An IT Support Blog from London

Most businesses make use of cloud services to some degree. Whether it is occasionally dipping into a SaaS application when required or relying on cloud based services for all your computing and storage needs, there is almost always some of your private business data stored in the cloud. This raises questions around who holds ultimate control of data, and the storage location of your data. Surveys illustrate the level of concern: the 2017 McAfee State of The Cloud Survey underlines how only 23% of respondents fully trust public cloud providers to keep their data secure.

When managed correctly, a private cloud can be a worthwhile investment for certain businesses. It comes with almost all the benefits of public clouds minus the data privacy concerns. Of course, not everyone can afford a private cloud, especially the kind that’s built on-premise (i.e. not virtual private clouds offered by CSPs). So who should invest in one?

In this post, we look at some major indicators that denote a company’s suitability for a private cloud investment.

Data backups are among the top cyber security countermeasures against ransomware, flood, fire, and other threats to data availability. As long as you have backup copies of your data, your business will have a pretty good chance of recovering from almost any major disaster. But what kind of data backup solution is the best?

It depends on your specific requirements. These days, backup solutions can be grouped into two - online backups and offline backups. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Knowing when to select one over the other can help you maximise your financial resources when spending on a backup solution.

Since a comprehensive comparison of these two sets of solutions can be quite long, we’ve decided to focus first on online backups. In this post, we’ll help identify situations when an online backup would be a better fit. But before we do that, let me make sure our definitions of these terms are the same.

Like many software applications these days, Microsoft’s flagship office suite is now being offered as a cloud-based service. User files can be stored on OneDrive, making them available online. There are other online and collaboration features as well. But is Microsoft online Office really a better alternative to the on-premise MS Office we’ve all been used too? What are the possible reasons why Microsoft took this path?

Of all the types of malware wreaking havoc these days, one clearly stands out - Ransomware. This troublesome malware appears to be gaining a lot of fans in the cybercrime community and has, in turn, caused considerable stretches of downtime on a large number of organisations.

It is without question a risky affair: allowing employees to use their personal devices to access your network and valuable, often confidential company data. Yet despite the risks BYOD (bring your own device) marches on and companies and organisations around the world are adopting tactics and technologies to make it work.

The growth in the adoption of the Microsoft Office 365 platform is staggering. Though deeply dependent on the inertia of the eponymous desktop application suite, it is also the mix of complementary services Microsoft continuously adds which is making this particular cloud productivity platform very popular. Microsoft Office 365 hit 100 million active business users in 2017, but it is not uncommon for many businesses to merely scratch the surface of what Office 365 has to offer. Here are five ideas to help you make better use of Office 365.

There used to be a time when it was relatively easier to prevent malware from infecting our systems. We’d install an antivirus, keep its database updated, and equip end users with a laundry list of things to avoid - like suspicious email attachments and unfamiliar websites. Today, drive by downloads are making malware avoidance a more challenging task.

A drive-by download is a malware infection procedure that doesn’t require the user to download anything or even click a link. For his/her system to get infected, the user only has to visit a site that’s been compromised. The infection process then takes place behind the scenes, without the user ever noticing anything unusual.

Forrester Research expects the global private cloud solutions market to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 11% from 2016 to 2021. While this is certainly small compared to the growth rate of public cloud solutions, it still means there are enterprises out there who are interested in using private clouds. But when would you likely choose a private cloud over a public cloud?

In the wake of Brexit, it seems like there has never been a more important time to attract businesses to the UK. There are still plenty of reasons for multinationals to set up shop here. While it has experienced setbacks in recent times, London has retained its status as one of the world's financial hubs. We also have the fifth largest economy in the world according to GDP (Nominal), and despite the current uncertainty, there are still solid strategic reasons for companies basing themselves in the UK.