MSPNetworks Blog

The Internet is used for a great many things in business nowadays, but some may not realize just how much Internet speeds have changed over time. This week, we thought we would take a brief look at the evolution of Internet speeds and what today’s speeds allow businesses to do. 

Before we get started it’s important to understand how internet speeds are measured. The speeds are measured in megabits. 1,000 kilobits (technically 1,024 KB) is equivalent to 1 megabit and 1,000 megabits (technically 1,024 MB) is equivalent to 1 gigabit. 

Dial Up

It has only been about 25 years since Internet connections have become commonplace in the office and the home. When the Internet was first introduced to the mass market, the main way people would access the web was through their phones. If you were on the Internet in the 1990s, people would often have one telephone line for both home and their computer. As the now antiquated model of telephone long distance was in place, many people would have to pay huge phone bills because their Internet service provider was accessed through a long distance call (even if that call was to the next village over or in the same city). 

The typical modem around the year 2000 was 56 KB/s which means that when the modem is working optimally with an uninterrupted signal, a one megabyte file could be downloaded in about 20 seconds. Obviously, those speeds wouldn’t work in today’s mobile world where people are getting over 10 GB/s in some places. This connection made instant messaging possible, but any media—including all the media we take for granted today—would take days and weeks to transmit over a dial-up connection.

DSL

Around the turn of the century “high-speed” Internet became popular. Using cable connections, ISPs were able to transmit data much more effectively. This is because the bandwidth of a cable wire has substantially more data transmission capabilities than a telephone wire. Called a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) connection, this is, to this day, the lion’s share of the connections that you will find available. A DSL connection delivers internet at speeds up to around 100 MB/s but it’s more known to sit in the 5 MB-to-20 MB range. 

In this range, users can do a lot of more complex tasks. Today’s cloud-hosted email services require these speeds as do music streaming services and solid website browsing. The widespread use of DSL around 2010 began to spur on application development that is a major part of today’s computing ecosystems. While video streaming is relatively new—and resource intensive—standard definition video (think early YouTube) is capable through a DSL connection.

Fiber Optic

Many of today’s high speed connections are run through fiber optic cables. Fiber optics uses light to transmit data, making it much faster than DSL connections. Most DSL cable systems would lose speed and performance the longer a signal would have to travel through wires. With fiber optics, however, Internet speeds and bandwidth grow exponentially. Today, there are fiber connections that are capable of tens of gigabits per second. 

With mobile computing growing in popularity every year, and more and more people relying on Wi-Fi signals to keep from going over mobile data caps, people now rely on these faster internet speeds. Fiber has created an environment of innovation that is driving the on demand computing resources that businesses and individuals rely on. This has made mobile computing more possible and has fueled the work-from-home revolution, online schooling, real-time data collection, telehealth, and communication and collaboration tools including video conferencing. 

If you want to quickly determine what your current internet speed is, you can use any number of speed test applications that are available. A good standard is https://www.speedtest.net/. These will give you an idea of what your current internet speed for downloads and uploads are. If you need help ascertaining what type of speeds you need for your business, you should contact the IT professionals at MSPNetworks today at (516) 403-9001. 

There are further innovations in the works that will push Internet speeds faster and faster, with less latency. This type of technology can completely revolutionize the way we view the world. In this new digital landscape, expect to see more and more work to be done on this front in the near future.

Business technology has grown so much over time that it’s practically unrecognizable compared to some of the original solutions. The Internet of Things has given businesses more opportunities to automate processes and build efficiency into their IT infrastructure, and in more ways than one. Let’s look at how businesses use the Internet of Things and what you might accomplish with it.

Mobile Productivity

When you implement an IoT policy, you need to have clear protocols in place for how smartphones and other smart devices will be governed by your network. Access control is important for any technology, especially remote access, and small businesses need to have solutions in place to manage it all. In other words, plan for mobility; worst case scenario, you plan for something that you use sparingly.

Inventory Processes

You’ll need a way to track inventory for your business, whether it’s for internal devices or external products that are hitting store shelves or consumer pockets. You’ll want to ensure that you have systems in place that can keep track of inventory processes so that you get an accurate count of your resources. This also goes for the products which go into making your products.

Staffing and Human Resources

The IoT has made it easier than ever before to stay in touch and connected with your consumer base, providing opportunities for automated chatbots to answer frequently asked questions for your neediest clients. Automation can also help you on the human resources front, whether it’s tracking time spent in the office or other important metrics.

Customer Expectation and Service Management

The Internet of Things makes great use of automated technology and service management, as it can be tied directly into customer relationship management, too. You can use the IoT to track consumer and business patterns so you can address their needs in a more timely and efficient manner. The IoT, therefore, provides more opportunities to generate value for your consumers, which inevitably leads to greater sales and satisfaction numbers.

Data Analysis and Management

The cream of the crop, so to speak, is data analysis and management. All of the numbers and statistics you use each and every day can be valuable, and the IoT gives you a mechanism to analyze and process it all. You can measure it all to make meaningful and lasting change for your business, whether it’s adding new products to your service offerings or making more intelligent decisions about how you run your company.

MSPNetworks can equip your business with the tools needed to make the most out of the IoT and other technology you might find in the modern office. To learn more, call us at (516) 403-9001 today.

With technology playing such a massive role in modern business processes, having someone in the higher ranks to oversee it is a huge advantage. This is the role of the Chief Information Officer—the CIO—which makes them an integral part of the modern C-suite.

So, what kind of thing does the CIO (or your business’ equivalent of it) need to know and consider in order to fulfill their role? 

Let’s go over a few of the priorities the CIO will need to have in the coming year and years, and what skills they’ll need to have.

What Does Your IT Leadership Need to Focus On?

There are a few key areas that the person taking the lead on your business’ IT should devote their attention to in the coming year.

• Budget Defensibility - With the signals we’ve been seeing as far as the economy is concerned, budgets are bound to be pretty tight for businesses. This puts the often resource-intensive IT department in the crosshairs for cuts...even though these cuts could negatively impact the business as a whole.
  
  As such, it will be important that a company’s IT leadership has a good handle on how much return the department is seeing on the company’s investment into it, and that they have empirical data to support these conclusions. Focusing on value will help you to communicate this more effectively.
  
  
• Data Security and Protection - The unpleasant reality is that cyberattacks aren’t going to go away. Why would they? Economic and geopolitical struggles often go hand in hand with cyberthreats—many of which can and will target businesses of any size—which only adds to the current need for improved cybersecurity across the board.
  
  
• Adaptability - The world learned the hard way how effective remote (or “distributed”) work can be just a few years ago, despite many resisting it for as long as they could. Despite distributed work quite literally keeping many companies from going under, a considerable number of these companies have been quick to pull their employees back into the office. For many of these employees, it has been an unhappy return.
  
  Today’s CIOs need to understand and embrace remote work as the net benefit that it is, creating a strategy that allows the business to take full advantage of its employees’ skills, wherever they happen to be working.

We Can Help Your Business, Supporting Your CIO (or Even Stepping Into the Role)

As a managed service provider, we have the capability to work alongside your Chief Information Officer to ensure that their plan for your business’ IT is properly implemented in a way that is both effective and fiscally responsible for your business’ situation. Don’t have a CIO? No problem—we can also serve as a virtual CIO for you, taking the lead on your business technology strategy.

Learn more about the options you have with MSPNetworks by giving us a call at (516) 403-9001!

The holiday season is getting busier and busier every year and with less and less time afforded to shopping and getting ready for the holiday, you may have overlooked that special someone on your holiday shopping list. This week, we give you three gadgets that would be really nice last minute gifts for that technology lover in your life

Levitating Plant Pot/Lamp

We’ll start with a couple of cool pieces that just about anyone will find fascinating and fun. Using magnets, several manufacturers have created products that seem to defy the laws of physics; and they are perfect for the desks of technology lovers. 

The levitating potted plant is a succulent that floats above the base, while the lamp is a LED light fixture that floats beneath the arm of a desk lamp. There are different versions of the lamp with the most expensive ones providing a wireless charger in the base. Overall these are cool items that can be purchased online for under $100 and shipped to you fast.

The Couch Console

In today’s age of video games and streaming media, people spend a lot of time in front of the television. One problem with this is that controllers, remotes, phones, and all manners of other devices (and often a lot of garbage) can accumulate in the nesting spots we choose to relax from. One awesome gift is called The Couch Console. It is a modular place to store your remotes, your phone, and even a drink and a snack while you relax on the couch. 

Made from lightweight foam, the Couch Console comes with a no-spill cup holder, a place to store your remotes and can even come with an optional battery pack so that you can charge your devices. The Couch Console starts at $80 and will be a great option for just about anyone. 

A Power Bank

We add in the power bank because today everyone uses devices that need charging all the time. How many times have you gone someplace and someone asks you if you have a charger they can use so they can keep their devices alive just a little bit longer? Gifting a power bank eliminates the need to scramble around to find juice for their favorite device; they’ll have it on them already.

Essentially, a power bank is a backup battery that can be used to charge devices that run out of juice while you are on the go. There are all types of power banks available: from ones that will change your wireless earbuds to devices that can power a laptop for hours at a time. The ones that make great last-minute gifts will be able to sufficiently recharge a smartphone and a pair of wireless earbuds on a single charge. For this reason they are a great gift for just about anyone. 

What do you think? Are there any specific technology gadgets that you would suggest to add? Leave your thoughts on our social media and have a Merry Christmas!

Magnets are often portrayed as the bane of technology’s existence, especially in media where data must be scrubbed from devices through the use of a magnet. How true is this representation of the relationship between magnets and technology? We’ll examine this in today’s blog article.

Science Says Magnets Aren’t Necessarily the Problem

Scientifically speaking, magnets are not great for your computer or your smartphone. That much is indisputable. However, there are a lot of other factors in play, especially the duration of the exposure and the strength of the magnet.

Think about the weak magnets you use to pin your kids’ drawings up on the refrigerator. They are magnets, but they are nowhere near strong enough to cause measurable or permanent damage to any of your devices. Magnets in this context are generally designed to be as strong as they need to be, and no more, specifically so they don’t cause unforeseen issues.

If you want to cause some real damage to a device, you need the heavy-duty, industrial-sized magnets. They are the ones you need to watch out for.

How Dangerous Are Magnets to Your Technology?

If you aren’t working in an industry where you are constantly exposed to such technology, then you should have little to fear from magnets actually causing damage to your technology. Such magnets are often turned off when not in use, as well, as there is no need for them to be functional all the time.

Here’s a fun fact: magnets are actually a crucial part of your current workplace, as they are used in hard drives to read and write data. To put this into context, the aforementioned fridge magnets are nowhere near as powerful as the ones found in a hard drive, and solid state drives don’t utilize magnets at all. There is no chance that such weak magnets could ever damage your average business technology solutions unless you are trying VERY hard to mess things up.

Smartphones, though, are a different story. Smartphones are made with magnetic materials, and as such, are somewhat susceptible to issues from magnets, but problems should disappear after the exposure ceases. Smartphones don’t store data on magnetic disks like with hard drives, so if these devices are exposed to magnets, certain functionality could be disabled temporarily, but it’s not a permanent problem or even a remotely serious one. On the same token, so many smartphone accessories like smart keyboards, cases, and other peripherals use magnets, and don’t affect the longevity of the device at all. 

Ultimately, You Shouldn’t Really Worry That Much

All in all, the big thing to keep in mind regarding magnets is that you shouldn’t bring your technology around heavy-duty, powerful magnets. The average user has virtually no chance of suffering serious or permanent damage from your everyday magnet. Still, we will caution you against testing this yourself.

We hope you found today’s article interesting! Be sure to let us know what other topics you’d like covered in future blog articles.

The Internet of Things, or IoT, has grown to over 14 billion connected devices as of this year, and this number is expected to exceed 20 billion devices by the end of 2026. With such a shocking number of devices, you might wonder what types of devices are out there and what they mean for your business. Let’s look at the IoT and what you need to know to keep it at the top of your mind this upcoming year.

You Use the IoT More Than You Think

Even if you don’t have a specific plan in place to handle IoT devices, you already use them in some capacity for your operations. Employee smartphones are perhaps the most well-known IoT devices. Whether your employees use their personal devices or company-issued phones, they use these devices to perform work-related tasks both in and out of the office.

Just think about how you use your own smartphone. You might perform research into a product before buying it. Most people use their smartphones for this same purpose, looking into products before committing to them. Other uses include business communications, administration of business, and even productivity.

Other IoT devices might use your business’ network, even if you are unaware of them, like employee-owned wearable devices, smart utilities solutions for controlling HVAC systems, smart lights, and so on.

Growing Your IoT Usage

Many businesses understand that the IoT is something that can yield great benefits with a little smart investment. Some of these benefits can come from smarter systems, like inventory management, which can document additions or subtractions from your systems to ensure that you always keep an adequate supply of resources. Specialized IoT devices can do this automatically without the need to dedicate human resources to them, reducing costs.

Improvements to the Customer Experience

The IoT can bolster the customer experience, giving you more ways to represent your business in the realm of ecommerce. If you can make your customer experience operations as transparent and user-friendly as possible, you can provide a better experience as a whole, making customers more likely to stay and for new customers to jump on board.

Data Sharing

Sharing data is important to businesses of all kinds, whether they are trying to integrate IoT devices into an existing infrastructure or building an infrastructure with IoT devices in mind. Furthermore, the real-time data collection offered by IoT devices can be invaluable in making both long-term and short-term decisions regarding your operations.

The Internet of Things can be a helpful way of making meaningful changes to your operations and infrastructure. To learn more about how we can help your business use the latest and greatest technologies to your advantage, reach out to MSPNetworks at (516) 403-9001.

Do your employees have a hard time with the technology that you’ve provided them? Are your digitization efforts lagging behind? Are the systems your business is using coming up on their end of support date? Old technology can cause major problems for a business. In this week’s blog, we go through some of the signs that you may need to upgrade your business’ technology.

Your Technology Is Slow

One of the most frustrating things any employee can deal with is a work computer that takes significantly longer than their personal computer to load up and function. The longer a computer is used, the slower it will become. If your computer is approaching the five-year mark and the person using it is constantly complaining that it is a hindrance to their ability to be productive (not to mention run more advanced applications that your business may use), it is probably time to consider an upgrade of that particular machine. 

For more centralized computing, you should keep in mind that we recommend that you start considering your server refresh at the four-year mark. While you can probably continue using that technology for years after that, you need to start considering a server upgrade because it takes some time to pull the trigger on large technology expenses and services. 

Your Company Is Growing Fast

If your company is experiencing a boom in growth, getting technology into your employees’ hands comes with the territory; and, it can start to become an issue. Not only do your employees need different types of technology, as your business grows this will become an even bigger issue, as presumably the array of different job-related tasks will diversify. 

Another issue is that if you’ve found success with older software (often called legacy), you may find it more difficult to purchase new hardware that is compatible with the older software. Of course, there are options to rent server space in the cloud to accommodate this demand, but there are other issues you then have to consider. Most businesses that maintain an upward trajectory find ways for their technology to grow with their business. 

You Have a Remote Workforce

Managing a remote workforce is a lot different than managing people that come to a central location five days a week. It becomes an issue to get everyone on your team the technology they need. In this case, obtaining resources in the cloud makes a lot of sense. Today, you can get nearly any computing your company needs through cloud-hosted offerings. 

Since the average cloud platform cuts computing and support costs by around a third, it creates a situation where an organization that has distributed employees will prioritize cloud computing due to the ease in which they can deploy required resources, the ability for access from nearly anywhere, and the built in management and support that you get when you purchase SaaS applications.

Ultimately, new technology can allow you to do more, build a more efficient and productive business, and do so with whatever workforce you feel comfortable utilizing. At MSPNetworks, our IT experts can help you procure and integrate your new technologies and help you manage your entire business IT infrastructure. Give us a call today at (516) 403-9001 to learn more.

There’s no beating around the bush with this one; moving data from one place to another, also known as data migration, is critical to get right the first time. If you create and follow a migration strategy, evaluating here and there to make sure it’s all going according to plan, you’ll see great success in this effort. Let’s go over how you can make it happen.

The Process of Migration Testing

When testing your data migration process, it’s important to make sure you take action to plan it out long before the process begins, as well as what happens after the migration. If you evaluate your process before, during, and after the migration, you’ll have key insights into specific metrics that can help you gauge the success of the endeavor. Of course, there are plenty of things that can go wrong, and keeping an eye on things throughout the process will help you catch them before they cause too much trouble.

Also of note is that data migration requires some pretty technical skills and know-how, so it’s advisable to have professionals on hand to help you with the process. MSPNetworks is happy to assist you with this complicated process.

All that said, we can now take a look at what you need to know before, during, and after a migration.

What Should You Do Before Your Migration?

First, we recommend that you look at how much data needs to be migrated to establish a frame of reference for the success of the migration. It’s also crucial that you take measures to protect your data while you migrate everything to a new location, and be sure to back it up just in case of a worst-case scenario.

Furthermore, be sure that your team is aware of the proposed timeline, and make sure that your budget can cover this timeline in a sustainable way. The last thing you need to do is cut corners. Doing so could potentially put you at risk of doing it poorly, or even leave you subject to fines and other compliance issues if the system you’re migrating to is not adequate.

What Should You Do During the Migration?

As the migration occurs, you should break up your data into smaller batches so that testing is more efficient and easier to pull off. You can also take the opportunity to set access permissions according to the roles of your employees.

What Should You Do After the Migration?

Once you have finished the migration, you should go through and test your new solutions to make sure that they all work correctly. This involves making sure that the data have made it to the new system in the correct format. Checking the system performance should also be a priority, as well as various security assessments like stress testing, penetration testing, and others.

Need a Hand with Data Migration?

MSPNetworks can help your business with its data migration needs. To learn more, call us today at (516) 403-9001.

We talk a lot about different types of technology, securing your technology and your accounts, and a lot of other technology-related issues on this blog, but because of the generalities of whatever technology (or strategy) we’ve chosen to write about that day, we never confront the thing that is most important to a business: How does any technology fit into what we do here? What value do we get from any type of technology? Today, we thought we’d talk a little bit about what you need to do to find the right technology for your business and how to come up with those decisions. 

Is Technology the Answer?

If we are asked by a new business to come up with a technology plan for their company, it may take a little bit of time but ultimately we could put together a comprehensive plan of technology and strategies to get that technology to work best for your organization. Similarly, if an established business came to us to get an assessment of what technology changes they would need to make to get the innovations built into new tools, we could tell them after some monitoring and an audit. 

The problem, however, is when a business comes to us with a plan of attack, investments made in technology, and operational problems abound. This is problematic because a business has already made the decisions they would need consulting on, and regardless of what we find and what tweaks to their operational and management procedures we suggest, they will need time to be able to implement them on the scale they would require, which typically would be some time away. 

The technology consultation process starts with questions; lots of questions.

You see, we can take a look at your infrastructure, your cache of software, your practices, policies, and procedures, and your budget; but we can’t know what your goals are unless you tell us. All that information goes into our opinion. You see, we may be the best IT consultants in New York, but we’re only as good as the information we have. 

Where we excel, and are a huge benefit for your business, is in the design, procurement, implementation, deployment, monitoring, and support of business technology. This brings us to the main benefit of hiring a managed IT services firm to assess and revamp your business’ technology: We have decades of in-house experience with the purchasing, setup, management, governance, and maintenance of the technology that businesses depend on to succeed. 

The truth is, our consultants and technicians can provide your decision makers with a comprehensive plan forward for your business technology; and, it may involve technologies you’ve never even considered. 

This is why you should give us a call at (516) 403-9001. We will work with you to find the technology that can help you generate the most revenue for management costs. If your plan is to turn a profit, technology can sure make a huge difference.

The United States has seen a push for the digitization of the dollar for some time now, with a few pros and cons to consider from this shift. Let’s go over these pros and cons now, and see if there are any parallels to be found to your business.

To begin our discussion, let’s go over what’s been happening recently in terms of the legislation.

Back in March 2022, There Were a Few Pushes Towards Digitizing Currency

In addition to President Biden signing an executive order which—amongst other calls to action—called for research into a United States Central Bank Digital Currency, or CBDC, lawmakers in the House of Representatives introduced a bill—H.R. 7231, or “Electronic Currency and Secure Hardware Act”—to enable the US Treasury to create a digital dollar. This electronic currency, “coined” ECASH, would enable near-instantaneous transactions with a good chance of dramatically reduced processing fees. ECASH would not be a cryptocurrency, mind you, as CBDCs are classified differently.

This all came after the Federal Reserve tested a digital currency system codenamed Project Hamilton in February, after years of research and development by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Digital Currency Initiative. Meant to help explore the feasibility of a CBDC design in a wide-scale implementation, Project Hamilton peaked at about 170,000 transactions per second after bottleneck. While promising, this indicates that there is still a way to go before there’s a full replacement for the reserve currency the United States currently relies on.

What are Some Benefits and Drawbacks of Fully Digital Currency?

The benefits of digital currency are considerable. Not only could transactions—even those that cross borders—be carried out effectively instantaneously, as we mentioned, United States Representative Ayanna Pressley states that it would help create wealth inclusivity for “black, brown, and low-income communities.”

Having said that, a CBDC doesn’t inherently guarantee privacy, even if zero-knowledge proof technology is in place—which allows a system to confirm that knowledge is known without actually revealing the information that is known. Essentially, you have to trust the government backing the digital dollar to keep the protections of a zero-knowledge proof active…and not to arbitrarily change your personal privacy settings. More on this in a moment.

In addition to this, Representative Steven Lynch, the primary sponsor of the ECASH Act, called out some of the infrastructural issues that could get in the way of adopting a fully digital dollar. The lack of reliable Internet service in many areas of the country is a major hurdle that Lynch hopes this bill will help the country clear.

Going back to the privacy concerns, founder and research scientist of the MIT Cryptoeconomics Lab, Christian Catalini, shared his own predictions. He foresees ECASH as a system that relies on another plastic card—albeit one with some additional functions to it—that effectively stands in for cash. Basically, by using this card, the only data shared would be the successful transfer of a payment.

However, there are some challenges that need to be addressed. For instance, in order to avoid major criminal activity, full privacy would be impossible so that the financial system isn’t an accessory to crime. In addition to this, as ECASH lacks any form of ledger whatsoever, it would require the government to issue everyone a dedicated piece of hardware to use to handle and exchange ECASH locally—again, with limits as to how much the device could hold at once. It also is yet to be determined how funds would be added to the device, and if some form of identity authentication would be required to do so.

Catalini expects that these challenges will cause ECASH or whatever we ultimately get to be delayed for at least five years, with the various philosophical and technical questions likely pushing this delay out even further.

In the Meantime, We’d Love to Hear Your Thoughts!

Don’t hesitate to comment here and weigh in on the topic. Would you prefer all of your money handling to go digital? What are some of the pros and cons you can think of? Please don’t hesitate to share, and if you have any questions about securing your business’ dollars (or using IT to make more of them) be sure to reach out to us at (516) 403-9001!

The metaverse is a buzzword that many companies have been throwing around in recent years, but what is it, exactly? You might want to sit down for this one, as it is going to get a little complicated and, perhaps, even a bit confusing. We’ll do our best to unpack what the metaverse is, why there is such an emphasis on it these days, and what you might expect to see from a metaverse in the future.

What is the Metaverse?

You might be surprised to find out that the metaverse is certainly not a new concept. It has existed in some form or another for the past 30 years. The term first appeared in the 1992 novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, where it was used to describe a virtual world in which users could buy or sell virtual property and waltz around this virtual reality using their own customized avatars. The components which make up this idea of the metaverse are prominent to this day and exist in various capacities.

Thus, we can make a determination that a metaverse is a virtual environment where individuals can interact with one another in a reality much like our own. It is, for all intents and purposes, a place where you can build your own “virtual life” of sorts.

Why Are Businesses Focused on It?

The reason that businesses are so fixated on the metaverse is because they see it as the natural progression for technologies such as the smartphone and the Internet, for which the metaverse will effectively replace. They see it as an opportunity to create an interconnected virtual reality that bridges gaps between various apps, games, services, and so on. Major proponents of the metaverse like Matthew Ball and Mark Zuckerberg envision this future where the metaverse can be just as interconnected and functional as the modern Internet.

What Does the Future Hold for the Metaverse?

People are of the belief that technologies which enable the metaverse will allow it to flourish. These technologies—virtual reality, the blockchain, and NFTs—would help to make the metaverse a reality by providing avenues for exchanging goods, products, and properties within this virtual space. Perhaps, however, the excitement surrounding the metaverse is just a result of the post-COVID world, where people are starved for interaction with each other and are used to communication solutions like Zoom and other video conferencing platforms.

The idea of the metaverse, however, is held back by issues of interoperability. There are countless technical difficulties that can prevent individuals from transferring avatars and digital possessions from one application or virtual world to another, making the idea of a truly interconnected virtual world difficult to pull off in the way it was initially envisioned.

What do you think about the idea of a metaverse? Do you think it’s a bit far-fetched to imagine a virtual world where we can all interact in the same ways we might in the real world, or do you think there is some merit to investing in the idea? Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments.

If you truly want to run your business effectively, it all starts with understanding how its costs break down. If you are armed with this knowledge, you can make better decisions about solution procurement and operations management. Let’s examine how you can cut costs without harming your business in the process.

Outsourcing Can Help

Outsourcing is often misunderstood, but it is an incredibly powerful tool to control your costs and improve operations. If you take part of your business that is costly to run normally, then outsource it to a provider, you get more stable costs and expertise that you might not normally be able to leverage.

Businesses have all sorts of outsourcing options these days, including gig workers or managed service providers. You can outsource help desks for support, or you can outsource recruitment and payroll. The sky's the limit, so to speak; if you can imagine it, you can probably outsource it, provided you find an appropriate vendor.

Data Allows for Better Decision-Making

The more data your business has, the more tools and resources it has at its disposal to enable better decision-making. You can look at data to learn about what has worked well in the past, what could work well in the future, and what needs to be addressed immediately. Data is key to the many types of initiatives you might have planned for the future.

Data analytics can give your business key insights into how it can be more efficient with sales, marketing, operational processes, and so on. It can help you build better consumer experiences and customer relationships, something which can increase revenue and give you more resources to work with in the future.

Keep Flexibility in Mind

You can provide greater value to your employees by keeping flexibility at the top of your mind. This means giving them tools to communicate and be productive whether they are in the office or on the move, and thanks to cloud-based resources and solutions, you can do this easily and efficiently.

Another way you can innovate and keep things flexible is through the use of artificial intelligence technology. An AI chatbot, for example, can free up employees for other tasks, focusing instead on tasks that generate revenue.

MSPNetworks can help your business be more cost-effective and productive at the same time. To learn more, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

Regularly, when a business is searching for ways to move their operations forward, there is a little hand wringing on how to do so. Every decision your business has to make comes with a price tag, and the more that you can do without spending a lot of money, the more value you are going to see. For this week’s blog, we thought we’d take a look at some actions you can take with your technology to ensure that your business is going in the right direction.

Procurement and Deployment

When you are looking to upgrade your business’ technology, cost is likely the most important variable. This leads to a tendency to prioritize smaller investments that don’t necessarily cost your business a lot of money. Unfortunately, any value-creating piece of hardware or software is going to take a substantial investment for your business. Fortunately, there are options out there that give decision makers options on how these investments are made. 

Traditionally, if your business needed a new server, your company would price out how much they would have to pay to buy the hardware, migrate all the data and applications from the old hardware to the new hardware, and whatever associated costs that come with the setup and management of a new server. If the server was brought in to add more computing to your existing infrastructure, the setup and integration of the new server would come with its own associated costs. 

Today, you can add to your business’ computing infrastructure faster and with powerful technology through the integration of cloud computing. The costs associated with cloud infrastructure are comparable to the ones that you would pay over time with a hardware lease, but with it you get integrated management and maintenance of that infrastructure. Since the only real drawback is that you need an Internet connection to access those cloud-based resources it is an excellent option for companies looking to quickly add powerful new IT solutions to their current infrastructure. 

Managing Security

One of the most difficult parts of managing a robust computing infrastructure is keeping it secure. In fact, a lot of the axillary costs associated with maintaining large IT systems are tied up in security. Of course, you can decide what level of security investment is right for your situation, but you have to take into account that the less you invest in keeping your business’ IT secure, the more likely you will deal with security breaches; a potentially devastating thing for your business.  

At MSPNetworks, we provide comprehensive network and infrastructure security solutions designed to keep the near neverending myriad of threats off of your business’ IT. We also can help you create policies and procedures that work to keep your staff trained and in-the-know about all types of potential security problems. Our technicians work with New York businesses every day, and in the course of doing business see a lot of situations that provide us with real world experience in dealing with potential threats. Not only can we outfit your business with the technology you need to help mitigate ongoing threats, we also have the ability to customize a security plan specifically for your business needs, even when it includes comprehensive training.

Innovation

If you talk to any technology professional that works with businesses, they will tell you that if you can manage to integrate automated tools, you will be improving your business’ efficiency. One of the most important considerations any business owner or decision maker has to make in today’s business environment is how to streamline operations and get their revenue-generating staff to do just that. A lot of businesses have their best people working in support roles over 25 percent of the time, no doubt cutting down on the organization’s effectiveness. 

In using innovative software platforms to help your business cut out huge wastes of time and prioritize productivity, you get more out of your business. Today, you can get all types of powerful applications for human resources, security, business operations, marketing, sales, collaboration, communications, operational support, and more. Aside from improved access, there are other benefits that utilize state-of-the-art tools like artificial intelligence that can automate more processes, further improving efficiency.

Regardless of how you want to approach it, getting more from your technology is important if you want to increase productivity, improve employee satisfaction and retention, and other variables important to building a more productive and efficient business. If you would like to have a conversation about how to use technology to help you build a better business give us a call at (516) 403-9001 today.

In efforts to curb the semiconductor shortage and jumpstart the technology industry, the United States Congress passed legislation that includes funding for manufacturing semiconductors. Partially in response to China’s increasing economic influence and partially in response to the semiconductor shortage, the CHIPS Act could be just what industry leaders need to kickstart the manufacturing of these important devices.

The “CHIPS and Science Act”

Many industry leaders have lobbied for Congress to take action, industry leaders like Intel’s CEO, Pat Gelsinger, as it has been predicted that the chip shortage could go well into 2024 if nothing is done about it. Intel was in the process of building its third semiconductor factory in the state of Ohio, but its progress has stalled due to delays in the legislation of the CHIPS act. The initial price tag associated with this factory is about $20 billion with costs exceeding $100 billion over the next decade.

The CHIPS Act is an acronym that stands for Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors. It contains $280 billion, of which $52 billion will be allocated to support the domestic production of semiconductors. It is suspected that this investment in manufacturing could potentially lower the costs of devices that depend on them.

Semiconductors are used to power many of the business-critical technologies used by both enterprises and small businesses alike. They are used in workstations, server units, appliances, and even cars. It’s safe to say that this funding is a necessary step toward resolving the ongoing supply chain issues that have plagued businesses since the start of the pandemic.

The Supply Chain Doesn’t Have to Be Your Problem

If you have tried to purchase technology for your business, you know that right now it can be particularly difficult to get the technology you need, when you need it. The issues with the semiconductor shortage have had profound impacts on the way companies acquire important hardware, but this doesn’t mean that you have to suffer the consequences of it. If you’re sick and tired of searching for the right tools for the job, then MSPNetworks can help you out.

With our technicians on your side, you can get the most value out of your current solutions while also focusing on your needs in both the near and distant future. We can build a technology roadmap that accounts for issues like the current supply chain challenges so you can move forward with a sense of direction.

To learn more about what we can do for your business, contact us at (516) 403-9001.

It is a legitimate question whether something is actually art if it isn’t created by a human being. That’s before you are exposed to it, however. In fact, an AI created a piece of art that was crowned the winner at the Colorado State Fair. Let’s take a look at AI art in the context of this competition.

Let’s dive in.

Are AI-Generated Images Art?

At the Colorado State Fair, there is a fine arts competition where Josh Allen won the first place prize in Digital Arts/Digitally Manipulated Photography for his image, “Théåtre D'opéra Spatial.” When Allen provided a glimpse into his process via Discord, however, he was met with scrutiny. He used an image synthesis model called Midjourney to create the image.

As Allen said in his Discord post, he “...created 100s of images using it, and after many weeks of fine tuning and curating my gens, I chose my top 3 and had them printed on canvas after upscaling with Gigapixel A.I.” As he reports, he “could not be more excited” that his “favorite piece” ultimately won.

The rest of the community was a bit more critical of Allen’s choice. The image was produced with little actual hands-on work from Allen. Instead, it was built using the input that he plugged into the Midjourney platform. Allen wrote in his official submission, “I generate images with MJ, do passes with Photoshop, and upscale with GigaPixel,” and even labeled his piece with “Jason Allen via Midjourney.”

As you might not be surprised to hear, people have opinions on this topic, and many of these opinions cannot in good conscience be shared here. Still, there are many who believe that AI-generated art signifies the “death of artistry” and wonder “if creative jobs aren’t safe from machines, then even high-skilled jobs are in danger of becoming obsolete [sic] What will we have then?”

Art is Created and Judged In Accordance with the Technology of the Time

We understand why this has people concerned, but the fact remains that the tools we use today are simply taken for granted. An artist named Rhea Edge listed tools, techniques, and artists that use them, as well as when the tools were introduced, then shows that these tools also were not received well at the time.

In particular, Edge discusses the development of the camera obscura, a darkened room with a small hole in one side that allowed images to be projected onto a wall. This photography went on to inspire innovations in the art that are seen in modern day photography at large. Tubed paint was also a problematic topic due to artists not mixing their own paints. Artists were criticized right up until the 1970s and 1980s for these practices.

Edge also points out that art tends to change over time, highlighting how long it took the Impressionist painting style to really become an established style in the art world.

One other artist named Brian Simpson examines technology’s role in the development of art. He indicates that miniature portraits were essentially cut out entirely by the advent of photography. Simpson is also an advocate for Allen’s AI-produced artwork.

“There is a mind behind it. The mind is deciding I want this image. And with this image, this is the word I want to use,” Simpson said, going on to reflect on how Allen produced 40 images, ultimately choosing the ones he submitted.

“You can argue that choice and self-curation is part of the art process,” said Simpson.

This statement makes it clear that the current state of image creation and artwork still involves much human interaction, especially to achieve outstanding results like with Allen’s piece. How long this remains the case, however, is yet to be determined.

What are your thoughts on AI-generated artwork? Do you have any strong opinions on this topic? Be sure to share them in the comments below—and remember that AI is very well-established in the business world, so consider implementing it for your own company’s needs!

Manufacturers have long been at the forefront of technology. Today, this trend continues, but with new, innovative tools that are designed to make business more efficient and workers more productive. This technology has helped much of the manufacturing sector despite costs continually rising, supply chain interruptions, and other variables. Let’s take a look at some of the major technology changes that have fueled manufacturers during the past few years. 

Enhanced Digitalization

Manufacturers typically take materials and turn them into consumer goods or components for other manufacturers to use in their process. Many manufacturers have begun the process of digitization; meaning that they now are using digital systems to manage their business, interact with customers, and handle all the automation that has been tabbed to make their process more efficient. Most manufacturers have been using digital technology for quite some time, but some of the shifts that make these changes innovative include the leveraging of robots to do collaborative tasks.

Cobots

Artificial intelligence fuels this trend by using machines that are colloquially called “cobots”. Over 40% of manufacturers use robots and with smarter software the “cobots” can work alongside human workers rather than outright replacing them. This means these robots are much more affordable than traditional robots that typically replace human workers.

IoT

Another digital evolution for manufacturers comes from the Internet of Things. These sensors may not be built specifically for manufacturers, but they hold considerable value for them. The biggest benefit comes in the manner of predictive maintenance. Sensors can keep track of components and maintenance schedules, which can cut down on maintenance costs by a whopping 25 percent. If you consider that downtime can cost tens of thousands of dollars an hour, the more you can do to keep systems functioning as intended the better your business will be. 

Machine Vision

Another use of AI in manufacturing is called machine vision. It lets companies automate their quality control processes on each end of their business. Basically, it allows a manufacturer to run their operations faster than they would if they relied on humans to run point over their quality control. With machine vision detection, manufacturers can increase production and maintain a level of quality they expect from their process, a win-win for any manufacturer. 

Technology can help any type of business, but if you’re a manufacturer that could benefit from innovative new digital tools, reach out to the IT experts at MSPNetworks at (516) 403-9001 today.

I feel like we’ve been talking a lot about the horrifying cybersecurity threats that loom over our heads, and thought it might be nice to really appreciate just how gosh-darn cool some of these devices we all have can be instead. 

Aren’t Mobile Devices Really Incredible?

I still remember the hype for the very first iPhone. To many very excited people, this was the first time a personal computer was going to fit in the palm of their hand.

Steve Jobs was an incredible genius at hype and marketing. He told his customers that he was changing the world with this new conceptual device, even though some of us nerds had been using Palm Pilots, Blackberrys, Windows CE, and Windows Mobile devices for years before the first iPhone was but a sparkle in his eye.

Still, you need to hand it to him, he brought the smartphone to the general public.

We’ve seen a nice gradual evolution of these devices over the last decade and change since the first iPhone was released, and I think a lot of that evolution has been so subtle that some of us really haven’t noticed just how great these devices truly can be.

Samsung DeX Turns Your Smartphone Into a Handheld Desktop

Have you seen this? 

It’s exclusive to Samsung’s line of Android smartphones, so if you’ve never jumped on the Samsung bandwagon, you might not have caught wind of it.

Samsung has this neat little app called DeX that gives you a desktop-like experience when you connect your Samsung smartphone or tablet to a monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

It’s not quite a full Windows experience—you are still using Android and your Android apps, but using Microsoft Office applications like Word and Powerpoint or surfing the web works great. 

Some Modern Tablets Can Be an Artist’s Canvas

While the tablet market hasn’t really found its place as much as we all thought it would a few years ago, there is still a very dedicated niche for them that has been very exciting for those extra creative types.

If you’ve ever seen the desk of a modern digital illustrator or artist, you’ve probably seen those huge expensive digital drawing tablets that they use. The leading brands tend to cost several thousands of dollars, and they are far from portable, chaining the user to their desk to draw and design.

Apple’s iPad has changed the game for artists when paired with Apple’s proprietary pencil, an extremely accurate device that gives artists control over every stroke. This is way different than using a typical plastic stylus on a regular touchscreen. Like the expensive Wacom drawing tablets that most hobbyists can’t afford, the Apple offers tilt and pressure sensitivity in a similar way that an actual pencil or paintbrush does. Low-cost, sophisticated illustration applications like Procreate can give the user a whole ton of tools to design, create, and digitally paint anything they want.

While Apple was definitely the first tablet manufacturer to nail this, Microsoft has a similar solution with their Surface line of tablets. It’s a little less accurate compared to Apple’s solution, but for most hobbyists, it is more than adequate. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab line of tablets also includes the Samsung S-Pen, which uses very similar technology as Apple does, and while the Procreate software is exclusive to Apple, Samsung partnered with Clip Studio and runs a fully-capable alternative in their ecosystem.

Smartphones Replace the Entire Entertainment System

Did you cut the cable? So many people have ditched cable television in their homes thanks to streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, and Hulu. On top of that, YouTube and YouTube TV simply offer more content than you could ever possibly watch. 

If you’ve dropped cable, you probably ended up purchasing a Google Chromecast or Amazon Firestick and use that to access your streaming services, or you have a TV with Amazon, Google, or Roku built in. 

It’s still incredible to me (honestly, I feel like Tony Stark in my own living room) that I can pull up Netflix on my phone, tap on Stranger Things, and broadcast it straight to the television.

When was the last time you bought a DVD or Bluray? When was the last time you bought physical music? How about a physical book?

Okay, there’s still something special about physical books, but I digress.

Let’s Appreciate How Neat All This Stuff Is!

These devices that we carry every day are just so capable, and so convenient, and I don’t think we’ve even begun to scratch the surface.

Fitness tracking! Augmented reality! Mobile banking! Who would have guessed 10 years ago that you would be able to pay your dinner bill with your smartphone or smartwatch, and have your friend digitally send you their half of the bill over Venmo or Paypal?

Of course, with all of that, there are drawbacks.

Social media algorithms have definitely worn down a lot of people. Cybersecurity threats are a huge problem. We don’t quite know how much screen time is too much screen time for kids, and how all these carefully crafted, addicting systems play a role on young people. For some of us, it’s easy to ignore these problems and just use the mobile device for work emails and messaging, just as easy as it is to get totally hooked on doom-scrolling Twitter.

We hope that no matter what camp you are in, that you use technology wisely and safely. We hope that it brings joy and value to your life, makes you more productive, and makes it easier for you to enjoy the things that really matter to you.

There’s no lesson today. There’s no call to action. I just wanted to share some things I thought were really cool. What do you think? Do you have any cool stories about technology that you’d like to share with us?

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.

Technology has come a long way, but so too have the threats which leverage it to their advantage. How have the cyberthreats which target your organization evolved over time, and what can you do to protect yourself?

There Are More Risks Today Than Ever Before

Modern tools such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and the cloud give businesses more options to get their work done, but they also represent additional avenues for hackers to attack. Automation can improve your work processes, for example, but it can also make it easy for phishing attacks and other types of threats to infiltrate your network.

This type of advancement means you need to take action. Here are three questions your organization must consider for its continued security and success.

Consider These Three Questions

Let’s examine some of the first questions you should consider for your business’ cybersecurity:

1. Are the security measures we have in place now enough to protect us from developing threats and risks?
2. Are we putting sufficient time into training our employees to be a security asset, rather than a source of vulnerability?
3. Are we preparing ourselves for the threats that will develop thanks to emerging platforms and new technologies?

What Else Should You Consider?

Furthermore, we have some other considerations your organization should look at to keep your technology safe.

Improve the Way You Seek Out Malware

There will always be the types of threats that are in your face and ready to demand a ransom, but more often than not, malware will sneak around in the background and mimic a legitimate user’s technology habits. You have several ways to combat this, such as automated security solutions and increasing your employees’ security awareness.

There Are More Threat Surfaces to Protect

More technology means better processes (when implemented correctly), but it can also mean more vulnerabilities to threats. Businesses need to take stock of their current risk management strategies to ensure that they are effective, even when implementing new technology, without making your systems too complex or hard to manage.

Improve Awareness at All Levels

Your IT department will likely handle most of the cybersecurity issues with your business, but awareness and adoption starts from the top down. If you don’t take security seriously, nobody else will. Now is the time to make security a priority by showing your team just how important it is.

Let’s Work Together to Protect Your Business

As managed IT providers, we work to protect our clients from the many current and emerging threats out there. By making things as easy as possible for businesses like yours to protect themselves from cyberthreats, we give you the power to take back your workday and focus on profits and more efficiently running your business.

To learn more about how we can help you make this vision a reality, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

With inflation proving to be a significant concern for businesses at the moment, reaching highs that it hasn’t in decades, there is a distinct need for businesses to get as much value as they can out of the investments they make.

Let’s discuss a few technologies that offer this more desirable cost/benefit ratio so you can consider them for your own use.

Could Technology Investment Reverse Inflation?

According to Morgan Stanley, potentially!

The financial services provider recently released their list of (as they call them) Deflation Enablers—companies that are trying to cut their customers’ costs despite inflation or product scarcity. Included on this list were a few automation platforms (Appian, Salesforce, ServiceNow, and UiPath) as well as supply chain efficiency software (C3.ai, Palantir, and Snowflake) as well as some other technology providers, like a little company known as Microsoft.

The idea is that by investing in solutions and services provided by Deflation Enablers—specifically, those that cut costs while boosting productivity—a business puts itself in a position to succeed, in spite of whatever economic challenges the world at large is facing.

Of course, that’s all well and good for these major companies… But what can the average business in New York do?  

What Many Companies Are Doing to Fight Inflation

There are a variety of ways that businesses can do (and are exploring) to save money and actively use their resources more efficiently. One big one that came about in response to the last few years’ increase in remote operations: office downsizing.

Businesses of all sizes, from small to enterprise, are actively considering how they can scale back their real estate and reinvest those dollars elsewhere—incidentally, many choosing to invest in IT and sales.

This is no accident, either. Remember, quite a few of Morgan Stanley’s Deflation Enablers were IT providers that focused on automating processes. Automation is inherently a cost-saving endeavor, as it effectively doubles your productivity for each employee it frees from a menial task.

Reach out to MSPNetworks to find out more about automation, and the other ways we can assist you in making your dollar go further. A few examples that come to mind are our inclusive managed services and our remote monitoring and management services.

Give us a call at (516) 403-9001 to learn more.