By the DynaSis Team

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Cybersecurity, already a hot topic in the news, has moved to an even brighter spotlight now that the presidential candidates are discussing it. The merits of their positions are not for us to debate here. However, their actions underscore the idea that cybersecurity is an issue of concern to the citizens who might vote for them.

Statistics support this viewpoint, especially among the small and midsized business (SMB) community. In May, 2015, Endurance International Group (EIG) released the results of a survey that indicated 81 percent of SMB owners have cybersecurity concerns. Even more (94 percent) “often think” about online security. This is good news, given that SMBs are prime targets. A Verizon study found that organizations with 11-100 employees are 15 times more likely to have their security defenses breached than organizations with more than 100 employees.

Unfortunately, the EIG survey also contained some deeply worrisome statistics. Researchers discovered that 94 percent of SMB owners don’t have cybersecurity insurance. Eighty-three percent handle cybersecurity themselves, often because they don’t think they can afford to employ IT support staff or contract for managed IT services.

In reality, the risk of being breached has become so great that no business can afford not to engage professional help. Attack vectors are evolving so rapidly that it is impossible to avoid them completely. Multi-national, billion-dollar corporations work to manage risk with layers of protection that close security holes, remove or clean infections, detect and stop malicious activities, and provide other lines of defense for corporate systems.

As we head into 2016, we hope all SMB owners will embrace this approach and take action to fortify their companies’ defenses. There simply is no “silver bullet” for security. No single solution will protect a firm. Companies must use a multi-layered approach in order to mitigate threats. Beginning with our first January article, we will be covering various aspects of cybersecurity to help educate our readers regarding this daunting but critical task.

Cybersecurity is complex, and it deserves everyone’s full attention. To ignore it is to accept the consequences of a breach. For an SMB, such an event is almost always financially crippling. In 60% of cases, it will destroy the business within six months.

By the DynaSis Team

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Although the cost benefits of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone services are well-documented, business decision makers considering VoIP want more than just savings. Software Advice, a Gartner Research company, reported in 2014 that among companies with revenues of less than $100 million, business owners were more focused on reliability and scalability than price.

These concerns are well-founded, because call quality and system scalability—not to mention enhanced system features—can vary considerably from one VoIP provider to the next. Whether a firm is currently using VoIP service and considering a change or evaluating it as a new technology, evaluating all the criteria relevant to the organization is the best way to reap maximum value. Following are some key benefits that small and midsized business owners should expect from their VoIP solutions.

Call Automation

Fifty years ago, live operators made connections, ensuring that callers reached someone who could help them. With the advent of voice mail, callers increasingly found themselves forced to leave messages or be routed around the system, never speaking to a human. VoIP technology erased this scenario forever.

A well-designed solution should be able to route incoming calls automatically to the location and device designated to service that caller. If a caller leaves a voice mail, some systems can automatically convert it to an email or text message and deliver it electronically. These services increase the percentage of completed calls and reduce the lag time between a message being left and a call returned, which improves customer service and also boost sales.

Scalability

Unlike legacy PBX systems requiring connections installed by “the telephone company,” VoIP systems can be scaled easily and inexpensively over existing office Internet (such as Ethernet) lines. Support for Wi-Fi calling increases scalability even more, since provisioning a new area of the office requires little more than adding an access point and a few handsets.

However, the price tag for upgrade assistance from a communications or managed IT services provider can vary considerably. Furthermore, VoIP platforms do require switching systems to route calls, and scalability can be an issue with on-premise PBX hardware. Cloud-hosted switching platforms are usually the most cost-effective option for system expansion.

Enhanced Communications Services

Many VoIP providers offer a palette of specialized communications services, from chat platforms to teleconferencing. All VoIP services, from basic calls to streaming HD conference feeds—travel over the same connection, providing the company has sufficient Internet bandwidth (capacity). Organizations should evaluate their current and future needs closely and align themselves with a provider that offers everything they want—along with the IT support to manage it. Switching VoIP providers after the contract starts can be cumbersome and even costly if cancellation penalties apply.

In this article, we have introduced you to some of the most fundamental VoIP considerations for business owners. To help you explore additional value-add features, we recommend this “Top 10” article from Tech Republic.

By the DynaSis Team

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With mobile devices presenting one of today’s biggest corporate threats (the biggest threat, according to one study), companies must make sure the mobile devices of their workforce are secure. Encouraging workers to follow mobile device policies and protocols, however, can be a real challenge.

This problem is endemic among Millennials—the up-and-coming, very large generation of workers. A report released in mid-2015 found that Millennials pose a greater threat to mobile security than any other age group. The findings indicated Millennials expect employers to handle mobile security and tend to engage in very risky behaviors, such as letting friends or associates use work phones.

With this generation just starting their careers, the problem is not going away any time soon. The secret, then, is to create a security program to which personnel will actually adhere. Part of this effort is having managed IT services that can administer and secure device-level access to corporate information. The second part involves education—reinforcement through meetings and training sessions that certain behaviors will not be tolerated. The third component is the development of policies that are sensible, clear and consistent.

Millennials in particular do not accept the advice of the older generation very well—even if the older individuals are their work superiors. They also rebel against “special treatment” situations. Following are a few tips that should help you get everyone, even Millennials, on board with your mobile device security programs and policies.

• Do not be creative or trendy—using titles like Acceptable Use Policy sends a clear message about the intent of the document.
• Keep the verbiage simple and avoid legalese. Although the policy document should not be chatty, it also should not be written above the heads of your employees.
• To eliminate grey areas, offer instructive examples of behaviors that are allowed and those that are embargoed.
• Provide instructions for workers to follow if they inadvertently violate policies. Millennials in particular like to solve their own problems. If they discover, for example, that they stored a corporate document in a personal partition, they may be able to fix that simple mistake themselves. But for issues they cannot or should not resolve themselves, give workers a resource for IT support and services.
• Most importantly, make it clear that workers will not be fired for admitting they made a mistake. If an employee loses a phone, for instance, he or she should fear reprisal only if the loss is not reported on a timely basis.

Lastly, draw a line in the sand and ensure everyone sticks to it. Intentionally subverting policies or “jailbreaking” phones (making changes prohibited by the manufacturer) to knowingly share sensitive data is tantamount to corporate espionage. Many less-innocent behaviors can still pose threats, but some firms choose to allow them.

Set your parameters and apply them consistently. If a junior sales person cannot hop onto an unsecured Wi-Fi network, for example, your CEO should not be allowed to do it, either.

By the DynaSis Team

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With small and midsized businesses now enthusiastically embracing the cloud, shrewd business owners are asking themselves if their firms are ready for cloud adoption—and the migration effort it entails. Moving to cloud computing without first evaluating the organization’s needs, level of technology sophistication, risk tolerance and other important concerns will diminish the value of the cloud computing project.

Every aspect of technology—and how the organization uses it—must be considered. Any shortcomings identified during the process should be addressed before the migration moves forward. For example, outdated desktops running older versions of Windows will not only minimize cloud benefits, but also increase potential security risks.

Incidences of siloed cloud computing, where individual departments or employees have adopted their own “boutique” cloud solutions to resolve specific problems, must also be explored and addressed. In some cases, leadership may choose to retain these solutions and expand them company-wide. More commonly, however, they determine that migrating the siloed data and processes to the new cloud platform is more efficient and effective.

Beyond the mere nuts and bolts of the cloud, we also encourage our clients to consider how the cloud fits into the bigger business picture. To reap the greatest benefit from the cloud, companies must identify the synergies that can be created between their business goals, challenges and opportunities and available cloud technologies.

To clarify the situation and give company leadership meaningful benchmarks from which they can make decisions, many firms opt for a Cloud Assessment. Assessments come in numerous forms and may involve multiple approaches, from self-administered software agents to on-site evaluations by qualified technical experts. The goals of these efforts are extensive and can include (but are not limited to):

• Detecting all hardware and software currently running on the network.
• Discovering where all data is being stored and accessed, how much storage is being consumed, and security measures that need to be taken to protect that data.
• Exploring commonalities between departments that can be leveraged for more efficient operation.
• Evaluating current backup and business continuity plans and preparing for improvements, when appropriate.
• Identifying untapped business opportunities and determining how the cloud can help develop them.
• Envisioning how fast the company is growing (and predicted to grow) so the final solution can be sufficiently robust to support that growth.

Once company decision makers have all of this information, they are in a better position to identify an appropriate cloud provider and start preparation for the transition. The actual process of prepping for and achieving the migration is a separate step, so we will save that discussion for a future date. The main point here is that only after an organization has conducted a formal assessment and evaluated the results is company leadership able to make pragmatic, fruitful decisions regarding this remarkable computing opportunity.

About DynaSis

DynaSis is an Atlanta IT services and cloud computing provider for small and midsized businesses. All of our solutions focus on helping companies achieve the three fundamental IT necessities of the modern business—Availability, Security and Mobility. We specialize in on-demand and on-premises managed IT services, managed cloud infrastructure, desktops and backups, and professional hardware and equipment installation. For more information about DynaSis’ IT support and services, visit www.dynasis.com.

By the DynaSis Team

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Although a growing number of business owners understand that technology can increase productivity and reduce risk, in our experience, only a few have made a solid connection between technology and their company’s financial health. In his recent article, “Technology Outcomes Every C-Level Executive Should Expect,” DynaSis President Dave Moorman explains how system availability is a key factor in effectively reducing expenses because of the productivity gains it supports.

This benefit is a fundamental and realistic goal for every firm. However, to reap the greatest benefit from technology, companies need to keep moving their efforts forward. Digital technologies—from the cloud to predictive analytics—are transforming the revenue generating capabilities of organizations at all levels.

Using technology to touch more customers, more often and more easily, for example, forges stronger relationships that increase loyalty and sales. Ecommerce and the automation it enables streamlines product sales and delivery in ways never before possible, reducing overhead and increasing margins. Perhaps most importantly, none of these solutions is an island, and firms that interconnect technologies in new and inventive ways are seeing even greater benefits. We recently read a case study that illustrates this point.

Royal Caribbean Cruise Line has a class of ships (the Oasis line), each of which carries more than 5,000 passengers. To avoid diminishing the passenger experience on such a massive ship, Royal Caribbean decided to eliminate waiting lines for dining and other onboard activities, which research showed would create a more intimate, personal environment for the passengers. To achieve this goal, the cruise line deployed an integrated network of shape-recognition cameras, smart cards, hundreds of wireless access points and other digital technologies to provide the information necessary to eliminate these lines. The project was a rousing success.

We don’t have room to explain how they did it here, but the point is that they leveraged technology in a broadly connected way—one they had never considered—specifically to achieve a profit-based goal. Technology is more than a set of discrete solutions—the network, the desktops, the website, the CRM system, etc. When companies stop viewing each technology solution as the response to a problem and start to consider all of them collectively as an interconnected opportunity generator, they can create a value chain that strengthens customer relationships, fosters greater competitiveness and promotes business innovation.

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By the DynaSis Team

In his recent article, DynaSis President and Founder Dave Moorman detailed how modern, up-to-date technology minimizes risk. This was a “broad strokes” piece, so he focused on big picture items, such as how high availability reduces the risk of business loss from outages, and how robust security mitigates the risk of—and damage from—cyberattacks. The article, “Technology Outcomes Every C-Level Executive Should Expect,” is a great, quick read if you haven’t downloaded it yet.

To compliment Dave’s efforts, we wanted to drill a bit further into this issue. When you really examine how businesses operate today, it is amazing how much modern technology is minimizing risk. Consider, for example, a company whose operation is reliant on a functional, predictable supply chain.

A recent survey found that mitigating risk is the single biggest challenge—and one of the highest priorities for—supply chain executives. When a company relies on trading partners that may be located around the world, technology can play a crucial role in fostering better collaboration and information exchange to keep executives abreast of supply chain efficiency. Automation technologies, including not only manufacturing, packaging and handling automation, but also information automation, such as shipping delay notifications, are further improving the efficiency and visibility of the supply chain. None of these advantages were available a few decades ago.

Of course, not every company lives or dies by its supply chain (even though most require supply chain reliability at some level). For all firms, there are other specific examples of how modern technology helps to minimize risk. Following are some of our top picks:

• Number One is now the collective ecosystem of network and infrastructure security (including network hardware and device monitoring/management, virus blocking, spam filtering, intrusion detection, firewall monitoring and management, and remote access management). Through these modern systems, firms mitigate the risk from external threats.
• Number Two is systems optimization—keeping hardware and software updated, including monitoring/applying necessary system changes, modifications and upgrades. These processes reduce the downtime that destroys productivity and impacts sales, which are two of the greatest risks to company performance.
• Number Three is backup and recovery technology, which ensures a firm replicates its digital assets on a timetable that suits the company’s risk and then can access those assets readily in the event of a major outage. This technology is crucial to business continuity.
• Number Four is desktop and device optimization, which goes beyond securing and managing access (included in Number One) to ensuring workers have the tools to be productive and satisfied. Risk comes in a variety of forms, and the risk of losing star employees due to technological inadequacy is very real now with the younger, tech-centric generation who are taking the helm.

Technology also reduces risk in a million others ways, from ensuring employees and executives receive urgent messages (mobile messaging) to helping organizations hire more safely (Internet, social and news media searches). The list goes on and on.

When you think about it, there are very few aspects of today’s corporate environment that are not improved by, and even dependent upon, technology. The question then becomes, how effectively is your firm leveraging this gift? No matter where your firm stands, in terms of technology adoption, we promise there are more improvements awaiting you.

About DynaSis

DynaSis is an Atlanta IT services and cloud computing provider for small and midsized businesses. All of our solutions focus on helping companies achieve the three fundamental IT necessities of the modern business—availability, security and mobility. We specialize in on-demand and on-premise managed IT services, managed cloud infrastructure, desktops and backups, and professional hardware and equipment installation. For more information about DynaSis’ IT support and services, visit www.dynasis.com.

By the DynaSis Team

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In his most recent article, “Technology Outcomes Every C-Level Executive Should Expect,” DynaSis Founder and President Dave Moorman details the three fundamental benefits of technology: increased productivity, reduced expenses and minimized risk. Dave does a great job of illustrating how technology achieves these goals, so for this article, we will just reiterate one truly vital productivity enhancer, and then give you the "freebies" we promised in the title.

Information technology (IT) has been helping employees and business owners execute tasks in half the time—or less—than it typically took them before PCs, the Internet and other major productivity enablers. That’s a given, so the question then becomes, how do they make that result even better? As Dave mentioned in his article, one of these enablers is availability, which is crucial to productivity in today’s business environment. If your systems are down all the time, it's a no-brainer that your productivity is being reduced. But, even the difference between 99% uptime (which sounds impressive to the uninformed) and 99.999% uptime is significant. (We covered this issue in more detail in our Availability blog, which you can read here to explore the topic further.)

At a 99% uptime level, you can expect 3.65 days of downtime per year. At 99.999%, you can anticipate 5.26 minutes. Of course, all that downtime might not occur during business hours, but if your business sells products or provides information online, or your employees work during off-hours or other time zones, your exposure increases significantly. Consequently, the easiest way for any business to increase productivity is to contract for the highest possible uptime, period.

Now, it's time for the freebies. Here are a few simple ways your business can start increasing productivity through technology without spending a dime.

Automated Reminders:  Ensure all your employees know how to use their calendar appointment and reminder functions and encourage them to use them. These are helpful for more than business meetings. Every time an employee doesn’t stop what they are doing to accomplish a forgotten task on a rush basis, the result is increased productivity. Reminders are great for everything from prospect follow-ups to ordering supplies for the break room. They can also remind your personnel to leave the computer to move around, which might save their lives.

Once personnel start using reminders, they will see how valuable they can be. Encourage them to explore other systems and platforms that provide reminders—or allow advance scheduling of tasks—and make use of them, as well.

Get Smart:  Rather than falling back on “I Don’t Know” as the answer to a question, or emailing other personnel and waiting for a response, encourage employees to perform Internet research first. If a question involves confidential company information, this might not work, but in most other cases, it will. If a salesperson is preparing a quote, for example, and needs to know the company's employee count or annual sales volume, they can likely find that information in five minutes, online. Writing targeted search queries to exclude irrelevant results takes a little practice, but there might be a search guru in your office that can teach others.

Leverage Other People’s Work

One of the most valuable aspects of technology is its ability to make solutions available to others inexpensively. From better financial tracking and management to faster presentation development with pre-built components, there are a multitude of “software as a service” (SaaS) programs that make your business efforts more productive—and in some cases, more impressive as well.

Many of these are inexpensive or even free. For faster, better presentations, for example, try Prezi, which offers a lot of content at no charge. For more ideas, check out this list of business-boosting technology tools from Inc.com.

About DynaSis

DynaSis is an Atlanta IT services and cloud computing provider for small and midsized businesses. All of our solutions focus on helping companies achieve the three fundamental IT necessities of the modern business—availability, security and mobility. We specialize in on-demand and on-premise managed IT services, managed cloud infrastructure, desktops and backups, and professional hardware and equipment installation. For more information about DynaSis’ IT support and services, visit www.dynasis.com.

The Challenge

With his IT vendor unable to support his company’s needs or ensure the uptime his workers required, Courtesy Finance President William P. Anderson knew his firm needed a change. One of Anderson’s top concerns was the security of the sensitive financial and customer information that his firm stores—and for which it must meet strict regulatory compliance – so an important requirement was the restricting of access to corporate resources, making available to each employees only that information needed to perform their jobs.

Having previously spoken with DynaSis's Vice President of Managed It Services Chas Arnold, Anderson decided to give DynaSis a call.

The Solution

After evaluating the situation, the DynaSis team recommended a cloud-based model, and Anderson liked what he saw. To secure his corporate assets against accidental exposure, the team recommended the DynaSis Business Cloud, through which users access cloud-hosted apps and data through a secure online portal that works on any browser. The plan called for DynaSis technicians to migrate the resources to cloud servers hosted at DynaSis’s state-of-the-art, redundant data center. The technicians would also upgrade eight firewalls to increase network security from all office locations and transition the firm’s hosted Exchange email to the secure environment of Microsoft Office 365.

To ensure uptime and robust support for company personnel, DynaSis recommended deploying 24 new desktop PCs to replace older equipment at Courtesy Finance’s nine locations in Tennessee and Georgia. DynaSis would also provide 24/7/365 user support and network management, ensuring continuity and uptime in the offices. To showcase the new solution, DynaSis generated a mock version of the Business Cloud portal and invited company personnel to try and break through. When his employees were stumped—Anderson was ready to proceed.

The Implementation

DynaSis engineers created a parallel environment so Courtesy Finance users could experiment with the system before the actual migration. DynaSis then performed the live cutover at night, switching everyone to the virtual server and deploying the new portal on all the PCs in a single effort, resulting in virtually no production downtime at all.

The Result

Anderson says he’s glad he made the switch. “We are a customer-facing company, and when customers walk in the door, we cannot help them if the computers are down,” he says. “With the new solution, our prior issues with support and reliability have gone away. Atlanta has a lot of IT providers, but many of them are just not that great. I have had a great experience working with DynaSis.”

After the migration was complete, users worked through the learning curve quickly and now “everyone likes it. We have had no major problems and minor issues are fixed remotely by the DynaSis support team, or they quickly talk our people through it.”

With the new solution, company personnel have total working flexibility when they travel. “We don’t need laptops anymore when we travel to our different offices as everyone can sign on to any computer at any office in our company.”

A final benefit, Anderson notes, will be the savings he anticipates. “We already knew we had to replace the old PCs, but because we were migrating to DynaSis’s Business Cloud, the new PCs cost a lot less and are expected to last years longer. And with DynaSis’s fixed pricing, we are also saving money on a monthly basis.”

The Future

DynaSis is currently helping Courtesy Finance move to a virtual telephone system, Fonality, and Anderson says he is considering bigger projects for the future. “We are already talking about virtualizing our corporate office,” he says. “We could get it down to just a firewall and a switch!”

By the DynaSis Team

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DynaSis Founder and President Dave Moorman has released the second article in his IT for the C-Suite series, a collection of articles that details how business leaders and other C-level executives can use technology to improve business agility, security and productivity—and power the organization’s success. “Technology Outcomes Every C-Level Executive Should Expect” details the three fundamental benefits of technology from Moorman’s perspective, and explores in detail why these benefits are so important.

Increasing Productivity: Maximizing the use of technology to enhance the business effort and foster great customer service.

Reducing Expense: Hosting and maintaining a modern, properly managed IT infrastructure to reduce technology overhead and potentially shrink the organization’s ownership and management footprint for both technology and physical space.

Minimizing Risk: Implementing a cloud-based model to make it statistically impossible for corporate assets to be destroyed or displaced by a single event business.

Moorman illustrates his point by briefly discussing some of the world’s great business success stories—entrepreneurs who created an incredibly successful business model by relying almost exclusively on technology.

Backed by credible statistics and reports, Moorman offers solid advice on how technology helps business leaders achieve these three goals, and why it is so essential for them to place appropriate emphasis on technology. He also helps them envision how they can start leveraging technology to realize the advantages discussed in the article.

All of his advice, in this article and beyond, is designed to help even the most traditional operation become innovative and extraordinary—not only enjoying success today, but establishing the competitive advantage that is vital to ongoing business development and value.

By following the advice in Moorman’s article, C-level executives can help transform their operations into what Moorman calls “the Modern Business”—One whose leadership “embraces and leverages technology to deliver targeted, advantageous outcomes in the organization.” As he notes in this article, Moorman views technology not merely as an enabler, but literally as the fulcrum that provides leverage for success.

It’s a great read, and we hope you enjoy it! To download the PDF, use the link above, or click here.

About DynaSis

DynaSis is an Atlanta IT services and cloud computing provider for small and midsized businesses. All of our solutions focus on helping companies achieve the three fundamental IT necessities of the modern business—availability, security and mobility. We specialize in on-demand and on-premise managed IT services, managed cloud infrastructure, desktops and backups, and professional hardware and equipment installation. For more information about DynaSis’ IT support and services, visitwww.dynasis.com.

By the DynaSis Team

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In May 2014, a Bitglass survey noted that only eight percent of organizations had adopted Microsoft’s Office 365. All we can say is, “What a difference 18 months makes.” In January 2015, Office 365 became Microsoft's fastest growing commercial product ever, with the number of Office 365 commercial seats in use nearly doubling in the fourth quarter of 2014, compared to 2013.

In August, the media announced that Office 365 had overtaken Google’s productivity suite in adoption. Now, according to one recent survey, Office 365 is the most widely used business cloud application of any type, surpassing even cloud giants like Salesforce.com.

This is exciting, but the numbers are based on Microsoft licensing figures, which don’t always tell the whole story. At DynaSis, we have worked with numerous business leaders who license Office 365 with high expectations and then discover the challenges of migrating to the product completely. Email migrations, especially, are a big issue.

The good news is that with proper planning and execution, migrations to Office 365 can be not only complete but also nearly seamless. Over the course of a few hours, properly trained technicians can deploy Office 365 on dozens—or hundreds—of desktops. Email migrations can be clean and accurate enough to maintain compliance requirements. It’s all a matter of how the firm goes about the process.

To ask yourself if your firm has the expertise to tackle an Office 365 migration, consider these key tasks beyond selecting the most appropriate model for Office:

• Determine which versions of on-premise Office are running and who is using them. Decide if everyone is a migration candidate.
• Evaluate the need for and schedule/perform hardware upgrades to run the newer products.
• Document email accounts and confirm which ones should move to Office 365. Determine if web-based accounts should remain open and accessible individually (Office 365 will sync with rather than replace them) or if the users should migrate to Office 365’s email service completely. Back up the email stores and import them into Office 365. Notify all contacts of new email addresses, if appropriate.
• Install the on-premise versions of applications on user’s machines and devices (up to five per user) and ensure everyone can access them.

Not only is implementing Office 365 more involved than most organizations realize, but ongoing operation is also not hands-off. Companies must plan for post-migration Help Desk support, which includes not only answering questions but also resetting passwords, setting mailbox and/or folder permissions, and more.

With 48% of enterprises now using cloud-based productivity and email products, there is no doubt that the future of business productivity apps lies in the cloud. Companies shouldn’t hold off on adopting Office 365 due to fear of complexity and problems. Rather, they should prepare for it in advance and ensure all technical support resources, in-house or outsourced, are up to the challenge.

About DynaSis

DynaSis is an Atlanta IT services and cloud computing provider for small and midsized businesses. All of our solutions focus on helping companies achieve the three fundamental IT necessities of the modern business—availability, security and mobility. We specialize in on-demand and on-premise managed IT services, managed cloud infrastructure, desktops and backups, and professional hardware and equipment installation. For more information about DynaSis’ IT support and services, visit www.dynasis.com.