Latest Technology
The Top 9 IT Security Must-Haves for 2022
The volume of attacks we are seeing is rising exponentially and getting more sophisticated with each year that goes by. Here are what we believe are the top 9 IT security must-haves right now.
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The Benefits of Microsoft 365 Explored
With everything leaning towards the cloud, and with Windows 365 set for release at the end of 2021, we’ve put together a quick article on some of the key benefits of going Microsoft 365.
Managed IT for SMEs
With advancements in technology, managed IT services are now an affordable option for small and medium businesses. You keep control of your business data, you don’t have to manage a cohort of staff whose skills you may be unfamiliar with and your infrastructure is fully supported.
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6 Top Tips for Creating an IT Budget
IT spending both in the UK and around the globe is on the rise. For all the business owners, IT managers and directors out there, here are our 6 top tips for creating an IT budget.
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The Big Return: Is Your Office Ready?
Is your office ready for you to come back? We’re going to explore three areas where your technology may not be quite ready for your return.
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Should You Lease or Buy Your IT Equipment?
Although new IT equipment can be ‘nice to have’, sometimes it is essential. If you’re in the market for new devices and tech equipment for your organisation you’re probably wondering what the best way to do it is. Do you lease it or buy it outright?
Air Gapping and Your Recovery Strategy
Air gapping isn’t a new topic, and it goes by several different names, but it’s an interesting area and something it’s important to give a brief mention to. Air gapping is physically isolating a computer, network or device from any form of connected access – internet or LAN.
The Path to Better Data Protection in Microsoft 365
Microsoft does not back up your Microsoft 365 data. To make copies of your data and store these securely, you need to devise a backup and recovery strategy, using a third-party solution. It’s time to get started on a path to better data protection.
Hosted Telephony and Digital Transformation
Hosted telephony and digital transformation go hand in hand. Business functions and communications are becoming increasingly cloud-based. Adopting hosted telephony is one aspect which can improve your operations.
G Suite Tips for Education
The transition to online teaching was daunting to many, but schools got by and lessons continued. While there’s ongoing uncertainty over the format of education in the UK, we thought it would be useful to compile a list of some handy tips for those teachers who use G Suite.
The Top 10 IT Must-Haves for 2021
Even when the world stands still, technology doesn’t. We’ve put our heads together and come up with what we believe are the top 10 IT must-haves right now.
Managing Remote Workers
For many, remote working looks like it’s here to stay. While there’s plenty around about working remotely, what we haven’t come across much of, is how to manage remote workers. Here are our five top tips on managing remote employees, with a little help from technology.
What is Cloud Transformation?
In its simplest form, cloud transformation is moving your technology to the cloud – this could be your apps, data and software, or your entire IT infrastructure.
Is it time you had an IT Strategy?
An IT strategy is a 3-5 year roadmap of how technology will support and further your overall business strategy, with measurable goals.
8 Tips for Managing Microsoft Teams
To many businesses and schools, Microsoft Teams has felt like the saviour of lockdown. Using this tool effectively should be a key priority.
So Many Clouds, So Little Time
‘Cloud’ in computing terms is by now absolutely nothing new. We casually refer to it in every aspect of our personal and professional lives and accept that that’s the way it is.
The Journey to Zero Trust
‘Zero trust’ is a relatively new buzzword in cybersecurity. As an evolving approach to network design, the term means many different things to many different people.
Don’t Get Phished, Get MFA
Phishing attempts are without a doubt increasing. While staff awareness is a great way to minimise phishing success, it only goes so far – sometimes you just need a more fool proof method.
Top Tips for Using Zoom like a Pro
If video conferencing is here to stay, and Zoom is to be one of the major players, it’s worth having a read through our top tips for some enhanced protection features designed to make your remote experience even better.
Focus On: Digital Education Platforms
Having a digital education platform such as Microsoft Office 365 or Google’s G Suite is quickly becoming an ‘essential item’ for schools. To help you take steps towards exploring the benefits of these platforms, we’ve put together a list of the most common misconceptions and how these can be easily debunked.
Why You Should Embrace Green IT
Many of us take an interest in sustainability in our home lives, but what about our working lives. Are you considering green IT for your organisation?
Remote Working Tips
We’ve put together some remote working tips we rely on ourselves to help you with your remote setup and routine while working from home.
The Right Communication Tools for Remote Working
Remote working tools should be straightforward enough to be used by all, but powerful enough to provide a continuous, unencumbered service to your stakeholders.
Ten Safeguarding Considerations when Live Streaming Lessons
Are you live streaming when you teach? Here are ten things to take into account before you incorporate live streaming into your remote lesson planning.
8 Reasons to Embrace Video Conferencing
There’s every reason to expand the use of video conferencing throughout your business. Remote communication is widely accepted, internet connections are highly capable and the tools on the market are well development.
Microsoft Product Announcements – Spring 2020
In spring 2020, Microsoft announced some updates to their Office 365 range of products, including: additions to their product line up, name changes and new app features. Changes are in effect from 21st April 2020.
Focus On: Business Continuity
Let’s focus on business continuity. In an ever-changing world, the number of risks a business or educational establishment faces is only on the increase.
Focus On: Interactive Screens
The interactive screen has been fundamental in changing the way we learn and work. In this article we’re going to focus on interactive touch screens in both education and business.
6 Reasons to Embrace Managed IT
Throughout the industry we all know that internal IT are under huge pressure. Is it time to consider bringing in a Managed IT Service? This isn’t about replacing the existing IT team, or downplaying the role they hold – far from it.
What are the Most Common Types of Cyber Attacks?
There are several different types of cyber attacks out there, however some hit the headlines far more than others. We’ve put together a short snippet about the most popular, to explain a bit more about what they do.
8 Ways Unified Communications Increase Workplace Productivity
Boost your workplace productivity through unified communications. Grow a healthy, thriving company with engaged and satisfied employees.
Office 365 Apps for Productivity and Collaborative Working
Improve collaboration, communications, flexibility and productivity with the world-leading, next-generation Office 365 apps. As well as the usual Outlook, Word, Excel and Powerpoint, there are apps to improve efficiency, workflow, security and business processes.
What is a Cloud First IT Strategy?
‘Cloud first’, in its simplest terms means ‘to consider cloud-based technology solutions before all others’. Many businesses, large and small, are starting to adopt this approach.
7 Myths About Cloud Computing
There are a lot of myths and misconceptions about cloud computing. Here are the top seven we come across most regularly and why they’re not necessarily 100% accurate.
Migrating from Exchange Server to Office 365
6 aspects to consider when deliberating between Microsoft On-Premise Exchange Server and Office 365 for your business email.
Assistive Technology from Microsoft
Make accessibility and inclusion the norm with assistive technology from Microsoft. The tech giant have made it their mission to support all users in realising their full potential, using tech as the enabler.
How Often Should a Server be Replaced?
One sad day the trusty server in the corner of the office will go dark. Although you can’t predict when that day will be, you’ll want to be in control when it happens (and plan for it never to happen).
What is Patch Management and Why Do You Need It?
The technical term ‘Patching’, is as literal as it sounds: applying a patch to fix a problem, just as you would a tear in a pair of jeans.
Are you protecting your organisation from your employees?
If you’re invested in the cyber security field you’ll likely have come across many an article discussing the risk employees pose to an organisation’s security – without even meaning to.
Why You Need Multi-Factor Authentication
The simple password as a security measure is no longer good enough for the world we live in today. The number of data breaches involving stolen or weak passwords has risen to 81%.
Do You Have a Disaster Recovery Plan in Place?
Being able to pick up the pieces after a disaster is essential to minimising revenue loss for most, if not all, modern businesses. It may not always be possible to avoid a disaster, but planning for one is an essential part of any IT strategy.
Supporting Macs Within a Windows Environment
Macs are no longer solely the tool of choice for design and marketing departments. Wider business use of Macs is only on the rise. With increased usage comes the need to manage and integrate the devices into your Windows environment.
Save Money, Time and Grow Your Business with IP Telephony
Upgrading your phone system might keep dropping down your priority list, but if you’re still running a traditional on-premise phone system it could be time to really look into the benefits you’ll be missing out on.
Connectivity Glossary of Terms
If you’re new to the world of connectivity you’re probably finding you come across a new acronym or term every other day. We’ve put together this glossary to help ease your way through the minefield and successfully come out the other side with the right connectivity solution for you.
Buyer’s Guide: Broadband for Education
If you’ve been tasked with sourcing a new broadband provider for your school or trust, you may be wondering where to start. We’ve written this article to help you on your journey to selecting the right provider for you.
7 Reasons Why Apple in the Enterprise is Winning
Apple’s steady march to infiltrate the office seemingly couldn’t be going better. Time and time again we read articles announcing a new success for Apple in the enterprise where yet another large corporation has adopted Apple into their culture. As they continue to win, we explore the 7 reasons why they’re succeeding.
Personal Data and the GDPR
Under the GDPR there is the requirement to fulfil Subject Access Requests, and meet the Right to be Forgotten. This could become a very labour-intensive task, but technology can help. ScanR discovers GDPR Sensitive and Personal Data within all types of structured and unstructured documents.
Microsoft Report: Creating a Culture of Digital Transformation
2017 Report from Microsoft on Creating a Culture of Digital Transformation. Technology may be the driving force of digital transformation, but technology alone cannot solve all our problems.
Office 365 OneDrive Quick Start Guide
OneDrive for Business is an integral aspect of Office 365 or Share Point. It provides a place in the cloud to store, share and sync work files. Update and share files from any device with OneDrive for Business, even work on Office documents with others at the same time.
Infographic: Top 6 Reasons to Move to the Cloud
There are many benefits a business can gain by moving to the cloud. These can be realised through the various different cloud models: private, hybrid or public. To highlight some of the key benefits, we’ve created an infographic of the Top 6 Reasons to Move to the Cloud.
The Wireless Usage of a University is more Intensive than Most Businesses
Universities are racing to keep up with demand, seeing usage increase year on year. Students are driving the dramatic upsurge, but faculty are also responsible for their fair share of network demands.
Office 365 Quick Start Guide
For their most recent release of Office 2016, Microsoft have created a few helpful quick start guides for some of the most commonly used programs.
Drive your company’s digital transformation journey
Digital transformation has been creeping its way into more and more headlines over the past few years. As start-ups pop up on every corner, whilst the antiquated spectacularly implode, those in the middle are left wondering what the future holds and how to get there.
Bring the objectives of business and IT in line like never before
Frustrated by the rising costs of public cloud? Consider a hybrid cloud model and regain control of your IT. Hybrid cloud is leading the way in enterprise due to the balance it affords a business to work towards its goals harmoniously.
6 Ways Cloud Computing Increases Productivity
Whether or not to move to cloud computing is still a consideration for many businesses. Not all workloads are suited for moving to a fully cloud-based system but most companies can begin the process in some way or another. However small a step you are able to make, there can be huge benefits in productivity.
Making the Business Case for Hyperconvergence
A hyperconverged platform combines compute, storage and virtualisation, leveraging industry-leading servers from Nutanix, Dell, Lenovo, Cisco and more. The easy-to-manage application can deliver a complex infrastructure of virtualisation, storage, compute, network, management and data protection seamlessly.
Veeam and Nutanix Accelerate Digital Transformation for the Always-On Enterprise
Veeam Software, the innovative provider of solutions that delivers Availability for the Always-On Enterprise™, today announced an expanded partnership with Nutanix, a leader in enterprise cloud computing and hyper-converged infrastructure, in which Veeam becomes the Premier Availability solution provider for Nutanix virtualised environments.
Is It Time You Moved On From the Public Cloud?
There will always be an argument between increasing or decreasing dependency on the public cloud. The reality is, your stance will be completely determined by your business model and specific needs.
Never Have a Compatibility Issue Again: Move to Office 365
No doubt we’ve all had the alert pop up saying, ‘this document is not compatible with your version of Word/Excel/Powerpoint’. Wouldn’t it be nice to never have this frustrating issue again? With Office 365 Premium you never need to worry about compatibility again, with always-up-to-date software!
Traditional vs Next-Generation Firewall
There is a new wave of enterprise firewall on the market, dubbed next-generation firewall (NGFW). A traditional firewall is usually defined as a device that is able to control the flow of traffic in and out of the network. These typically can only track traffic on layers 2-4. A NGFW can do far more than this. Although specific vendor offerings do differ, there are a selection of features which are generally seen as standard.
Sophos: Nine best security practices to apply now
We’ve highlighted some best security practice advice from world class security vendor Sophos. Good IT security practices including regular training for employees are essential components of every single security setup.
Office 365 Myths About Migrating
There are a lot of misconceptions around what it really means to move a small or medium-sized business to the cloud. Most companies have decided they need the business agility and want the cost savings that come with this, but not all understand what it really means or entails.
Introducing the New Education Features from Apple iOS
With the release of iOS 9.3 earlier this year, Apple announced a number of education focussed tools to improve the management and productivity of iPads in school environments. This doesn’t negate the need for a Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution, or a Management Information System (MIS), but works in conjunction to put the devices in the hands of students and teachers.
10 Reasons Why OneNote is the Best Classroom Tool Ever
Hearing more about the use of OneNote in the classroom? Need to extend your current use? Here is the perfect list for your next OneNote discovery. OneNote is one of the quiet hero applications in Education. On the face of it, OneNote is a great note taking and organisation tool, but when you get deeper you just can’t go past its feedback and collaboration capabilities.