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The Clock Is Ticking on Windows Server 2003

So I am sure by now you’re tired of seeing blog posts – and scare tactics – created by Microsoft evangelists about Windows Server 2003 .  I understand – but if so many companies weren’t still running these servers and holding onto them for dear life, bloggers like me could move on already. Honestly, when there are only 30 days until all support ends, it’s no joke if you haven’t even begun your migration away from 2003. As of June 14, there will be exactly thirty days until Microsoft pulls the plug. Over, finished, done. Regular support has been finished for a while now, but now paid extended support will also fall by the wayside. The minute that happens, you will be officially on your own with regard to this venerable platform.  Windows Server 2003 has served us well: Following its launch on April 14, 2003, users started enjoying its expanded networking ...

2023-02-16T16:01:59+00:00

Thunderstruck? DRaaS Steps Up When Disaster Strikes

AC/DC said it best,—“You’ve been Thunderstruck:” your expensive DR plan has been pushed back into the next fiscal year, like it probably was for the previous 3 years.  If you had only known about a more cost effective method to provide your organization with true DR, the company might have bought into it. Fortunately, there is such an option.   You already know that disasters of various types can strike your business at any time. Fires, floods, lightning strikes, malware attacks and other calamities can and do happen. Thankfully, these aren’t frequent occurrences for most of us – but when they do take place, woe to the unprepared.   In my last blog post, I discussed Backup as a Service (BaaS) and its ability to safeguard data and get problem-plagued companies up and running again within a reasonable time frame. BaaS is a great safeguard for companies that are able to ...

2023-02-16T16:01:59+00:00

U.S. Federal Government Data Breached – Can You Protect Your Organization

The U.S. federal government has joined Target, Home Depot and Sony as the latest major organization to report that their systems have been breached by hackers. The damage? Notifying up to 4 million current and former federal employees that their personal financial data may have been compromised.   Gone are the days when IT could simply build up a massive, defensive wall of protection and believe that the data living behind it would be safe from attack. Organizations now need to shift their security strategies from "if" to "when" their systems will be breached— and design their cybersecurity plan accordingly.   According to a 2014 report by the Ponemon Institute, a research organization specializing in privacy, data protection, and information security, some 43% of companies experienced a data breach in the preceding year. Michael Bruemmer, vice president of credit information company Experian's data breach resolution group and sponsor of the ...

2023-02-16T16:01:59+00:00

Crystal Clear Communication: Five Easy Tips of IT Pros

Do you ever feel misunderstood? Well, the bad news is that you might be. If you’ve been an IT professional for any length of time, you’ve probably seen the signs when you’ve dealt with non-IT colleagues. No matter how patiently you try to get an idea across, it seems like the other side just doesn’t get it.   Chances are, they probably don’t, and that can lead to problems.   Imagine being plunked down in a foreign country where you don’t understand the language. Well, chances are good that your non-IT colleagues feel like that sometimes when they’re dealing with IT people and issues. IT people are a special breed. Being successful in this field means that you’ve spent a lot – a lot – of time immersed in topics, technologies and language that the Average Joe hasn’t made any effort to know about, let alone understand. Along the way, you’ve probably ...

2023-02-16T16:01:59+00:00

Technology Takes The Lead In Detroit’s Rebirth

As we all know, Detroit has taken its share of hard knocks in the last few decades. Not so many people know, though, that Detroit’s resurgence is already well under way. In fact, there is a special group led by my friend @terrybean called 313DLove that is coming together today to celebrate all things Detroit. Technology-based businesses are also helping lead the resurgence of Detroit.   Through our sponsorship of the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Detroit Regional Policy Conference 2015, Red Level was able to get a firsthand look at how a host of technology-driven companies are creating jobs and economic growth in Detroit and throughout Southeast Michigan. At the conference, we were able to demonstrate how some of the leading-edge technologies we work with can empower local governments and nonprofit organizations – and we were able to see the important contributions that local universities, organizations, and other companies were bringing to the table.    The Chamber describes the Detroit ...

2023-02-16T16:02:00+00:00

Is IT helping grow your business or holding it back?

Information technology is supposed to help business run easier. So why does it seem to run businesses at so many companies? From constant updates, changing demands and new hardware, keeping up with IT can feel like life on a hamster wheel, dictating the pace and growth of business rather than facilitating it. One thing I hear constantly from business owners is "I don’t want IT controlling what I do." "I don’t want to be buying new equipment every three years. I don’t want to be upgrading equipment and software every year. I don’t want IT to be a problem. I don’t want it to dictate how I grow my business." Sound familiar? Studies show information technology remains one of the largest barriers to growing businesses. Expansions often aren’t possible without new technology, which requires an investment that should go to the expansion itself. It’s time to get off the hamster wheel. ...

2023-02-16T16:02:00+00:00

Reality-Proofing Your Business: Backup As A Service

Remember last year’s floods that turned some of our Detroit-area freeways into actual lakes? The unexpected floods of 2014 submerged streets, cars, basements – and some businesses, particularly those that weren’t prepared for the possibility. Some have never recovered. Well, as the Eurythmics sang, here comes the rain again. Spring is in the air – and so is the possibility of more torrential rains. Unfortunately, most of us don’t receive a sign from above to build an ark and keep two of everything on it when deluges or other disasters are looming ahead. It’s not literally true that “anything can happen,” but it sometimes seems that way – especially when random chaotic events disrupt our routines and our lives. The 2014 floods were a wake-up call to many businesses who suddenly started looking into flood insurance. A lot of the savvy ones started thinking about offsite data backup solutions as ...

2023-02-16T16:02:00+00:00

Expecting Technology Leadership From All Our Leaders, Not Just Hilary Clinton

This past week, former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton announced her candidacy for the presidency. As with every election in living memory, we can probably expect her and her fellow candidates to attack one another mercilessly on virtually every issue imaginable. In Secretary Clinton’s case, it’s more than likely that her opponents will raise her private email server as a campaign issue like they did again today. It’s a “nerd” issue if there ever was one – but it’s still worthy of discussion. Clinton’s use of the private Clinton.com email server to send and receive official messages while still a government official raises questions of security and secrecy, and the possible vulnerability of any private network to hacking creates the possibility of espionage or blackmail. It can be said that the decision to use the Clinton.com email server for official correspondence was probably not Secretary Clinton’s most inspired decision. But it ...

2023-02-16T16:02:00+00:00

IT: What To Know Before You Grow

Your business is growing?  Great.  That's always a good thing, right? It is- until you suddenly find that the work you've got on your plate has gone beyond your capacity to perform it. Even boom periods create challenges for upcoming companies.  You may suddenly find you need more people, more equipment, and more space to handle that welcome upward trend.  But apart from investing in laptops or workstations for new personnel, many companies don't factor in the need for new technology, until the point that they abruptly learn that they need it. The truth is that company can outgrow its tecnology infrastructure in the same way it outgrows its physical premises. What was “just right” for a five-person shop is unlikely to be adequate for fifty, let alone five hundred. While you may be able to get by with a too-small office for a while by having people work at ...

2023-02-16T16:02:00+00:00

Game-Changing Technologies: Here Comes The Next Wave

If you’ve been in the workplace for any considerable length of time, you’ve already seen how technological changes have had the power to rapidly and radically transform the way business is done. No matter your age, chances are a multitude of sweeping changes have already taken place in your lifetime. Some have been immediately and obviously significant and transformative – and others have taken place almost unnoticed. Think about it for a moment: Twenty years ago, fewer than a third of America’s small and medium-sized businesses had adopted email. Your “powerful” new desktop computer – if you had one - probably had eight megabytes of RAM and a 1-gigabyte hard drive. If you sent an email, you probably did it through a dialup connection to America Online or CompuServe. As primitive as these things sound now, they were ­game-changing technologies and they had enormous ramifications for business. If there’s anything ...

2023-02-16T16:02:01+00:00