Blog Posts In Category: IT Strategy

How to set up a VPN for employees working remotely

By Ryan Drake / June 30, 2025

Remote work isn’t going anywhere, and with more people logging in from home, secure network access has become a major priority for businesses. To set up a VPN for remote employees, choose the right VPN solution for your business (remote access, cloud-based, or SD-WAN), deploy a secure VPN server, configure strong authentication (like multi-factor authentication),…

Do I need a firewall or VPN for my small business?

By Ryan Drake / June 27, 2025

Small businesses deal with constant cybersecurity threats, so network protection really isn’t optional anymore. Most small businesses need both a firewall and a VPN to protect against cybersecurity threats. A firewall filters incoming and outgoing network traffic, blocking unauthorized access to your business systems. A VPN (virtual private network) encrypts your company’s data as it…

workstations that need to be upgraded to windows 11

Prepare Your Business for Windows 10 End of Life: What You Need to Know

By Ryan Drake / November 20, 2024

The countdown is on: Windows 10 will reach its end of life on October 14, 2025. For businesses relying on this operating system, it’s critical to understand what this transition means and how to prepare. In this article, we’ll explain why the end of support for Windows 10 matters, the risks of sticking with outdated…

Two colleagues talking and gesturing in front of a big screen showing business analytics and AI tools.

How SMBs Are Leveraging AI To Create Value

By Ryan Drake / September 18, 2024

Believe it or not, this article is not written by Artificial Intelligence (AI), there is currently an explosion of content being generated by Large Language Models (LLMs) with ChatGPT being one of the most popular being trained on vasts amount of data in an attempt to return expert data in any domain. I personally have…

24/7 IT support - A male IT professional monitoring business operations through a computer screen.

What SMBs Stand to Gain From 24/7 IT Support

By Sam Harding / May 23, 2024

Many SMBs that start with a single in-house IT professional or small IT team that is only available at certain times eventually outgrow the capacity of limited IT service. Increasing your coverage to having at least one IT support professional available 24/7 can have exponential results. If you are among the approximately 76 percent of business owners who do…

Benefits of a shared network drive - Employees in an office accessing company documents using different laptops.

How to Create a Shared Network Drive With SharePoint

By Sam Harding / February 27, 2024

At a time when data is king, an astonishing 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are generated each day. This underscores the critical need for efficient file management and sharing systems. Amid this flood of digital information, businesses of every scale are on a quest for solutions that not only accommodate their growing data needs but also…

Proper IT lifecycle management - Group of employees in an office working on their own computers to accomplish tasks.

What Is IT Lifecycle Management?

By Sam Harding / November 30, 2023

Every part of your IT system has a limited lifespan: a period of time during which it is genuinely useful and beneficial to your company. If you fail to keep up with the lifecycle of your hardware, you may quickly find that your equipment stops working as effectively as you might have hoped, creating a…

Partnering with a managed IT services provider - Female employee using a computer to perform tasks.

Why Choose Managed IT Services?

By Sam Harding / August 22, 2023

Is your SMB still relying on an in-house IT team to maintain your systems? It may be time to consider a change. Most small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) aren’t equipped to keep up with the current pace of innovation. As a result, many organizations are currently taking a reactive rather than proactive approach to IT…

Cybersecurity awareness training - Male IT professional teaching employees during a training.

Why Cyber Awareness Training May Be Required To Keep Cyber Insurance Providers Happy

By Sam Harding / June 5, 2023

We get it, you’ve read countless blogs about how important cybersecurity awareness training is. You may have seen the startling statistics, too, with the latest ones showing that global cybercrime costs may reach $10.5 trillion annually by 2025. But we’re not here to say the obvious. We’re just redirecting your focus to a more pertinent issue.…

researching azure blob storage for an smb

What is Azure Blob Storage? (Besides a Funny Name)

By Sam Harding / February 23, 2023

Data is invaluable in today’s digital world. In fact, according to Zippia, 94% of companies leveraged cloud services in 2022. In particular, the migration to remote working due to the COVID-19 pandemic forced many organizations to migrate their data and workloads to the cloud. Some of this data may be stored in hierarchical form, but a…