An IT Support Blog from London

CAPEX no longer an immovable object

When it comes to new infrastructure, capital investment has long been seen as an immovable object. Whether it is transport, utilities or IT, taking a conventional approach to infrastructure requires CAPEX. This brings with it the often tricky question of financing.

Recent years have seen the phenomenal growth of cloud computing. The cloud really took off when the credit crunch strangled the supply of capital. This led those that needed to replace obsolete and legacy IT systems to turn to innovative cloud solutions which require little or no capital funding. The business model includes payment by monthly subscription, effectively shifting IT from the CAPEX to the OPEX budget.

Relocations, in any aspect of life, are a stressful undertaking, and even with careful preparation and planning, they cost time, money, and energy. When it comes to moving offices, a lot has to be taken into consideration; furniture needs to be moved or replaced, important documents and files are to be shifted securely and valuable assets have to be relocated without being damaged, all whilst keeping the business up and running and enabling employees to continue working as best as possible.

One major headache for businesses is removing their existing IT infrastructure including PCs and servers and rebuilding it at the new location as quickly as possible in order to not disrupt ongoing business too much. Many companies merely shift their old system from one office to the other when in fact they could not only move offices but also move their IT to the cloud, resulting in various business benefits and a smoother, easier relocation.

Voice and data convergence for higher quality communications

Hosted telephony solutions offer the ability to eliminate a major inefficiency for many businesses – BT telephone and ISDN lines. Often these simply duplicate the connectivity that can be provided equally well via business-class broadband connections.

The budget that is released by decommissioning telephone lines or ISDNs can be used to upgrade and introduce greater resilience to business broadband while delivering an overall lower cost for data and voice connectivity.

The free Windows 10 upgrade has ended on 29 Julay 2016. If you choose to upgrade an old Windows PC, you'll now have to pay. 

Clock is ticking down so don’t miss the chance

Windows 10 was rolled out last summer to the relief of many Windows PC, laptop and tablet users. The previous versions 8 and 8.1 had not gone down well with many users. To placate the disgruntled and to restore some faith Microsoft decided to offer the Windows 10 upgrade free to Windows 7 and 8/8.1 users.

Many of those eligible for the upgrade will have seen the regular pop-up reminding them to take the plunge and get on with it. The latest version of this pop-up actually specifies the upgrade for a scheduled date and time, unless the user interacts with the pop-up and cancels the upgrade.

Microsoft ends the free upgrade offer on 29 July 2016, so the clock is ticking down. After this date upgrade pricing is £100 per devices.If you use Windows 7/8/8.1 on a personally owned computing device it’s your choice whether to go ahead; however if you are a business user, the decision will be down to your IT manager, department or service providers.

From the perspective of businesses, here are what we consider to be the 3 best reasons to upgrade to Windows 10.

Cloud booming but some variability in quality

The cloud and managed services space have mushroomed in recent years. Some of the main reasons the cloud has boomed include:

• Businesses have rushed to exploit its advantages
• VARs and resellers have jumped on the cloud bandwagon
• Knowledge proliferation around implementing cloud solutions
• Lower barriers to entry as tech costs have fallen
• Subcontracting of infrastructure to third-party data centres

Exemplary support for the compliance mission in the finance sector

Businesses operating in regulated sectors need access to technology that supports the compliance mission. When it comes to Professional Services organisations, technology and service providers need to be exemplary in helping to discharge regulatory obligations. Here we highlight how HTL Support provides the solutions to help accountancy firms get the best from technology while meeting compliance and following best practice.

Don’t fall victim…

One of the most serious risks originating from the Internet to businesses and domestic users is the threat of phishing. Phishing is a form of fraud where a cybercriminal attempts to trick the recipient of a message into revealing information such as login credentials or account information by masquerading as a reputable entity or person, typically in an email, but it can be attempted through other communication channels.

A victim receives a message that appears to have been sent by a known contact or organisation. An attachment or links in the message may install malware on the recipient’s device or send them to a malicious website designed to trick them into divulging personal and financial information, such as passwords, account IDs or credit card details.

You then find your personal or business bank account has been raided or your credit cards used to purchase luxury goods. Here are 10 ways to prevent users in your business from being tricked by phishing emails.

IT security and systems availability

IT security is one of the biggest concerns of our time. It might be identity theft from individuals or the hacking of business and corporate networks on an industrial scale by unscrupulous nation states trying to obtain commercial IP or military secrets. Whatever the threat, securing networks against attack is high priority for IT teams.

Besides viruses, malware and hacking, if we look at other factors that impact operational availability of business dependent IT systems, then there are a range of issues which need to be addressed.

Server status and Windows Services, disk space and database sizes are all factors that could  influence a business-critical failure. Storage and back up, the availability of network devices, satellite offices and websites are all hugely relevant.

Commoditised services and low value

In these days of highly competitive marketplaces, customer satisfaction is often the key to business success. Generally we can say a customer is satisfied when the service received exceeds or at the very least matches expectations. But what shapes our expectations?

Quite often it is determined by the concept of ‘value’.In today’s competitive market places commoditisation leads to lower quality services. If the price is appropriate to the service level then the value perception may be seen as reasonable or adequate. However, when the cost outstrips the level of service, then the value perception is likely to be poor. Ultimately, we expect to get what we pay for.

Big benefits from eliminating servers

Hosted desktop is one of the most interesting cloud-based services on offer to businesses that want to obtain better value. However, many are uncertain about what Hosted Desktop provides.

Essentially Hosted Desktop lets the business eliminate servers, their software and related hardware, and management requirements such as storage, backup and antivirus. You can read more about hosted desktop by following the links to other information on this website at the bottom of this post.