world. They have set the end of Windows 7 support for January 2020 and increased focus on transitioning to O365 as a subscription model replacement for traditional Office solutions. That move is fundamentally changing the way organizations access mission critical productivity solutions. Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, moved to an O365 subscription for the entire campus and this is just one large organization making the switch among many. Objectives will continue to change and it’s crucial to find partnerships that will help with those changes.

Leading providers in unified communications are educating their customers on the recent expansion of bandwidth monitoring and management solutions. Essentially, bandwidth monitoring is the practice and policy of tracking the utilization of company bandwidth between all employees, software applications and desktops. The growth of bandwidth management solutions in recent years is due primarily to growth of company provided and personal devices (smart phones, tablets, etc.) connected to an organization’s network.

A misfortune like the one just suffered by Desjardins is not something any company would want or should have to endure. Unfortunately, the security gaps created by the adoption of new technologies, such as clouds or remote access servers, pose a greater risk than people realize, given the sensitive data that is stored there. The attacks are constantly firing and from all sides. Today, in terms of computer prevention, three important words to remember are: safety, safety and safety!

Most company’s largest environmental impacts stem from the partners they purchase from. For example, did you know that a company’s supply chain can produce up to four times more carbon emissions than its direct operations?

Three years ago, we would tell our clients that they needed an antivirus. That some were better than others. That’s about it. Three years ago, we would tell our clients an anti-spam system would take care of most of their concerns. Three years ago, we were worry free… Hackers took advantage of our sluggish state to make their comeback. And they succeeded. More than 95% of breaches are related to phishing. Were you ready for this? Not us.

As technology has become even more central to business operations, hackers have grown in proficiency and are posing several new threats to business owners.

Digital technology has profoundly transformed the way we shop, work, and communicate. Increasingly sophisticated collaborative platforms continue to emerge, integrating different business functions. These multiply the ways professionals can connect, collaborate on projects, and organize new business logistics. A true social and industrial revolution, digital tech disrupts traditional practices, pushing companies to alter their management methods. So how do you embrace digital tools and integrate them into business operations?

Whether it’s a natural disaster, a computer virus, physical damage, or human error, a fortuitous event could eventually disrupt your business operations.

We all know we need an antivirus (AV) solution but what type to buy and how much to pay for it are tough questions.

“Through 20 years of effort, we’ve successfully trained everyone to use passwords that are hard for humans to remember, but easy for computers to guess.”
- XKCD.com

So, you think your IT is secure and you’re fully protected? MafiaBoy says, “Not so much.”

Did you know that your Millenium Micro Group (MMG) affiliate reseller can serve you in any of your locations in Canada through our network of service centers? Did you know that this network of experts can complement the team of your local dealer for a particular project?

For nearly 10 years, VoIP telephony has revolutionized corporate telephony. But what is VoIP telephony? In short, it is a telephone system that only uses your internet connection to make your calls.

We would like to share with you these essentials in order to make business managers aware of the risks involved when one or more of these elements are neglected or missing.

Over the next 2 years, 4 Microsoft products, which are still heavily used in companies, will reach end of support. Do not wait; because when you want to change the computer or server operating system, now’s the time to start your planning.

Digital signage is probably the most productive tool companies have to communicate effectively with their employees. Digital screens, placed in strategic places, relay almost instantly news of the company, safety messages, and dashboards of analysis of the company’s performance in real time. This is why digital signage and interactive displays are essential for business communication and HR specialists.

It’s Thursday afternoon, things seem to be going well, and then, it happens. You get an email from an employee telling you he found a copy of the HR file using a search engine. You stop for a moment. This can’t be true. Sure enough, you find the same information. There is a document online listing employees accounts, payroll, address, emergency contacts, and details on health benefits. This is bad. Right now, the only thing you know is that you’ve had a privacy breach.

It was a Wednesday after noon this past February when a CEO of one of SIRCO’s clients received a disturbing phone call from one of his long-time customers. His client told him that he received his quote for the products and services but that he received an almost identical quote from another competitor but with only a dollar difference about 30 minutes later.

Office 365 is a suite of cloud-based productivity applications and services offered by Microsoft as a subscription.

Backing up your systems’ contents is an important part of protecting your data.  Everyone hopes never to resort to their backups, assuming that:

• The building will never burn down.
• The computers will never crash.
• The hackers will never find you.

Thinking about moving your office? Opening a new location? Over the years we have seen and heard stories of small business owners rushing to tell their IT department that they have just signed a lease on a new space. Then they find our there are thousands or hundreds of thousands in unexpected costs. Please remember to ask an IT Professional to review a prospect site with you before you commit. Be aware of all of the costs, complications and timelines required to move your technology.

Microsoft OneNote is a digital notebook that first appeared as an application for the Office 2003 suite. As a product that accepts both typed and handwritten notes, OneNote quickly became a must-have for tablet PC users in the early 2000s.

Today, computer networks are a driving force in every business, given the volume of information exchanged electronically. But connectivity and information-sharing also create an increased risk of data loss or service interruptions. A system failure can be disastrous.

Computer technology is evolving at an ever-increasing pace, this is also true for the threats to your data and security. Last year was possibility the worst year for IT operations since the Y2K bug and the impact will resonate for years to come.

There are two types of businesses. Those who know they got hacked, and those that don’t. Many business owners are unaware that hackers have likely been in their system for at least six months prior to being detected. Typically, according to the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, a hacker is detected not because of the company’s security technology, but rather by a 3rd party reported the breach to them.

Today, simple headsets are bundled as free accessories to any mobile phone, giving them a perception of “nice to have” gimmicks in the consumer market. But in some areas, such as professional office environments, headsets are so much more than mere accessories, having evolved into complex pieces of IT equipment that can transform the business of communication. Jesper Kock, Director of Research and Development at Sennheiser Communications explains why that is and why the right choice of headsets is crucial for businesses.

Entrepreneurs who wish to maintain a competitive advantage must be aware of the latest technological trends in the business world. Not just passing fads, some of these innovations have a real impact on operating costs and even create new business opportunities. Should we embrace them wholeheartedly or be wary? The following are a few examples.

At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), we saw an explosion in the Internet of Things (IoT) category.  These so-called Smart devices are aimed at making your home and business environment more convenient and accessible. From Smart socks and underwear to Smart toilets and showers, there was something for everyone.

Over the last several years a small company in Mississauga, Ontario has been experiencing exponential growth. CNB Computers Inc. was found in 2003 by Prabjeet Chhabra (Bony Singh). The company has its humble roots in a one man start-up that was filling a niche in the reseller market. CNB Computers and Millenium Micro partnered  together back in 2015 and the relationship has grown stronger every year.

Wish you knew the secret weapon to boosting productivity? Study after study shows that remote workers are up to 55% more productive than their office counterparts.

Acomba X is the new generation of Acomba, the accounting software that has been supporting Canadian SMBs for over 25 years. Acomba X offers the same great benefits that made its predecessor successful, while adding a touch of user-friendliness, performance and new features.

Cyber attacks generally don’t come from the outside. Your employees are the ones who, without realizing it, trigger the different cyber attacks within your network, putting your company’s survival at risk.

Read this and discover top tips for choosing the right desktop display.

What do nursery rhymes, memorable movie phrases and great song lines have in common? They make great passwords. And there is not a single number or special character in them. The requirement to make complex passwords using special characters and numbers is being re-thought.

Festivals are well represented in Québec, and summer is the season when the majority of them are held. The needs are great and so are the expectations of the festival-goers. Organizations are also sensitive to technologies that are increasingly present in our daily lives to attract and accommodate visitors.

La Grande Roue de Montréal: a brand new, gigantic observation wheel. Standing 60 metres high and offering a 360-degree view (equivalent to that of a 20-storey building) from tempered cabins, it is the tallest wheel in Canada, and sister of the Chicago Wheel. Built with a framework normally reserved for oil rigs in the North Sea, it can withstand tsunamis and the strongest of earthquakes.

Many of our clients start out the same way, a small group of core people taking care of a lot of different things. Your best sales person is also helping with ordering, you're busy running finance, as well as the company, and your engineer also helps out with IT. Over time your business grew, you hired an accountant because you recognize the importance of keeping accurate financial information, and you now have a team of sales people and separate shipping receiving staff.

In today’s world we see so many different threats against our safety and security. However, one of the biggest and growing is cyber threats. With the world running on technology, this is the one thing that can grind a company to a halt in seconds.

Nowadays the biggest memory provider in Canada, GB Micro has developed its expertise in the import and distribution of memory and electronic products mostly to Canadian consumers, since its creation, in 1983.

Most companies take measures to protect their IT data, and with good reason. However, the increasingly critical role of IT in business models tends to increase the vulnerability of enterprises to disasters.

When looking at transforming your business from traditional phone lines to Voice Over IP (VOIP) the greatest fear is quality, the second is reliance on your internet connection. There are excellent, free tests you can use to determine if your internet connection can support your telephone traffic. In addition, your network can be configured to prioritize telephone traffic.

The concept of a paperless office was promised at the beginning of this millennium, but we are still awaiting its arrival.

The Domain Registrar is where it all starts. The Registrar is the organization where your domain is sourced (if available!) and ownership is established. They can register and create top-level domains such as .com, .ca, .net, etc. The Domain Registrar creates the domain, (ie. mycompany.ca) establishes the registration and technical contact information (this can be hidden) and points the domain name to a Domain Name Server(s). As a small business owner, you should make efforts to ensure you own the registration record.

At home and at the office we have expensive electronics. The value of the data and productivity offered by those electronics is substantially greater than the equipment price. So why do we often find these electronics protected by the cheapest surge bar or Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)? The answer is usually that no one has explained the difference between various power management solutions to small business managers, IT professionals and home owners.

Hardware-as-a-Service (HaaS) is a concept that has been taking the IT industry by storm. The philosophy of HaaS is simple; the provider owns the hardware and leases it to the client for a monthly fee. There are many benefits for providers and clients when considering a true HaaS procurement model including tax benefits, standardization, and scalability. 

Digital signage consists of a display of images or videos onto a screen (which can be tactile for increased interaction), or onto a projector. In fact, it is the transition from traditional paper signage to on-screen display. 

Recent studies have shown that close to 35% of Canadian organizations have been attacked at least once by ransomware in the past twelve months. Of that number, 43% suffered significant loss of revenue and 25% of these businesses had to halt their operations because of an infection of this type. The major problem with ransomware is that it now pays for hackers to attack you. 

Each summer, many small and medium business owners take the risk of spending a few weeks without their key resources. Whether it’s a system administrator, a person with expertise on specific applications or even an employee dedicated to the help desk, all have a vital role to play. 

About every other year, a colleague and I attend the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Yes, we have some fun, but the primary intent is to pick up on industry trends for future technologies coming to a workspace near you. For those not familiar CES, it is the largest trade show in the world, with close to 20,000 exhibitors displaying all manner of devices and technologies to 150,000 industry attendees. It runs for 4 days and if you don’t dawdle, you can just about walk the whole show by the time it ends; sore feet notwithstanding.

Managed Services is a well known term to those within the industry, yet is virtually unknown to those outside of it. Even to those that know the term, it is not always understood or appreciated. With the IT industry becoming more complicated every day, I can understand why one might choose to remain only slightly knowledgeable about IT and how it plays such an important role in todays SMB world. Today’s SMB owner need not be experts in the IT industry nor do they have the time. That is the singular purpose of the Managed Service Provider.

THE NEW FACE OF CONSUMPTION…

For some time now, a certain trend has grown consistently stronger in our lives: the emergence of subscription-based products and services.

We still encounter small and even medium size businesses that manage their technology internally or are supported by a one person service provider.  Despite investing significant resources in IT and other related services these organisations tend to be operating with only “out of the box” setups and frequently are using a small fraction of the capabilities available.  Given the complexity of technology today organisations need access to a team with diverse skills and expertise.

The data centre market is constantly the focus of advertisements these days. Its service offering continues to expand, but how do you find your way around it?

One thing every business has in common is that they just want their IT systems to work; everyday, continually.  No outages, no viruses sneaking in, no equipment failures.  In fact they want everything to work so well that they don’t even have to think about it.  

Making your IT infrastructure virtual and migrating it to the cloud is likely to bring you significant gains. However, the elimination of IT management isn’t a part of that! 

If you’re reading this, chances are that you’re part of a small business (according to Industry Canada, 98.2% of businesses in Canada have less than 100 employees).  Your business also likely suffers from the same issues that plague many other small businesses: small budgets.  You might now be thinking: what does this have to with Virtualization?

If your organization is like many in the Small and Medium Business (SMB) market segment, your core business is providing products or services other than Information Technology (IT), whether on a for-profit or not-for-profit basis.  After your initial start-up, your IT expenditures are likely entirely reactionary to breakdowns or new needs that arise suddenly.  

So you’re purchasing a new server? Read this before you do!

When choosing between servers in the cloud and local on-site servers, what is the best solution for your business? Which solution is cheaper and would be most effective? These are common issues for leaders of small and medium businesses, and they reoccur year after year. To help you make the right decision, we’ve studied both options.

The cost of I.T. is a very difficult concept to understand no matter the scale of your businesses infrastructure. This cost of any I.T. infrastructure is not limited to the initial purchase of equipment but extends into operational costs that can often be overlooked. Costs such as electricity, maintenance, and equipment age are all examples of what affects the overall cost of ownership for a business. 

Life Cycle Management is a critical component of an optimized IT service.  By keeping it in mind within the context of your purchase and support decisions, you can count on getting better value for each dollar of your IT spend, over a longer period of time going forward.  

Is your web site responsive? In order for your web site to be responsive it needs to offer an easy viewing and interaction experience from any device, such as a mobile phone or an electronic tablet as well as a computer. What responsive web design is all about is enabling your web site, its structure and content to modify itself according to the size of screen you are viewing it with to allow for an optimal viewing without losing any content.

Computer technology provides new options for telephony that we would have never expected to be so efficient just a few short years ago.

Productivity occupies an important place in your company in order to stand out from the competition. Technology contributes much to productivity, so identifying single failure points in your production system is imperative.

Electronic messaging software has become the number one communications application for businesses. Everything passes through it: letters of appointment, requests for information, invoices, payment confirmations, quotations, contracts, etc. If electronic messaging software stops working in an SMB, everything stops working.

There are three misconceptions in the digital word today; Windows 10 is the last Microsoft operating system, robots will soon do everything, and giving employees new software will make them more productive. Wrong. Wrong. And probably wrong.

Businesses may wonder how the new version of Windows, Windows 10, released on July 29, 2015, will benefit them. 

Our world is now full of screens; from desktops and smartphones to tablets and digital signage.  The ability to harness and distribute everyday operational information, emergency alerts, security and environmental information can not only improve life safety but generate improved customer satisfaction and productivity to boot. 

As much as 75 percent of a company’s intellectual property is contained within email and messaging systems, according to Osterman research. And that makes email more than just a vital business communications tool; it constitutes an electronic substitute of legal business documentation. In other words, that message from Phil in accounting could one day be used as legal evidence.

There is ample documentation in the public domain on selecting and sizing UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) capacity for the load it will carry; this article assumes you have already selected and sized yours appropriately, and focuses on a couple of considerations that many small and medium-sized businesses overlook to their peril.

If you’re reading this, chances are that you’re part of a small business (according to Industry Canada, 98.2% of businesses in Canada have less than 100 employees).  Your business also likely suffers from the same issues that plague many other small businesses: small budgets.  You might now be thinking: what has this have to with Virtualization?

Routers, Firewalls, ID Ses, Ip Ses, BPNs, the list of appliances and technologies we can use to protect our networks to the outside threat of the world (wide web) is extensive. 

Boardroom, conference room or training room, these spaces represent the apex of an organization’s audiovisual investment.  Important decisions are made here, clients are met, contracts negotiated and instruction is delivered.  These activities require the presentation of clear, concise information, and everyone in the room needs to get their voice heard.

More than 10 years ago, Microsoft Windows Server 2003 technology hit the market to meet the needs of businesses. After so many years of service, Microsoft will no longer offer support for Windows Server 2003/R2 beginning July 14, 2015.

IP (Internet Protocol) based phone systems are commonly referred to as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) systems. The term suggests that new phone systems no longer use traditional Bell phone lines, but in fact are capable of using both and many times are used together.