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Monthly Archives: May 2022

access controls
Posted on Author Roxanne Demakis Categories Cyber Security, Network Security

Access Controls: Keeping You Safe from the Inside Out

In a world where more and more time is spent dwelling upon and selling software, we shouldn’t lose sight of the importance of quality hardware and other physical tools. In many industries, reliable physical security tools are still vital to the safety of business data, assets, and employers. One of the most useful tools for your company’s security could be access control.

Whether the danger of a cyberattack is coming from a malicious outside group or it’s caused by a disgruntled employee, you should do the most to secure what matters the most.

So even though digital technology is currently reigning supreme in the security industry, you will benefit from a physical tool such as access control that gives you a nuanced and intuitive approach to physical security.

Brief Look at Access Controls

A good physical security solution almost always has an effective door and digital access control system. Such systems let you control who can enter and leave the physical grounds of your company, or its certain zones. They also let you control who can access data stored on company hardware.

In other words, access controls are stopgaps for unwanted personnel who shouldn’t get insight into certain company data and insights.

As mentioned above, long gone are the days when such physical tools were separated from digital technology. Today’s secure door access systems have advanced with the arrival of the Internet of Things (IoT) and other software tools. Getting IP and cloud-based access controls became a popular option for company CEOs. But some still go down the old lock-and-key control route, or a combo of the two.

Access Control Cybersecurity

How Does Access Control Work?

Access control works by identifying a person, confirming that the person is who it says to be, and letting it have the access and perform the actions connected with the login or IP address. 

There are two directory services and protocols you should know about:

  • Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
  • Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)

These give access controls for identifying and authorizing users and allowing them to access computer resources like distributed apps and web servers.

Steps to Take When Implementing Access Control

Before you jump into the decision of getting a new security system feature, you need to find a good provider of managed IT services. Then and only then, you need to communicate with the service provider about your needs. Here are some of the basic foundation-building steps you will undertake together.

Develop Role-based Access

Your organization will most likely have numerous departments with varying levels of responsibility. Not everyone requires access to every sector.

As a result, it’s necessary to devise a system in which your staff’ tasks are clearly defined and suitable authorizations are granted depending on the sort of work that they perform. The network administrator who has access to the server room or the accountant who has access to the business safe are examples of role-based access. Ensure to examine regulatory compliance practices for each role when creating them.

Don’t Forget About Least Privilege Access Control

When talking to IT managed service providers, a lot of them will tell you about the importance of the least privilege rule. In short, that refers to the point that access should be given just by those who really require it – rather than being a convenience. Moreover, IT staff and security teams with roles dealing with access control privilege decisions should be put under some amount of monitoring.

After all, lots of cyberattacks come from inside the organization, and this is one way to minimize the risk.

Installing Access Control Software

There are many different forms of access control programs and applications, and to maintain access control, numerous components are frequently utilized simultaneously.

The software tools could be on-premises, in the cloud, or a combination of the two. They may be primarily concerned with a firm’s current access control or with consumer access management. The following are some examples of access management software tools:

  • Tracking apps
  • Reporting apps
  • Tools for managing passwords and other security access data
  • Provisioning tools
  • Identity databases
  • Security policy enforcement tools
Access Control Cyberthreat

Final Word

One Statista research found that in 2017 a record-breaking number of data leaks happened. And in 2020, another record was shattered – regarding the amount of records exposed.

So as the number of cyberattacks climbs up, so does the requirement to undertake action in your company and install both physical and software solutions for security. As a business owner, you should be in the know with technology advancements in this area and implement the newest trends that can benefit your company and secure employers and data.
So the next step you should take is to find a trusted managed service provider who will tailor you a package of services suited for your needs.

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cloud and IT managed services
Posted on Author Roxanne Demakis Categories cloud, Managed Services

How to Increase Productivity with Cloud and IT Managed Services?

Nearly every company out there seeks to grow and scale its business. One surefire way to start going that way is by increasing productivity in one’s company. Cloud and IT managed services can help with that.

The main benefit of these managed services is that they let you do more for less money since you are more or less outsourcing IT services.

This article will explore how cloud and IT managed services can help boost productivity and lead to overall company growth.

Definition of Cloud and IT Managed Services

To improve operations, cut costs, and realize other benefits, companies outsource the responsibility for maintaining and anticipating the need for a variety of processes and functions in the sphere of IT infrastructure.

The IT service provider offers your company a predefined set of services that suit your needs and are picked by you.

Simply put, a managed service company is a company that manages the everyday operations of your specialized applications. Managed services can help you:

  • Give your company’s end-users more capabilities.
  • Allow internal IT to concentrate on more strategic IT initiatives.
  • Allow your team to concentrate on your company’s core competencies.
IT managed services and cloud

Better IT Services for Less Money

Your company can see increased productivity with managed cloud services, as that gives it better IT service for less money. Such services are offered for a flat rate that the companies pay as a previously agreed-upon sum.

The provider of the services can spread the costs across the client base, so the company as a client ends up paying less than it would on its own. The teams working at cloud service providers are experts in their area, so you would probably also get taken care of in a better way than you would with an in-house team.

Core Competence Given by Experts

Anyone handling tech systems who isn’t an IT professional can vouch for the fact that the responsibilities are a constant challenge.

Digital transformations and upgrades, as well as tracking security risks, necessitate complete attention. General productivity dips with no dedicated resources. Companies and their teams can focus on their main areas of expertise while still reaping the benefits from cutting-edge tech thanks to outsourced cloud and IT managed services.

Filling in Gaps in Your Team’s Expertise

Finding an affordable provider who excels in complementary areas of IT can help businesses optimize managed cloud productivity gains. To put it differently, if your team lacks skills in areas such as cloud application development, data backup, and cloud strategy, employing a provider to handle these duties could save you time and money. It’s also crucial to make sure that the total cost of these services is less than the cost of additional in-house expertise and infrastructure.

Outsourcing IT service hosting and management can help businesses become more efficient, which is a top priority for many.

There is Less Risk Involved

Private, public, and hybrid clouds are used by managed service providers. As an outcome, these experts back up and store sensitive data in a secure location away from their clients’ workplaces. That has several advantages for companies:

  • Company owners can obtain data from anywhere on the planet. Cloud storage allows you to access and share data from your laptop, smartphone, or tablet.
  • Data breaches and third-party hacks can be avoided by business owners. Cybercrime is less likely when IT services are outsourced.
  • Disaster recovery procedures can be improved by company owners. Data loss is less likely in the event of a hurricane or flood because managed service providers do not store data on-premise.
  • Managed services can also help you avoid downtime. Power outages, computer breakdowns, and software issues can all hurt a company. Furthermore, data and sensitive financial data may be at risk.
cloud and managed services

Compliance is Ensured

Emerging technologies like the Cloud, SaaS, and ITaaS are subject to ever-changing national and worldwide compliance regulations in industries like healthcare, finance, property investment, and education.

Managed service providers who are well-equipped and have experience in offering detailed services for providing privacy, security, and data can alleviate concerns about missing crucial, or, in extreme situations, losing a company due to failing to meet mandatory compliance standards. That way you can rest and be at ease knowing that the formalities have been taken care of.

Final Word

Whether you’re a SME (small or medium-sized business) without in-house Informational Technology team or a full-fledged corporation looking to add complex tech outside your area of expertise – think about getting the help of cloud and IT managed services. You might be surprised to discover heaps of tiers of solutions and service hours tailored to your goals that are flexible and affordable.With 24/7 monitoring of your IT infrastructure, you will be able to focus more on scaling your business and helping your team improve its performance.

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IT Assessment
Posted on Author Roxanne Demakis Categories Cyber Security, Network Security

Top 7 Benefits of an IT Assessment

We’re all guilty of delaying our routine checkups with doctors and dentists. And we’re also guilty of doing so with IT assessment. But the same as with our bodies, we should have an ongoing objective view of what exactly is going on within our IT system. All of this is done for the reason of mitigating future risk.

There are a myriad of benefits of an IT checkup. A complete IT checkup gives you an overview of your business’ IT situation. That way, you have a better view of your operations and a complete outside perspective. Also, system assessments keep you focused on trends in your industry and on what your employees are doing.

Let’s expand on these benefits of IT assessments a bit more.

Defining an IT Assessment

First, let’s understand a bit better what we mean by “IT assessment”. This sort of checkup refers to the assessment of the general strengths and weaknesses of an IT system in any organizational network. Along with the assessment, a list of suggestions is given, as well. The suggestions focus on ways to improve system security, network design, and the general IT infrastructure.

What has to be done for an IT assessment to happen?

For starters, you need to hire a reliable IT consultation service provider and give them total access to the organization network, IT facilities, and other needed data. Next, the provider conducts the assessment by checking key areas of your digital environment, such as:

  • System Security
  • Data Security
  • Mobile Device Management 
  • Server Infrastructure 
  • Network software 
  • Etc. 

Before we look at the most obvious benefits on system checkups, bear in mind that there are risks in IT assessments. They mostly come from the risk of your data being leaked to third-party vendors.

IT Assessment for your company

5 Benefits of an IT Assessments

Some of the best practices expert IT service providers recommend can help in building a strong company foundation as well as reliable plans for company growth.

Reduced chance of accidental misconfiguration: The company can decrease its system vulnerabilities in the cloud environment by implementing the specific configuration adjustments recommended as part of the cloud security assessment.

Reduced chance of missed notifications: The recommendations of the cloud security assessment team can help an organization enhance its ability to detect and respond to compromise, preventing a minor issue from becoming a full-blown breach.

Improved resiliency: The IT assessment team will provide suggestions to help enterprises recover from breaches more quickly.

Detection of past compromise: While an IT security assessment is not a full-fledged IT compromise investigation, it can detect deviations from the standard in the organization’s IT configuration that may have been caused by compromised behavior.

How IT Assessments Help Your Team Function Better?

So, the technical aspect of benefits is pretty clear now. But how does that further help your team operate better?

Employee Awareness

Apart from the apparent security benefits, one of the things that individuals overlook when conducting these assessments is their employees. All of the information gathered from a checkup like this can be utilized to improve employee performance and raise understanding of the hazards they face, such as how to spot phishing attack emails.

Motivation

Another benefit for your team is that assessments will serve to remind them of your commitment to security and adequate procedures. Every day, we all have a lot on our plates, and it can be difficult to keep all of them spinning at the same time. Maintaining the integrity of your systems by reinforcing priorities is always a wise technique.

Budget Planning for Middle and Upper Management

It’s vital to have good reasoning for the plans you’ll have when creating budgets for the following year. Your cloud assessment’s facts and lists will help you justify future spending and explain the long-term benefits of the acquisitions you intend to make. All of this information also aids in determining what security requirements should be prioritized in your IT budget.

IT checkup

Final Word

No matter if you looked up this article because you are currently facing IT difficulties in your company, or are just looking out for options to keep your ongoing business safe, we hope this helps you get your operations in order. Having an assessment done will help you build a foundation of security controls and assist you identify risks that are leaving you vulnerable to attack.

After all, all organizations and businesses need to employ the help of IT experts from time to time – at least once in 6 months, to be more exact. Especially when extra demands are placed on IT, it is helpful to outsource someone who can implement the new initiatives and meet the changing needs of your department.

Following an IT checkup, you’ll feel more at ease – just like after a regular checkup with your doctor.

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Network Cabling Types for Your Business
Posted on Author Roxanne Demakis Categories Tech – Business

5 Network Cabling Types: Choosing The Right One for Your Company

If you’re wondering how to improve the performance of your office network, you came to the right place. This article will help you find the infrastructure that matches your needs.

Before you pick out the cable network type, you should look at several factors, such as if your company leases its headquarters or owns them. If you own the space, then you should focus on your primary usage and what are the company’s speed requirements. If you are leasing the space, then you should consider how long you will be staying in that space. That way you can determine what kind of network will get the job done.

Check out our neat guide to find the network cabling types that suit your needs!

What is Cabling Infrastructure?

To understand what kind of cables your business needs, you need to understand what cabling infrastructure is.

Cabling infrastructure is a complex network of cables that fulfill the requirements of various equipment. To be more precise, the network cabling infrastructure is a network of bulk Ethernet cables or fiber optic cables that connect different electronic gadgets and appliances of one building.

Picking the correct cabling infrastructure depends not only on leasing or owning a property. Here are some essential questions to ask yourself and a verified IT professional when choosing a correct network cabling type:

  • Do you need a conference room with high-speed internet?
  • Is there an employee or department in the company that needs the opportunity to do problem-solving skills that involve making IT decisions with wide impact?
  • Are you in the business of manufacturing that requires sturdy cables that can persist in extreme environments?
  • Do you plan to use PoE (Power over Ethernet) devices?

Now, let’s take this last question and expand upon it, as it serves as a great introduction to the need to be meticulous with listing out your needs. PoE devices are, for example, the VoIP phone system, security cameras, door access, WI-FI, and devices that work best when connected to a minimum category 6 cable.

network cabling types guide

5 Most Commonly Used Network Cabling Types

Category 5 and Category 5e Network Cabling Types

Just like Category 6 types, Category 5 and Category 5e cabling types are UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) cables. They are the most used cabling equipment for businesses as they can double for both computer networking and traditional telephone lines.

Category 5 (Cat5)

Category 5 cabling was a popular choice in 1995. As you can assume, technology has surpassed it by now. But don’t stray away from this choice if it soothes your lower IT needs.

Category 5e (Cat5e)

For any kind of advanced technology, you should go for Cat5e or beyond. It became standard to use in 2001 and consists of a copper cable that has a new standard. That reduces interference and speeds up the transfer. For now, Cat5e is the most used cabling type since it satisfies a lot of needs – it supports up to Gbps of speed and is not expensive as other cable types. Bear in mind that its bandwidth is just 100MHz, tho.

Category 6 and Category 6e Network Cabling Types

For current uses, systems using category 6 cabling will have more errors than systems using category 5e cable due to enhanced transmission performance and improved immunity to external noise.

Category 6 (Cat6)

If you own or plan to stay in your building, Cat6 cabling should be your choice. This cable provides more than twice the bandwidth of Cat5e while maintaining the same speeds. If your company employs PoE devices, you’ll need at least a Cat6 cable to manage the power. The main difference between Cat5 and Cat6 cabling is not only faster speeds but also less crosstalk, which causes mistakes and other problems.

Category 6a (Cat6a)

The Cat6a network cabling type has a higher specification that allows for transmission frequencies to be doubled to 500MHz. When compared to Cat5e and Cat6 cabling, this connection provides a significant increase in both speed and bandwidth. Without sacrificing 100 meters of cable length, this cabling architecture provides full 10-Gigabit Ethernet speeds. If you intend to expand or relocate the facility in the next 5-10 years, Cat6 or Cat6a are advised since they provide adequate transmission quality.

Network Cabling Types

Fiber Optic Network Cabling Type

Companies nearing capacity restrictions with Cat6 cables are increasingly turning to fiber optic cable infrastructure. Fiber optic cable is used to connect network segments, and to connect buildings and floors, but not for total network wiring. Fiber optic cable can transmit data at speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second.

Final Word

While technology is always changing, and no one can anticipate precisely what will happen next, your cable should be able to work at its best for at least a decade. Your company’s cabling infrastructure should survive as long as your company’s electronics and your next equipment upgrade.
If you are unsure which route to venture on, enlist the help of experts and highly-skilled engineers that can provide support for your project. No matter the size and complexity of the business, there is an end-to-end cabling solution for everyone.

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Website Performance
Posted on Author Roxanne Demakis Categories Tech – Business, Web Design

Proven Methods How to Evaluate the Performance of Your Website

When building and maintaining your website, one of the aspects you need to pay special attention to is the performance of your website. After all, not every visitor that comes to your website will have a fast and reliable Internet connection. Different people still have different Internet connection speeds, particularly due to the ever-growing use of smartphones which access websites via WiFi or mobile data.

So here is some insightful information on how you can evaluate the performance of your website and see where you’re at.

Keep Track of KPIs and Features That are Important for Your Goals and Niche

An overarching advice on how to track performance of your website is a simple one: keep track of KPIs that make sense for your industry and business.

And a reminder that KPIs are metrics you use to evaluate what impacts your business and how much. 

Now, let’s go over some generally useful KPIs for tracking how your website or web app is doing.

Reach and Impact

To get a feeling of the performance, you need to measure the audience’s reach and impact. Reach is the estimation on how many visitors your website may get. Impact refers to the number of visitors that are converted to customers.

This is most frequently measured using the reliable Google Analytics tool. In its dashboard, you can look at the “number of visits” and “unique visitors” section to find out this useful data.

Using Google Analytics to track these KPIs, you will be able to answer:

  • Is your audience growing?
  • How fast is your audience growing?
  • How many users are coming back, or are new ones arriving?
  • Where are all these users in the conversion funnel?

Insight like this can be easily interpreted, so you will know if people are, for instance, thinking about your brand, staying loyal to it, and returning to use your services.

Performance of Your Website Google Analytics

Traffic Sources

It’s not only important to know how many people are returning or discovering your website. It’s useful to also find out your traffic sources, a.k.a. where are your visitors coming from to your website.

The aforementioned Google Analytics tool has an Acquisition section that sorts visitors into different categories. Some of the criteria it uses are:

  • Visitor’s location
  • Their interests
  • Traffic channels and referrals
  • Overall demographics

By delving deeper into your audience and how it behaves, you will start to shape who your potential customer is. That, in turn, will give you more information on how to hone your marketing approach and how your website is doing.

And by tracking where your potential customers are coming from, you will be able to tweak your website’s performance better. Pay attention to which traffic channels your visitors are more likely to flock to:

  • Social media platforms
  • Google
  • Directory listing
  • PPC ads

And finally, pay attention to which keywords brought the visitors to your website to know how your website is doing in its niche.

Time to Interactive

To move on to more developer-centric means of evaluating the performance of your website, time to interactive (TTI) will tell you the time until the web app is rendered and responds to user input.

The higher your TTI, the worse your website is doing. So TTI optimization refers to lowering the time to interactive. Here are some things that indicate a lower TTI:

  • Compressed code: Less load time is needed when your code is minified. That means that web page and script files have minimized code, as well, leading to reduced load times and bandwidth usage.
  • Preloads: Using the preload attribute means hinting to the browser how the media file should be loaded and what will give a great user experience (UI) to the visitor.
Performance of Your Website SEO

Time to First Byte

Something not to forget is the Time to First Byte (TTFB), which is the speed at which the first bits of information get to the user.

The action occurs after a server connection has been established. A faulty TTFB means that both your SEO efforts and UX can take a hit. These are some ways you can improve the speed of the information flow:

  • Optimizing your code: Getting static caches and dynamic content are great ways to improve TTFB.
  • Getting a CDN (Content Delivery Network): Apart from dynamic content, you will also have static content. And static content such as images and scripts gets delivered quicker to users through a web of servers scattered across the globe.
  • Lower your queries: Lowering the number of images you load and combining CSS files will help with TTFB and lead to overall better UX.

Final Word

Optimizing your website and/or your web app is a sure-fire way to better conversion and leading customers down the sales funnel.
What we have here is a useful rundown of various ways to deal with website optimization – through both SEO efforts and web dev efforts. If you feel more sure of leaving this job to experts, then you can always get an experienced team such as these.

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