The importance of IT security vigilance Posted on September 27, 2012 by Tim Burke Last September 18th, Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security warned that nation’s population not to use Internet Explorer because of an IE security flaw “is already being used for targeted attacks” designed to lure users to an infected website which, when visited, allows hackers to take control of the user’s computer. Soon after, the Swedish government issued a similar warning. Even worse, Microsoft was not immediately able to fix the problem. First came a temporary patch, said to be less that complete. Continue reading →
How to get the precise Cloud capabilities you need — affordably Posted on September 25, 2012 by Tim Burke When you find a Cloud services provider who’s able to precisely design and customize Cloud capabilities to address your organization’s unique needs, you can begin down the path to achieving the flexibility, scalability, cost reductions, efficiencies, redundancy, and disaster recovery protections you need. And you can do it without overspending on overcapacity. In particular, a services provider who will customize your Cloud services can address your security concerns with an over-arching services contract and service-level agreement (SLA) that’s explicitly written for your business. Continue reading →
5 DaaS FAQs — and the answers worth noting Posted on September 13, 2012 by Tim Burke These are some of the most common questions I get asked about Desktop-as-a-Service — and here are my answers. Q. What end-user devices can we use to access our virtual desktops? A. Quest’s DaaS lets you use just about all of them: Any Wintel or Mac computer or laptop, iPhones, iPads, Android phones, and Android tablets. It even works on a Kindle Fire. Continue reading →
Do you need DaaS? 5 hints to look out for Posted on September 11, 2012 by Tim Burke I saw a sign recently with these six words: Change, of any sort, requires courage. Change can be so difficult that sometimes we’d prefer to convince ourselves that it’s unnecessary. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? But how do you know it ain’t broke? Complex systems and (infra)structures often fool us with their own forms of what amounts to landscape amnesia: By inches, conditions deteriorate, and this happens so slowly and in such small increments that we do not notice. Continue reading →
3 Big Things your business gets from DaaS Posted on September 6, 2012 by Tim Burke It’s great that, with the right Cloud service provider, Desktop-as-a-Service can fit nicely into just about any IT environment. But what does it do for the business? DaaS does 3 Big Things, each with bottom-line impact: Continue reading →
How DaaS impacts your IT environment Posted on September 4, 2012 by Tim Burke The idea that the guts of an employee’s work environment which has for so long resided on his or her individual desktop PC might reside somewhere else is an idea that takes some getting used to. So let’s take a few minutes to consider what this really means in terms of… Security: Because DaaS — Desktop-as-a-Service — puts each employees desktop image in the Cloud, employee apps and data stay secure — even as individual employee desktop images are rapidly deployed on-demand to virtually any device (including employee-owned devices), anywhere those employees may be (as long as they have Internet access). Continue reading →
Essentials to business disaster preparedness — #2: Use data loss prevention technology Posted on August 16, 2012 by Tim Burke If you don’t know much about your data, backing it up can be a challenge. Important data can be missed if it’s been squirreled away in some obscure location. And corrupted and/or hacked data can be taken as legitimate, backed up, and given an opportunity to re-infect other data and apps. Fortunately, it’s a challenge that can be met with data loss prevention solutions that… Continue reading →
And now for the how of developing web and mobile apps Posted on July 26, 2012 by Tim Burke As I pointed out in my last entry, the ability to field web and mobile applications is quickly becoming a business necessity for even small enterprises. If you’re lacking the substantial developer expertise needed to accomplish that — and most smaller and midsize organizations are — than your best option is to search out an accomplished web/mobile app development services provider. Continue reading →
Are the applications you use endangering your business? A look at the problem Posted on July 17, 2012 by Tim Burke With all the security your IT operations (should) have, you’d think this question would be moot — but it isn’t. The applications your business and your employees rely on could be time-bombs poised to destroy your ability to function. That’s because the vast majority of applications used in business today are connected to the Internet, often in a variety of ways. Continue reading →
4 key application development service provider capabilities Posted on July 5, 2012 by Tim Burke When it comes to developing applications, finding an application development service provider who has mastered the development lifecycle is, of course, critical. But it’s not the whole story. You also need a provider who has these four capabilities: Continue reading →