Dresner Group Blog

Be honest with us: when you hear the phrase “tech support,” what comes to mind? If your thoughts turn exclusively to painful phone calls or a guy coming over to bill you by the hour to fix a broken PC, we want to show you a better way. Managed IT offers far more than just that. Let’s go over three aspects of managed IT that are crucial to Maryland small businesses, and help keep your operations running smoothly.

The cloud is a popular choice for businesses that need access to tools to sustain operations, but there is an innate flaw that comes from hosting anything in an online environment: security. Do not pretend that security is not an issue for your cloud-based resources—failing to acknowledge the importance of security could be a fatal mistake for organizations that leverage cloud-based technology resources.

There is no denying that the cloud has become one of the most popular options for a business to obtain the tools required for their operations. Despite this, it is equally important to acknowledge that there are many ways that the cloud could facilitate security threats if not managed properly. Let’s go over some of the issues that must be addressed if a business is going to successfully leverage cloud technology to its advantage.

The small business has been really hit hard recently and has been doing some hand wringing about their future IT investments. One of the major considerations is: do you keep your computing resources onsite or do you look to the cloud? Today, we will take a look at this very question.

Whether you take advantage of it or not, the cloud is a major part of most businesses’ IT infrastructures—especially with the ongoing pandemic, which has kept many workers out of their offices and off of the in-house network. If your business is one of the few that has managed to stay afloat without the cloud, let’s change that. With a high-quality cloud solution, you can future-proof your business in ways you may not have considered.

The cloud is a great tool that lets businesses of all industries and sizes revisit the way operations are handled, but it’s not always clear what the best approach is for your specific business. What are some ways that you can utilize the cloud, and why is it so important that you start thinking about these benefits now?

The cloud has revolutionized how businesses function, increasing productivity and profitability. Moreover, cloud-based software allows your team to communicate and collaborate more effectively due to how SaaS inherently handles these tasks. If you’re not taking full advantage of SaaS, you’re not reaching your full growth potential.

When you reach the limits of what your existing server can do, it used to mean purchasing another expensive server or maybe pouring a lot of money in upgrading what you have. Either way, it’s a wealth of additional expenses. Then there is the cloud option, which tends to eliminate the huge upfront expense and instead involves a contract. There are other virtual and hybrid models to choose from as well. You need to be asking, “what would really work for my business?”

“Paperwork” has long been associated closely with life in the office, but like so many other “classic” workplace elements, it has been replaced by more modern means. In this case, a Document Management System (or DMS) offers a small-to-medium-sized business far more utility than its predecessor, the filing cabinet.

The first thing a ransomware attack does is lock down all of your data. This can also include your backup. Without a backup, you’re at their mercy. This is why the cloud (when utilized correctly) can be a critical part of your business continuity. Here are three reasons why backing up your data to the cloud keeps your data out of the hands of cybercriminals.

With cloud computing being utilized by a majority of businesses nowadays, it’s not as big of a surprise when one wants to move files from a locally-hosted server to a cloud server; or, from a cloud server to a new cloud server. This presents a fair amount of problems that you have to be mindful of if you want to move the data and applications over properly. Today, we’ll take a look at some problems you may face, and how to make sure they don’t weigh down your next cloud migration. 

Of all the technologies currently used by businesses, the Internet is a strong contender for the most important. Regardless of their size, many businesses invest thousands each month into online Software-as-a-Service solutions as a means of more affordably equipping their users. Let’s talk for a moment about another cloud platform that has seen some advancement: Infrastructure-as-a-Service.

Businesses of all sizes have been able to successfully overcome operational challenges by rethinking and adapting the technology they utilize. Let’s consider a huge example and look at what The Lego Group (as in the building blocks) has done to address some of their technological challenges with improved solutions—as well as how your business can do the same.

Traditionally, if a business needed a solution to a problem, they would research which technology is the best for the problem they had and go out and buy it. If a company didn’t have the money to buy that solution, they would borrow to buy it so that their business wouldn’t stagnate and fail. In today’s tech-driven business environment there is a much better option than mortgaging your business just to save it.

Digital file storage has been a game-changer for many small businesses that rely on dynamic file retention. Instead of storing paper records in a huge room dedicated to file storage, businesses are focusing on digitizing their records and storing them electronically in cloud-based storage systems. This is a great alternative to all those printing costs. 

As businesses have been allowed access to more advanced tools, the cloud and its capabilities have been shown to be among the most useful to operations. Let’s examine some practical applications of the cloud to see why this is.

Cloud computing is a tremendous tool for modern businesses. It provides users with anytime-anywhere access to the applications, storage, and processing they need to keep business running efficiently and productively. It is billed as-a-service, meaning that it also comes with the flexibility and scalability most businesses need to control their computing costs. Unfortunately, it’s not always that cut and dry. Today, we are going to look at the hidden costs that businesses might see if they select to use cloud resources. 

Collaboration has always been key to the success of businesses, and with the cloud technologies now available, collaboration is possible in more ways than ever. COVID-19 has made business connectivity more important than ever, so we saw it fitting to recognize some of the cloud’s collaboration options. They come in a few distinct flavors:

There’s nothing as impactful when it comes to closing the deal as the personal touch a face-to-face meeting brings. In today’s always-in-contact environment, it is critical that your team is able to securely access the company’s resources when they are away from the office. In a worst-case scenario, the ambitious go-getter will attempt their own methods to have critical company data at their fingertips, which may or may not be secure.

There are a lot of businesses that use cloud computing. In fact, the latest figures say that over 80 percent of businesses are now using some type of cloud platform for their operations. Of course, there are a lot of different options available to organizations, but one particularly useful solution that may not get a lot of attention is the unified communication platform. This month, we’ll take a look at the cloud-hosted communications platform.