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The Most Innovative Developments In Cloud Computing

cloud computingManagers across a diverse array of sectors are increasingly turning to the cloud to manage their IT infrastructure. Thanks to exponential leaps in technology such as bandwidth speed and data compression, cloud technology is now more accessible than ever and can provide tangible benefits for almost any company. Business leaders now realize that the days of investing in space-wasting, expensive, and compartmentalized hardware and software solutions that need to be constantly updated are a thing of the past. By choosing an all-in-one cloud computing solution, you’ll inject your business with the flexibility it needs to compete in today’s increasingly digital world. See how a cloud computing system can drive innovation, reduce costs, and revolutionize your company’s data management efforts.

1) Automated Integration

Piecemeal software solutions have long been the bane of many managers’ existence. Many of these solutions are notorious for not integrating with other areas of the business, resulting in delays in the customer-service, accounting, and production chains. It’s especially been a problem for small and growing companies, as they often don’t have the economies-of-scale to link systems in a way that makes sense for every department. Cloud-based platforms are able to easily integrate data and transactions across all areas of the business, making information from one sector instantly available for all and increasing productivity.

2) Mobile Access

The world isn’t driven by a nine-to-five office schedule any longer, and companies can’t survive if success is dependent upon managers being tied to their desks. Workers are altering the business landscape by telecommuting in record numbers, and getting work completed on their own time thanks to mobile devices. The cloud makes this even simpler, as all operations are quickly and easily available for employees no matter where they are, and without the need for costly and outdated hardware.

3) Driving Innovation

IT Professionals were once hampered in their development efforts by inflexible hardware requirements and interminable testing times. Cloud solutions allow them to build and test code quickly and easily, not tying them to a physical server. This means that more betas can be developed and tested, resulting in enhanced solutions for your company’s particular needs. Also, the lack of hardware infrastructure required for implementing a cloud-based system frees up cash flows for you to invest in capital upgrades to enhance productivity and further reduce costs.

4) Enhanced Security

It may sound counterintuitive to outsource your IT security, but frankly you would have to invest an untenable level of resources into the process in order to do it as effectively as a cloud-based software company that specializes in data security. Cloud-based solutions offer an unprecedented level of customization for your security needs, allowing you to allocate protections and redundancies to the sectors where you need them the most. Migrating to the cloud also gives you access to a dedicated support team specializing in security issues, as well as enhanced disaster recovery capabilities thanks to robust, secure backups that are automatically run and tested for efficacy in the cloud. 

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Don’t Make These Easily-Avoidable Mistakes With Your Disaster Recovery Plan

data management and cloud computingYou may think your organization has implemented a foolproof and robust data backup plan, but it’s not until disaster strikes that the mettle of your efforts will truly be tested. Data recovery technology, like every other sector in the IT services field, continues to change at an intense pace, and as even legacy companies begin storing more and more information digitally, data management has taken on an ever-increasing importance. Decades of relying solely on physical data backups left companies vulnerable to any number of disaster recovery nightmares, from failing hardware to strict time and space constraints. Thanks to the abundance of current options for migrating your data backups to the cloud, many of these dangers can easily be mitigated and your company can be on the way to having secure, reliable data backups years into the future. Review your disaster recovery plan today to ensure that you won’t fall into one of these unnecessary mistakes.

Having Only a Single Physical Backup

Backup hardware has traditionally been expensive, and for growing companies with uncertain cash flows and future revenues, additional expenses that only pay dividends in the event of an emergency can seem excessive. It has been all too easy for IT managers to feel content having a single copy of their backup data in place, knowing that disaster is unlikely and that they have a plan in place even if it does occur. But multiple layers of redundancy can be incredibly important when it comes to data management, as it’s often impossible to tell how a system is going to react under vague circumstances. Combining physical backups with the power of the cloud will protect you even in the event of multiple hardware failures or thefts.

Only Remembering to Backup Old Data

With the limited space often available using physical backups, it’s tempting to focus securing older data first, knowing that in the event of a situation it’s typically easier to locate hard copies of more recent transactions and records. Prior to the digital and mobile revolutions, this was often the case, but as more and more businesses transition to a paperless configuration it’s more crucial than ever to have all data backed up as quickly and securely as possible. As cloud computing offers the ability to instantly create a virtual copy of your entire server, including POS transactions and accounting data, you’ll be confident knowing that not a single important data point will be lost in the event of a catastrophe.

Forgetting to Test Your Backups

We generally put a great deal of faith in our systems; we enter important sensitive information into them many times a day and they usually hold up to the task. Because of this, it’s far too easy to assume that your data backups are being transferred properly, only to find out that one error was preventing everything from being stored when it’s too late. The power of the cloud allows you to quickly and easily examine the efficacy of your backed-up data, without having to search through storage for additional hardware or mislabeled disks.

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Important steps to getting started with cloud computing

cloud computingThe following is a guest post from Avatara LLC.  Great Lakes Computer is proud to be a partner/reseller of their CompleteCloud product. 

When considering a transition to the cloud, it’s important to know what questions to ask and what information to convey to your potential hosting provider in order to make your move as seamless and smooth as possible. However, many businesses start using cloud services without having an adequate understanding of their data needs, budgetary resources or the ability of a specific cloud provider to meet business needs.  Follow these practical tips to find yourself on your way to the cloud:

    • Define why you want to move to a cloud environment. Begin a migration to the cloud with a clear vision of why moving to the cloud is beneficial to you and your office. Weigh your company’s current strategic IT mission and plan, cost, and the IT security and resiliency need for your applications.
    • Be sure your IT team is ready for the switch. Your staff will need time and training to get ready for the cloud, so it is essential that they get exposure and experience before the transition occurs. It’s also important for your IT administrators tasked with managing cloud technology and deployments to have a diverse skill set that includes network monitoring abilities.
    • Budget carefully. Consult with your IT staff or a cloud-computing consultant on some specific budgetary needs. The cloud movement entails certain costs, such as education of the employee and the costs involved in moving applications.

Whatever the requirements of your cloud transition project, success depends on extensive planning combined with the support and expertise of a trusted cloud service provider such as CompleteCloud. And thanks to Great Lakes Computer’s partnership with Avatara, you have a trusted source for your Cloud IT solution.  Contact Great Lakes Computer if you are interested in learning how cloud IT can revolutionize your SMB’s IT world!

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Census Bureau Data Breach Brings Up the Question of Downtime

Disaster RecoveryLate last week, officials discovered the Census Bureau’s Federal Audit Clearinghouse site experienced a data breach and was hacked. Details of the hack are shared below in an article from The Federal Times. The news of another hack is concerning, but by no means a shock.  The biggest news in this recent release is that the site was taken down over a week ago and is still not up. I can’t imagine that the Census Bureau had a Recovery Time Objective of 1 week and counting in their Disaster Recovery Plan? If this were your business, the money lost in downtime costs in the event of this disaster could jeopardize your future…

Hackers claiming to be affiliated with Anonymous broke into a Census Bureau network and exfiltrated information on users and administrators for a non-confidential bureau database last week. Information was stolen from Census’ Federal Audit Clearinghouse, which maintains and disseminates single audits used to assess whether organizations qualify for federal assistance funding and if they are abiding by all the regulations that accompany that funding.

The hackers pulled down information on thousands of users, including emails, phone numbers, addresses, usernames and password hashes. The data includes information on Census and other federal employees, as well as members of organizations with user accounts for submitting audits to the site.

The four files were then posted on paste sites openly available on the web.

Census Bureau Director John Thompson noted that while the information was taken illegally and is considered a breach of a federal network, the compromised database did not contain any confidential data or personally identifiable information.

Census security officials discovered the breach on July 22, at which point they took the site offline to investigate. The site was still down as of (this) morning.
I don’t know about your business, but one week of downtime would cause me very serious concerns.  It only takes opening one mistaken email attachement to unleash a can of worms (or viruses) onto your network.  Are you prepared?

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Protecting Yourself Against Cyberattacks

Today’s post on IT security from cyber attacks is shared courtesy of Todd Pouliot of Gateway Financial, LLC:

25% of Americans were cyberhacked between March 2014 and March 2015. The American Institute of CPAs announced that alarming discovery in April, publishing the results of a survey conducted by Harris Poll. Disturbing? Certainly, but the instances of pre-retirees being victimized were even greater – 34% of adults aged 55-64 reported having their data stolen or compromised within that period.
Small businesses are also commonly victimized. While identity theft has eroded consumer and employee trust in Target, Sony, Home Depot, Anthem and Wells Fargo, they will survive; a small business with limited IT resources may not. Symantec says that 30% of all targeted cyberattacks occur against firms employing fewer than 250 workers. The National Cyber Security Alliance says that the average small business that gets hacked has a 60% chance of closing its doors within six months.
Hackers will not put your household out of business, but they can steal the assets within your checking account or your workplace retirement plan in seconds. They can also take your Social Security number, email address, annual income data and more and sell it or retain it to hurt you in the future.
Cyberattacks within the financial world are especially frightening. Bank and brokerage accounts are respectively insured by the FDIC and SIPC, yet that insurance only protects a customer or client in cases of institutional failure. It does not cover cybertheft.
How can you strengthen your online defenses against cyberthieves? One way to do that is through two-factor authentication, or 2FA.
Corporations are starting to realize the vulnerability of a username-password combination. Given that so many usernames are derivations of real names, and given that many passwords are still mentally convenient, a hacker can access such accounts with relative ease.
If a company installs another security factor beyond the username-password combination – such as a voiceprint audio I.D. or a one-time numeric code texted to your phone to permit account access – hacking an account becomes much harder. This two-factor authentication may become the norm in the near future.
Too many Americans use simple passwords, sometimes at multiple websites. (Did you know that “password” is one of the most commonly used passwords?) Fortunately, free software has emerged to generate random passwords for different accounts. High net worth households are discoveringNorton Identity Safe, RoboForm, LastPass, Dashlane and other apps capable of creating super-strong passwords.
Aside from using stronger passwords, avoid falling prey to the classic mistakes. When you use free Wi-Fi at a coffeeshop or airport or make a bid at an online auction site of questionable origin, you are taking your chances. The same goes for opening mystery email attachments and sharing private data on websites lacking the HTTPS protocol.
Will cybersecurity improve in the coming years? A widely adopted 2FA standard may make online theft much harder to pull off. Other defenses are being touted, some with more merit than others. Using a fingerprint as a password sounds good, but has a crippling drawback: you can change a password, but try changing your fingerprint. Some consumers are getting new EMV-equipped credit and debit cards that rely on microchips rather than magnetic strips; many of these are not the chip-and-PIN cards common to Europe, however. Instead, they are chip-and-signature cards. The second security factor is simply you signing your name. Cybersecurity analysts believe that while the chip-and-signature cards are better than the old technology, they fall short of chip-and-PIN cards.
True cybersecurity may prove elusive, but personal vigilance and password management software are good steps toward building a better defense against cyberattacks.
Todd Pouliot, AIF may be reached at 1 (844) 592-9888 or Tpouliot@sigmarep.com.
Citations.

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4 Cloud Computing Myths for SMB’s

small_business_use_of_cloud_computingThe following is a guest post from Avatara LLC.  Great Lakes Computer is proud to be a partner/reseller of their CompleteCloud product. 

Despite the rapid adoption of cloud computing in government, business and our social lives, there are so many misconceptions concerning what it is and what it does. When technology is understood, the benefits begin to outweigh the negatives. Cloud services can mean different things to different people.

Here are four cloud computing myths:

    1. Cloud computing is a fad. Cloud as a term is new, but the concepts and requisite technologies have been evolving for years. Cloud computing continues to emerge as a game-changing technology, with high adoption rates and investment.
    2. The cloud is not secure. The reality is that most businesses cannot compete with the level of security that is offered by cloud providers given that they have teams of security experts working 24/7.
    3. Cloud computing reduces productivity. Increased productivity is a key benefit of an effective cloud computing strategy. Increased accessibility, convenience and collaboration positively impact employee productivity.
    4. Cloud computing is expensive. The upfront costs of a cloud migration are often sizable, but the savings over time typically offset the initial expenditure.Small-business owners who leverage cloud technologies spend an average 20 percent less on technology than their peers.

In the end, cloud computing is the safest, most cost-effective, and efficient way to leverage technology today for small businesses.  Learn more about CompleteCloud HERE.  Contact Great Lakes Computer if you are interested in learning how cloud IT can revolutionize your SMB’s IT world!

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