The Revolution Group Blog

Hiring internal staff to take care of your company’s technology infrastructure and help-desk needs can be costly. To cut down costs, an increased number of small to medium sized businesses are turning to Managed Service Providers. Managed Service Providers ensure businesses have all of the necessary IT support staff at a fraction of the cost. In this blog, we will walk you through 3 ways to save money with a Managed Service Provider.

If you’re considering an IT Managed Service Provider (MSP), you’ve no doubt come across many options that promise you the best managed services on the market. With all of the possibilities and IT jargon, it is easy to get lost while trying to find the solution that fits your business needs. To make your search easier and more streamlined, here are some tips for choosing an IT Managed Service Provider.

The term “end of life” is often perceived as being abrupt and permanent. Fortunately, Microsoft gave customers the needed time to process and adjust before pulling the plug on the Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) browser. The announcement that Microsoft 365 apps would stop supporting IE11 was to end came on August 17, 2020.

Cybersecurity is a key concern for businesses in today’s digital world. Working from home has become the new norm, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but also due to the advancement of technology. Unfortunately, cybercriminals are taking advantage of this by targeting remote workers and growing organizations. As a Managed Service Provider some of the most common threats we protect against and help remedy are Ransomware, IoT related attacks and Cloud Computing vulnerabilities.

The word “change” can be scary for companies and individuals alike. Without diving into the psychology of change and why it stirs such trepidation, most organizations relate “change” to the last positive or negative experience or interaction they had. In many cases, companies become paralyzed in making a change purely out of “fear of the unknown.”

Ransomware is one of those things that will not go away. Cybercriminals continue to find ways to circumvent the best safeguards in place, and awareness and education are your strongest defense. Understanding and building defenses against ransomware is critical and support from your managed service provider can offer the resources and strategy to best protect your business.

Last December, when we identified the 2020 Cybersecurity Trends, no one would have imagined what 2020 was about to unleash. Who would have thought that we would be facing a world-wide pandemic which will clearly continue into 2021 or longer?! The trends that we identified in the list below for 2020 are still not only relevant, but many of them have become even more important due to the accelerated shift to Remote Workforce Enablement.

Ransomware has been a fear of IT professionals and business alike for many years. No one ever wants to be that business on the news or that individual that clicked on something and instantly regretted it. In recent news the Ryuk Ransomware attacks against primarily Healthcare organizations has been devastating and the Ryuk Ransomware is believed to have made up one third of all Ransomware attacks in 2020.

In my continuing series of blog posts relating to “The Shift in the Modern Day Workplace,” I’m going to tackle the topic of Data Loss Prevention (DLP) in an easy, digestible way and explain how it relates to ALL organizations. In the past, DLP was a term primarily associated with organizations that are highly regulated such as healthcare, banking, and insurance. DLP was often identified as a risk or gap during audits and assessments that are common amongst those industries.

A few weeks ago, in my blog post, “The Shift in the Modern Day Workplace,” I discussed the many aspects of business operations that are undergoing a “shift” and causing business owners and executives to scramble to keep up with the changing times. I want to continue the dialog, expand on the different concepts, and give you more depth and understanding of each specific topic. So, over the next few weeks, I will tackle each topic individually, starting with Remote Workforce Enablement.

SOC (System and Organization Controls) is a suite of reports produced by an audit of an organization’s internal controls. These controls are the mechanisms, rules and procedures which ensure the integrity of a company’s financial information, reliable financial reporting, and legal and regulatory compliance. Audits are conducted by Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) accredited by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).

As nearly the whole business world transitions to a remote workforce, it presents a brand new set of challenges. One of the biggest questions companies are being forced to ask themselves is, ‘What do IT departments need to do when a remote worker leaves the company?’ At Revolution Group, we understand the challenges associated with an employee leaving the company, voluntarily or not.

When the COVID-19 pandemic sent millions of people home from work, businesses were forced to shut down and phone calls for sales and service went unanswered. However, organizations with foresight already had a tool at their disposal which allowed employees to answer phones from anywhere, anytime and were able to effectively keep operations up and running.

Business owners are continuously faced with challenges to grow, to innovate, and to increase efficiency and productivity. Your internal IT team may be able to provide your company’s basic needs at first, but eventually your needs outweigh the time and abilities the IT team has available. Furthermore, business owners and C-level executive take on improvement initiatives that internal IT resources can’t manage in addition to their everyday responsibilities.

Managed Service Providers (MSP’s) are responsible for maintaining your company’s hardware, software and network infrastructure. However, they are not all the same. How do you know if your provider has the right processes in place to reliably support your organization’s operations AND keep your data secure? What are the characteristics of a good service provider? Does the prospective MSP follow best industry practices?

Until recently, “ransomware” was a technology buzzword that you may have encountered online or heard your IT staff discuss around the water cooler. Unfortunately today, it is not just IT lingo, but instead, a serious threat to businesses around the world. According to Cybersecurity Ventures, it is estimated that ransomware attacks will cost $8 billion in 2018 and up to $11.5 billion in 2019. And, ransomware attacks on businesses are predicted to occur every 14 seconds by the end of 2019.

Have you ever considered living life without insurance? You could save a lot of money in the short term without paying insurance premiums. But, eventually, an accident, natural disaster or health issue will occur and could significantly impact you financially. The same is true for technology in your business. While it might seem like you could save money in the short term, having a Managed IT partner will save you both money and headaches in the long term.

Protecting your organizations infrastructure is much like protecting your home. At home, we take precautions such as locking our doors, turning on an alarm system and having a plan in place in case someone attempts to break in. It’s important to take the same kinds of steps when it comes to the security of your organization.

By now, you have probably read dozens of articles about cybercriminal activity and data breaches. Large firms like Equifax, Uber, Anthem, Target, Ubiquiti, and many more have had security breaches that have resulted in the exposure of sensitive customer information. With these massive data breaches, experts calculate that approximately 1.9 billion usernames/passwords have been stolen and are available on the black market. And these breaches are not confined to large organizations.

To understand two-factor authentication, you will need to know what single-factor authentication is. Single-factor authentication is a common login where you have to enter your username and one password. In this single-factor authentication model, anyone who can obtain your username and password, can get access to your account.

Servers are such a vital part of a company’s technology infrastructure. Depending on how you use your server, your day-to-day operations could come to a halt if you experience issues like server downtime. By not being able to complete your day-to-day tasks, you’re sure to lose money. So, you ask, “How often should I replace my servers?” The answer can vary but below are some ways to prevent the chaos and financial nightmare of having a server die when you’re unprepared.

Once the awareness and consideration stages are complete, there are 5 purchasing stages of the Technology Adoption Lifecycle. The adoption lifecycle was developed by Everett Rogers to describe the different ways people adopt technology and the characteristics those consumers possess at each stage. Which type of technology consumer are you?

Do you have technology alerts set up for your company? Even having basic monitoring and alerting systems can save your company time and money by notifying you before a problem gets too big. Being prepared can mean the difference between a small, fixable issue and a catastrophic event that could lead to downtime and money lost.

Many companies today are transitioning to hybrid IT, so some of our customers are asking us: “What is hybrid IT and will it change the way I currently do business?” Hybrid IT is a combination of cloud and on-site technology services and support. It is mixing the two somewhat conflicting ideals into one smooth operation that allows the best features of onsite offerings to be used in conjunction with the best features of cloud offerings.

What is a managed IT service provider? A managed service provider (MSP) is now a widely accepted technology term for a team of IT specialists that take responsibility for a company’s hardware, software, and network infrastructure maintenance and support. The type of maintenance that an MSP typically offers is a proactive approach by monitoring and alerting potential threats and weaknesses in the technology structure.

Whether you employ an in-house IT team or outsource with a Managed Service Provider, keeping up with changing technology is imperative. Choosing infrastructure solutions for your company can be difficult enough, but the number of options available can confuse even the best IT team. And, once you’ve chosen a solution, updates, expansions, and new releases are becoming more and more frequent, making maintenance time consuming and expensive.

For those who use technology, backing up your data has become second nature. On a personal level, social sharing is taking over – live streaming, selfies, and social media updates are forcing data storage to become a top concern. Data storage is a constant concern for companies as well. Businesses of all sizes are asking themselves, “What’s my data worth and can I afford to lose it?”

From the smallest mom and pop coffee shop to the most technically advanced international corporation, the internet has changed the way the world does business. Today, a reliable internet connection is just as important as common utilities like water and electricity. And yet, most businesses have little understanding of their actual internet usage or bandwidth requirements. Nor are there tools in place to determine why your internet is slow.

Over the last ten years, personal technology devices such as smartphones, tablets, and notebooks have advanced to a point that people rely on these devices for everyday tasks. Employees rely on these devices to answer emails, check their calendar, set reminders, or access enterprise resource applications. As a small or medium sized business, keeping up with the advancement of technology can prove to be an expensive burden; especially considering there are new releases for these devices every few months.