Aug 14, 2024 | SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, Technology News
As we saw two weeks ago, our entire world is dependent on technology. The global technology outage precipitated by a faulty software update rollout by Crowdstrike illustrates how a small problem can have enormous repercussions. The recovery will likely be difficult and expensive for many companies but especially for small to medium-size businesses. Read on to learn about how a technology advisor can help your company mitigate damage from and even prevent technical issues The Outage and its Impact On July 19, 2024, a global technology outage resulted from a faulty software update from technology firm CrowdStrike upended operations across multiple industries. Flights were canceled and delayed, medical care interrupted, and businesses large and small were unable to operate. Large businesses will have a difficult time recovering, but what about small to medium-size businesses with less technical support? Smaller businesses dealt with missed deadlines, possible loss of customers and the inability to pay workers. What lessons can companies learn from what happened? How a Technology Advisor Helps Although some incidents are out of a company’s control, they still need to be prepared for the consequences of technology problems. A technology advisor is an expert in their field who advises, guides and supports businesses needing help with technology-related decisions. These decisions can include strategic ones, such as how to implement automation and develop a framework for cybersecurity. Or the advisor can assist in planning and navigating software updates to smooth the rollout process. Training and support of workers to give them the knowledge and skills to effectively and safely use technology tools. The software update...
Aug 5, 2024 | SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, Technology News
Doing business in today’s world doesn’t come without risk. Anything can happen, from a brief power failure resulting in two hours of downtime, to a days-long global technology outage precipitated by a CrowdStrike software update. How will you know what risks your business is most subject to, and how to mitigate those risks? Read on to find out what types of risks can threaten your company, and how to protect yourself. Multiple Risks to Your Business According to an article from CompTIA, risks come in various forms. Some are within a company’s control, and others come from outside. But all pose some threat to productivity, security or reputation–or all of these. Types of risk include: Strategic: These have to do with deviations from a company’s strategy or model. Using automation, for example, can benefit operations, even facilitating software updates. However, problems can occur if human oversight isn’t part of the process. Competitive: negative consequences of a competitor’s actions, which can cause a loss of business for your organization. Even a competitor’s offering of a better product or service can negatively impact your business. Compliance: This involves failure to comply with government data security regulations, and can consist of data storage and even data breaches. Reputational: Events that can damage your image, and public perception of your brand. Perhaps a too-quick rollout of a product or service, a data breach, or a compromised website, can affect trust from customers and other stakeholders. Financial: This type of risk is anything that might cause loss of revenue. Loss of customers due to compromise of your company’s reputation, or downtime...
Jul 16, 2024 | SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, Technology News
In 2020, the way people worked changed, likely for good. Instead of being in the office most of the time, employees worked at home. Although some workers have come back to the office, hybrid work is here to stay. Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), pronounced “sassy”) is ideal for hybrid work, with its cloud-native architecture, centralized access policies and support of access based on device identity. Read on to learn more about this architecture and what it can bring to hybrid offices. Benefits of SASE for Hybrid Work The cloud-native architecture of Secure Address Service Edge can combine the flexibility and scalability of cloud with the connectivity of Software-Defined Wide Area Networks (SD-WAN). Add to this centralized access policies based on user device identity. Data does not need to travel from one source to the data center, and back again–lessening the chances of it being lost or intercepted in transit. Access is verified at specific endpoints when a user logs in, and data can travel along SD-WAN pathways to these endpoints, once verification occurs. SASE can address the needs of hybrid offices for security and connectivity. Key components of SASE include: Secure Web Gateway: a cloud-based proxy that enforces standards for communication applications like Microsoft Teams, which are frequently used by hybrid offices. Firewall as a Service (FWaaS): Cloud-based firewall that provides a standard security experience and eliminates the need for an on-premises firewall. Cloud-Access Security Broker: Extends rules and policies to software and infrastructure not owned by your company. Zero-Trust Network Access (ZTNA): Anytime a user or device (such as a...
Jul 9, 2024 | SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, Technology News
What will your company do with artificial intelligence, now that it’s a key technological trend? Artificial intelligence (AI, for short) holds the potential to revolutionize how your business meets its goals. Fueled by the natural language model of generative AI, automation of processes, data analysis, and streamlining tasks have all helped businesses work more efficiently. Read on to learn more about specific use cases for different aspects of your business. Multiple Use Cases for Artificial Intelligence With AI working behind the scenes to automate tasks, and the release of ChatGPT in the fall of 2022, new capabilities and use cases have opened up–content generation, development of artwork, and other creative applications are available. Microsoft also entered the picture by integrating Co Pilot with their popular office productivity suite in early 2023. Use cases are plentiful for C-level staff, operations, sales and marketing, human resources and more. C-Level Executives: More business data is generated daily, and harnessing it can be overwhelming. Artificial intelligence can analyze data and distill insights from it in a way that mere human effort cannot match. Market trends, customer behavior, and financial metrics can all be derived from the vast amounts of data a business generates, as well as internet content. Moreover, they might get ideas for ways other departments can use AI. Financial: Finance Departments can use AI for document search and synthesis, enabling them to understand contract information and regulatory filings. Artificial intelligence can also analyze and synthesize transactional data, identifying anomalies that might indicate possible fraud. Automated bots can perform mundane data entry and reconciliation tasks. Financial analysts realize...
Jun 14, 2024 | SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, Technology News
With malware attacks escalating in number and severity, what can small and medium-sized businesses do to protect their networks without breaking the bank? Read on to learn more about using managed detection and response (MDR) to help detect and mitigate threats to your cybersecurity. The Need for Managed Detection and Response Leading global technology market analysts, Canalys, shared in a LinkedIn post, ransomware attacks are increasing each year. Between the first four months in 2023, and the same period in 2024, publicly disclosed attacks increased by 96%. Between 2022 and 2023, the attacks increased by 68%. These attacks are just the ones that are publicly disclosed ones. What about attacks on small to medium-sized businesses and not been reported? And what can smaller businesses do if they don’t have the time and resources to constantly be monitoring their networks? What is MDR and How Does it Work? Enter Managed Detection and Response, or MDR. This option “relies on an external third-party to monitor a company’s IT systems and respond to threats in real time.” Unlike traditional cybersecurity deployments, it is fully managed and delivered by an external provider. MDR is also sometimes called “cybersecurity as a service.” Cybersecurity can be challenging for SMBs especially, as it can require time and effort on the part of the company and even then not all threats can be dealt with. But with the 24/7 monitoring provided by MDR, companies can focus on meeting business goals. Managed Detection and Response combines cybersecurity software, threat intelligence and human (or machine learning powered) intelligence to detect threats to the network,...
Jun 7, 2024 | SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, Technology News
We are entering the seasons of storms (including hurricanes and tornadoes), wildfires and other possible disasters. Even a power outage of short duration can affect your business. What if you ship orders because of an interruption in your order processing service, for example? Or what about a bigger disaster, that takes your business out of operation for days or weeks? Read on to learn more about the importance of disaster preparedness for keeping your business running. What a Disaster Recovery Plan is and Why You Need One Having a plan does seem obvious, doesn’t it? Yet many companies may not have one in place. A definition of a DRP is a structured document describing how your company can resolve data loss and get back to functionality during and after a disaster. Even a brief power outage that may seem like just an inconvenience can strongly impact your business. Downtime can be costly to your bottom line and to your reputation. Advantages of Having a Plan A key benefit is knowing what to do when a disaster happens, and swinging into action immediately. What’s more, a plan will give you confidence, and give others like workers and customers confidence in you. Customers will know that you’re keeping their data safe from loss or compromise, because you’ve backed up that data. You’ll know how much to budget for recovery from disaster, and which systems need to be back up and running. Getting Started: Planning and Documentation A conversation gets the ball rolling. Discussing what might happen in the event of a disaster, and what mission-critical systems...
