Power outages, telephones being down, and internet issues are always annoying, but they can also be a huge threat to your communication processes across all platforms. Having a backup plan is something that all businesses should have. If it has the proper plan set in place you will not miss a step when a disaster hits. In today’s blog we will go into the benefits of our disaster recovery plan and some features that it will actually offer. 

Cost Saving 

When planning in any business and for anything involving cost is always a factor. Backup plans can be expensive. They take valuable time for employees to learn, money into hardware and software put into place. Recovering from the disaster may cost you a few dollars. Having the right plan will cost you less valuable time in the moment and it will be less taxing on your employees. 

With our disaster recovery plan we already have a plan in place and your employees will already know what is going to happen. Emails and phone calls will simply be redirected to employee phones to keep communication lines as open as possible. 

Productivity and Retention

With a good disaster recovery plan in place your employees won’t miss a beat. They will know the simple plan and execute it so that they are just as productive while your systems may be down. This will reflect your business as responsible and your clients/customers won’t notice a difference. Clients looking will be happier with your service if there are no interruptions when they need to contact you. 

Features

As previously mentioned there will be redirects when emails, phones, and voicemails are concerned. The biggest feature within this service is keeping communication open so that your business does not falter at all. Keeping communication lines open are key to keeping your employees productive and your customers happy. For more information on our disaster recovery program, call us today!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year yet again! This is so exciting and people are putting their Christmas trees up, decorations in their yard, and preparing to give gifts to those closest to them. Shopping malls are starting to become more obscure when shopping because online shopping is so convenient. Why leave your home when you can get everything from the comfort, while staying safe, in your own home?

Online shopping is so popular today, especially with the rise of the covid-19 pandemic and people trying to limit contact as much as possible. With more online transactions being made, there are going to be more attempts made to breach your accounts for information. Today, we are going to give you some tips on how to stay safe while shopping online. 

Strong Passwords 

This is something that we will always advise no matter what the account. A strong password is the most surefire way to avoid a cyber attack because it is so much more difficult to get into an account with a secure password. Password managers and two factor authentication are other ways to lock down accounts to go along with your strong password. One thing that we recommend is a “passphrase”. This is abbreviating a phrase that you typically use or will remember. This phrase will be accompanied by a combination of unique characters to disguise it.

Check for the Lock

Buying from trusted retailers such as amazon or ebay is smart. If you are on a website that isn’t as common check for the lock icon next to the URL on the webpage to know if it is secure. If this icon is not there then that website shouldn’t be trusted. Doing some research about how trustworthy the site is will also tell you if it is worth shopping on.

A Deal Too Good to be True

This one should be common sense, but we get some caught up in thinking “this is too good to pass up on”. These “great deals” can pop up on fake websites disguised as something you would typically trust, in text messages from unfamiliar numbers, and in sketchy emails. Be aware of the “deal of a lifetime” and check for the lock icon again. 

Reputation 

Sticking to websites like we already mentioned (amazon, Walmart, eBay, and others) is always a good idea. They will typically carry most of what you are looking for and their reputation carries weight. 

Credit over Debit

Using a credit card when checking out online is always the best idea. Even trusted websites get breached from time to time and your security measures might not catch the intruder in time. Using a credit card gives you a few advantages. The first advantage is that if anything were to be breached the hacker wouldn’t have direct access to your bank accounts and the information tied to it. Most credit card companies also offer a 0% liability for fraud so you may be annoyed at having to order a new credit card, but it won’t come at any cost to you.

If you follow these 5 steps you should always stay safe and secure while shopping online!

Today, outsourcing things that your company might not be focusing on is becoming more popular, and for good reason. There are plenty of reasons to make the switch to outsourcing your information technology and cybersecurity needs. In this blog, we will be going over some of them for you so that you know what we do. All of these can benefit your company in a positive way.

Costs

Businesses are always finding a way to cut costs while making sure productivity is increasing. This will assure that you are ahead of your competition with making costs less of a worry. It will prioritize what you do best so that you are at the top of your game. This is exactly what outsourcing your I.T. solutions will do. You will not have to pay a salary, benefits, and training for a full I.T. staff. Hardware and software costs will also be eliminated in relation to information technology. Your third party company will alway be up to date on hardware and cloud softwares.

Professionals Always On-Hand 

Having an outsourced I.T. system will benefit your I.T. and cyber security solutions because the company you work with has multiple different clients. This will allow them to know the latest technologies that could improve your business and make you run more efficiently. Another thing having a third party company will allow your system to always be monitored. This means problems will be stopped before they happen and if they do happen they will be worked on immediately instead of having a problem arise and you being stuck trying to figure it out alone. This can save your company crucial time and make problem solving a second hand worry. 

Information Safety

This can mean two things: your information is safer from cyber attacks and your physical information is backed up. Third party companies are constantly working to catch your system trying to be breached and it will actively work on the hack as soon as it happens if it is not prevented. In the event of a storm, fire, or any other unseen disaster that ruins hard copies of information/hardware your third party I.T. company will make sure that your information is constantly being backed up (daily if not more often). This means the latest bit of information is always being stored so you don’t have to worry about a disaster damaging your network permanently. 

 While all of these benefits are great the greatest benefit lies within your own company. With a third party I.T. solutions company handling your cyber security, information, and network health you and your company can always focus on doing what it does best. This means that your production levels will rise and the costs will fall making you better than ever. Call us today to see what we can do for you!

One specific service that we offer is a cloud based architecture. Today, we would like to explain a little bit about it (for more click here) and what a cloud based architecture can actually do for you and your business. 

Cost

A cloud based architecture will help greatly in reducing costs for your business. It doesn’t matter if you are using a third party I.T. service or if you own your company. There is no setup investment with cloud architecture other than the time it takes to do it and it saves energy. If you are doing all of your I.T. in house you will also be continually using more energy over time. With cloud computing you get a more efficient system to help run your network.

Flexibility

Was your business affected by all of the work from home orders that happened in early 2020? If you answered yes, then a cloud based architecture could have really helped in this situation and you should consider it in case anything ever happens like this.

The flexibility that the cloud has is that it will allow everyone to stay connected even if you aren’t together. This makes collaborating on projects, internal and external meetings, and any process that is done together easy. The best part is that you don’t have to be in the same physical location. This has practical use in an every day operation and not just a pandemic as well. If you are in an office where you are separated from people this can make collaboration and communication easier. You and your employees won’t have to leave your desk/office to have a meeting with your team.

Updates

The benefit of working with us is that you will get automatic updates! This helps make your network and information so much more secure and ensure safety throughout long periods of time. That isn’t the only thing to do to make your network secure, but updates are one way to make a safer business. 

A cloud architecture enables your business to be better by cutting costs, allowing for more flexibility, and security. We offer a secure network for your business along with a cloud strategy that sets your business up for success. For more information on how we can make your business better call us today or view our multiple services tab on our website. 

Cyber attacks are something that we must worry about. Hackers are constantly after your personal information and this can be harmful to your personal life with things like banking information, social security numbers, and passwords to accounts that have sensitive information like social media accounts, emails, among others.

These hackers can also be after information that can potentially be damaging to your business or career. If you or your business holds sensitive information regarding your clients/customers then their safety is also in your hands. If this isn’t alarming enough then here are a few statistics regarding cyber attacks in 2020: 

• About 5% of companies’ folders are properly protected
• 2019 was the worst year, ever, for security breach activity 
• Security breaches have increased by 11% since 2018 and 67% since 2014

Microsoft recently also conducted a study to analyze cyber attacks. What they found was that the attacks are getting more and more sophisticated. This means that they are harder to detect and easier to fall for. There are ways to look for phishing attacks that could be harmful to you, your clients, and network at large.

There is one sure fire way to make sure that you know who is accessing your accounts and when: Two-Factor authentication. This will allow you to give access in real time to anyone trying to log in to your accounts. Microsoft conducted another study saying that “Our data shows that enabling MFA would alone have prevented the vast majority of successful attacks,”. If two factor authentication was enabled, people would have been aware of the breach immediately. They could have even prevented it themselves.

Importance of Two-Factor Authentication

Taking these steps will ensure that your accounts are secure. Two factor authentication won’t keep hackers away forever. They will have a much more difficult time getting into your accounts and accessing your information. You will be alerted the moment someone is trying to access any of your accounts and you will be able to prevent access if it isn’t you. 

Two factor authentication is not the savior of cyber security, but it is one of the best ways to protect your accounts while allowing you to have easy access to all of your own information. 

Typically we use passwords that are easy to remember. This can be a generic word like “password”, a favorite sports team, or we use some variation of the same password for every account that we have. This can make life easy, right? It’s something you’ll never forget, don’t have to write it down, and who cares about getting into your accounts anyway?

Well, more people than you think. Cyber attacks are one of the top three risks we face every day and the chances of your information getting breached is 1 in every 4 attacks. These attacks happen at an estimated once every 39 seconds. Today, we are going to give you some tips on how to make sure you are not one of those statistics. 

Password Managers 

Using a password manager is something that can always ensure that you have a secure password. A password manager will help generate, store, and remember your passwords for you.This will assure that your accounts are extremely difficult to access if anyone but you is trying to log in. This may take some time to implement and we understand that. We recommend starting with high priority accounts like banking and professional accounts.

Password managers can cost nothing at all and for secure and trusted password managers, click here. Your devices may already come with password managers built in. For example, Apple users have access to iCloud Keychain which is a free password manager that comes preinstalled on your IOS devices. 

There are more secure password managers, but they require payment. We recommend this to those that want to enjoy some premium features (read this article for more). 

Use a Strong Master Password 

A master password is the one you will use to access your password manager. This is key to making sure your accounts are secure. One secure thing to do is use a passphrase. This is a phrase that’s easy to remember, but you abbreviate or use your own kind of “code” to memorize it. An example of this would be using the phrase “To be, or not to be, that is the question – William Shakespeare”. Instead of just using this as a password you could use “2BorN2B_tHATisThe?” (Do not use this specific one, as it is a common example). This will make your password easy to remember, but difficult to guess. 

2 Factor Authentication

This is a tool that is completely separate from your password manager. It is a great tool that will help with your account security. Two factor authentication will alert you when one of your accounts is being accessed. Once you are alerted, you will have to verify the access into the account. This can be a face identification or fingerprint on your phone or a text message with a code. Some password managers offer two factor authentication, but this can be essential to securing all of your accounts. 

All of these tips have been designed in order to help you make sure your accounts are secure and protected at all times. Use them to make sure that your information is always locked down and you are the only person that is able to access it.

When looking for network and support services there is nobody better to trust than us! We offer 3 specific services with this section of our business that make us stand out from our competition. They all have to do with time. The tech world is always changing and unexpected issues and complications arise constantly at the wrong times. These services make sure to cover all of these issues so that you can focus on what you do best while we handle your network.

FlexTime 

This solution is great if you need multiple devices installed, setup, updated, or worked on at one time. With FlexTime you are able to purchase blocks of time for us to perform any of these services. This service is designed for you to not just have us one time. If you purchase a block of time and you don’t use the entire amount at once, it is stored so that you can use it when emergencies arise!

Hour by Hour

This type of service is to take care of the small jobs that may need to be done on hand. We will get to you as soon as we can, and we always send the next available technician! These emergencies or small odd jobs that you may need us to do are all reasons to use this service. 

Monthly Monitoring

For all of our customers we offer a monthly low-cost monitoring package. This monitoring service can be applied to every computer in your office and there are two levels of remote monitoring that we can offer to each one of your devices. The monitoring includes nightly backups, alerts when they aren’t being backed up, and we will let you know when your hardware is being updated. 

All three of these services can offer essential help to your company that will allow it to run at an optimal level. This means that you will be doing more of what you love and what makes you great. Call us today to find out more about why you should trust us to deliver your I.T. and cybersecurity needs!

Expecting the unexpected is something that we typically don’t do in the business world. We look at current trends and expect them to continue, until they don’t, and the fastest businesses to adjust are typically the ones to succeed and make it out of an unexpected situation.

Recently we were all thrown into an unexpected situation, the coronavirus pandemic. There were very few businesses prepared to handle this situation from a financial, staff, workload, and any other relevant standpoint. Following models on current trends is a great idea. Businesses can take advantage of current trends to be more successful. If businesses start to model events that might not have been considered to be possible, they will be more prepared. This can lead to success in a difficult time, like the one we are living in now.

How to model the unexpected? 

Predictive analytics uses statistical algorithms and machine learning techniques to identify the likelihood of future outcomes based on historical data. The goal is to go beyond knowing what has happened to providing a best assessment of what will happen in the future. This is important because we can potentially map out odd situations and quickly find out ways to adjust to them.

Predictive analytics can be done by AI as well. This won’t significantly raise costs for a business and big businesses already have something built into their budget for analytics.Rearranging that budget to predict more outcomes on different events should be on their minds. All of the proof is in the pandemic and how poorly some businesses handled the pandemic. Predictive analytics would be able to help people across the world if it is used properly. 

How to work a model 

Working a model shouldn’t be difficult in today’s tech driven world. The whole idea of modeling is to provide opportunities to plan for different possible futures, such as understanding the impacts of future government intervention on supply and demand or how different scenarios might affect business operations, staffing requirements or customer concerns. That way, should one of the scenarios become reality, business leaders know in advance what they should be doing.

Businesses will be able to survive in these scenarios or even thrive. Unexpected scenarios aren’t always bad. Something could go right in the world for your business to grow exponentially in a short amount of time, and you could have missed out because you missed on a model or didn’t factor in the new trend or scenario. If this becomes a more common practice, we can live in a more secure world. Job security can increase, knowledge about what to do in unprecedented situations will be available, and businesses will be more financially secure. 

What do we need to do? 

For this to become a reality, there needs to be more funding and research done on how to put out more models in shorter amounts of time. This task falls to data scientists who develop software on modeling and predictive analytics tools. Businesses are aware of what needs to be done and the current pandemic is opening their eyes to see why. More businesses may have survived. This technology will eventually be something that all businesses are relying on in some capacity and the sooner that it is here the better off businesses will be.

For any cybersecurity and network needs, call us today!

Here at Peak I.T. we offer a full-time I.T. staff. This means that your company and network will continually be monitored for breaches. In today’s blog, we are outlining some features and services that make us stand out. 

Managed Anti-Virus: We provide a completely managed malware and anti-virus solution. We make sure all of your computers have up-to-date virus definitions and are scanning daily. You never have to worry about your computers’ security protection again. This means that you will be able to focus more on what makes your business run rather than security on your network. 

Automated Maintenance: We offer automated routine maintenance for your computers, servers, and network services. If you were to hire an IT person to do this, costs would be much higher. Cutting into your budget could prevent your company from growing. You can use the leftover money to reinvest into your own company. Allow us to be your IT “person” and your budget may not be as tight. 

Patch Management: This service means that all of your software will be continuously updated. This will fix small glitches in applications, run software more smoothly, and ensure that you don’t have to deal with headaches in the office or wherever your work space may be.

These advanced features that come with our IT services are something that are valuable and will help your company run more smoothly on a daily basis. With Peak I.T., you won’t have to worry about security breaches threatening your company.

All of our other services are tailored to fit your business and provide exactly what you need in order to function properly. We not only want you to function properly, but we want it it thrive in all aspects. Our work is supposed to take your business to the next level because you won’t have to worry about what we do. You will only have to worry about what you do best!

There is more data being collected and the amount of IoT devices in the world today. There is a need for software to be able to handle all of the information coming in. Typically IT operations have been centralized into a cloud based service where data was analyzed, interpreted, and interacted with. There are many IoT devices interacting with each other all at once. There needs to be a better way of taking everything and understanding what is coming in. Edge computing may be here to save the day with this. It provides 4 pillars that will have major benefits with all of the data being collected and interpreted: security, speed, cost, and scalability. 

Security

With so many more devices being added at a rapid pace (including non user IoT devices) cyber attacks are also increasing at a rapid pace. While centralized cloud computing is prone to cyber attacks, edge computing distributes processes and applications across different devices. This makes it much more difficult for attackers to infiltrate your network. With edge computing data that needs to be better protected can be separated from the main data flow. After this, it is transferred through more secure connections, making the the information more secure.

Speed

When data is collected it is only relevant for a very short period of time because our world is changing constantly. This means that when data is coming in it needs to be put to use as soon as possible. It needs to be collected at a high volume, interpreted, and either put to use or it needs to interact in some way that is beneficial to your business. With edge computing more data is being collected. More relevant information is being given to the data center where it will be useful. Anything unnecessary will be filtered out at the edge.

Cost

With edge computing data is filtered through the point of origin for the data and doesn’t need to be filtered at a data centre. This way you have the choice for your business for a blend of edge computing and centered cloud based services. Without the choice, your business would have to invest into an all-in one location. This allows you to play the field and see what options are best for your business. Without exploring your business would have to use just one service provider for its IoT and cloud service needs. Edge computing also puts less stress on your bandwidth because only relevant information is being filtered into your data centre which will support lower bandwidth costs. 

Scalability 

Scalability allows you to choose how broad of a bandwidth your business needs. This allows for lower costs and it is always easy to add more IoT devices if they are needed. With less stress on your bandwidth each added device takes up a significantly less amount of bandwidth space.

It is clear that edge computing can help any company sort relevant data better and come to conclusions that will help your business. Information is coming into the world at a rapid pace and is widely available so figuring out what your business needs the most is crucial to its success and edge computing is an efficient way to get your business there.

For any help with I.T. services, click here.

Collecting data and learning more about what your company is involved in, and how inside or outside factors can impact your business can be very beneficial. Knowledge is power, and the more you know the better off you will be. So, why wouldn’t your company be using some sort of data analytics? The investment will pay off and the benefits of data analytics will help improve your business.

Data collection is wasted if your company is just using it as record keeping. The information that your company is collecting, can possibly be its most valuable asset. If it goes unused, you could be missing out on huge gains, no matter what industry you’re in. So don’t miss out! Here are some steps to integrate data analytics into your company.

Know your collection 

No matter what your business does, it is collecting some sort of data that you can use to your advantage. You can be a manufacturer and collect orders and analyze these to come to a conclusion that will benefit you. You may be a public school board and can analyze student records to improve the way students are taught, leading to higher test scores. The best part about data analytics, is that it can be used for anything. Data analytics is a universal tool that companies across any industry are already using to improve themselves, so don’t fall behind and start planning today. 

Aim for something

Collecting data is great, but you have to know what you want to get out of it in order for that collection to be useful. Setting an attainable goal, like wanting to improve your students’ test scores, allows you to have something to aim for. You can target data specifically towards that school’s curriculum to see where students need to improve and what specific changes are needed. Once you have your goals set, it is time to get your team ready to start achieving them.

Skills 

If you plan on doing your analytics in house, your team may need some briefing on data analytics. Collecting data and having a plan is half of the battle. Your company has to know what to do with the data once it’s collected, so that you can reach your goals to improve. 

Your company can choose to outsource this and interpret the data once it is analyzed. Your team can interpret the data and decide what you will need to do to achieve your goals. 

No matter what route you choose, a data driven world is here to stay. Integrating data analytics is something that will benefit your company, and starting now can put you ahead of the competition.

The coronavirus pandemic has opened our eyes to a lot of things. With so many people working from home, I.T. services were put to the test. Many people realized their skills needed tweaking to deal with issues brought up due to people working from home. Today, we will discuss how to improve simple I.T. skills to make you better at what you do. 

Learn 

As an I.T. professional, you may come in contact with new problems you don’t know how to deal with. One way to learn a little more about unique issues and dealing with them is video conferencing through SKILup. They hold video conferences to help with I.T. skills. The SKILup conferences are adjusting to skills that may be needed during the pandemic. You will be prepared when you run into something unique to problems relating to COVID-19.

Coding is Key 

Coding is something people are learning about whether they are in school for I.T. or not. So if you are in I.T., make sure to know coding to ensure you aren’t less qualified than other candidates. This is an ever-growing field that’s always changing, and you need to be up on new resources and advancements. Once you learn coding, the job is not done. You must continue to improve your skills in order to be an asset to all companies in the job market. 

Be Prepared 

With people returning to new norms once the pandemic is over, you’ll have to be ready to adjust quickly to a new norm. This could mean working from home regularly and being efficient when doing so. New training on how to deal with situations related to remote working, communicating with coworkers and clients efficiently, and not losing value in that communication are very important. 

The world is changing every day and now, more than ever, due to the pandemic. We need to be prepared to adjust to new norms and quickly adapt to anything that may change the way we do something. If this time has taught us anything, it’s that we need to be ready to adjust to anything at all times.