Recent Blog Posts
What Is a Backup? A backup, in the context of business technology, is when a business copies their data (or entire computing environment) to build data redundancy should something bad happen. It is effectively insurance should the business have to deal with some type of information system failure. What Are the Risks of Not Having Backup? Unfortunately, there are plenty of things that can go wrong with technology, and there are some that simply can?t be helped. These include physical damage that comes from normal wear and tear on hardware or environmental damage; premature malfunction; user error; hackers; theft; long-term power failure; malware; or major disasters that create major operational problems for a business. The result of any of these scenarios is that you would lose access to your critical information systems, making it impossible (or very difficult) to continue operations. Consider it this way: Have you ever gone to a store and when you get up to pay they apologize because their ability to take payment with payment cards isn?t working? It?s frustrating, right? Well, instead of your payment card system, imagine if the whole computing infrastructure that you depend on won?t work. It is an impossible situation. In fact, without an easily restorable backup, any of these situations can end up burying your business. A Good Backup Is More than Just Copying Data We?ve established that without a backup your business is at constant risk. That doesn?t mean that just copying your files over once in a while will help your business. Think about how much data your business creates every day. You need a solution that will keep an up-to-date backup, that will allow your business to be as current as possible should some system need to be restored. This Is the BDR The BDR is more than just data backup; it is a system that incrementally backs up your organization?s data in both an onsite BDR device as well as in an offsite data center. This system not only gives you options should something happen that requires fast, onsite restoration of data systems, it gives organizations options should those data systems become unusable. What?s more, should something actually happen to your onsite technology, the BDR can be virtualized to run as a temporary server. This contingency could be the difference between staying in business or closing your doors forever. If you think that statement is dramatic, consider that well over 90 percent of all organizations that suffer data loss from a lack of functional backup platforms close and never reopen or are out of business within two years of the incident, you will agree that having a system that will keep your business safe, and that is run and tested by reliable and expert IT technicians, is extremely valuable for your organization?s long term health. If you would like to talk to one of our experts about how the BDR works to keep your data backed up, ready to restore, and secure, give the IT experts at White Mountain IT Services a call at (603) 889-0800 today.
It should be noted, however, that this feature is absent from personal Google accounts, so users might have to wait and see if they will get to take advantage of custom building blocks in the future. That said, the feature is still pretty neat for businesses and educational institutions who utilize Google Workspace. Building blocks essentially allow users to save bits of text, tables, and other assets to reuse easily in the future. These ?blocks? can be inserted into documents as needed. While templates make it easy to build out entire documents, the blocks are more for smaller sections of the document. Some of the built-in building blocks that users can take advantage of include assets like meeting notes, email drafts, code blocks, product roadmaps, review trackers, project assets, and launch content trackers. These are the default, out-of-the-box solutions, but users who fall into the above categories will be able to save and utilize their own custom building blocks, making the feature much more dynamic and customizable to your business? specific needs. It?s easy enough to use, according to Google. All you will have to do is select the portion of a document or asset that you want to include, right-click it, and select Save as custom building block. The building blocks will then be stored in a special folder in your Google Drive. Adding building blocks is easy, too. To do so, you just type the @ symbol with the name of your block. Will you try to use this feature? Do you need additional features that can help you get more out of your productivity suite? White Mountain IT Services can help you stay ahead of the competition with our technology solutions. To learn more, call us today at (603) 889-0800.
What Tools Do SMBs Most Often Use to Communicate? Our experience in dealing with the needs that small and medium-sized businesses have concerning their technology has given us some pretty invaluable insights. We?ve noticed that the majority of these businesses?particularly those working in the office?tend to use the following tools: Email Businesses seeking reliable communications have generally defaulted to email, and for good reason. It?s relatively inexpensive to implement, highly personalizable, and cloud storage makes it far easier to keep these emails. It also doesn?t hurt that most?as in, more than two-thirds?of workers nowadays prefer email as their method of communication with teammates, clients, and vendors alike. This makes it extremely unlikely that email will be phased out anytime soon, barring some massive shift. Furthermore, today?s businesses are freed of needing to establish, manage, and maintain a dedicated server in-house for their email needs. If they so choose, they can instead utilize a hosted email option like Microsoft?s Outlook or Google?s Gmail, which is hosted and maintained by the cloud provider via Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. Telephone While people admittedly use the phone to place calls less often, that is simply because there are more options now that don?t call for as much active engagement as the other options available today. Having said that, the relative speed and reduced chance of misunderstanding or misinterpreting a call makes them a solid option for businesses. A telephone presence is a necessary element to any business, although its relatively high costs (particularly when mobility is involved) often make it less of a priority than other tools would be. For businesses that truly do require a phone system, however, a hosted VoIP platform is a great option. By hosting your telephone infrastructure in the cloud and paying on a per-user basis, your business can access reliable telephone services both in the office and while mobile. Video Conferencing As one of the countless innovations first appearing in science fiction only to be developed for practical use, video conferencing has swiftly taken its place among the more popular communication options. The rise of remote work practices made video conferencing all the more appealing, and it has now become ingrained in many businesses’ practices in either workplace. Many of today?s available options incorporate a combination of VoIP and collaboration tools and deliver them to mobile devices, provided these devices can maintain a 3G or better data connection. As such, businesses are apt to use them heavily both today and tomorrow. Unified Communications Businesses that need even more advanced capabilities can take advantage of unified communication platforms. These platforms more or less do what it says on the box, integrating various communication and collaboration tools into a single approach. Not only does this make properly communicating easier and more convenient, these platforms also serve to: Enhance your users? experience Improve your organizational productivity Provide a stronger performance through detailed analytics Reduce your long-term communications costs Looking for better communication within your business? Give White Mountain IT Services a call today at (603) 889-0800! Our IT professionals can assist you in improving all aspects of your business technology.
Let?s consider how your IT may need to meet certain compliance standards, and how we can help ensure it does. How Do IT Compliance Needs Impact a Small or Medium-Sized Business? To get some context, let?s begin by identifying what IT compliance specifically looks like when a business incorporates it properly. By definition, IT compliance is a business? practice of abiding by various regulatory requirements that pertain to the use of technology as a means of ensuring the security of client or customer data. These regulations can come from different sources. Some are established by law for different industries, like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) does for the medical field, and others are implemented by industry authority groups, like the Payment Card Industry Digital Security Standard (PCI DSS) was agreed upon by a consortium of payment card providers. Failure to comply with such standards and regulations can have various consequences to the organizations expected to do so, ranging from monetary fines to lost privileges. Let?s make one thing very, very clear: these fines are not something to be taken lightly. Depending on the compliance framework that your organization has violated, these fines can reach truly painful levels. A business that severely violates the United Kingdom?s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), for example, could be fined 20 million euro or four percent of their global turnovers. It defaults to the higher penalty, too. This is just one of many regulations that your business could potentially be held accountable for, depending on your industry and what it is you do. Common Compliance Standards with IT Ramifications What follows are a list of standards that you could likely need to consider, particularly where your IT is concerned: HIPAA (The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act): Amongst other requirements, HIPAA establishes standards regarding patient information confidentiality and security for the healthcare industry and any affiliated parties. NIST SP 800-171: This standard, established by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, places various cybersecurity requirements on businesses working with federal and state agencies in the U.S. GDPR (The General Data Protection Regulation): This law, established to protect the information of European Union citizens and residents, applies to any company?globally?that utilizes this data. PCI-DSS (The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard): This standard, implemented by PCI Security Standards Council, puts data security requirements on any business that wants the ability to accept payments via card. Again, this is just a selection of some of the more well-known standards?more could easily apply to your specific situation. Fortunately, you don?t have to navigate your IT compliance needs alone. Turn to Us for Assistance in Meeting Your IT Compliance Requirements As part of our managed services, White Mountain IT Services can help ensure that your business technology is not only functional, but is aligned with the standards it needs to meet. Find out more by giving us a call at (603) 889-0800.
Before we get into the technology that will likely make up the swan song for the smartphone, let?s take a second to look at what came before. Before the smartphone, the cellular phone was exceedingly popular. The innovation of which only took a couple of decades. The first phones were no less than literal mobile telephones, but it only took a couple of years before the form factor shrank down enough for mobile phones to be basically handheld devices. The problem for over a decade was that the infrastructure that allowed the mobile phone to work wasn?t built. Once it was, the manufacturing and dissemination of the mobile phone was rapid. Today?s Smartphones If you asked people what was the first smartphone, they would say the Apple iPhone. While this answer isn?t really accurate, in the coming decades when smartphones are a thing of the past, it will likely be remembered that the iPhone was first. It has been less than two decades since the advent of the first iPhone and it?s pretty incredible that we?ve come as far as we have. But?what?s next? You don?t have to worry if you just spent $1,500 on your new smartphone, you will likely go through a half dozen or more of them before the next thing gets here. The smartphone is integral to people?s lives as it is effectively a high-powered computer in your pocket that has near-perpetual connectivity. This allows it to be so important in so many situations of the modern person?s life that when a user accidentally drops and breaks their phone (or mistakenly leaves it at home) it is viewed as a big deal. This, some would say, extreme reliance on these devices makes you think that they are so important that people will never, ever move past them. They are a part of the culture and are crucial to the administration of people?s day-to-day lives. There have been applications developed for about anything you can think of, and the app stores that fuel the smartphone market continue to grow?Including augmented reality apps. Augmented Reality The ironic part of the whole thing is that augmented reality (AR) is the technology that just may make the smartphone go the way of the Dodo. Some of the world?s most successful technology companies are actively working on introducing augmented reality-fueled devices that would make the modern smartphone obsolete. AR is effectively data that augments the display you are seeing. You know the little scoreboard on the screen when you watch a football game? That is augmented reality. The thing is that should these companies be able to create devices that could use augmented reality to do all the things that you do on your phone, it would destroy the smartphone, which hasn?t seen all that much difference in the form factor in almost two decades. Heads Up AR The future of consumer electronics are smart glasses (or contact lenses). Before you deride that idea, remember how you felt when you heard about the possibility of smart glasses coming out over a decade ago? You thought it was super cool and only a matter of time before it happened, right? Well this is the form factor that is going to likely come after the smartphone and will start a whole new generation […]
