In the clouds: SD-WAN services the way you want them Posted on February 21, 2019 by Tim Burke Swapping a traditional wide-area network (WAN) for a new kind of branch and remote-location network connectivity — software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) — reduces operational costs and improves resource usage as well as security. Continue reading →
Five key cybersecurity capabilities you’ll need in 2019 Posted on January 24, 2019 by Tim Burke As I mentioned in my last post, effective cybersecurity is a cost of doing business — and staying current with cybersecurity requirements has never been more important. Continue reading →
Why your IT infrastructure needs technical on-call support services Posted on December 4, 2018 by Tim Burke Those inevitable evolutions in technology that your business must embrace to stay competitive tend to involve integrations of old and new systems, software, functions, and processes. These integrations often turn out to be arcane and complex, which means you require long-term as well as short-term technical expertise that your staff can access anytime — technical expertise from people familiar with your IT setup and who are, essentially, on call. Continue reading →
12 ways to defend your business against cyberthreats Posted on October 25, 2018 by Tim Burke In my last post, I described six cybersecurity threats that have sparked concern of late: Continue reading →
Six ways cybersecurity breaches can bring down your business Posted on October 9, 2018 by Tim Burke These days, the consequences of inadequate cybersecurity have profound impacts on companies’ reputations, bottom lines, and leadership jobs. Equifax’s 2017 breach, for instance, cost $439 million, tanked its share price by 27%, and forced its CISO, CIO, and CEO to resign. Continue reading →
Minding the IT talent gap Posted on July 10, 2018 by Tim Burke For a while now, organizations large and small have struggled to find and retain the IT skillsets they need. Two years have passed since Gartner noted, “Talent has now been recognized globally as the single biggest issue standing in the way of CIOs achieving their objectives.” If your experience suggests the IT talent gap has intensified since 2016, you’re not alone. Among North American IT decision-makers, 75% say they face a skills shortage, and few expect it to ease over the next two years. Continue reading →
6 ways Europe’s new data protection rules can impact US businesses — Part 2 Posted on May 24, 2018 by Tim Burke In my last post, I listed two of the six ways the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) can affect even non-EU enterprises—by … Reaching beyond the EU; and Redefining personal and sensitive data.Here are four more reasons you can’t afford to ignore GDPR: Continue reading →
Beyond the Co-lo Checklist: Tech Services — or Landlord? Posted on May 8, 2018 by Tim Burke Thinking about renting space in a co-location facility? I suggest you visit any site you’re considering with the usual due-diligence checklist that addresses matters of security, compliance, environmental risks, power redundancy, and networking capabilities. This checklist will get you only so far, however. You’ll need to keep a couple of other co-location considerations front-of-mind, too. First, who owns the co-lo site you’re considering? If it’s a real estate investment trust (REIT), this may impact how the co-lo site operates. After all, REIT profits come from real estate — in this case, renting rack space — rather than providing technology services. At minimum, you’ll need to know the parties represented in your contract. A co-lo outfit operating on the REIT’s property? The REIT itself? What happens if, say, the REIT’s facility rather than the co-lo provider is responsible for a costly power outage? By contrast, co-lo data centers owned and operated by experienced technology services providers act as much more than landlords, since they’re committed to fielding cutting-edge data center environments supported by a deep technical and business expertise that enables them to take full responsibility for what they provide. So here’s the second co-lo consideration to keep front-of-mind: even if you don’t currently anticipate needing anything more than rented rack space, you may someday be glad for a tech-savvy co-lo provider able to also offer round-the-clock monitoring, remote hands, and the ability to deliver cloud integration or managed services whenever you need them.
The Biggest Threat Facing Your Data in 2018 Posted on January 24, 2018 by Tim Burke The intangibility of cloud storage makes it easy to leave the proverbial front door unlocked. This is exactly what happened when a developer at Uber inadvertently included the startup’s Amazon Web Services login credentials in code shared to the open source site GitHub – exposing the private data of 50 million of the platform’s customers. Continue reading →
Is your business prepared for unplanned downtime? Posted on August 8, 2017 by Tim Burke Your answer may depend on your job title. In one recent survey, 70% of C-level executives declared their firms “very prepared” – but fewer than half of the IT people at those same companies agreed. Uh oh. Continue reading →