A 2018 tax-day computer glitch at the Internal Revenue Service prevented millions of Americans from filing their tax returns and forced the agency to extend its filing deadline. It was later determined that the problem stemmed from a legacy software system that dates to the Kennedy administration. The IRS crash illustrates the risks involved with [...]
Technology is woven into virtually every business process. If IT systems go down or fail to work properly, certain business functions might come to a halt. At the very least, they could be disrupted. Productivity suffers, the customer experience suffers, and sales could be lost. However, most small to midsize businesses (SMBs) don’t have the [...]
During the so-called “baby boom” between the end of World War II and the mid-1960s, nearly 80 million babies were born in the U.S. Representing close to a quarter of the nation’s entire population, boomers have had a massive economic, social and cultural impact for the better part of seven decades. However, boomers are now [...]
In a recent study conducted by MSI-ACI Europe, 61 percent of IT professionals said senior executives expect more lenient security policies for themselves than everyone else. For 65 percent of study participants, that leniency resulted in more data breaches. The obvious question is, shouldn’t it be the other way around? Given the increasingly perilous threat [...]
In a previous post, we discussed how IT standardization simplifies your IT environment, making it easier to manage, secure and monitor. Less variety also means less risk of performance issues and more predictable budgeting. IT standardization is often needed after years of one-off configurations and adding new tools, applications and services. Similarly, trying to keep up [...]
When you’re constantly scrambling to keep the lights on and serve customers, it can seem expedient to make a user happy by changing a configuration, installing a new application, or adding a new device or service that the user requested. This may put out the fire of the moment, but it can also make your [...]
As we discussed in a previous post, the clock is ticking on Windows 7. The old reliable operating system that provided relief during the Windows 8 debacle will be unsupported after January 14, 2020. You can accept the risk, pay through the nose for Extended Security Updates, or migrate to a new operating system. Migrating [...]
In the mainframe era, computer systems were housed in a specialized room and closely tended by IT professionals — a tightly controlled setting known as a “glass house.” Today, IT equipment is often housed in any available space and managed as time permits or issues as arise. Few organizations have the IT operational rigor of [...]
Information technology has historically played a supporting role in most organizations. IT systems and applications help to automate and streamline workflows and provide employees with the information they need to make decisions and serve customers. In this traditional model, technology is vital to operations but not necessarily core to business strategy. That’s changing rapidly. Smart [...]
You probably know all the obvious reasons for enlisting a managed services provider (MSP) to oversee your IT environment. MSPs not only fix things when they break, but also identify potential problems and correct them before there is a failure. They help you control costs, minimize downtime and free up internal sources for other projects. [...]
