Managed IT Services Blog

In 2017, The Economist made the statement that data had surpassed oil as the world’s most valuable resource. This statement came 11 years after mathematician Clive Humbly said, “Data is the new oil,” and echoed others who have also made comparisons to show just how important and valuable a company’s data is. 

Data loss can cost a business operational downtime, lost sales, and unexpected expenses to get the data back. Many data loss incidents are the result of cyberattacks, which can expose your business to other vulnerabilities. 

According to Spiceworks’ 2019 State of IT Report, 58 percent of companies that were surveyed expect to increase their IT budget from last year. An additional 27 percent expect no change in their budget, and only 7 percent expect the amount they have to spend this year to decrease. 

More organizations are realizing the benefits of using cloud storage services for their data. The embrace of cloud storage for data is so dramatic that in the most recent Cisco Global Cloud Index, it was predicted that by 2021, cloud data centers will process 94 percent of all workloads.

In the past, a small or midsize business (SMB) typically relied on a small IT staff to handle all of their company’s technology needs. This team, sometimes comprised of only one person, would manage servers, install software, manage desktops, handle security, ensure peripherals were all working, and make sure that any other technology was working properly.

There was a time when it took small businesses a great deal of convincing that they needed to take network security seriously. Today, thinking about security is critical for all Boston businesses, regardless of size. The data behind this speaks for itself—Small Business Trends reports that:

• 43 percent of all cyberattacks target small businesses.
• 60 percent of companies go out of business six months after a successful attack.
• 48 percent of data breaches occur as the result of malicious intent; the remainder is due to human error or system failure. 

When it comes to F5 BIG-IP and specifically F5 LTM products it can be easy to think of them as a mechanism for load balancing traffic and nothing more. What can be overlooked is that these devices are highly intelligent and offer a diverse range of ways with which you can optimize your traffic and further protect your network.

According to TechGenix, it is estimated that 78 percent of all small businesses will adopt cloud technologies by the year 2020. This estimation makes sense when you consider the cost savings that small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) find after they move to the cloud. As the popularity of cloud computing with SMBs grows, so does the interest in Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a cloud provider. This is expected as AWS remains the dominant force in the market, even when compared to heavyweights like Microsoft and Google.

As I sat down to write this article news broke of yet another major flaw affecting Windows systems. This time it’s a remote code execution vulnerability in Remote Desktop that could be exploited by a hacker via a worm making this a particularly dangerous flaw—view the details of this vulnerability. So it’s time to get patched!

When the global average cost of a data breach is $3.86 million dollars, you can be assured that businesses take notice. This number alone should be enough to convince anyone to take networking security seriously. However, cost savings and an untarnished reputation aren’t the only advantages that networking security brings to your business.

Once the decision has been made to stage an Active Directory site in a cloud tenant, there are some core principles which should be noted.