Most businesses can’t afford the luxury of a qualified IT administrator, let alone an entire IT department. If you’re in this position, how do you maintain the information technology infrastructure that’s critical to your organization?
One option is Managed Services, in which you outsource this role to an IT expert called a “managed services provider,” which [...]
Entries from April 30th, 2010
Understanding the Value of Managed Services
April 30th, 2010 · No Comments · Backup, Business Continuity, Managed Services, Security
Tags: Business Continuity·data backup·Information Technology Infrastructure·Managed Services·Managed Services Provider·On-site Network·Remote Network·Security·Security Monitoring·Technical Support
SaaS: An Overview
April 28th, 2010 · No Comments · Business Continuity, Managed Hosting, Managed Services
The growing reach and power of the internet has changed the way people do business, with more and more web-based services popping up. One of these is SaaS.
SaaS stands for Software as a Service, which refers to any licensed software being “rented” to a company by another company on an as-needed basis.
To illustrate, let’s say [...]
Tags: Business Contunity·Licensed Software·Managed Hosting·Managed Services·Outsourced Services·Remote Hosting·Remotely Located·SaaS·Siteeasy.com·Software as a Service·Web-Based Services
Evaluating Your Backup Solution
April 26th, 2010 · No Comments · Backup, Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery, Managed Services
You can’t have a disaster recovery plan until you first have a good backup solution. Is your backup solution good—or just good enough?
The traditional backup process was done to tape – which had a number of limitations including high cost (particularly as capacity increases), difficult upgrades, degradation over time, and slow backup and restoration. Over [...]
Tags: Backup·Backup Solution·Business Continuity·Disaster Recovery·Disaster Recovery Plan·Managed Services
Microsoft Says It’s “All In” When It Comes to Cloud Computing
April 23rd, 2010 · No Comments · Cloud Computing, Managed Hosting, Microsoft
Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO, stated during an interview with InformationWeek that when it comes to cloud computing, Microsoft is “all in”. He commented that the cloud growth, or “hockey stick” as he referred to it, is now taking off. Over the past five years Microsoft has made a significant investment in their cloud computing products [...]
Tags: Cloud Computing·InformationWeek·Infrastructure·Managed Hosting·Microsoft·Microsoft's CEO·Steve Ballmer
What to Do If You’ve Responded to a Phishing Scam
April 23rd, 2010 · No Comments · Business Continuity, Managed Services, Security
If you suspect that you’ve responded to a phishing scam with personal or financial information or entered this information into a fake Web site, take these steps to minimize any damage.
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Tags: Business Contunuity·Damage·Fake Web Site·Managed Services·Phishing·Phishing Scam·Security
How to Handle Suspicious E-mail
April 21st, 2010 · No Comments · Business Continuity, Managed Services, Security
Phishing, pronounced “fishing,” is a type of online identity theft that uses e-mail and fraudulent Web sites that are designed to steal your personal data or information such as credit card numbers, passwords, account data, or other information. Follow these guidelines to help protect yourself from phishing scams sent through e-mail.
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Tags: Business Continuity·E-mail·Fradulent Web Sites·Guidelines·Identity Theft·Managed Services·Online Identity Theft·Phishing·Phishing Scams·Security
Beware the Kneber Botnet
April 19th, 2010 · No Comments · Business Continuity, Managed Services, Security
A malicious piece of software making the rounds on news websites recently is believed to be behind the compromise of over 75,000 systems in over 2,500 international organizations – many of which are government agencies and large Fortune 500 companies.
Called the Kneber botnet after the name in the email used to register the initial domain [...]
Tags: Botnet·Business Continuity·Facebook·Fortune 500·Kneber·Kneber Botnet·Malicious Software·Malware·Managed Security·Managed Services·PayPal·Security·Social Networking·Zeus·Zeus Botnet
Remote IT Support Helps Businesses Save Money and Keep Moving Forward
April 15th, 2010 · No Comments · Business Continuity, Managed Services
As a result of the past year’s economic climate, many businesses have increased their efforts to mitigate risks and lower costs—and more and more are turning toward remote IT support to fulfill those goals.
Remote support tools allow IT providers to support an entire company’s computing infrastructure, wherever and whenever needed, from their own offices. This [...]
Tags: Business Continuity·Economic Climate·Infrastructure·IT Providers·Lower Cost·Managed Services·Mitigate Risks·Remote IT Support
Despite Bad Weather, the Show Must Go On
April 13th, 2010 · No Comments · Managed Services
The prevailing bad weather in the United States and Europe has caused varying degrees of production delays in all sorts of industries and business. In circumstances like these, communication is especially important – when all members of the organization need to stay connected to keep operations coordinated and moving forward.
Bad weather or not, there has [...]
Tags: Bad Weather·Communication·Communication Solutions·Managed Services·Mobile Accessibility·Production Delays·Remote Accessibility
Beware of Vulnerabilities in Windows and Office
April 8th, 2010 · No Comments · Managed Services, Microsoft, Security
Microsoft recently released a number of security bulletins and patches addressing vulnerabilities in Windows and Office that are of high risk to users. It’s widely believed that many will be exploited by hackers within the next 30 days. One of them could potentially allow hackers or malware authors to easily compromise systems by tricking users [...]
Tags: Hackers·Malicious AVI-Formatted Files·Malware·Managed Services·Microsoft·Office·Patches·PowerPoint Viewer 2003·Security·Surity Bulletins·Vulnerabilities·Windows
Mariposa Botnet Masters Arrested
April 6th, 2010 · No Comments · Business Continuity, Managed Services, Security
Spanish authorities report that they have arrested the masterminds behind a string of online criminal activities using the botnet dubbed Mariposa. Mariposa is the original name of a commercially distributed Do-it-Yourself malware kit, sold online for 800/1000 EUR for “wannabe” hackers. Along with the arrest, authorities seized sensitive data belonging to about 800,000 users in 190 [...]
Tags: "Wannabe" Hackers·Botnet·Cybercriminals·Hackers·Malware·Mariposa·Network·Security·Sensitive Data·Spanish Authorities
Is Your Disaster Recovery Plan Up To Date?
April 1st, 2010 · 1 Comment · Backup, Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery, Managed Services, Security
Businesses are constantly changing. Is your disaster recovery plan changing, too? It should be.
Every company can experience a business-altering event at any time: floods, explosions, accidents, computer malfunctions—the list is endless.
If you have a disaster recovery plan, you’re prepared to prevent such events from disrupting your normal operations—or at least you were at the time [...]
Tags: Backup·Business Continuity·Disaster Recovery·Managed Services