MSPNetworks Blog

Small businesses have a lot to worry about in terms of technology, but one of the things that often gets overlooked is network security. Some small businesses feel that they are too small to be considered a viable target for hackers, but they are wrong; all businesses have data valuable for hackers in some form.

Imagine for a moment just how much sensitive data your business stores on its network. You have payroll records, including bank account numbers and routing numbers, personally identifiable information, contact information, and all of the details about your relations with your clients, as well. It doesn’t really matter what industry your business is in. All businesses should take security seriously. Here are some reasons why your organization should prioritize security.

Security is Proactive, Not Reactive

Imagine that your workday is disrupted by a security discrepancy that puts your entire infrastructure at risk, all because someone clicked on the wrong link in an email and downloaded an infected attachment. You now have to contend with the countless issues related to that threat. You can dodge these issues by protecting your business ahead of time so that they don’t affect you in the slightest. Imagine that same scenario, but with an adequate spam or phishing blocker. All of a sudden, that security solution paid for itself simply by preventing the downtime that clicking on such a link would cause.

Security Protects Your Business’ Future

If you were in the market for a new good or service, would you want to work with a company that doesn’t take your security and privacy seriously? This is one big reason why you need to protect your infrastructure; it protects the longevity of your organization. Businesses that let security fall to the wayside often lose clients because they don’t want to work with a business that is unreliable. When a business cannot obtain new clients due to word of mouth and online reviews soiling their reputation, that business is doomed to fail.

Security Keeps Your Bottom Line in Check

Businesses that fall victim to security threats or data breaches might become subject to fines as a result of exposing the wrong data to hackers. These fines, put in place by regulatory bodies, are preventative measures to encourage businesses to do the right thing and protect their infrastructures in a way that is consumer-friendly. These fines can be quite expensive, too, depending on the industry and the infraction. Cover all your bases now so you don’t have to pay up later down the road.

MSPNetworks can help your business implement security solutions that work for you. We can help you implement the strategies and tools you can use to keep your business safe both now and well into the future. To learn more, call us today at (516) 403-9001.

When it comes to your technology infrastructure, it’s natural that some of your solutions will be more used than others, but do you know where you are wasting money and resources? Today’s blog article is all about the digital employee experience, or DEX, and how you can use it to better your business’ relationship with its technology solutions.

What is DEX?

Digital Employee Experience, or DEX for short, looks specifically at how effectively your team is using the tools at their disposal, as well as how they interact with them in the first place. Specifically, DEX should focus on tracking, assessing, and improving the employee’s technology user experience. We bet you can already start to see why it’s important to keep this in mind when implementing or examining your business’ technology solutions.

Why Should You Care?

Simply put, employees are more effective and more engaged in their work when they feel like their input surrounding how they get that work done matters. They want to have an easy time navigating their way through the various tools and user interfaces that you expect them to use on a daily basis. If you don’t take care of your employees’ DEX, they will be more likely to suffer from burnout, leading them to move on to a different place of employment that does prioritize such things.

Furthermore, the pandemic has many employees working in a remote or hybrid environment, meaning that the technology they use day-to-day is even more important than ever before. They want to feel connected to their coworkers and their organization, something which is incredibly difficult without an on-site presence. DEX can help you learn more about how to keep these employees engaged and satisfied with their work.

It can be difficult to admit that technology you have implemented over the years is no longer effective for your workforce, but that’s okay. Technology has evolved so much over the years that you can’t be expected to maintain the status quo with what worked twenty, ten, or even five years ago. Be willing to accept and embrace change, and you’ll find the workplace is a more enjoyable place for all.

Improve Your DEX with Managed IT Services and Training

You want to ensure that your team is actually using the tools at their disposal, and you want to know that they are satisfied with the tools you provide them. This is where managed IT services come into play. You can provide the best solutions on the market, complex with comprehensive support and training, to your employees. It doesn’t take a huge budget to offer this type of benefit to your employees; it just takes knowledge and industry expertise, both of which MSPNetworks offers in spades.

We can work with your staff to ensure they know how to use the technology at their fingertips. To learn more, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

For a business, technology solves a lot of problems. Covering operational pain points is what it does best, after all. Unfortunately, they come with their own pain points that have to be dealt with. In today’s blog, we’ll give you a list of common technology pain points a small business can have and how managed IT services go above and beyond to mitigate those problems. 

A Lack of IT Competency from the Top

One of the most familiar problems that businesses have with their technology is a complete lack of acumen when it comes to the decision makers of the business. It’s understandable that most business owners don’t have a strong IT background; that’s what they pay their IT staff for. The problem becomes when they don’t fully understand IT risks and how their IT strategy, systems, and support need to evolve as those risks evolve. 

To get management and IT on the same page there needs to be an open line of communication and an IT team staffed with people that can competently (and proactively) bring potential problems to light so that they can be confronted. The worst-case scenario is an IT team that acts independently without proper communication as it can lose the confidence of decision-makers and make an already difficult situation untenable. 

Setting Up Lines of Communication 

In today’s business environment, it isn’t always easy to get people on the same page. Sure, there are now a lot of options in which to do so, and that is half the problem. For a business to be successful there needs to be clear paths of communication from management to every level of the business, from the staff and the customers, and from the customers back to the business. This can be a challenge to set up and maintain, especially with app fatigue becoming a real issue. 

One of the best ways to circumvent bottlenecks in communication is to start with a strong management software with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) capabilities. Many industries have their own type of management software that not only gives clear lines of communication to all levels of a business, but can also work to automate a lot of the things that could hinder those lines of communication.

On top of that, every business needs to roll out a series of reliable communication tools, such as video conferencing with integrated Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), some type of direct messaging platform, and for businesses that rely on collaboration to churn out work, a dedicated collaboration platform that provides useful communication strategies designed to move business forward faster. 

Too Much to Do

Since IT is such a big deal in modern business, it may just be that there is simply too much on your IT team’s plate and they simply cannot possibly get everything they want to get done (or that you want them to get done) in the timelines needed. Since every department in the business relies on the IT team to keep their technology working optimally, it can be a major challenge for IT technicians and administrators to handle every request in the time demanded by your staff. 

There are a couple of solutions to this problem. One is to have a platform in place so that people can see exactly what tasks the IT team is scheduled with. This is an option in most central management programs and can go a long way toward helping decision makers and other staff understand just how much is being asked of their IT team.

Another great solution is to hire an outsourced IT team to handle projects or standard management and have your IT team focus on the other. This co-managed approach to IT support can really be beneficial as it provides your business with the expertise it needs to get all your technology demands covered, while also costing substantially less than hiring more IT technicians. 

Security is a Constant Issue

If you are a consistent reader of this blog, you know just how important cybersecurity is to the sustainability of your business. There are more, and ever-evolving threats out there that need your attention. All it takes is one IT security vulnerability to put your business in a precarious position, so ensuring that your systems are patched and updated, and that your crew are trained and properly using strategies and tools that give them the best chance to protect your business’ computing systems, is extremely important. 

Most businesses operate under some type of compliance mandates and typically do what they can to keep them from being a pain in their side, but we can’t stress enough the role your staff plays in the protection of your IT systems (and ultimately your business). Having policies in place and available training is something that wasn’t too commonplace for years, but today it is essential to keep your employees and your businesses' computing systems and data secure. 

At MSPNetworks, we can help your organization get the technology, comprehensive support, and the policymaking acumen you need to keep your business safe and your IT pain points from rearing their head too often. Give us a call today at (516) 403-9001 to learn just how useful our team of IT professionals can be for your business.

We always hear about how innovation drives business. This has been typically true for the whole of human existence. As businesses have tried to stay profitable among the problems they’ve faced throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we are beginning to see a troubling trend where new products are released with a laundry list of new features, but aren’t really enhancing the customer experience. Today, we look at how businesses have enhanced their marketing efforts to make products that don’t provide the types of innovations that are useful to customers. 

Before we get into the practices that have caused this shift, we first have to come to understand the difference between upstream activities and downstream activities. Upstream activities are parts of a business that allows them to create the products and services that they offer. Things like sourcing, assembling production staff and resources, and logistics are considered upstream activities. Downstream activities are the ones that work in the facilitation of creating a product or service, as well as all the activities that go into selling them. 

Upstream Issues Complicate Things

The past couple of years haven’t been very friendly to businesses. The global pandemic and other issues led to serious supply chain problems that not only raised procurement costs, but also made it difficult to get the components and resources they need to create quality products. Add in what is called “the great resignation” where large swaths of people quit their jobs over potential health and safety issues and wage discrepancies and businesses are finding maintaining effective operations more difficult than ever. 

Running a profitable and efficient business isn't easy to begin with, but with the myriad of obstacles that today’s landscape presents the modern business owner, innovating processes and products has become more costly and more difficult. For enterprises, it is easier to earmark money for research and development, but for small businesses, finding a way to keep your company in the black, while making smart investments that return palatable ROIs has become the norm. 

Marketing Taking the Place of Consistent Innovation

Most of the time the research and development money of any organization dwarfs the marketing budget. Both are necessary, but innovation has always been a driving force of the business, while marketing or advertising has always been looked upon as an expense that is one of the last items in a SMBs budget. This is largely because in order to avoid becoming stagnant—and be competitive—businesses have to continue to grow their offering. 

Large businesses are able to do this successfully and it has resulted in a growing gap between the staying power of businesses. Additionally, it has caused a lot of SMBs to make a choice, go in on a business model with products and services that have brought the modicum of success the organization has achieved, or spend capital they don’t have to try and advance their offering in some way. With margins shrinking rapidly because of inflation, fuel costs, and supply chain interruptions, smaller businesses are turning to their message to try and drum up business rather than focusing on research and development. 

What’s worse, many SMBs are forced to spend less on their sales processes and administrative costs (which include IT, HR, and improving and innovating business processes), while larger businesses have no problem acquiring the resources and talent they need to thrive. Unfortunately, the people that are affected the most are the consumers. 

People are Paying More for Less

Like the business that is having difficulty innovating, many consumers today are spending more money for less. This creates a situation where it may not be viable for consumers to avoid purchasing their goods and services from larger companies. This is a dire consequence for small businesses as they depend on their intimate, customer-first approach to continue winning new business. As SMBs' dollars continue to be spent on operations, their marketing initiatives are the only avenue they have because they find themselves not able to make the future plans needed to ensure their customers (or their workforce) stay around. 

How We Can Help

If you run a small business, you have had to see how your IT costs have started to rise. You may not be getting what you are paying for. At MSPNetworks, we offer a way to reduce your technology support costs with our managed IT services. We can monitor and maintain your IT, back up your data, and consult on your technology decisions to help you get more for every valuable dollar. 

Things are tough out there, but instead of redirecting your capital to try to keep your lights on with a message, make the smart business decision and give MSPNetworks a call today at (516) 403-9001. 

We’re always talking about boosting productivity and the role your technology has in that quest. What we don’t always talk about is how boosting innovation can help free up your employees to produce better results. It’s the same technology, and it can have multiple benefits. In this week’s blog, we’ll discuss how focusing on how these two thoughts can be one and the same.

Managing a staff today is harder than ever. Not only do employees have more say over where they work and what they do than ever before, they also can do more work from more places today and expect their employer to understand this fact. This has led to some pretty tense moments over the past year as the world tries to find some semblance of “normal” after the COVID-19 pandemic changed business. 

Productivity the Metric, Starts with Productivity the Action

Productivity has long been the measure used to define workers, departments, businesses, and industry as a whole. The more productive people are the better everything is, at least that is what we are all told. There is some truth in this. Don’t you feel better when you get more done? Doesn’t sustained productivity make you “good” at something? 

When individuals inside your organization are more productive, it stands to reason that your whole organization will be more productive. Technology has been a large facilitator in increased productivity, of course, and it can help in many ways.

First, getting the right tools for the jobs that need to get done is a priority consideration. This starts on the administrative side of your business. Standardizing management tools can not only go a long way toward getting a more efficient business, it can do wonders for your organization’s productivity. One tool, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) can bring a great deal of automation to your operations, your sales and marketing, and your overall relationship with your customers (it’s in the name).  The CRM works to automate a lot of the communication, time tracking, and customer interaction that you will have, making collaboration easier to muster and successful customer experiences much more likely. 

The less time your employees spend on the management of these relationships, the more they can focus on doing more revenue-generating activities; in essence, boosting productivity. In fact, the CRM, while probably the best tool a business can use to automate a lot of the back-and-forth that can bog down their workdays, is just one of many tools that are pushing business productivity forward. Today, there are productivity suites (again, in the name) that are cloud-based platforms that provide workers with the tools they need to be productive and the capabilities needed to collaborate in real time, 

Speaking of the cloud, many businesses—especially those that moved their operations offsite due to the pandemic—are now using cloud-based resources more than ever. Not only do cloud tools allow for anytime, anywhere access, they also allow businesses to cut their upfront capital computing costs (since they don’t have to buy the server and software licenses) and their maintenance costs (since the provider handles those). All-in-all the cloud is a great technology for smaller businesses that want to compete with enterprise businesses that have been leveraging the technology for over a decade.

Free Up Your Operations with Technology

Businesses are finding it difficult to innovate. With margins striking because of rising costs, smaller businesses need to get the most out of their staff. The best way to do this is through the use of technology. We established how businesses are able to use automated tools to be more productive, but it can also have a massive benefit on the quality of your offering. 

Consider how much time and effort your staff has to put into just adhering to the strict guidelines imposed on them on a day-to-day basis. Now consider if they were less inundated with minutiae and procedure and were able to communicate with a click of a button, manage their schedules and their client responsibilities in minutes and do all of that with more effectiveness. This seems like a win-win situation for your business, right? Here are three innovations to your business’ technology that you can use to free up your people:

• AI Chat Bot - Supporting your products is essential but it is short on revenue generation. For the small business where employees tend to wear a lot of hats, support can really cut into their ability to focus on their productivity tasks. Businesses of all sizes are starting to use tools featuring some type of artificial intelligence. One of these can take a giant load off of your employees’ shoulders. With AI technology powering an Internet-based support platform, your product and service support can continue to improve and provide the value your customers need, while also eliminating a lot of the time and effort expended by your employees.
• Internet of Things - Utility bills keep climbing and if they are handled manually there is a significant risk for you to spend more than you budget for. With IoT technology powering your HVAC systems, lighting, and more, you can significantly cut your utility costs and do it in an extremely affordable manner. Besides that, IoT can be leveraged in many other ways including inventory management and asset tracking, two parts of your business that are traditionally handled by employees. 
• Data Insights - One of the biggest challenges for a business is to correlate data in a way where you can get definitive answers to the issues you face. With today’s business analytics and business intelligence platforms, a company can use data in ways that would be literally impossible through traditional means. Your data can give you the answers to solve a lot of operational problems and through big data initiatives, your business can get smarter fast. 

At MSPNetworks, we pride ourselves on helping New York businesses become the most profitable organizations they can be through the integration of technology and best practices. If you would like to learn more about how to utilize automation and more innovative technologies to cut costs, be more efficient, and improve your bottom line, give us a call today at (516) 403-9001.

Innovation is something that you want the people working with your technology to have a highly-developed sense of. Creativity isn’t often associated with business IT, but it is something that should be considered a true benefit if it can be brought into your operations.

Let’s explore exactly why creativity is an asset (even with your in-house IT team) and how you can nurture it in your employees.

Why Creative Thinking is a Business Benefit

Employing and nurturing a creative team in your business—in IT or not—presents many benefits. Having said that, it should be clear how your IT department would particularly benefit from a creative mindset after we consider some of the impacts that one imparts:

Improved Efficiency

If someone is a creative thinker, putting a challenge in front of them and telling them, “Go,” is a great motivator… and their thought process will immediately bypass those ideas that they can see won’t work. This makes it possible for better results to be accomplished faster… a key goal for any department, but particularly for IT.

Focus on Results and Problem Solving

Speaking of, creative people are largely results-oriented. Not only are they motivated to complete their objectives, they are also empowered to focus on the process instead of how the process itself will ultimately play out.

But, you may be asking, what if the process doesn’t work out? With a creative team, this is still a problem, sure, but one that you have a much better chance of resolving faster and more effectively. 

Better Ideas and Thought Processes

As it happens, this is often related to our next benefit: more productive thoughts in general. When a creative mind is applied to an issue, new and innovative ideas can result, with improved thought processes to match. The benefits are derived from having a team that is able to consider a problem from different angles, not just the ones presented to them initially.

Leadership Skills

Finally, creative people often have the ability to take leadership—whether that’s over their own work and its challenges, or over a team and its combined struggles. Giving some of your creative team members this kind of leadership—even on a small scale—can result in improved internal processes.

How to Cultivate a Creative Team

Naturally, having creative individuals on your IT team is a good thing, so let’s explore some ways you can help them embrace their creativity and put it to use at work.

Encourage Collaboration

Here’s the unspoken truth that a lot of collaboration-promoting businesses like us don’t want you to know… IT, as a general rule, isn’t a very collaborative role in an organization. However, you can fix that. Try breaking your IT team up into groups every once in a while and challenge them to solve a problem. Not only can your team members blow off some steam by focusing on a low-stakes challenge, they are naturally driven to balance their own expertise with that which their teammates hold.

Focus on Customer Challenges

Here’s another idea—ask your IT team members to brainstorm ideas for the most impactful projects… with the constraint that they can only address issues that your customers and clients have. Not only will this limitation help them to focus their efforts and think more creatively, you have the opportunity to discover the solution to a considerable business problem your team can then focus on solving.

Encourage All Ideas

We all know that all the ideas your IT department comes up with aren’t going to be winners. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t encourage these ideas to be developed and shared. On top of being good creative exercise for your team members, some part of one person’s idea may help to inspire another to come closer to solving the problem at hand.

We’re Here to Free Your Team Up for Their Creative Efforts

The biggest obstacle most teams face that prevents them from developing creative ideas and plans is time. If your team’s schedule is packed with improvement line items and support requests/demands from the rest of your team, there’s not much time left for creativity.

That’s where we come in. We can take on some of the responsibilities that bog down your IT team’s time, freeing them up to have good—no, great—ideas that directly benefit your business. Reach out to learn more about our services at (516) 403-9001.

With Amazon’s annual Prime Day having come and gone, we can’t help but wonder how many of you bought consumer electronics while they were on sale through the web retailer. If you did, that’s amazing, and we’re glad you got what you’re looking for. However, we do want to strongly urge you to consider disposing of your old electronics in an environmentally conscious way.

Why is E-Waste Bad?

Consider how quickly we go through consumer electronics. How often do you replace your smartphone? If most adult humans in the world have a smartphone that they replace every couple of years, e-waste can accumulate remarkably fast. That’s without mentioning the countless laptops, desktop PCs, appliances, and so on that go bad or are replaced by newer, better, more modern technology that makes your life easier.

Even though there is markedly less spending on new electronics, and the supply chain has been significantly disrupted due to the ongoing pandemic, people are still going to buy new technology, leading them to discard their old. The problem is that these devices don’t get properly recycled; instead, they get shipped to landfills in third-world countries where they collect into massive mounds of electronic waste.

These devices are not cheap to produce, and they contain several valuable metals within their components, like gold, silver, copper, iron, and platinum, along with harmful chemicals that are horrible for the environment and the people who inhabit it, like mercury, lead, and cadmium.

Don’t Forget to Wipe, Either

It’s not just the e-waste that becomes a problem for businesses and users, either; it’s the data stored on these devices. Oftentimes, people will forget that these devices house immense amounts of data that could be valuable to others for the right price. You never know who could be rummaging through landfills trying to find working devices that they can then crack and sell to interested parties. To prevent this from happening, you must wipe all data from your devices before recycling them. In many cases, this means physically destroying the hard drive so it is unrecoverable entirely.

We Are Happy to Help!

If you are unsure of how to properly dispose of your old electronics, MSPNetworks can help point you in the right direction. We can help you wipe your company’s old devices so that they no longer contain sensitive user data on them, as well as locate a place that can and will recycle your devices so that they don’t wind up in an overcrowded landfill halfway across the world.

To learn more about how you can do your part for a safer, healthier, and cleaner environment, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

What does your IT budget look like for the remainder of this year? According to Gartner, your IT costs might be increasing. So, we ask you this: are you being intentional with your IT spending, and are you spending your business’ hard-earned revenue on technology which advances your organization’s ability to succeed? Let’s take a look at Gartner’s study to see what we can learn from patterns in IT expenses.

IT Expenses Projected to Rise

Gartner predicts that IT spending will increase globally by about 3 percent this year, totaling $4.5 trillion. While this growth is slower than that of 2021, it’s still significant in that the world is still experiencing issues with the supply chain and technology acquisitions as a result of the global pandemic and ongoing global conflicts. The bulk of this spending is being attributed to cloud services and data centers, which makes a lot of sense when you consider the trends over the past couple of years.

But Isn’t Technology Hard to Come By?

The big question is why there is so much spending occurring, something which John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner, is attributing to higher potential prices moving into the future. IT decision makers would rather commit to new technology now before it gets even more expensive in the near future. In a way, this makes sense, especially with many companies having issues acquiring technology. They would rather take preventative action now to prevent themselves from spending too much later by investing now.

Other notable numbers related to IT spending for the remainder of 2022 include the following:

• An increase in cloud spending of about 22.1%
• An increase in server spending of about 16.6%
• A decrease in PC sales of about 5%

Take Action with Managed Services

Businesses spend a lot of money on IT, but that doesn’t mean that you have to. Managed IT services give you access to more affordable technology management and maintenance options than ever before, and with MSPNetworks on your side, you can increase your bottom line while transforming capital costs into operational expenses.

To learn more about how we can help your business, reach out to MSPNetworks at (516) 403-9001.

A good business owner envisions the future and what it could bring about. You may have already devoted a considerable amount of time to the good things that could happen, but how often do you picture the bad? If you don’t imagine the worst-case scenario, you could be putting your business’ life on the line. Are you prepared to deal with a data loss incident?

You might think we are being a bit dramatic, and maybe we are, but a business that doesn’t focus on longevity is one that will ultimately fail in the face of adversity. You need to consider what a worst-case scenario could mean for your business.

Data backup and disaster recovery are critical components of any successful business. Most companies rely on data in at least some capacity, so without it, operations can be stymied significantly. This data might include client information, metrics, corporate data, important files, and so on. If you lose this data, how do you plan on keeping your business running?

The process of disaster recovery is just as important, as without it, you cannot get back in business following critical data loss. Disaster recovery is what enables your business to maintain operations even in the face of severe disasters, like a hacking incident or a natural disaster. While having data backup is helpful, you still need a method to restore it as quickly as possible so as to avoid downtime. You might consider concepts like data backup, operations, workforce longevity, and alternative working conditions when putting together your disaster recovery plan, whether the disaster is from nature or your fellow humankind.

Your business should implement a cloud-based data backup system and disaster recovery tool that takes periodic snapshots of your data. This will allow you to accomplish the following:

• Backups can be taken throughout the workday rather than only once at the end of the day.
• Your backups will be accessible at a moment’s notice, something which is incredibly valuable when recovering from a disaster. 

When your company is under pressure from a disaster, time is of the essence. You don’t want to be worrying about how and when to restore your data. It helps to just have the cloud take care of these processes for you.

Start taking your data backup and disaster recovery seriously before you suffer from a situation that could easily have been prevented. To learn more about how you can take advantage of enterprise-level data backup and disaster recovery solutions, reach out to MSPNetworks at (516) 403-9001.

It's always important to maintain and manage the tools you use for work. Nowadays, this includes the software your business uses each day. Let's go over some tips for doing so properly.

Avoid Shadow IT

Without being provided the tools they need to complete their assigned tasks, your employees are likely going to seek out an alternative that allows them to do so. While their initiative might be admirable, the results can be quite regrettable. If software is added to your business' network without your awareness (and certainly without your approval), you have what is known as shadow IT. 

There are a litany of problems that shadow IT can contribute to, so it is best to keep it off your network entirely. The simplest way to do so is to simply ensure your team has all the tools they need to do their jobs, whether that entails a single software title or a full suite of business applications.

Carefully Manage Your Subscriptions 

Today, it's becoming rare to find business software that isn't offered as a subscription service. While this is a good option for long-term use cases, it can create a challenge if a certain software is only needed for a single project but the subscription is never canceled once the need for it has passed. This can quickly become expensive for a business, so we recommend that any organization using any subscription-based software titles regularly carries out an internal audit to weed out ones that are no longer needed.

Patch and Update Your Software

As threats are developed and mistakes are discovered in software, software developers will release updates and patches to resolve these deficits. This, however, is often where their responsibility ends—it is up to the user to actually apply these fixes, at the risk of opening up the business to a security threat.

This is another reason that many businesses now utilize Software-as-a-Service subscriptions. SaaS gives businesses the option to embrace a more cost-effective means of doing business. With the scalability that SaaS brings, a business can more precisely shape their subscriptions to fit their actual needs with the capability to change their preferences on the fly.

A good add-on to consider along with SaaS is a software management platform. With one, you can get a bird's eye view of your infrastructure and see what applications are actively being used.

Whatever your software needs may be, we can help you find the SaaS option that fits them. Find out more by calling (516) 403-9001 today.

How often over the past year or two have you gone to replace a device on your infrastructure, only to find that the price has increased or the device simply isn’t available? This is an issue with the current hardware shortage, particularly for business electronics. Since businesses depend on technology, it becomes critical that you understand how this shortage impacts your day-to-day operations.

As you are surely well aware, there is a hardware shortage out there for computing devices due to a component shortage. This shortage stems from semiconductors, and it’s bleeding into every facet of device creation, from manufacturing to acquisition. Naturally, this creates issues for businesses that need to invest in new hardware for their employees. Here are just a few of the ways this shortage has impacted businesses like yours.

Price Point

As the costs of components increase, so too do the costs of the devices they are a part of. This is an unfortunate side-effect of the costs of manufacturing increasing, and the consumers ultimately pay more for devices. This can also impact the costs associated with services offered by providers, as they need to purchase and maintain equipment to manage these services.

Timeline for Acquisition

With hardware being in short supply, you can expect the acquisition of any new devices to take a bit longer than usual—particularly if you are looking for something very specific. We recommend that you build out a hardware acquisition timeline so that you know when and how often you need to perform hardware refreshes on your infrastructure.

It Makes Upkeep Even More Important

Finally, since devices are more expensive and harder to come by, you should understand that upkeep of your current hardware infrastructure is even more important than before. If something critical fails within your infrastructure and you are unable to immediately replace it due to shortages, what happens? Be sure to take care of what you currently have so that you can get as much value out of it as possible before it kicks the bucket.

What We Recommend

MSPNetworks recommends that you work with us to ensure that your hardware needs are met within a reasonable time and at a reasonable cost. Due to our connections and our working relationships with vendors, we know the most reliable ways to get the technology you need to succeed. Plus, it’s always better to have someone else do the legwork for you so you can avoid the frustrations that come from devices simply not being available when you need them most.

To get started, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

In popular science fiction, the portrayal of an artificial intelligence is that of an entity completely compelled by pure logic, objective fact being the only thing that factors into its considerations. The same can not be said of the artificially intelligent tools currently in use in the real world. Much like their flawed creators, many of today’s AI systems have presented some considerable biases in their operations. Let’s discuss this issue, and how it can be resolved.

What Kind of Biases Have AI Systems Demonstrated?

There are a variety of biases that have been observed in artificially intelligent systems. These biases are as follows:

• Sampling Bias - This kind of bias comes up when a study only considers part of a given population, or the selection of samples to consider isn’t a random process.
  
  • Voluntary Bias - A kind of sampling bias, voluntary bias specifically refers to how a population’s results are artificially skewed by their willingness to participate.
• Design Bias - This bias describes when a process itself leads to skewed outcomes, often impacting the data collection process or the analysis of that data. In AI, a skewed dataset is the most likely culprit.
• Exclusion Bias - This form of bias is the result of the removal or omission of some feature of the data, leaving out important information that could impact the significance of the data and providing fewer or less valuable insights.
• Label Bias - Predictably, this is simply the phenomenon of data being labeled incorrectly. This itself often appears in two forms:
  
  • Recall Bias - This form of bias appears in data that has been mislabeled and annotated inaccurately.
  • Measurement Bias - This division of label bias is the result of inaccurately or inconsistently taken data points.
• Confounding Bias - This bias occurs when external variables have impact on your data, in addition to what you have based your data on. This can lead to great inaccuracies in your final data. 
• Survivorship Bias - This variety of bias is what we see when only the data that has made it through the selection process is considered. For instance, World War II researchers made this error when examining fighter jets to better reinforce them. By only examining jets that survived the trip back from a combat mission, the most useful information (where the planes that went down were hit) was ignored.
• Time-Interval Bias - If data is collected over periods of time, this bias can emerge when only data from a certain time period is actively considered, rather than the complete set.
• Omitted Variable Bias - This kind of bias occurs when the data to be collected is cherry-picked, with only certain variables considered. By removing this data, the results can be skewed.
• Observer Bias - Better known as confirmation bias, observer bias is the phenomenon where the individual making their observations only considers the data that lines up with their own values or goals.
  
  • Funding Bias - Predictably, this variety of observer bias comes when the interests of a financial backer leads to the data being skewed.
• Cause-Effect Bias - Or in other words, correlation being seen as causation. This bias dictates that two events happening concurrently must be the result of one leading to the other, rather than a third factor contributing or the two being completely unrelated.
• Model Over/Underfitting - This bias comes from the analytical system (called the model) not having the capability to see the forest for the trees, as it were, or not being equipped with enough features to identify the patterns it should.
• Data Leakage - This type of bias comes into play when two separate data sets to be compared inadvertently share data… for example, predictions for a certain time period also including actual observations from that time period.

Where Do These Biases Come From?

Looking over this list, a clear pattern emerges: in the vast majority of cases, the bias doesn’t come from the system. Rather, it comes from the person using the system itself.

AI Bias is Just an Extension of Human Bias

Whether made in error or based on some prejudice or assumption, the majority of biases (particularly those that could impact the function of an artificially intelligent system) come from the user.

For instance, let’s say that we wanted to try and figure out what the most important aspect of our services was to our clientele. While this is a greatly oversimplified example for AI’s capabilities, it gets our point across. While the algorithm powering the AI could be perfectly put together, the data used can easily skew those results. For instance, let’s say that your data was specifically and exclusively collected from your business’ Facebook followers. There are numerous biases that could very much impact the accuracy of your data. For instance, drawing your data specifically from your Facebook followers is clear sampling bias (compounded with voluntary bias as your followers need to opt into providing you with said data).

That’s just one example. We’ve all seen the news articles telling stories about how AI-powered facial recognition systems aren’t able to recognize people of certain races, or in one particularly egregious case, labeling all members of certain races as criminals.

Obviously, not ideal.

AI presents a few additional biases as well, particularly when it comes to predicting unprecedented events… after all, the data to consider it just isn’t there (unintentional exclusion bias). The big problem here is that, like most biases, it takes an awareness to avoid them—an awareness that an AI system unfortunately lacks.

How Can Bias Be Avoided in AI?

There are a few different steps that need to be taken to mitigate the issues that bias can create in AI. The approach to this needs to follow two parts.

In terms of creating an AI in the first place, there needs to be the capability for a human being to observe the program’s processes and catch its mistakes, with (as we always promote) frequent updates to ensure any issues are addressed and the system in general is improved upon. There also needs to be standards in place in terms of the data collected and used to ensure that the above biases are minimized as much as possible.

Likewise, your team members need to keep these kinds of biases in mind when they’re working without the assistance of AI. As we’ve established, the biases present in AI are generally sourced from human biases, which means they can potentially influence your business even if you aren’t using an artificially intelligent system. In this way, you need to make sure that your team members are keeping open minds as they process the data you collect and generate.

As artificial intelligence and machine learning becomes more accessible and commonplace, it’s likely that businesses of all sizes will be able to embrace more advanced tools. In the meantime, we’ll be here to support the tools you currently rely on. To find out more about our fully managed IT services, give us a call at (516) 403-9001

Cloud computing is being used by nearly everyone nowadays, and most of the time it presents a lot of value that can’t be found with purchasing, managing, and maintaining an in-house computing infrastructure. As an organization begins moving more and more of their computing to the cloud, there is a situation that arises that industry professionals call “cloud sprawl”. 

What is Cloud Sprawl?

Cloud sprawl is the loss of awareness about cloud computing expenses that can add up if not monitored carefully. For example, say you have a project that requires a certain software title to complete it. You decided to get each member of the team a subscription to a certain Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) title. As the project extends more people are added, but when the project is completed the accounts that were added subsequently aren't canceled immediately. If they are found three months later, you are on the hook for the monthly cost of the software and infrastructure related to it.

This may seem like a small issue, but for organizations of dozens of departments, hundreds of project teams, and thousands of user accounts, you are talking about a large waste of capital. Wasting money buying things that aren’t being used is always frustrating, but it’s even more of a problem when with a little foresight and reliable documentation (and procedure), these expenses can be completely eliminated. 

The first thing you will have to do if you want to control your organization’s cloud expenses is to design, and completely map, a computing infrastructure that takes into account all current infrastructure plans, projects, and future computing investments. Once your entire infrastructure is completely mapped, it should be much easier adding and subtracting cloud resources based on need.

What is Cloud Complexity?

Cloud complexity is exactly what it sounds like. Not all software deployments are cost-effective if you use the SaaS per user model. There are definitely applications that your business uses that you want to host and manage yourself to ensure that it is secured the way you need it to be. Most businesses need to meet some type of regulatory requirements—and with much of that requiring proof of security—hosting those applications and data offsite may make it a little more difficult (and probably much more expensive). 

Other examples of cloud complexity are when organizations decide that they want to migrate away from onsite infrastructure and don’t take into account the different configurations that cloud platforms present. One major problem is that when an organization decides to migrate data and applications into a cloud-hosted environment, the legacy infrastructure (servers, databases, and other computing platforms) continues to exist for some time. 

Also, cloud options are unhindered by compatibility and compliance. Hosted infrastructure makes it easy to select whichever brand or functionality your organization needs. All these moving parts can make cloud computing a maddening jumble of sudden changes that can waste plenty of time and money if left unchecked. 

What is Cloud Security?

Since the advent of cloud computing, IT professionals have been asking this question. The biggest problem with cloud computing was the fact that they had little to no control over the setup and management of the underlying computing infrastructure. The single sign-on feature of most cloud platforms was (and is) disconcerting to the IT professional tasked with securing your organization’s technology. 

The truth is, cloud security is strong and shouldn’t be too worrisome for organizations using cloud computing for most enterprise computing needs. There are a few things you can do to ensure that your cloud security is commensurate with the IT security you have for your physical infrastructure. They include

• Backup and recovery - Hackers do attack cloud systems, this much is true, and if something were to happen in your cloud platforms, having a reliable backup and strong data recovery plan in place would take a lot of the heat off.
• Multi-factor authentication - One of the biggest problems with cloud platforms from a security perspective is the single sign-on. Today, all cloud platforms support multi-factor authentication procedures that work to enhance an organization's ability to keep unwanted entities out of cloud platforms. 
• Use encryption - Data is data regardless of where you store it. To protect any data, you will want to use encryption. Encryption restricts access to data and when looking to build secure practices around data, it is one of the best solutions out there.

The cloud is changing the face of business, but it does have its drawbacks. If you would like to have a conversation about your organization’s use of cloud computing and how you can use the cloud more effectively give MSPNetworks a call today at (516) 403-9001.

You might be familiar with the concept of hosting a service or application in-house on your own server units, and if you are, you know all about the struggles that come along with doing so. But what if we told you that you can get the same benefits of hosting your own applications and IT systems without the need for any of the bulky equipment taking up space in your office? Yes, that’s right—you too can host your business applications, even if you do not have the space to do so, and it’s all thanks to the cloud.

Traditional Hosting

Small businesses often struggle with the traditional methods of application hosting, and it’s really due to no fault of their own. If you think about small businesses, you might notice that many simply do not have the space to accommodate hosting technology. They also might run into challenges with procurement due to limited budgets, and if they do manage to procure the correct technology, it can be a challenge to maintain it and keep it functional.

One way that companies can circumvent these challenges is by working with a managed service provider who offers hosting services. Take MSPNetworks, for example. Our cloud services give small businesses the ability to leverage the technology without any of the struggles of your traditional methods. Basically, we can host aspects of your technology infrastructure, like your email, line-of-business applications, or Voice over IP telephone system, so that you don’t have to worry about hosting it yourself. You might be surprised by how convenient cloud hosting can be for a business like yours.

Cloud Hosting

We cannot discuss cloud hosting without first discussing the limitations of traditional hosting. It used to be the case that hosting applications on your in-house network would limit how and when you could access it. For example, if you host your own email server, if it’s not configured to allow remote access, you can only access it while on the in-house network. This is why the cloud has really taken off in the business sector; the anytime-anywhere access idea is just too good to pass up.

Most services your business implements can be accessible online via the cloud, and as long as you are working with a managed service provider for your hosting needs, you don’t have to worry about where those services or applications will live. Best of all, outsourcing the hosting and management of your services means that you can focus elsewhere within your organization, like keeping operations running in the most efficient way possible.

MSPNetworks can help your business achieve this hands-off approach to its IT management and maintenance. To learn more about how we can change your outlook on technology hosting, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

Technology is one element that many small businesses struggle with, but it turns out that a lot of the same advice that you might get for regular life lessons can also apply to IT! Let’s take a closer look at how we might apply some of these lessons and why it just makes good sense to keep these tips close at hand.

Prepare for the Unexpected

Just like when life hands you unexpected circumstances, so too will your IT infrastructure. That server unit could fail one day, leaving your business without any of the data or operations required to stay running. A hacker could find their way onto your network and put your data security at risk. A fire could burn down your office and destroy everything you have worked so hard to achieve.

All of these things can be prepared for with adequate foresight and proactive planning. You just have to understand that even the unexpected can happen when you least expect it and plan accordingly.

Don’t Skimp on Quality

Certain things you might be able to get away with lower quality, but IT is definitely not one of them. The lowest quality services or goods are not going to get you anywhere. While you might save a bit of cash in the short term, long-term you will spend much more than you think replacing hardware or purchasing new solutions entirely.

Just like in your personal life, you want to plan your investments around you and your lifestyle, things that are specific to you rather than the accepted norm. After all, no two businesses are the same, so your IT shouldn’t be, either.

You Don’t Have to Know Everything

More often than not, the journey through life is in a constant state of confusion and you do things not because you know what to do, but because you know that inaction is the incorrect choice. You know you need to take care of your IT systems and you know you need computers of some sort for your business, but you might not have the entire picture in your head as to what this means for your organization. And that’s perfectly fine! Nobody can know everything, after all.

For areas where you have a clear knowledge deficit in your understanding of various topics, you can instead rely on experts in their fields. For example, you might rely on an IT provider like MSPNetworks to make major technology decisions for your business. It sure beats taking a shot in the dark and getting it wrong, and it always helps to work with someone who knows what they are doing!

MSPNetworks wants to help you build a better future for your business and your employees through the use of industry-standard best practices and IT management. We can work with your company to ensure that these practices are implemented in such a way that you are never caught unawares. To learn more, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

In today’s competitive business environment, you need every edge you can get to one-up your competition and make waves in your chosen industry. One of the best ways you can do so is by strategically implementing technology solutions that can enhance or transform the way your business operates both internally and externally.

Let’s take a look at how technology can enhance your business’ operations and inform your business model. With the right approach, you might be surprised to see such significant changes!

Enhanced Business Productivity

It stands to reason that any technology you implement for your business should have an impact on your productivity, and if it doesn’t, then perhaps there is no need to implement that particular solution. Technology solutions to implement will vary by industry, but the right ones can dramatically increase productivity. Start by considering where your company falls short and then look into services or products that might help.

Greater Customer Satisfaction

Technology can help on the customer satisfaction side of things, too, ranging from the customer services experience all the way to providing adequate methods for them to receive continued support. Sometimes businesses will implement chatbots on their service portals to help direct customers where they need to go, or they may implement automated phone systems that can connect customers to their desired department with ease.

Better Communication

Better communication tools for your business can have profound impacts on the way that you go about your day-to-day operations. Whether technology is changing the way that your teams communicate with each other or the way that they communicate with customers, vendors, or other external parties, you can bet that technology can help provide more ways for people to get ahold of your employees and company as a whole—all of which translates to a better experience for everyone.

Lower Operational and Capital Costs

All in all, technology can eventually get your business to a point where it is spending less on capital costs and instead investing in operational costs. Essentially, what this means is that you are not dropping massive amounts of cash on solutions all at the same time; instead, you are paying smaller monthly fees for services that allow you to be more flexible and efficient with your budget, effectively transforming these traditionally expensive capital investments into lower operational costs.

Don’t let something as simple as falling behind the times in technology hold your business back from achieving its full potential. With the right support and implementation, you too can leverage the latest and greatest technology solutions to your organization’s benefit. That’s where we come in.

MSPNetworks can help your organization implement and maintain any technology. As managed service providers, it is our goal to make technology management as accessible as possible. Our services are a great alternative to hiring a full-blown IT department for your business, so why not give us a call and find out more? All you have to do is call (516) 403-9001.

For the average business, upgrading technology comes with some risks. Will you get the return on your investment back fast enough to make your investment worthwhile? Will the technology solve the operational problems you are trying to confront? Do you have the available capital to make significant upgrades? These questions and more can keep a business from taking advantage of the amazing benefits many new technologies can bring. Today, we thought we’d outline four signs that will tell you when it’s time to upgrade your business’ technology.

Falling Productivity

The first sign that you need to do something about your technology is when you have the human resources in place to efficiently do the work, but the technology you have them working on hinders their ability to do it effectively. This has a negative effect on operations, sure, but it also has a negative effect on your team’s morale, which any business owner worth his/her salt knows is an important, albeit unquantifiable metric to running a profitable business.

Newer technology can bring a lot of productivity benefits. It can enhance workers’ productivity individually. It can provide the base for better collaboration. It can even take pressure off of your entire staff by working to automate tasks that are chewing up your business’ profitability. The fact is that if your business is constantly dealing with failing and antiquated technology, it’s probably going to be felt by your workers first, before it even shows up on the bottom line. 

Security Issues

Today’s threat landscape is arduous to say the least. Even the smallest business is now directly in the crosshairs of scammers and hackers looking to systematically scrape data and inject themselves into their process. This isn’t going to get better anytime soon. With a large chunk of the information services still being handled remotely, there are more opportunities than ever for hackers to get their greedy hands on your business’ information, or worse yet, saddle your business with malware that is sure to cause expensive downtime. 

If your business isn’t doing everything it can to keep these thieves off of your network, you will eventually have one come-a-knockin’. That’s just the reality of being a business in the 21st century. New technology typically comes with better security platforms, and ones that are constantly being updated and improved upon. Today, you can’t just ignore the security aspect of your business’ technology deployment. You need to upgrade your systems and keep everything monitored around the clock to give your business the best chance to succeed. 

Business Growth

The first two line items of this article are all doom and gloom, that’s true, and we do it because there are a lot of threats out there and if your tech isn’t good enough to keep your people productive, then you will fall behind. The last item, however, is sunshine and roses: You’ve found success. If your business is doing well and you are starting to consider new ideas to enhance your business’ profitability, one of the first places you should look is to technology.

It’s true that a successful business may not want to change what works, but today there are technologies that can take a thriving business to a whole new level. From building efficiency, to managing multiple revenue streams, to simply ensuring that the technology you have in place has the support it needs so you can continue to grow, making an investment in your business’ future through the integration of new technology is a responsible decision that, more often than not, will pay dividends. 

There are a lot of reasons why you may want to hold off on your new technology plans, but the more that you commit to your company’s future and its ability to support collaboration, efficiency, and dynamic productivity, the better off your business will be. If you would like to learn more about getting the custom technology solutions you need to solve your business’ most pressing problems, give the technology experts at MSPNetworks a call today at (516) 403-9001.

Modern businesses rely on a lot of technology to stay operational, much of which can be considered hardware, or the physical computing systems that contribute to your infrastructure, like workstations, routers, switches, and servers. Unfortunately, no technology lasts forever, and this is true for hardware as well. One of the most devastating problems that a business can face is hardware failure, and no matter how well you maintain your technology, you must be ready to face down this threat at any given moment.

Imagine going about your day-to-day business when your computer starts making some new noises. You think nothing of it, and it eventually goes away or fades into the background. It becomes the new normal for you to work with a fan buzzing incessantly in your ear. Several months go by and your computer is still working just fine… until one day, it isn’t.

PCMag defines hardware failure as the following: “A malfunction within the electronic circuits or electromechanical components (disks, tapes) of a computer system. Recovery from a hardware failure requires repair or replacement of the offending part.” In other words, hardware failure happens when something within your computer is not working the way it is supposed to. Hardware failure is something that occurs naturally over time. Due to the nature of technology, the components might start to erode or degrade with repeated heavy use, like in an office environment. It is an inevitable byproduct of running a business, and one that must be planned for, even under the best circumstances.

Thankfully, there is one thing that you can do about hardware failure that we have not mentioned yet, and that is to use proactive monitoring and maintenance to stave it off for as long as possible. Hardware failure comes with warning signs that should be acted on prior to its eventual failure. Doing so can prolong the life of your technology and give you time to respond before the failure actually occurs.

The biggest benefit to this is that it reduces downtime and costs associated with it, as well as the costs associated with hardware replacement. While you might have to find an alternative to your current hardware eventually, as nothing lasts forever, remotely monitoring your systems for signs of hardware failure and addressing them as they occur will put the power back in your hands, right where it belongs.

All that said, it is critical that you also regularly back up and save any data on your infrastructure. Imagine what could happen if a server were to crash or experience a critical failure. What would you do if that data were lost completely? The thought should make you nervous.

MSPNetworks can help your business remotely monitor and maintain its infrastructure to prevent hardware failure from throwing a wrench in your plans. Furthermore, we can help you implement and deploy a data backup and disaster recovery plan—yes, hardware failures count as disasters—to ensure that even if something does go wrong, your organization will experience minimal downtime. To learn more, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

When it comes to implementing new technology solutions for your business, there is always a desire to solve some sort of problem. Maybe you are not as productive as you would like to be, or perhaps there is an operational inefficiency that you hope to address or streamline through the use of the technology. Either way, the end result is the same; you are trying to make progress and move forward, not over-complicate your infrastructure.

Believe it or not, businesses of all types have to grapple with issues that implementing new technology comes with, regardless of how much IT support or resources are available. It all boils down to the central question of, “What problem am I aiming to solve with this technology?” If you understand the problem, you can start taking steps toward finding the appropriate solution. Unfortunately for businesses, however, the solution to the problem is not always clear-cut.

For example, let’s say that two companies are looking to increase the accessibility of network resources for remote employees. The obvious solution is to host these resources in the cloud so that they can be accessed from any location, provided the device is familiar and is properly secured. In this case, the problem is the same, but the solution will vary depending on a variety of factors.

For one, in the above scenario, the business’s pre-existing resources will dramatically change the way that this cloud solution is implemented. If the company has the technology infrastructure to host its own cloud server, then that becomes an option, provided that the organization has enough technical know-how to deploy, manage, and maintain said infrastructure. On the other hand, if the company does not have these kinds of resources, then perhaps the best solution for their cloud needs might be to outsource this responsibility to a managed service provider. The provider would then be able to host, manage, and maintain the cloud solution for the company.

Notice how in both scenarios, the companies are examining their problems and potential solutions, as well as the resources that will determine the initiative’s success. This is the key to making progress toward resolving problems with your IT infrastructure; if you can accurately gauge what must be done and what allows you to get it done, you will have a much greater chance of overcoming the issues associated with implementing new technology.

MSPNetworks understands the many pitfalls that organizations can face when implementing new technology solutions, and avoiding these starts with understanding your business’ current needs and the problems that must be solved. We can help you make these difficult decisions through a comprehensive network assessment and infrastructure audit that can identify potential areas of improvement. From here, you can use the information to make informed and educated decisions for your company’s technology needs.

You can count on MSPNetworks to be there for every step of the process, from identifying problems to recommending solutions, as well as implementing said solutions and training your team on how to use them effectively. To get started, give us a call today at (516) 403-9001.

Cloud computing is a monster of a topic in and of itself, perhaps more so than most people might expect. Let’s define what cloud management is and take a closer look at what goes into properly managing your cloud-based resources.

What Does Cloud Management Really Mean?

“The cloud” can mean many things, some of which have different contexts depending on the company and industry it is a part of. The differences come from how they make use of resources and the capabilities their solution can offer, as well as what the solution is used for. Some of the more popular options include the public cloud, the private cloud, or a combination of the two called a hybrid cloud.

In terms of usage, many companies use the cloud for data storage and processing, application hosting and delivery, and improving accessibility of information in a way that would make on-premise solutions blush.

You can see how the cloud can make certain processes easier, but it also comes with its fair share of complications to consider. This is why managing your cloud-based resources is extremely important.

What Tools Can Help You Manage Your Cloud Resources?

No matter how you choose to implement the cloud, you can bet that there are resources out there and tools to use that can help you get the most out of your cloud solution. Depending on your needs, you might need differing levels of resource management tools, scalability, automation, compliance, performance monitoring, and so on.

These needs will generally require different technologies that adhere to best practices. Here are a couple of examples:

• For scalability, your cloud management tools should be compatible with new and improving technology, as well as different networking environments.
• For compliance, you must know who owns the various resources that your organization makes use of, as well as their roles in its management.
• For performance management, you should establish status review measures and automatic scaling according to your resource requirements. It is important that this be done proactively rather than after the fact.

MSPNetworks can assist you in putting your cloud resources to their optimal use.

If you need a hand with managing your cloud solutions, MSPNetworks can help. To learn more, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.