Co-Managed IT Can Get Difficult Projects Off the Ground

Co-Managed IT Can Get Difficult Projects Off the Ground

Your company is successful and growing so fast that it is outpacing your current IT. You need to upgrade your systems, but your IT staff is constantly busy, making it extremely difficult to successfully plan, implement, and support new IT initiatives.

When your organization is short on technology expertise and resources, outsourcing some part of your organization’s new technology initiatives can work to move your company forward.

Managed IT

Driving nearly every business decision is money. Since on staff IT professionals are extremely costly, when an organization cuts their IT expenditures, they can save money. The problem becomes that they won’t always have the IT expertise needed to manage all the organization’s technology, let alone deploy and support any new technology that the organization would need to implement.

One way that organizations are getting the IT help they need is by outsourcing their management to a managed IT services provider (MSP). The MSP provides a lot of services at a fraction of the cost of that of an internal IT department. Not only will an MSP monitor and manage your computing network and infrastructure, they will also promote the use of industry best practices that can reduce many of the technology issues your organization could potentially deal with. In this way, the MSP provides extraordinary value.

Co-Managed IT

For the organization that looks at their IT staff as essential personnel, you’d think that hiring an MSP would just be a redundant cost. After all, an internal IT staff costs your organization a lot of capital as it is; but, you couldn’t ask for people who are more dedicated to your company’s IT. The problem is that many smaller businesses that choose to staff an IT administrator have problems deploying new IT solutions or completing higher-end projects.

With WheelHouse IT’s co-managed IT services, our technicians serve as a subsidy to get that IT initiative that you really wanted to accomplish off the ground; or, we can handle all of your network and infrastructure management to ensure that your IT staff can have the situation they need to accomplish your organization’s goals.

Call us today for more information at (877) 771-2384.

Touchscreens Are Cool But They Aren’t Always Necessary

Touchscreens Are Cool But They Aren’t Always Necessary

Touchscreen technology has changed the way that a lot of people access popular devices, such as smartphones, tablets, and even laptops. Children that grow up in the modern world are so accustomed to using touchscreen technology that any monitor or screen that doesn’t have touchscreen features is seen as strange. Is the world moving in a direction where ordinary screens are antiquated? Perhaps–but perhaps not.

We’ll be asking some of the hard questions regarding touchscreen technology, including whether it is or isn’t necessary for your computer to have one.

Options

Even though the word “computer” might create a very specific image in your mind, there are a lot of devices out there that could technically classify as a computer. There is the classic tower and monitor PC setup, but there are also laptops and other types of devices that are even more powerful than some of the earlier models of computers.

Laptops

To an extent, a touchscreen laptop kind of makes sense. The touchpad is easier to use than a trackpad on many devices, and the screen tends to be right in your workspace so why not put it to use? Granted, there are a couple of downsides to a touchscreen, chief among them being a decrease in battery life. The touchscreen draws a lot of power from the battery, and because it’s basically on all the time, the power drain can be significant (up to 20%). You also have to consider the time spent on maintaining and cleaning the device to make sure it stays in proper working order. Finally, including a touchscreen is sure to increase the price, as the more features a device has, the higher the cost is inevitably going to be.

Desktops

A touchscreen for the typical tower and display workstation doesn’t really make sense from a practical standpoint, and it certainly isn’t worth the cost unless you really want that functionality. If you think about how large your typical monitor is, not to mention the sheer number of monitors some users have, you get to a point where it’s just not worth the investment to use a touchscreen monitor. Laptops make more efficient use of these screens, as they are smaller and more compact. Combine this with the fact that most laptops don’t have a mouse and instead use trackpads, and you have a clear-cut winner in terms of which makes more efficient use of a touchscreen. It just doesn’t make sense from a business perspective to use a touchscreen monitor for your desktop workstation.

All-in-Ones

Some might think that all-in-one devices are a specific kind of desktop, but all-in-one computers are more like a hybrid device than an actual workstation or desktop. They take advantage of the many benefits of a laptop, but without the trade-offs of them. They combine the features and dynamics of a laptop touchscreen with the full power of a desktop. Of course, they also have to deal with the smudging and fingerprinting of these devices, but it’s a small price to pay for the benefits of a touchscreen. Check out some great HP All-in-One’s here.

Mobile Devices

Thanks to the touchscreen, most people have miniature computers in their pocket now known as smartphones. In fact, as of October 2016, more people own smartphones than own full-fledged desktops. Processors continue to grow smaller and stronger, meaning that more can be done with less. Mobile devices wouldn’t be where they are today if they weren’t taking advantage of touchscreen technology.

As for your own business, how will you take advantage of touchscreen technology? Are you making the most efficient purchases for your specific business needs? To find out, reach out to us at (877) 771-2384.

3 Predictions We’re Making About Network Security

3 Predictions We’re Making About Network Security

Innovation has always been a major part of building better solutions, but some of the most recent trends have been in regard to enhancing security.

Adapting to the threat environment is one of the most important parts of running a business, so innovation has been geared toward giving users and organizations alike the security they need.

That being said, a lot can change in a short period of time. Let’s take a look at some predictions for how security will change in the near future.

Prediction 1

Penetration testing will happen more often than ever, thanks to A.I. and automation.

Penetration testing is one of the best ways that your organization can enhance network security–particularly because it’s much easier to identify weaknesses that your staff may have overlooked.

Hiring an external third party to handle this is a great way to make sure that any internal mistakes aren’t repeated. Basically, penetration testing is a time-consuming process that is better left to someone other than your internal staff, who are likely to have their own responsibilities to attend to.

However, artificial intelligence and automation have made it so that even less time has to be wasted on security testing.

Now that these processes can be done more frequently due to the process being automated, you can save more time than ever before. Plus, consider the fact that so much technology is added to an infrastructure in just a single calendar year, and you have a disaster waiting to happen–that is, unless you are running frequent penetration testing.

Prediction 2

Unified policies will appear that bridge between public and private clouds.

Cloud technology is more accessible than it has ever been before, prompting businesses to use both private and public cloud solutions to varying degrees. As a result, since they both have their benefits, hybrid cloud solutions are more popular today.

One of the biggest shortcomings of such a convenient solution is that you can’t consolidate security policies to simplify the management of a large infrastructure, but this could change in the near future–especially when you consider how quickly technology develops.

Industry professionals suspect that a multi-cloud management platform will soon be able to synchronize with your private and public clouds to create a single control panel for all of your needs.

Prediction 3

Endpoint security will be more on point.

The biggest threats to your organization’s security are the people using your technology. In recent years, social engineering has increased in scope and scale, taking advantage of the rather unpredictable nature of mobile device security.

Hackers are often able to take advantage of the weaker security on mobile devices to infiltrate networks and cause trouble. There still isn’t a single unified solution for this issue, but this is likely to change in the near future.

Businesses want an easier time managing and maintaining mobile device security, so it’s only a matter of time before a unified solution presents itself in some capacity.

You can count on WheelHouse IT to stay connected to the most recent developments in technology development.

To learn more about the latest solutions, reach out to us at (877) 771-2384.