by David Moorman, President

Its been said that you are only as strong as your weakest link, and so it goes with your network security. You may have the latest and greatest equipment and software guarding the gateway to your network, but all that means nothing if you don’t have an IT security policy in place that is being enforced.

A security policy includes details such as which websites are approved, and which should be blocked, as well as what kind of content or programs employees are allowed to download. Do they really need to download and install the latest version of Texas hold’em? Other points include the frequency of changing passwords and ensuring passwords are not written down or stored in obvious locations.

One quid pro quo to an IT security policy: it needs to be enforced. There is growing recognition among employers that, however much time and money they spend on ramping up their IT security, it counts for very little if they fail to change the practices and mindset of their workforce. Have employees sign an agreement so they are held accountable for their actions. In extreme cases, larger companies have even charged for damages done to business PC’s due to employee misuse or have adopted the policy of employees supplying their own personal computers. Employees may think twice if they’ve got skin in the game.

The moral of that story is clear: No matter how secure your network may be, it's only as secure as its weakest link. And people--meaning you and your employees--are often the weakest link. So get on the phone with your trusted IT advisor and start creating your detailed security plan today. You'll sleep better tonight.

by David Moorman, President

It’s 10:30 a.m. on a weekday. Do you know where your employees are?
According to workplace consulting firm DEGW, chances are that only 50% are in the office and that 30% are at their desks. The rest are teleworking, on sales calls, attending a conference, traveling, out on vacation, or otherwise occupied.

If you have a workstation for each employee, you may be missing out on an opportunity to save money on office space and computer hardware by “hot desking.” The name is adapted from a naval term called either “hot bunking” or “hot racking,” where sailors share limited bunk space because ships and submarines operate on a 24/7 schedule. Since one sailor gets up just before another lies down, the bed is still hot.

An increasingly mobile workforce and technological advances have made hot desking, also called location independent working, a viable option for many companies. Do your outside salespeople really need a workspace at the home office? Those employees likely can access company data remotely, making a physical connection at the office unnecessary.

Although the concept of hot desking dates to the late 1980s, the prevalence of Software-as-a-Service offerings, centralized data servers, and smart telephony solutions that don’t require a physical phone have combined to give the concept new life. If your company works on multiple shifts or has staff members who spend most of their time out of the office anyway, hot desking could save up to 30% on office rent.

In a managed services environment, employees can access any information they need from anywhere, eliminating the need for a dedicated workstation at the office. Of course, that begs the question of where an employee puts the photos of the spouse, the kids, the dog, or that prized boat.
But that’s what screensavers are for.

July 28, 2009 Atlanta, GA--DynaSis, a technology managed service provider, is now offering business continuity plans to help small to medium sized businesses prepare for emergencies such as natural disaster, network crashes, or theft of business data. Unlike enterprises, many smaller companies cannot afford optimal in-house strategies and solutions. These companies are consequently at an elevated risk of being put out of business due to any major loss of data. A business continuity plan goes beyond offsite data backup and recovery and gives businesses a strategy detailing actions that will be taken after a crisis so the business can remain as functional as possible.

A key component of a business continuity plan is of course making sure critical documents and data are digitized or copied and stored off site, but the plan encompasses much more. Aspects businesses may not have considered include doing visual walkthroughs of facilities at least once a year to look for deficiencies, as well as making sure the business has sufficient business interruption insurance to cover the cost of operations for at least 60 days with no income. Other areas of concern consist of communications with employees in the event of phone system or Internet outages and creating a plan in case key employees can’t perform their duties or quit suddenly. Maintaining a list of emergency vendors as well as securing an alternative place to conduct business if the primary facility is unavailable are also details the plan would include.

DynaSis President David Moorman said, “Our goal is always to be a value added provider in the eyes of our clients. For this reason, we go beyond being just your IT repair guy. Protecting your data is half the battle, but when a crisis hits, you also have to think about what you are going to do to get back up to speed. What a business does in the first four hours after an emergency often determines how well they can bounce back.”

With 87% of companies that lose access to their corporate data for more than 7 days going out of business within a year and less than 5% of non-regulated businesses having a business continuity plan, and the need for business continuity planning services is real and the benefits to clients are immediate and long-term. Benefits realized after completing a business continuity/disaster recovery plan include competitive advantage, insurance savings, efficiency savings, improved processes, increased stockholder value and peace of mind.

About DynaSis
DynaSis is a managed IT services provider for small to medium sized businesses in Atlanta, GA, offering on-premise and on-demand SaaS monthly service plans, professional IT installation services, and managed hosting. For more information on DynaSis, visit www.dynasis.com.

by David Moorman, President

Technology should not be considered a cost center but, rather, should be viewed as a way to gain a competitive advantage in your marketplace. Day-to-day management of a company’s infrastructure should be just a small part of what IT staffers do.

An IT spending survey from Accenture reveals that most companies spend 70 cents of each IT dollar on continuing operations and maintenance, but the ideal ratio is 55 cents for maintenance and 45 cents of each dollar on value-added IT services that can bring a competitive advantage.

If you’re not already, here are a few projects you should be working on:

1. Conducting data mining of your customers or your market. Data mining is the process of finding patterns in your data that can help identify your target demographic, Web site traffic trends, and what types of products or services are most popular. That information can be used to tweak your offerings to hit the “sweet spot” of the market and identify likely new customers. This can be much more effective than renting a list for direct marketing or e-mail marketing.

2. Planning for a disaster scenario. Data varies by year (and the prevalence of terrorist attacks or major natural disasters), but few companies have comprehensive business continuity plans in place. While a major incident is unlikely to occur, the simple loss of communications or data could put your company out of business if you’re not adequately prepared.

3. Exploring a CRM solution. Customer relationship management solutions have been making inroads into the small- and medium-sized business market. Deploying an effective CRM product can result in more sales and happier customers. Isn’t that what every business wants?

Deploying technology for technology’s sake will not gain you the competitive advantage that you want. Before investing in any product or service, you should determine your ROI, a fancy acronym that simply means, “Will I get my money’s worth by making this purchase?”

That should be the job of your IT staff, to make those determinations so you can make wise business decisions. In today’s lean and fierce marketplace, the success or failure of your business could ride on the outcome.

When Electric Cities of Georgia broke away from its parent company, they were faced with building an entire IT solution from scratch.“Our startup dollars were limited and we felt ITility by DynaSis was the best solution for us so we didn’t have a huge capital expense up front. The infrastructure was purchased and is maintained by DynaSis. This guarantees us the best technology available for a fixed monthly cost. Considering we operate on a strict budget, the monthly fee is perfect for our situation,” said Ellen Richardson VP of Business Development.

by David Moorman, President

Many businesses think that business continuity and disaster recovery means protecting your technology and having a plan in place for data recovery. And while it is that, business continuity includes much more in order to keep your business functional during a disaster.

Business continuity has several other components you need to think about in case your business is ever the victim of a natural disaster or emergency:

Communication: What happens if you cannot use your current infrastructure or facility to communicate with clients or employees. You need an emergency contact plan in place to re-group employees, connect with vendors, and reassure customers you are in control.

Logistics Operations: A plan is required to continue to carry out deliveries and orders in the event your facility is not operational for more than one day. A list of emergency service providers should be kept up to date in case the unthinkable happens, as well as a backup plan in case key employees cannot perform critical duties.

Proactive Testing: Performing a visual facility review once per year to correct deficiencies can help you prepare and be ready in case you get stuck between a rock and a hard place. Taking inventory of critical resources including data and equipment and making sure those assets can withstand the storm can help you get back on your feet following the aftermath.

While it sounds like a lot of work (and it is!), the immediate and long-term benefits far outweigh the cost of losing your business. Implementing a business continuity plan offers competitive advantage, peace of mind, technology efficiencies, client confidence, and even savings!

June 23, 2009: Atlanta, Georgia. DynaSis, a managed IT provider in the Atlanta metro area has recently announced its new partnership with IP phone system provider Fonality to offer small to medium sized businesses access to affordable Atlanta VoIP solutions comparable to large business phone systems.

The barrier to entry for Voice over IP in Atlanta for most small to midsized businesses has long been the cost involved with installing and maintaining a full scale VoIP solution that can provide the sound quality and features enterprise solutions offer. Enterprise solutions are often costly to maintain because they require a skilled IT professional for minor issues such as simple additions or deletions of extensions, and most of the cost savings realized from long distance savings are eaten up by maintenance and initial installation costs.

Fonality from DynaSis creates affordable SMB Atlanta voice over IP solutions that are easy to use, easy to manage, scalable, feature-rich, and reliable. Through this partnership, DynaSis is now able to offer small to mid-sized businesses the ability to sound and operate like a large business.

DynaSis President David Moorman commented, “Our position is that every small to medium sized business needs an affordable communication system that provides a competitive edge. With Fonality, SMBs get an easy to use small business voice over IP solution complete with rich features, mobility, scalability and a low total cost of ownership.”

Fonality’s website states: ”We believe that businesses should not have to shell out fortunes for expensive traditional PBX systems or settle for the typical, feature-lean, key phone systems that have always made them look and sound small. We are committed to providing next-generation communication solutions that are simple to use and easy to manage. “

With Atlanta VoIP solutions from DynaSis advanced features help even the smallest businesses sound like multi-million dollar operations. Big business features such as auto-attendant, dial-by-name directory, call queues, call parking, drag-and-drop call transfer, CRM integration, and advanced reporting are finally available at affordable prices.

About Fonality
Fonality, the number one commercial grade vendor of open-source IP phone systems, uses its Hybrid Hosted™ approach and Anywhere Management™ architecture to create the reliability and quality of a premise-based system with the convenience and cost benefits of a hosted system. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Culver City, Calif., the company has over 44,000 systems deployed worldwide. Investors include Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Intel Capital, and Azure Capital Partners. More information can be found at www.fonality.com.

About DynaSis
DynaSis is a managed IT services provider for small to medium sized businesses in Atlanta, GA, offering on-premise and on-demand SaaS monthly service plans, professional IT installation services, and managed hosting. For more information on DynaSis, visit www.dynasis.com.

May 7, 2009. Atlanta, GA based IT services firm DynaSis expands its offerings to give customers a detailed IT strategy plan for both short term and long term planning. The strategic technology review gives clients a look into how their technology is performing currently, auditing the current risks that can lead to critical issues in the near future as well as capacity and compliance issues that will need to be handled down the road.

DynaSis engineers perform strategic technology reviews for new and existing clients so they can have an idea of what industry best practices look like, as well as which practices they are meeting and which need to be addressed. Based on ITIL standards, the process takes a look from the top down including, servers, firewalls and storage devices on the network level before delving into personal computer and user personalities. Engineers spend some time on-site with the client conducting a thorough analysis and in turn deliver a detailed report with the findings. Virtual chief information officers (VCIOs) assigned to the client then discuss the findings in a round table discussion with the client’s key players and offer a road map on how to improve the current state of their IT gradually, so the client has different options available based on their timeline, budget, and strategy.

President David Moorman commented, “We wanted to give the SMB customer a real look into their IT and where it is heading instead of just providing a fly-by-night review that only acts as a sales gimmick. With the strategic technology review, we take the time to get to know your network and present the findings in an easy to understand presentation with options that make sense for your budget. We make sure we do our homework on your network, so we can make the best possible recommendations.”

In fact strategic technology reviews are only the beginning, DynaSis works with clients to become a trusted technology advisor and even dedicates resources like VCIOs to make sure plans are being implemented and new strategies are being developed as the business changes. Vice President Chas Arnold noted, “As a part of our service, IT is constantly being maximized as an advantage to the client. We help clients move from a reactive frame of mind to a proactive one, so they can anticipate technology needs as their business grows.”

DynaSis is a managed IT services provider for small to medium sized businesses in Atlanta, GA, offering on-premise and on-demand SaaS monthly service plans, professional IT installation services, and managed hosting. For more information on DynaSis, visit www.dynasis.com.

March 25, 2009: Atlanta, Georgia based IT firm DynaSis announces new software as a service (SaaS) for the small to midsize business. The new service named ITility by DynaSis offers the SMB a low fixed monthly cost for all of the essential IT solutions needed to do business like email, network security, and data backup while hosting essential applications and delivering them on demand. ITility by DynaSis provides IT services over a secure Internet connection so businesses can access their data from anywhere at anytime without purchasing or maintaining servers, firewalls, or other IT infrastructure equipment.

ITility by DynaSis utilizes a SaaS or software as a service model in which IT is delivered on demand via the Internet from a grid computing platform. ITility by DynaSis is a turnkey solution that allows the SMB to use their desktops, thin clients or handheld's to access their data, eliminating the need for time consuming support, downtime and costly routine upgrades to the infrastructure. All of the IT equipment needed is hosted at the DynaSis datacenter, a world-class facility with 24x7x365 server monitoring, environmental monitoring, high speed Internet feeds from 6 of the top Internet providers, re-generated power via a 3 grid substation, limited access with biometric finder and retina scanners, and around the clock surveillance.

Vice President Chas Arnold says, “ITility by DynaSis allows the SMB to get out of the IT and data center business and focus on what they do best. Whether you are a 5 person company, or a 100 person company, IT infrastructure has a high cost of entry. With DynaSis ITility by DynaSis, the SMB benefits from the infrastructure and data center services the Fortune 500 have, for a low cost, no hassle solution that works when and where they need it to. Data access is no longer constricted by location, freeing employees to work anywhere and anytime, giving them increased productivity.”

ITility by DynaSis includes help desk services, on-site services, application hosting, Microsoft Office 2007, dedicated servers, managed anti-virus, anti-spam, managed firewall, Microsoft exchange email, automated backups, system monitoring, mobility and more.

President David Moorman added, “Small and medium sized companies we see are spending huge amounts of time and money trying to maintain technologies that do not give them a competitive advantage. The new concept in business is to focus on technologies that offer businesses a competitive advantage like Business Intelligence, CRM, ERP, etc and get out of the IT plumbing business. ITility by DynaSis was designed for just that."

DynaSis is a managed IT services provider for small to medium sized businesses in Atlanta, GA, offering on-premise and on-demand SaaS monthly service plans, professional IT installation services, and managed hosting. For more information on ITility by DynaSis, visit www.dynasis.com/itility.

February 19, 2009: Atlanta, GA based IT company DynaSis has recently built a new state-of-the-art data center in downtown Atlanta. The facility guarantees a secure and resilient place to house mission-critical equipment, with 24x7x365 server and environmental monitoring systems plus around the clock management personnel, digital video surveillance cameras, electronic access cards, and biometric retina and fingerprint authentication scanners. The data center is served by 6 high speed optical connections from backbone providers. With generator backup support as well as a high capacity UPS and automatic transfer switch, clients can rest assured that their data is protected from disastrous failures.

President David Moorman commented, “Our primary feed is through Internap, the most highly rated backbone provider in the US. Internap's ability to intelligently route traffic for maximum throughput is unsurpassed. They also have superior abilities to detect and quickly respond to threats and traffic issues. Our investment in this upstream provider is well justified.”

This structure provides the best of both worlds – the highest level of infrastructure in production today with a computing grid that DynaSis manages their customer's sites, databases, and applications. This approach provides the following benefits:

• Availability -- The architecture is over-engineered to provide redundancy at every possible point of failure. This includes multiple high speed feeds to the Internet backbone, re-generated power via a dedicated 3 grid substation to ensure power purity, batteries and generators in case of power failures, storm proof facilities, and more.

• Performance -- At the core network level, high speed, high capacity network equipment is used to ensure throughput and best routing over the Internet that uses top of the line network equipment for maximum performance.

• Responsiveness -- Since DynaSis manages its own network, they are able to respond with speed and effectiveness whenever an issue arises in the hosting environment. This specialization of effort results in customers receiving prompt care and attention through personal service from DynaSis with the security and reliability of a world class data center.

DynaSis Vice President Chas Arnold added, “We are committed to giving clients — and their data — world-class protection in the managed services and managed hosting business. These new investments and this new data center take that commitment to the next level. Our clients, mostly small to mid-size firms here in the Atlanta metro area, just don’t have access to an IT infrastructure of this caliber. By making this technology so accessible, we can help you become more competitive in the market place now and in the future.”

DynaSis is a Complete IT Solutions provider for the SMB, offering IT infrastructure, managed services, business solutions, and technical support. To learn more visit www.DynaSis.com or call 770.569.4600.