XP End of Life is April 8, 2014, are you ready? http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/enterprise/endofsupport.aspx 10. You’re NOT penny wise and pound foolish. 9. Chances are a system running XP is more than 5 years old and the hardware is going to start failing anyway. 8. You DON’T need to run Read more…
Data in the Cloud Unfortunately, today I’m going to rain on the cloud parade. Yeah, that’s right I’m going to say something negative about the “Cloud”…you gotta a problem with that? Right now it’s the worst thing I could do because it makes me look like I’m not in step Read more…
I recently came across an edgy article that I’d like to share with you. I think the title is meant to trigger a reaction. How else are you going to get someone’s attention these days? The article’s entitled, “Why You Don’t Need A Firewall?” Wow, that caught my attention! I Read more…
Everyone knows Macs don’t get viruses, right? Wrong. That is a myth that Apple has been using to it’s advantage for many years. Do you remember the commercials? All operating systems (Unix, Linus, Windows, OS X, etc.) have the potential to be exploited. They all have security flaws in the Read more…
In this YouTube video, I give a down and dirty on what to look out for in spam email messages. Specifically, what NOT to click on! There’s been an uptick in CPA, IRS, DHL, and UPS related spam email. This type of social engineering works well for spammers. They know Read more…
Okay, so you got your shiny new iPad. Cost a couple bucks, right? Easy to leave behind, right? Here are a few features that can be used to give it a little more security: 1. Turn on Passocdes. This allows for a four digit PIN number like your ATM card. Read more…
Today I ran across an interesting article that discussed some of the issues surrounding Microsoft’s Office 365. If you’re not familiar, it’s a suite of popular Microsoft software that runs in a data center (with the most popular being Exchange mail). Interesting? Not really. However, the decision for BAE to Read more…
Text from an article Brian wrote for New Hampshire Business Review, published May 2011
If your technology assets are as valuable as you think they are, you owe to yourself and your customers to have a comprehensive data backup and restoration system in place. Apply the following five criteria in selecting any backup and recovery system:
1. Ease of Use – Most small and medium sized businesses (SMB) lack the time and skill set to pull out a manual every time they need to check on whether a backup is happening. Further, when disaster does strike (which it will) your technology people must be able to restore your data quickly so that you can continue to run your business. Make sure that vendors show you actual scenarios of test failures and recoveries before purchasing a product. Many products won’t actually pass the “Ease of Use” test and if they don’t, they should be quickly taken off the list.
2. Recoverability – Does the solution recover files, databases, mailboxes and whole systems? Most software and hardware solutions are quite affordable these days. You should be able to recover information such as individual files, company databases, system email boxes and the entire system state. When you recover the entire computer it should allow for what is called “bare metal” restores. This takes a snapshot image of all the data at a point in time and allows you to switch that image to a new computer in case of disaster. Sounds difficult, right? Not really. The image based technology has come a long way and is far easier to work with which fulfills criteria number one. (more…)