Category: Cloud Computing

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Connecting Your Web Store to QuickBooks on Azure

If you sell products via the Internet using a web store or shopping cart application, then you are probably facing the problem of getting your order and sales activities into QuickBooks and then getting shipping and product information back into the web store. For some, the additional need is to mirror the products and pricing information between the inventory management or financial system and the web store. In many businesses, this is a big chore and requires literally hours of redundant data entry and updating.

As with any manual process, there are many opportunities for errors and mistakes which ultimately cost the business both time and money.

Online selling is a dynamic business, and the sale is made when the customer is ready and willing to buy and the seller has the item available at the right price. The web store (ecommerce system) exists to process this sale in order to meet the immediacy of customer demand. If the system is not up to date with current product or pricing information, then the customer may not find what they want, and the sale is lost.

This means that the connectivity between the online selling system and the inventory/accounting system is of paramount importance in the ability to do business.

Synchronizing inventory information between the web store and the inventory/accounting system ensures that product and quantity information is updated on the web as product is sold and shipped (or received in). At the same time, importing invoices and sales receipts into the accounting system helps to ensure proper and accurate recording of sales and payment information and improves tracking of accounts receivable, shipping charges, and sales taxes.

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To make this connection between the Web store and the inventory/accounting software, an integration solution or connector is generally required. The connector gets installed on the same systems as the inventory/accounting solution (on the same systems as QuickBooks, in this case) and provides the mechanism to synchronize data between the web store and the accounting system.

Integrating an always-on web store with an on-site accounting solution can be a challenge, even for the most tech savvy business owner.

Creating seamless processes for exchanging data between these remote systems requires that both solutions be operating in a secure and accessible platform. While the web store is accessible via the Internet, getting to data in accounting and other systems residing on local PCs or networks is more problematic.

An option that many successful online businesses have adopted is NOOBEH‘s QuickBooks on Azure service, which provides centralized hosting and management for the QuickBooks desktop and any connected inventory or warehouse management applications as well as the integration to the web store.

Enabling the accounting and operational systems to be online and always on, like the web store, allows them to exchange data when and where it is required.

Connecting services in a secure and managed environment introduces new efficiencies and eliminates risk due to data entry errors or lost transactions. The QuickBooks on Azure cloud hosting service provides the system management, platform security and uptime required to ensure that the inventory and accounting systems supporting the always-on web store are also always on.

jm bunny feetMake Sense?

J

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Where in The World is Your Data?

Where in the World is Your Data? Even better.. where would you like it to be? In a datacenter near you? In a datacenter far away from you? Maybe you’d like your production system nearby, but backups stored on the other side of the country. Or perhaps you want redundant systems on each coast as well as something somewhere in the middle.
With Microsoft Azure as your platform, you have all the choices in the world, literally.

Microsoft Azure is the platform of choice for businesses of all sizes, offering virtualized infrastructure and services that can be tailored and tuned to meet the unique needs of any organization. No longer tied to on-premises infrastructure, companies find that they can implement better and more comprehensive solutions because they have the agility to adapt systems to immediate needs while retaining the ability to adjust as conditions change.

With Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 Services, NOOBEH enables businesses to focus on transformation and improving efficiency, not the IT that supports it.

NOOBEH cloud services, part of the Mendelson Consulting team, sets up Azure infrastructure and manages it for their clients. Business users focus on getting their work done, not on the IT supporting it. NOOBEH QuickBooks on Azure services give small and medium size businesses the most flexible and resilient infrastructure available to run all their desktop and network applications.

Because QuickBooks is rarely a standalone solution, NOOBEH QuickBooks on Azure services have no limitations on what add-ons, extensions, integrations or other applications the business may need to use. All the software a business needs can be deployed on the platform, allowing the company to keep its information systems and assets secure, fully-managed and available when and where they are needed.

While NOOBEH uses Azure platform and Microsoft 365 services to continue to deliver new capability for private sector users, Microsoft is advancing innovation in the delivery of connected services and computing power for private and government sector users wherever it is needed. Azure Modular Datacenters represent a partnership that delivers computing and communications capacity anywhere in the world… and beyond.

Microsoft Azure Modular Datacenters and SpaceX

The Azure modular datacenter is basically a “data center in a box”. It comes with everything needed to deliver computing capacity anywhere in the world.

“We designed the Azure Modular Datacenter (MDC) for customers who need cloud computing capabilities in hybrid or challenging environments, including remote areas. This announcement is complemented by our Azure Space offerings and partnerships that can extend satellite connectivity anywhere in the world. Scenarios range from mobile command centers, humanitarian assistance, military mission needs, mineral exploration, and other use cases requiring high intensity, secure computing on Azure.”

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/introducing-the-microsoft-azure-modular-datacenter/

It has power and everything else it needs, and now it also has the connectivity needed, even when there is no (zip, zero) infrastructure. Microsoft has partnered with SpaceX, using SES satellites to bring Internet connectivity to remote areas.

“We can connect via satellite links any element on the Earth to another point on the Earth..”

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/10/microsofts-new-data-center-in-a-box-will-use-spacex-starlink-broadband/

They’re calling it part of “a multi-orbit, multi-band, multi-vendor” approach to connectivity. That’s pretty cool, if you ask me.

It takes the whole bookkeeping in bunny slippers philosophy of “work when and where it works for you” to an entirely new level.

Make Sense?

jm bunny feet

J

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Update your Mac to keep getting Office application updates

Microsoft’s upcoming November 2020 update has some direct impacts to users running macOS, especially if running macOS 10.31 or earlier. As of November 10, 2020, existing Microsoft 365 for Mac users running macOS 10.13 or earlier will not receive any further Office application updates. If the machine is upgraded to macOS10.14 or later, updates will be allowed to proceed on that computer.

With the Microsoft 365 for Mac November 2020 update, users running macOS must be running 10.14 Mojave or later in order to continue to receive updates for Office applications, and any new installs of Microsoft 365 for Mac will require macOS 10.14 or later.

Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote are the applications included which will no longer receive updates – including security updates – if the macOS they’re running on is too outdated.

Among the benefits of using Microsoft 365 is that the software is always kept up to date, including enhancements and new features as well as security and safety updates that help keep the software (and the associated data) more secure. You may continue with the older version of macOS, and your Office applications will continue to work. But losing out on updates not only keeps you from benefitting from the most current capabilities of the software (and getting full value from your subscription), but it also puts your security and compliance at risk.

Microsoft 365 applications are continuously updated with new features, connected services and enhancements to security. Modern operating system platforms are necessary to support some of these improvements, requiring users to update their computer operating systems as well as the applications running on them. With the Microsoft 365 November update, Mac users need to be running one of the three most recent versions of macOS to keep their Office applications recent, too.

Make Sense?

J

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Building A Solid Foundation for Business Cybersecurity

The cybersecurity threat landscape has changed dramatically in the last few years. No longer primarily a big-business concern, cybersecurity has become a key focus of businesses small and large. Attacks on SMBs are on the rise, perhaps because they represent a plentiful and often easy target. And the cost of damage and disruption to business just keeps going up.

Cybersecurity is not a problem you can simply throw a bunch of money and tools at to fix.

No matter how much great software or fancy systems you implement, the people will always be a big part of the equation. The root cause of over half the data breaches reported is a result of negligent employees or contractors.

That means that nearly half of all attacks are being executed through phishing or social engineering. The only tool you can apply to this problem is education. Efforts should be focused on security awareness and training workers to be more cautious to the point of almost being paranoid. Better to be safe than sorry in this case.

Training workers to be more careful as they work with emails, documents and websites is part of it, but there is much more to making sure the business is addressing the entire cybersecurity issue. NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) offers a wide variety of information and guides that businesses can use to learn more about and implement cybersecurity practices. Among these resources is the Cybersecurity Framework.

According to NIST, “the Framework focuses on using business drivers to guide cybersecurity activities and considering cybersecurity risks as part of the organization’s risk management processes.” It is a highly useful tool in helping the business align and prioritize activities with business requirements, risk tolerances and resources. The standard framework includes elements that are consistent and common across sectors and critical infrastructure, so it can be oriented to any business.

Even if the business is not prepared to delve into the details of a comprehensive cybersecurity policy and guideline, a basic outline and approach cannot be avoided without asking for disaster.

Putting this squarely into the Risk Management category, there is an ongoing process of identifying, assessing, and responding to risk situations or conditions. To manage the risk, businesses need to consider the likelihood that an event will occur and what the potential impact is as a result.

Knowing the acceptable level of risk for reaching the business objective is the risk tolerance. If a business understands its risk tolerance, the company can prioritize cybersecurity activities and make informed decisions about cybersecurity expenditures.

There are five key functions to consider as it relates to cybersecurity risk: Identification, Protection, Detection, Response and Recovery. How the business addresses each of these in the context of the systems and activities is essentially the business’s cybersecurity posture, a high-level and somewhat strategic view of the organization’s management of cybersecurity risk.

The key to building a solid foundation for  business cybersecurity practice is to establish a platform where all the business applications and data can be identified and access secured.

User desktops, productivity applications, operational software and business data can be hosted on private cloud servers, allowing the business to fully-manage data and application access. The server-based model reduces or eliminates the need to sync data to devices, and remote desktops keep user environments secure, patched and up-to-date.

Our consultants can’t write your cybersecurity policies or determine your risk tolerance, but we can help implement a solution that improves fault tolerance, resilience, and recovery.

Make Sense?

J

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Office 2013 Loses Support for Commercial Office 365 Services

If you’re not on a subscription for your Office desktop applications, you may lose access to your email box and other services.  Why? Because Microsoft announced that, effective October 13th, 2020, Office 365 services (like OneDrive, Hosted Exchange and more) will only support client connectivity from subscription clients or perpetual clients with mainstream support.

Basically this means that Office 2013 is about to be no fun any more.

You won’t be able to use Office 2013 Outlook to connect to your Microsoft-hosted Exchange mailbox, and your Word and Excel won’t connect to OneDrive.  If you are with a hosting provider who supplies your Office licenses as part of the service, cross your fingers and hope that it isn’t Office 2013. It will be pretty frustrating if your Outlook suddenly has problems accessing your Microsoft-hosted mailbox.

Like many other products, a lot of the functionality in the desktop software has been turned into web service and the Microsoft Office applications are a great example. With cloud connectivity being the focus, desktop solutions are more frequently leveraging online resources to extend and expand their capabilities. This also means they’re more frequently turning from one-time software purchases to subscription service.

After October, Microsoft’s ongoing investments in the Office 365 cloud services – including Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive for Business – will be made based on “post-Office 2013 requirements”.  Now is the time to migrate your Office 2013 to Microsoft 365 Apps (formerly Office 365 ProPlus). We highly recommend this move anyway, so businesses can take advantage of using their Office applications seamlessly on Azure servers as well as their local PC desktops and mobile devices.

Users of Office 2016 and Office 2019 have a little more time before their software no longer supports the cloud services. That end date is currently October 2023. You can find the support lifecycle site for Office mainstream support dates here.

It isn’t that Microsoft plans to actively block older Office clients from connecting to Office 365 services. It’s just that older applications may have performance or reliability issues when they try to connect to the constantly-updated cloud services.  Increased security risks are certain and users may even find that they are no longer compliant with certain requirements. The big thing is that Microsoft support will likely not be able to resolve issues related to unsupported connections.

The days of buying software once and running it forever are just about over.

Developers have recognized that cloud services can expand and enhance their solutions in ways that static local installation can’t. For many businesses, it becomes easier and ultimately more efficient to migrate to subscription service for IT platform and software. Azure cloud servers, for example, allow businesses to always have modern infrastructure that is more fault tolerant and agile than on-premises hardware.

Combing these benefits with software that is cloud-connected and always up to date means the business never faces lost productivity or revenues due to outdated systems or lost compatibility with newer solutions.

Make Sense?

J

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Cloud for Small Business: Gain Hardware Independence

Small businesses tend to approach their business IT in terms of the tangibles.. the hardware and software they can see and touch.

The desktop PCs where the programs are installed, the server in the back room where the files are stored, and the backup that goes offsite (tapes? discs? usb drives?) is the stuff most small business owners think of when asked about the computing technology they use. This view isn’t very comprehensive when it comes to considering the costs of purchasing and maintaining IT in the business, yet it identifies a major problem with the typical small business IT approach.

The problem is the dependency on the hardware and the reliance of the small business on the operation of individual computers.

The solution to this reliance on on-premises hardware? The cloud.

The solution to the problem isn’t centered on using web-based applications. The real solution to this small business IT problem is cloud platform, like Microsoft Azure. When businesses deploy a private cloud server they get solution that allows them to run all their desktop and network applications and store their data on a virtual platform that isn’t tied to any particular piece of hardware in the office.

Microsoft Azure offers virtual computing resources, managed and secured on Microsoft’s hardware in Microsoft datacenters. Rather than purchasing and maintaining hardware on-premises, business can deploy virtual networks and servers on the Azure platform. This makes the systems far more versatile and resilient than would be affordable to do otherwise. Surprise server hardware failures become a thing of the past, and buying ahead for possible future needs is no longer required because the systems can be upgraded on demand.

Businesses still need desktops where users access their programs and data, but the “desktop” can be a cloud desktop rather than the local PC desktop.

Remote desktops on the cloud server keeps software licensing and business information securely stored on the cloud server rather than being resident on user computers where it is more easily compromised. Users may still browse the internet and do other things with the local PC desktop, but using the cloud desktop for business applications and data means that just about any PC could safely be used for work.

When applications and data are managed on-premises, it makes changing servers or workstations a big deal. 

Changing desktops or servers means that software must be uninstalled and reinstalled, data must be migrated and user profiles and permissions may need to be recreated. When the cloud server is where users get their desktops, computer workstations become interchangeable because nothing is really installed on them other than the connection to the cloud desktop. This is also why traveling laptops and home computers become more secure for business use, because the applications and data are really running on the cloud server and not on the local device.

The cloud platform provides what the business needs without the lock-in to on-premises hardware or SaaS/Web-based software.

Rebuilding servers due to hardware failures, upgrading systems to handle future growth or replacing aging hardware all contribute to the unpredictable cost of managing and maintaining on-premises computer systems. SaaS and web-based software solutions lock-in data and lock-out many future options, yet they don’t address user desktops and the rest of the applications and data the business needs.

Rather than risking outages and lost productivity, businesses are finding that running their systems on a managed cloud platform provides more stability and consistent performance for a reasonable and more predictable cost. Desktop and server software licensing is able to service multiple locations when installed on a cloud server, and workers at home can access the tools to be just as productive as they are in the office (maybe more).

Make Sense?

J