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This is why any managed IT provider worth their salt offers remote IT maintenance and support services. Naturally, it?s more cost-effective to provide remote assistance than traveling for an on-site visit, and you get the benefit of immediate service. Small and medium-sized businesses will find that remote IT services are one of the many benefits of working with White Mountain IT Services. Here are four reasons why remote IT service is crucial. Many Problems Can Be Resolved RemotelyLet?s face it; sometimes it?s more convenient to have us fix any problems you might have with your technology remotely. This coincides with the fact that most problems related to IT can be resolved without an on-site visit from our professional technicians. With our remote monitoring and maintenance tool, we can diagnose and resolve problems easily. Of course, there are some hardware problems that require a physical touch, but for those pesky, lesser issues, remote service will get the job done. Fast, Efficient IT ServiceMany of the problems you might face with your IT infrastructure are minor and can be resolved very quickly, but other times you might have a serious problem on your hands. Remote maintenance lets us immediately look into the problem without a lengthy trip to your office. Since you aren?t waiting for us to arrive on-site to fix the issue, you?re saving valuable time that can be better used for other aspects of the work day. Remote IT is Cost-EffectiveMany tech support businesses will charge by the hour for any on-site technology maintenance. This often includes the time spent traveling to and from your office. Instead of letting your budget eat these charges, it?s better to get a remote diagnosis of the problem before committing to an on-site visit. This way, you don?t shell out more than you need to when the problem can easily be fixed remotely. Minimal Distractions in Your WorkplaceIs your entire office distracted when there?s a visitor? If so, you know that anything out of the ordinary is enough to send productivity packing. We don?t want to be in your hair when you?re going for maximum productivity, so the ideal choice for getting the most work done is to have us remotely access your systems and perform maintenance that way. Keep in mind that White Mountain IT Services isn?t opposed to making on-site visits. We?re happy to do what?s necessary to help your office achieve maximum efficiency, but when you can achieve the same level of service remotely, why not do what?s most convenient? For more information about remote IT services, give us a call at (603) 889-0800.
Some businesses go about their day-to-day duties without a solid business continuity plan. As explained in the above scenario, an external backup is paramount to the survival of your organization, should you face circumstances that threaten to uproot your operations. This generally entails taking snapshots of your business?s data using some sort of backup method. One of the most common methods of doing so is using tape to store data. The problem with tape is that, in physical form, it can easily be destroyed if accidentally left on-site during a flood, fire, earthquake, or another equally devastating disaster. Furthermore, tape backups can be time-consuming, so they?re generally performed after hours; even then, they?re usually only performed once every 24 hours or so, which means that you run the risk of losing that much data in the face of a disaster. Since tape backups often need to be run manually, they?re also more prone to user error than other automated systems. These are just a few reasons why it?s important that you consider your backup and disaster recovery solution carefully. There?s nothing wrong with using tape, but it?s an outdated system that pales in comparison to other, more modern solutions. You want a solution that stores your data in a secure, off-site data center. Unlike data backup, data recovery is the act of restoring from the backups stored in a data center in order to offset data loss caused by any number of variables, like the destruction of hardware, or even user error. The quality of data recovery is generally based on how quickly it can restore your data; therefore, the faster a solution can get you back in action following a major loss of data, the better an asset it is to your business. Of course, data backup and disaster recovery are two very different things that often go hand-in-hand. Take, for instance, our Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) solution. It?s a backup solution that takes multiple snapshots of your business?s data, which is then stored off-site and in the cloud for later access, combined with rapid data recovery that helps your business get back in action in a moment?s notice. Unlike our BDR, tape backups can be time-consuming, and when time is of the essence, it can be difficult. BDR ensures that your data is always backed up and readily available when you need it most. It should also be mentioned that our BDR solution has the ability to temporarily take the place of your server in the event of a hardware failure. This adds to the value of your investment, and can help you get the ball rolling again while you decide how to replace your hardware. If you?re ready to start taking proactive measures to ensure the continuity of your business and its data, give us a call at (603) 889-0800.
Of course, this doesn?t help you at all if you?re still asking the million-dollar question, ?What exactly is virtualization, anyway?? The Gartner IT glossary defines virtualization as such: Virtualization is the abstraction of IT resources that masks the physical nature and boundaries of those resources from resource users. An IT resource can be a server, a client, storage, networks, applications or OSs. Essentially, any IT building block can potentially be abstracted from resource users. Basically, virtualization is splitting the resource from any hardware or software constraints it might have. A good example is the use of multiple operating systems on a virtual server. Without the limitations of hardware, you can run multiple instances of operating systems on the same machine. Another example would be separating a desktop?s operating system from the machine itself and running it through a virtual environment, effectively allowing you to run the instance of the operating system through any workstation connected to the network. Virtualizing your applications can provide your business with a number of benefits, including: Application Isolation: As we mentioned in the previous example, virtualization can allow multiple applications that need specific server operating systems to coexist on the same server. This can help businesses that might rely on older applications that aren?t compatible with more recent server operating systems. Application Availability and Independence: When you virtualize an application, you?re essentially extending its life cycle. By doing this, you?re keeping it available until you?ve had adequate time to find a better, more recent solution to your application dilemma. If you were to lose access to a mission-critical application, it could be difficult to keep operations running. It can also make it easier to call applications from one server to another to improve accessibility should one server become unavailable for some reason. Reduced Costs: One of the biggest benefits of application virtualization is that you?re cutting them free of the restrictive nature of hardware. Let?s say you have four applications that all run on different server operating systems. Without virtualization, you would need dedicated server units for each of them, and all four of these will likely be underutilized. Meanwhile, they?re still racking up the electricity bill. Virtualized applications allow you to minimize the amount of hardware you need, and offers a unique return on investment. Application virtualization is a great way to start cutting down on your operation costs and streamlining the way you access applications. Give us a call at (603) 889-0800 to get started.
The marketplace in question, according to WIRED magazine, is known as TheRealDeal Market. Similar to other questionable online marketplaces, it takes advantage of Tor, an anonymity software that masks the identity of all users and administrators, and the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. However, WIRED specifically mentions that TheRealDeal differs in the sense that it?s attempting to provide rare, high-quality code rather than stolen credentials and hacking tools. This essentially transforms TheRealDeal into a ?code market? of sorts, where hackers can turn to in order to find code that?s either difficult to find, or is simply worth more to the upper ring of cybercriminals. Of course, there?s no telling whether any of these supposed exploits being sold are ?the real deal.? According to WIRED: Any of the listings could instead be attempts to scam gullible buyers. The $17,000 iCloud vulnerability in particular, which claims to offer access to virtually all of a user?s sensitive mobile data including emails and photos, seems like an unusually good bargain. For comparison, zero-day salesmen told me in 2012 that a working iOS exploit could sell for as much as $250,000. The next year The New York Times reported that one had sold to a government for a half million dollars. So, for all we know, these might be scammers who are out to steal from would-be hackers. Ironically, TheRealDeal appears to have some sort of fraud protection system put into place, though it?s unclear how it works. Despite this, it?s clear that the market?s practices are questionable at best; especially because they sell other contraband under the radar, including stolen identities, LSD, and amphetamines. This behavior is deplorable, but in a way, it?s somewhat innovative. If this tells us anything, it?s that the buying and selling of online exploits is becoming a serious, organized business. With rare code becoming more accessible (for the right price, of course), hackers will be able to take advantage of it more often. This makes protecting yourself from advanced threats more important than ever before. Comprehensive security measures are necessary to make sure that your systems are always up to date and effectively preventing threats from accessing your information. This is precisely what our Unified Threat Management (UTM) solution accomplishes. Through use of antivirus software, firewall, content filtering, and spam blocking measures, your network can stay as secure as possible. Reach out to us at (603) 889-0800 to learn more.
It may be a pain point for Excel users to view a spreadsheet that?s larger than their screen. It can be annoying to try and scroll up, down, or sideways, only to have a crucial piece of information that you want to reference scroll off screen. The best way to prevent this is to freeze a needed row or column into place so that it doesn?t move while you scroll through your spreadsheet. Here?s how you do it: The first thing you?ll do is select the cell that?s in the first column and row that you don?t want to be frozen. Next, go to the View tab and click Freeze Panes. A drop down menu will appear. From here, click on the first option, Freeze Panes. This will freeze multiple rows and columns in place, which means that they?ll stay in place and visible when you scroll. With your selected rows and columns now frozen, test this out by scrolling sideways, up, and down on your spreadsheet. When you?re ready to unfreeze your rows and columns, simply select any row or column and then go to the View tab. Now go to Freeze Panes > Unfreeze Panes. By freezing columns and rows, you?ll find Excel to be easier to navigate. Check back with White Mountain IT Services?s blog every week for more time-saving tips.
