Proactive Support And Why It’s Good For Business

proactive support and why it good for business

When is the best time to fix a problem? Before it’s a problem! That’s where proactive support comes in.

Once an IT problem becomes obvious, it’s a serious annoyance. It can mean downtime, calling people in during off hours, and lost productivity and revenue. It’s better to prevent trouble from happening in the first place. That’s what proactive IT support is all about.

Proactive Support Is Good For Business

Your network can go a long time with security weaknesses before someone stumbles on them and takes advantage. Sooner or later, though, someone will. If your support team finds the weakness first, then they can fix it before anyone can exploit it.

Other situations are less dramatic but likewise provide opportunities to prevent trouble. If a server is filling up rapidly, it might be headed for a situation where it won’t have enough capacity. It may be necessary to get more disk storage, or perhaps all that’s needed is to find out what’s wasting space and clean it up. Finding out before the disk is full is better.

Regular software updates are part of proactive service. Outdated software is more likely to have bugs and security risks, and new applications might not work with an old operating system. Proactive service keeps all system software up to date.

Another aspect of proactive support is listening to the users. If they say that they’re having intermittent problems, or that the network is slower than it used to be, there might be a problem which isn’t yet obvious. An investigation might turn up a problem and fix it before it becomes serious.

Purely reactive IT support fixes problems only after they’ve become obvious. They’re harder to fix that way, and they may have already done serious damage. A smoothly running IT operation requires proactive support, fixing issues before they get in the way.

We provide managed IT services and proactive support so that your business can stay productive without interruptions. Please contact us to find out what we can offer you.

What Is An MSSP And Why Does Your Business Need One?

what is an mssp and why does your business need one

In today’s world, threats to an organization’s data and IT infrastructure are growing at an alarming rate. Both large enterprises and smaller companies have been the targets of phishing schemes, ransomware attacks, and data penetration attempts. What’s more, the level of sophistication demonstrated in these cyber attacks is rising steadily. Many businesses are finding it very difficult to keep up.  That’s where MSSP’s come in. But, what is an MSSP?

Although almost all companies have taken steps to make their IT operations as secure as they can, rarely do smaller organizations have the expert staff required to keep up with the constantly evolving threat. That’s the reason many businesses have turned to managed security service providers (MSSPs) to help them build defenses that can keep their IT systems and their data secure.

What is An MSSP?

MSSPs are security experts that offer outsourced management and monitoring of a company’s security infrastructure. They provide their services either on-site or, most often, remotely through the cloud.

Services MSSPs Provide

A good MSSP will typically provide services like the following:

  • Analyze your present security system to identify potential vulnerabilities, and take required action to minimize such exposures
  • Install and manage a first class authentication regime to ensure that only authorized users gain access to your sensitive data, networks, and computer systems
  • Implement and monitor intrusion detection systems and firewalls on a 24/7 basis
  • Analyze collected event monitoring data to identify possible intrusion attempts
  • Monitor network traffic to detect anomalies that might reveal a new or evolved threat signature
  • Rapidly and effectively respond when threats are identified

For SMBs (small and medium-sized businesses), a first-class MSSP can function as a seamless extension of their own IT staff. This provides the company with a level of expertise in identifying, preventing, and responding to sophisticated security threats that it can rarely achieve on its own. Plus, it releases the company’s own IT workers to concentrate on initiatives that are more directly tied to producing revenue for the business.

If you would like to explore how the services we offer here at 4 Corner IT can help keep your computers, networks, and data secure, please contact us.

 

Understanding How IT Service Management Works for Organizations

understanding how it service management works for organizations
IT service management

Want to know how IT service management works?

Modern business cannot function without computers, technology and the increased communication and marketing resources they provide. However, it is impossible for most business owners to manage and secure their IT systems on their own. They need to know how IT service management works.

With the rapid rise in new cyber-security threats, the old solutions just don’t work anymore. In addition, modern organizations must have the proper infrastructure to support their company’s workload.

Just like you would hire a plumber or electrician to:

  • Do routine maintenance checks to ensure your systems are safe and up to code, and
  • Fix an issue that goes wrong,

… you should also hire a qualified IT service management firm to manage your IT infrastructure and cloud services.

What Zaps Organizational Efficiency?

Old computers can cause more problems than business owners realize. You and your workers might be losing several work hours a week waiting for slow loading computers to run through tedious bootups, browser crashes and lack of popup blocking.

All the machines and software in your office can wear out over time, including:

  • Desktops,
  • Laptops,
  • Printers, faxes and any machine that accesses your Wi-Fi
  • Server hardware,
  • Networking equipment, and
  • Old software

In fact, machines that are several years old lose Wi-Fi connection speed, making websites slower to load for you and your staff.

What Makes Our Managed IT Services Agreement Ideal?

We offer:

  • A flat monthly rate with no mystery fees,
  • Noticeably faster working systems and increased productivity,
  • Custom cloud service solutions,
  • Disaster recovery,
  • Dedicated hosting packages,
  • Preventive maintenance on your infrastructure, networks and servers,
  • 24/7 monitoring and management of all your critical IT systems, and
  • Complete software and hardware support

We provide preventive, proactive and reactive IT management and support for SMB’s, large corporations and organizations of any size throughout Southern Florida’s Palm Beach, Miami Dade and Broward Counties.

At 4 Corner IT, we not only serve your needs, we anticipate them. Contact us today.

Common Computer Problems: Not Powering Off Your Work Station

common computer problems not powering off your work station

Power off. At the end of the business day, unless your IT department has specifically instructed you not to do so, you should power your work computer off completely. Even if the IT department has told you not to leave your computer off overnight, you should still power down before you leave work for the day. Its one of the most common computer problems, but it’s important to be mindful of this habit.

common computer problems

If your IT department has told you not to leave the power off, make sure to turn it back on before you go (this is called cycling the power).

Avoiding common computer problems by powering off

Computers use memory to process actions at the users’ request. Some of the applications we use to effect those requests write information to memory, but when they are done with it, fail to remove it from memory (this is called a memory leak). Cycling the power on your computer forces all the memory in use to be emptied, clearing it up for future use and increasing the speed and availability of memory for other applications to use.

Almost all applications have some sort of memory leak. From the very minor for well established applications like the Microsoft Office suite, to much more major leaks from extremely memory-intensive applications such as AutoCAD or 3DSMax manager. End users can’t do anything to fix the leaks that are already present in these applications, but we can reset the severity of the leaks by powering off our systems or cycling the power at least once per day.

This is just one of the common computer problems that you can to avoid to help ensure that your work computer operates the best it can for you and the business you work for.

For more tips, subscribe to our blog, or go ahead and contact us today.

Optimize Your WiFi Connection – Computer Tip of the Day

optimize your wifi connection computer tip of the day

These days, portability is king. WiFi has allowed devices to be mobile and connected. It also brings several headaches when it doesn’t work or when the signal strength is weak. Luckily, there is something you can do to optimize your WiFi without spending a dime.

Router Placement

Your router broadcasts WiFi signals in a spherical field. To get the most coverage, place your router closest to the center of the area you want to cover. Avoid placing it behind walls and floors as this will weaken signal. Thick layers of concrete, metal, or stone will also hinder WiFi signal strength.

Update Drivers and Firmware

Download and install firmware for your routers from the router manufacturer’s website or through the control panel for your router. Keeping up to date will ensure that your router has all the latest software and is free of all known bugs and performance issues. Likewise, be sure your wireless card drivers on your PCs are up to date.

Choose the Right Channels

WiFi can be slowed by other networks communicating on the same channel. When your device connects to a wireless network, it is automatically set to “listen” to the channel of that network. Your computer also “hears” noise from all other networks broadcasting WiFi on that channel. Most WiFi operates on a 2.4GHz band. Within this frequency, there are three available channels to operate on (1, 6, 11). You’ll want to choose the band with the least amount of traffic from other networks. You can use an app like WiFi Analyzer for Android to scan networks and determine what channel they are operating on.

Upgrading your network infrastructure can be as simple as adding a single range extender and soon you will see huge performance increases. Contact us to see how we make your WiFi perform it’s best.