Month: March 2023

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Moving to SharePoint: A User-Friendly Guide  

Can your company move away from an on-premise server to a SharePoint environment? 

On-premise servers had their advantages in the past, but for most businesses, everything and more can be done in a Microsoft 365 SharePoint environment. This guide will help you identify whether you are ready to take the leap. 

Table of Contents

Applications:

  1. Review all your applications – Are these currently web-based or hosted on your server? 
  • Adobe 
  • QuickBooks 
  • Business Specific Applications 
  • Office Products

2. If you are still hosting applications on your server, is there a cloud-based option? 

  • Review the cloud-based option to ensure the functionality is similar. If not, would the adjustment be easy? In most cases, the answer is yes.  

Computers:

  1. Ensure your computers are less than 5 years old 
  1. They must be equipped with an SSD as a hard disk drive can and will cause problems in a SharePoint environment  
  1. Ensure their specs meet a minimum of: i5 processor, 256GB SSD, 16 GB of RAM 

Internet Service:

Check on what type of connection you have 

  • Cable/Coax – if the first number (download speed) is larger than the second number, this is likely a coax connection. Example: 100/10 
  • Fiber – the download and upload speeds are identical. Example: 100/100 
  • Fiber is ideal for a cloud-based environment due to the higher upload dependency nowadays. However, a high enough cable connection would suffice depending on a few factors. Please reach out and we would be happy to audit this for you.  

Microsoft 365 License:

Check what licenses you have. Most come with SharePoint and OneDrive. However, the Business Apps license does not.  

Microsoft 365 Business Premium is highly recommended for a SharePoint environment for additional cybersecurity benefits. See our guide on Microsoft 365 Business Premium to see why this is the recommended license.  

Files:

  1. Review the amount of data you currently have on your servers 
  1. Review what data is live and would need to be migrated to SharePoint. SharePoint comes standard with 1TB but can be expanded if needed. 

Printing:

In most cases, your printing is managed by the server. Ensure you have a solution for this to manage printing. Printix is a great option that we can implement for you.  

Technology Partner:

  1. Evaluate your current IT provider. Do they have the expertise needed to set this up correctly? Microsoft 365 licenses are not cheap, having a provider that can maximize your subscription is critical. 
  1. Ask your IT provider for references of similar projects they have completed. 
  1. Contact us to get a FREE review of your systems to provide a SharePoint readiness report. 

Other considerations:

  1. Multi-Factor Authentication should always be used with your Microsoft 365 license.  
  1. Consider how you currently scan. Is it to a shared folder on a server? You may be able to scan directly into a SharePoint folder or you may want to switch to scan to email. 
  1. All computers should be synced to OneDrive. There are many benefits to syncing your primary work computer to OneDrive. If your computer crashes, your files are still secure. As well as the ability to take your files with you wherever you go, among other benefits.  
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Common Sense Cybersecurity: 4 Scenarios to Avoid

It’s true: even businesses that have impressive cybersecurity practices in place get breached. However, it is SIGNIFICANTLY less likely. The vast majority of breaches come from businesses that are missing common sense cybersecurity. 

It’s easy to blame the IT company for this. “I don’t know anything about cybersecurity, and I rely on my IT team to tell me what to do!” 

That argument is perfect, if you’re actually implementing what they have to say. 

For instance, multi-factor authentication blocks 99% of personal identity attacks, yet many businesses opt out when their provider makes this recommendation. Banks already require MFA for sensitive information: your business data is no less important. 

MOST breaches occur from a few easy to avoid scenarios:

1. Patches and updates are not being pushed out quickly enough – Think of these as holes being filled. If this is not getting done, your computers and network are filled with holes for attackers to sneak in! 

2. Open RDP ports – Don’t worry about what this means, just know that an open port leaves your business open to the world. Ask your provider about this! 

3. No Multi-factor authentication – This is a second form of authentication outside of your password. Taking 2 extra seconds when you login could save you from weeks of downtime! 

4. No GEO-IP blocking on firewall and email – Do you do business with China, Russia, or other countries outside of your home country? If not, block those countries! It’s a force function that keeps a lot of hackers at bay, and a barrier that will have them looking elsewhere for low hanging fruit. 

Cybersecurity gets complicated, yes. But at the end of the day, there are EASY common-sense layers you can put in place that will set you up to be resilient in this new cyber landscape. 

Make sure you’re covering the commons sense items first, and if you have an engaged IT provider, make sure you’re listening to their recommendations. They’re most likely not trying to “upsell you,” but rather protect your business, your reputation, and their own integrity and reputation as well. 

If you would like a 30-minute-high level audit of the common-sense cybersecurity layers, reach out (HERE ) and our owner will give you a call. 

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16 Questions You Need to Ask When Evaluating an New IT Provider 

IT provider

Finding the right IT provider for your business is tough. It always helps to ask the correct questions, so we have compiled 16 great questions to ask your potential IT provider that will help you to successfully gauge the personality and capabilities of the MSPs you are considering. Take a look at each and incorporate the ones that will benefit your business the most! 

  1. Why should we work with your firm? 
  1. Why shouldn’t we work with your firm? 
  1. What are the biggest challenges to a successful partnership? 
  1. How does the escalation process work? What if I am not satisfied with the response/resolution time of a particular service ticket or project? 
  1. What end user training do you provide, other than cybersecurity awareness training? 
  1. What reports do you provide to the management team, and what is the cadence? 
  1. What does the onboarding experience look like with your firm? 
  1. What do you believe your differentiators are compared to other IT providers? 
  1. Do you use in-house or contracted resources for services? 
  1. What would you need for a successful transition to your service? 
  1. How often do you meet with your customers for future planning? 
  1. We were just hit with ransomware: what would the Disaster Recovery process look like? 
  1. A new team member starts at your organization. They receive a ticket from our organization. What did their onboarding look like to ensure they are ready and able to effectively manage that request? 
  1. How do you monitor customer satisfaction and quality assurance on an ongoing basis? 
  1. How often do you raise prices and when did you last raise prices for customers? 
  1. We have a new employee starting, what does that process look like for your team? What should we expect and what would they expect from us? 

These questions cut through the fluff of sales speak and get right to the needs of your business, allowing you to find an MSP that is capable of propelling your IT to the next level. Ready to find your perfect match? Reach out today 

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Lazy Passwords Are Putting Your Business at Risk: Try Password Managers Instead

Password Managers

Passwords are a pain, make life easier with password managers.

No one enjoys trying to remember login credentials for upwards of 100 unique sites and services. More to the point, no one can remember 100+ unique sets of credentials, which leads to all sorts of other awful security problems (don’t worry, we’ll discuss them in a minute).  

Thankfully, new technologies are on the way or already here that either do away with the password entirely or add additional layers of security. But these new elements — passkeys, single sign-on, password less, and so on — have their own issues, and they aren’t yet available for every system, service, and account that you have a password for currently.  

Someday we’ll live in a post-password utopia. But we aren’t there yet.  

For now, password managers are the best near-universal solution for solving the security and access problems passwords create. This article is all about password managers — why you need one, what’s at stake for businesses that don’t rein in poor password use, and which password managers are worth your time.  

Understand the Risk of Poor Password Use

Like we said at the start, passwords can be a pain. They’re hard for humans to remember and easy for machines to guess. Even worse, no one can legitimately remember hundreds of username and password combinations. So, what do most users do?  They use unsafe shortcuts to overcome this hurdle.  

Some people write down all their important passwords in a notebook or leave them on a sticky note under their keyboards. The problem here is that absolutely anyone that might have physical access to your space could easily steal every password. All it takes is a single smartphone camera snap, and every account listed could be compromised.  

Others create one or two passwords that are easy for them to remember, then reuse those passwords across dozens of different sites and systems. Most people — around 90 percent by one survey — know that this is dangerous, yet almost 60 percent admit to doing it anyway. (And let’s be real: most of the remaining 40 percent are lying!)  

The trouble here is that if criminals manage to steal your username and password anywhere (through a data breach, a phishing attack, or anything else), then chances are good they now know your password everywhere — including sensitive accounts like your bank and your corporate logins. And when our email addresses are reused as usernames, the problem is even worse!  

Don’t be lazy when it comes to your security. Reach Out for a free list of password managers that work best for your business. 

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Cable Isn’t Stable – What Fiber Internet Can Do for Your Business

Fiber Internet

The title may have you thinking, “why are they so bullish on fiber internet?” The answer is simple: it’s already transforming the way many of our clients operate, and we want you to discover the same benefits for your business.  

These are just a few of the ways that fiber internet will benefit your business.  

 Superior Speed

First, the typical fiber connection is exponentially faster than the typical cable connection: 10x increases aren’t uncommon for businesses that make this switch. Fiber internet providers are offering business fiber connections as fast as 100Gbps, vastly outperforming coax connections.  

 More Reliable Technology

We’ll try not to get too deep in the weeds here, but the technology underlying fiber internet is more reliable and better for data transmission.  

Copper and coaxial connections turn data into electricity and send it over wire. This works fine, but there are distance limits to doing this effectively, and electrical wire also has bandwidth limitations.  

Fiber optic cable doesn’t transmit electricity. It transmits pulses of light (via LED or laser). Light travels faster, transmits data longer distances more reliably, and enables higher bandwidth.  

When we say that fiber optic is “more reliable,” that isn’t just marketing spin: the actual tech underlying the product is literally more reliable than cable.  

SLA-Level Reliability  

Fiber networks are generally more stable and reliable, and they offer users an experience much more in line with advertised speeds than cable does. That’s why you’ll find providers offering fiber with service level agreements (SLAs) in terms of availability and speed.  

Most fiber connections reach an impressive four nines (99.99%) reliability. 

 

Upload and Download Symmetry 

Another massive advantage — especially for business users — is fiber internet’s symmetrical upload and download speeds. On cable networks, the main number you see advertised (“1Gbps”) cover only the download speed. Upload speeds are exponentially lower. This isn’t a big deal for the average home consumer — Netflix downloads plenty and uploads next to nothing.   

But businesses often need to do both — especially in the era of cloud services and remote work. Cable can cripple your cloud productivity, while fiber can supercharge it.  

Dedicated Connections

With cable, every connection is a shared connection. This means that if the other business or businesses on your particular node are cranking through the bandwidth, your availability, speed, and latency might all suffer.  

Some fiber connections are shared in a similar way, but because the bandwidth capabilities are 10 to 100 times higher, this matters less.   

Also, dedicated fiber connections are available through some ISPs. These are more expensive, but even more reliable, consistently delivering blazing-fast speed with no competition.  

Failover Systems

In our cloud-connected era, your business can’t afford to go dark. Failover systems — essentially a backup internet connection that your business can shift over to automatically if your primary connection fails —keep your business operational when the inevitable happens. Whether that’s an ISP outage or a backhoe severing a fiber optic cable, having a failover system in place could be the difference between going dark and continuing to serve customers.  

Modern fiber connections make it much easier to set up automatic failover systems without sacrificing the other advantages of moving to fiber.  

With all of these benefits, the switch to fiber is a no-brainer. Reach out to start the process of upgrading your business’s internet. 

Like this article? Check out the following blogs to learn more:

Traditional Vs. Hosted Phone Systems | Data Magic (datamagicinc.com)

Cybersecurity Audit: What It Is And 9 Steps For Securing Your Business | Data Magic (datamagicinc.com)

The Comprehensive Guide To Microsoft’s New Commerce Experience | Data Magic (datamagicinc.com)

Why are business leaders choosing Co-Managed IT?  | Data Magic (datamagicinc.com)

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