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File sharing and synchronization between multiple devices have become near-necessities for most businesses in today’s corporate environment. Among the three IT “pillars” for business today―mobility, security and availability―two are strongly tied to company personnel having anytime, anywhere access to corporate files. That usually (but not always) means a move to cloud computing in some form, and for many firms, it increasingly means DropBox or Google Drive.

These solutions are easy and inexpensive to use, encouraging small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to take a benign view of them. In companies without a formalized file sharing and syncing system, many employees adopt Dropbox or Google Drive (or both) on their own, outside the corporate structure but with corporate files stored on them.

This is a simple answer to a problem, but it’s not the most secure or efficient one. Here are just a few of the many concerns:

• Third-party file storage runs on a large public cloud, and as a result is generally riskier than other forms of cloud storage. This is especially true of the “consumer-grade” forms of cloud storage, which may offer fewer security protections than their enterprise counterparts.
• If users store their passwords for personal cloud storage on improperly secured mobile devices, the problem becomes even bigger.
• When employees store corporate files on a non-corporate resource, they are likely causing them to become out of sync with other circulating versions and potentially inaccessible to other personnel in the company.
• Most of these providers don’t automatically backup user files in a way that makes them easily accessible for retrieval in the event of file corruption or accidental deletion.

Even one of these criteria should motivate business owners to shut down use of personal cloud storage at the office, yet it continues to proliferate. Prudent business owners will deploy an enterprise-grade file storage/sharing/sync solution and develop a formal policy that requires its use.

However, resistance to change can be strong, so what can a firm do to persuade its personnel―and most importantly the mobile workforce―to drop kick Dropbox and other personal cloud storage to the curb, at least for corporate files? Here are a few suggestions.

• Include end users―especially respected “thought leaders” among the staff―by asking them what features matters to them and what challenges they would like to resolve. Then, do your best to address these requests or have a logical reason why you cannot. This will increase buy-in.
• Look for a solution that is fast and seamless―security features, in particular, shouldn’t slow down the workforce or you will get pushback.
• Focus on usability and utility to end-users during the trial. Once you’ve selected a solution, develop promotional messages that showcase user-requested features.

With so many enterprise-grade file storage/sharing/syncing offerings available, some solid research will help you find one that works for the business and its personnel. We’ve even seen storage-related IT services where corporate files remain on the office servers, but personnel can access and share them remotely through a cloud-based solution.

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By the DynaSis Team

In the past year, several reports have been published announcing that businesses are moving to the cloud for more than cost savings. The cloud is more secure than most on-premise systems, one report says. The cloud fosters greater workforce mobility and productivity, says another. A third touts the benefits of the cloud for increased system and data availability in the workplace.

All of these are valid, tangible benefits of cloud computing, and they also increase its financial benefit. Even so, it’s good to remember that no matter how many more benefits cloud computing offers; it remains an excellent cost-cutting strategy.

According to CDW’s 2013 State of the Cloud report (a survey of 1,242 IT professionals), companies are cutting costs in the cloud in numerous ways. According to the technology retailer’s survey, chief cost-related factors for moving to cloud computing include:

• Software management costs (65% of respondents)
• Software licensing costs (63% of respondents)
• IT labor costs (52% of respondents)
• Cost of capital outlays (41% of respondents)
• Electric bills for IT operations (21% of respondents)
• Real estate costs (12% of respondents)

Additionally, nearly 40% indicated senior company management was pushing for IT to shift expenses from capital (CapEx) to operating (OpEx), a strategy that correlates perfectly with cloud adoption.

Savings varies based on company size and level of cloud adoption, and migration project expenses can reduce cost savings for the first few months, or even a year. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that cloud adoption is a money-saving approach at the most basic level. When the value of increased efficiency/productivity gains (55% cited), employee mobility (49% cited), and ability to innovate (32% cited) are factored in, the savings is even greater.

As a leading IT solutions provider, DynaSis has been a believer in cloud services since the technology’s early days, and we remain committed to the future of this limitless technology. We also have a strategy for SMBs who wish to “dip their toes” into the cloud before embracing it fully, starting with hosted Microsoft Exchange or a professionally managed Office 365 deployment. No matter where you want the cloud to take you, we can assist. To learn more, please give us a call.

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By the DynaSis Team

As a company focused on IT solutions for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), we generally think of risk reduction in terms of technology―either reducing the risk to the business if it experiences IT outages (for any reason) or reducing the risks if its security is breached. Nevertheless, we have always assumed that most businesses―and business writers―consider technology risk a part of the general topic of risk reduction and management.

While perusing the Internet recently, we were surprised to learn that many general risk reduction articles do not address technology, at all. We found discussions of a wide array of topics, from reviewing internal controls to practicing better worker safety. We also found numerous IT-related risk management articles, but most of them centered around either cyber security or disaster recovery.

Both of these discoveries were unsettling to us. The reality for SMBs is that technology risk is part of their general business risk, and it is a function of daily operation. It does not take a cyber attack or a major storm for a firm to be hobbled by inadequate IT risk management.

Consider the consequences if an employee accidentally spills coffee all over the back of his PC (or even worse, one of your servers) and it shorts out the internal logic boards. Alternatively, if one of your departments suddenly suffers several PC failures because you have not been able to plan for appropriate replacement cycles. Even something as minor as a mild summer storm can cause an IT mess if lightning hits your building, and you are not properly prepared.

Many companies lose business―and potentially customers―if they suffer an IT outage of even a few hours in a single department. Some that rely on the Internet can lose thousands of dollars in minutes if their site―or its connection to their inventory database―goes down.

Technology has enabled SMBs to do more with less―to look and operate like the “big guys” without having a global network of locations, warehouses all over the country, and other criteria that used to separate large enterprises from small ones. However, when technology replaces traditional operating methods, it also requires more attention.

Solid IT planning and administration can mitigate many of the “non-specific” risks associated with technology―the ones few people consider until they hit home. Working with IT experts to plan for replacement of aging equipment before it fails, for example, or planning for and implementing a remote access solution for your personnel to access corporate data and assets, are just two examples of how businesses can plan for and mitigate IT risk easily and at a reasonable cost.

At the end of the day, IT risk mitigation is a cost of doing business. Companies that embrace this reality and proactively work to achieve it save money, time and headaches, in the long run. As part of our IT support services, DynaSis has been helping its customers mitigate all nature of IT risks in their business. We’d be happy to help you create a workable plan to bring all your IT risks under control. We’ll begin with a simple technology assessment, which will pinpoint risks you did not even know you had. To learn more or get started, please give us a call.

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By the DynaSis Team

With more than half of small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) backing up their data at least weekly, and 15% backing up every day, per a 2014 study, SMBs have made big strides in the use of backup technologies over the past few decades. Despite this fact, many firms are still not taking adequate steps to ensure the data in those backups can meet the operating needs of the business.

Physically backing up is only a small piece of the puzzle. Where and how the data is stored and the level of data availability (whether employees can access and restore it quickly and easily, when needed) are just as important.

There are many additional considerations for a robust backup management solution, and we will delve into the individual aspects of backup―from data security and mobility to retention and deduplication―in later blogs. Today, we’d like to offer a three foundational principles that can help companies better protect their data and achieve more useful backups.

Eliminate Tapes, Forever: Tape backups served millions of companies well for decades, but today there is a much better solution. On-site tape storage is especially risky―and potentially worthless in the event of a physical disaster at your location. Furthermore, tapes deteriorate over time. Cloud-based backups, which almost always offer redundancy, are a far safer means of protecting your data.

Establish Data Access Thresholds: In the backup industry, there are three key metrics for companies to address: Recovery Time Objective (RTO; the minimum time within which you would like to restore your data, applications and critical IT-related processes after an outage), Recovery Point Objective (RPO; the point to which you want your data restored) and Maximum Tolerable Outage (MTO; the longest amount of time your business could be disrupted by loss of access to your data, email and applications before it jeopardized your business continuity and/or client relationships).

Although these metrics are often discussed in relation to extreme situations, they help companies determine their risk tolerance during data outages or losses of any type. DynaSis wrote a white paper that talks about these metrics and other disaster recovery issues. You can read it here.

Protect Your Bottom Line Along with Your Data: A core feature of any backup plan must be adequate protection for the data. However, it’s just as important for these solutions to protect the business and its employees. Numerous studies have determined that excess complexity or unavoidable data loss hurts everyone. One survey of SMB IT pros found that 33 percent said even a small data loss hurts corporate bottom lines, and 32% said it results in missed business opportunities.

Furthermore, data loss impacts office morale (24 percent of respondents), employee work-life balance (25 percent of respondents) and employee loyalty (11 percent had employees quit as a result of a data loss). The surest way to minimize these impacts is to have backups that allow selective retrieval rather than restoration of entire data stores. When employees can cherry-pick a single lost file rather than go through a tortuous process to retrieve a backup, they are happier, more productive and more successful at keeping your business operating at its peak.

Here at DynaSis, we have been providing best-practices data backup services―with optional selective restore capabilities―for many years. Our newest platform, the DynaSis Data Vault, is truly groundbreaking. To learn more or get started, please give us a call.

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By the DynaSis Team

Savvy business owners recognize that newer technology is faster and more efficient than outdated PCs, cellphones, and other hardware and devices. Nevertheless, for cash-strapped businesses seeking to maximize IT budgets, the question then becomes, is modern technology so much of an improvement that it is worth the expense? Short of replacing hardware when it dies, how can you calculate the value of replacing old hardware and devices with modern ones?

We’ll talk about that in a minute, but first, we wanted to share an interesting fact. During an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Bob O’Donnell, program vice president for research firm IDC, noted that workers waste up to three days, per year, waiting for older devices to boot up or load web pages.

This is a metric that is easy for anyone to calculate. For example, if you are paying an employee $52,000 a year, plus benefits and paid time off (traditionally considered to add one-third to the labor cost), your labor expense is nearly $70,000 a year. That equates to roughly $266 per day.

If that person is working on an older PC, you are wasting as much as $798 a year in the time he or she waits for an outdated PC to perform these processing operations, compared to the time it would take on a new machine.

That factoid surprised us, and it exemplifies how the hidden costs of using outdated technology really add up. Of course, faced with small budgets and daily pressures, it is still easy for business owners to put upgrades off.

Allocating IT budgets effectively requires balancing between end-user costs, direct technology costs and the value of turning productivity losses into gains. That’s why we recommend that organizations not make upgrade decisions without considering the business use case and support model—for the duration of the lifecycle—of every system they currently own and will someday replace.

When an organization comes to us, we also urge its decision makers to order a DynaSis IT Assessment before making upgrade decisions. This non-invasive exploration maps and evaluates the company network, hardware, devices and other IT elements and returns suggestions for urgent and recommended improvements. Sometimes, the worst performers in the company—the machines that are destroying productivity or even causing damage to corporate operations or public reputation—aren’t obvious to the untrained eye.

When evaluating the benefits of upgrading to modern technology, companies should also consider the negative impacts of machine/device age, including performance (not only processing speed but also ability to run modern software), availability (downtime concerns) and security. Other considerations include usage (why and how employees interact with the system for work purposes) and mobility (whether or not the current hardware supports remote productivity).

By understanding all these factors, firms are in a much better position to recognize the single most important distinction in developing ROI—the difference between cost and value. Armed with that information, they can establish refresh cycles that not only eliminate the three days of wasted time we mentioned earlier but also reduce outages, increase worker satisfaction and increase competitive edge.

DynaSis offers on-demand CIO services, where virtual CIOs can give you as much assistance with evaluation and planning as you need. We also offer affordable IT design services and installation services. To learn more, we invite you to give us a call.

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By the DynaSis Team

Proactive IT administration—where specialized technology continually scans a company’s networks and systems to detect and promote resolution of potential issues—is becoming increasingly popular among organizations seeking greater availability and employee productivity. With these technologies, small software “agents” installed on the systems scan for problems and either fix them automatically or alert technicians (often at a third-party provider’s location) who can step in and perform any necessary work.

The question for firms that haven’t adopted proactive IT administration then becomes, “Is this service really worth it?” For companies that can tolerate a lengthy amount of system downtime without having their business disrupted, the answer might be, “No.” However, most firms consider significant downtime unacceptable, making the theoretical benefits very attractive. DynaSis provides this service to its customers, so we thought it would be interesting to examine the hard-dollar benefits of proactive IT monitoring and management.

We found a 2010 survey, conducted by a leading provider of the software that enables services such as these, that indicates the ROI is very appealing. In the survey of 100 companies using proactive administration technologies, 60 percent reported that the solution proved its worth within 60 days of purchase.

A closer inspection revealed that the savings were significant in reduced IT expense, alone. Productivity gains for IT-specific functions amounted to 55 minutes a month, and included a reduction in the time to perform backups, system upgrades and patch installs, regulatory and compliance checks, and more.

Furthermore, these systems can also help with automated power management—where electricity flowing to idle machines is reduced. As a final “sustainability” bonus, proactive IT administration cuts down on technician visits to resolve problems, which reduces miles driven and, therefore, corporate carbon footprints.

These benefits were calculated completely independent of the “business downtime” metric we mentioned initially—the one that most companies consider in their decision. We see, nearly every day, how proactive system monitoring and management makes a major difference in IT outcomes in this area. For example, without a proactive monitoring solution in place, overloaded hardware can go undetected for months, until it causes a major outage that must be resolved with a lengthy technician visit. With proactive administration, technicians are alerted immediately, and they can often fix the problem remotely with a few clicks of the mouse. Users have no knowledge of the activity and company operations continue, unaffected.

The unobtrusive nature of proactive IT administration is one of the variables that sometimes makes it hard for us to illustrate the benefit of this service to our potential customers. If you have questioned the value of having remote intervention before trouble starts, we hope this information has helped. To learn more about proactive IT monitoring, management and administration, or to explore the services we offer in this area, we invite you to give us a call.

DynaSis, Atlanta’s premier provider of IT services and support for small and medium businesses (SMBs), announced today it has partnered with Peak 10, Inc. and has built a new software-defined data center at their new location in Alpharetta. Peak 10 has 25 data centers across the U.S., many of which are linked to their host cities via Internet backbones and high-speed connections. The sites of Peak 10’s connected data centers align well with the locations of DynaSis eastern-market customers, enabling DynaSis to provide their clients with a host of new services. These new capabilities will build on the foundation of providing Availability, Security, and Mobility to the Modern Business.

“Peak 10 is a highly regarded, world-class data center company,” said DynaSis President Dave Moorman. “Although our previous provider was incredibly reliable and supportive, this move enables us to support a wider range of locations and provide more service flexibility to our customers, including more Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery options.”

With the move, DynaSis is also transitioning to a fully operated “software-defined” data center model with solid state drives (SSDs) as primary storage and a 10GbE core network backbone. In a software-defined data center, a smaller number of denser hard drives replaces the older, larger drives that previously required extensive numbers of rack systems. The new drives have tighter, more robust software integration, increasing virtualization capacity, control, scalability and other operating benefits. A smaller footprint enables more drives to operate in the same space, expanding data center capacity and increasing overall efficiency.

Making the shift to SSDs increases performance substantially. SSDs can have 100 times greater performance, almost instantaneous data access, faster boot times and more rapid file transfers than legacy magnetic drives. SSDs also have no moving parts to wear out.

“With our new infrastructure design, we will have the capacity to host 8,000 servers, all of which will offer better performance than any previous solution,” said Moorman. “We are always seeking ways to benefit our customers, and the move to Peak 10, combined with adoption of the now fully matured software-defined data center and SSD technologies, will bring our customers a substantial functionality and productivity boost.”

About Peak 10
Peak 10 provides reliable, tailored cloud computing, data center and other information technology (IT) infrastructure solutions and managed services, primarily for mid-market businesses.  Peak 10 solutions are designed to scale and adapt to customers’ changing business needs, enabling them to increase agility, lower costs, improve performance and focus internal IT resources on their core competencies. Peak 10 holds the Cisco® Cloud Provider Certification with a Cisco Powered Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) designation. Peak 10 undergoes independent third-party examinations on an annual basis, and maintains compliance reports and certifications including SOC 1, SOC 2, SOC 3, PCI DSS, Safe Harbor and HIPAA.  Peak 10’s security controls are also leveraged by clients to help maintain compliance with FDA, FISMA, ITAR, as well as other compliance and security standards. For more information, visit www.peak10.com.

About DynaSis
DynaSis is a managed IT service provider for small and medium-sized businesses in Atlanta, Georgia. DynaSis specializes in offering on-premise and on-demand managed IT service plans, managed hosting and professional equipment installation. For more information about DynaSis’ services visit www.dynasis.com.

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By the DynaSis Team

Unified communications―a service found in many VoIP phone solutions that extends communication by incorporating location, availability and notification―is changing the way companies and their personnel do business. For example, no longer are customers forced to leave a message at 4:55 pm on Friday and wait for a call back on Monday, merely because their representative happened to be down the hall or out of the office.

Now, phone systems can find the representative, notify him or her, transfer the call to another device or location, and perform many other connectivity functions without any operator interaction. These systems are often called Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), because that is exactly what they are―a technology service, usually cloud-based, that works with the underlying VoIP hardware to achieve greater functionality.

UCaaS dovetails perfectly with the “always on” nature of business communications today, where personnel can be available via smartphone, tablet, laptop or other device, in any location. UCaaS is also a key component of customer service, as the technology does more than locate and notify a specific person; it also can connect a caller to any employee that matches a specific profile, for example, to connect a caller with a salesperson.

In 2015, we expect to see even more development in UCaaS, with such innovations as web-based, real-time communications (WebRTC) being used to unify communications even further. Already, workers are using their mobile devices to take and share on-the-fly videos with other staff, vendors and customers. When these solutions are built into a UCaaS platform, it extends business functionality and customer service even further.

According to Nemertes Research, 68% of all companies have implemented at least one cloud-based UCaaS solution. With customers expecting more connectivity and faster response times, and VoIP and UCaaS solutions becoming more affordable than ever, firms that remain fixed on legacy telephone systems risk losing their competitive edge. To learn more about VoIP or UCaaS, we invite you to give us a call.

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By the DynaSis Team

Despite the fact that mobile threats are increasing exponentially (mobile malware jumped 75% in 2014, alone), an astonishing percentage of mobile phones have no security protections, at all. Per a 2014 survey, only 14% of devices have anti-virus software, and 34% of mobile phone owners don’t even use the screen lock feature. As a result, organizations that allow users to store company data on their mobile devices without added precautions are exposing their company and its assets to extreme risk.

Implementing a mobile device management system is a key step in securing the enterprise against an onslaught of inadequately secure devices, but educating users to reduce the danger is equally important. As with desktop platforms, users are the weakest link in any security chain. Following are some suggestions that will help protect your employees―and your business.

1. Simulate the danger. Create and distribute, from a non-office device, a phishing-type email and see who takes the bait. (Phishing emails are those that look real but the links take users to malicious websites. Phishing messages opened on mobile devices can infect laptops and corporate systems, as well, so companies and employees must take it seriously.) Making bad decisions is often a far more effective learning technique than hearing about them. Bottom of Form
2. Create a Training Program. Some personnel don’t enact security measures (such as passcodes) on their phones because they don’t know how. Either teach them how to properly secure their phones or have your tech team secure them upon request. Additionally, show personnel how to create sufficiently robust passcodes and ask them to adhere to the recommendations.
3. Outlaw “Jailbreaking.” Jailbreaking―the process of thwarting a device’s operating system so the user can install unauthorized apps―is predicted to be the cause of up to 75% of mobile security breaches by 2014 (per research firm Gartner). To secure corporate assets, companies should create policies against jailbreaking with strict penalties for non-compliance, including loss of device use (for corporate-owned phones), network access or other privileges.
4. Implement a “No Consequences” Policy for Device Loss with Immediate Notification. Terrifying employees that they will be fired if they lose their corporate devices, or shaming them in front of their peers, makes them afraid to report device loss immediately. Their logic is that they may find the device and avoid reprisal. Any reporting lag time puts company information at risk, so companies should encourage employees to report device loss immediately―and should implement “find me” services for all phones operating on the corporate network.

For companies without a specially trained “mobile technology management” team, some of these activities―and others such as policy development and device security―can be complicated and confusing. To discuss implementing these and other protections for your firm, we invite you to give us a call.

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By the DynaSis Team

In last week’s article, we briefly mentioned virtualization in the context of our discussion on disaster recovery. For those unfamiliar with the concept, virtualization involves portioning one or more physical servers into multiple virtual machines (VMs), each of which can have its own file store, overall purpose and operating system and be isolated from the others. (Think of a VM as a sophisticated version of a partition, e.g. the C: or D: drive, on a PC.)

Virtualization greatly enhances operating efficiency and can provide a much more secure environment than a traditional server setup. Because each machine is discrete, with virtualization it can be easier to segregate and protect data of all types.

However, virtualization also increases security challenges, because there are more machines to manage―and potentially more ways for a cybercriminal to find his way in. This week, we’ll talk about a few challenges that business owners face in protecting their data in virtual environments.

1. Sprawl: The ease of creating VMs is leading to sprawl― much like a suburb that blossoms because land is inexpensive and home building practices are more efficient. This potential for expansion makes effective management and security a greater challenge, especially if “tech-savvy” users can access systems and create their own VMs.
2. Density: Current technologies enable a few physical servers to handle a very large load of virtualized servers, but firms focused on efficiency often virtualize those servers to maximum capacity. If not properly configured, these servers may lack the capacity for IT management functions, including security.
3. Big Data: Compounding this issue, the explosion of data―and the need to save so much of it to a permanent storage location―is causing data stores to explode, with multi-terabyte data stores not unusual. Keeping tabs on―and ensuring appropriate security for―this much data is a daunting task.
4. Application Integration: With the increase in virtualized applications, companies are challenged to provide the same level of protection and security that they could on a physical server.
5. Granular Recovery: In the early days of virtualization, the traditional backup recovery approach was to remount an entire machine from the backup. In today’s environment, companies want file or object-level restores, but the security challenges of controlling such selective access and retrieve operations are considerable.

Fortunately, an appropriate combination of automated monitoring and hands-on management makes it much easier to ensure visibility, management and security of VMs. DynaSis has spent nearly three decades perfecting its approach to managing and securing IT systems at all levels, from mobile devices to servers, including virtualized environments.