Category: remote working

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Your Server Shouldn’t Be Living in a Closet

Why hosting QuickBooks Desktop and other business applications on Microsoft Azure with Noobeh is a smarter way to work

I have seen a lot of servers in my career. Some were humming away in pristine data centers. Others were tucked under desks, squeezed into storage rooms, or sharing a shelf with copier paper and somebody’s forgotten lunch bag.

That may have worked when everyone came to the same office, used the same network, and crossed their fingers during thunderstorms. It is not a great foundation for a modern business. Today, your team may be working from the office, from home, from a client site, or from an airport between flights. They still need dependable access to QuickBooks Desktop, line-of-business applications, and the files that keep the company moving.

Hosting those systems on Microsoft Azure with Noobeh gives your business a secure, professionally managed environment without asking you to become an infrastructure company.

QuickBooks Desktop—without being tied to a desktop

QuickBooks Desktop remains essential for many businesses because it supports familiar workflows, specialized integrations, and years of valuable company data. The problem is often not the application. The problem is where it lives.

When QuickBooks lives on one office computer or an aging local server, access can become a daily obstacle. Remote users may struggle with complicated connections. Performance can vary. Backups may depend on someone remembering to check them. A hardware failure can turn an ordinary Tuesday into a business emergency.

In an Azure-hosted environment, authorized users connect to a centralized workspace where QuickBooks Desktop and other applications run close to the company data. The experience stays familiar, but the infrastructure behind it is built for secure access, business continuity, and growth.

What the business gains

Work from almost anywhere

Your people need access to their work, not a scavenger hunt for the one machine that has the right software installed. A hosted environment gives approved users a consistent way to reach the applications and data they need, whether they are in the office or working remotely.

Reduce the risk of aging hardware

Servers do not improve with age. Eventually, warranties expire, drives fail, and replacement parts become harder to find. Azure shifts the conversation away from buying and maintaining a physical box and toward providing the right computing resources for the business.

Strengthen security with layers

Security is not one product or one checkbox. It is a combination of identity controls, access policies, system maintenance, monitoring, backups, and good operational practices. Noobeh designs and manages the environment so these pieces work together, based on the needs of your organization.

Plan for interruptions before they happen

A local power outage, failed server, or inaccessible office should not automatically stop the business. A thoughtfully designed cloud environment can support backup, recovery, and continuity objectives that match the company’s tolerance for downtime and data loss. That planning matters far more than simply saying, “We have a backup somewhere.”

Scale without another hardware project

Businesses change. You hire people, add applications, open locations, or hit a busy season. Azure resources can be adjusted as requirements evolve, which makes growth a planning conversation instead of another round of shopping for a server that may be too small next year or far too large today.

Why Noobeh?

Microsoft Azure is a powerful platform, but power alone does not create a good business outcome. Someone still has to ask the practical questions: How many people need access? Which applications must work together? What performance does QuickBooks require? How should data be protected? What happens when a user needs help?

That is where Noobeh comes in. We bring cloud expertise together with an understanding of the applications businesses actually use. We help design the environment, move workloads, configure access, and manage the infrastructure after launch. You get a cloud solution built around the way your company works, not a pile of technology and a wish for good luck.

And because every business is different, the answer is not automatically “move everything.” The right approach may include QuickBooks Desktop, supporting applications, shared files, or a broader hosted workspace. Noobeh evaluates the full picture and recommends an environment that makes sense operationally and financially.

The real value is confidence

Cloud hosting is not exciting because a server is running somewhere else. It is exciting because your team can log in and get to work. Because adding a new employee does not require a weekend hardware project. Because your critical systems are managed intentionally instead of being quietly ignored until something breaks.

That is the point: fewer infrastructure distractions, better access to the tools people depend on, and a technology foundation that can keep pace with the business.

Is it time to get your server in a better place?

If your business depends on QuickBooks Desktop or other server-based applications, now is a good time to ask whether the current setup is helping you grow or simply giving you one more thing to worry about.

Talk with Noobeh about an Azure-hosted environment designed for your people, your applications, and your business. Let’s move the infrastructure out of the way so your team can focus on the work that matters.

Make Sense?

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Beyond the Books: Why Accountants Must Become Technology Advisors

When we created a hosting model for QuickBooks Desktop in the early 2000s, the promise was bigger than remote access. Yes, accountants and bookkeepers could work with client data anytime, keep the books current, and collaborate without the usual barriers of time and distance. But convenience was never the ultimate goal. The real opportunity was to use that closer connection to give business owners better advice—and help them manage and grow stronger companies.

Thousands of accounting and finance professionals eventually embraced online working models. Hosting services—and later, cloud-based applications—helped QuickBooks ProAdvisors and bookkeepers serve more clients far more efficiently than traveling from office to office ever could.

Somewhere along the way, however, the focus stayed on bookkeeping efficiency and accuracy. Those things still matter, but more of that work is rapidly being handled by automation and AI. Small and growing businesses need something more valuable: guidance on how to govern information, streamline workflows, and implement solutions that support the entire operation—not just the finance function.

The technology has caught up with that vision. In the early days, hosting was cumbersome and expensive because providers had to build the platforms themselves. Today, public cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure give small businesses access to agility, security, and scalability without an enterprise-sized price tag. Modern ERP solutions such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central can also replace legacy accounting applications burdened by bolt-ons, disconnected tools, and fragile integrations.

That shift makes it essential to understand how the whole business fits together. IT and accounting can no longer operate in separate lanes. Information management, security, privacy, access controls, and auditability may sound technical, but they are inseparable from sound financial management. Accounting sits at the core of any ERP system, and proper accounting treatment must guide the way integrated and add-on capabilities are designed.

Technology platforms, software, and systems exist to support business processes—and every one of those processes creates or uses data. That is where the collaborative model finally delivers on its original promise. By bringing accounting, finance, operations, and technology together, trusted advisors can help clients turn raw information into insight, identify where efficiency is being lost, and uncover opportunities for greater profitability. The profession has already moved online. Now it is time to move beyond doing the books and start helping clients build better businesses.

Ready to turn that vision into action? Reach out to Noobeh Cloud Services to explore how the right cloud, ERP, and information-management strategy can help your business modernize operations, work more efficiently, and build for sustainable growth.

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J

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The Key to SMB Success: Cloud Adoption for Resilience

Business resilience used to mean backup supplies and emergency plans. Today, it means being able to adapt quickly when supply chains stall, customer expectations shift, staffing needs change, or cyber threats escalate.

For small and midsized businesses, that kind of adaptability can feel out of reach. Resources are limited, and every technology decision has to prove its value.

The good news: resilience does not require enterprise-sized budgets. It starts with creating the flexibility to pivot when circumstances demand it.

Flexibility Is No Longer Optional

SMBs are used to doing more with less, but many still rely on technology built for predictability. Legacy systems, fixed infrastructure, and disconnected applications can turn small changes into major projects.

Cloud services change that equation by helping businesses enable users, migrate workloads, optimize operations, and scale capabilities as needs evolve.

Whether supporting remote work, scaling collaboration tools, or strengthening security, the cloud helps SMBs respond faster without rebuilding their technology foundation each time something changes.

Resilience Starts with Options

Resilience is about preserving the ability to respond. The more options a business has, the easier it becomes to make thoughtful decisions under pressure instead of scrambling for temporary fixes.

  • Scale resources up during busy seasons and back down when demand stabilizes.
  • Enable employees to securely access systems and applications from virtually anywhere.
  • Deploy new tools, applications, and services faster.
  • Strengthen backup, recovery, and continuity strategies.

In practical terms, flexibility creates breathing room. When you are running a business, breathing room matters.

The Human Side of Cloud Adoption

Cloud flexibility isn’t just about infrastructure. It helps employees stay productive, teams continue serving customers, and business owners spend less time reacting to technology constraints.

No one starts their small business with a plan to troubleshoot a server problem at 10 p.m. Technology should support the work that moves the business forward—not compete with it for attention.

Cloud Adoption Doesn’t Have to Happen All at Once

Cloud adoption can happen in phases. The best place to start is where the value is most immediate – maybe in the area of collaboration, security, backup, remote access, or application modernization.

This approach turns cloud adoption from a one-time project into a practical business strategy aligned with real priorities, measurable outcomes, and a realistic pace of change.

A More Resilient Future Starts with the Right Foundation

Cloud flexibility won’t remove uncertainty, but it can change how the business faces it… from reacting under pressure to responding with confidence, agility, and control.

For SMBs, resilience is no longer just about surviving disruption. It’s about building the flexibility to keep serving customers, protecting momentum, and growing stronger no matter what comes next.

Don’t Wait Until Disruption Forces the Decision

If your technology environment is slowing your ability to adapt, act before the next disruption exposes the gap. Identify where flexibility would make the biggest difference first, whether it be for remote access, security, application modernization, backup, or business continuity and recovery.

Do not wait until outdated systems limit your options. Connect with Noobeh’s team today to explore cloud solutions that fit your business goals, budget, and pace of change. Let’s make your business a resilient one, capable of handling whatever comes next.

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Cloud and Digital are Transforming Business

Businesses, whether small or large, must change how they operate. They need to find ways to leverage the technologies and influences shaping society. Transformation is essential for companies to face today’s rapidly changing environment and embrace the opportunities it provides. This means mapping out a strategy and prioritizing activities which will fundamentally shift the operation towards greater intelligence and agility.

Digital transformation is about changing how businesses operate at a foundational level. It involves transforming processes and capabilities. This is done to leverage digital technologies across all strata of the business. 

Change in business is an ongoing process and not a one-time activity.

Transformational change is enabled in large part by cloud technologies. Cloud computing solutions are in high demand. They allow businesses to scale easily and affordably. They also provide the mobility and remote access that workers require. 

More fundamentally, cloud computing services improve collaboration by users. They also enhance collaboration by applications. This improvement enables seamless integration of functionality and data from various sources.

Microsoft Azure platform provides infrastructure and services previously available only to larger businesses and enterprise IT departments. Noobeh, Mendelson’s cloud services team, uses Microsoft Azure to deliver SQL data warehouses for structured data. It provides data lakes for the storage of unstructured and different data types. The Azure Data Factory and Microsoft Fabric are used to transport, transform, and weave it all together.

Converged wired and wireless networks and smarter telephony solutions deliver location and usage data that were not previously available to most IT departments. Today’s imaging technology can easily reduce a picture to searchable and identifiable metadata. The introduction of IoT brings an even further integration of data from virtual and physical realms. This enhances potentials for intelligence. It also improves understanding and interaction.

Mendelson Consulting recognizes that true transformation is guided by the vision and objective but is supported through operational efforts.

The collection of data for inspection and analysis is the first requirement. Only through the proper establishment of processes and workflow is the required information developed.

Mendelson Consulting partners with businesses to define the scope and strategy for advancing into the digital future. They take fundamental steps to introduce greater agility in platforms and services. These platforms and services support an ever-changing business environment. They also ensure visibility, which drives greater business intelligence and operational insight.

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Prey or Empowered? Small Businesses and IT Security

Now more than ever, small businesses need to be vigilant with their information technology security. Small businesses may not be the big fish in the sea, but there are plenty of them out there to catch. Small businesses tend to make the best targets because they often fail to perform security audits, they may not be willing to invest in the resources needed to protect themselves, and they frequently don’t even carry the right insurance coverages. To hackers, small businesses are easy prey.

“Don’t think you are too small to be affected,” says Erik Knight, the founder and CEO of SimpleWAN. “Every place you have an employee or office is a potential entry point. Take it seriously; if you have something worth taking, a hacker will try to take it.”

https://www.forbes.com/…

There are a few things every business can do to improve the security and privacy of their data. It isn’t an option any longer; these are essential elements in an overall security strategy that can make the difference between staying in business and not.

Use strong passwords, not easy-to-guess words, phrases or sequences (1234 is not a strong password). Passwords should be unique, more than 8 characters in length, and have a mix of numbers, letters, and special characters.

Keep software updated. Whether it is the operating system on your computer or the software you use to write letters, having up-to-date software matters. Developers don’t just upgrade software to fix bugs or introduce new features; software often gets updated because of security issues or vulnerabilities.

Keep networks and connected devices secure to make sure that the computers and connections aren’t introducing weaknesses into your system. Not only are password controls and software updates needed, but firewall security and good anti-virus/anti-malware solutions are also a must. Keeping an eye on the server matters, but the connecting points and end points are where many vulnerabilities exist.

Set up two-factor or multi-factor authentication to further secure logins. 2FA and MFA is like having ID besides just your driver’s license to prove you are who you say you are. Your password, like your DL, is just one factor; you need one more thing to prove your identity for 2FA, like a code from your phone or maybe your fingerprint. The point is that there should be more than just a username and password to access important data.

Restrict use of personal email or social media on work devices. This gets a little trickier with smaller businesses, as many don’t or can’t support providing users with all company-owned devices. There are tradeoffs to allowing users to bring their own devices (byod) versus using company-owned devices. When mobile devices are part of the mix along with desktop and portable computers, it becomes even more complicated and the risk potential increases.

Use encryption for data in transit and data at rest. Encryption is like scrambling the data and then unscrambling it when you access it. In transit, data may be encrypted by a VPN so that it is protected over the wire (in motion) as it is sent and received on the network. RDP is also encrypted, but this remote access method’s main purpose is to keep the data from leaving the server in the first place. At rest, like when it is sitting on a hard drive or other storage location, data can also be encrypted. To open the file or file system, you need a key to decrypt it.

Keep all data backed up and create a way to rapidly recover your server and systems in the event of failure or compromise. Backups are great right up until you find they are as damaged or unrecoverable as your main system, so make sure to have a policy of testing your backups periodically. There are many ways to back up and protect your data, including external drives and cloud storage. If data gets lost or corrupted, you want to be able to restore it from a backup. Regularly audit your backup and data security practices to help identify weaknesses that make the business vulnerable.

Educating employees on the importance of cyber security is among the most important steps a business can take to protect itself. Keeping passwords secure and secret, knowing how to spot a phishing email and what to do and not do with it, not clicking on suspicious links in emails, not sharing personal or confidential information online, and what to do in the event of a breach are all things that should be regularly discussed with workers and supported by written policies.

Managed Azure cloud servers from Noobeh help you keep your business information more secure. Our services demand high levels of security and privacy, and we help our customers keep their data and systems safer and more secure by handling some of the requirements for them.

  1. Strong password policies and MFA is our standard setup, and software updates and patching are part of the service.
  2. Working on the cloud server keeps data on the server and not traversing the network or downloading to individual PCs, so information stays secure and separate from whatever a user runs on their local devices.
  3. Data on the Azure virtual machines is encrypted at rest, and additional encryption is available to add more layers of protection. Data in motion is encrypted, but very little data actually traverses the wire.
  4. Servers and data are backed up regularly with snapshots and file level backups, allowing for simple file restores as well as comprehensive system recovery.

For small businesses, Noobeh has the solution for creating a more secure and better protected IT environment where applications and data can be available to those who need them without compromising the investments already made in training and process development. Moving software and data to a private cloud server allows companies to continue using the software they rely on, just in a better way. Instead of being easy prey to hackers, our customers benefit from higher levels of IT administration, management and protection that empowers them to work the way they need to – any time, anywhere.

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J

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Business Data Loss is a Growing Problem

The portable computer was the secret business weapon of yesterday and is today’s essential business tool. The processing power, portability, storage, and connectivity available with laptops, tablets and smartphones has created a seamless extension to the office. Business users can work with their applications and data from just about anywhere. While mobile devices are valuable when it comes to conducting business, they also pose additional security risks. Increased efficiency, mobility, and accessibility can also mean an increased potential for a data breach or business data loss.

The workforce of today is mobile enabled. Business users, owners and managers, accounting advisors and business consultants can access all the information and analytical capability they need to perform their jobs and make informed business decisions, capturing and collecting important information while keeping productivity at the highest levels no matter where they are.

“87% of businesses rely on their employees to use their personal mobile devices to access company apps”, according to a post by Perillon. Some studies have estimated that as much as 80% of the data a company has (like customer files, contracts, financial data, product specifications) might be stored on portable devices. This means that mobility comes with risk, which is why Mendelson Consulting and Noobeh cloud services utilize cloud-based platforms and services to keep data safe and secure.

According to business data loss statistics compiled by Businessdit.com, the two most common causes of data loss are hardware failure (40%) and human error (29%). Overall, malware causes 35% of all data loss, taking advantage of the 21% of files that businesses are not protecting at all.

The stats show that it takes approximately 206 days on average to even detect a data breach, the costs of downtime and losses average around $1,410 per minute for small businesses, and 22% of SMBs close after a ransomware attack.

Data loss or theft can create big business and legal problems, too. Customer or client privacy may be compromised, sensitive information may be exposed, and confidential plans may be made public if a business doesn’t take steps to secure mobile data.

“The average cost of a data breach in 2021 was $4.24 million. That’s a huge increase from the $3.86 million cost in 2020. And it’s only going to get more expensive in the future. Companies need to be prepared to deal with the fallout from a data breach, which can include everything from legal costs to damage to their reputation.”

Businessdit.com

There’s an old saying that there are only two types of businesses: those who have lost their data and those who will. Imagine the potential chaos, risk exposure, reputation damage and the expense of losing your valuable business data or having it exposed to unauthorized parties.

While computing mobility delivers a host of advantages to the business and the user, care must be taken to ensure security, privacy, and confidentiality of the business information and protecting against business data loss.

Increased exposure to liability is a reality for any mobile business, and the risk is only multiplied by the number of systems a company has in the field. Smart businesses reduce risk by deploying secure yet versatile platforms for their workers that allow data to be stored and protected in centralized environments rather than on individual computing devices.

Via the cloud, businesses of all kinds are reaping the benefits of new and innovative service delivery, achieving the freedom and functionality a mobile working model demands. Mendelson Consulting and Noobeh cloud services have the cloud solutions and managed IT services that provide the mobile capability businesses need, but with the additional protection, additional security, and ongoing management that the value of the data demands.

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