Sales: 678.967.3854
Support: 866.252.6363

By the DynaSis Team

[featured_image]

Although small and midsized businesses (SMBs) were a bit late to the cloud party compared to larger enterprises, several research reports indicate that SMB decision makers are now embracing the cloud enthusiastically. As we might expect from overworked, budget-limited business owners, they are expressing a preference for “bundled” cloud services, whereby an SMB can have its email, applications, data storage (servers) and security united under a single service with a single provider.

Such a solution makes complete sense from the SMB business perspective. Not only is it easier and faster to deploy the cloud with a unified solution, but company personnel enjoy access to business-critical applications and data without the bur­den of IT infrastructure support. Furthermore, the bottom line gets a boost from a fixed, pay-as-you-go model, including converting IT costs to an operating expense and eliminating infrastructure and software upgrade expenses.

So popular has this approach become among SMBs that a survey of 1,300 SMBs, conducted by Coleman Parkes Research, found that nearly 70 percent of SMB decision makers prefer to receive their cloud services as a bundle. SMBs expressed even greater support for having all communication-related services united. Among those surveyed, 80 percent supported the idea of receiving a single monthly bill from one provider for both cloud environment and telecommunications services.

So, what does a “bundled” cloud solution look like? Optimally, it would be a fully managed, cloud-based IT platform with the following features and functions:

Providers such as DynaSis offer solutions that meet all of these critieria, giving SMBs the freedom to walk away from IT burdens and headaches, forever. As SMBs realize the potential of these offerings, we expect a large percentage will move from supporting the concept of a unified cloud solution to actively using one. In essence, all-in-one cloud hosting is the best way to realize the core value proposition of the cloud, which is to deliver high-value applications and data securely, anytime, anywhere and on any device.

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.

 

 

[featured_image]

By the DynaSis Team

In a follow up to last week’s article about cloud adoption, we wanted to take a closer look at private clouds and the issues surrounding them. To date, per a recent “State of the Cloud” study, public cloud deployment far outpaces that of private cloud—88% of enterprises are using public cloud while 63 percent are using private cloud. However, as we mentioned last week, research firm Gartner expects private cloud deployment to grow at nearly twice the rate of public clouds (46 percent versus 24 percent) over the next two years.

To clarify for the purposes of our discussion, a public cloud is any hosted cloud environment where resources are shared among many customers. This can be a grouping of large data center servers divided into small virtual servers to serve multiple customers (called “multi-tenancy”). Or, it can be a collection of servers hosted by a software developer who leases SaaS (software as a service), for which all customer files and data reside in common storage at the data center of the host. (Google Drive and Dropbox are two examples of SaaS with a public cloud model.)

A private cloud, on the other hand, is a cloud environment hosted either at the premises of the company that owns the data or on a dedicated server—one that is not virtualized and shared with other companies—at a provider’s data center.

Provided they are hosted and managed by a reputable, experienced provider with a strict security profile, public clouds are perfectly safe. However, for resources subject to regulatory scrutiny, private clouds are often a better option than public ones. Firms whose management isn’t comfortable with public cloud “togetherness” may also opt for a private cloud—or a hybrid model, where resources are divided between a public cloud and a private cloud, usually based on security criteria.

Unfortunately, we have seen many SMB decision makers avoid the cloud altogether because they have heard private clouds are expensive or complicated. Nothing could be further from the truth. If a business owner has a compelling reason not to use a public cloud, or he/she sleeps better at night knowing that corporate resources are safely locked up in a server cabinet at his office, there is now a straightforward, affordable way to host an internal private cloud.

Advanced technology allows companies such as DynaSis to install a small, no-load software “agent” on an organization’s physical file server and then make the resources available to remote personnel and other authorized individuals over a secure Internet connection. In the best of these scenarios, the IT provider manages and secures not only the cloud environment but also all devices (e.g. PCs; smartphones; tablets) accessing the resource as well as the networks on which the corporate information travels.

To be the most valuable and comprehensive, these solutions should offer file storage, sharing, synchronization and backup, enabling remote workers to collaborate and share assets securely with each other and authorized clients and vendors. It’s private cloud computing at its finest, and it is available and reasonably priced, now.

About DynaSis

DynaSis is an Atlanta IT services and cloud-computing provider for small and mid-sized 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.

[featured_image]

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:

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.

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.

[featured_image]

By the DynaSis Team

Last week, we talked about the cloud and promised to explain some of the nuances between data storage, backup, sharing and syncing. These terms seem pretty obvious to computer users with a bit of experience, but solutions aren’t always what they seem. Furthermore, they can overlap. In this blog, we hope to clear the “cloud” of confusion that surrounds them.

Storage: Computer storage, aka data storage, is the media used to house data. Data can be stored on magnetic disks (“hard drives”) or on solid-state drives (flash drives). Storage can be on-premise (e.g. inside a PC, laptop or server) or it can be cloud based―residing on a server at a data center. (Data can also be stored on memory chips, but this data isn’t generally accessible, so we aren’t talking about it, here.)

Backup: A backup is an archive of a dataset. It can be a complete copy of a drive, or only a partial backup. Backups can be retained on the same media as regularly accessible storage, although some companies also still use a tape-based technology.

File Sharing: File sharing from a universal perspective means nothing more than literally letting someone have one of your files―whether via email, thumb drive or a cloud-based sharing service. However, here we are referring to a framework that supports the sharing of files. These can be third-party storage solutions, like DropBox, or they can be systems set up on a corporate server and network, with permissions that allow sharing of resources stored locally.

File Syncing: Synchronizing files is the process of ensuring that if a file is stored in two places, for example, on a desktop and a server, or on a laptop and in DropBox, that the version of the file is the same. It can also involve syncing a file between two users―for example, when two co-workers collaborate on a document together.

How Do They Intersect?

Storage can be used for backup purposes, and storage can be configured to enable file sharing. Dedicated programs can also sync files between two or more units of storage (e.g. hard drives). In other words, storage is the core element on which three activities―backup, file sharing and file syncing―rely. Even when you share a file via a method that seems impermanent, like email, the file is being retained in the data store of that email client.

Despite the fact that storage is an underlying “container” for the files involved in these activities, users cannot assume that all storage will perform these tasks equally well. That’s essentially the point we want to make with this educational journey.

For example, we’ve seen many users employ a solution like DropBox for file storage, syncing, sharing and backup. After all, DropBox makes backups of a user’s files and syncs them to his or her computer. That user can also share folders with other DropBox users. So, in essence, it can perform all four tasks.

Similarly, we have seen companies employ standard hard drives to perform backup, sometimes using backup software; other times by simply making a manual copy (what the IT world calls an image) of their drives every night.

Both of these approaches are technically backup, but they may not be managed in a manner that best protects the firm, nor will they necessarily be easy to restore in the event of a disaster. There are better solutions―dedicated “backup appliances” that include software that manages the backup and ensures its integrity, for example. There are also dedicated backup services―often connected to cloud-based storage― that incorporate recovery features, as well.

Similarly, file sharing and syncing can be done in DropBox or another file storage solution, but it doesn’t give the corporate entity as much control over where and to whom the files go. As a result, we recommend that no company―no matter how small―implement backup, sharing, or syncing solutions for company assets without guidance from a knowledgeable IT services firm, like DynaSis.

If you’d like to learn more about best-practices file backup, sharing and syncing―and even about storage solutions that give you more control, please give us a call.

[featured_image]

By the DynaSis Team

Cloud storage has penetrated many aspects of our lives in the past few years and is increasingly common at the corporate level, whether we realize it or not. When a cellular provider backs up your smartphone contacts, they are being stored in that company’s cloud. Virtually all the myriad “free storage” offers we may use daily, from Google Drive to DropBox, are cloud-based.

Yet, technically, all of these clouds are also on-premise based, too. How is that possible? Every “cloud” must be tied to a physical server in a physical location. There is no massive, amorphous and anonymous storage cluster that has been created within the Internet by storage contributions from random players. Every cloud resides at some company’s “premise” (physical location), even if that location is a data center (which, after all, is owned by someone).

The concern that most business owners, CIOs and others have about the cloud stems from the fact that these clouds and their data don’t reside on the company’s in-house server. They fear letting someone other than themselves retain control of their data, even if the other entity is operating under best-practices security protocols they may never be able to attain.

As we mentioned in a November 2014 blog, cloud storage and services are generally far safer and more secure than those residing in-house, especially for small and medium-sized businesses without big-boy security budgets. Furthermore, It’s highly likely that your employees are using cloud-based tools, even if your company isn’t, and they may be storing corporate files there.

Cloud security is not the focus of this blog, although we would be happy to discuss cloud security with you. The point of this discussion is that a cloud is nothing more than a dedicated amount of storage space on one or more servers that designated individuals can access remotely to store, sync and/or share files, run programs and perform other typical workplace functions. We say “designated” rather than authorized, because some clouds are open, meaning that the data there can be accessed by anyone, while others are access-restricted (secured).

In 2015, we will be talking about the cloud every month or so, introducing you to its various aspects and providing tips on how you can use it. Next week, we’re going to discuss the difference between storage, backup, sharing and syncing. These four operations are often intertwined, but whether they can happen in tandem with one another is up to the business owner to decide.

We believe that understanding “the cloud” and all of its possibilities is an important step to gaining confidence in this amazing technology. This knowledge will help you make the decisions that are right for your firm and enable you to secure your data to the greatest degree possible.

We’ll continue this discussion next week. In the meantime, if you would like to learn more about cloud computing or be introduced to one of our cloud productivity solutions, please give us a call.

[featured_image]

By the DynaSis Team

The approach of a new year always brings a bevy of predictions for what will happen in IT, many of which fit our idea of “pie in the sky.” This year, however, two in particular caught our eye.

  1. Managed service providers (MSPs) and co-location providers will flourish with hybrid IT offerings.

This prediction, from Lazarus Vekiarides, CTO of ClearSky Data (an early-stage enterprise infrastructure firm), gave us a sense of accomplishment. Hybrid IT offerings are those that have a cloud component and an on-premise component, for example, a data server at the office with hosted Microsoft Exchange in the cloud. DynaSis has been promoting hybrid IT solutions for years, including our Ascend offering, so we read this with a sense of real satisfaction. Remember folks; you heard it here, first.

On a more serious note, hybrid offerings give companies the best of both worlds, allowing them to enjoy the security of retaining storage and control of their primary data, at their location, but allowing cloud-based delivery, retrieval and often backup of as much data as makes them comfortable. On a related note, Vekiarides also predicted that the Hybrid Internet (an approach that uses both the Internet and local networks, both wired and wireless, for data and solution delivery and exchange) will support more hybrid cloud deployments, bridging the gap between public and private clouds.

  1. Corporate IT silos will disappear.

This one, from Gaurav Rewari, CEO and co-founder of business analytics firm Numerify, Inc., caught us a bit by surprise. It’s not that we think IT silos are a good thing (we don’t). Rather, we don’t think they will go away, that quickly. IT silos are individual, often departmentally aligned data stores, applications and functions in enterprises that are not accessible or interconnected for the benefit of the entire business. They make it difficult for a business to work in the most productive manner, possible, let alone to attain any level of agility.

Rewari predicts that in 2015, solutions and platforms will help businesses achieve better integration of their data in numerous ways, breaking down those silos. He specifically cited customer relations management (CRM) software and IT system data collection and analysis.

We have helped some of our customers select advanced CRM tools with business analytics, but for many, the daily grind of producing still gets in the way, hence our skepticism here.

In the area of IT system data, however, we see a very bright future. For more than a decade, DynaSis has been providing its customers with significant value through our Digital Veins service, monitoring data collected from myriad customer systems to identify and resolve issues.

Recent developments in the technologies that surround this effort are giving us more ways to help those customers than ever before. These customers stand as living proof that this approach saves money, reduces downtime and increases productivity and security.

A final prediction that interested us, also from Rewari, was that IT will shed its “Department of No” image demonstrating the value of IT to the C-suite. Every day, we hear from firms whose IT Managers need our help to accomplish their tasks, but executive management doesn’t see the value. We look forward to seeing that dynamic change, so we can help those folks be more productive.

Do these predictions interest you? Would you like to learn more? To explore the possibilities or see how DynaSis is already achieving both predictions for its customers, please give us a call.

[featured_image]

By the DynaSis Team

Have you thought about the cloud lately? Are you thinking of moving your corporate assets to the cloud, or have you already done so? If not, get ready for a wake-up call. The cloud is expanding across everyone and into everything, whether we like it or not.

Virtually all technology solutions and devices, from backup appliances to software as a service (SaaS) offerings (where software is hosted in the cloud and accessed remotely), are consuming more cloud storage and Internet traffic every year. Because of this, Cisco recently announced that within the next four years, 76 percent of the Internet traffic through the world’s data centers will be cloud-based. That is a 40% increase over 2013, when the cloud accounted for 54 percent of total data center traffic.

Already, cloud data centers are responsible a total of 2,277 exabytes of the total 3,829 exabytes of traffic being generated. By 2018, this proportion will be 6,496 exabytes of a total of 8,574 exabytes. (An exabyte is one quintillion bytes or one billion gigabytes.)

Cisco also predicts a substantial shift to public cloud services as companies become more comfortable with them. By 2018, Cisco predicts, 31 percent of cloud workloads will be in public cloud data centers, up from 22 percent in 2013.  Interestingly, the devices that compose the Internet of Things (discussed here last week) are also going to contribute a significant amount of data to the cloud. Cisco predicts that data created by IoT devices will be 47 times greater than total data center traffic by 2018.

If all this growth sounds overwhelming, it is. After all, it’s hard to envision one billion gigabytes, or to conceive how the IoT actually functions. Nevertheless, major enterprises are embracing the cloud along with cloud solutions such as SaaS.

Big corporations know, for example that a cloud-hosted Microsoft Exchange server is far more reliable and less vulnerable than one deployed at a physical office location.  Most major enterprises realize that corporate networks are more vulnerable than data centers (which is where “the cloud” largely exists). More importantly, cybercriminals know this, as well. That’s why cyber-attacks on companies are more prevalent than attacks on data centers―and the majority of all successful data breaches occur through hacking of corporate servers.

Small and mid-sized businesses that want to be as productive and competitive as possible should create a plan for cloud adoption, now. It doesn’t have to involve a leap. It can be a step, possibly beginning with hosted Exchange as we mentioned above.

Here at DynaSis, we have developed hyper-secure cloud solutions, including private, corporate clouds where the firm retains control of its data and hosts it for remote workers. If you would like to learn more, please give us a call.

[featured_image]

By the DynaSis Team

With all the media coverage of data breaches, many companies and individuals may be asking themselves if cloud-based backups (or for that matter, cloud-based prime storage) are safe. The reality is that although cloud storage CAN be riskier than on-premise file storage (server and/or desktop), it can also be much more secure. Prudent companies can take precautions―beginning with vetting their cloud providers and solutions―to ensure their files are as safe, if not safer, in the cloud than anywhere else.

Following are a few protections you should require of any cloud backup or storage provider. DynaSis incorporates all these protections into its cloud-based solutions.

  1. Encryption―Don’t accept anything less than AES 256-bit encryption, preferably in the Cipher Block Chaining (CMC) mode with 256-bit keys. There are no known methods to compromise this type of encryption. DynaSis’ cloud-based backup solution uses this type of encryption―and its “private cloud” file storage and sharing solution, DynaSis Blue, uses 448-bit Blowfish encryption (on-device and in-transit).
  2. Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) to dynamically monitor and remediate security incidents.
  3. Incident Response and Notification Plan.
  4. The ability to provide access to security information on customer data in response to a customer’s regulatory request or internal investigation.
  5. Cyber insurance liability policy to cover cloud-based losses, assuming there is a breach and customer records are stolen or otherwise compromised.

In addition to these protections, we recommend such administrative controls as customizable deleted-file retention periods, granular controls of user access and security, and continuous, real-time, multiple-folder backup, including revised-file backup. Of course, the solution must also incorporate sufficient bandwidth to enable rapid transfers and the ability to easily and dynamically increase your storage allocation if your current allowance reaches a pre-set percentage of capacity.

Managing data is a challenge in any organization. Taking it to the cloud adds a few additional considerations, but that doesn’t mean it necessarily adds complexity. Working with an experienced cloud provider, you should be able to enjoy more security and continuity of file backup and retrieval―with less involvement and fewer headaches―than your on-premise solution can provide.

Many companies choose to have their entire systems backed up, including not only data but also applications and other elements. Many cloud providers (including DynaSis) can use these whole-system backups to build an off-site server for a firm in the event that their on-premise equipment fails. At the minimum, we strongly recommend that companies backup their email files and folders to the cloud. This not only keeps the email archive in a central location, facilitating message search and retrieval, but it also builds a segregated archive that will help the company protect itself should emails be required in the event of eDiscovery or compliance requests.

To learn more about our cloud-based backups and other cloud solutions, please fill out our inquiry form or give us a call at (770) 569-4600.

By the DynaSis Team
[featured_image]
With technology gurus and media touting the benefits and adoption rates of advanced technologies such as cloud computing, one might assume that everyone is jumping on the bandwagon. A new study from Ipsos Research (commissioned by Microsoft) shows that for SMBs (small to midsized businesses), that’s not the case.

Per the survey, conducted in early May 2014, only 30% of SMBs polled report adopting cloud computing, despite its obvious benefits. Other “hot” technologies such as tablets, payment technologies and social media apps also don’t rank highly, with only 34%, 34% and 31% considering of SMB owners considering them important, respectively.

Far more important to these business owners are laptop computers (68%), desktop computers (67%), smartphones (60%) and the supposed dinosaurs of technology—landlines (52%). More troubling, perhaps, is that it’s not that business owners don’t like these technologies. Of those polled, 86% said that keeping up with technology trends is important to their business (50% ranked it very important; 36% said it was somewhat important). Rather, they do not think their questions and concerns about these developments have been adequately addressed.

Specifically, the top three concerns of SMB owners regarding adopting new technologies were:
The expense of upgrading and/or maintaining technology (35%)
Security of new technologies (22%)
Mobility and access—specifically, the ability to work with content from multiple devices in any location (16%).

At DynaSis, we have long maintained that security, availability and mobility are the three pillars of success with technology, so we couldn’t agree with these business owners more. What these SMB owners (and others) may not realize is that it is no longer expensive or complicated to address security and achieve mobility and accessibility.

Furthermore, when SMBs develop technology plans that are aligned with their business objectives, the cost of upgrading proactively can be less expensive than dealing with equipment failures and outages as they occur. In fact, when the cost of downtime, lost business opportunity and company standing, and the productivity value of new technologies are factored in, unplanned upgrades and repairs are almost always considerably more expensive than making improvements at a measured pace.

With the survey also reporting that a substantial percentage of SMBs still manually collect and store data on individual hard drives (36%) and/or use filing cabinets and folders to collect, store and share files (26%), it’s evident that many SMBs are really missing out on the value of centralized (including cloud/online) storage solutions.

On the plus side, 40% of SMB staffers are now able to work remotely at least 50% of the time. That’s great news, but if they are still tied to hard drives and file folders, they are not working very productively.

If any of these statistics ring a bell with you, please fill out our inquiry form or give us a call at 678.218.1769. Our certified IT pros will come to your location, review how IT is (or isn’t) helping you achieve your business goals and objectives, and show you how it can be affordable to transition from outdated, insecure and impermanent technology solutions to a future where everyone works collaboratively and productively, from any location they choose.

By the DynaSis Team

[featured_image]In the last few weeks, we’ve come across more studies and reports that highlight the value to businesses of mobility and availability, and we wanted to share them with you. First, Forrester Research last week released a brief entitled, “Microsoft Office Crosses The Cloud Rubicon: The Focus Is On Business Agility, And Here's Why It Matters.” In it, Forrester talks about recent moves by Microsoft that confirm the future of its Office portfolio is in the cloud (Office 365). Microsoft kicked this messaging off at the SharePoint Conference 2014, Forrester noted, and then put an exclamation mark on it with the release of Office on iPad for Office 365 users. Forrester completed the brief by predicting that these moves will facilitate sharing, communication and individual mobility for organizations, helping them “become more agile and responsive to a customer-driven marketplace.”

We concur, and believe that although communication and sharing are important, what really sets Office 365 apart is mobility. For workers to be able to access their Office productivity tools anywhere they have an Internet connection (availability), and to always work with the same (and latest) version of Office, is an enormous productivity booster.

We’ve worked with companies whose workers were nearly hamstrung because they were trying to work with different, outdated, and in some cases nearly incompatible versions of Office in the office, at home and on the road. On their mobile devices, many of these companies’ workers were limited to Office “reader” apps that weren’t really letting them work, at all. When we helped these firms transition to Office 365 (with an affordable, per-seat pricing model), worker productivity and satisfaction soared.

At the same time this report hit our desks, we saw another one, released late last year, about office productivity in the UK. The report found that the adoption of information and communications technology in the past 40 years has increased office worker productivity by 480% over its 1970s levels.

This productivity report, released by the Centre for Economic and Business Research, determined that these technologies, including the mobile phone, “paved the way for a revolution in the use of technology in the office.” It also forecast that over the next five years, productivity will continue to accelerate, driven by “ascendant technologies such as high-speed mobile internet access and tablet computers that will allow office workers to stay connected and productive wherever they are.”

Here again, we see central themes―mobility and availability. At DynaSis, we call it “Modern Officing”―the ability to be connected and productive anytime, anywhere, provided you have a computing device of some sort and an Internet connection. We have long believed that mobility and availability (along with security) are the three key drivers of business success. Now, the entire world is echoing the call.

Where are you on your road to Modern Officing? Whether you are just getting started or are ready to take another step in the process, our technology experts can help you plan for and make the journey securely and cost effectively. To learn more, fill out our inquiry form or give us a call.

linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram