Category Archives: remote access

backup, business computing, cloud computing, Data Protection, IT Security, mobility, remote access

Safeguarding Your Laptop

In today’s fast paced world, business is always on the move. If you are like many businesses today, this means more than just some glossy metaphor. With lighter, more powerful laptops, your office can travel with you. You don’t have to be out of touch with your critical information simply because you’re “on the road”. With cloud computing and virtual desktops, every aspect of your business can be available to you at the tips of your fingers.

But what happens when you lose the ability to use that laptop? What happens when you have information stored on your laptop that you just can’t afford to lose? Perhaps it’s that latest details of your next major project or the start of a presentation you’re planning on delivering. Perhaps it’s a copy of an agreement or revision notes you’ve taken while you were speaking with a client. Can you afford to lose that work?

As we’ve discussed before, information is one of the most valuable assets of your business. Losing it can cost you and your business a lot.

There are many ways you could lose your laptop, including but not limited to:

  • theft
  • hardware failure
  • damage or dropping your device
  • hard drive corruption

Is the information on your laptop safe from these situations?

According to FBI’s Computer Crime Survey, the estimated cost of computer security incidents is $67.2 billion annually. And based on a recent study by Ponemon Institute, organizations lose up to $7.2 million each data breach and an average of $49,246 of data per lost laptop.

If you are concerned at all, consider the StaySafe Protection program. The Protection program is the newest member of our StaySafe suite of services all designed to help keep your most valuable asset, your data, safe. What makes StaySafe Protection unique is that is has a laptop specific component, Mobile Vault, designed for the “on-the-go” business person.  Mobile Vault provides your laptop will receive industry leading business-class backup service, fully encrypted data transfers, IP tracing and remote data removal. Compare this with traditional backup strategies.

Traditional Backup Plans StaySafe Protection Mobile Vault
Business-class backup of data ✓ ✓
AES 256-bit encryption of data ? ✓
Load balance/silent data transfer ? ✓
IP Tracing of devices ✓
Remote data destruction ✓

Business-class backup of data

Let’s face it, not all backups are created equal. Business-class backup comes with a level of integrity that you can’t get from at home versions of backup. Business-class backup includes:

  • redundant systems to ensure optimal uptimes
  • professional level software enabling greater level of control over data
  • ability to apply policies and create procedures the increase compliance of data

AES 256-bit encryption of data

One of the greatest dangers of working with data over the Internet these days is the fear the information can be stolen. Without proper encryption, your business intelligence and competitive advantage is just floating out there for someone to pick up and steal. AES 256-bit encryption is the latest and greatest in industry techniques.

Load balancing and silent transfer of data

Most traditional backup plans will require you set a time to “run” the backup. It utilizes all of your system’s resources to upload the computer’s information into a remote location. This process can take hours to complete and tie up critical systems, slowing down the internet and any other operations on that system. As such, most businesses schedule traditional backup plans to run late at night, when they expect low traffic on their network.

But with remote systems, you can’t always predict when you’ll be hooked up to the internet and available to do this backup. Under the traditional backup plans, that could mean your computer will miss these critical backups. Or worse, your already slow remote connection will move even slower because you’re trying to share the bandwidth with your backup process. Many times, you’re not connected to these remote internet services long enough to truly perform a full backup, thus potentially corrupting your backups and losing your critical data.

Under Mobile Vault, the service is intelligent enough to perform data transfer in increments, transferring small packets so it not only using less bandwidth but can optimize on your limited remote access. If you lose connection to the internet, it will simply resume where it left off and thus prevent data corruption.

IP Tracing and Remote data destruction

One of the scariest things that can happen to any business person is losing their laptop. Not only is it a physical asset loss, it could also mean the loss of critical information and compromise of the business. With Mobile Vault, businesses are now able to track and remove critical information even if the computer is physically lost.

Using the administrative interface, Mobile Vault can put a listener out on the Internet. As soon as the computer tries to connect to the internet again (which is a standard process triggered when most computers turn on), the system will retrieve the location of the computer via IP address. From here, the lost device can be located and any critical information removed remotely from the system.

Interested to learn more about what StaySafe Protection or any services under the StaySafe line can offer your computer? Just give us a call or email today. We’d be happy to assist you further and help evaluate if this service is right for your business.

business computing, cloud computing, IT Security, remote access

Location Matters Even in the Cloud

The idea of going to a Cloud system (aka remote computing) for businesses can either be scary, exhilarating or a mix of both. If you’re moving your business to a clouded solution, there are many things to consider to make sure your most valuable business asset, your data, is safeguarded.

With that in mind, one of the most overlooked but critical criteria that business owners review when considering a clouded solution is the data location.

Here at Solve-IT.ca, we ran into just such a situation while working with a client.

What is Data Location?

When we speak of data location, we’re now moving out of the “cloud” world and into the real world.  We’re talking about the actual physical location where the servers that hold your data sit.  When you deal with a virtual environment, your data could sit literally anywhere in the world.  With most clouded servers you buy these days, that data will probably sit to the south of us in the United States.

Why does physical location matter?

Because most of these remote servers actually sit in the US, we have a unique situation here in Canada that our southern counterparts don’t necessarily consider.  Whenever we store data in a virtual environment where the physical server is located in the US, we are sending our data out of the country.  Depending on the type of data and level of privacy it falls under, legally, the information should not cross the border without the person’s consent.

Furthermore, because the server resides in a different city, province, and country, the data falls under the jurisdiction of the local municipality of that server.  Thus, if there are additional rules or regulations that are applied at the local level, the data must comply with those standards as well.

To further make the situation difficult, Internet laws are becoming more complicated because data actually can pass through multiple countries and locations as it “jumps” from server to server to its final location. Certain countries are putting in regulations that govern data that passes through their countries.  For instance, Canada will be implementing CASL (Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation), which governs the use of certain personal data for business anywhere online.

The Situation

We were approached from a client to resolve this very complicated situation.  Because this client retained medical information which needs to stay within this country, we had to investigate solutions from a higher level of consideration.

We worked with many companies and server solutions, questioning them on their server location, backup locations, mirrors and safeguards such as firewalls that they had in place. Using our understanding of remote desktop support and ability to delve deeper into the technical details of the provider’s systems, we found a provider that meets all security requirements AND all their servers are located in Canada.

Conclusion

In today’s technological world advances such as cloud computing are ideal for helping small businesses expand at a pace that is reasonable to them without a large initial investment.  Tackling cloud computing for business is different than simply utilizing iCloud or SkyDrive or the like for your personal needs.

When done correctly and with the right level of technical considerations, cloud computing can be the solution that propels your business to the next level.

Are you ready to take the next step?  Need help?  Give us a call here at Solve-IT.ca and let our experts assist you in picking the right solution to fit your business and industry needs.

remote access

Can Teleworking Save Ontario Companies Money?

Earth Day is April 22nd; what is your Canadian firm doing to help improve the environment?

Canadian corporations who promote teleworking and allow key employees to work a minimum of twice a week from home can help save over $53 billion dollars annually. That is not all there is to it; you could reduce greenhouse gases by a considerably huge amount and save almost 390 million litres of gas, says Canada’s first major national whitepaper on telework.

“WORKshift Canada: the bottom line on telework”, a report released by Calgary Economic Development in collaboration with the Telework Research Network, used census data and analysis of over 400 case studies, research papers and other documents related to telework to show the positive implications that the proper and regular implementation of telework could have on the country’s economy, environment and society.

Adopting telecommuting a minimum twice a week can help employers save $10,000 a year, and employees will also be able to save as much as $600 – $3,500 annually as a result of reduced commuting and work-related expenses. Other positive changes we will be seeing are an increase of 20% in productivity, a 7% reduction in attrition and increased employee empowerment and morale.

Teleworking will also be playing a major role in protecting the environment from degradation through greenhouse gases. And money is not the only thing teleworking will be saving. Teleworking can emerge as a quick fix to solve labour shortages and reduce energy consumption and pollution. With so many things that teleworking could help you change, you should not be wasting any more time ignoring teleworking. If you are an employer, incorporate teleworking into your organization; and if you are an employee, go convince your boss now.

Thinking it isn’t possible? It is. According to Kate Lister, principal researcher and lead consultant at the Telework Research Network, four in ten people can do their jobs at home (at least part-time) and eight in ten can do all their work from home.

As a Southern Ontario IT security focused company, Solve-IT can help your business set up secure remote access systems which promote secure teleworking. If your Niagara and area business is looking into the possibility of allowing key employees to work from home or other locations, consider contacting us today for a review of your VPN and remote access solutions.