The Complete Managed IT Pricing Guide for Small Businesses
To say that managed IT services are an attractive option for small and medium-sized businesses would be no understatement.
To say that managed IT services are an attractive option for small and medium-sized businesses would be no understatement.
Austin, Texas, is a thriving and diverse economic center in the United States, with a booming population and a rich cultural scene.
Austin, Texas is quickly making a name for itself as one of America’s top technology hubs. Downtown Austin hosts an impressive cluster of global technology companies. It’s impressive enough to earn the neighborhood the nickname “Silicon Hills.” So, who are these Austin technology companies and why are they attracting so much attention?
You probably know about those hilariously obvious “Nigerian prince” emails that offer an amazing opportunity for riches if only you’ll hand over your bank account information. Well, as silly as they appear, these clumsy efforts do indeed grab hundreds of thousands of dollars each year – and that’s just your standard phishing maneuver. A more sophisticated and hard-to-spot technique called spear phishing poses even greater danger for folks who think they can spot a sma a mile away. Take a moment to find out about how this scam works and what you can do to keep yourself and your employees safe against it.
Windows 11 is one year old this month – and it got a nice first birthday present. Microsoft has rolled out the OS version’s first major update, version 22H2, making it available to over 190 countries. You may not be an early adopter by nature, and that can be a prudent attitude where software is concerned. However, you’ll want to go ahead and make this upgrade once you know about some of the new and improved features it contains. A quick look under the hood reveals the following goodies just for starters.
Father Time catches up to everybody and everything, including your IT system hardware. If your workstations and servers have lost a step or two, you may need to decide between making incremental upgrades or buying shiny new gear. Which move makes the most sense for your particular situation? Here are some questions that can lead you toward the right decision, courtesy of your Austin business tech support experts at Gravity Systems.
Are you taking your office hardware on the road? Perhaps you’ve decided to relocate your business to another commercial space, or perhaps you need to move some of your electronic equipment to a new branch office.
This kind of transition might appear straightforward enough – but straightforward doesn’t mean trouble free, as you might discover to your frustration when that equipment emerges at the other end of the move in an unusable state.
Here are some tips for moving your IT computers, servers, peripherals, and network gear safely and effectively, courtesy of your Austin busupport team at Gravity Systems.
Phishing has posed threats to businesses for decades. With the advent of the current pandemic, however, the online waters have grown even more dangerous for workers to navigate. Our Austin tech support specialists at Gravity Systems want to make you aware of how some unscrupulous individuals and organizations could take advantage of your good will during this challenging time.
The features of cloud computing are expanding rapidly. Coupled with larger Internet bandwidth availability, cloud computing is a more viable option in a company’s IT strategy. Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Desktop as a Service (DaaS) are all prevalent offerings in the “On-Demand” space. If you are planning to position portions of your IT system in the Cloud, here are some things to know:
If you are a large corporation, you probably have a well-established IT department who takes care of your data safety and security.You probably have invested a good amount of money to ensure that your business stays safe from data security threats. No one (except your IT department) has to bother about encryption, backup, email security, and other factors.
However, if you own a start-up or small to mid-sized business, you are ultimately responsible for the safety of your critical corporate data! Data loss could cost you severely. Many businesses that experience a data loss do not recover, or find that the costs of recovering the data far outweigh the cost of preventative measures. Here are some essential points for consideration that you may want to consider in order to keep your business data safe.
Your clients do business with you because they trust you. If they entrust you with sensitive data, it is up to you to earn that trust by protecting it. Make sure you encrypt all their confidential information such as tax forms, address details, financial sheets, business plans, etc. Similarly, it is important to encrypt your own data as well. Encryption is a process of converting your information into a format that can’t be read, understood, or decrypted by any third party. The encryption is password protected. Unless someone knows the password, he/she won’t be able to decrypt it. Encryption, in some form or another, should take place at least when data leaves your organization premises. For example, if you are an accountant focusing on tax returns, some encryption should be used when sending and receiving tax forms, working papers and finalized returns to and from clients.
Your data is at far more risk in transit than when it is stored in your PC. When you are sending something confidential to your client, make sure you find out an appropriate way to secure it. Email, by itself, is not a secure method of sending documents. Encryption will help you, and local encryption is fairly easy. However, encrypting data in transit is challenging. This is because you and your client have to agree on a common encryption process. If your client already has an encryption policy, you may want to use their system. If not, then you both have to figure out a common way through which both the parties can protect their data during transit. One common method, following on the accounting example, would be to use a 3rd party file share site which uses common SSL security to encrypt uploads and downloads.
Do not ignore basic protection. Viruses, malware, Trojans, worms, and other malicious elements can severely affect your productivity and provide hackers with copies of your data. You may either lose access to the contents of confidential client files or to the files themselves. Invest in a quality anti-virus program, and make sure it is always up to date. Also, secure all your PCs and mobile devices. Remember that laptops and portable devices can be exposed to extra risk due to the unsecure networks they access.
Backing up your data to a single local physical device isn’t enough. As you can imagine, a fire or flood can make short work of such devices. A tape or other multi-copy backup is a better choice, as you will always have copies away from the office. Many customers also use online backup either exclusively or in conjunction with premise-based backup. Online backup can be inexpensive for your core set of files, and may be a good choice for all of your data, depending on the size and type of data you are backing up. For some, the benefit of not needing to change a tape is tremendous!
We hope this blog helps you understand the basics of securing your data. If you are looking for professional help, get in touch with us www.GravityUSA.com