Cyber-attacks and sophisticated phishing raids can have immediate adverse effects on your network.  They can slow it down, steal sensitive data and make your device unusable. The downtime this can cause can have a devastating effect on your reputation, customer satisfaction and profit margins.

How effective is your company firewall? Having a highly powerful firewall is the basis of your security measures.  Firewalls are able to filter both inbound and outbound traffic, control access to host apps and track unauthorized attempts at access to your company network.  Some can even filter spam and malware. An out of date firewall may not be able to do any of these things. Read more

Google Fiber is Google’s TV and broadband service that is rapidly spreading throughout the country. Fiber TV includes DVR, apps and voice search, and features which Google claims will change the way we think about watching TV forever. The broadband service with 1000 Mbps download and upload speeds is 100 times faster than the internet available to most people today.

So what do you need to know about Fiber?

ISPs will have to react.

Google is offering a service which is extremely competitive in the service provider market, which means other ISPs will have to match it or get left behind. Comcast’s premium internet offers up to 50Mbps and uploads up to 10Mbps with no TV attached, and that’s for $100 per month. Google offers speedier internet and TV for $130. Read more

Every company, big or small, will has its share of meetings. Whether it’s for a new project, going over quarterly reports, addressing infrastructure issues, or so on, meetings try to focus on particular points of interest to assure company direction is absolute.  This becomes challenging however, when some employees can’t physically make the meeting for whatever reason. Maybe the entire employee body needs to be addressed and scheduling won’t allow for it. Well, in comes a useful feature of the modern age: video conferences. Read more

So you’ve decided to outsource some aspects of your IT systems to a third party. Or, maybe you’re outsourcing the whole unit. Likely it’s a decision to help cut infrastructure costs and improve productivity in certain areas. It’s a technique employed by many businesses looking to make the most of modern advancements such as cloud computing and a solid one overall. However, outsourcing or using third party IT support providers does come with a few risks.

It’s important to look for specific conditions and characteristics in third parties, whether you’re in Chicago or on the far side of the world. An absence of quality in areas can have serious ramifications, so be wise when choosing support providers. Read more

Storms can wreak havoc on businesses, causing thousands and even millions of dollars’ worth of damage. Hurricanes, fires, floods, wind storms, and tornadoes can all destroy important business assets including merchandise, building structure, and computer hardware such as company computers and backup servers.

• Building structure: To prevent building structure damage, there are several factors that should be considered.

• Building level: If the level the building is currently at or close to the ground, go higher if possible. For instance, if you have a two or three story building, keep all computers and hardware with sensitive data on the higher floors. This will help protect against a massive flooding incident. Read more