Data Net Blog

Technological innovation can be exciting, but one topic that is decidedly unsexy with technology is data backup—at least, from an excitement point of view. More businesses are demanding greater data security and redundancy, which is in turn forcing developers to innovate and create better products that can give consumers and enterprises what they need. Let’s look at three of the more interesting features of these up-and-coming data backup solutions.

As we continue to suggest things you can do to protect the integrity of your company and customer data, here is a blog that covers an old level of security that we still rely on everyday. That protection is the password, so let's talk about bedding up your employee’s handling of passwords.

Many years ago, the practice of repairing office equipment or household appliances that malfunctioned was a common and practical solution. However, over time, changes in business practices have largely eliminated this option. In recent years, the Right to Repair movement has emerged as a legitimate campaign aimed at advocating for legal protections to safeguard the rights of the modern tech-dependent public.

Even the simplest business possesses data that is proprietary and confidential. Customer and prospects lists, sales data, and personal data about customers such as their credit cards, names, addresses, birth dates. Maybe even medical information or social security numbers. If any of this data is compromised, you could face legal and reputational consequences. It is important you stay vigilant in making sure this data is as safe as it can be from cybercriminals.

Updating your Point of Sale (POS) system isn’t a choice that most businesses would make if they were to have the choice. They typically have long memories of the pain it was to implement the system and how there was a major learning curve for all of their employees. Unfortunately, POS systems are like any other business computer, they need to be updated regularly to ensure that your business is able to efficiently handle customer demand. 

The presence of a continuity strategy holds immense significance. When discussing continuity plans, one often encounters the term "failover." Let's take a look into the concept of failover and explore various facets associated with it.

One of the biggest questions we get from clients and prospects is "What can we do to protect ourselves from cyber attacks?” It is a sensible concern. A cyber attack that freezes operations or seizes data can ultimately shut a company down for good. There are some basic, simple things you can do to protect your company and there are more sophisticated tools available. In this blog, we look over a spectrum of 4 things you can do to improve your data security, from the simple to the high tech.

“If a craftsman wants to do good work, he must first sharpen his tools.” Like so many of the other quotes attributed to Confucious, this phrase is no less true today, even in the realm of business technology. It should come as no surprise that implementing the right technology for your particular business needs will produce greater results.

The real question is how to identify the technology that will contribute to the overall success of your organization.

You should be using an array of security tools to protect your business data. Some can be highly sophisticated, but there is one tool that we all still rely on heavily to secure access to our business systems and data. The password. But they can be hacked and shared. As long as we still rely on them, are there things we can do to make them more effective?
Yes. There are two main areas where you can improve the security of passwords. One is improving the security of the password itself, the second is multi-factor authentication.
First, there is the password itself. This is often known as password hygiene. Good password hygiene includes

Nowadays, a business can’t really get by without using technology in some fashion, and wherever technology is involved, it greatly helps to have a reliable resource on hand to keep it functioning as expected. This is the role of a managed service provider, and while a partnership with one can be a great business asset, this is predicated on the value that the Managed Services Provider (MSP) actually provides. Let’s go over a few reasons that a MSP is a good resource for small and medium-sized businesses, and how you can identify the best option for you.

Communication often goes unnoticed but plays a crucial role in efficient business operations, supporting various functions to some extent. Therefore, investing in the right tools can significantly enhance your business. In today's context, one such tool is Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

AI has some real attractions, and now that it has become so advanced, it has gained the attention of the public and the media. However, just because something is a fad, doesn't mean that it is either new or something everyone needs. Before an organization, especially a small- to medium-sized business, initiates the use of AI in its business processes, it needs to understand that because the tool is so powerful, it also comes with some real risks. Although its predictive capabilities can be transformative for business, they can also be wrong or present legal and ethical issues. As a result, businesses should utilize the experience and skills of experts with a deep knowledge of AI and how it may be applied to your specific organizational goals.

Cybercrime is a concern for businesses of all—and we mean all—sizes, from the small mom-and-pop shop down the road to the multinational enterprises, and it’s a concern for a variety of reasons. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons that these massive businesses worry about cyber incidents and see if there isn’t some common ground.

AI, on its own, is a complex tool. It is also a tool that can be misapplied. Remember, the term artificial is key. To be used effectively and wisely, AI needs to be applied by someone with experience using it in your particular business. An MSP can offer the following to help you begin to integrate an AI solution into any aspect of your business.

How much technology does your business use day in and day out? More likely than not, it’s a lot, and we’d bet good money on the fact that you could be doing more to manage it. That said, it’s not always clear how to go about doing it, especially if you don’t have any in-house IT talent to handle this considerable responsibility. With managed services, you can overcome this challenge. Let’s go over what these are and how they work.

Choosing what type of hardware is right for your business and when it is time to upgrade away from the hardware you use are two considerations every single business has to make. These days there are a lot of options available to decision makers that weren’t available in the past. This both makes these hardware decisions easier and more time consuming because there are more variables that people have to weigh. Let’s go through some of them today. 

People love video games; it is an over $260 billion a year industry and is thought by many to be the number one time waster in the world. For this reason, not many people consider video games or any visual interactive media to have any practical applications for a business. Today, we will try to disprove this theory by outlining some ways in which video games can help your business.

As you are likely very aware, Artificial Intelligence has become a real attention getter in the business world, as well as public media. One cannot be looking at the news everyday without coming across some article discussing AI. However, just because something is a fad, doesn't mean that it is either new or something everyone needs. AI has been around for a long time. Anyone who has purchased something from a website is well aware of the “ others who bought “X”, have also been interested in …” feature. That feature has been around for decades. That feature is an example of AI. A simple but helpful understanding of AI is that it is able to attempt to find patterns and suggest predictions by sifting through enormous quantities of data. Quantities of data that would make seeing patterns an insurmountable human task.

Seemingly everyone has a smartphone nowadays, and with the smartphone comes apps. Mobile apps fuel the largest computing ecosystems in the world and, as a result, the question may have to be asked, “Does my business need a mobile app?” Whether it's a good idea depends on your specific business goals, target audience, and resources. In this article, we will take a look at the pros and cons of developing a mobile app for your business.

If you read our blog regularly, you probably saw the post we shared the other day talking about the various cybersecurity issues that your business could very well be damaged by without the right precautions. We wanted to build on that conversation, so what follows are the measures to help you take these precautions.