Does your organization have backups? Many may quickly respond with an affirmative response, but they may subscribe to myths about backups. One may say that their critical infrastructure is backed up, check that box, and move on. There are many considerations when it comes to choosing a backup solution, method, and configuration; you want to…
Category Archives: Managed Services
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Backups: Myth vs. Reality (Part 1)
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What Should You Expect from a Managed IT Service Provider?
If you’re considering a new Managed IT Service Provider (MSP) for your business, you probably know how difficult it is to assess them objectively. Many MSPs tout objective measures like Average Response Time and Mean Time to Resolve. These are important measures, but they can be manipulated by responding before a technician is ready to…
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Technology Downtime: What’s Reasonable? (and What Isn’t?)
One of the most important jobs of a Managed IT Service Provider (MSP) is to minimize downtime. Losing even a single workstation can easily cost a business more than a thousand dollars per day of idle time. When a network outage strikes, or a major server faces a hardware failure, hours of downtime can have…
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How Much Bandwidth Does Your Business Need?
Whether you’re moving to a new office, your contract is up or your business is growing, determining how much bandwidth you need is more stressful than it should be. Overshoot, and you could be stuck in a contract overpaying for years. Go with too little, and you could be revising your contract long before you’d…
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Average Ransomware Payment Doubles in 90 Days
Ransomware might not command the media attention it once did, but that’s not because it’s gotten any less dangerous or expensive. While it’s old news to much of the media, every day it becomes big news to thousands of small business owners. The financial threat is also escalating rapidly. Ransomware costs doubled between Q3 2019…
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Antique Passwords Are Very Expensive
Password policies can be frustrating for you and your employees, and many companies do a poor job explaining why they should be in place. Here’s how they help your business stay safe from security threats. The One Key to Rule Them All Sometimes people need to provide a spare house key to someone so that…
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What Is the Goal of Your Business?
Some business owners start out with lofty aspirations. For many, however, the goal of starting a business instead of working at someone else’s isn’t a world-changing one. Some owners don’t enjoy working for someone else and want to try working for themselves. Some have worked at a “successful” business and felt that they could do…
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Three Things to be Cautious of in an IT Services Provider
Warren Buffet famously said that it takes 20 years to build a reputation, and five minutes to ruin it. If that’s still true, most businesses don’t hang around long enough to earn a reputation. It doesn’t take quite 20 years anymore – tools such as online reviews have sped up that timeframe considerably. Unfortunately, they’ve…
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Projecting What Your Business Looks Like in 2025
One of the most common aphorisms in investment is that the markets hate uncertainty. Businesses hate it, too, and for good reason. Businesses make money by investing in the ability to deliver their goods and services more efficiently, and make their money back through increased profit margins on each future sale. But if they plan…
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Two Signs You’ve Outgrown Your One-Person Technology Team
Most companies start out with zero IT support staff, if you exclude the person who has to stop what they’re doing and figure out what’s going on when technology stops working. As the company grows, that person might track down a freelancer they can pay to come help with the network when they get in…