While the focus of many CIOs is and should be on bringing technological competitive advantages to the business, cutting unnecessary costs is always something to keep in mind. Here are six IT cost reduction strategies that allow IT departments to use more of the budget for new technologies that foster business growth. Enterprise IT tip #1: Cut Software Licensing for Cost...
A Permanent Denial of Service attack, or a PDoS attack, is a denial of service via hardware sabotage. One method of conducting a PDoS attack is commonly referred to as phlashing. These PDoS attacks have become increasingly popular with hackers as more and more businesses have moved to cloud computing. This can happen in a number of different ways, but one thing is for...
When deciding on a network management strategy, a top priority for your department to think about is the cost of IT downtime. There are a lot of scary numbers out there for the average cost of downtime. The Ponemon Institute stated the average cost of unplanned downtime for 2016 was $8,850 per minute. That number is calculated based on several different things but...
Many of our customers have come to us with questions about HIPAA-compliant cloud storage. There’s a lot of marketing rhetoric online about HIPAA-certified Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) and other types of certified providers for that matter. First of all, there is no such thing as an official HIPAA certification. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the...
Many business functions have shifted online in recent months. Between social distancing protocols, quarantine, and protective measures, the remote workforce is stronger than ever and more dependent on connectivity and networking. Network capacity, speed, and availability, alongside data transport, storage, and management, have become the cornerstones of the new...
Since the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic, more businesses have shifted to remote work models or implemented new virtual capabilities to maintain operations. With these measures, however, has come a steep growth in the demand on networks. Recent reports have discovered that in the midst of this shift, business-hour broadband consumption has gone up more than...
How Much Should You Spend on Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery? Many companies underfund their business continuity and disaster recovery plans, not realizing several hours of downtime can cost them hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars. Every company’s DR strategy and budget should be based on their unique requirements, not a cookie-cutter plan. The best...
In the past decade, software defined networking (SDN) has evolved from an ultra-hyped set of emerging technologies expected to revolutionize interconnected networks to a formidable, trusted solution offered by vendors from Cisco to VMWare. And it’s growing at a steady pace, with a projected market worth of more than $12 billion in 2022, according to a report by IDC....
Edge computing and edge data centers are buzzwords popping up in IT publications all over the Internet, but what do they really mean? Edge computing is more straightforward, and has been simply defined as “data processing power at the edge of a network instead of in a cloud or a central data warehouse.” However, edge data centers are being defined in a variety of...
According to the 451 Alliance, SaaS (Software as a Service) is the most widely adopted type of cloud service, used by 70% of companies. This is followed by Iaas (Infrastructure as a Service) via the public cloud, which is currently utilized by 46% of companies. As the use of cloud storage and cloud applications continues to increase, there is a growing demand to connect...
In the digital age when nearly every business and industry is powered by sophisticated technology, updates are a fact of life. Software developers are constantly releasing new versions of their solutions while hardware manufacturers are consistently seeking new ways to improve their products. But while many updates offer new features to protect your environment, streamline...
IT professionals are responsible for making sure all their organization’s hardware, software and network resources are running optimally and well-secured. However, keeping up with your IT infrastructure can be challenging — especially if, like many organizations, you have a hybrid infrastructure model. Fortunately, IT infrastructure monitoring tools can provide the insight...
No matter your definition of edge computing, the purpose is to bring processing power closer to the devices that communicate with it. For the purpose of this blog post, “the edge” is any storage or processing equipment that is not in a data center, i.e. computer equipment or machinery in your office, warehouse, or factory that stores or processes data from computers or...
Over the past few years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has transformed the way nearly every industry transmits, collects and uses data — and the oil and gas industry is no exception. Energy companies who’ve invested in this new technology are enjoying cost savings, better-streamlined processes, more accurate forecasts for demands and other crucial advantages. And that’s likely...
It’s almost the end of another year, and predictions for 2019 tech trends are rolling in. Many of last year’s predictions rang true for 2018, including the rise of cybercrime-as-a-service, data sovereignty, and hybrid cloud connectivity. It looks like some exciting technologies will finally take off next year and become more commonplace, like augmented analytics, AI...