Tekscape Blog

In today's markets, technology is a great resource for companies to improve and reach their growth targets. There are many areas of technology businesses must take into consideration, such as cybersecurity, networks, storage in the cloud, and collaboration. This is where an IT MSP, or managed service provider, can be the cost-effective solution to a problem you didn't know you had.

Cybersecurity Risk Management  is not exclusive for enterprise business Cyber threats are no longer a concern exclusive to enterprise businesses. In fact, a study made by Cisco proved that 53% of SMBs experienced some sort of cyber-attack in 2018 , causing financial damages and data loss. If cyber-attacks are no longer exclusive to enterprise businesses but affecting every day more and more SMBs, cyber risk management needs to be addressed by these organizations. But with a lack of internal resources and knowledge is difficult to build a comprehensive cybersecurity approach that considers risk management a central part of a cohesive security plan. So where to start?

Why Should I Worry About Cybersecurity? Every day, more and more companies are beginning a digital transformation process, migrating to the cloud, virtualizing systems or updating their infrastructure.  While there are various benefits to a digital transformation strategy, it also brings a major challenge: cyber-attacks, which target vulnerable areas of an organization. Therefore, to maintain the data integrity of your business and ensure your information is safe from hackers or other cyber-attackers, a managed cybersecurity solution might be the answer to hedging against these risks, as it is a cost-effective strategy that can avoid hiring six new employees over a three-year period .

A network diagram is defined as the graphic and visual representation of the network architecture. By using different symbols and line connections, you can see how every part of your infrastructure is tied together; this visual representation makes it easier for users to understand how items are connected. Is not always an easy process, and expert IT managed service firms will include this as part of their approach to managing your overall network. 

The fast-paced competitive market where we live today has forced businesses to consider critical processes to be delivered continuously and without interruption. Therefore, when considering potential downtime, the objective is no longer to resume activities in the shortest time possible but to have backup processes and proactive checkups to prevent downtime from even occurring.

When we talk about technology, the world seems to be moving at a pace much faster than ever. Innovative advances are causing rapid changes in the way we view systems, networks, and cybersecurity. As a result, while not every company might specialize in technology, in this day and age, all industries depend on IT to survive in an increasingly competitive market. As a way for businesses to keep up with all the technological innovation happening in the world, the role of an IT consulting service is to implement the best use of technology that goes hand in hand with a company’s business model.

Network management is defined as the process of managing a network for fault and performance, using various tools and technologies to align all the moving pieces in a network environment to the business requirements.

Nowadays, the incorporation of IT into your work space is a key element towards the success of any business or enterprise, regardless of its size or sector. More often than not organizations turn to IT managed service providers to help them in the implementation and management of critical It resources. Here are some useful tips and things to look for in your next It Managed service provider.

Regardless of your job function, we work in a collaborative environment. Meetings can be game changers when done right; I’m not only referring to preparation but also the ability to meet from anywhere in the world, at any time, on any device you have in hand. But let’s face it, video collaboration isn’t always the easiest thing to do, many times technology plays against us, affecting the experience we have and the outcome of a meeting. Here are four ways video conferencing challenges are affecting your productivity and how you can overcome those when using Cisco Webex.

The evolution of Webex: cloud-first, not cloud-only When considering workforce productivity and collaboration , the combination of the fast-paced global economy, customer demands, and agile development in the cloud forces organizations to think in a way to consolidate tools, optimizing costs, improving user satisfaction, strengthening security and reliability. And with so many changes happening so fast IT professionals want to make sure the investments they make today will survive tomorrow.

Today, business success is measured by the ability an organization has to rapidly respond to change, to innovate and become an agile organization were teams are aligned towards a unique goal. Trends like work from home, BYOD, and mobility are breaking the geographic frontiers, and the way people collaborate is no longer tied to a specific location or office and a traditional work schedule of nine to five.

In a world where cloud is a reality and businesses of all sizes are reaping the benefits of cloud-based solutions (cost efficiency, scalability, and performance improvements), it was just a matter of time for technology giants such as Cisco to introduce a communication solution in this model. Cisco Webex Calling is, in essence, a voice cloud solution. Cisco has taken the best bits of the BroadSoft infrastructure (Cisco BroadCloud) and added it to its Webex Cloud ecosystem, inclusive of additional layers of security already associated with Cisco, which is excellent for ensuring encrypted communications.

Modern network architectures need to be designed to support an increasing amount of requirements that range from guest wireless access and teleworker connectivity to mission-critical site buildouts, BYOD initiatives, and corporate network fabrics. Achieving a true digital ready network turns to be the results of a dedicated effort to improve four main components of network architecture.

Technology has changed the expectations people have about workplace collaboration. It no longer exists within the walls of an office in a desktop computer but in any place and any device. What was for the longest time consider a trend is the new normal. Employees want to have the flexibility to reach work-life balance while making sure their productivity and ability to deliver results remains intact, this is what modern workplace technology is looking to achieve.  From my own experience as a full time, remote employee these are the four core tools and technologies that help me achieve a true collaboration with my teams in New York City, increasing my productivity levels beyond the borders of an office.

Short answer, Yes. But let me explain why...

With an ever-evolving threat landscape, how can you make sure you are aware of those common attacks your business might be a target of and how can you make sure you are including the core components of a cybersecurity strategy. Here are 4 of the most common cyber threats, what they mean to your business and how can you protect yourself from them.

Today digital transformation initiatives are at the center of business strategies, and by understanding what is IT transformation the correlation between these two becomes evident. However and to a large extent, over the past five years, compute and data center infrastructure has taken the lead in transformation, supporting private, public and hybrid cloud strategies above anything else. More often than not, network transformation has been left behind, becoming a constraint to many digital initiatives.

In Today's increasingly competitive market, technology plays an important role in giving a business the ability to innovate. At the center of this, IT must evolve from an enabler of back-office processes into an organization that drives innovation and growth. With so many trends disrupting the way business operate the common topic of discussion is now around transformation. But exactly what is IT Transformation and what impact does it have in business agility?

Monday morning comes as rough as it can, you stop for a coffee on the way to work, let's face it you'll need it. Your agenda for the day is clear: start the data center project to optimize workloads and accelerate some processes that are essential for your business. You get to your desk...emails flowing. Users don't have internet, your network collapsed and nobody can access emails or files. Just like that your whole morning and possibly part of the week will be spent fixing a "daily" issue. That datacenter project will have to wait... yet again.

As more and more people and businesses migrate to cloud services, you might have a few questions about the cloud and why everyone is switching. In this post, we want to help demystify the term by explaining some of the different types of cloud terms you may have heard of (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, public, private, hybrid) and listing some of the key benefits you or your business can gain from using a cloud service.

Cloud computing is revolutionizing the way we work. Gone are the days of stacking, managing, and updating your server as there are cloud services that do all this automatically. Modern businesses are moving away from these expensive on-site servers and toward the cloud to lower costs and increase productivity. Cloud computing provides shared resources and data to computers and other devices over the internet, which offers a number of benefits to business operations.

In today's competitive business environment, digitizing an organization can exponentially increase innovation and business growth. Technology has become one of the fastest growing fields, so it makes sense that companies that have invested in IT projects have also achieved fast growth. Despite this relationship, some organizations are still concerned with the expenses that IT projects have. Since IT projects can have such massive effects on a company, it is imperative that you try and get the most out of each project. Where do you start? Regardless of the complexity and scope of your projects, we have compiled five easy steps that will act as a framework in developing your IT project.

Due to the various benefits that business can find in the cloud, the competitive landscape of cloud service providers has increased exponentially over the past five years. When deploying a cloud service to use for your business, whether you'll be using it for voice, storage, disaster recovery, or virtual machines, you need to be able to manage and support that deployment. This then begs the question "Can I manage this cloud myself?" There are pros and cons to both having a third party doing it or doing it internally, it’s critical you understand those differences before you engage in any type of cloud project.

When building a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy, the end goal is to keep malware from entering your network and sensitive data from leaving it. As you can probably tell from this blog series on security, it takes more than one layer of protection to accomplish this task.

Retrospective security is a term provided by Cisco in their Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) service. It refers to the ability to track the progress of any file that enters a network and, in the event of a cyberattack, rewind time to see how, when, and where that file became malicious.

As much as you'd love for your employees to only browse local files on the company server, the internet is far too tempting of a resource (or distraction) for them to ignore. In combination with the increase in movement to cloud based services, we are spending more time online than not.

With the fast pace of technology advancements and workforce demands like working remote and BYOD, organizations are facing a necessary shift in IT security practices. It's no longer enough to protect only the perimeter of your network using a firewall or VPN to support remote users. As ransomware and malware attacks continue to evolve at the same pace as technology, businesses now need multiple layers of security to defend their users, endpoints, and data. The best approach to security is to take preventative measures to stop an attack before it happens. That means having a comprehensive cybersecurity plan in place. Here are the core components to consider when building your cybersecurity plan:

In the last few years, the proliferation of devices and new generations coming into the workforce has forced companies to change the way they allow their employees to work. Though the overall business objective hasn't changed, the tools and strategies that employees leverage to achieve this objective are more powerful and more effective. The increasing number of remote employees combined with new technology to stay connected has changed the way we work forever.

Following 2017 massive hacking, malware and data breaches from big companies such as Equifax, Yahoo and Uber, 2018 started with big cybersecurity scandals such as Facebook and Cambridge Analytics. Today, companies are starting to implement not only privacy policies but also strengthen their cybersecurity strategies, and cyberinsurance is a big trend for 2018.

In 2006, when the first cloud based services were developed, few businesses were willing to migrate. The service seemed unnecessarily risky, not storing your data in a physical server on-site. Today, cloud computing is a much more developed concept. Approximately 80% of companies in the U.S are using at least one cloud-based service and that percentage continues to grow.

As a small or midsize business manager, you should be looking to make smart investments that allow you to make your business as productive as possible and enabling growth and profitability. It's very easy to underestimate the business impact of newer technologies and you can find yourself stuck with outdated technology that inhibits your ability to conduct business.

When choosing a vendor to support your business' cybersecurity strategy, there are some features you might have in mind: firewalls, antivirus, etc. While these are important, there are many businesses who fail to ask their providers about any major next-gen security capabilities that could be critical to ensure a safe network.

In the first half of the year, the ransomware 'Wannacry' and others were responsible for large-scale cyber attacks that affected hundreds of businesses. Cisco's 2017 mid-year cybersecurity report is as relevant as ever for businesses to read and evaluate their own security threats and defense strategies.

With the mid-year already here, it's time to assess your current security strategy and how it can be improved. Cisco’s 2017 Mid-year Cybersecurity Report discusses the latest cybersecurity threats and highlights the importance of building a solid defense strategy to protect against these threats.

Microsoft Office 365 is quickly becoming one of the most popular set of office suite tools for business productivity. By hosting a growing number of popular applications (Microsoft Word, Excel, OneDrive, Outlook, and more) on a single online cloud-based platform, Microsoft has given users a simple collaborative space to work, and share.

The IT field is always rapidly evolving, which allows for new innovation and more efficient ways to get things done (check out the Cisco 2017 Mid-Year Cybersecurity Report). However, this evolution pace also applies to cybercriminals, who come up with new methods of hacking into businesses every year. Through patch management, or program updates, your applications can continuously stay up to date, remain secure, and keep your data safe.

Cloud computing has revolutionized the way companies perceive IT and is continuing to evolve rapidly. Despite widespread adoption, there are still some misplaced beliefs that are preventing companies from switching to the cloud, which impedes their innovation potential. We hope to debunk these myths to give you better understanding of the cloud and how your company can take advantage of the help it can provide.