Tag Archives: technology

business computing, IT Security

The Nasty 5-letter Word

In the business world, the term “audit” is a nasty 5-letter word.  It often refers to financial auditing and is wrought with anxiety and countless lost hours of production.

Did you know that when it comes to technology, auditing can actually save you money and, in some cases, help you propel your business to the next level?

Not many people think about auditing their IT systems.  Computers tend to be a “put it in place and forget about it until it breaks” component of business.  The reality is you could be wasting a great deal of money by not regularly performing audits on your IT environment.

We equate this leakage to the same as a bad sealant on a window.  Sure, the window is in place and is functioning (for the most part).  On the surface, unless there’s a major crack, you don’t really see any issues but over time, you will notice your heating or cooling bills rise.  You may find water seeping in during bad storms and causing damage to the building structure.  Eventually it will cost you more to keep your current windows than to have them properly switched out and replaced.

So too is the slow leakage that comes with a business IT infrastructure that doesn’t have a proper monitoring and auditing system behind it.

The slow leak of your hard-earned profit…

As mentioned previously, it isn’t immediately apparent how you can lose money from an improperly maintained IT system but here are some common issues we run into that can easily be caught by a proper audit.

  • Outdated software that requires patches or upgrades
  • Equipment on the verge of failing and degrading in performance
  • Holes in your security that have allowed malicious software to enter
  • Loss of productivity from employees spending time on unauthorized websites
  • Missing or incorrect license keys which put your company at legal risk

Ignoring the issue…

Over time, the infrastructure can break down around you and suddenly you find yourself in an emergency situation.  Your hardware or software is failing.  You don’t know how or what to replace the equipment with.  You scramble to stop the incoming “seepage of water” that can cause permanent damage to the infrastructure of your business.

Audits to the rescue

Luckily, you can avoid a lot of this pain by having an IT audit performed.  Unlike its financial counterpart, IT audits can be relatively painless and cost you minimal time.

A well run audit

Obviously, there are many programs and people out there who claim they can perform IT audits.  If the audit is to be of value, it must contain some key points:

  • Inventory of all hardware and software connected to your IT system
  • Detailed listing of licenses for each critical application and serial numbers for hardware
  • Information around warranty status on each piece of hardware
  • Listing of firewall or security measures and ports open
  • Information on users and mail accounts (if hosted internally)
  • Information on server utilization and storage device space

How long does an audit take?

Normally, an initial audit should take no more than a couple of hours.  There is minimal involvement from your staff.  Rather, the IT technician should be able to perform the investigation with just access to your system.

How often should it be done?

The frequency of audits depends upon if you have another monitoring system in place to watch day-to-day activity.  With a monitoring system, you should only have to perform or update your audit when major system changes like across-the-board upgrades or new servers go into place.  Without a monitoring system to watch day-to-day traffic, you may want to consider a minimum of a yearly review of your systems to ensure all is still operating as expected.

Need help?

If you need more help or have further questions about IT audits, please don’t hesitate to give us a call here at Solve-IT.ca.  We’d be happy to answer your questions and work with you to provide you the best solutions to maximize your IT budget. 

cloud computing

Should you virtualize your business

Virtualization seems to be the latest trend for business (and personal) these days. Everywhere you turn, people are talking about the “cloud” and utilizing their “online services”. But how realistic is this move for businesses? And is this just a passing fad?

First off, let’s be clear the concept of virtualization for computers isn’t as new as Microsoft or other big contenders would have you believe. In fact, the original computing world was completely “virtual”. Back then, we called them mainframes. All data and applications were in a central location; the only thing the user had was a terminal in which to log into the main servers.

Mainframes were powerful but the architecture had quite a few drawbacks. Limitations, such as capacity of simultaneous users and distance from the mainframe servers, directed companies more towards personal computers and stand-alone devices.

The idea of virtualization has risen again because of many advancements which makes the concept and technology far more accessible. In today’s world, virtualization refers to a diverse array of solutions and possibilities. Understanding the differences and possibilities are key to gaining the benefit of the technology.

Small companies (< 50 desktops)

Smaller companies can see real cost benefits from virtualizing their support or auxiliary systems. When we speak about virtualization for smaller businesses, we are talking primarily about utilizing the services of another company to eliminate the need of locally maintaining hardware and software.

Example: A mid-sized manufacturing company with roughly 15 employees was getting bombarded with spam in their email box. The spam was causing important emails from clients to be delayed and even rejected.

The cost for purchasing a local spam filtering software was a flat server rate plus individual cost per user. Divided across 15 boxes, it worked out to over $200/year/user.
Solve-IT.ca recommended they move to a virtualized spam filter, where they were able to reduce the cost of spam filtering to just a few dollars a month per user, or < $100/year/user. There was no compromise in service and in fact they gained message queuing, mail archiving and the ability to reply to emails in the queue in the event of a server outage.

Larger companies (> 50 desktops)

In larger companies, they can benefit from the same shared services as small businesses. But there are other opportunities available, such as Hyper-V, a Microsoft technology which allows for a single server to act like multiple.

Example: A large pharmaceutical company had at one time maintained close to 27 servers to store all their critical clinical trials data. This large number of servers was starting to impede the space allotted for computers and thus the ability for the company to continue to grow.

Rather than simply place more servers into the room, Solve-IT.ca worked out a new architecture for the environment that reduced the 27 servers down to 7 and allowed for additional growth within the existing environment. In addition to saving floor space, this allowed the company to retire the other 20 servers and save on maintenance time, reduce their carbon footprint and experience a utilities cost saving.

So what’s the right virtualization solution?

Virtualizing a company’s IT has to be done with a lot of care and forethought. Without the proper planning, critical systems can go down and data can be lost.

It is also not a “one-size-fits-all” environment. The solution has to fit with the company’s needs. For instance, a lawyer firm Solve-IT.ca recently worked with had legal requirements to maintain all data within Canada. Thus, it was critical for us to work with them and find the right solution to meet their needs and not compromise their data.

Are you interested in virtualizing your environment? Curious what options may be available to you?

Give us a call and book some Discovery time with Solve-IT.ca. We’ll be able to review your existing setup and provide our assessment on what architecture would make the most sense for your business.

business computing

4 Considerations in Selecting Business Computer Systems

From time to time I get asked by people who don’t work regularly with me as to why I choose to deploy brands such as IBM and Lenovo. The price tags on these devices are often higher than some of their off-the-shelf counterparts. (Let’s not mention the bad 4-letter word please!)

I’m often surprised by this question because I don’t understand why anyone would want to go with something different for their business. Sure, in your personal life, you can get away with using just about anything. In fact, in my lifetime, I’ve built several thousand clone computers personally.

But as a business owner, I have to ask some critical questions that make my business decisions clear:

  • Do you care if your computers work every day?
  • Do you care about standardized platforms and reduced service costs?
  • Do you care how customer service treats you if something goes wrong?

As wonderful as computers are, the reality is there will always be situations where something can (and as Murphy states often does) go wrong. That’s where having a tried and true brand makes the difference.

Here are some of my real life examples of how these two particular brands made a real difference to my customers:

In-person and onsite support even on holidays

Anyone who knows me knows about the Christmas from hell. If you don’t, just ask me some time. Short story, even at Christmas Eve there was someone we could talk to from IBM who could assist us in bringing the system back. On top of that, they were willing to bring someone either that night or the next morning down from the main Toronto office to be onsite to resolve the issue.

Technical support that knows they don’t know everything

Another company, who I was not supporting at the time but had worked on the architecture of their environment, had a critical application go down because their current support decided to mess with the delicate setup in a vain attempt to optimize their environment. The end result is that the company called in IBM to get them back up and running. The IBM technician was told by this other support to basically wipe the whole server clean and rebuild the system from scratch. Having enough common sense, this technician was wise enough to stop and actually ask more questions. End result was the actual solution was a completely different problem and by not blindly following what he was told to do, he saved the company countless hours and service dollars to get the server data back.

Simple support at the convenience of the customer

A client of mine recently had a Lenovo laptop which had a video screen that started displaying a weird black band. With no fuss, I simply called technical support and reported the issue. Because the computer was a Lenovo T-series, it had a 3 year warranty upgraded to next business day onsite. The client was about to go on an extended business trip and Lenovo was willing to have the computer picked up and dropped off wherever was necessary for him. Fortunately, the issue wasn’t so critical that he had to have such an immediate response. But after he returned (nearly a month later) with the laptop, Lenovo still honored the claim and handled the laptop with ease.

Easy recovery and factory restore

Seems lately I’ve had the luck of dealing with several computer virus attacks. Many of them were on systems without a proper recovery media. A recovery media is important in ensuring the operating system (normally Windows), all drivers, and all default programs are restored properly onto the computer. In comparison, Lenovo offers the friendliest recover mechanism to ensure a clean restore to factory. This means less cost and less time until the computer is fully functioning again.

The above are extreme cases. It’s the hope that you never run into any of these problems. But do you really want to chance something as critical as your business computer systems? Isn’t your business important enough to you to go for the best?

At the end of the day, if you can’t afford a branded platform, can you afford to loss your critical business data instead?

If you’re interested in moving to a more standardized platform and want to know how your business can benefit from using branded products, please drop us an email here at Solve-IT.ca, a leading IT support for Southern Ontario.

Microsoft

Microsoft Patch Tuesday Tomorrow – Important Patches Due Out

Come Tuesday, Microsoft is shipping five security bulletins to fix flaws in the Microsoft Windows operating system, the Microsoft Office productivity suite and the Microsoft Server Software that could lead to code execution and privilege escalation attacks.

All five upgrades have been rated “important” and the Windows OS updates will apply to all versions of the operating system, which means the newest Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 will be able to reap the benefits too. And keep in mind, at least one of the bulletins will require a restart after installation.

Now don’t you even think of downplaying this batch of patches just because it doesn’t have a “critical” bulletin. Yes, “important” vulnerabilities do not give attackers the full root privileges generally associated with “critical” vulnerabilities, but the attackers can still use an “important” rated vulnerability to achieve an initial compromise. Once the compromise has been obtained, there is no doubt that these attackers will escalate privileges by other means.

The not-“critical” but still “important” bulletins are coming. We are sure that by now, you’ve come to understand just how important these “important” bulletins are.

Trust your local Hamilton IT support specialists at Solve-IT to help you with all your business IT support needs.  Our clients never have to worry about security bulletins, we do this for them.  Speak with us today about all your Hamilton computer support needs.

mobility

iPads are not just for play

If you think iPads are just for leisure or for entertainment, think again. With nearly 86 percent of Fortune 500 companies in the US report deploying or testing the iPad, this revolutionary device has become a tool for business too!

Manufactured by Apple, these easy to hold, easy to transport, and easy to use devices use the same operating system as iPod Touch and iPhone. They do not use input devices like the mouse or keyboard and require you to use your fingers to touch and navigate. Thanks to the availability of hundreds and thousands of applications that range from entertainment, media and education to even productivity and business, the iPad can be used as one powerful device in all areas of life and your workplace is definitely no exception.

Here are reasons why you should bring your iPad to work:

Presentations: Presentations are made so much easier by iPads. First off, they are portable and secondly, they contain applications that allow you to import and edit PowerPoint presentations, and even accessories to connect the device to a monitor or projector. You can also do virtual presentations as there are iPad apps that let you stream your presentation via the Internet.

Communication and Collaboration: If it is communication and collaboration you want, the iPad is the name of the game. With the iPad, you get built-in applications for emailing and you also get to add more to support audio and video conferencing. You can manage meetings with the built-in calendar and address book apps and also use the built-in support it has for third-party mail and calendar applications like Microsoft Exchange, Google Mail, and Calendar. If you want, you may also download and use additional applications to help you manage your tasks, monitor projects, share files, post and view your social networks! And the iPad’s larger screen is definitely a plus!

Field assignments: The iPad is the best device for people on the go as it is light weight and portable. You can install and configure VPN clients to securely connect to your office network when in the field, or even use any of the business applications (mainly cloud based ones) you use in the office. Managing your itinerary while on assignment also becomes much easier with the iPad, thanks to the built-in productivity tools.

Travel: With the iPad, you can carry your whole world as you travel. Besides the apps that help you manage your travel itinerary, there are built-in communication and collaboration tools that let you touch base with your office and find out what progress is being made. When you are not using your iPad for work, you can use it as a media viewer or news reader for information and entertainment.

Industry-specific apps: There are many industry specific apps that let you use the iPad for various purposes. You can use it as a point-of-sale display, or even as a point-of-sale device and much more!

You should discuss the best way to deploy your iPad with your trusted Hamilton IT support specialists. Give us a call today and we can help you with all your business mobility needs.

Internet

Do It Yourself SEO Tips and Tricks

Any website owner would want to generate traffic from search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. And why not? After all, traffic generated from search engines are high quality and free! Plus, if you’ve got good ranking, you might as well sit with your hands folded and see the visitors pour in. But of course, you have to put in your fair share of effort first and when it comes to effort in website marketing, SEO (or Search Engine Optimization) is the name of the game. Yes, you’ve heard of the amount of work involved and the internet marketing companies out there that can help you with your SEO. But there are some SEO strategies you can carry out all by yourself thus making the entire process an inexpensive one. So, here are 9 surefire (and DIY!) ways to up your ranking:

  • Choose your keywords wisely: Keywords are the search terms that people use to find websites in search engines and if you want them to find yours, you should choose your keywords wisely. When planning your website’s content, do some research about which keywords to use and consider using tools like the Google AdWords Keyword Tool to help you with this. And do use the “exact match” option when using the Keyword Tool to find out how many people are searching for the exact terms you’re researching. Keyword phrases with 1500 – 5000 monthly searches are fine as they bring along just enough searches to be profitable while keeping out stiff competition. Begin with 5 keywords and add more to the list as you go ahead.
  • Use your keywords in the title tags of your web pages: A title tag that describes the content of the page in a concise and accurate way with the right keywords helps search engines decide how relevant the page is to a particular search term. And remember, the more relevant a page is, the higher it will rank in the results for that search term.
  • Use your keywords in your domain name: Everyone might not agree on this one but there has been clear evidence that websites with exact match domains get top ranking easier than non-keyword domain sites. So, do include your best keyword phrase in your domain name with a .com, .net or .org. You should use a hyphen (-) between your best keywords if none are available.
  • Use Your Keywords in the HTML Heading Tags: This gives search engines more info about how relevant your web page is to certain search terms. So, make it a point to use heading tags containing your keywords at each page of your site. And see to it that every web page has at least one H1 tag that includes the same keywords that are in your title tag.
  • Check the Keyword Density in Your Website Text: Keyword density refers to the several times your keywords appear in the text on your webpage. Some believe that high keyword density is beneficial to search engine rankings, while others argue that ‘keyword stuffing’ is viewed as a form of spam by the search engines. So, if you want to be in the safe zone, you should use the main keyword once in the first paragraph, once in second paragraph, once in the last paragraph, and once somewhere between for a web page that has about 400-600 words.
  • Setup Your Website’s Internal Linking Structure Properly: You should have at least one text link with your best keyword or keyword phrase on every page that links to your main URL. This increases the popularity ofyour main page because the number of web pages that point to your main page will grow along with your website. And don’t forget to hyperlink to other posts on your blog when adding blog posts to your blog! Remember to put your best foot err..keywords forward!
  • Grow the Number of Incoming Links from a Wide Variety of External Sites: You’ve got to have a lot of webpages and popular sites linking to your site if you want to improve its PR (stands for Page Rank). This is quite a time demanding task, though, so you might consider outsourcing it.
  • Grow the Number of Incoming Links From External Sites Slowly and Consistently: Getting a few dozen links a week or even 10 a day is fine but hundreds of them is not! Unless you want your site to move down the serpsthe next time Google updates their database, you should consider taking it slow.
  • Use Your Keywords in as Many Incoming Links as Possible: Focus on using your best keyword or keyword phrase for most of your links and use it as much as possible.

Use these DIY SEO strategies and see your Page Rank improve right in front of your eyes!

Need help with SEO? Speak to our team of Hamilton IT specialists today about how we can help you.

Microsoft

Windows 8 to debut in 2012

Are you ready for another version of Windows?

Windows 8 is coming soon; according to Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer. Recently the Microsoft leader was speaking to an audience of software developers in Tokyo where he announced that Microsoft’s next version of the Windows operating system, Windows 8, is all set to debut in 2012. Since this announcement, the blogs have heated up with many opinions on what Microsoft will change from Windows 7 to Windows 8.

Many of our peers and industry pundits have been speculating about the release of Windows 8 for the past while, this is the first time an actual date has been somewhat officially confirmed.

Ballmer further added that, as Microsoft approaches the release date, there will be a lot of noise around Windows 8, Windows 8 slates, tablets, PCs, and a variety of different form factors who all running Windows.

The upcoming version of Windows is likely to have an updated user interface and will support low-power ARM chip. This change is expected to give Microsoft a benefit in the blooming tablet market which is now dominated by Apple and an affluence of others, including Research in Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook.

Windows 8 being released in 2012 puts it three years behind the earlier version, Windows 7, which was released in July 2009. As the tradition remains, Microsoft is relying on this new version to spur sales. Microsoft still expects to sell more than 350 million copies of Windows 7 this year even with new versions of the Apple MacIntosh Operating System LION now being announced.

As for the upcoming version, we will be hearing more about it at the recent All Things Digital conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

Still have questions about Microsoft Windows and other Microsoft solutions in your small business? Talk to your Hamilton Microsoft partner today. Solve-IT works with a number of businesses in and around the Hamilton area. We can help you make informed decisions about any of Microsoft’s product offerings.

Microsoft

Sneak Peak at Windows 8

After so much speculation, we were glad to hear that Windows 8 is finally scheduled to hit the market within the next year. According to all the product demos we have seen, it appears that the next generation of Windows is equipped with new user interface that is going to sweep us off our feet, as seen in Windows’ demonstration of the upcoming version at the D9 conference.

Windows 8 basically revolves around touch-centric hardware although it will still work equally well with a mouse and a keyboard. The new interface also has several other aspects that we think are absolutely amazing. Check this out:

  • A tile-based Start screen with a customizable, scalable full screen view of fast launching apps.
  • Live tiles with notifications to give you up-to-date information from your apps.
  • Fast, fluid and natural switching between running apps.
  • Apps can be snapped and resized to the side of the screen. Could multitasking with Windows get any better?
  • Apps built using HTML5 and JavaScript that are web-connected and web-powered!
  • Hardware accelerated Internet Explorer 10 that gives you fully touch-optimized browsing.

And it does not end here! The demo also showed effortless movement between existing Windows programs and new Windows 8 apps.

The new reimagined interface is also expected to fuel a whole new generation of apps. Apps in Windows 8 itself can use a broad set of new libraries and controls that enable fluid interaction and seamless connectivity. This entirely new user experience is not limited to just touch PCs. We are also going to see the user interface and new apps working with or without a keyboard or a mouse on all kinds of screen sizes and pixel densities. The product is just being prepared for early testing though which means we will have to wait for a while to experience this brand new interface.

As soon as we get a chance, Solve-IT will be testing Windows 8 in our own test labs. We want to make sure we can figure everything out throughout the beta process so when it is available through our PC partners, we are properly prepared. We are your Hamilton Microsoft partner and want to ensure you have an IT firm you can trust with all your business technology needs.

business tips

Best Well-known Tactics For Finding a $100 Million Idea

So you want to go into business, but are not sure what business to get into? How do you think the pros do it? Successful entrepreneurs don’t just happen on a good idea, you know. As a matter of fact, in a recent article I read, a survey was done of 45 company founds. Each one of them started their company, grew it into an unbelievable empire, and then sold it for more than $100 million or more or took that empire public for $300 million or more. Did they reveal any secrets during the survey which a Small to Medium-sized Business (SMB) could use? Let’s take a look:

You need to satisfy their need — not your dream.

You might be surprised to know that most successful businesses don’t necessarily follow the road of passion; more than likely they became successful because they were smart enough to look into a niche where people needed help.

Example: Dick Costolo, founder of Feedburner, responded to publishers that had content but didn’t have any way to distribute it to clients.

Listen to what your customer’s biggest problem is.

Established Information Technology (IT) specialists are very good at doing this. They listen to the client and then go into action to resolve the issue — whether it be with data backup and disaster recovery or keeping a client’s equipment and data secure.

Example: Cardiologist Donald C. Harrison was successful with his idea for his medical device company AtriCure because he thought long and hard about how he could develop a medical device that would help his heart patients in a way that provide them with a much better life.

Work from the bottom and use your experiences — not your head.

How many times have you started from the bottom of a company and worked up through the ranks? You didn’t think you knew everything right off the bat, did you? You had to learn from your experiences. Use your experiences as a one of the best well-known tactics for finding a $100 Million idea.

Example: Billionaire Tim Krauskopf of FreightZone had his idea that he gained when he started driving a semi in the trucking industry.

Great ideas come from collaboration.

Brainstorming can be one of the most effective ways for creating great ideas.

Example: Rock Mackie knew Tomotherapy was a feasible idea only after three of his graduate students collaborated with him sharing their own separate and important discoveries with him that combined resulted in a new and remarkably better CT scanning technology for treating disease.

Think you have a good idea? Sell it.

How many times have you thought you had a wonderful idea that might work for a solution. Oftentimes, if you don’t try it, you’ll never know. Bounce your idea off of someone else. What do they think? Sell your idea to them as only you can do.

Example: Jim Dolan of the Dolan Company found out early that selling is the fastest way to uncover issues with a product so you can come up with a solution and get on with other things.

Get help when you need it.

Don’t think you have to market your idea by yourself. There are plenty of Hamilton IT support companies in your area that would only be too willing to listen, offer feedback, and work right alongside of you to help you find a $100 million idea on how to make your SMB business be the success it can be.

Example: Mahendra Vora, a launcher of multiple highly successful technology companies didn’t just rely on himself or colleagues; he even put his ideas into the hands of his customers.

Do you need help with your idea? Contact your Hamilton IT Support team at Solve-IT today and let’s get started.

 

IT Security

What Is Wardriving and Why Should Your Hamilton Business Be Concerned?

If you happen to run a small business, beware! At one time, making sure our computers were locked to our desks and we had the right passwords were just enough to secure confidential corporate data. Maybe having your server locked in a secure room gave you the peace of mind that everything was secure. Times have changed especially since the invention of wireless networks. Today, crooks simply need a WI-FI connection to break into your office.

These Wardrivers drive around cruising neighbourhoods, shopping centers and office buildings looking for open or WI-FI networks that can be easily hacked into. All businesses are at risk! Small Business right through to large corporations can fall victim to a compromise of their WI-FI network. There are almost daily stories of corporations having their WI-FI networks hacked into and customer data compromised. A few years ago it was TJ Maxx; tomorrow it could be your business.

Right now, these wardrivers might make you a target. Here is how they will typically do it…

Wardrivers cruise around in vehicles, usually the ones with tinted windows to make sure no one outside sees what is happening inside the vehicle. Inside the vehicle will be laptops connected with long-range antennas that collect the list and locations of wireless networks. When they come across a vulnerable wireless network, they tap into it and steal credit card numbers and even personal information.

And if you are using an unsecure Wi-Fi standard called Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), you may be at risk. Consumer-grade WI-Fi routers (normally sold at your local office supply store) are often the targets of these wardriving attempts to hack into your business network. Your business might be using one of them. But the point here is that WEP’s encryption can be easily cracked with a little help from sophisticated tools by unsophisticated hackers, so it is time you reviewed your network security and our team of Hamilton IT security specialists can help you.

Just over a year ago, a hacker named Albert Gonzalez was convicted of stealing more than 130 million credit card numbers, most of which were robbed using wardriving.

What does your business need to be secure?

It starts with having a review of your overall business security systems, physical and virtual. It is great to have alarms on your building, controlled access to your business but what about your employees who connect from home via remote access or your WI-FI connection that is broadcasting to the world that your business is “open for business”. Having a trusted Hamilton IT support team like ours will ensure your network is completely secure, all possible gaps are filled and you can rest assured knowing that the right team is on the job.

Wireless networks are great and they are convenient. But what are the risks? Contact Solve-IT today to learn more about how to secure your business network.