Contact Us Today!   314.394.3001   |   info@andersontech.com

Posts

Byte-Size Tech: Recovering from a Hack Can Be Pricy

/in , , , /by

 

Libby Powers and Ben Fairbanks of Anderson Technologies dive into a recent new client’s story. This non-profit struggled to deal with a hack of their former server and needed a comprehensive IT solution in one vendor. Now, with a solid foundation, they know their data is protected.

 

Related Reading

Contact Us

 

Transcript

Libby Powers: Welcome to another edition of Byte-Size Tech. I’m Libby Powers, and today I am joined by one of our team members, Ben Fairbanks. Say hi, Ben.

Ben Fairbanks: Hello.

Libby Powers: He is one of our system administrators here at Anderson Technologies. I really appreciate you sitting down with me today, because I was hoping to talk about a new client we recently brought on that I heard some of the team talking about. It was a not-for-profit. Is that correct?

Ben Fairbanks: Yeah, that’s right. And when we first heard about them, they were calling us because they were struggling to get through the after effects of their server being hacked.

Libby Powers: Oh, the not-for-profit server was actually hacked?

Ben Fairbanks: That’s right. This client primarily relied on contractors and individual vendors do their jobs for them. It seemed that a previous IT vendor had gotten their networks onto a new server, and things seem to be working great. But that vendor failed to properly turn off or secure their old server, and that’s where the criminals got it.

Libby Powers: Oh, criminals? So we’re talking about cyber crime and organized crime.

Ben Fairbanks: Yeah, all the above pretty scary stuff. But thankfully, no personal information or PI was accessed. But this client still had to deal with the red tape of reporting the issue to the authorities, digging through all their systems to review what had been accessed, and ensuring that the new server wasn’t truly untouched.

Libby Powers: Wow. So luckily they didn’t put ransomware or anything on these on the server. But the hack was still a major pain, I’m guessing, right?

Ben Fairbanks: Of course, yeah. The cost and man hours is something that no client, let alone a nonprofit with a set budget, wants to suddenly have to deal with. In the process of reaching out to their members in the cleanup, they were recommended to call us. At first they weren’t sure. They were based in Pennsylvania, and we’re in St. Louis.

Libby Powers: Yeah, I could see how that would be a little scary if you’re multiple states away and your IT vendor is a flight away. Right?

Ben Fairbanks: Yeah, of course. And that’s definitely something that every organization is going to have to weigh. But a great part about doing IT is that 90 to 95% of the work can be done remotely. Once we got signed on with this client, we sent two of our expert team members down on location to get all the hardware, wires, and their network fully set up and documented. At the end of multiple days, it took about 50 hours total to get them up and going. From there, we’ve had smooth sailing just operating remotely.

Libby Powers: So it took you guys 50 hours to undo this hack?

Ben Fairbanks: Yeah, totally. And that’s why I went back before, even if it’s not something that where there was ransomware, or maybe their data got lost, even when the effects of the breach aren’t catastrophic, it’s still a lot of work just to get everything back up and going. So that great ground layer is something that a lot of organizations need.

Libby Powers: You know, that’s really interesting you say this, Ben, because I think that so many small businesses and nonprofits, they don’t believe that they’re targets, and this really just proves that they’re more vulnerable, and they pay more when they have to fix it.

Ben Fairbanks: Exactly. Everyone’s a target. It’s just how well you put up your defenses really.

Libby Powers: Super interesting. How are they doing now?

Ben Fairbanks: How are they doing now? They’re doing good. We’ve had a lot of tickets with them, just tiny, small stuff that are quick fixes. I haven’t heard about any big issues that this client has been facing. But from there, it’s been smooth sailing. We haven’t seen any large malicious activity. But we have set up a much stronger ground layer for them to operate on. I think all parties involved are pretty happy with the way that they’re continuing to work.

Libby Powers: I love it when we can be Batman. Like Batman is to Gotham, we are to St. Louis, and this new client out of state.

Ben Fairbanks: When things get quiet, you just know everything is going good. That’s the thing—if no one really knows they have IT people, I’m starting to think that’s a good thing.

Libby Powers: Yes, when they don’t know you’re there. Awesome. Well, I appreciate you taking time today for this episode of Byte-Size Tech. There’s actually a blog article written about this client as well, if you want to go check out our blog. Ben, I really appreciate you taking the time out of your day to help me with this one.

Ben Fairbanks: Yeah, of course, always good to hang out with you.

Libby Powers: Thanks Ben. Have a great day everyone. Bye!

Good Sports: Partnering with an MSP after a Disruptive Hack

/in , /by

Even if a hack doesn’t bring operations to a screeching halt, the impact has ripples that affect productivity, effort, and an organization’s approach to cyber security and IT. After suffering a breach of their legacy server, a sports nonprofit based in Pennsylvania reached halfway across the country for the right solution.

“At the end of the day in a nonprofit,” says Executive Director M. M., “I just want to look my board members in the eyes and say we’ve done everything a reasonable and prudent nonprofit can do to do right by its membership.”

Anderson Technologies sat down with M. M. to discuss the hack and how it—and partnering with a managed IT services provider—changed everything for his almost-100-year-old sport association.

Too Big to Be Small, Too Small to Be Big

AT: Thank you for taking the time to chat with us. Your organization serves approximately 10,000 members across middle school, high school, and colleges. Could you tell us a little about what you do?

MM: We have three core competencies, if you will. Coaching development is the cornerstone of what we do. We really focus on developing transformational coaches in the educational environment, so primarily middle school, high school, and college coaches.

Secondly, our focus is on student well-being. We have a large number of first-generation college-bound students in our sport. We spend a lot of time coaching our coaches on how to make sure they do well academically, how to make sure they stay in school and graduate. We do a lot with sports performance, and nutrition.

The third area would be advocacy. Lobbying governing bodies for legislation and policies that will help grow our sport. One of the things we’re most happy about in that world is we’ve helped to establish 274 new college programs since 1999. With our large percentage of first-generation college-bound students, it provides access for so many students to go to college that otherwise wouldn’t have the chance.

AT: What does your day-to-day look like as Executive Director of the Association?

MM: My primary focus would be business development, fundraising, sponsorships, and a focus on revenue generation. We do have a small staff here of four full-time people and about 10 subcontractors that are strategically located around the country who I oversee on a day-to-day basis to execute the nonprofit’s mission.

Hackers Exhibit Un-sportsman-like Behavior

AT: Could you tell me about the event that led you to Anderson Technologies? I know that your association experienced a hack.

MM: We did. We got hacked back in October of 2020. We’re a typical small nonprofit. In a lot of ways, we’re too big to be small and too small to be big. Sometimes as an organization this size you become vulnerable to these types of things.

We’re not big enough to have a full time IT director, and the consequences of not having a full time IT director are things like getting hacked. Since that happened, we made the decision to outsource everything that’s not core to our mission.

That way, we can focus our time and energy on the things that we have the expertise to do, and outsource those critical things that aren’t central to our core mission but are certainly essential to the long-term success of our organization.” — M. M., Executive Director

AT: What events led up to the breach?

MM: We had an old legacy server that some time ago we had transferred all the data off of it and onto the cloud-based platform that we currently have. But, of course, no one ever told us to unplug the old legacy server. That’s what the hackers got into.

It wasn’t so much that the information they got was critical to us being able to operate, but we needed to know and ensure that no sensitive data was obtained. That obviously determines what we need to communicate out to anybody that may have had personal data compromised.

It was very disruptive and labor intensive. Expensive. The old adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure certainly would have been the case.

AT: How did you respond to the hack?

MM: We followed standard protocol. We immediately contacted local police, contacted the FBI. And immediately I reached out to a network of IT experts that we have in our membership, asking for advice, including one of our advisors who referred us to Anderson Technologies.

AT: What did you expect when reaching out to Anderson Technologies? Did you have any previous good or bad IT vendor experience?

MM: We actually had some previous bad experiences. We’ve dealt with a single consultant in the past. My experience is, sometimes single consultants will take on more than they can handle, and things slip through the cracks. In that case, we didn’t have a well-defined statement of work spelling out what the consultant was doing and what they weren’t doing. We were paying for it, but it was never spelled out.

When something like that happens, that conversation quickly turns to ‘I didn’t know you wanted me to do this and that and the other thing.’ That’s why it’s important to dot the I’s and cross the T’s and have a well-defined statement of work so both parties are well aware of what’s being done.

A Different Approach and a New Solution

AT: How would you say that your organization’s approach to IT changed after the hack and partnering with Anderson Technologies? It sounds, unlike before, that you now have things well-defined and have someone taking ownership over IT?

MM: Our approach was: we made the decision that we’re going to outsource everything that’s not central to our core mission. We are going to avoid single consultants and try to work with a small firm—the biggest firm that we could afford—to provide us with the managed services that we needed. And their services will really go beyond the cybersecurity. We’re looking for someone that would become familiar with our entire internet platform, and could provide ongoing advice for us. The cyber security was the first step.

AT: Would you share more about your relationship with Anderson Technologies?

MM: We’re looking for Anderson Technologies to provide us with ongoing advice, and they’ve already done a terrific job. When we need a specific consultant in a specific area, we lean on Anderson Technologies to find that best option for us, help us interview that consultant.

Generally speaking, one of the things that’s changed is we have access to a smaller firm where there’s multiple people, as opposed to a single consultant. The challenge with single consultants is that they have a tendency to come and go, and in the IT world every time they go, you’re paying the next one a large sum of money to do more discovery. You end up starting back at square one over and over and over again.

AT: It sounds like it’s especially beneficial for nonprofits to have multiple people working together to take ownership of their IT infrastructure, rather than relying on a single person.

MM: What happens a lot of times to small nonprofits is, when you have different IT people working on different projects, eventually you wind up with pipes that don’t fit into each other.

I’ve learned the importance of having one IT general contractor who is the point person for any decision that you make that’s related to IT. It’s very complex, and being small, we can go out and hire our own IT person, but you end up with a lot of institutional knowledge in one person. If that person ends up retiring or leaving, it’s very disruptive to the organization. Whereas if you have an IT firm that you’re outsourcing it to, you have much better continuity, and it’s much less disruptive.

AT: We’ve definitely seen with other clients where their entire network was managed by one person, and when he leaves, they’re left wondering, ‘where do we even start?’

MM: Exactly. But if you can have two IT people, you have some redundancy in what you’re doing. I think it’s a far better strategy to outsource it to a firm, rather than a single person. You outsource it to a single person, you’re right back to the same problem as with a single staff member.

AT: How would you describe your interactions with our team?

MM: It’s really, really good. One of our concerns in the beginning was not having someone that was local. We all know that technology can be done remotely, but when you talk about setting up hardware, there’s an argument to be made that using a local firm can be an advantage. But Anderson Technologies has been great. We had a couple situations where it required Anderson Technologies sending experts to our office to set things up, and they really did a great job. We’re still early in our relationship, but we’re off to a great start.

Disruption vs. A Good Night’s Sleep

AT: I have one more question about the hack that you experienced. You said that there was a lot of downtime and a lot of frustrations. What was that like?

MM: It was very, very disruptive. Very costly in terms of actual cost and in staff time to fix the problem. It was months of disruption.

Anybody who thinks they can’t afford to outsource IT to a third party to protect them, they’ll spend far more trying to do it themselves. ” — M. M., Executive Director

AT: It seems many organizations learn that the hard way. How does it make you feel to know that you have stronger security measures in place now?

MM: Much better, I’m much better. At the end of the day, in a nonprofit, I just want to look my board members in the eyes and say we’ve done everything a reasonable and prudent nonprofit can do to do right by its membership.

You can never eliminate bad things from happening. But, God forbid, if it happened again, I’d feel pretty good saying this is what we did to mitigate this risk. We know the bad guys are pretty good at what they do, and you’re never fully protected. But at least we’re doing everything within our resources that we can do, and that’s a pretty good feeling at the end of the day.

 

Your organization doesn’t have to live through a hack or the loss of a trusted vendor or IT staff member to know that cybersecurity and IT can feel tumultuous. Are you curious about how Anderson Technologies can help you sleep better at night? We’d love to talk about solutions tailored to your needs.

Contact Us

Reaching for a Co-Managed Solution

Sharing the Work Load: The Case for Co-Managed IT Services

/in , /by

If your business already has a large in-house IT department or merely a dedicated staff of one or two IT professionals, hiring a Managed Services Provider (MSP) may feel like a moot idea. Not everyone needs an MSP for their IT needs, right? The answer to that isn’t as black and white as you might think. While you may not need an MSP for all your IT work, teaming up with one can give you support and peace of mind when you need it most.

4 Limitations of an Internal IT Staff

Hiring an internal IT staff can give your company reliable and on-site support for the day-to-day workings of your business, but you may not have considered all the limitations involved.

1. Narrow Expertise

Internal IT teams, especially those with only one or two employees, usually require professionals who can work on a wide variety of IT issues. Your in-house team should be able to handle the day-to-day technical hiccups that occur in an office environment. This can mean that while all of the basics are handled, the IT team lacks the in-depth expertise in specific areas, such as cybersecurity, networks, and infrastructure, that a larger staff can offer.

2. Dependency on One or Two Employees

When your entire IT department consists of one person, you have no IT department whenever they take time off or leave the company. Even if you have an IT team of multiple employees, the loss of one person for a day/week/forever can dramatically interfere with your IT team’s ability to handle the normal workload or emergency situations.

3. Time-Consuming Help Desk

If an internal staff is dealing with one-off help desk issues, such as printer problems or forgotten passwords, they don’t always have time to work on the essential maintenance of IT systems or perform larger improvements to secure and upgrade your business’s infrastructure. This could leave you unprotected to outside attacks or perpetually dealing with smaller computer issues instead of focusing on the big picture. It can also leave your staff stressed and scrambling to try and get everything done.

4. Limited IT Resources

A small IT team often comes with a small budget as well. This can mean that enterprise-grade IT tools are too expensive to purchase on your own, and some resources can only be purchased in bulk. What is affordable to a small IT team may not be enough to keep your business secure and well-maintained for the long-term, which could cost you more time or money down the road.

What Is Co-Managed IT Support?

Co-managed IT support is a service that supplements your in-house IT staff rather than replaces them. Internal IT teams are often better at handling day-to-day troubleshooting and can lack the time to tackle greater infrastructure projects. When you partner with an MSP for co-managed IT services, your IT team and the MSP’s experts work together to make sure that all your needs are met.

How Can Partnering with an MSP Help Your Business’s IT Team?

Bringing in an MSP to supplement your internal IT team allows your organization to fill skill gaps and ensure full IT coverage in both service and skillset. Without the correct support, your current IT team can become frustrated as well.

Junior Systems Administrator Quentin Topping recalls the challenges of working in a small IT department at a previous workplace:

From my experience working in smaller IT departments, we struggled to find time to do projects and maintain our network. Pretty much all my grunt work was working on simple tasks like adding network users, configuring tablets, etc. We were too busy doing day-to-day IT tasks to handle long-term projects. We lacked any cyber security expert, so we always had to outsource that.

But the limitations of a small internal IT team don’t have to stop your business from being secure and maintained, from the day-to-day tasks to the large, in-depth projects.

By working alongside an MSP, you won’t have to

  • miss out on the best suite of IT tools. An MSP brings with it the best software and monitoring tools to keep you secure and up and running that would be cost prohibitive to purchase on your own.
  • hire and manage a large IT team. An MSP brings a wide array of professional IT staff with different specialties and backgrounds who are ready to handle whatever your business needs.
  • worry about your IT team members being off-duty or leaving. An MSP ensures your IT support remains covered even if you lose an IT team member.
  • sacrifice essential maintenance and big projects to keep your employees running day to day. Your IT team can help your employees while an MSP maintains your network, security, and the continuous IT operations that keep your business running.

Co-managed IT services is the best way to reduce the workload on your IT team and tighten your security without losing productivity or sacrificing your business’s larger IT needs. You can rest easy knowing that your cybersecurity, IT infrastructure, and networks are receiving all the daily attention that they require and that your employees still have the familiar, in-house support they’re used to.

Want to learn more about how your business can grow with co-managed IT services? Anderson Technologies is ready to help find a solution that works for you!

Contact Us

Byte-Size Tech: What Is Co-Managed IT?

/in , , /by

 

Co-Managed IT may be a new concept for a lot of viewers, but Mark Anderson and Libby Powers of Anderson Technologies break it down. A co-managed IT solution is a partnership between your internal IT team and a managed IT services provider brought in to help handle workload, fill skill gaps, and provide access to new hardware and software. Is a co-managed IT partnership right for your business?

 

Related Reading

Contact Us

 

Transcript

Libby Powers: Hi, everybody, welcome to another episode of Byte-Size Tech.

Mark Anderson: Hi, everyone.

Libby Powers: I’m joined with Mark Anderson again, one of our founding principals here at Anderson Technologies. We’re excited to talk to you about what co-managed IT is.

Mark Anderson: Absolutely.

Libby Powers: Mark, do you want to share a little bit about what co-managed IT is?

Mark Anderson: Sure, sure. Co-managed IT is when a firm’s internal IT staff is augmented by a team from the outside, say, a group from a managed service provider will come in and join together with your IT staff and come up with some awesome solutions for ongoing problems.

Libby Powers: That’s awesome. Can you give me a little bit of some areas where a co-managed IT could be supportive to an organization?

Mark Anderson: Absolutely. So you can think logically that if you have one or two people in your IT department, if one of them decides to move to California or go on an extended leave of absence, you’re no longer going to be able to solve problems as rapidly as you once did. And those one or two or small handful of individuals oftentimes find that just the day to day help desk functions will eat their lunch. The large ticket items—implementing brand new technology or getting more efficient in a particular area—just get sidelined and ignored, not because there’s not a desire, but just there’s not enough hours in the day. Augmenting your staff with additional help from a managed services provider that could bring some additional muscle to bear often will be really good. That’s one example.

Libby Powers: I can see how that would really be beneficial to the organization. All those nitpicky things that a help desk provides, with: ‘I can’t find a file’ or ‘My computer went down,’ ‘I can’t log into Outlook’—and instead of having your internal IT person waste their time with these nitpicky issues, a managed services provider could actually just take that over for you.

Mark Anderson: That’s exactly right. Also, in our particular company, as an example, we have approximately 250 years’ worth of experience that you could bring to bear on a particular problem, a very broad spectrum of skills that could help you solve problems. Potentially a one- or two-person shop might be limited in certain areas.

Libby Powers: What are some other areas that you think having a co-managed IT firm can help?

Mark Anderson: Any company that is a managed services provider obviously can buy their technology stack, if you will, at scale. Because you’re buying so many licenses of the different tools that you need to utilize, the price of those licenses is more reasonable than if a firm were to go out and try to buy those exact same tools. You don’t need 2000 copies of a particular piece of software; you might need 50. There’s a pricing competitiveness, that gets brought into the equation as well.

That’s one example. Another is—and we kind of touched on this—that I think often strategic IT initiatives don’t get their fair shake, if you will, in an environment that’s just trying to keep their head above water. Having a co-managed environment, where an outside party could truly sit with you and partner with you to identify what your #1, #2, #3 priorities are, and then start chipping away at them. I think that’s what we found to be very, very beneficial.

Libby Powers: That’s really a great topic, because I think when we’re talking to a lot of companies right now, one of the biggest things is budgeting for IT because it changes so rapidly. You guys having the expertise that you do have, you can actually help companies budget for years in the future on their technical IT cybersecurity needs and know that that’s going to be relevant when the time comes.

Mark Anderson: Yes, absolutely. Right, and that is an important function of handling your IT big picture thinking well is looking into the future and trying to anticipate where you might need to go as a company.

Libby Powers: So basically, Mark, what you’re saying is that this is really a solution. We work together with your current IT infrastructure, then we create this partnership where you get to grow as a company because of the partnership that has been created with having a co-managed IT.

Mark Anderson: I love that, Libby. Yes, it’s absolutely us or any MSP coming in and trying to fortify what you’re doing already, and allow your team to more rapidly move in the direction that you’re setting for your firm—without the limitations of not enough resources to get these pesky IT problems handled in a timely fashion.

Libby Powers: That’s awesome. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk about that today. If you want more information on this topic, you can check out our blog, as well as other videos in Byte-Size Tech. Thank you for your time.

Mark Anderson: Thanks, guys. Bye!

Byte-Size Tech: 3 Tips for Troubleshooting Before Calling IT

/in , , /by

 

Libby Powers and Junior Systems Administrator Ben Fairbanks, both of Anderson Technologies, chat about one of the most common issues computer users face: slow operations. Ben identifies three possible approaches to troubleshoot that can often resolve the issue without starting a ticket with your IT provider. Ben shares tips about internet speeds, connectivity, computer updates, and an old classic tip that really works!

 

Related Reading

Contact Us

 

Transcript

Libby Powers: Hey, Ben. Thanks for joining us for another episode of Byte-Size Tech. I’m really happy to have you do this video with me today.

Ben Fairbanks: No problem at all, Libby. I heard you wanted to talk about some simple troubleshooting tips that viewers can try before calling their IT partner or managed service provider. Is that right?

Libby Powers: That’s correct. For everybody in the audience, just so you know, Ben is one of our Junior System Administrators here, and “Junior” is relative because he definitely knows his stuff. So Ben, I know some so-called “simple problems” make up a lot of what our clients might encounter day-to-day. If we can save them some time or a phone call, I say let’s do it. I’d love to hear what your tips are.

Ben Fairbanks: Yeah, for sure. So, maybe your workstation is acting a little sluggish, or just not doing what you think it should. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to every problem, so do remember that your IT team is here for you. Also, if you’ve already run through these fixes, you could save some time and troubleshoot further with your technician on the ticket.

Libby Powers: What’s the first thing you recommend?

Ben Fairbanks: First thing is checking your connectivity. This means whether or not you’re connected to the internet at all, and if the connection is strong enough to support what you’re doing.

The first thing is to check your internet connection. On a Windows 10 machine, you can find this in the settings. If you click on “Network and Internet,” you should see a message that says you’re connected. If there’s an issue with the internet itself, it’ll show a red X on there, indicating that you’re not actually connected.

Letting us know that you for sure aren’t connected gives us a great place to start digging into the details and troubleshooting further. But maybe you are connected and things still seem to not work quite right.

Libby Powers: I definitely know that how that feels. Every evening when I’m at home, I’m trying to do work stuff or watch Netflix, and my kids are on their devices, it’s definitely slowing down the internet speed.

Ben Fairbanks: Definitely. I think everyone has experienced slow internet, especially since the last year with a lot of users working from home. But to help narrow down exactly what the issue is, you could visit https://www.speedtest.net/ in your browser.

If you want to check your speed a bit quicker, one thing I like to do is, if you’re using the Google search engine, you can type in speed test and search and you can run a speed test right there in the results. So, a bit quicker.

Now, if you’re getting dramatically less than what you know you’re paying for, it could be time to further investigate with your IT provider, as long as you have the information from your ISP—such as Comcast, Spectrum, any one of those companies that you purchase internet monthly from.

Libby Powers: So as far as that speed test goes, I don’t know that I would understand what that outcome would be. Can you share kind of what some of the low numbers or high numbers are?

Ben Fairbanks: Yeah, of course.

For a household, I’d say the general median speeds could be 50 megabytes down speed and maybe 10 megabytes up speed, but it really relies on where you live. At least for me, I’m getting about 200 megabytes down and 10 up. That’s pretty much way more than what I need to live just for basic internet browsing, stuff like that. But there could be another side of St. Louis that you can only get 50 meg bytes per second.

If you’re working from home, you definitely want at least 50 so that you can connect to the internet, download whatever files you need to, and work collaboratively with people on cloud file-sharing platforms. So, 50 and above, 100 would be perfect for that magic number.

Now, if you’re in an office environment with a few other coworkers nearby, I would say you want anywhere from at least 100, and best-case scenario is 200 megabits per second down. The up speed becomes a bit more important in an office environment because you are transferring a lot more data into the internet and download more as well.

If you’re in a larger corporate environment? They’ve probably got huge numbers to support all of their maybe hundreds of employees, and they probably even have separate ones as well to act as failovers.

But for general populace, if you’re working from home, I would say 50 to 100 is the golden rule. If you’re in a small office environment, 100 to 200 is the magic number.

Libby Powers: That is really awesome information to share because that is not something that I think people readily understand. I don’t really understand it. I love that you shared that, Ben.

What are some other things that we can try before we give you a call?

Ben Fairbanks: Well, another thing is updates for your computer. Now if you don’t have the most up-to-date patches for your computer, it may not work properly. If you’re a client of Anderson Technologies, we have what’s called an RMM installed on your computer that will take care of these updates for you. You may just get a reminder, and then you can reboot your computer afterwards. But you may not even notice that it’s there too.

Libby Powers: So, RMM?

Ben Fairbanks: Oh yeah, sorry, an RMM stands for Remote Monitoring and Management tool. This helps managed IT services providers and IT companies get an early heads up to any problems you might be experiencing, and we can automatically take care of things like updates for you.

Libby Powers: That’s awesome. But what if the user isn’t a client of ours, and they don’t have an RMM?

Ben Fairbanks: Well, if you go back to the Windows 10 settings, but this time go to the “Update and Security” option, you can check automatically to see if updates are available for you. If so, they’ll automatically start downloading, and once it’s done, they will apply for you and they’ll ask for a reboot.

One thing to note though, once those updates are done, give your computer a little bit of time during that reboot. One thing I tell my clients is if we’re installing these updates in the morning, you can let those updates, if they’re done, stay there. Then if you go on a lunch break, maybe for an hour, you can restart your computer before you log off, because from what I’ve seen, it may take around 15 to 20 minutes for your computer to go past those updates. It’ll hang on a loading screen before you log in.

Definitely make sure that when you reboot your computer after updates, you can afford some spare time to let your computer think for a bit before logging in again.

Libby Powers: That’s awesome.

Basically, what you’re telling me is if there’s an update on my phone or an update on my computer, I should not press snooze for four weeks, five weeks, six weeks in a row because that’s probably not a good idea?

Ben Fairbanks: Exactly, yep. If you don’t have our RMM installed, I would definitely keep tabs on it about every week. Definitely check for updates as much as you can. It could be something as small as silly feature updates or small patches for Windows 10, or it could be as important as large security updates.

Maybe you’ve seen some headlines in the news about some Windows exploit but, you know, a lot of people may not read those news sources. It’s always good to check on the weekly basis just to see if there’s anything new to install on your computer.

Libby Powers: That’s really good to know. Do you have any other tips for these users before they submit a ticket?

Ben Fairbanks: There is one more and it is kind of cheesy, and you’ve probably heard before, but hear me out. Almost every universal potential solution to a computer problem is turning it off and again.

At the start menu, you can select the reboot option, and you can check after it restarts to see if everything runs smoother. It can fix a surprising number of issues, so you at least want to give it a try first before considering more complex solution. A simple reboot could fix a weird problem almost immediately, and we can skip going deeper down the rabbit hole if we could.

Libby Powers: That’s awesome. You know, I always forget the power of a restart, but that’s a really great point. If my IT partner or managed services provider is going to try something anyway, I may as well sense that and knock it out before we even reach out to them. Save them a ticket and save me time, right?

Ben Fairbanks: Yeah, of course, it always helps just to run through some simple steps. Like I said: updates, computer restart, checking your internet connection and your internet speed.

When you submit a ticket to us or if you further diagnose a problem yourself, you can save yourself a bit more time when you, like I mentioned, end up falling down the rabbit hole only to find out that it could be one of these simple solutions.

Libby Powers: Ben, those are really great tips and tricks. I really appreciate you sharing that, especially the one about the internet speed and what it should be at home or at business. I think that’s really important.

So please, if you want more information, you can take a look at our blog on Anderson Technologies because we always blog about what we video about. If you have any questions, let us know.

And Mr. Ben, I hope I see you on another episode of Byte-Size Tech.

Ben Fairbanks: No problem, Libby. Have a good one. Bye.

Byte-Size Tech: Server Failure Doesn’t Mean Business Failure if You Have Backups

/in , , /by

Mark Anderson and Libby Powers discuss the importance of backups. Mark shares the story of a new client who’s server crashed on day three of our managed IT services agreement. Because Anderson Technologies had implemented backups on a Business Continuity Disaster Recovery Device, most employees at the client couldn’t even tell that the server had failed!

Related Reading

Transcript

 

Libby Powers: Hi, everybody, welcome to another episode of Byte-Size Tech. I’m here again with Mark Anderson, one of the founding principals of Anderson Technologies. Today we’re going to be talking about the importance of backups. It’s really important to have backups in place. Think of all of your employees and what they do over the course of the day, and losing all of that information just because you didn’t have a proper backup in place.

Mark Anderson: Or failure occurred, right.

Libby Powers: Yeah, we actually have a client that we work with now, it’s a law firm, and their server essentially kicked the bucket.

Mark Anderson: That’s right.

Libby Powers: So what happened to that law firm?

Mark Anderson: It was an interesting story, Libby, thank you. We had just done our IT infrastructure audit, which we do for all new potential customers, and had identified their primary server was well over five years old. We said, “This thing really needs to be addressed. Essentially, it’s on fire. It’s like a bonfire sitting over there.” And they agreed. We were within probably the third day of our new arrangement with them and, wouldn’t you know, the server failed.

Libby Powers: Oh, of course, I think that’s what karma is, or Murphy’s Law or something crazy like that.

Mark Anderson: Yes, exactly. The good news, though, was that we had the ability to fail the server over or virtualize the server on what is known as a business continuity disaster recovery device.

Libby Powers: Hold on. That’s a really big word for this.

Mark Anderson: This is the smallest model. But yes, that’s it.

Libby Powers: The law firm essentially had all of their data protected.

Mark Anderson: Right, that’s right. This thing that Libby was holding up allows us to do two things. We’re able to back up data onto itself locally, but it also then has a cloud subscription and it shunts all of the data to two separate geographically disparate data centers, one on the East Coast and then one in Utah. So that if there was an event, you know, tornado or whatever going on in one area, it wouldn’t be in the other, etc. So at any rate, we were able to use this device and fail the server over to it, which meant this took over the role that the server used to play.

Libby Powers: That’s pretty incredible, I’m not going to lie. Just thinking of all the data that’s available at a law firm, your client data. Gosh, I can’t imagine what attorneys have to deal with courts.

Mark Anderson: Me either.

Libby Powers: Over my head, once again, but it’s pretty incredible to understand that this little device here was the Hail Mary, right?

Mark Anderson: The fun thing was, after we had failed over the server and got everyone back up and running very, very quickly, we took one of the principals back to the server room. Normally when you open the door, very loud fan noise and all the rest of it, and it was almost deathly silent in there. And you could tell that they got a rather quizzical look on their face, because they knew, “Hmm, this is a little different.” I pointed out the lights on the server, which obviously were completely dark, and said…Well, let me let me back up. They felt like, “Wait a minute, what do you mean our server failed? It didn’t fail, we’re completely up.” And I said, “Come on back. Let’s go see for ourselves.” I pointed out that the server was indeed completely dark, and they were absolutely amazed and very grateful, honestly, that the investment in that technology paid off so handsomely for them, and they didn’t miss a beat.

Libby Powers: So one more quick question. How often should you be doing a backup?

Mark Anderson: That’s a great question, Libby. I hate saying that it depends, but depending on your particular business, the frequency of backup could vary. We would recommend for most normal businesses, doing an hourly backup is the recommended frequency because it allows you to roll back to just one hour before and get everything back. You know, nightly is kind of almost too long these days. Sometimes years and years ago, it was even less frequent than that.

Libby Powers: I can’t imagine losing even what I do, which isn’t that important compared to that.

Mark Anderson: That’s not true.

Libby Powers: Well, Mark, I really appreciate you joining me today and giving us a little bit of information regarding backups. If you have any questions, please reach out to a managed IT firm to learn more, or you can reach out to us. We’re always happy to help. Thanks.

Mark Anderson: Thanks, guys. Bye.

Contact Us

Byte-Size Tech: Working from Home with a VPN?

/in , , /by

 

… What Could Go Wrong?

Mark Anderson and Libby Powers of Anderson Technologies take a moment to explain how a popular work-from-home set-up might not be providing the security you want. If you’re re-evaluating your remote work set-up, or considering a hybrid work (part time at home) model, it is important to dig into the security you’re really getting – not just the security you thought you had.

 

Related Reading

Contact Us

 

Transcript

Libby Powers: Hi, everybody, thank you for joining us on another episode of Byte-Size Tech.

Mark Anderson: Hi, everyone.

Libby Powers: Mark Anderson, one of the principal founders of Anderson Technologies. Today we’re going to be discussing working from home and having a hybrid approach using a VPN, right? Can you tell us a little about what a VPN is?

Mark Anderson: Sure, a virtual private network is the equivalent of stringing an orange extension cord from the corporate office to your home office and having that dedicated connection between the two.

Libby Powers: Got it. When all these companies were forced into this work-from-home situation last year, many companies were advised that the VPN was all they needed, whether it be a work computer or a personal computer, right?

Mark Anderson: Yes, exactly.

Libby Powers: Okay. We actually were talking to a company a couple weeks ago, and they were advised by another IT firm that the VPN was the only precaution they needed to take for working from home, whether on a company or personal computer. I’m pretty sure they were pretty upset to learn that that’s not it.

Mark Anderson: Well, VPNs are wonderful. We strongly recommend their use when you have data at the company that you need to have access to. But what you can’t forget is that it’s really important the level of security that is installed on the home office computer, whether it’s a laptop, or a normal workstation.

In this particular case, the individuals were using all home computers that had not been audited by the company’s IT department to determine whether they had the latest operating system updates, whether they had an enterprise-grade antivirus/anti-malware program installed. It was kind of a hot mess back at the home office that was then being exposed to the company and company data via all these VPN connections from everyone that was working from home. It was not good.

Libby Powers: So basically, what we’re saying is that—and I was very surprised to learn this is, as I have kids, obviously many of us have kids— everything that the kids do on their devices, whether it’s even on the device you’re working on, your personal computer, maybe they have an iPad or a laptop or something for whatever they’re doing, it’s affecting the network, right?

Mark Anderson: Well, it can be, right? Because the issue is that if someone [or their] child has a computer, and they click on something they shouldn’t, and something is installed then on that that particular computer, anything that is attached to the network could be at risk. So any other computer— namely, the one that the individual is using to connect to the corporate office—that one could be infected by something that had gone on with your kids’ computers, so you just have to be very aware of that.

Libby Powers: Then what are some of the additional protocols?

Mark Anderson: Sure. If the company cannot afford to send dedicated laptops home with every employee, then you need to get into, “All right, well, what devices do I have attaching to my network, and what kind of software is installed on those devices?” Each one of them truly needs to be audited, and then we would highly recommend that those free antivirus programs get deleted, and more enterprise grade ones get installed.

Libby Powers: So you’re saying that the free antivirus that comes with my computer when I buy it is not enough?

Mark Anderson: It’s usually not adequate. That’s correct. Well, that’s probably a subject for a whole other video because there’s a lot of detail which goes into that as well.

Libby Powers: That’s good to know. Well, I think the key takeaway here is that so many of us were forced into doing a work-from-home or a hybrid, and many companies were advised that the VPN was kind of a silver bullet, and we know that it’s not. Just make sure you’re working with an IT company, and that they really understand the need and necessity for possibly having other softwares in place to protect your company data even further.

Mark Anderson: Sure, that’s right.

Libby Powers: Awesome. Well, you can read more about this on our blog, and I look forward to having another conversation with you regarding the actual software that you get for free and all that entails. Thanks, everybody!

Mark Anderson: Thanks for listening. See you next time, bye-bye.

Byte-Size Tech: Make Big Changes with IT In Mind

/in , , /by

 

Amy Anderson and Libby Powers of Anderson Technologies take a managed IT services provider approach to big changes. In light of the tumultuous last year, many businesses are facing an office move, remote work, or rightsizing operations. If you are too, be sure to plan with your IT needs in mind. The best way to do this is in partnership with your IT provider, because a DIY approach may end up causing more problems than it solves.

 

Related Reading

Contact Us

Transcript

Libby Powers: Hi, everybody! Welcome to another episode of Byte-Size Tech. I am joined today with Amy Anderson, Principal of Anderson Technologies.

Amy Anderson: Hi, everyone! Good to be here.

Libby Powers: Today we’re going to discuss something that nobody really thinks about. Over this past year, there’s been a lot of movement—whether your employees are moving from office to home, or home back to office in a hybrid model, or your company’s downsizing, upsizing, just all this movement. One of those big things that nobody ever thinks about is how they’re going to move their IT.

Amy Anderson: Yeah, it’s true. We moved into this office about a year ago, and I can relate. It’s a big project, you’re trying to run a business, and it’s almost like you have two jobs trying to figure out how to lighten that load on the IT. I have a few thoughts about that today.

Number one is planning. Start early. Don’t forget about IT. I know we’re all excited about where everyone’s going to sit in the new offices and the tables and chairs, but think and plan ahead of time with the IT. Make sure that either you or your IT provider are looking, coordinating with your ISP—your internet service provider, if it’s Charter or AT&T— because sometimes there’s a lot of complicated things they need to do and you need to coordinate early.

What else were we thinking about?

Libby Powers: You had mentioned something to me that you need special plug-ins?

Amy Anderson: Oh, yeah, you just need to pay attention to those little details. In our server room, we have an APC battery, and it has one of those big round fat plugs.

Libby Powers: Kind of like a dryer?

Amy Anderson: Yeah, like a dryer. I can’t remember, it’s called a NEMA plug, actually. So you need to make sure the electrician’s been there, that you have everything you need, look at your low voltage wiring.

We really recommend that every employee has a hardwire to their computer, not Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is good to have as well, but not as your primary. Hardwire is a lot more reliable, and you don’t want to have to be calling your IT support desk as often.

Libby Powers: Many years ago I was working for a company that moved from one location to a completely new location. Then within that location, while the office space was being built out, we were in this like little cubby hole, like ten of us in this crazy small room. We were tasked with moving all of our IT. Basically, I had to move two screens, my computer, all of the equipment, and I was tasked with setting it all back up. Well, for a non-tech person, I had to ask six other people where to plug things into. Now I know now, luckily.

Amy Anderson: What we found over the years that sometimes people try and do that thinking it’s going to be less expensive, but it ends up being a spaghetti mess and it takes more time for IT people and more money for them to come in and get it all organized.

I really recommend, don’t have a traditional mover or your employees move your IT. Have an IT team that’s knowledgeable about it do it for you, they’ll hand do it, and sometimes when it’s really complicated, they’ll take pictures ahead of time, maybe in the server room, to make sure that everything gets put back exactly right, which saves you money because if it’s not done right they don’t have to spend hours figuring it out.

Libby Powers: That’s awesome. So one of the big takeaways is plan, plan, plan. And don’t rent a U-Haul.

Amy Anderson: Exactly. And you’ll have a really smooth move. You’ll move all your workstations, get those set up, and then the last thing, if you have a server, would be to move your server, and everything will be peachy and you’ll be happy! You can get back to business.

Libby Powers: We really appreciate that, Amy. Our key takeaway here is just that you want the most productive team during this move, so the less downtime is going to be important. Make sure you’re working with a company that can do that for you.

Amy Anderson: Thanks for joining us today.

Libby Powers: Thank you all. Have a great day.

Byte-Size Tech: Insure Against Tech Disaster

/in , /by

 

Anderson Technologies’ Junior Systems Administrator Quentin Topping sits down with Libby Powers to talk about the little things a managed IT services provider does every day to protect from big disasters. Sometimes, things like insurance and maintenance can seem useless, but insuring your business against potential disaster is something you’ll wish you’d done before the worst happens.

 

Related Reading

 

Transcript

Libby Powers: Hi, everybody! Welcome to another edition of Byte-Size Tech. I am joined with Quentin today. He’s one of our Junior System Admins. Quentin, you want to introduce yourself?

Quentin Topping: As Libby said, I’m Quentin Topping. I am a Junior Systems Administrator here at Anderson Technologies. I deal with all our on-the-ground computer work.

Libby Powers: He’s very much in the trenches every day with making sure that our clients are receiving the best level of support possible. And honestly, kind of what you do is to make sure that they’re not calling in to us because we’re proactively figuring out what’s going on with them and, if there’s an issue, just taking care of it.

Quentin Topping: Exactly, I would much rather keep you from having an issue at all then have to try and fix something.

Libby Powers: Awesome! So something that Quentin and I were discussing is insurance. We have insurance for many things: we have insurance on our house, we have insurance on our car, some of us may have insurance on our pets, so there’s some truth for many reasons. And why we use that insurance, or why we pay for that insurance, is because we want to make sure that in the case of something happening, we’re going to be covered. Correct?

Quentin Topping: Exactly.

Libby Powers: Okay. Something I was telling Quentin is several years ago, I had a house fire, and it was a total loss. And four days before the house fire, I was able to sign homeowner’s insurance, which took care of a lot, not the memories but those things that we lost, like clothes and stuff like that. We equate that with what we do. We are your insurance for anything: data loss, ransomware… Can you talk a little bit about that?

Quentin Topping: Yeah, absolutely. Preventative maintenance is as much of what we do as active repair and active maintenance. When you call in about your Outlook working or your programs not working, our goal is to also try and prevent those issues from ever arising. IT management is about prevention, recovery, and active maintenance.

Libby Powers: What are some of the things that you do on an ongoing basis that would be this preventative maintenance, kind of like changing the smoke detector in your house?

Quentin Topping: We like to check your system to make sure it’s up to date, we like to make sure all of your programs are up to date, we actively monitor ongoing security threats that are known throughout the country, and we actively take the steps to make sure your system is not rolling the ball to those common threats.

Libby Powers: Something that Quentin said to me which I really liked was we are kind of your fire department that would you would call and say “I have an issue.” But instead of the entire fire department coming, they would just be able to put out the fire from wherever they were. Now we know that’s not going to happen with an actual fire, but if you’re having a meltdown in your business, just think of being able to call somebody who could fix that in a moment’s notice. Right?

Quentin Topping: Exactly, that’s the joy of the computer world we live in. We can, with a press of a button, turn everything back to the way it was. Recovery is just as much a part of prevention as actively monitoring threats. We—a lot of places—will provide the ability to recover your data. So if your system goes down, you lose access to your email, we can recover that to the last state we had it in. An analogy I told you before is like if the fire department had a copy of your house saved at the fire station they could provide to you after it burned down.

Libby Powers: Oh gosh, wouldn’t that be handy? Who knows, with 3D printing these days, who knows what’s going to come about. Anyway, we hope you understand why having a managed IT company work with you and proactively monitoring your IT infrastructure and security is really important, not only for your business, but for all of your data. I appreciate you joining me today, Quentin. Hopefully we can do this again. Reach out to us at any time. Thanks so much. Have a great day. Bye.

Contact Us

Byte-Size Tech: Employee Training Can Make Or Break Your Cybersecurity

/in , /by

Mark Anderson and Libby Powers chat about the importance of employee training when it comes to your business’s cybersecurity. Even the most protected network is vulnerable when bad actors are unwittingly given access. Libby shares a personal story of getting phished, and the consequences of a single click.

 

Related Reading

Contact Us