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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 ...

You need technology that can be as flexible as your business is. Growing companies are constantly challenged to find technologies that help them to simplify without giving up control, work better together and be productive anywhere. And they want to get more value for their investments. Because your company is growing, you’ve got more to do. But chances are, you still have to do it all with less cost and limited resources. To grow, you’ve got to do more with less. If you’re like many small to midsize businesses, you’re using Google’s online productivity suite. But more and more companies are turning to Office 365 over Google Apps. Why would a small business choose Office 365 instead of Google? Microsoft has released a whitepaper that discusses ten reasons Office 365 is a better choice for your organization.  We’ve included a summary below Top 10 Reasons to Choose Office 365 1) Office ...

Too many small and medium businesses find themselves forced into the IT business. They may be retail operations, manufacturers, lawyers or CPAs, but they still end up spending hours upon hours troubleshooting their networks, managing software licenses, updating operating systems and upgrading hardware. But it can be hard for an SMB to get out of the IT business: computer repair techs and local IT companies can offer some help, but the big names in enterprise-level hosting are really only set up to handle large corporate accounts, or technically savvy users who can answer all their own questions. There is no customer service number to call if you need help or run into a snag. An SMB Serving SMBs With Red Level Networks, SMBs get everything—virtualization, disaster recovery, managed services, cloud computing, Office 365 and more—along with a consultant and partner who actually answers the phone and has someone ready to help if ...

We're all moving our data to the cloud—our music, our email, our family photos, the software that runs our lives. The cloud makes it easier to do more with less effort. But as anyone who has ever had a problem with their Gmail or iTunes accounts can attest, the clean-and-easy cloud future has one big, dirty secret: Big cloud service providers do not want to talk to you. Dave King, president of Red Level Networks, chuckles as he explains. "It's true. I don't even think they'll give you a 1-800 number. Companies like Google and Amazon, they're excellent hosts, but they honestly don't want to talk to you, as a customer. They'll give you all the resources you want, and it'll work if you can make it work on your own. But God forbid you have a question—and we all know that there are lots of questions." Dave King wanted to offer ...

Lockwood Management is a property management firm located in Michigan, specializing in family and senior housing. Over the last fourteen years Lockwood has grown from managing just six communities to employing 120 team members across 30 sites. Because of their customer-centered "hands on" style of property management, they place a high priority on communication, connectivity and collaboration among their many employees and sites. But their on-site IT systems struggled to keep pace with their growth. Any problems at the main office effectively crippled the entire network. Upgrading to a Remote Hosting Solution Dave King, president of Red Level Networks, has helped many businesses work through similar IT growing pains. "As their business grows they’re going to add employees. They usually aren't thinking about the impact that will have on their server and other equipment. Even just adding a few new users means adding more resources, more licenses, more performance." When a ...

Despite a series of high-profile security breaches in the news, most businesses still treat their network security as a low-priority. As Red Level Networks president Dave King explains, "Security is kind of like a car crash: You and I both drive thousands of miles each year. You can't recall every trip to the grocery store and the doctor's office and your kid's school. But if you're in one car crash, that makes a huge impression." All too often, it takes that huge impression for business owners to take action on security. Red Level Networks is working to change that. Thinking About Security Before the Catastrophe Seeing someone else's data disaster is a lot like passing a wrecked car on the highway: It can trigger a momentary change in your habits, but as soon as you're safely down the road, you quickly return to your old habits—some of which are unsafe. ...