With cloud computing everything has been changing at a remarkable speed. It’s understandable that many SMB business owners are left somewhat confused as to how best proceed for their business.
It’s a tough call between wanting to keep up with the world, maintaining a competitive edge and not being able to fully justify moving to the cloud due to a lack of complete understanding.
The main question business owners usually ask is;
What’s the actual value for my business ?
Cloud-based services can help small businesses dramatically reduce their software and other computing costs. Storing files on a secure, reliable, cloud-based service helps eliminate backup worries and gives you anytime access to your files. Usually, cloud-based services are simple to use, the only things you need are a computer (or in some cases, a mobile handset), a browser, and an Internet connection.
Most SMBs have at least considered migrating to cloud computing and had concerns about the impact for their organisation. Many business owners wrongly think that their business systems may be too complicated to migrate to the cloud and that changing to the cloud is just unnecessary hassle.
Why Cloud for SMBs?
Among the reasons for the growing interest in cloud computing are:
Scalability
Reliability
Predictability
Anytime/Anywhere access
Efficiency
Cloud-based computing helps resolve the issue of continually having to replace equipment in order to keep up with technology as this becomes the responsibility of the service provider. This means that you are free to focus on customers and business growth.
The great thing about cloud computing is that you get to maintain overall control but you don’t have to expend the same financial and staff costs nor do you have to panic if a server crashes and all your go emails down, with the cloud, disaster recovery services are plentiful meaning you can easily pick up email instantly via a webmail client allowing your business to remain operational.
Why cloud? Why not?
IT is evolving and the reality is if you don’t keep up you get left behind.
If you bought your PC between 2001 and 2006, you’ve probably grown accustomed to the mechanics of Windows XP. But Microsoft releases a new version of Windows every few years. That leaves the nagging question, why bother upgrading when Windows XP works just fine?
Microsoft, of course, hopes that everybody upgrades to Windows 7. But many XP users have been scared off by the idea of upgrading by the perpetually buggy Windows Vista. Microsoft is hoping that the following new features will make XP users more inclined to make the big move.
Improved look and “user experience”: Windows 7 is all about the “user experience.” They’ve streamlined the physical appearance, shortcuts, and intuitiveness of Windows so that you get the flashiness that Vista was supposed to provide while improving functionality. Taskbar: The new taskbar in Windows 7 adds to the three-dimensional feel with pop-up thumbnails that help you find a lost window. You can also right-click a taskbar icon to see more information about it — such as your recent history of browsed Web sites. Easier file searches: Windows XP really dragged its feet when searching for files—taking anywhere from minutes to days (to search for a word within a file). Windows 7, by contrast, spends its idle time fine-tuning an index of every word on your hard drive. Type a word from a file’s name or contents into the Start Menu’s Search box, and Windows 7 quickly finds the goods. Built for speed: Windows 7 has key performance improvements to take up less memory and run background services only when you need them. It’s designed to run your programs faster and to sleep, resume, and reconnect to wireless networks quicker. And with 64-bit support, you can take full advantage of the latest in powerful 64-bit PCs. Better wireless networking: Connecting to wireless networks on your laptop—formerly a bit of a hassle—now takes just a couple of clicks. Choose from the list of available networks in the taskbar, click one, and then connect. Once you’ve connected to a network, Windows will remember it so you can connect again later automatically. Plays well with devices: Device Stage, a new feature in Windows 7, works like a home page for things like portable music players, smartphones, and printers. When you plug a compatible device into your PC, you’ll see a menu with information and popular tasks like battery life, how many photos are ready to be downloaded, and printing options. Nag-free notifications: Action Center, new in Windows 7, puts you in control of maintenance and security messages. You can turn notifications on or off for things like Windows Defender or User Account Control. If Windows needs your attention, you’ll see a notification on the far right of the taskbar. Click it, and you’ll get suggested fixes for any problems.
The list of the many features for Windows 7 goes on, but in the end it comes down to these basic points – you should upgrade to Windows 7 because:
It’s more secure. That’s the number one complaint from people who experience viruses and worms, they want a secure OS. It provides built in security enhancements and a refined User Account Control ( UAC). Although, no OS can claim responsibility for lack of common sense on behalf of the user.
It’s faster. On recent hardware, it outperforms Windows XP. It’s not just a claim, it’s proven.
It stays out of your way. With the new notifications system, and the improved system tray, built in and even third party applications won’t be able to harm your productivity.
Microsoft will Stop supporting Windows XP in April 2014 , after that date there will be no more updates or support for the operating system. This will leave your computer vulnerable to any future exploits / Virus’s and Malware.
This classic scam is making the rounds again, If you get a phone call asking for someone (normally claiming to be from Microsoft) to connect in and fix your computer when you have not asked for this, then it is a scam. Microsoft will never phone you to inform you of a problem on your pc.
If you are concerned about the “risks” that they have said your machine poses, then note down what they say and thank them for the information. Then say you will get your local IT Company to fix it. They will try and say they will do it for free over the internet. Don’t allow this. End the call and then contact your local IT Company to ensure you are protected.
Your IT Company may connect to your machine over the internet to check things over.
Remember you have asked for this connection….not the other way round.
If you are not sure on any of these replies then you need to check before it’s too late.
Do you really know the state of your computer?
Are you 100% sure your Anti-Virus is up to date and scanning your pc on a regular basis?
Are you sure other pc’s and servers on your network are up to date and protected?
Can you easily check?
If not then this is something you need to check before it takes over your business.
You should have Anti-Virus installed on every pc and server within your business. The anti-virus program has to be updating itself from the internet automatically, at least once every hour. The program should be setup to be scanning the local hard drives at least once a week to check for viruses. It should also do on access scanning so files are scanned before they are opened.
You should also be able to login to a central console and instantly see the state of your Anti-Virus for your network.
If you are not sure on any of these replies then you need to check before it’s too late.
Simplex IT partners with ESET to provide Anti Virus protection to our customers. ESET Endpoint Security integrates ESET Endpoint Antivirus’s robust virus and spyware scanning engine, with a bi-directional firewall to stop hacker attacks. The integrated spam filters also reduce the risk of social-engineering and phishing attacks via email, reducing your cybercrime attack surface.
Enjoy streamlined management capabilities with ESET Remote Administrator that makes for fast and easy deployment and monitoring of ESET Endpoint Security across your network – all from a single console.
Tablets and smartphones are becoming increasingly popular and many people are now reaching the storage limits of their devices. This used to mean sorting your data and not taking everyone’s favourites movie or music. However the problem has a simple solution
Using Seagate’s GoFlex Satellite mobile wireless storage you can carry your data with you while on the go and wirelessly stream videos, photos, music and documents to your tablet or smartphone. It can store over 300 HD movies, so you’ll never have to worry about running out of space again. So how does it work?
You load all of your data, music and movies to the GoFlex Satellite device. The GoFlex Satellite can then stream this data to your tablet or smartphone via its own Wi-Fi network. You can leave it in your bag, put it on the table, hide it behind the sofa, take it in the car – with a range of up to 150ft you will never feel tied to your storage.
With the GoFlex Satellite device you can stream different data to three devices simultaneously. So you can have three different devices watching three different films at the same time from the same storage!
The GoFlex Media app (available on both iPad’s and Android tablets) is tailored for the GoFlex Satellite device, allowing you to sort easily through your media library by Videos, Photos, Documents or Music, perform keyword searches, and use folder and thumbnail views.
The GoFlex Satellite also allows you to access documents from Microsoft Office, iWork and Adobe PDF files. Other file types can also be opened with 3rd party apps available on your tablet device.
The GoFlex Satellite device can stream movies and other media to almost any device that has a Web browser and Wi-Fi connectivity. If your Co-workers, friends and family have a smartphone, tablet or laptop, they can enjoy your media content too.
Watching the Olympics at work may annoy the boss, but not as much as the £1,000 fine the company could get if they don’t have a TV licence.
Watching live telly in the UK requires a licence regardless of whether that video arrives over the internet or is broadcast. The TV tax collectors have provided a useful cut-out-and-pin-on-the-wall guide for all those who’d prefer to avoid shelling out after the fact.
There is an exemption for battery-powered devices at work if they are owned and used by someone who holds a TV licence at their home address, so keep your laptop unplugged and you’re in the clear – legally at least, we can’t comment on how your boss will react.
The pin-up below provides tick boxes from which employees can be informed of their legal and procedural rights to watch the games at work. Download your’s now to let your employees know.
Keeping a laptop going for an extended period could be a challenge, and we suggest avoiding doing any real work that might unnecessarily drain the battery. The rules state that a device must be entirely battery powered, so inductive charging is out, but one can use as many additional batteries as necessary.
Alternatively one could just watch the games on non-live iPlayer or another suitable catch-up service. Current licensing legislation doesn’t cover such services – just real-time feeds – but then who wants to watch the BMX finals or the Greco-Roman Wrestling (or whatever it is these days) long after everyone else knows how it all ends?
Data is the life of any business. What would happen if your server room had a leak, or you accidentally deleted a file? It could mean that sign on the door now says “commercial space fore rent”. That’s why you need a good, successful, backup at least once every day. If you don’t check your backups, they are basically useless.
Did you know most backups fail 1.5 times every month? And will stop running when the experience a failure, until you resolve the issue that caused it to fail! How good is a backup if it’s been in failure for 15 days, or if it’s corrupted?
Data loss happens every day. So do backup failures. Check out the TRUE Pixar video above that recants the story about how they almost lost the movie Toy Story 2 while it was still in production!
Pixar came very close to losing a very large portion of Toy Story 2, because someone did a “remove all” command. And that’s when they realized that their backups hadn’t been working for a month. Then, the technical director of the film noted that, because she wanted to see her family and kids, she had been making copies and transferring it to her home computer. After a careful trip from the Pixar offices to her home and back, they discovered that, indeed, most of the film was saved:
Pixar, like any other company could have experienced massive loss if they had not gotten lucky. Don’t rely on luck to save you from data loss – there aren’t too many of these stories with happy endings!
For more information on backup or to arrange to get your backups checked email sales@simplexit.co.uk or call 01275 377900
Too many users are making poor decisions when choosing their passwords. Time and time again you hear about the importance of choosing hard-to-crack, unguessable, unique passwords that will make life very difficult for password crackers. During the last few weeks this has become even more of an issue. With leading websites being hacked and passwords obtained from Yahoo, Techradar Forums, Nvidia Forums, LinkedIn, Android Forums and Hotmail it is a major issue for us all.
Here’s a video Sophos made a while back showing how to choose a hard-to-crack but easy-to-remember password.
People continue to use passwords that are – quite frankly – useless, and then compound the problem by using the same simple password in multiple places. A recent survey staes that the average user holds accounts for 26 websites but only uses 5 different passwords and many of the users had just one password.
Security blogger Anders Nilsson spent a little time running a password analysing tool against the 450,000 passwords obtained from Yahoo and he found the following which doesn’t inspire much confidence about password security.
The typical response from the average user is “But how will I remember all these different, complicated passwords?”
Simple. Use a decent password management program. There are a few to choose from, and some of them are even free. Software KeePass can remember all your different passwords on your behalf, store them securely, and even generate complicated passwords for the next website you join. See our previous IT Nugget on KeePass here;
If you have a secure password- great! But be a good samaritan, and share the advice with your family and friends. These posters supplied by our partner Sophos would be a great way to advise your office.
LG Mouse Scanner is the world’s first mouse with an embedded scanner function that offers convenience, mobility, and simplicity to users. An innovative scanner that breaks through the limitations of difficult-to-use, non-portable conventional scanners that are limited in their scanning size.
Now users can perform OCR editing of scanned files such as Excel and Word documents as well as sending them as e-mails, SNSs and mobile phones. From the offices of global companies to daily life, the LG Mouse Scanner will transform scanning into a much easier and more convenient task.
There are countless moments wherein you need scanning in daily lite – when children want to collect teaching materials or gather scraps from magazines, or when you have to type the details of documents. That’s why LG Mouse Scanner was developed.
Just one drag – that’s all it takes to complete scanning. It also features remarkable editing power that even converts text into Microsoft Word – and you can even share in real-time through Twitter, Facebook and blog etc. From now on, enjoy easier, faster scanning with LG Mouse Scanner
Available through Simplex IT at a discounted price;
RRP £89.95 Simplex IT Price £69.95
Think about all of the different devices you use every day. Wouldn’t it be nice if your files came with you, whether you’re on your phone, Mac, or PC?
When you use SkyDrive, you’ll never be without the documents, notes, photos, and videos that matter to you. Store anything on your SkyDrive and it’s automatically available from your trusted devices—no syncing or cables needed.
With SkyDrive, you can securely store your files and get to them from any of your devices, including your PC, phone, Mac, or iPad. You never have to worry about forgetting a file at home or work, because the latest versions are always automatically there for you. When you download SkyDrive on your PC or Mac, your desktop SkyDrive folder is automatically created. Any file or photo you put in this folder will be automatically synced to your other devices that have SkyDrive. Use your phone or tablet to get the files and photos you’ve saved to SkyDrive—just download the app for your device.
You get 7 GB of free storage with SkyDrive—that’s enough for over 20,000 Office documents or 7,000 photos. For most people, this is plenty of space. But if 7 GB isn’t enough, you can add even more storage for a low yearly fee.
With SkyDrive, you get automatic access to your documents from any PC, Mac, iPad, or phone. You can also share and work on them with other people from any computer. Anyone can view and edit documents using a web browser and free Office Web Apps.
SkyDrive is perfect for sharing and working together with other people. Just visit SkyDrive.com to share any file with whomever you choose. Your friends can use free Office Web Apps to view the document and make quick edits—even if they don’t have Office installed.
Office Web Apps are also designed to preserve your document’s formatting, which means your friends will be able to view the work you share just the way you intended. They’ll also be able to make changes without messing up how it looks.