Great Lakes Computer Corporation

Managed Service Provider

You are here: Home / Great Lakes Blog

Great Lakes Blog

By

Beyond IT Support: A Guest Blog About Organizing your Home or Small Office

3-keep-cords-with-binder-clipsIn today’s Beyond IT Support blog post, we welcome guest bloggers again today from Muffy and JoEllen over at Organizing4u.com to blog about  de-cluttering our work lives – even when your work life is at home.  Here are Home Office Ideas:

Do you have a home office that is in need of help?  Clearing the clutter is one thing, storing your supplies is another.  It is really difficult to focus on work when the office is a mess. An unorganized office saps motivation and slows you down. Take a look at these Creative Home Office Organizing Ideas, from clever products to space-saving strategies. You can use these ideas to make your home office really great, and boost your mood and make you more productive.

View  20 Creative Home Office Organizing Ideas complete with pictures HERE.

 

By

4 Features Of Office 365 That Will Help Jumpstart Your Small Business

Office 365As Microsoft prepares to end support and updates for its Small Business Server 2003, many professionals are exploring the cloud-based Office 365 as a potential replacement. The idea of switching from a platform with which you are intensely familiar to an unknown quantity can be a daunting task, but Office 365 offers several benefits over its server-based predecessors that can provide a net gain for business owners, IT professionals, and end-users alike.

Access On-the-go for Everyone

When it comes to easy accessibility, there is simply nothing that can match the versatility of a cloud-based platform. While other platforms can now accommodate remote access, they tend to require expensive hardware and software licenses, or the user is forced to rely on a lumbering web-based access-point. Office 365 is integrated with simple, secure cloud-based storage, so working remotely is a breeze for any employee in the company. Additions such as SharePoint Online allow for streamlined document sharing and editing throughout the organization, something that required an often confusing email chain only a few years ago. End-users who are familiar with SBS 2003 will likely be able to easily adapt to the recognizable apps, so retraining efforts and costs can be minimized.

Reduced Technical Requirements

For most small business owners, IT infrastructure is often one of the most substantial costs next to payroll expenses.  If you’ve been a longtime user of SBS 2003, it’s likely that you’ll be required to undergo significant hardware upgrades if you plan to migrate to a new home-based server. With all data stored on Microsoft’s remote servers and accessible through the cloud, Office 365 can reduce the amount of physical space you’ll need for data storage and provide you with the assurance of Microsoft’s robust and secure servers.

Lower Maintenance Costs

With hardware servers always come increased maintenance and cooling costs; while the costs for data continue to plummet, it’s the one reality we still always have to deal with. Microsoft already has the space and the infrastructure to house your data, so why not let the maintenance costs be their problem? Subscribing to Office 365 provides you with the powerful software you’ve come to rely on and the efficiency of Microsoft’s IT infrastructure, without having to worry about any of the hardware headaches involved in housing your own servers.

Enhanced Security

Data security is paramount to almost every company in the wireless age; whether you’re talking about customer data, employee records, or company documents, every organization is willing to spend liberally in order to avoid leading off the nightly news as the latest victim of another huge cyber-attack. Even if you aren’t a Fortune 500 company, IT security is still crucial, and Microsoft has achieved remarkable economies of scale with the massive amount of data it needs to secure. Office 365 allows you to put the advantages of one of the largest technology companies in the world to use in your small business.

Learn More About Data Protection

By

Keeping up with Employee Demand for BYOD

BYODIf you have not adopted a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy for your business, you may no longer have the luxury of delaying.  According to the article, Business trends for 2015: the mobile workforce and BYOD maturing, employee demand will be the main component of growth for BYOD:

In 2015, technology, more than ever, will be expected to keep up with business growth, the need for transformation, but most of all, employees’ demands. In the last five years, it’s been challenging for businesses to keep up with the rate at which technology has evolved, but now the tables have turned.

Employees’ expectations around having the freedom to choose the type of device and operating system they use for work, as well as capability for fast, seamless delivery of content and information, continues to increase at a rapid pace due to device innovation and increasing 4G coverage.

The projected uptake of tablets, in particular, will be a strong example of these growing consumer expectations as these devices become even more prominent within large and small businesses, as well as across the public sector.

Tablets provide greater ease and portability than a traditional laptop, and this combined with people’s ever increasing demand for high speed access to information anytime, anywhere, is expected to drive wider adoption across all business sectors through 2015.

Therefore, by acknowledging employees’ desires for ‘bring your own’ tablets, and organizations ensuring they are able to offer staff the devices and systems they prefer and need to be more productive, businesses can support the wider trend while fostering greater information sharing and cost efficiencies across the company.

To read more about BYOD, read our blog article: BYOD: Companies are inviting staff to bring their own computer to work.  And to learn more about implementing a BYOD policy for your company, let us help!

Contact Us Today!

By

What Does the End of SBS 2003 Mean For Me?

Windows small business server 2003If you’ve been relying on Windows Small Business Server 2003 to manage your company’s IT infrastructure, it’s time to begin investigating other options. Beginning on July 14, 2015, Microsoft will end support for the mainstay OS, and many users will be scrambling to update to a supported platform. There are several options available, but you need to be aware of the timeframe of the migration and also the potential pitfalls.

Depending on the size of your company, it can take approximately 200 days to complete a successful migration from Windows Small Business Server 2003. It can be a painstaking process, and you will need to carefully review the applications upon which you are relying to see if they will be easily supported on your new platform of choice. Even small changes in one area of your IT support system can have significant effects that reverberate throughout your ecosystem. Needless to say, no matter what path you choose it’s important to begin formulating a plan as soon as possible, lest you be exposed to security threats and bugs that will never be patched.

Windows Server 2012

Windows Server 2012 is the modern version of the platform which Microsoft is encouraging users to adopt. Although Microsoft has eliminated the dedicated small business server product line from the 2012 offerings, Windows 2012 Server is available in several variations to suit the diverse needs of Microsoft’s customers. Windows Server Essentials features Microsoft’s latest SMB 3.0 protocol, and may allow longtime users of Windows Small Business Server to retain core IT infrastructure while incorporating Microsoft’s latest advancements in SMB security, networking, and data storage. In addition, many end-users may find the transition seamless, or at least mostly trouble-free, as they will be employing applications and a platform with which they are likely already familiar. Windows Server 2012 also offers the option to integrate certain cloud-based solutions, such as collaboration with Office 365. Microsoft unveiled a sponsored whitepaper detailing what to consider when migrating to Windows Server 2012.

However, migrating to Windows Server 2012 could have important consequences for your business. Depending upon the workload you are currently putting on SBS 2003, the migration may require extensive hardware upgrades which bring costs that may not have been included in the budget. Also, If you consistently rely on 16- or 32-bit applications that have been developed in-house, it may take some time and effort to have them reconfigured for a 64-bit environment, if they can be made compatible at all.

Office 365

While Windows Server 2012 does offer the option of cloud integration, you may use the migration as an opportunity to move completely into the cloud with a product such as Office 365. This choice offers obvious benefits, such as less up-front cost for software and ease-of-access to your crucial data from any location. Many companies may, however, not be comfortable with their secure data being hosted outside of the organization. 

By

Ransomware: To Pay or Not To Pay the Ransom?

ransomewareThe following post was featured on TechTarget SearchSecurity earlier this week and is being shared as we have many clients who have asked us this hypothetical question, in the hopes that the day doesn’t come that they have to know the answer. Thankfully, they are working with us and have a sound Data Backup and Recovery Plan in place. Read on for an insightful and good read we hope you will never need to reference:

“Our organization is developing a short policy statement to deal with future ransomware outbreaks. However, a key point we disagree on internally is that some people believe it’s okay to pay a ransom for data depending on the cost/value equation, while others think paying the ransom is like negotiating with a terrorist and should just never be done. What approach should we take?”

Ransomware is surreptitious software that overtly takes control of a computer’s hard drive and encrypts it. It holds the information hostage until a ransom is paid for release of the decryption key. Payment of the ransom is often made in bitcoin, which is anonymous and untraceable. The ransom can be — and typically is — paid if the information or computer taken hostage is critical to the operation of a business or victim. The underlying question is how this could have happened and what recourse is available. On June 5, 2014, Cisco foretold of a rash of ransomware attacks and this is starting to come to pass.

Companies falling victim to ransomware and that wind up paying the ransom, tend to either have poor backups or insufficient controls; or, if both systems are working effectively but still succumb to more sophisticated attacks, there are greater concerns regarding reputational or financial risks if the incident goes public.

Should a company pay ransom for information or computers taken hostage? Ethically speaking, the answer is no. But in a practical sense, given the criticality of the asset, it might have to. If not paying the ransom has an adverse effect on a business’ viability, then there are few choices. If the organization can accept a loss in business, then the ransom should not be paid and attention should be focused on preventing reoccurrence.

There are several steps organizations can take to prepare for a ransomware attack, including backing up critical data daily, running incrementals to make the backup process less cumbersome and time consuming, ensuring strong network security, verifying and periodically testing malware detection and application controls and also deploying comprehensive monitoring processes to detect unauthorized access attempts and unknown or unexpected changes in environments. The key is to have sufficient controls and recovery processes in place to render a hostage situation merely an inconvenience and not a critical business threat.

Download our Disaster Recovery flyer

By

The State of Healthcare IT Security in 2015

healthcare data secority breachesHave you had time to research IT security and how it can impact your healthcare company? If you haven’t, don’t worry, we’ve identified some of the risks and have listed some suggestions to help you get started:

1. Almost Half of All Healthcare Companies Have Had 1 Data Security Incident in the Past Year

Did you catch that? Nearly half! Even though security measures have gotten stronger than ever, you’re still at significant risk. As hard as IT companies and teams work at security, hackers work just as hard at breaking through. And hackers don’t have any laws they have to consider…but you do!

2. More Healthcare Companies Have Cyber Security Insurance than Ever

What are you going to do if your name hits the headlines? That’s going to cause damage to your reputation for years, whether you want it to or not. And who knows what your financial fallout will be from that? You may want to consider carrying cyber security insurance…just in case everything else goes wrong.

3. 42% of All 2014 Data Breaches Happened in Healthcare

…And the FBI predicts things will intensify throughout 2015. 1/3 of all cyber-attacks will succeed, the FBI adds. Healthcare information is increasingly digitizing, and cyber criminals are doing everything in their power to prey on healthcare companies.

4. 80% of All Health Data Will Pass Through the Cloud by 2020

Right now, some bash the cloud’s level of security. By 2020, it may be more secure than most private networks. But for now, even though the cloud is more scalable and cost-effective than most private networks, it can still struggle with security.

5. Employees Continue to be a Major Security Threat

Some healthcare IT leaders believe employee behavior will cause more security issues than external threats in coming years. We don’t know if that’s the case. But, human error certainly accounts for many data security breaches. And it’s reasonable to expect this trend to continue. Identify a baseline for the number of employee behaviors that risk security each month. Create regular training and a reward system, to reduce those errors.

6. More Ways to Access Health Information Means More Potential for Security Breaks

Consumers are demanding more ways to access their health information. Online portals are increasing in availability. It’ll be interesting to see what innovation brings to the marketplace. Will patients eventually be able to have a Facebook-like interface to interact with medical professionals? If you do add more ways to access information, consider how you’re going to secure those.

Time will tell what happens but at the very least you should be researching ways to protect your data and your reputation in the healthcare industry.

Learn more about our Data Security Product Suite

Contact Us