Protect Your Company From a Data Breach

To put a little perspective on just how important data security can be, let’s take a quick peek at a common, every-day occurrence: a credit card transaction. In 2012, roughly two-thirds of ALL transactions were completed using a credit or debit card. Total number of card transactions? 73,900,000,000. ₍₁₎ Without the proper security measures in place, that would be 74 billion opportunities for private information to be stolen. Whether it’s your customer’s financial data or your company’s employee data, security is extremely important in the Modern Workplace.

By Virtualizing you network, you can rest assured that all activity on your network is safe and confidential. Since your data is being accessed via the internet, all the traffic within your network occurs using SSL encryption and security protocols.  SSL utilizes an encrypted link between the server and the user, ensuring all data transferred between the two remains secure. Being proactive about your security approach will only serve to benefit your company. When you finally decide to virtualize your network, there are many added layers of security that work to keep your data safe.

A virtualized network can be built on an internal IP segment, offering two distinct benefits. First, this internal segment is invisible to the outside world. It cannot be scanned for open ports, and without a large amount of very specific information, can’t be accessed. The second benefit lies in the unification of the network. With virtualization, locations in different cities or states can all exist in the same network, securely sharing data between all each other.

I’d like to take the chance to have my “soapbox moment.” By far, end users are the single largest security threat. The single greatest thing you can do to immediately improve your network security, is to educate your end users on safe computing habits. Simple things like using strong passwords and not opening attachments or pop-ups from unknown or dubious sources can go a long way to keeping your network secure. Rules can be applied to the network that limit what each user can access, software can be purchased to zap malware and viruses, but the first and last line of defense will always be the end user.

Stayed tuned for next week’s post – we’ll examine how virtualizing your network will greatly improve network management and resolve our remaining security concerns!

Don’t let your company’s network or IT Solution hold you back! Find out how our Hosted IT Solution can greatly improve your network security. Reach out to us at 602-802-8353 or Support@Accram.com to schedule a free network assessment and learn more about how Mobile Office can help you become an industry leader!

How Can Virtualization Improve Your Network Security? 

Network Security is paramount. Not only do you rely upon it to keep your data and financial information safe, but your customers rely upon it as well. Whether we like to admit it or not, the truth is that it becomes harder and harder each day to keep data secure. The workplace is no different; there are many security risks encountered daily:

• Un-Secure transmission of data (Open ports, file sharing, etc.)
• Updates and Security Patches not applied
• Improper disposal of decommissioned hardware
• Mobile Devices and USB Ports
• End Users

Don’t let your company’s network or IT Solution hold you back! Find out how our Hosted IT Solution can greatly improve your network security. Reach out to us at 602-802-8353 or Support@Accram.com to schedule a free network assessment and learn more about how Mobile Office can help you become an industry leader!

Have you ever met  a business owner who wasn’t anticipating their company growing as time progresses? No one has! But what often gets neglected, is considering whether your IT Solution is even capable of growing along with the company. By virtualizing your network, it becomes extremely scalable – able to grow with your company step for step. When evaluating your networks scalability, there are some important factors to keep in mind:

• Does my network have unlimited growth potential?
• Is the network easy to manage – how long to add new users and get them working?
• Is your network designed to accommodate horizontal AND vertical growth?
• How will all of this impact your company’s bottom line?

As money tends to be the first and last concern of every business, let’s address how True Scalability will affect your company’s bottom line. In the same study by Vanson Bourne, “The Business Impact of the Cloud,” companies employing cloud applications / virtualized networks saw a 16% reduction in operating costs, 15% reduction in IT spending, and 16% reduction in IT maintenance costs. These savings are due to reduced downtime, reduced implementation time of new workstations or upgrades, increased process efficiency. With a virtual network, the process for adding new employees (or even a whole new building of employees) is significantly faster. Virtualized workstations can be setup significantly faster than a physical workstation, reducing the time to implementation.

A virtualized network doesn’t have the same constraints as a traditional network. In the traditional model, if your company had more than one location, then each location likely had its own server, network, and data. Any major transfer of files required IT staff to physically move the data from one location to another via an external hard drive. Within a virtualized network, multiple satellite locations can always communicate with headquarters, all able to access and share data as needed.

Don’t let your company’s network or IT Solution hold you back! Find out how we can help your company achieve the flexibility, mobility, and scalability you need to become a productivity powerhouse. Reach out to us at 602-802-8353 or Support@Accram.com to schedule a free network assessment and learn more about how Mobile Office can help you become an industry leader!

Your network should have the flexibility to adapt to your needs on the fly. Remote Access can give you the ability to work when and where you need to – from any device that can access the internet. An added benefit of this is the unparalleled access you will now have to your data and applications. We’ve all had it happen – that big customer calls in the middle of the night and needs the proposal or project you’ve been working on for them. Remote access allows you to be the hero in this situation, giving you the flexibility to access your data from anywhere at any time.

This flexibility also has a hidden benefit that often gets overlooked – it increases employee morale, which can lead to some very surprising things. One of the hardest parts of having a career can be balancing time between family and work. Companies who take advantage of Remote Access have noticed that their employees have a much easier time reconciling work and family – leading to more productive and much happier employees. This, in turn, has also reduced employee attrition rates, making it much more viable for companies to invest in their employees.

Don’t let your company’s network or IT Solution hold you back! Find out how we can help your company achieve the flexibility, mobility, and scalability you need to become a productivity powerhouse. Reach out to us at 602-802-8353 or Support@Accram.com to schedule a free network assessment and learn more about how Mobile Office can help you become an industry leader!

Your IT Solution should work as hard for you as you do for your customers. If your current solution has you focusing on anything other than what’s most important, your customers, then it’s only holding you back. In recent years, the proliferation of “The Cloud” has changed the marketplace in many ways. Cloud is still a scary word for a lot of people. At its most simple, “The Cloud” could be defined as data, programs, or applications that can be accessed from anywhere by use of an internet connection. In a study titled “The Business Impact of the Cloud” released by Vanson Bourne, a technology trend research firm, found that businesses using at least one or more cloud applications grew 19.3% faster than their competitors. The benefits of Virtualizing your network and using Remote Access are myriad:

• Improved Security and Network Management
• Redundancy and Disaster Recovery
• Expenditure and Loss Reduction
• Flexibility, Mobility, and Scalability

We’ll discuss all the benefits over the next few posts, but let’s focus on Flexibility, Mobility, and Scalability for now.

Don’t let your company’s network or IT Solution hold you back! Find out how we can help your company achieve the flexibility, mobility, and scalability you need to become a productivity powerhouse. Reach out to us at 602-802-8353 or Support@Accram.com to schedule a free network assessment and learn more about how Mobile Office can help you become an industry leader!

The bottom line is very important for small business owners to consider when it comes to IT, and CFOs must consider several factors in determining expenditure. Originally, Capital Expenses were a requirement for running a server. This was because of limitations in technology, but now that the technological landscape has changed, what once required dedicated real estate, skilled IT Personnel, and loads of time and money can now be outsourced and accessed remotely. These technology improvements have provided an opportunity for small businesses to eliminate capital expenditure (CapEx) on servers, while significantly reducing operating expenditure (OpEx).

CapEx/OpEx in a Hosted Environment

Cost predictability is a determining factor when investing time and money, and Hard-cost investments are limited because business owners would rather invest in activities that generate revenue. That’s why so many smaller companies are outsourcing their IT –they have more flexibility, they have access to the newest technologies without investing in a ton of upfront capital, and they’re able keep operational costs low and predictable.

Servers are Better Hosted

When businesses decide to outsource their IT infrastructure they instantly feel the benefits. An on-site dedicated server is no longer needed, and all the maintenance is taken care of. As Dave Michels at TalkingPointz put it: “The shift to hosted I.T. is actually the buyer shifting the responsibility to the provider.” That’s why our customers love us. Many processes are standardized and automated, improving efficiency and collaboration, and other features can be bundled in as needed, which help companies simplify their I.T.  bills and expenses.

The ability to reduce capital and operational costs, and the flexibility to pay as you grow are only a few of the benefits hosted I.T. offers. Contact Mobile Office Hosted I.T. to learn more about how we can give you the competitive advantage in the modern marketplace.