Network Integration Specialists, Inc. Blog

With the holiday season just around the corner, you’ll be spending a lot of time on the Internet trying to find the perfect gifts for the loved ones in your life… but do you actually know how to find exactly what you’re looking for? Today, we want to give you a holiday gift in the form of a guide on how to make the most of Google’s search functionality.

Most of us have at least heard that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. In other words, proactivity is pretty much always the better strategy. Despite this, we’ve observed that many businesses still avoid investing in their IT until something breaks—the exact opposite of proactivity—and wind up losing in terms of downtime, recovery time, and reputation, along with the financial implications these factors introduce.

This is precisely why we’ve designed our services to serve as preventative measures against the root causes of downtime, helping you be more proactive and reduce overall costs.

How much control do you really have over your IT assets? Oftentimes, businesses will consider other priorities, like sales, operations, and customer service, before they focus on IT systems and resources. The problem with this is that it creates a significant burden for your business, both in terms of the hidden financial drains and serious security vulnerabilities that undermine your business’ stability.

Building a gingerbread house is a perennial tradition in many, many households. Those with experience know that precise, careful preparation leads to a successful, long-lasting final product, while rushing and cutting corners usually leave you with a crumbling, fragile mess.

Much of the same can be said of your business’ data. This essential operational resource is terrifyingly susceptible to a litany of threats and issues that could easily bring your processes tumbling down… hence, why the 3-2-1 Backup Rule is a core element of successful business continuity.

Let’s take a moment to consider the recipe for a reliable, disaster-proof backup, and how it aligns with the process of making a gingerbread house.

Technology works wonders for business, but it also enables other organizations, like law enforcement. We aren’t here to argue ethics, but we would like to touch on some of the technology that certain agencies are using in the execution of their jobs. Specifically, we want to highlight the issues involving the very sophisticated AI and data-mining platforms, such as those developed by Palantir.

We all have too many accounts nowadays. Between our personal lives, work, and practically all the entertainment we consume, there are dozens to keep track of and manage… and then there are the ones that charge us for a service they offer. The stacking costs of these services are bad enough, but if you see them start to double or even triple in a given month, you may be experiencing a common problem that is simple enough to solve.

To do so, we need to clarify the difference between creating an account and logging in.

It’s a symbol that we’ve all become familiar with in recent years: three horizontal lines, representing the menu of whatever application or website is currently in use. Sometimes appearing as three dots, this little icon can be surprisingly important for both the end user and the business using it… especially now that mobile devices are so commonly used for browsing (early this year, 64% of all website traffic was observed to come from these devices).

Here's a horrifying thought: Imagine your beautiful office has 50 hardworking employees... but only one tiny, single-stall bathroom. It's chaos. There's a line down the hall, all day. Productivity grinds to a halt. It's a classic bottleneck, and it’s completely unnecessary.

Here's the hard truth: This is exactly what’s happening to your business’ data right now. You’re paying your ISP for a super-fast Internet connection, but you’re forcing all that crucial business data through a flimsy, $50 consumer-grade router; you’re going to find out it’s not up for the job.

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is a solution that has grown more popular over the past decade or so, primarily because more employees already own devices capable of running work-related applications. The employee gets to use a device they already know and love, while the employer saves money from the cost of equipping that employee. That said, the security risks associated with BYOD can undermine an ill-prepared implementation and open the door to potential legal action.

Have you ever considered investing in smart technology for your office? We’re talking, of course, about the smart appliances, lights, thermostats, and so on, all of which make your office feel like you stepped into a sci-fi movie. As IT experts, it would be wrong for us to let you implement all these shiny new solutions without considering the security implications.

Our question to you is this: are you willing to leave glaring security weaknesses in your infrastructure for the sake of being considered “high-tech?” We hope the answer is an emphatic “no.”

When an employee leaves your business, they go through (or they should, at least) a comprehensive offboarding process where you collect their keys, laptops, and other assets you gave them to do their jobs. You may have collected these physical keys, but certainly not their digital keys. You might still see them pop up in the instant messaging app, or you might find recent activity from their account in your shared drive, all of which is problematic.

If you’re not careful, ex-employees might still be using company resources for their own personal use, and this can create a serious security risk for your business—not to mention the legal ramifications should anything bad happen.

Cryptocurrency has brought about innovative new technology for use in the business world, but it’s also created more headaches, primarily due to ransomware. With ransomware, a malicious entity can lock down your computer files and demand a cryptocurrency ransom in exchange for your data’s safe return. So, why is cryptocurrency the chosen currency for these kinds of transactions?

Every day, your small-to-medium business handles sensitive information: customer names, credit card details, employee records, and vendor contracts. This data is valuable, not just to you, but to the hackers and regulators who are paying attention. The old idea that "only big companies get audited" is completely outdated. Data privacy compliance has moved from a niche legal issue to a core operational requirement for every SMB owner and manager.

So, you’ve added an antivirus to your business’ cybersecurity protections. That’s great—it’s an essential element of the comprehensive defenses that a modern business needs. However, it is important that the antivirus you’re relying on is, in fact, reliable.

Let’s go over how not all antivirus tools are the same, and what makes it so important to implement one that meets your business’ needs and protects against the threats you would otherwise have to deal with.

Let me ask you something: how well does your current IT support function?

If your first instinct is to say something vaguely positive, like “good” or “fine,” you’re probably missing out on significant benefits that could come from a more immersive and fleshed-out service delivery, rather than a stopgap meant to preserve the status quo. If your provider has never asked you about the future and your goals for it, it may be time to seek what else is out there.

With the rise of generative AI infiltrating pretty much every sector of society, it’s no wonder that businesses are finding creative new ways to use it for their gain. However, you need to be especially careful when using generative AI in the workplace. Today, we want to cover three common no-no’s that your business should keep in mind as it navigates the wild landscape that is AI.

Remember tape backup? For some SMBs who have moved on, this form of data backup is a clunky and frustrating relic of the past. But if you aren’t remembering it and are instead still dealing with it, you might be experiencing some operational frustrations of your own. Today, we want to cover a better solution—one that takes the unpredictability out of business continuity.

The horror genre has always been a means of shining a light on society's fears and concerns, often using metaphor to convey its message. In the spirit of the holiday, let’s consider some of the films over the years that have used artificial intelligence to teach us lessons through the ever-so-effective format of fear.

Multitasking is a common thing for today’s workers, and so is having multiple tabs open in your web browser. You might even have multiple different apps running simultaneously, which can make you feel like you have to constantly close one window to open another. Well, no more. You can use Smart Windows (also known as Snap Windows) to place two or more side-by-side and enhance your productivity.

Your IT budget can cause you a lot of stress, but if you approach it right, it doesn’t have to. Like every other part of your business, you want to have a good idea where to invest your technology budget. Not that many people do. We recommend you build out an IT roadmap, and a strategy on how to keep downtime to a minimum; and a lot of that is getting experts to manage and maintain your business’ IT.