Was Your South Florida Business Ready For Hurricane Irma? Ours Was!

was your south florida business ready for hurricane irma ours was

It has been a few days since Hurricane Irma has passed through the South Florida area. While roughly half the state remains without power, our Fort Lauderdale office has been up and running since 8:00 AM Monday, operating on generator power with full internet connectivity.

In addition, our offices in New York and California as well as our teams in Arkansas, and Iowa continue to be fully engaged in our support services and ready to respond to anything you may need. Our Fort Lauderdale office has fuel for our on-site technicians to facilitate any on-sites that may be needed.

While our monitoring tools are reporting that a majority of our clients are online. Our teams have been working around the clock to personally communicate with each client in the affected area. We are asking that our Florida Clients who we have not been able to reach, please report the following to our support team:

  1. Does your office have power?
  2. Has your office received any structural damage?
  3. Is any of your IT equipment damaged?
  4. If you have power and it seems like your internet is down please let know. (We are monitoring your connection from the outside of your network)

Our engineers are continuing to assess our client’s networks as power is restored to their sites to verify full functionality. If you have power and can access your office, please contact our help desk so we can prioritize getting your site online.

Our support team can be contacted using the following methods

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 877.771.2384

If you have power and your internet service provider cannot get your office online WheelHouse IT may have a solution to get your office online with an LTE device. Please contact our support team for more information.

Computer Tip Of The Day: Data Backup Systems

computer tip of the day data backup systems

It is essential that your office computing devices all have excellent data backup systems. When you do not have data backup systems, your business has a greater chance of suffering from data loss. When your business loses critical data or the data becomes damaged, this can result in your business operations being down for a significant period of time. When customers are informed of the situation that is taking place at your business, many of them will likely take their business elsewhere.

Data Backup Systems

It does not matter if your data is lost due to weather-related conditions or if your equipment has failed, your data will always be vulnerable, and this is why you will need to make sure data is being backed up at all times. What can you do to ensure you have the right backup system for your business?

We want you to consider the following:

Backup Frequency

Your business will have some data that will require frequent backups. Before you choose a backup system, you should make sure you have a clear understanding of how often you will need your data backed up.

How Much Needs To Be Backed Up?

How much customer, employee, client, etc. data will you need to have backed up? You may not think you have a significant amount of data, but you should make sure you choose a data backup system that can be scalable.

Protecting Your Backups

Cyber criminals will not only attack your original data but they will also attack your copies. Will the backup system you are considering be able to protect your data and the copies of your data?

It is important that your backup systems will always function properly. Sometimes businesses will fail to consider everything revolving around data and backups, and this results in them losing data permanently. If you are interested in learning more about data backups and how you can find the right system for your business, contact us today.

 

Five Reasons Budget-Minded Business Owners Love Managed Services

five reasons budget minded business owners love managed services

Business owners understand that they need secure, well-maintained IT systems to succeed in a competitive and highly connected world. At the same time, many businesses are operating within a relatively small budget for IT services, which range from performing hardware upgrades to responding to new cyber security threats.

business owners

Fortunately, there’s a way to enjoy high-quality IT services within budgetary constraints. Budget-minded business owners often opt for managed services, for the following reasons:

  1. Managed services providers will actively look for ways to save you money. They’ll help you avoid unnecessary purchases, and they’ll make IT decisions that align with your business goals, so that you aren’t wasting resources on projects and services that contribute nothing to your company.
  2. Managed services are flexible. The services you rely on can be tailored to your business and its demands and objectives. You can choose among services (or bundles of services), and many of them can also be scalable, so that you can adjust your use of data storage space and other resources based on your current needs.
  3. You receive proactive support. A strong managed services provider will give you round-the-clock support and actively work to detect problems before they become full-blown, costly emergencies. For example, your managed services provider can continuously monitor your network for unauthorized activities or signs of equipment failure. The emphasis is on prevention and detection, not simply on reacting to existing problems.
  4. Managed services providers get to know your business. When you hire a managed services provider, they come to understand your business, give you personal attention, and offer you solutions that fit with what you need. They save you time and money by handling various responsibilities that would otherwise consume your attention and distract you from other business operations.
  5. You don’t need to hire in-house personnel. Although a managed services provider can work with any in-house personnel you’ve hired and share some of the responsibilities of managing your IT systems, you don’t need to hire in-house personnel at all if your budget can’t accommodate such a decision. Your managed services provider give you an option of IT management and support at a more manageable cost.

Don’t hesitate to contact us for additional information about our managed services. Working with a managed services provider can prove to be a cost-effective decision for your company.

The Only 4 Disaster Recovery Tips You Need for Hurricane Season

the only 4 disaster recovery tips you need for hurricane season

With hurricane season approaching, we urge East Cost businesses to emphasize disaster recovery more than usual. The good news is that even if we were to face Hurricane Sandy 2.0, you can control and ensure your company’s future.

Hurricane Season

Extra staff training

Disaster recovery really comes down to employees in the end. Even if your backup site is up to par, if your employees don’t know what to do in crunch time, your plan won’t work out as it should.

Consider mixing up your training in the summer months. Yes, you should go over the evacuation procedures again, but you should also try to simulate a real-life scenario so employees will know how to act when the time comes. DR drills are a good way to train employees for the reality of natural disasters.

Double-check your backup site

If you want to continue your operations despite a hurricane, then you’ll need a backup site in addition to your data storage location. This is something you need to address before August, when every business will be looking for one.

If you already have a backup site, then double-check that everything is alright. It’s better to find out that you need a new one sooner rather than later.

Keep all contact information up-to-date 

How will you get in touch with your IT vendor in the event of a disaster? Do you have the correct phone numbers and email addresses? Make sure you confirm all of this information regularly.

Keep an eye on the latest weather reports

News channels start reporting on hurricanes early. We recommend that you tack them as soon as possible. If you get the information that a hurricane is approaching just two days in advance, then you’ll be in a mad rush to secure everything.

A little tip: we recommend the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s website NOAA.gov. It’s a government agency that doesn’t have to compete against local news channels for TV ratings and organic traffic.

For more disaster recovery tips for hurricane season, contact us today.

Don’t Become a Victim: Avoid Phishing Emails With These Tips

don t become a victim avoid phishing emails with these tips

Phishing emails remain a popular method cyber criminals use to coerce users out of sensitive account information or to inject malicious code on a user’s machine. Individuals fall for phishing scams each day, leading to identity theft, security breaches, and exposure of confidential business data. According to the Anti-Phishing Work Group, 2016 was a record year for phishing attempts and the trend is expected to continue in 2017. Here are a few tips on how anyone can avoid phishing emails and not become the victim of corruption.

Avoid Phishing Emails

  • Most, if not all institutions, would never ask for your personal information via email. If you receive an email asking for usernames, passwords, or personal/company data (i.e., account numbers), you should immediately question its legitimacy.
  • If you don’t recognize or if you weren’t expecting something from the sender, exercise caution. Often, phishing emails may come from sources you don’t know; however, in many cases, the sender may have masked their email address so that it appears to come from an organization or individual you are familiar with.
  • Pay close attention to the sender’s email address. This is normally a sure-fire way of spotting a phishing attempt. If the contents of the email appear to come from a known source (i.e., PayPal), but the sender address is @gmail.com, it’s undoubtedly a phishing email.
  • Pay close attention to any links in the email. In most cases, the links may appear genuine; however, if you hover your mouse over the link (do not click on it), a tooltip will appear showing you the actual URL. If the URL is different from the link in the email, it’s not an authentic message.

So, what do you do if you’re not sure? Phishing emails can often be very convincing, so if you suspect a message is phishing, but have doubts…

  • Try contacting the alleged sender directly (not using any links or phone numbers provided in the email). They can typically confirm whether the email is legitimate or a scam.
  • Try contacting your organization’s IT department for assistance as they may be able to assist with investigating the email to determine if it is genuine.

Essentially, it is always best to err on the side of caution and be mindful of each email you receive. As a rule of thumb, never respond to or open attachments in an email unless you are certain it is legitimate. By doing so, you can better protect you and your organization’s confidential data. Please contact us with any questions.