Tag Archive for: Disaster Recovery

4 ways Cloud Computing can change how you do business

While there was once a time when small businesses needed to make significant investments to compete on a global scale. Cloud computing has changed all that. If you’re intrigued by the idea of bringing the cloud to your business, you need to learn the benefits. Now is the time to go explore them.

You’ll reduce your business costs while growing it

Historically, growing your business was expensive because of the need for resource investment. One of the major advantages of cloud technology is that you cut out the costs of hardware. At the same time, you can increase or decrease your IT resources as your business’s demands change.

Being able to decrease your resources means you avoid wasting money on hardware that you don’t later use. Many cloud computing contracts are flexible, too, especially those that come with pay-as-you-go models. As a small business, this allows you to save money on an area that’s usually expensive. With the money you save, you could increase spending elsewhere and scale your organization accordingly.

Disaster recovery comes naturally in Cloud Computing

Imagine a day in your business operations where all your IT resources are lost. Depending on the size of your organization, this could mean a significant reduction in revenue. To add to this, your clients are likely to lose some faith in you and may begin suspecting that you’re unable to protect their data. As a small business, you probably can’t afford to take hits to your reputation.

Disaster recovery has traditionally been a slightly sore point for small businesses. Many have lacked the financial resources required to navigate periods of system downtime. Thanks to cloud computing, disaster recovery now comes naturally. Don’t worry anymore about what you will do if your IT systems fail because everything is stored on a cloud database.

Employees can enjoy remote working

According to Business Insider, 50% of employees will work remotely by 2020 and cloud computing is helping to facilitate the movement. By using the cloud to host your work files and collaborative databases, it’s easy for employees to work at a distance while remaining on the same page as their in-office colleagues.

Remote working can become an advantage to your business in several ways. In addition to reducing overhead, allowing employees to work from home for two days a week or more could boost productivity. Additionally, you can send employees on trips and to conferences while remaining confident that they can access the same files as everyone else with ease.

Security and updates become easier

Running all your software from your office means you’re the person who’s responsible for security and updates. When you fail to keep up with the pace, you allow your system to become vulnerable to viruses and hackers. Once again, data loss is an easy way to lose your clients’ confidence and it can harm your business’s reputation.

In contrast, using cloud computing ensures that all the maintenance takes place without you having to put in the time and effort. Those who provide your cloud server will manage the maintenance for you, which gives you one less task to do. In addition to reducing the likelihood of you forgetting to perform an update, this approach frees up your time for other areas of your business.

Overall, cloud computing reduces costs for small businesses, it increases security, and it prevents reputation-damaging data loss.

Find a professional to learn more about cloud computing today

PCnet cloud professionals can help you secure your cloud and gain peace of mind, all while getting the ROI you want and expect from cloud services. Contact us today to learn more. 

Managed Services for Your Springfield Business

, , ,

Ensuring your business’s technology platform aligns with your broader organizational goals is critical to your team’s success. With the right tools, your team can experience new levels of productivity, streamline workflows, and focus on growing your business while prioritizing customer engagement. A managed service provider (MSP) like PCnet can help you achieve all these goals with IT solutions optimized for your organization’s specific needs. Here’s how.

Comprehensive IT Strategies

When you choose PCnet as your managed IT service provider, we take a holistic approach to addressing all your organization’s technology needs. We accomplish this by packaging a robust service catalog that includes:

  • Continual Monitoring and Reporting
  • Around-the-Clock Support
  • Asset and Vendor Management
  • Preventive Infrastructure Maintenance
  • Monthly Calls and Technology Reports
  • Quarterly Business Reviews
  • Cutting-Edge Cybersecurity Strategies
  • Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Solutions

No matter how your team uses technology, the experts at PCnet can show you how much more technology can do for you. We take the time to understand your team’s unique workflows and deploy IT solutions that take your operations to the next level. While all the services included with our managed package are foundational to any business technology platform, we continually refine and fine-tune each service, so it’s like having your own internal IT team.

Simplifying Technology Budgeting

If yours is a growth-oriented business, budgeting for monthly technology costs can be a struggle. When your network goes down, you may have to absorb a substantial unexpected expense to get it back up and running. With PCnet as your MSP, we absorb much of that burden by offering our managed services for a fixed monthly fee. Our goal is to make budgeting for technology as intuitive as possible while minimizing the risk of surprise costs that cut into your business’s bottom line.

Leveraging Colocation Data Centers

If you’re focused on growing your business while preparing for the challenges of tomorrow, a colocation cloud solution is worth exploring. With colocation, you rent space at a data center to host your own server infrastructure. Because you own the equipment, you can take a more hands-on approach to managing and overseeing how resources are allocated and security is managed.

PCnet offers colocation management as part of a supplemental managed service package. We oversee installation, management, repairs, and maintenance at the data center. That way, your organization can migrate network operations to the cloud while preparing for growth. Once you have the resources to manage your cloud network in-house, our team is happy to help your IT team transition to managing your hosted cloud. Ultimately, our colocation solutions are ideal for businesses preparing for future growth.

Springfield IT Support

If you want to experience how much more a managed IT partner can do to drive business growth and maximize productivity, contact the experts at PCnet today. We’ll answer any of your questions related to our robust managed service package while laying the foundation for a successful partnership and ongoing growth.

Designing Proper IT Policies

,

If your organization is looking to maximize the potential of your technology platform, you need IT policies in place to protect and clarify how your team uses technology resources. We’ve found that some businesses believe they’re too small to require IT policies. In our experience, any company that uses computers, email, or the internet for day-to-day operations can benefit from enacting a set of IT policies. In the post, we’ll explore the core IT policies every company should have and how they can help protect your mission-critical assets.

Acceptable Technology Use Policies

Anytime your team has access to technology during work hours, there’s the potential for misuse or abuse. Creating acceptable technology use policies is the first step to ensuring your team understands what’s allowed during work and what isn’t. That way, you can be sure your organization is using technology resources as intended without the risk of confusion. Acceptable-use policies should clarify guidelines for all the technology platforms your team members have access to, including:

  • Computers
  • Mobile devices
  • Telephones
  • Internet
  • Email
  • Voicemail

On top of clarifying the legitimate uses for these platforms, your acceptable-use policies should include a disciplinary framework to prevent continued abuse following an incident.

Cybersecurity Policies

Network data is more critical to businesses than ever before. Chances are if your network stops working, so does your team. That’s why you need to create and implement specific cybersecurity policies that protect your network. Rudimentary cybersecurity policies include:

 Passwords

Include guidelines for password creation and refreshing. We recommend that all network users be required to use passwords composed of a variety of letters, numbers, and symbols. At the same time, users should be required to create a new, unique password every three to four months. Implementing fundamental password policies is essential to protecting your network from data breaches or unauthorized access.

User Access and Data Usage

Your cybersecurity policies should include a framework for which users have access to certain data on your network. These policies should also clarify how you protect sensitive client and customer data.

Virus Protection

You’re probably already taking steps to protect your network from viruses and malware. Clarifying these steps in writing can ensure your team is taking all necessary measures while helping you pinpoint potential security vulnerabilities.

Disaster Recovery

As with IT policies, some companies think they’re too small for a disaster recovery platform. On the contrary, disaster can strike any business at any time, and on average, a single minute of downtime costs the average company $1,250. That means a comprehensive disaster recovery strategy can quickly pay for itself in the event of a network outage. Putting your disaster recovery strategies in writing ensures everyone on your team understands their roles and responsibilities in the event of a disaster, so your network can get back up and running as quickly as possible while minimizing data loss.

Springfield IT Support

If your organization needs assistance developing IT policies to protect your network, employees, and clients, contact the experts at PCnet today. We’ll work with you to identify the systems your team depends on for day-to-day operations and implement policies that protect you at every level.

Tactics for Defending Against Ransomware

Businesses of all sizes and industries have become potential targets for ransomware attacks. That’s because cybercriminals use ransomware to use your own data against you, holding your critical data ransom by encrypting it so your organization can’t access it. Regaining access to your data requires a unique decryption key that cybercriminals only give you if you pay a ransom.

Fortunately, you can use a number of network solutions to protect your operations from the threat of ransomware. In this post, we’ll take a closer look at some of the strategies your organization can adopt if you want to stay ahead of cybercriminals.

Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Platforms

One of the most effective ways to defend against ransomware is with comprehensive disaster recovery and business continuity platforms. By automatically backing up your mission-critical data at an offsite data center, you can restore network operations and essential files with just a few clicks.

Some providers also offer built-in ransomware detection systems that automatically detect if a backup is tainted with ransomware. That way, your organization can remediate ransomware without cybercriminals being able to use your data against you. On top of integrating a disaster recovery platform into your network operations, ongoing training and testing are both critical to ensuring your strategies can protect you.

Keep Your Systems Updated

Prioritizing ongoing updates, upgrades, and patches is essential if you want to keep your network protected at every level. While it may be easy to put off updates and patches right now, addressing them can save you substantial time in the long run by protecting you from extensive downtime and potential data loss.

Transition Away From On-Premise Servers

On-site server resources are frequent targets for ransomware because they’re frequently less frequently updated and assessed, making them less secure than off-site data center servers. Simply migrating your critical data to offsite cloud resources can help you add an additional layer of protection to your network, streamline performance, and ultimately provide a more cost-effective solution than traditional on-site server environments. At the same time, you’ll also keep your operations protected from disasters such as flood, fire, theft, and infrastructure failures.

Springfield IT Support

If your team doesn’t have the time to prioritize network security, a managed security service provider like PCnet is here to help. Whether you want to deploy the latest in intrusion detection strategies, or you want to build a risk management platform from the ground up, our experts have the robust experience to develop and deploy a solution around your unique needs. Contact our team today to start exploring the possibilities for solidifying your network security strategies.

Benefits of Hosting Servers in the Cloud

More businesses are expanding their operations simply by switching to a cloud-based server environment. Offering streamlined application performance and data access, a cloud environment empowers your team with a cutting-edge toolkit that’s designed to address the challenges of the 21st century.

If you’re considering transitioning your server operations to a cloud-based management platform, here are some key benefits you can expect.

Increased Application Performance

Today’s hosted cloud servers offer faster performance speeds than in-house infrastructure. Because data centers offer load balancing between multiple environments, your organization can take application performance to the next level.

Access Data From Anywhere

By storing critical data in the cloud, your team has access from anywhere at any time. If your organization prioritizes mobility, migrating data to the cloud is a crucial first step to empowering your team to get more done no matter where work takes them.

Seamless Scalability

Think your business is too small for a cloud computing platform? Think again. One of the key strengths of cloud infrastructure is the simplicity of scaling your network for ever-changing needs. Whether you have one employee or one thousand, a cloud solution can help you elevate your workflows.

If yours is a growth-oriented business, it can be difficult to predict your technology requirements a year from now. That makes planning infrastructure upgrades a difficult task that can end up costing your business more than it’s worth. A cloud platform enables you to hedge against unpredictable technology requirements by enabling network expansions at a moment’s notice. You don’t have to worry about spending weeks to deploy an on-premise infrastructure, only to discover you didn’t really need it. With a cloud solution, you typically can purchase and deploy network upgrades in a matter of minutes, so you can adapt your cloud environment to your ever-changing needs.

Fixed Budgeting

With on-site network infrastructure, emergency repairs and critical upgrades can quickly surpass your monthly technology budget, which makes planning your network budget more difficult. A cloud solution simplifies budgeting by offering a fixed monthly cost for your network platform. No need to worry about emergencies or unexpected expenses. With a cloud-based network, you know exactly how much you have to pay each month, how much an upgrade costs, and your cloud provider worries about the rest.

Next-Level Disaster Recovery

An off-site cloud solution offers an extra layer of protection for your critical data and applications. Cloud platforms use automated and redundant backups in real-time, so your organization can get back up and running sooner than you thought possible following a disaster. At the same time, you don’t have to worry about an on-site catastrophe such as a fire or flood destroying your most important data. Many cloud solutions offer integrated recovery tools, so restoring data can be as simple as a few clicks.

Minimal Downtime

If your on-site servers go down, it may take days or weeks to restore normal operations. When you move to the cloud, server downtime becomes a problem of the past. Because your server resources aren’t tied to any single server, your environment can always be rolled over to another server, so you can expect almost continuous uptime.

Cloud Services Springfield, MO

Ready to explore the possibilities of the cloud for your business? The experts at PCnet have the hands-on experience to help clarify your goals, develop a migration plan, and design a cloud environment built around your business priorities. Contact our team today, and we’ll work with you to prepare your organization for tomorrow’s challenges with a customized cloud-based network solution.