The Business Value of IT Services

Many successful business professionals suggest that companies that don’t make IT a part of their overall strategy are missing huge opportunities to grow their business. Read more...

Protecting Cloud Traffic

More and more companies, ranging from the large enterprise to small businesses, are expressing interest in moving their infrastructure to the cloud and yet wanting to see their data secured.  Security is becoming more and more of an issue as cloud computing usage increases.

What is cloud computing? You could ask 100 people what cloud computing is and I’m pretty sure you would get 100 different answers.  According to InfoWorld:

“Some analysts and vendors define cloud computing narrowly as an updated version of utility computing: basically virtual servers available over the Internet. Read more...

Ways IT Can Waste Money

We will look at 6 ways your IT may be letting precious dollars slip away. Some of these may just be common sense but there are a lot of organizations out there that are wasting money in these ways.

1. Wasted energy
The electric bill is still a large cost for companies and the IT department is a big user of energy. By adopting some energy-saving policies, you may be able to save some money. Members of your office stay may leave their computers on when they leave for the day or substituting the use of a screen saver as opposed to turning off the monitor (you should do both). With the advanced technology we have, using power settings available may pay off. Turing off lights in the server room and around the office when you leave for the day as well as using Energy Star rated equipment will help to save over the long run.

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A New Year Brings New Challenges: Is Your Business Read...

by Alex Repola

As the holidays pass and we all return to work, we, well at least I, start looking at how I can be more efficient in my day-to-day activities, boosting productivity in the long run for myself and my organization. Sometimes this means assessing what I'm currently doing and looking at different ways to continue to be a fierce competitor in the market place.

Depending on where your business is currently and where you see yourselves down the road, there are some things to consider when planning an IT network for your organization.

Tech-FAQ.com defines a network as the grouping of hardware devices and software components which are necessary to connect devices within the organization and to connect the organization to other organizations and the Internet.

Example of hardware used within a network is a network interface card (NIC), computers, cabling, etc.
Examples of software within a network are protocols and network services which help the different network components communicate.

The first steps generally include installing and configuring the hardware, followed by installing the operating system and the software into the network infrastructure. Something very important to remember is that the operating system (OS), is considered to be the main software component within the network infrastructure, for it holds network communication protocols that allow networks to communicate. The OS also includes security applications to protect the network from outside threats.
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10 Best Year-End Tech Practices for SMBs

by Alex Repola
Earlier this month TechRepublic's Erik Eckel released an article titled, 10 Best Year-End Tech Practices for SMBs. After reading through the best practices, it really helped me to realize how helpful a basic "clean-up" could be and the benefits of giving your IT environment a little TLC. Here are the 10 things to keep in mind as you and your organization bring in the new year.

Restore backups to confirm operation
Review disk image inventory and status
Physically clean servers and PCs
De-fragment hard disks
Audit software licenses and media
Perform network stress tests
Audit user accounts
Confirm equipment inventory
Clean printers
Clean your cube or office

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