Tag: IT

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Taking a Hybrid Technology Approach is Most Advantageous for Many Small Businesses

When discussing technology and cloud, most IT resellers and MSPs serving small businesses equate “cloud” with web-based applications (SAAS) and web-based file sharing and assume that any talk of cloud desktops means desktop-as-a-service (DAAS). Unfortunately, web applications and file sharing services, and especially DAAS, are often NOT the best or most advantageous solutions available to the SMB/SME organization.

Rather than taking an “all or nothing” approach to cloud, small businesses benefit more from a strategic combination of cloud servers and desktop software, a hybrid model where the business gains the best of both worlds.

It is sometimes frustrating that small business IT personnel are the drivers behind migrating businesses from desktop applications to their web-based counterparts.

Most SMB software purchases are solely handled by IT, disregarding other important stakeholders.

Capterra’s 2023 SMB Software Buying Trends Survey

These non-business users pave the way for moving the business to cloud-based applications rather than modernizing the platform for existing applications to enable improved processes and workflows. This is especially challenging for accounting and finance operations where the businesses are being encouraged to migrate without first considering the underlying business processes or the accessibility of the impacted and associated data.

Businesses have developed an appreciation for the stability and predictability of desktop applications, along with the recognition of the challenges of transitioning from a system that is deeply integrated into existing workflows. Training users and adapting the work while migrating to cloud applications can be complex and costly without delivering significantly new or increased business benefits.

Data control and security are also large considerations. Most desktop applications allow businesses to retain direct access to and control over their data. Sensitive information remains within their reach rather than under the direct control of a 3rd party SAAS provider from whom they must gain permission and access to retrieve their data.

Rather than pushing the business towards web-based application services, a hybrid approach that modernizes the server and network platform as well as the user working environment may make more sense and provide the organization with greater advantage. This allows businesses to leverage their investments in desktop software, processes, training, and data and still make significant operational improvements and transformations.

Even more, some businesses rely on specialized software that isn’t easily replicated in a web-based environment. Existing desktop applications, especially industry-specific or custom-built tools, may not have cloud equivalents. Migrating these to the cloud server platform allows for uninterrupted productivity even as the business transitions from local to cloud-based platform and operations. Employees comfortable with existing software can maintain productivity without significant adjustments.

Using a cloud server to replace on-premises servers and user desktops, and keeping desktop and network applications working more securely, with improved access and management is the hybrid approach most advantageous for small and medium size businesses.

Noobeh works with Microsoft Azure, providing cloud servers that are scalable so small businesses can adjust their computing resources based on demand. Whether it’s expanding during peak seasons or downsizing during quieter periods, cloud servers offer flexibility that on-premises machines can’t.

Businesses can continue to use the critical desktop application tools they rely on and retain direct control over their data at the same time. Sensitive information remains within their cloud network, but users can access it from anywhere.

This hybrid model combines the benefits of cloud servers, including scalability, cost-effectiveness, agility, and security, with the benefits of keeping existing desktop software, including functionality, stability, data investment and control.

A hybrid approach to modernization allows small businesses to leverage the advantages of both cloud servers and desktop software, tailoring their technology stack to the unique needs of their businesses and in a way that is most advantageous to the business.

jm bunny feetMake Sense?

J

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Cybersecurity and Retail Should Always Go Together

Retail cybersecurity is a critical concern for every business in the retail industry, which is why cybersecurity and retail should always go together. Retailers are prime targets for cyberattacks due to the valuable customer data they collect, which usually includes personally identifiable information (PII) and credit card numbers. Retailers can handle large volumes of customer data, which becomes an attractive target for cybercriminals seeking to profit from selling it on the dark web.

Recent statistics from various sources suggest that more than 24% of cyberattacks specifically target retailers, making it one of the most heavily targeted industries. Roughly one third of retailers cite cybersecurity concerns as their primary obstacle in transitioning to e-commerce, with cost and technology barriers coming close behind.

For the bad guys, however, it is all about the money. Almost all retail cyberattacks are driven by financial motives. When consumer data is compromised, most of the information exposed consists of payment information and personally identifiable data which can fetch a good price on the dark web.

Retail cybersecurity threats occur because the environment tends to have a lot of elements. The hybrid nature of many retail businesses introduces additional risk, where brick-and-mortar stores are combined with e-commerce platforms and services.

NFC (Near Field Communications) vulnerabilities exist in some payment systems, and many Point of Sale (POS) systems still do not use point-to-point encryption for their communications. Even if communication streams are encrypted, it makes little difference if the software has known vulnerabilities or if insecure plugins or add-ons are being used.

Cloud-based storage and mobile apps increase the presence of stored data online, which increasingly leads to new threat vectors like cloud-based botnets and more.

The key is for businesses to prioritize security and invest in platforms and solutions that will help protect customer and business data. Critical in this effort is the implementation of IT best practices in regularly updating operating system and application software, limiting the access users have for installing or modifying software on their devices, and always monitoring the systems for vulnerabilities.

Like cybersecurity and retailers, Noobeh and secure IT go together. We help retail and other businesses proactively address cybersecurity challenges so they can protect both their business and their customers. Noobeh cloud services helps retailers secure their business servers and systems, delivering scalable, high availability and highly agile solutions that keep business and finance operations running.

Noobeh provides services for Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure platform and deploys solutions for manufacturing, inventory management, multi-channel commerce, EDI, financial and more. Get together with Noobeh and find out how we can help your business operate more securely and with better, more agile and resilient IT.

jm bunny feetMake Sense?

J

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Run Your [New, Small, Growing] Business from Anywhere

The office for a small business used to be where all the work got done.  The hub of activity and productivity for a small business, the office was where you could connect with team members and co-workers and generally keep on the same page with what was going on in the business.  Customer orders are taken, those orders are fulfilled, and bills are paid – all from the small business office.  Yet today’s small business isn’t tied to the office location any longer.fishingpoles

Mobility and the cloud now provide businesses with mobile office options that allow users to get their jobs done no matter where they happen to be.  Business moves at a fast pace, and mobility and remote access solutions help companies be more nimble.  Collaborating while on the go and exchanging ideas and concepts quickly helps businesses be more agile and better-able to meet changing customer needs.  Successful small business owners leverage mobility and action to beat the competition.

The cloud and Internet-based computing lets small businesses access and benefit from IT solutions that were previously only available to enterprise organizations.  Better IT means being more competitive, giving smaller businesses a leg up and positioning them among even the largest of competitors. For the business owner, the freedom of being able to manage the entire business from anywhere delivers a freedom and flexibility previously unimagined.

Here are some ways hosted and cloud-based IT can help small businesses overcome everyday business challenges:

Reduce or Eliminate the Need for a Physical Office

Starting a business is tough, and many small business owners decide to use their own homes as a business location rather than forking over a bunch of lease money to a commercial realtor.  Using hosting application services and cloud technologies can help keep team members and co-workers working together, no matter where they are located.  Many businesses are able to get off the ground and operating successfully without ever having an established office.

Work when it Works for You

Remote desktops and hosted applications deliver functionality to users no matter where or when they need to work.  With ready access to everything needed to get the job done, workers are able to be productive even when they’re not at a desk (or even a computer!).  Smartphone and tablet apps can make working from a mobile device highly effective, extending productivity and capability to workers whenever and wherever it is required.

Keep Everyone on the Same Page

When systems are centrally located and accessed, it is easy to keep everyone on the same version, the same edition, and the same page.  No matter where users are located, documents and application data are kept in sync, ensuring that everyone is working on the most current information available.  Mobile access to applications and data keeps information from being distributed to various devices, making revision control easier and providing better protection for valuable business information.

Mobile computing and the cloud make it easy for small businesses to have better IT that enhances productivity and supports growth.  Reducing capital costs and exchanging large technology investments with affordable monthly subscription service gives small businesses the boost they need to implement the solutions and services which will develop and improve collaboration, streamline workflows, and reduce overhead costs while enabling a fast-paced and agile business ready to meet any challenge.

jmbunnyfeetMake Sense?

J

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Considerations for Disaster Recovery Planning | Accounting and Business Technologies

Disaster Recovery Planning is currently a leading topic of discussion for business IT administrators and owners, just as issues relating to business and technology operation and continuity have become a central point of discussion for many organizations. After the disaster occurs is the wrong time to determine whether or not your company is adequately protected. Unfortunately, when you need your plan most is when you find that you either do or do not have things well in hand.

Hurricanes, floods and tornadoes have taught many companies some hard lessons ranging from the inability to locate or communicate with employees to the entire loss of the business and surrounding community infrastructure. Certainly, the current situation is a reflection of the worst-case scenario, but it also points out some fundamentally important considerations that a company must incorporate when creating a technology plan for disaster recovery and business continuity.

EMPLOYEES ARE PEOPLE

One of the first things to remember in any disaster is that your employees are people. They have families, homes, lives outside the office, and responsibilities. They have fears and concerns. In short, they are human beings. This is a reality that is frequently overlooked in a disaster plan.

Much consideration may be taken with respect to handling business issues such as customer or vendor communications, technology and systems continuity, etc. But in the event of a disaster where lives are at stake, can the company expect personnel to overlook those personal impacts that present themselves, all in the name of keeping the company going? Probably not, unless perhaps they are in health care, law enforcement, or the military. Even in those cases, caring for family and loved ones may take precedence over job responsibilities. Businesses need to make certain that there are SYSTEMS in place to assist with continuity and recovery, as personnel may be hard to come by.

YOUR BUILDING IS NOT AN ISLAND

Businesses rely on facilities.

Facilities are created from infrastructure.

Infrastructure, more often than not, is not in your control.

Telephone service, connectivity, electrical power, street access to the building, access to the surrounding areas – these are infrastructure elements that you have little control over, if any at all. The loss of infrastructure, however, impacts you significantly. It does not matter how much backup power you have if you have no physical access to the building. And telephone service becomes valueless (frequently) if the power is out.

Redundancy can come in many forms, but creating fully redundant facilities means being redundant with the infrastructure. Opening offices in multiple locations, distributing personnel and resources to various locations – these all come with potentially tremendous cost impacts to the business. There are, however, affordable technologies and services available today which can help mitigate the impact of the loss of a location or facility, and whenever possible these services should be incorporated into your daily processes to ensure portability and a smooth transitioning of systems should the worst occur.

DEGREES OF PROTECTION

Developing an IT recovery and continuity plan is similar in nature to purchasing various types of insurance. The level and cost of protection must be evaluated based on the benefit to be derived, and weighted by the risk. For example, low-cost flood insurance is probably not worth the investment where there is no water. Obviously, there is cost associated with different levels and types of protection, and different situations warrant different types and levels of coverage.

In terms of IT continuity and recovery, the most frequently implemented form of “insurance” is redundancy or the duplication of a resource. Every business, however, has requirements that extend beyond a reasonable ability to fully duplicate. A small flower shop, for example, cannot reasonably afford to implement “alternative business locations” or a remote office in the event of the loss of the primary facility. With this reality in mind, the business must focus on addressing those conditions that are within its reasonable ability to control, as well as those that it can mitigate to some degree.

via Accounting and Business Technologies | Joanie Mann: Considerations for Disaster Recovery Planning.

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CIO, CFO, IT and Procuring the Cloud | buildingUp.biz

CIO, CFO, IT and Procuring the Cloud

For as long as there has been high technology use in business, there has been a struggle between the enterprise CFO and CIO for the power to make IT purchase decisions.   It isn’t rocket science… the reasons for the challenge are fairly straightforward.  The CFO wants to know what the expected return on the investment will be.  The CIO, on the other hand, recognizes that there is rarely a straight line to be drawn between IT expenditures and near-term positive business outcomes.  Sometimes it takes a while to fully realize the benefits of an IT project… and sometimes it’s necessary to spend the money just to maintain status quo.

While there may be indicators that the CFO’s influence in the enterprise is extending into areas where the CIO traditionally ruled (due – at least in part – to SaaS and the Cloud) there are also indicators that the role of the CIO is evolving rather than losing relevance.

A survey performed in 2011 by Gartner and Financial Executives International revealed a number of interesting results which indicated that the balance of IT procurement power was shifting within the enterprise.  344 senior financial executives were surveyed, and they revealed that:

  • in 45% of organizations, the CFO makes or leads IT investment strategy
  • about 75% of surveyed CFOs said they have little confidence in their own IT departments

A CFO.com article on the subject also mentioned a KPMG study from April 2011, in which it was reported that “73% of CFOs identified IT as the greatest risk to finance meeting its objectives”.

With the emergence of “cloud” computing solutions and the plethora of application and service options now available to businesses, some businesses have concluded that “the CFO is better equipped for the cloud world”.  The belief is that the CFO is more attuned to the processes of vendor management and contract term and condition negotiations, which are primary areas of focus when looking to obtain outsourced IT and application services.  The process of comparing pricing and service level agreements is more of a business process than a technology process, placing it squarely in the realm of the CFO.

The real issue here isn’t a struggle for power and influence; it’s a change in business priorities fueled by changes in technology and service models.  IT and the role of the CIO must focus on innovation and improvement of processes and profitability through efficiencies gained with technology, not on defragging hard drives and running software updates.  Brocade.com discusses this evolution of roles and focus with enterprise CIOs and CFOs in the release entitled The CIO Is Dead. Long Live the CIO. The Cloud Redefines the Role of the CIO

“ … the CIO role will evolve and policy enforcement, technology evangelism and mediation between business units and their services providers will become the key responsibilities for the CIO by 2020…. And rather than being replaced by the CFO in this shift in IT provisioning, two-thirds of respondents predicted that the roles of COO and CIO will merge as technology continues to become more operationally vital. http://newsroom.brocade.com/press-releases/the-cio-is-dead-long-live-the-cio-the-cloud-rede-nasdaq-brcd-977455

Who understands better than the internal IT department the time-consuming and frustrating nature of maintaining user environments and applications?  Who in the organization has the technical understanding, coupled with a direct business understanding, sufficient to explore new ways of approaching various process or workflow problems? I think most business IT managers would agree that addressing issues that have a potential to radically improve the way a business operates is much more challenging and interesting than selecting the right make and model of server.

via CIO, CFO, IT and Procuring the Cloud | buildingUp.biz.