An IT Support Blog from London

Among the key technologies pushing businesses forward today are artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing. The numbers back this up. AI, for instance, is projected to be a mind-boggling $407-billion dollar industry by 2027, growing at a projected compound annual growth rate of 37.3% from 2023 to 2030. Cloud services, in the meantime, continue their steady rise, with Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) forecast to show the highest end-user spending growth for this year.

The high adoption rates for these two industries are certainly not out of coincidence or sheer luck. Since cloud computing gained significant traction and became mainstream in the late 2000s, it has served as a huge driver of change in how organisations do business. The entry of artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms have only served to enhance the cloud’s adaptability and its capability to leverage data.

Cloud adoption has been fast on the rise for years now. At least 94% of businesses are using cloud solutions to a certain extent, with the Flexera 2023 State of the Cloud Report revealing that more organisations are embracing multi-cloud and hybrid cloud strategies.

Going hybrid is a prudent strategy for many enterprises. The benefits of the cloud are well-documented, but keeping most data and some applications in an on-premise data centre is a security practice fitting for many companies. The ideal solution? A hybrid cloud that offers the best of both worlds.

In this blog post, we offer a clear definition of what a hybrid cloud is and its importance. We also explain the challenges that come with a hybrid environment, and discuss some important aspects to hybrid cloud management.

If you're a small or medium-sized business looking to scale your operations and improve organisational efficiency, IT managed services can help jump-start the process. They provide an end-to-end system of delivering, managing, and optimising technology solutions tailored to meet your specific needs. This range of invaluable IT services has propelled the growth of MSPs, as organisations come to rely on them more.

In this blog post, we'll go through seven best practices to enhance efficiency in your operations—from embracing a proactive stance to fostering an environment of continuous improvement. We will also discuss how you can get the most out of incorporating IT managed services into your enterprise’s overall strategies.

According to Gartner predictions, 45% of organisations will fall victim to a software supply chain attack by 2025—three times as many as that of 2021. And that’s not even counting other types of cyber threats such as levelled-up social engineering/phishing schemes, ransomware, and even nation-state attacks for certain industries. Truly, the value of reliable cyber security in every enterprise can not be emphasised enough.

Most companies are well aware of which aspects of their business operations they should fortify. The key areas most susceptible to malware and other cyber attacks in an organisation are:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has transformed the dynamics of many organisations across almost every industry. Companies and the leaders at the helm of these businesses have long realised the benefits of harnessing AI algorithms in their daily operations. From automating and streamlining various business processes to preventing fraud to enhancing data analytics for targeted marketing and better decision making, the impact of AI on enterprises has been nothing short of groundbreaking.

Now while AI development and technological advancement in general has paved the way for various innovations, it has also opened many opportunities for malicious actors to exploit. This is why artificial intelligence has been a major boon but somewhat a bane as well to the IT security industry. Let’s start with the negative ways that AI has affected online security.

The power of cloud computing has been making transformative changes in many organisations across all industries. Access to cloud solutions have paved the way for businesses to achieve scalability and flexibility in a timely and cost-effective manner, allowing them to innovate and grow with remarkable agility.

As cloud environments meet more intricate and greater business demands however, managing the complexities of cloud applications, platforms, and infrastructure has proven to be a daunting challenge for many companies especially larger enterprises. Cloud managed services have thus, stepped into the picture to address this growing concern of many organisations.

Cloud technology remains the go-to strategy for businesses looking to save on upfront costs, gain operational efficiencies, and improve scalability. In fact, the Flexera 2023 State of Cloud Report reveals that companies are refining their cloud approaches to maximise cloud use.

A greater number of enterprises are embracing hybrid cloud and multi-cloud strategies, and public cloud adoption is rapidly increasing as well. Despite these developments however, there remain several challenges to cloud adoption including security/privacy, lack of qualified cloud experts, compliance, and other setbacks to cloud migration.

In this post, we discuss what cloud migration is, the possible challenges that come with it, and how IT managed services can assist enterprises in their cloud journey.

Technology is evolving at a rapid pace, and along with it, innovative solutions in the business world. For enterprises, keeping up with technological developments also means ensuring that your organisation’s hardware, software, and computer networks are working efficiently. But this is easier said than done for smaller businesses with limited IT budgets.

The reality is that maintaining and managing IT infrastructure can be a complex and time-consuming task that usually requires specialised skills and expertise. IT talent, however, is becoming increasingly difficult to acquire and retain in today’s technology-driven business environment. For this reason, many organisations are seeing outsourced IT support as a cost-effective and efficient option to meet their technical support needs.

In this post, we take an in-depth look at outsourced IT support—what it is, what types there are, and what benefits you can gain from IT outsourcing.

There’s been a lot of technological advancement going on in the past decade or so, and it’s all organisations could do to keep pace. But it’s essential that they do. After all, leveraging new technologies and tools while ensuring that their IT infrastructure is equipped for such demand is key to having enterprises operate efficiently, maximising profits, and remaining competitive in their field.

Managing all these however, can easily get overwhelming for small and mid-sized businesses who don’t have a full-time IT staff on board. This is where IT managed services providers have proven to be invaluable. Managed services providers (MSPs) take on the crucial tasks of monitoring and maintaining IT systems—networks, servers, workstations, etc.; installing and updating software; hardware maintenance, security and compliance management, managed IT support, and more. And just as technology is evolving, so are the services of MSPs.

In this post, we'll explore some of the latest trends in IT managed services, including how emerging technologies like AI and automation are being utilised, the growing importance of cybersecurity, and the rise of cloud-based services.

Exceptional customer service is par for the course today as businesses are getting more competitive. Besides, given the general reliance on technology, and with some people being less tech-savvy than others, support services have become even more of a necessity.

That customers demand more and better in terms of customer service is also a factor that enterprises should seriously consider. According to software company Freshworks’ collection of customer service statistics for 2023, “64% of customers want a reply within an hour of posting on Twitter, and 85% of customers said they expect a company to respond within six hours.” Quite a tall order, that.

But as to what type of support service should be offered is something that businesses have to identify first: is it technical support or customer support? Confusion between the two is rather common and because of this, the terms are often used interchangeably. This blog post will look into the key differences between tech support and customer support, and why it’s essential to know the distinction.

First off, let’s review their definitions.