Computerware Blog

Most businesses that have chosen to use managed IT services have found that their technology works better than it did before partnering with their provider. It’s not just a group of people sitting around fixing computers, however, there are some real strategies in place to allow for this to happen. Today we’ll give you a brief overview of the services we offer. 

We are classified as a managed service provider, which is only helpful if someone knows what managed services are. That’s why we’re taking a few minutes to review what it is that managed services are, and what a managed service provider does.

Depending on your business’ setup, you might have an in-house IT department that manages any of your technological assets, or you might have an outsourced vendor that you prefer to work with. Regardless, you know that as a business owner, you don’t have time to worry about managing IT--especially if you’re a small organization that has a limited budget and a limited workforce to do the work.

The cloud is a great asset for any business, whether you’re a major enterprise or a small family-owned operation. However, there are different types of hosted solutions, and they all offer various benefits and hindrances for your business. What’s the best type of cloud for your organization, and how can you protect the security and integrity of the data stored in it?

The businesses of today rely on technology in order to function, which means that their technology needs to be in top shape. However, this requires a sizable time commitment, something that most businesses will have trouble seeing through. Help comes for these businesses in the form of remote monitoring and management.

The same business technology that worked wonders over twenty years ago is much different from the current state of office technology. Businesses could get away without a complex network infrastructure, but that’s sadly no longer the case. With multiple servers and workstations to manage, the typical small business network has more maintenance on its hands than ever before. What’s the best way to approach this maintenance?

When you experience troubles with your technology, you don’t have time to just sit around and wait for the problem to resolve itself. You need someone by your side to assist with the problem. Yet, many small businesses don’t have the luxury of an in-house IT department that can help its employees resolve problems quickly and efficiently. How can you avoid this common issue and keep downtime to a minimum in the process?

Have you ever heard of event logs for your network? These are records of who is doing what on your network, and why. Understanding how event logs work can help to minimize leaked data and identify significant issues on a workstation or laptop.

Event Logs, Explained
Event logs keep track of events and notifications stored in your computer’s background. These logs contain errors and other important details concerning the performance of your PC, including notifications that may not appear in a popup window. In terms of security, one of the most valuable uses of event logs is identifying and tracking suspicious activity on workstations.

For example, what if a hacker managed to steal user credentials from a staff member? They could then log into your network remotely and access a wealth of sensitive information, all without setting off any flags. However, by reviewing the event logs, you may catch imposters accessing your network from across the world.

If a hacker is intent on infiltrating your network, they will likely use one of two methods; try to break in with brute force, or try to sneak past your defenses using legitimate methods. The latter is growing more common, as sophisticated attacks are difficult to detect in time to stop. If you’re not paying attention to your event logs, or you don’t have dedicated technicians to routinely comb through them, then you may not notice that there’s someone with an IP originating from the other side of the world digging through your network.

Additionally, event logs are crucial in helping IT technicians identify a hardware or driver issue before it negatively affects the end-user. By using event logs as an early warning system and catching a problem more quickly, downtime is minimized.

Take Advantage of Remote Monitoring and Management
Of course, you don’t have time to sit around and monitor event logs all day. In fact, this isn’t a job for your in-house IT technicians, either. They would rather be innovating and finding ways to improve operations, not keeping their eyes glued to event logs. A great way for SMBs to meet this need is to outsource the responsibility of network monitoring and management to a managed service provider.

Monitoring event logs is something that all businesses should do. To learn more about how doing so can help you improve network security, reach out to the IT professionals at Computerware. We can remotely monitor and manage your infrastructure so you don’t have to. To learn more, call us at (703) 821-8200.

With computing and networking hardware shown to be unreliable over time, businesses need to have a strategy in place to fix or replace their hardware. This is especially the case when it comes to servers. Replacing a server is expensive, but when it fails, you aren’t left with a lot of choices. What’s your plan for dealing with hardware failure? Here are three options.

The first option is to replace your malfunctioning hardware. This may seem like the most efficient approach, until you realize how much information your organization has. When replacing a server, you have to sort through all of your files to find out which ones are mission-critical and which ones aren’t, and you need to have a data recovery option in place that will migrate the information onto your new device. Not thinking this process through can cost your company a massive amount in new hardware costs, third-party migration and setup costs, and downtime.

The second option is to lease new hardware. If your organization can’t sustain the large capital outlays of purchasing new hardware, many vendors offer a hardware leasing program that allows you to get the technology you need at a price you can afford. Some technology companies offer Hardware as a Service (HaaS), which provides businesses with new hardware and frequent refreshes for a monthly fee. This strategy reduces support costs and often comes with proactive managed services.

The third option is to virtualize your IT infrastructure. In this way you can leverage the cloud to your business’ advantage. You won’t be able to escape the migration costs, but the large upfront costs of replacing your hardware would be eliminated. There are a few different types of cloud computing models that give your organization choices on how your data is monitored and protected. A cloud platform is typically monitored and managed by the hosting provider, eliminating management costs and minimizing support costs.

Whichever option you choose, having IT support is important to keep your organization’s hardware in good working order. Your staff may not be savvy enough with technology to fix issues, and they likely don’t have the time for it. Therefore, having around-the-clock IT support is important for the efficiency of your staff, as well as their own peace of mind if they encounter issues.

At Computerware, we provide 24/7 support via our help desk, and we go above and beyond to help organizations mitigate their hardware costs through our proactive monitoring and management service. By leaning on our RMM service, your business will have less network maintenance to deal with, and you will get more out of your hardware investments. By keeping your network running smoothly through our proactive monitoring, we can tell if your hardware is on its way out and we can advise you if it is time for a refresh. We also keep your network free of malware, resulting in less downtime and higher degrees of efficiency.

If your company is continually running into hardware problems, consider contacting one of our certified IT technicians to schedule a network and infrastructure assessment. Call us at (703) 821-8200 to learn more.

Contrary to popular belief, small businesses are at just as much risk of experiencing technological problems as large enterprises. Naturally, the more technology that is implemented in an office, the more likely you are to experience hardware failure or compatibility issues. Data distribution can get more difficult, and accessibility can become a major pain point. How can you optimize the efficiency of your IT resources without exposing your business to risks?

One of the best ways you can manage your technology is through the use of outsourced IT services from Computerware. Our professional technicians are skilled in the management and maintenance of technology. Here are some of the major services that we offer, and what they can do for your organization.

Remote Monitoring and Maintenance
It’s a fact that most of the problems that happen with your technology can be resolved without waiting for a technician to arrive on-site. Managed IT allows your business to get the service that you need without going too out of your way for it. When you don’t have to worry about on-site visits, you’re more free to focus on other aspects of your business while IT is busy looking into the issue. We can apply patches and security updates remotely, and minimize downtime, so that you can focus on running your business.

Securing Your Network
One of the critical parts of managing sensitive and proprietary data is protecting it from data breaches and security threats. At this moment, there are countless threats on the Internet that can take advantage of the Internet of Things, along with ransomware, can put your business through the gauntlet. Thankfully, a comprehensive tool called a Unified Threat Management (UTM) solution can mitigate this threat by preventing infections in the first place.

Cloud Hosting
There’s no logical reason to host your data on-site when you can have us host it off-site. This is great for two reasons: 1) You won’t have to use precious time from your workday to maintain the hardware, and 2) You don’t have to add new salaries to your budget to get quality IT support. Chances are that you don’t have an in-house IT department, so knowing that your data is being managed by experienced technicians is more important than ever. Computerware can manage your organization’s data on our own servers so you don’t have to worry about it.

BDR (Backup and Disaster Recovery)
If you suddenly lost access to all of your data, or if it disappeared in an instant, what would you do? It could be next year, or next month, or even tomorrow. Whenever an untimely hardware failure or natural disaster strikes, you’ll want to be able to recover quickly. Downtime can drag your business down and have effects that persist for months, as you’ll need to replace hardware and recover critical data; a process that can take anywhere from a few hours to several days. With BDR, however, you can quickly and efficiently restore your data at a moment’s notice. Your business will be able to withstand data loss caused by natural disasters, user error, hacking attacks, and even hardware failure.

Is it time for a change in the way your business manages technology? If so, look no further than Computerware. To learn more, reach out to us at (703) 821-8200.

If you’re one of the small businesses that has the resources to devote to an internal IT department, then you know how difficult it is playing at help desk with the rest of your employees. Their role is crucial to helping those who are less tech-savvy, but there’s always the chance that even your IT department will be stumped. That’s not to mention the fact that your help desk could be filled with potentially-avoidable requests.

It’s nerve-racking when your hard drive begins to sputter and make unpleasant noises. Computing is a stressful endeavor when it feels like a crash is imminent and you’ll unexpectedly lose all of your precious data. Thankfully, a devastating crash like this rarely happens out of the blue. Instead, a troubled hard drive will first give you warning signs that something is wrong.

Doing business today is much different than it was in medieval times. Thanks to the Renaissance, modern businesses now have a technology-based economy, instead of one that's magic-based--this has been an especially difficult transition for wizards. Although, one medieval business practice that's still going strong is the idea behind guilds.

Technology grows more mobile with each passing day, but the need for technical support remains the same. But, sometimes you just can't get on-site support while you are traveling. What, then, would you do if you had an urgent need for IT support, especially if your provider doesn't offer remote support?

The difference between giving great customer service and poor customer service is the difference between keeping and losing a customer. When it comes to great customer service, nowhere is this more important than with remote IT service.

A masochist enjoys doing things the hard way. Masochists make lousy managers because their enjoyment for punishment will make it so that nothing gets done on time. Nobody, not even a masochist, enjoys it when IT problems take forever to fix. With remote IT support, the punishments of technology problems are removed and IT becomes easy for everyone!