By the DynaSis Team

[featured_image] In conjunction with the kickoff of National Small Business Week, Time Warner announced the results of its most recent survey about small business technology trends. The survey results were illuminating, to say the least, and we thought you might find them interesting. Despite interest in cloud technologies, mobile productivity and other hot technologies, small business owners put three more “basic” needs at the top of the list: fast, reliable Internet access, clear, reliable phone service, and a reliable Wi-Fi network at their businesses.

Among survey respondents, 80% indicated that their customers expect them to offer free Wi-Fi at their locations, yet only 43% of businesses offer it. These business owners may recognize that allowing customers and guests to roam onto the company network isn’t a safe practice. What they may not know is that setting up a parallel “guest” network isn’t difficult. Businesses that take this small step could increase their customer satisfaction.

Another interesting issue, especially with Microsoft’s recent end of support for its popular Windows XP operating system, was that 33% of small businesses have been negatively impacted by outdated technology. Furthermore, business owners recognize the advantages of up-to-date technology, with 73% stating it would give them easier/faster access to information and 57% projecting it would increase customer satisfaction.

Of those surveyed, 93% had performed at least some technology upgrades in the past five years. However, as we reported last week, the pace of technology itself makes such upgrade timeframes impractical.

This survey was conducted with primarily very small business owners (24 employees or fewer), and among larger businesses, the priorities shift somewhat. For 2014, research firm SMB Group found that the number one technology challenge for medium businesses would be data integration.

Firms in the 25-100 sector continue to adopt cloud technologies, but they often do not proceed in an integrated or cohesive fashion. As a result, they end up with disparate silos of information that are not accessible to all workers. SMB Group predicted that cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-premise integration would both take center stage for the remainder of 2014.

DynaSis technical experts can help companies achieve all these goals, whether they seek a guest network for their clients or want to deploy a unified data store to hold all of their digital business assets. We can also help companies adopt a fully cloud-based solution that gives all workers―on premise or mobile―access to data and applications, 24/7/365. To learn more, fill out our inquiry form or give us a call.

By the DynaSis Team

[featured_image]Two major IT research firms―Gartner, Inc. and Forrester Research―have announced their 2014 IT spending forecasts, and they indicate some interesting patterns that we believe small and medium businesses (SMBs) should consider. Forrester predicts worldwide technology spending will grow 6.2 percent to $2.2 trillion in 2014. More cautious, Gartner Worldwide’s IT spending forecast estimates that international IT spending will expand 3.1%, reaching $3.8 trillion.

Most interestingly, perhaps, Gartner attributes its more conservative figures to various cutbacks that are directly related to the explosive growth of new technologies, including cloud computing and mobile devices. Despite differences in their overall IT spending forecasts, both firms see bright prospects for SMB expenditure on cloud computing and office mobility products this year.

So what does this mean for your company? If you’re like 66% of SMBs (per a recent survey by Spiceworks), it means you are either using cloud-based solutions or are planning to implement them in the first half of this year. SMBs that adopt cloud services cite cost savings, low maintenance and convenience as factors in their decision to replace old servers with cloud servers. Firms with smaller IT staffs find cloud-based services especially practical due to the minimal configuration and maintenance they require.

Mobile devices, which will account for another large share of projected IT spending in 2014, will also create tangible value for an increasing number of SMBs. Gartner projects spending on devices such as mobile phones, tablets and PCs to rise 4.3 percent to $697 billion worldwide in the coming year.

We’ve talked about mobility―and BYOD (bring your own device)―in this blog before, but we recently came across some new insights we found interesting. In addition to increasing employee productivity, employee mobility also improves customer response time for some 66% of businesses. Furthermore, a recent Dell Software study found that employee mobility and BYOD also leads to greater creativity, more innovation and more productive office collaborations.

Still, two thirds of the survey’s respondents stipulated that the benefits of mobile devices were limited unless the company made sure those devices fulfilled the needs of each user. In other words, comprehensive evaluation of devices and their feature sets, as well as effective planning and implementation of corporate-data-access mechanisms, will bring companies the most value from their mobile device investments.

If you’ve allocated more budget for cloud or mobile solutions in 2014 but are not 100% certain of your roadmap for those expenditures, the virtual CIOS at DynaSis would be happy to help you explore the possibilities. With proper program execution and device management and security, cloud services and mobile solutions can absolutely provide your business with a competitive edge. To start a discussion about how to achieve these goals cost-effectively and with minimal technical complexity, fill out our inquiry form or give us a call.

By the DynaSis Team

[featured_image]Recent weather events in Atlanta and other southern cities have reinforced to many business owners their vulnerability when workers are unable to come to the office. “Snowpocalypse 2014” garnered national headlines for good reason, with thousands of commuters becoming trapped on icy roads―some for as many as 24 hours.

However, in hard-hit Atlanta―a metropolis of nearly six million people―there were plenty of workers who did make it home―and then sat there for several days while their offices remained shuttered due to the icy conditions. In many cases, businesses that had empowered their workers for mobile productivity were able to keep running their operations. Those that did not have such a solution in place weren’t as lucky. (Note that by “mobile,” we mean “out of the office,” not necessarily using a mobile device. Mobile workers can work anytime and anywhere, on any device with Internet access.)

Gaining the ability to move workers to a mobile environment, on demand, isn’t difficult or expensive. Unfortunately, misperceptions about security, cost and complexity keep many business owners and their employees from enjoying the benefits a mobile workplace affords. A few solutions that businesses can implement quickly and inexpensively to foster mobile productivity include:

1. Hosted Microsoft Exchange: Moving from Outlook or some other locally hosted email platform to hosted Microsoft Exchange at the corporate level gives workers secure, remote access to email messages, contacts and calendars via a mobile phone, tablet or laptop―or their home PCs. With this solution, workers can send and respond to emails, reach out to customers as needed, and perform other basic communications tasks.
2. Cloud-based data and application hosting: If company staff can’t access or work with files remotely, storing company data―and possibly applications―on cloud-based servers will power worker productivity. With access to appropriate corporate files, employees can write, edit and send documents, stay abreast of accounting tasks, enter and process orders, send and receive contracts, and perform other important work.
3. Locally based cloud hosting: For companies that want to (or must, for some reason) keep their data and applications hosted in-house, specialized software agents can turn those on-premise servers into cloud servers, affording workers access over the Internet (provided the company’s servers and Internet connection remain up during an outage). A solution like this provides the same benefits as a cloud server without the need to migrate data and applications.

While most companies cannot stay 100% functional with these solutions, they can operate at a level that maintains customer service until workers return to the office. They can also avoid the additional lost productivity that usually results when workers begin processing the backlog of work when the office reopens.

So, where were you during Snowpocalypse 2014? Did your office stay open or did you close? If you were closed, were you prepared to keep key workers busy during at least part of the unscheduled closure? If the answer to the last question is “No,” fill out our inquiry form or give us a call to learn more about solutions that ensure next time, you’ll be ready.

By the DynaSis Team

[featured_image]You may have noticed us alluding to a new term: Modern Officing, rather than talking about the Modern Office, which is often defined as an office environment not constrained by time or place, where technology powers the anytime-anywhere concept. That concept has now morphed into a verb, and folks are talking about Modern Officing.

This is the practice of enabling your employees to achieve anytime-anywhere productivity. It might incorporate letting personnel come into your physical office only occasionally―if at all. Of course, the core of this practice is technology―especially mobile and network technologies.

However, companies that succeed in this effort are judicious in how they weave other technologies into the solution. The idea is not to allow technology to expand organically, with everyone bringing their favorite solutions to the table. Rather, companies should strategically plan and deploy the right technologies, implemented security but accessibly. Not only should companies avoid too many solutions (especially if they overlap), but those solutions should not be too permissive or unrestrained. So, let’s look at a few of the technologies you likely use, and how your approach to them can be “just right” for the modern office.

These are just a few examples of dozens of technologies where right-sizing is beneficial to your company, its personnel and its bottom line. If your technology environment is insufficient or outdated, not only can your employees not achieve their missions, but customers to your physical space will perceive your firm as dated. Too many solutions, too much capacity, or an approach that is too unrestrained, and you could be throwing money, productivity and security away.

DynaSis has strategic planning experts that can help you pinpoint what improvements make sense for your firm, and which ones are unnecessary or unwise. To get started, fill out our inquiry form or give us a call.

By the DynaSis Team

[featured_image]Business owners hear frequently that they should have a good mobile site or application for their customer-facing efforts (e.g. sales or marketing), but what about corporate mobile apps? Are those important too? Depending on your business model, the answer can yes―or no. Corporate apps can be an important contributor to “Modern Officing,”―an operating model where employees can perform many or all office duties wherever and whenever it suits them, without the boundaries of time and space. However, as with public-facing mobile apps, corporate apps must be “done right” to succeed.

Corporate mobile apps are company-branded and approved tools that enable employees to run processes and connect to the corporate resources from their mobile devices. They allow companies a greater level of control and access restriction than simply allowing personnel to get direct access over the Internet. And they are becoming increasingly affordable to develop. So, what’s not to love?

Of the nearly 70% of employees that use personally owned smartphones and tablets in the workplace a majority (58%) abandon the corporate mobile apps they should be using for work-related tasks (per a 2013 survey conducted by ResearchNow). Most concerning, the report revealed that 64% of employees "go rogue," freely downloading public “productivity” apps of their choice and putting corporate security at risk.

Some 26% of smartphone users―and nearly 20% of tablet users―report that they "stick with" the corporate mobile app, but that productivity suffers as a result. A majority of users also reported returning to their desktops to complete tasks they could not effectively accomplish via mobile apps.

Now for the big question: what should your company do? That depends upon your level of technological sophistication and need for the apps. The reality for all businesses―especially small and medium-sized businesses―is that corporate apps are not a requisite in the way that customer-facing apps are. You do have options:

Secure cloud-based access: If you want employees to have access to corporate resources, for a very reasonable fee you can make those resources available securely, “in the cloud” Cloud security has improved substantially, especially when your data is hosted at a world-class data center or on your company’s own servers. Such setups are dramatically more secure than public apps. DynaSis’ ITility solution and DynaSis BLUE are approaches that incorporate this model.

Public apps with strict BYOD policy enforcement: Not all public apps are bad. It’s the unrestricted usage of them, without any corporate screening, that is dangerous. The survey we mentioned earlier found that only 24% of the businesses surveyed were enforcing a formal BYOD policy. Developing and enforcing a BYOD policy that lets employees download only approved, secure, well-respected mobile apps will go a long way towards reducing your risk, as well.

This effort is about incentives and enforcement as much as access. If personnel are using devices they paid for, you won’t be loved for restricting them from downloading public apps for personal use. You can incent them to use only company-approved solutions instead, through a combination of perks (company-paid minutes and data bonuses) and routine “health checks” with serious penalties for those that break the rules. Just make sure your choices are well-designed and intuitive or you may find yourself firing a lot of employees.

In-House Apps: If you want to develop in-house apps, they must be functional and intuitive. Companies developing them must adopt the best practices that are common with customer-facing apps. These practices include identifying user personas and use cases and targeting functionality to the broadest base of users. Corporate apps may not be a requisite, but if you are going to use them, they must work elegantly and offer a rich, mobile app experience.

DynaSis’ on-demand CIOs can help you evaluate and develop your mobile strategy and decide which of these approaches is best for you. The most important point is to do something. If you are waiting to make a decision about corporate mobile apps―or public mobile apps in the workplace―you are putting your company at risk. In the absence of a clear policy and directive, don’t wonder if your mobile-enabled employees are downloading public apps without your knowledge. Be assured that they already are.

By the DynaSis Team

[featured_image]In 2013, the CEB (Corporate Executive Board), the world’s leading member-based advisory company, published its 2013–2014 IT Budget Benchmark study, developed from the responses of 165 member organizations. The study found that CIOs are not increasing their spending on innovation, whereas HR, operations, finance and marketing are spending sizeable portions of their budgets on innovative IT projects. (HR departments alone are spending between 6-9% of their budgets on IT innovations, per the study.)

The CEB concluded that these findings indicate IT departments are no longer driving technology innovation to other parts of the business.  For the CEB the question then became, "Why are IT departments not budgeting for and controlling these projects?"

The CEB postulated (and we concur) that this shift has occurred because nearly 70% of IT budgets (per the study) are being consumed by maintenance and mandatory (e.g. regulatory) expenses. This "cash crunch" is encouraging already territorial IT departments to reject other departments' pet projects.

While it warms our IT-oriented hearts to learn that marketing, HR and other departments are willing to cannibalize their budgets to implement IT innovations, from iPads to cloud services, this behavior also concerns us. The CEB called the revenue consumed by these expenditures "shadow IT budgets" and estimates that such unapproved projects increase corporate IT expenditures by as much as 40%.

The CEB also determined that some 50% of these expenditures are what it called "unhealthy spending." Unhealthy spending results when projects are not properly evaluated and vetted against a business' overall growth strategy and objectives and/or the risk/reward analysis for the project is inadequate. We've seen unhealthy IT spending among some of our clients that, if not caught in time, could literally have jeopardized the company's trajectory, in terms of priorities and focus.

So, how much "unhealthy spending" are your departments engaging in? How many initiatives have they undertaken without the knowledge and approval of your IT chief?  No matter what you think the number is, we're willing to bet it's higher.

To curb shadow (and especially unhealthy) IT spending, our virtual CIOs can perform "project discovery" and help you map all recent and future projects against your business goals and needs. If you bring everyone to the table for a conversation, we can help vet the ideas of your HR, marketing, finance and other departments and quantify the impact of the good ones for IT and executive management.  We may also be able to help you reduce maintenance and mandatory expenditures through solid IT practices, freeing up budgets for innovation.

Only when you address shadow IT spending—and accept that these efforts are well-intentioned and can be quite valuable when handled properly—will you reap maximum reward from your technology initiatives and move expenditures out of the shadows and onto the balance sheet.

To learn more, fill out our inquiry form or give us a call.

By the DynaSis Team

At DynaSis, we are continually working to make improvements, providing our customers with products and services that are faster, more powerful and more secure. This year, we have taken great strides in several areas, including introducing an affordable, secure cloud file system that just may revolutionize your business model.

If you haven’t been introduced to our new offerings yet, we invite you to call us for a complimentary consultation. You may be pleasantly surprised at how much our solutions can propel the success of your business

Automated Monitoring and Alerting: In February, DynaSis launched a cloud-based, high-availability monitoring and alerting service gives that gives engineers in DynaSis’ network operations center a dashboard view of customers’ infrastructure at all times. The service conducts analysis and inspection of DynaSis customers’ on-site infrastructure and networks, 24/7/365, scanning for issues such as low disk space, servers being overwhelmed by too many user requests, and other problems that affect availability and performance. Offered at no additional charge to DynaSis’ Managed Services customers, it added a further layer of scrutiny on top of DynaSis’ already robust network and infrastructure management and maintenance solutions.

Partnership with Veeam: In March 2013, DynaSis announced a partnership with Veeam, a leading provider of disaster recovery services for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Partnering with Veeam gave DynaSis yet another best-practices disaster recovery option for its clients. With the Veeam solution, DynaSis customers’ data and servers are replicated from their virtual servers to DynaSis offsite data centers, eliminating the need for onsite backup appliances or servers. Customers enjoy instant file-level recovery, application-item recovery and virtual server recovery plus deep support for VMware and Hyper-V virtualization environments.

DynaSis BLUE: In September, DynaSis announced the launch of DynaSis BLUE, a solution that turns customers’ on-site file servers into in-house cloud servers. To deploy BLUE, DynaSis installs a tiny software agent on a client's file server and then configures the in-house cloud environment to meet the customer's specifications. DynaSis BLUE enables firms to harness the power of cloud-based file sharing and storage without relinquishing control of corporate files to a third-party provider. With 448-bit Blowfish encryption, two-factor authentication, full auditability and granular user-access and security controls, DynaSis BLUE provisions companies with a comprehensive, 100% synchronized and backed-up solution that offers significantly better governance than leading competitors.

These products and services are some of our 2013 highlights, but they are far from our only accomplishments. We’re also planning some great new additions for 2014.

We hope you had a great holiday season and wish you a prosperous New Year. From all of us at DynaSis, here’s to a great 2014. We look forward to working with you in the future!

Have you thought about The Cloud recently? We're not referring to the puffy bits of condensed moisture that float above us, but rather to the interconnected web of data, applications, services and other components, both public and private, that we now know as The Cloud. DynaSis thought about The Cloud quite a lot earlier this year, when we launched our cloud-based storage and sharing solution  DynaSis BLUE.

BLUE is incredibly flexible and secure, with granular management that gives companies real control over their content and how people access it. As a result, we hope you'll check it out, if you haven't already. But, BLUE isn't what continues to amaze us, as proud of it as we might be. No, that honor would go to The Cloud, itself.

We can across some statistics on cloud adoption and growth recently, and they blew us away like a leaf in a strong wind. Here are a few tidbits that might make you feel the same way.

• Research firm Gartner predicts that the bulk of IT spending by 2016 will be for cloud computing platforms and applications.
• The worldwide economic impact of cloud technology could be as much as $6.2 trillion, annually, by 2025, per McKinsey & Company's report, Disruptive Technologies, Advances that Will Transform Life, Business and the Global Economy.
• IDC expects public IT cloud services to grow by 23.5% annually (compound growth rate) between now and 2017. That's between four-six times as fast as that of on-premise IT.
•  According to KPMG's recent study of cloud adoption, Global Cloud Survey, the Implementation Challenge, 70% of companies say cloud computing is delivering operating efficiencies and cost savings, today.
• Boston Consulting Group says that adoption of SaaS (software as a service) is increasing at three times the rate of traditional, on-premise software. (With SaaS, companies and individuals contract to access and use software over an Internet connection rather than purchasing and installing it.)

So, have you poked your head into The Cloud yet? If not, the sooner you begin leveraging the productivity and operational benefits of cloud computing, the more money you can save. Adopting cloud computing will also help your company level its "playing field" in relation to larger competitors.

DynaSis can show you how to adopt the cloud securely and efficiently, without even giving up your in-house hardware, if you prefer. (Our approach to this hybrid solution is called Ascend.) You can start slowly, with cloud-based Microsoft Exchange or basic file storage and sharing for collaboration and remote working through DynaSis BLUE.

If you'd like to learn more, we have a great white paper on cloud computing you can peruse. The Cloud is waiting... what are you waiting for?

By DynaSis

I was perusing the Internet recently when I saw a pop-up ad for an IT services firm that offered both cloud storage and managed cloud storage. Essentially, this company rents its clients raw space on cloud servers for a very low fee, but if a client wants any help getting its data to the servers, or managing it for optimal efficiency and access, there is an additional cost―and a pretty hefty one, too.

For large enterprises with a team of in-house IT experts, I can see the appeal of utilizing the “storage only” option. Why pay for third-party cloud management when you have staff that can load your files to the cloud, manage the security and continuity of connections and access mechanisms, and otherwise keep the cloud functioning?

The problem for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) is that they usually don’t have the expertise to perform these tasks. They buy some of the cheap cloud storage, realize they are out of their depth, technically, and end up spending big bucks for minimal assistance creating and managing their cloud environments.

Companies that plan their move to the cloud and thoroughly explore their options can avoid such unnecessary, tacked-on expenses. Many competent IT providers―and not just bulk cloud storage vendors―host managed cloud servers and include IT assistance as part of an economically priced package. For even more ROI, they often can bundle them with other services that help secure a company’s on-site network and IT resources, as well.

Furthermore, there are now solutions that can turn a company’s local (in-house) servers into cloud servers quickly, inexpensively and with very stringent security. DynaSis recently developed one of these solutions, DynaSis BLUE, for its customers. A tiny software agent, installed on an in-house server, enables authorized individuals to access company-designated files, folders and applications securely over an Internet connection. The agent consumes minimal space and system resources on the server itself.

This is just one example of the many ways companies are going to the cloud without blowing their budgets on unexpected, tacked-on expenses. Our Cloud Readiness Assessment can help you evaluate whether your company is ready for the cloud and determine which model might suit you best.

To learn more, give me a call.

DynaSis, Atlanta’s premier provider of IT services and support for small and medium businesses (SMBs), today announced the debut of DynaSis BLUE, an affordable, secure cloud file system. BLUE turns customers’ on-site file servers into in-house cloud servers, enabling firms to harness the power of cloud-based file sharing and storage without relinquishing control of corporate files to a third-party provider.

“Workers increasingly need access to their company’s files and other resources from remote locations, but many firms aren’t comfortable storing digital assets on data center servers in a traditional cloud configuration,” said DynaSis President Dave Moorman. “BLUE creates an enterprise-grade, stringently secured and encrypted cloud on the client’s own server, enabling authorized personnel to access and share files over any Internet-enabled computing device, including mobile phones and tablets."

To deploy BLUE, DynaSis installs a tiny software agent on a client's file server and then configures the in-house cloud environment to meet the customer's specifications. BLUE incorporates 448-bit Blowfish encryption, two-factor authentication, full auditability and granular user-access and security controls.

Far more than a simple cloud-sharing site, DynaSis BLUE provisions companies with a comprehensive, 100% synchronized and backed-up solution that offers significantly better governance than leading competitors.

BLUE is a perfect solution for SMBs due to its affordability, ease of deployment and low impact on system resources. It does not require a special server configuration, does not impact server performance, and does not require firms to purchase additional servers, cloud storage or a VPN (virtual private network).

Yet it gives these companies’ remote workers near instant data accessibility from anywhere in the world. The deploying company also controls which data remote workers can view and share, with DynaSis enabling cloud-based access for only those documents and folders the client company designates.

“DynaSis BLUE was built from the ground-up as a highly secure, accountable business productivity tool,” said Moorman. “It enables SMBs to reap the benefits of remote file sharing and collaboration without the up-front investment or effort usually associated with developing corporate clouds.”