Running a successful business in today's digital world often means navigating a maze of complex IT jargon. Among these, 'server monitoring' is a term that frequently comes up. But what exactly is it, and why is it meaningful to your business? Let's demystify this critical aspect of IT with the help of Virtually Managed IT Solutions, your local IT support partner.

In our increasingly digital world, the phrase “time is money” rings truer than ever. For small and medium-size businesses, especially, any downtime could result in lost sales, diminished customer trust, and potential harm to your brand. One critical line of defense against downtime is 24/7 server monitoring and reporting.

As a local medium-sized business owner, you’re doubtlessly familiar with the weighty demands of running a business. Not only do you need to focus on your core services and products, but there’s also a myriad of operational tasks that require your attention. One of these crucial yet time-consuming areas is managing your IT infrastructure. That’s where IT outsourcing comes into play.

When running a business, every penny counts. And when it comes to IT services, many businesses, especially smaller ones, often fall into the trap of one-size-fits-all solutions offered by large IT companies. Why? It seems straightforward and convenient. Yet, the reality is that this approach often overlooks the individual needs and unique challenges that businesses – particularly smaller, local ones – might face.

Scale. It’s often seen as a sign of success, reliability, and capability. It’s hardly surprising then that many businesses, when choosing an IT service provider, tend to lean towards the perceived safety of the giants, the big IT companies. However, as a fellow local business owner based in Algonquin, let me share the untold truth about these large IT companies and why bigger isn’t always better.

When it comes to small businesses and cybersecurity, there’s a harsh truth that we need to face. We’re not untouchable. We’re not invisible to cybercriminals. We’re targets, and often, we’re easy prey. “Why?,” you might ask. Let’s demystify this topic, expose the truth, and explore how most small businesses get hacked.

Let’s cut right to the chase. IT jargon can leave even the best of us mind-boggled. But as a fellow business owner based in Algonquin, Illinois, I know one thing: we want value for our money. Today, we’re shedding light on managed IT services. Specifically, where does your dollar go, and how does it help your business?

Cyber-attacks on small businesses are increasing every year, and the consequences can be severe. From reputational damage and loss of sensitive data to significant financial costs, the impact of a cyber-attack can be devastating for a small business. It’s not a matter of if a business will experience a cyber-attack, but when. In this blog post, we’ll discuss why it’s essential for small businesses to be prepared for cyber-attacks and best practices to prepare.

When it comes to cloud solutions for small businesses, Microsoft Office 365 and Google Workspace (formerly known as G Suite) are two of the biggest players in the market. While both offer a range of powerful tools for businesses, our clients consistently prefer Office 365. Below, we’ll explore the advantages of using Office 365 over Google Workspace.

In today’s fast-paced digital world, having reliable IT support is crucial for businesses of all sizes. So when something goes wrong with your IT system, you make a call. Suddenly the IT support contract you’re paying for doesn’t seem important to your IT management company. You feel like ‘just another number’ but need a fix. Unfortunately not all IT support contracts were created equally.

In today’s ever-changing world of technology, every business needs to have a proactive IT strategy that will allow them to react efficiently and quickly when problems arise.

Choosing the right IT support provider can be a critical decision for businesses of any size. There are many IT support providers, making it a daunting task. Getting it right relieves stress as a reliable and effective IT support provider can help you achieve your business goals, increase efficiency, and reduce downtime.

Data is the lifeblood of almost all modern businesses. We all rely on data to make informed decisions, develop strategies, and stay ahead of the competition. Despite this reliance on data, it is common to suffer from data loss, which can be both costly and potentially disastrous.

With everyone going digital, businesses must prioritize cybersecurity to prevent data breaches and secure sensitive information. Cybercriminals are constantly developing new methods to gain unauthorized access to enterprise networks and steal valuable data. This is why endpoint protection is crucial for businesses of all sizes.

In today’s digital age, businesses rely heavily on technology to store, process, and manage data regardless of size. With the increase in data breaches, cyberattacks, and natural disasters, companies need a disaster recovery plan.

The third edition of the Cyber Signals Report for Microsoft has been released, which includes information on the evolving cyber risks to critical frames posed by operational technology (OT) and the Internet of Things (IoT). The report provides awareness of current cyber threats, focusing on recent trends, attacks, and strategies.

The ever-changing technology landscape can be daunting for businesses to keep up with. As technology continues to evolve, so do IT problems. We all encounter trials and glitches every day.

How can you protect yourself from accidentally landing on a fraudulent website? Well, website typo protection is one way to help keep you safe.

Edge computing or fog computing is a new technology gaining new strides in the IT world after getting introduced to the market. The primary function of this technology is to improve mobile app usability.

You can never be truly sure that your business will always be safe and secure from cyber-attacks. Every day we see malware attacking small to large companies, as nobody is exempt from making mistakes that might put one’s business at risk.

It is common for a lot of computer users to save personal and vital information on their computers. Computer systems security has evolved from simple passwords to very advanced security software, and so has malicious Malware.

Most of the work involved in getting a website done is writing the code and programming the software. Protecting the website from cyber-attacks and hackers and putting a security system in place is also crucial to the website’s longevity.

Have you ever wondered how cloud storage works? Data stored in the cloud means you are not restricted to accessing them on a unique device, but you can access them online on any device you choose.

It’s easy to take passwords and their importance for granted because of how often we use and create them. These days, almost every website requires that you use a password account. Passwords are an integral part of our modern world.

As a result of the rapid digitalization of the world as we know it, passwords are no longer as effective as they used to be. These days, having just a password as security for critical and sensitive information or financial data is like having a toddler guard Fort Knox.

Phishing is a social engineering attack used to steal user information, such as credit card details, credentials, or login details. Such attacks happen when an attacker, pretending to be a trusted entity, sends messages to a victim while pretending to be a trusted person or organization.

Many small business owners, while creating budgets to ensure the smooth running of their businesses, forget the need to get a strong defense against cyber-attacks. Cyber-attacks are surprisingly more common than people know.

A data breach is a nasty security violation that can negatively impact your business and your life. Private individuals, companies (big and small), and governments are not immune to this malicious attack.

Software testing examines and verifies that a software application does what it is programmed to do. It ensures that the product outcome matches the expected results. 

After spending months or weeks building software, it is only essential to check for missed flaws or defects.

For months some of our customers have been experiencing abnormalities within their outlook clients that have been causing major headaches for all. We had to get Microsoft involved in which we have been sending lot’s of log files with no resolution in site. Upon further investigation internally we were able to dig into the log files in outlook. Since Exchange 2007 Microsoft has had a function called AutoDiscover which helped end users easily configure their email clients and over time other vendors have adopted the same methods to deal with email services.

Yes, more than 30 billion IoT devices will be connected and installed by 2025. And with current latency and bandwidth issues, there is a need to review how businesses, transfer, collect and process data. Besides, you have to adapt and embrace edge computing in order to break conventional boundaries.

After years in existence, the kinks of edge computing have been ironed out. Considered to be the next logical step after cloud computing, firms are taking advantage of edge computing’s ability to bring processing power closer to the request, avoiding latency issues while providing security and scalability needed for growth.

Many small businesses think they have cybersecurity under control—or at least feel that they’re not high priority targets. Unfortunately, this couldn’t be further from the truth. The business leaders who are too confident or too oblivious to the nature of cybersecurity often find themselves coming into work one day only to find their data encrypted, their IP stolen, or their customer records vanished.

Over the past year, the cloud has found a place in businesses across the nation and around the world. Driven by lockdowns and work from home orders, companies closed offices and scrambled to give employees access to the tools they used every day. People couldn’t simply stop working because the office wasn’t open—they needed to have remote access to business-critical applications.

No matter the size, every business generates valuable business data each day. Maybe it’s something like customer data, passwords, or credit card information. Maybe it’s internal data that you need to access such as financial or CRM data. Maybe it’s something even higher-value like a patent or other confidential information that an unscrupulous company might want.

Driven in part by COVID lockdowns and in part by a constant stream of articles touting its benefits, cloud computing has become an everyday part of life at most businesses. The cloud isn’t without merit—its ability to combine scalability, economies of scale, and easy access to applications has pushed this delivery model out of obscurity and into the mainstream.

This, unfortunately, is a cybercriminal’s dream—after all, would you rather take $100 from a wallet you found on the ground or rob a bank?

For most companies, the cloud is part of the mainstream at this point. Whether driven by increased desire for innovation, access, and availability or in response to the events of 2020, many leaders have embraced this delivery model and have been able to reap the rewards.

2020 was a year of change and uncertainty. This made for easy targets among cybercriminals.

You may have heard it said on Wall Street, data is the new oil. If you look at the companies behind the Stock Market’s recent record highs, the ones with the highest valuation, they all have one thing in common – data-driven revenues.