2017 IT essentials: disaster recovery plan

When disaster strikes, organizations need to put their business continuity plans into action and recover their IT systems as quickly as possible. Failing to do so can mean serious financial and reputational repercussions. Despite this, investments in disaster recovery are set aside each year for high-tech IT investments, and every year companies and employees continue to suffer for it.

Group voice call on Facebook

Skype used to dominate an area of VoIP communications that serves a special function: group video calling. With apps like Snapchat, WhatsApp and, most recently, Slack nipping at its heels, it comes as no surprise that social network behemoth Facebook takes a slice of the cake with its recently rolled out desktop group voice calling.

5 safe bets for web services in 2017

Investing in technology requires a lot of forethought and research. Successful business owners know that it isn’t just seeing an ad on your sidebar and signing up for untested services or solutions, it’s about making an educated decision. What better time is there to sit down, review the current state of technology, and decide where to place your bets for 2017? When you’re ready for that, take a look at our insider projections on where web services will be heading for the coming year.

Cashing in on an Idea: Is now the Right Time?

Consumers purchase millions of dollars in new software and hardware every year. Many of the products they buy stay current only for a short period of time, but the money that passes through the economy cannot be under-appreciated. If you have come up with the perfect software or hardware, it is tempting to work on licensing it right away and get your piece of the proverbial pie.

New OneDrive capability for Office 365

Office 365 doesn’t represent the number of days you need to spend working; rather, it’s a productivity and collaboration-enhancing software that helps employees work from wherever and whenever they want. By enabling employees to work, share files and collaborate with colleagues on a cloud-based platform, your company will be given a competitive advantage.

The ransomware that makes you sell your soul

Ransomware has become a fast-track for making money for some hackers this holiday season. But instead of just demanding a small payment for the decryption code that will unlock their computers, some hackers are demanding that victims sacrifice two other friends to ensure they receive the code they need.

Google OKs HTML5 as the default in Chrome

Google is out to make the user's experience more secure and efficient with its recent announcement that it will disable Flash and implement an HTML5 default browsing protocol. This change won't be implemented all at once, but will start by changing the settings of 1% of Chrome users in December 2016 before eventually expanding that number over the next year.

AWS creates “Glue” service for data analysis

Recently, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced the creation of a new data analytics tool to lighten the burden on businesses when analyzing data in the cloud. This tool, referred to as “Glue,” is meant to clean up and organize data that comes into the cloud from various sources so that it can be analyzed by business intelligence software and data analytics experts.

Sharing business data: SharePoint/OneDrive

Office 365 comes with a variety of storage and sharing options that promise to make life easier and more productive for business owners. OneDrive and SharePoint share many of the same features, but differ in some of their basic management options. Unless you know what to look for, it might be hard for you as a business owner to choose the best option for your company.

New year, new cyber-threats

Have you had to deal with security issues in the past year? Brace yourself, as there are more to come. For this reason, security experts have become indispensable members of society, who guard tech-dependent individuals and businesses against malicious attacks that pose threats to their privacy and livelihood.