TECHMinutes February 2021 - White Mountain IT Services
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TECHMinutes
February 2021
All services are backed by the White Mountain Satisfaction Guarantee!
This Issue: VoIP Is a Solid Tool for Business
VoIP Is a Solid Tool for Business Nothing changes the fortunes of a business more than clear
What Should We Expect the lines of communication and with nearly every organization
Workplace to Look Like After looking to reduce redundancies, a lot of businesses are
COVID-19? starting to take advantage of Voice over Internet Protocol
(VoIP) solutions, using the resources they already have in
How Employees Can Cause a place to avoid paying twice over.
Threat, and How to Avoid Them
Backup Is a Critical IT Function With today’s ISPs delivering faster and faster speeds to busi-
nesses, much of the bandwidth a business uses is lost. By
A Solid Disaster Recovery Strategy
choosing to utilize a cloud-hosted VoIP solution, your compa-
Can Save Your Business
ny gets more for less. Your organization is paying for access to massive amounts of band-
Are Your Employees’ Smartwatches width anyway, why not use that bandwidth to slash your communications costs? Let’s take a
Security Risks? look at the various types of VoIP that are available and why the switch may be just the thing
your organization needs.
How Employees Can Cause a
Threat, and How to Avoid Them What is VoIP?
What would you Voice over Internet Protocol is just that. The ability to make calls, and have a feature-rich
consider to be the platform that provides all the services that your traditional phone system offers, for a frac-
biggest threat to tion of the cost per user. If this seems too good to be true, consider that the VoIP market is
your business and (Continued on page 3)
its continued oper-
ations? Cybercrime? A natural What Should We Expect the Workplace to Look Like After
disaster? What if I told you that it
COVID-19?
was the team members that you
have employed—whether they With numerous vaccines now being deployed, it finally seems
meant to be or not? This is the that there is an end to the COVID-19 pandemic at some point
hard truth that you need to pre- in the future. While we still have some ways to go, it would be
pare your business to resist. helpful to look ahead and plan for how we can implement
some of the lessons this period has taught us—especially in
The Threats Your Employees Can the workplace.
Pose
When it comes to exposing your Our Status
business to threats, there are... With over 25 million doses of vaccine administered around the
world (as of this writing), it seems to be an appropriate time to
Read the Rest Online! look ahead to what the average work environment will likely look like once the virus has lost
https://bit.ly/2LLluCm its teeth and we can safely return to some semblance of normalcy.
It would be dishonest to say that work and employment remained unaffected by the pan-
About White Mountain demic, especially considering how many industries had to shut down or greatly restrict their
operations to help preserve the health of the public. Of course, other industries simultane-
We are a technology consulting ously became more important than they ever were before, their workers being given the
firm specializing in technology title “essential.” These shifts ultimately resulted in a dip in the employment rate that, as
implementation and management compared to the economic recessions we’ve had in the past, was three times as severe.
for businesses. We're known for
providing big-business, Enterprise- Today’s technology has since enabled quite a few of these jobs to be replaced by automated
Level IT services to small and medium alternatives or picked back up via remote solutions. These remote capabilities and their on-
-sized businesses. going improvements are responsible for sustaining many businesses, as well as encouraging
people to apply to start their own, online businesses for themselves.
Visit us online at:
whitemtn.com (Continued on page 2)
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it." - Alan Kay Page 2
Backup Is a Critical IT Function
Businesses gen- weather event. Some deal with hurri- site backup copy of your data, while
erate and collect canes, some deal with high winds and keeping another copy offsite for redun-
a huge amount tornadoes, others with earthquakes and dant protections and simplified migra-
of data and some floods… you get the picture. Unfortu- tions. This keeps you safe from a variety
of it is practically nately, whichever one impacts your busi- of threats, including ransomware and
useless. Other ness, there isn’t very much you can do at many other forms of malware.
files, however, the moment, which is why it is important
are critical to to prepare now, so you can reopen again User Error
your business and operations. The im- after the fact. Many don’t prepare, and The BDR is supremely useful in that it
portant files require redundancy. This is therefore, don’t reopen. gives you an on-demand resource to pull
why it is important to back up your data. your data from, on demand, as it is
Acting proactively and maintaining a needed. This is particularly handy if a
Data loss is a negative situation, regard- backup allows you to more quickly team is collaborating on a project, and
less of the importance of the files. This is bounce back after a disaster has struck, somebody accidentally deletes some-
precisely why White Mountain IT Ser- allowing your business a second chance. thing absolutely critical to the project.
vices offers comprehensive data backup With a backup, your progress won’t be
and disaster recovery solutions. Data Corruption or Theft lost to bad luck.
Cybersecurity is a huge topic today, as
Backing up your data allows you to side- there are many, many threats out there A BDR allows you to breathe a little easi-
step the potential catastrophes that designed to target businesses. Take ran- er about your files and their security. To
would come with the loss of your most somware, for example: all it takes for you find out about adopting one for your
critical information. Here, we’ll review a to lose access to your files is for an em- business, reach out to White Mountain
few situations that could put this data at ployee to click on the wrong thing. Not IT Services today. Call 603-889-0800 to
risk to demonstrate how crucial having a good. get started.
backup really is.
Using a BDR (in conjunction with a com- Share this Article!
Actual Disaster Event prehensive business continuity plan) to https://bit.ly/38MTA1N
Just about every business on Earth could keep your files safely backed up enables
potentially be impacted by some kind of you to quickly restore data from an on-
What Should We Expect the Workplace to Look Like After COVID-19?
(Continued from page 1) maintain their operations enough to With remote functionality a clear and
Of course, most people hope that things support themselves. essential need for today’s businesses, it
will at some point return to what was 2. Increased demand for remote tools would be irresponsible to carry on as
once known as normal. It must be said, and technologies has led to more be- though the past year had never hap-
though, that to simply drop all the ad- ing developed. pened. White Mountain IT Services can
vancements that businesses have since 3. More businesses will likely see remote help you avoid that by assisting you in
adopted to survive isn’t a good outcome, work as a viable component of their adopting the right technologies and in-
either. Considering this, we can make a business strategies and cost optimiza- corporating them into your processes.
few predictions as to how normal busi- tion. Find out how else we can assist you by
ness operations may undergo a funda- calling 603-889-0800.
mental change with many. It must be said, however, that all this will
require some commitment to the
What Will Become of Remote Work? technology, both in terms of practically
Putting it simply, we fully expect a great- implementing it and in inspiring a work-
er utilization of remote work and force to take advantage of it.
operations, with the proportion of com- Adapting your workplace culture and
panies that put it to use rising. We see processes to incorporate these new ca-
this as likely for a few reasons: pabilities will help with training your
team to utilize them more securely and Share this Article!
1. Those businesses that elected not to more consistently. As a result, your busi- https://bit.ly/3nD2tiM
take advantage of remote capabilities ness’ success becomes more likely.
will have largely closed, unable to
Page 3
VoIP Is a Solid Tool for Business
(Continued from page 1) Benefits of Hosted VoIP features like Voicemail-to-email tran-
growing rapidly (over 15 percent per We’ve already outlined the cost reduc- scription, interactive voice recogni-
year). It works through your organiza- tion that’s possible with VoIP, but there tion, and integrated chat.
tion’s Internet connection rather than are some other benefits as well. They • Scalability: When you onboard new
through dedicated phone lines. So, in- include: users and need to add a line to your
stead of having to pay for a separate business, it’s as simple as a couple of
system or add expensive hardware, VoIP • Easier to Manage: Switching to VoIP clicks.
provides an organization the immediate eliminates your relationship with the
cost reduction without a discernible shift phone company. More than that
in functionality. though, VoIP doesn’t need special
hardware, it can use the same wiring
Hosted VoIP technology can be hosted and switches as your LAN.
either onsite or in the cloud, but since • Unified Communications: Installing a
you won’t have to pay for and maintain VoIP platform likely means that you
hardware with the cloud-based are able to unify your organization’s
platform, the cloud-hosted version will communications platform, giving your VoIP makes a lot of sense for the grow-
save you money. It is still a completely staff the option to communicate mul- ing business and the established enter-
managed and maintained PBX server, tiple ways at the click of a button. prise, alike. If you would like more infor-
but instead of having the system in your • Functionality: A VoIP platform can mation, contact our professional con-
office, your organization can access it integrate with all types of business- sultants today at 603-889-0800.
through web-based applications typically management software to provide
available on both desktops and mobile easy access to the communication Share this Article!
devices. capabilities that often make business https://bit.ly/3nMEBJs
run better. VoIP also has innovative
A Solid Disaster Recovery Strategy Can Save Your Business
Not all business- • Natural disaster - Flood, hurricane, The Importance of DR
es will look at tornado, wildfire, electrical storm, The first thing you need to know about
disaster recovery worldwide pandemic; the list goes on your disaster recovery policy, is that it
the same way, and on. has to be created with the notion that
but if you want • Human error - Accidental, negligent, it’s a matter of when, not if, you will
your business to or deliberate situation an employee need to use it. The statistics reinforce
have the kind of puts the business in which causes a this idea. Three-out-of-five businesses
continuity that disaster-like result. that experience a prolonged system out-
will allow it to get through tough situa- • Cyberattack - Data breaches can be age will be out of business within two
tions, doing your best to formally create some of the worst, especially when years of the event. So, even if you are
a disaster recovery policy will put you in people’s sensitive information is in- able to get back up and running again,
the position to weather any storm you volved. the lost revenue may eventually catch
encounter. • Failing Hardware - If the right compo- up and ruin your business.
nent goes out at the right time it can
A Brief Explanation of Disaster Recovery have devastating effects on your busi- With that knowledge, the first sugges-
Every business has some type of busi- ness. tion we’d make is to stay calm. A busi-
ness continuity plan, and if they don’t, ness owner—who has toiled and taken
they should. It outlines the actions that No matter what problems your business his/her business from a one or two-man
need to be taken to ensure that your has to deal with, getting your resources operation to an organization that people
business isn’t mortally affected by nega- back up and running as fast as possible and their families depend on—needs to
tive situations. Within this plan is disas- should be one of the core priorities of make calculated decisions to get their
ter recovery, which is a specific plan to any negative situation. The reality of the business back up and running properly...
get your operations up and running after situation is that every minute your busi-
a “disaster”. Here are a few examples of ness breaks continuity is a massive prob- Read the Rest Online!
disasters that could affect your business’ lem, and can lead to some very unpleas- https://bit.ly/3swwcNO
continuity: ant results.
Page 4
Stuck in a relationship
with a service provider
that just isn't working
Are Your Employees’ Smartwatches Security Risks? for you? We are
The smart- computing infrastructure if shouldn’t jailbreak your experts at providing
watch is they aren’t kept updated. phone either, but especially discreet and
one of the don’t use a smartwatch with confidential advice on
how to protect your
most pop- Many of the noted security a jailbroken phone. business and avoid
ular gifts shortcoming of these devices • Don’t connect devices di- problems and
given to may not mean anything for rectly to your watch - Avoid disruptions when
technolo- your business, but should be a hooking up things directly to replacing your IT
gy lovers; and, they have quite consideration. It’s a best prac- the watch. If your plan was support provider.
a bit of utility. They can help tice to create, implement, and to use your watch as a cool
improve communication, enforce a BYOD policy that If you feel that you are
controller for all of your
caught in a never
health, and of course give extends to smartwatches and smart devices, you should ending cycle of
them a sleek accessory. One other wearable technology immediately reconsider. problems and
problem that people don’t and IoT devices. Here are a Since there are built-in vul- frustrations give us a
often consider is how their few tips that you can pass onto nerabilities for many watch- call for a private
employer has to handle the your employees to avoid prob- es, it’s important to choose consultation and let us
influx of smartwatches and lems with vulnerabilities options that prioritize secu- help you make things
other IoT devices that are brought onto your network right.
rity.
brought to work after the holi- through wearable technology: • Keep your smartwatch OS
days. Today, we’ll briefly dis- and other apps updated -
cuss how Internet of Things • Users shouldn’t use unoffi- Software vulnerabilities can
devices could be security risks cial apps - Users need to cause major problems re-
and what a business should do avoid “jailbreaking” a device gardless of what platform
about it. to give them access to appli- they come on. Smart devic-
cations that they wouldn’t es like smartwatches are no In a typical month,
White Mountain....
Personal Data Needs to Be typically have. Jailbreaking different. Keep their OS up
Protected is essentially installing a non to date for the best security. • Blocks 1.5 million
The first thing we are going to -authorized version of an SPAM messages
touch on really doesn’t have to application or operating Build an IoT Security Strategy
do with businesses, it has to system on a device. It voids With the popularity of smart • Backs up 160
do with smartwatch users. The the warranty and can exac- devices, there is probably a Terabytes of client
smartwatch is a cool gadget erbate the questionable pretty good chance that you data
and can do a lot of really neat security surrounding smart have plenty of them already at
things as long as you remem- devices. If the Google Play your place of business. In or- • Stops 14,000 Viruses
ber to charge it. Unfortunately, Store and the Apple App der to get the control you
there is some risk involved in Store can’t always catch need, you will likely need a • Performs 46 million
allowing these devices access network checks
malicious apps, importing BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)
to your business’ network. apps from an unsupported strategy that also considers • Stops over 80,000
Some models don’t have com- platform is a risky proposi- the IoT endpoints that are... attacks from China
pletely fleshed out operating tion.
systems and could provide • Don’t jailbreak your phone Read the Rest Online!
hackers an avenue of access to - This should be common https://bit.ly/3bGeRvV
the rest of your business’ knowledge, but you really
White Mountain
33 Main Street
Suite 302
Nashua, NH 03064
Voice: 603-889-0800
Email: support@WhiteMTN.com
Visit us online at:
whitemtn.com
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