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Large corporations aren’t the only businesses who face a threat from hackers. Increasingly, the targets of cyber attacks are small firms:
Unbeknownst to owner Joe Angelastri, cyber thieves planted a software program on the cash registers at his two Chicago-area magazine shops that sent customer credit-card numbers to Russia. MasterCard Inc. demanded an investigation, at Mr. Angelastri's expense, and the whole ordeal left him out about $22,000.
His experience highlights a growing threat to small businesses. Hackers are expanding their sights beyond multinationals to include any business that stores data in electronic form. Small companies, which are making the leap to computerized systems and digital records, have now become hackers' main target.
"Who would want to break into us?" asked Mr. Angelastri, who says the breach cut his annual profit in half. "We're not running a bank."
Whether hackers are stealing information or destroying it, you may be more vulnerable than you would expect. What would happen to your business if, suddenly, days, months or even years of data suddenly disappeared? Spreadsheets, financial history, customer data, employee records, presentations and plans just… gone? A recent study discovered that, of companies experiencing a “major loss” of computer records:
Using best practices developed from over 20 years of experience, DynaSis knows what data to backup and how often. You can choose which data storage option is right for you:
Our storage options can include:
IT systems are vulnerable to spam, viruses, spyware, and even disgruntled employees. Any of these could destroy or syphon data from your network. Therefor it is important to protect both the server and client side of your network. If reducing risk is important to your business, focusing on IT liabilities should be your top priority.
Recently, the public has become aware of massive technology attacks and vulnerabilities. There has been an enormous increase in sensational news stories covering hacking scandals. Hacking groups like LulzSec, who hacked Sony, Anonymous, and other hacktivist organizations have spotlighted the reality of technological malice. Unprotected systems of all sizes are ripe targets for sophisticated hacking attacks and viruses.
Even if you have a firewall, anti-virus software, and malware protection, the largest data vulnerability still isn't protected. Physical theft and disaster is one of the most common forms of tech malice. Losing data results in revenue loss, reputation damage, and diminished employee and consumer confidence.
Staying up to date with security is a major initiative in business and yet, it still poses a great challenge to even the largest corporations. For companies that don’t have security as a core competency, building the right infrastructure, hiring and training personnel, and maintaining security practices can be a heavy investment, fraught with risk.
Hiring security professionals in the past might have seemed like a nice luxury. But now, as businesses rely more on technology, the necessity to maintain an IT system’s integrity is fundamental. You can talk to DynaSis today to review your security needs. We will present you with the options available and build a solution that is right for your business. With over 20 years of industry experience, our track record speaks for itself. DynaSis’ experts build world class security systems with industry leading technologies. We manage these systems 24/7/365 in real-time and provide immediate support if anything arises. Data integrity is ensured with the highest levels of authentication, access control, and confidentiality available.
Data security and protection have been cornerstones for IT infrastructure development since the creation of the world wide web. The ability to connect to the Internet and store sensitive data is vital to nearly every business. With great power comes great responsibility. With DynaSis managed security, you can concentrate on using the power and we will bear the responsibility.
by Dave Moorman
According to Wikipedia:
Virtualization is the creation of a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, such as a hardware platform, operating system, a storage device or network resources.
While that is the technical description, it helps to know what virtualization accomplishes:
Virtualization is a key part of any new infrastructure designed today. Virtualization provides more scalability, better use of current hardware resources and much greater manageability. The goal of virtualization is to centralize administrative tasks while improving High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery (DR).
If this sounds a little too abstract, it’s easy to understand virtualization by peering into history. In the 1970’s computing power was extremely expensive. Due to the expense, IBM would create mainframe computers that served as a hub so that multiple computers could use the computing resources. This allowed for multiple people to tap into a single computer at the same time.
Virtualization lets you run multiple virtual servers or desktops on a single physical machine (host), sharing the resources of that single server. Basically, you are gaining more scale while using less server hardware. Virtualization works by inserting a thin layer of software directly on the server hardware or host and then loading multiple versions of the operating systems on top of it. This software layer contains a virtual machine monitor which allocates hardware resources dynamically and transparently. Multiple operating systems run concurrently on a single physical server (host) and share hardware resources with each other. You can safely run several operating systems and applications at the same time on a single server (host), with each having access to the resources it needs when it needs them.
The rise of the PC allowed everyone to have enough computing power to accomplish the tasks they needed at work and at home. Today, technology has circled back to its roots. Business owners realized that they were using troves of resources to maintain their IT department while the majority of their server hardware was using only 5% to 15%of the systems capacity on average. In the 70’s computers had to be physically attached to the mainframe in order to tap into its resources. Today, the Internet allows computing and storage to be centralized while distributing their resources in milliseconds across the globe. You no longer need your own servers or mainframes to have a world class IT infrastructure, you just need virtualization. The cloud is built on this virtualization technology. Welcome to the Cloud!
by David J. Moorman
Hot Desking is a term that came about with Hot bunking on ships in the Navy. As businesses seek more ways to reduce their costs, they find themselves taking new and sometimes even radical approaches to meeting their goals. Cutting down on the largest expenditures is first in line. After all, a small percentage reduction in the biggest expense can save a lot of money. Employee accommodations are in the top 3 highest variable costs in most businesses. It can take lots of space and hardware to house an employee.
Market conditions has brought a new IT business philosophy onto the table as an option for reducing these space and hardware expenses. That strategy is known as hot desking. Hot desking uses a series of technologies, like VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastruture) and virtualization, and packages them together. Hot desking gives employees complete mobility with all of the data and applications necessary to facilitate their productivity. With this new mobility, they are free from the requirements of a desk space and the same computer. They can work literally anywhere, anytime on most any device. The more dynamic the work environment, the greater benefit hot desking will provide.
If your workplace runs on more than one shift, hot desking can cut your costs in half. It’s obvious that people who work at different times can share a single computer, but shift work is rarely that cut and dry. Often times, there are overlapping shifts, flexible hours, and the same employees working multiple shifts. When your workforce has complex personnel requirements, they shouldn't have to be bound by a single desktop computer. Hot desking allows workers to use any computer that is available and still have access controls to their own customized work environment. Wherever there is a computer available, they can work.
Some businesses only need part-time employees, but it can be resource intensive to provide each one with a desk and computer. Hot desking allows part-time employees to log-in anywhere there is a computer available. Since they are only in the office part of the time, 40 part time employees can easily share 20 computers and maintain their productivity.
Remote workers only spend 10% or less of their time actually in the office. It would be ridiculous to provide them with the same resources as someone who is in the office 40+ hrs. a week. Hot desking gives remote employees independence and freedom from a single workstation.
Those who spend most of their time on the road don’t find it necessary to have a permanent spot in an office. Dedicating space and resources to people who spend a fraction of their workweek in one place need a solution that is as mobile as their lives. Hot desking is the perfect travel partner for road warriors. Regardless of their device, whether its a smart phone, tablet, or laptop, their digital work environment can be with them.
Hot desking is the ideal solution for companies that have under utilized desktops. If you notice work spaces remaining empty for any period of time in your office, hot desking is a worthy of consideration. It’s a high tech solution to an old business problem. With hot desking, you can decrease costs while increasing mobility and productivity.
David J. Moorman
Look at how United Parcel Service (UPS) markets themselves, they are a, "logistics company." Years ago, they were a packaging company with emphasis on the people that make UPS. Delivered with a friendly smile from a clean brown truck. The reality is much different. Sending packages involves data input, retrieval, bar-codes, scanners, GPS, and coordinating people, planes, trains, and automobiles. There are far more machines and technology running operations, than people. At some point in UPS’s history they realized moving things from Point A to Point B wasn't just a matter of a fit person picking up a package and dropping it off.
For at least 15 years, UPS has known that they are a technology business. It's only recent that they've come out to the public admitting it. Prior to this, customers liked the thought that a crystal chandelier might go through a different process than an office chair. Maybe, they thought, someone would dust the chandelier and handle it with white gloves. Fortunately, this isn't the case, a modern day shipping logistics system is capable of transporting both items equally as well, no white gloves are required. Customers have embraced the fact that in order to send packages, the shipping company needs to be high-tech. Technology in business is now viewed as a strength. If a company is leveraging technology to its fullest, you can count on them to be around in the future. Not embracing technology, in an onlookers opinion, is a sign a business can't adapt to the "new normal" global economy.
Embracing technology as an important part of your business can be both liberating and terrifying. Yes, there will be less of a human component in parts of your business as you gain efficiencies. Technology is already replacing the work of many people in many industries and the ratio will continue to grow. On the other hand, it also means that an individual is capable of much more production on their own assuming they accept change.
It’s time to start facing the reality that you are in the technology business. No one will hold it against you, instead, it should come as a relief. Customers count on you to lead the way, and to be there in the future.
When businesses seek IT solutions, it is important for them to understand what differentiates cloud service providers from IT technical support service providers. Cloud services offer servers to run business applications. Prior to cloud services, businesses had to buy and maintain their own hardware. This is how they work:
From Wikipedia:
The most common analogy to explain cloud computing is that of public utilities such as electricity, gas, and water. Just as centralized and standardized utilities free individuals from the difficulties of generating electricity or pumping water, cloud computing frees users from certain hardware and software installation and maintenance tasks through the use of simpler hardware that accesses a vast network of computing resources (processors, hard drives, etc.). The sharing of resources reduces the cost to individuals.
But there is a catch, the cloud provides the hardware, but you still have to manage your software solutions. Even though the cloud turns the hardware component of IT into a commodity, the software component of IT, like all of the applications your business uses, still require installation, support, maintenance, and upgrades. Cloud services like Rackspace and Amazon provide you the hardware, but for everything else, an IT service provider is needed.
In order to use the infrastructure of a data center, IT Service Providers such as DynaSis install and maintain cloud application services, or "Software as a Service (SaaS)." SaaS enables the delivery of software applications over the Internet. Using a central data center (the cloud) that is connected to the Internet, IT service activities can be managed from central locations rather than at each customer's site. The cloud eliminates the need to install and run the application on the customer's own computers thus simplifying maintenance and support.
Through the combination of cloud services and an IT service provider, you receive the full IT package. IT service providers can implement business solutions that utilize cloud infrastructures giving customers a laundry list of advantages.
by Chas Arnold
Cleaning in IT shouldn't happen once a year. Backups and archives for e-mail should be happening at least everyday. Implementing the right systems will help you maintain a clean inbox and prevent bloating. Besides cleanliness, there are three other very important reasons to have an e-mail archive system in place. E-mail archiving systems provide unmodifiable backups of e-mails for future reference, they provide a backup to e-mails in case you ever lose your e-mail data, and they can be used for litigation support.
Your e-mail system shouldn’t be like the junk closet in your house. An e-mail archive system will make sure you never have to sift through a pile of unorganized e-mails from years ago. Instead of opening the closet door and having junk fall out, you will be able to pinpoint e-mails without worry of it being lost in the abyss. You never know when you’ll need to reference an employee’s e-mail. But if anything ever happens that would call into question your employee’s communications, you’ll have a perfectly organized closet that stored their e-mails.
Unfortunately, data loss can happen when systems crash. Fortunately, there are IT solutions that help to minimize or eliminate the possibility of permanent data loss. Real-time e-mail archiving systems prevent your communications from disappearing when your systems crash. Beyond not losing data for your own sake, an archive of your e-mail communications needs to be in tact for regulatory reasons:
“As industry and government alike grow continually more reliant on information systems, particularly email, these information become more valuable. To protect this valuable information, standards and government regulations have been enacted that require certain retention and timely response to legal and information queries. A proper email archiving system allows companies to meet regulatory, and/or business records retention requirements by enabling compliance officers to easily search email stored in the archive and perform periodic reviews.”
Losing data is a miserable experience, but businesses also have to worry about the speed at which data is retrievable. If your data can be tampered with or is unorganized, you are less protected in court. Anything that could slow down or hinder the legal process, that you could have prevented with a proper e-mail archive setup, decreases your overall security:
“For legal discovery, e-mail archiving solutions will lower overall risk of spoliation and greatly speed up the discovery function because of their message indexing, audit capabilities, deduplication and protection of all e-mail messages stored in the archive. For litigation support, email can be retrieved quickly and a history of the email exists to prove its authenticity for chain of custody. For compliance support, email records are stored in the archive according to administrator defined retention policies.”
Waiting until spring to clean up your e-mails isn’t just a matter of dust collecting, it can have serious consequences. Don’t procrastinate in setting up your digital archives. Instead, implement a proactive e-mail archiving system to help protect you and your business from potential problems down the line.
by Chas Arnold
There are many good reasons to transition your IT into the cloud. But there is one primary reason the cloud has become so popular - it simplifies your business model. All the other benefits are auxiliary to the fact that you’ll no longer have to buy hardware, software licensing and service to maintain the whole setup in house. All the assets end up on your balance sheet, and then you have to pay taxes on them and worry about depreciating them over time. The new way of thinking in the New Normal economy means businesses should be doing everything they can to get out of the data center business. After all, once you outsource the IT part of your business, you’ll receive even better services such as:
When you outsource your data, applications and support to a cloud provider, it will be located in building that’s hardened for environmental disasters. They are designed to withstand tornadoes, earthquakes and fires. For fires, they have state of the art prevention and suppression systems to help minimize risk. Flexible cages and thick concrete walls ensure seismic and weather related activities have minimal effect within the confines of the data center.
High-end data centers have 24/7/365 day manned security accompanied with video surveillance. They typically have multiple kinds of biometric security scanners like fingerprint readers and retina scanners for physical access.
Within the cloud providers data center, there are multiple copies of your data. At all times, there is a usuallya minimum of 3 backups with 2 being on-site and another in a separate off-site data center. Each server contains dozens of hard drives via SANs (Storage Area Networks) that are replicated in an striped array for both speed and data integrity. Whole servers that contain multiple hard drives are cloned throughout the day, so in the event of a whole server crash, a replica server will simply takeover where the other server left off.
Cloud providers have high-end, independent power sources that can take over in the event of an outage. They store fuel on-site and test systems at least monthly to ensure proper operations. Even the power backup has backups. There are multiple power substations on separate utility grids feeding into the data center to ensure power is always being delivered and to handle the transitions between utility and generator power. Multiple power feeds means there is never an interruption in power internally. Externally, they allow power to be switched between UPS modules, generators, and Utility power ensuring constant up-time.
Whether you are connected to wireless in flight or in your office, moving into the cloud means everyone is working remotely all the time. An employee in Florida has the same capabilities as someone in your office in Atlanta. The cloud gives you the ability to use your data anywhere AND on any device. An employee can run all of your applications on their iPad, at 30,000 ft. altitude while flying.
The cloud is a new paradimg in which you can simplify your business while also making dramatic improvements to your technology capabilities. Through simplifying, you gain the ability to create a major competitive advantage. The cloud offers more security, redundancy, availability, and mobility. Instead of just keeping up with the competition, you’ll be able to focus improving efficiency and growing your company.
by David J. Moorman
Many people learn to live with those old Windows computer that take 10 Minutes to boot. Sometimes, they can even learn to put up with taking 5 minutes to open a Word document. It’s clear to see how bad computers can result in poor performance. Slow computers are what most people think of when they imagine what a failing IT infrastructure looks like. When we talk about the costs of under-performing IT, it doesn't mean your computers don’t run as well as they should. What it does mean is that:
Slow computers are one thing, but there are also undesirable consequences to limiting employees’ ability to work remotely. Though they are in denial, most people know and understand that employees will do personal activities during work hours. But, your IT solution shouldn't limit an employee’s ability to do work activities during their personal hours. Work life is 24 x 7 these days; take advantage of it.
Having the ability to work remotely improves your employees’ quality of life. They can stay home sick, without getting the rest of the office sick, and still accomplish all of their work. When they can’t sleep at night, they can login and accomplish the things they used to be unable to from home. When employees are anchored to the office in order to work, you lose productivity.
If your IT system begins to break down, the effects can be noticed by your customers. A real world example happened a few years ago during the recession. A high-end country club was feeling the crunch and started cutting corners. One of the corners cut was their IT system. As a result, their system would randomly lose orders patrons had placed. Servers would bring out the food and a plate would be missing. Other people would come in only to find out their tee time hadn’t registered in the system. A place that used to be viewed as prestigious was noticeably looking like they were just scraping-by.
If your employees are underutilized and customers see a blemished brand, you can lose revenue. Waiting until its to late to improve your IT is an uphill battle. With lost revenues, having to make an investment or major change adds insult to injury. It’s always best to improve upon IT proactively than to cut corners and later realize how much damage has been done. Like most things in life, a proactive solution is better than a reactive solution.
Many people find technology to be a burden because they only realize their dependence when it malfunctions. We should always keep in mind how much IT has improved business overall. Most businesses can’t function at all without some sort of computer system. Instead of viewing IT as a blessing and a curse, realize that it’s mostly a blessing. Under-performing IT is a result of not recognizing it’s importance within your business. If you make your IT a high priority, it can take you years ahead of your competition. Otherwise, if you don’t, it can take you out of business.
by David J. Moorman
Prior to the dial tone, operators would say, “Hello, who are you trying to reach?” and would connect your call. When the telephone systems became automated there was no longer an operator there to say, “Hello.” So, the dial tone was created as a user interface to let people know they could begin to dial.
In many ways, desktops have turning into a modern dial tone. We turn on our computer and we expect some sort of platform. This platform for most people is a Graphical User Interface (GUI) and typically Microsoft Windows or the latest Apple OS. The term Desktop is now widely known. We are used to the look and feel of the Desktop. But the truth is, we don’t really need it. What we need are the applications on the computer like Microsoft Office or you accounting application. Similarly, we didn't need the telephone operator, we needed to be connected to the person we called.
So what is the computer equivalent to a dial tone?
Glad you asked. It’s so simple and quick, it may pass right over your head.
The modern operating system, capable of taking your desktop everywhere with the ability to accomplish every task you can think of and expands your entire digital business onto every device is (drum roll please)...
The Web or a single web page.
Windows is just a platform we use to connect us to the applications and files we need to accomplish our business tasks. The platform handles two things, navigation and as a human interface. Fortunately, we only need a browser to accomplish both of these tasks.
Other businesses like Google think so too. They’re putting some heavy weight behind creating their own browser based operating system called Chrome OS. The downside of their operating system is that it would require transitioning to their own tool set.
At DynaSis, we created an IT service built on a cloud platform called ITtility by DynaSis that allows businesses to use any operating system, and most browsers to access your applications and files. It doesn’t matter if you are on your iPad, iPhone, Mac OS X, or Microsoft Windows. Your IT system will just work; Anywhere, Anytime.
Do you worry about how Google’s system is run? Probably not. You just expect it to work, and it does. That should be how your IT solutions work. They just do. You can work from anywhere, on any device, and you don’t have to think about it.
ITility by DynaSis allows you to use all of your normal applications like Outlook right over the internet. It’s such a simple form of IT, it’s almost hard to comprehend.
Currently, your IT is setup so that your operator is in-house. But with ITility by DynaSis by DynaSis that operator can be outsourced. It would be ridiculous to pick up the phone and have a person connect your call every time. In ten years, you will be thinking the same thing about your current desktop solution. To turn your computer on and have all of your data and applications in one place. You have to maintain, protect, backup everything yourself. That type of operation is costly, rigid, and demanding.
In ten years, you will assume you can work from anywhere and not have to worry about how that system is maintained. When you outsource your IT to the cloud, you will have more time, money, and flexibility than ever before. Doing it the old way, having the operator in-house, will seem like an absurd throwback to the past.
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