If you’re old enough to remember “The Six Million Dollar Man”, you remember the phrase in the subject line of this blog. If you’re not, there’s always YouTube.
In the IT industry, because of the fluid nature of technology itself, and an ever-increasing influx of options, IT support companies like ours are in a constant state of adaptation. As our clients’ needs change, so do we.
One of the most interesting questions facing IT support companies like ours is "How soon can I move everything to the cloud?"
It's interesting because it exposes two things - people are frustrated to some extent with the in-house computing experience, and they believe at least to some extent that moving to the cloud will be the answer to their prayers.
Why not? "The Cloud" sounds like a little slice of heaven - white, puffy, soft and ready for a bathroom tissue commercial.
This week, if you're a Network Depot client, you may notice a member of our staff wearing a pink ribbon, pink socks, or for the truly adventurous men, a pink shirt.
No - we are not making a fashion statement. It's part of what will become an annual commitment for Network Depot - Cancer Awareness Week.
The whole idea of a "Cancer Awareness Week" is actually rather ironic if you really think about it. I really don't know anyone who isn't aware of cancer, and many of my friends have had multiple run-ins with the disease, with either themselves or their relatives or friends afflicted by a cancer of one sort or another.
One of the most common questions we are asked as advisors in IT is what new technologies have come out that will help our clients run their businesses better. While we are usually keenly aware of new technologies in the IT space, the important part of that question isn't the technology part, but the better business part. Part and parcel to determining what technologies to apply to any business is an intimate understanding of how the business works and, as well, where it doesn't work.
When considering the best IT path for our customers to follow, we are often beset by several challenges, ranging from budget constraints, overly adventurous decision makers that like to adopt every new technology, and occasionally internal dysfunction within the client's organization. We're also sometimes challenged by our successes in keeping the systems running well, in that a sense of confidence begins to build that things will continue to chug along swimmingly.
I'm here today to dispell that myth.
A good friend of mine once said "Velocity is a function of clarity, not speed."
For the longest time, I thought he was just being his rather obtuse self, and perhaps he was, but there was some wisdom in that statement.
For over 20 years, I've been working with clients to provide more effective and efficient methods of communication. When we first started, it was voice mail, fax, and such - now it's e-mail, instant messaging, Facebook posts and tweets.
I've been in the IT industry now for over 25 years, and as I am sure is true in the case of anyone who has been in an industry for so long, I felt that I'd pretty much seen everything there is to see. Sure, the technologies change, but the way they are introduced to market, the promised impact, and the way people interact is pretty much the same - it's just "new stuff".
This week, while attending an industry event (you know, where they talk about all the new stuff, why it's better than the old stuff, etc.) I saw something I had never seen before. Of course, I saw plenty of new products and new technologies, but that's not what I am referring to - in the midst of all this excitement I saw genuine sadness and grief.
This list is in outline form to allow for quick reference. It was written to help Network Depot clients protect themselves against unexpected costs and technical hardships.
Despite the increasingly vast trust we put into the Internet to keep our personal and business information safe and secure, many users take their passwords very lightly. In an analysis studying over 32 million passwords from RockYou, a company that develops software for social networks, it's been discovered just how little effort is put in to keep things secure. The results are shocking.
The time to implement a social media policy is now.
Your social media policy outlines for employees your companies guidelines or principles for communicating in the online world. Your company should have a communications policy in place that spell out your expectations for phone and email, it’s important that you add social media and online site usage to this policy.
Your computer has been terrific—it opens files fast, connects to the Internet quickly, and gets onto the network lickety-split. But now, your machine will not connect to the Internet when you tell it to, it opens up porno websites and gives you pop-ups telling you that your machine has been infected. You don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to see that something has infected your system. Now, what?
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