Remaining Innovative Is a Key to Business Growth

Whether you are launching a start-up, or several years into operating your business, you need to continue to maintain an innovative mindset that will allow you to creatively fuel business growth. This means exercising your creative thinking skills in order to develop and explore new ideas, opening the doors to new and better opportunities. In order to foster a creative mindset, here are some tips to help you stay on the cutting edge of thought innovation:

Ask Yourself More Questions

When you first started your business, you were likely inclined to thoroughly consider your short and long-term goals, as well as create lists of what steps were needed to accomplish those business growth goals. These steps were an important part of your business plan, and they were important for a reason. Asking yourself tough questions that you were forced to answer honestly help you make the critical business decisions during your business’ start-up. As time goes on, it is just as important that you continue to ask yourself relevant questions about your goals and brainstorm new ideas daily about how to accomplish those goals.

Brainstorming ideas is not just limited to marketing or sales tactics. Consider how to handle physical growth as well as innovative ways to handle current issues that have arisen since the business opened, such as customer service and personnel issues.

Get Reviews

The one clear way to understand how your customers feel about you is to ask them. Getting customer feedback from the people who actually do business with you is invaluable in finding out what is working for them and what is not. For the most objective feedback, develop the ability to conduct regular customer surveys anonymously. Be innovative and use your creative mindset to identify what kind of questions to ask your clientele and customers to get the information you need to improve. And don’t use the same old survey time and again. Update your questions and craft them so that your customers perceive their feedback is important to your business. Not only are your customers’ responses important to your business growth and improvement; you should also continually research what your competition’s customers are saying online about their services and your industry as a whole. This kind of information can be found on blogs and online forums.

Compile and Add to your Network List

Sure, you may have a few business cards you’ve collected that can be helpful to promote your services through other complimentary businesses, but if you are only sticking with those few resources, you are certainly limiting your potential. You should always be networking and adding to your promotional resources to fuel business growth. Do not limit yourself to in-person events, either. Social networking sites are among the fastest growing ways to network these days, and other online resources such as blogs can be effective places to find out what people are looking for and what you might be lacking to provide in your business.

Be consistent in your promotions – don’t sign up for social networking sites and then fail to use them. Plan your messaging ahead of time and implement those services into your daily marketing routine. Creativity comes into play when you develop your keywords, write eye-catching posts that include interesting tidbits to help create a solid social network. Staying on the cutting edge of what’s new and leveraging these opportunities creatively can seriously change the direction of your business. This is also true about simply listening to your customers and taking proactive action based on the information you learn. Educating yourself about what can make your business better is only half the battle. You have to brainstorm ways to be innovative in the ways you make this information work for you to achieve your business growth goals.

Click here to learn how Virtual IT Managers, Inc. can help you achieve your business growth goals through technology with our Technology Consulting Services for your business in Miami, FL and surrounding cities.

New Ransomware Holds iPhones and iPads Hostage

Before we get into the Apple incident, CryptoLocker infections still seem to be rising. Popular forums get new postings all the time about what to do when you are infected, and as a search term on Google it rose 65% over last week. Current estimates are that CryptoLocker infected more than 234,000 computers worldwide, including more than 100,000 in the United States, the Justice Department said yesterday.

And here’s the next thing. After ransomware hit Windows PCs and Android phones, some other miscreant has found a way to pull a similar scam for Apple devices.

A large number of people, for the moment still mostly located in Australia and the UK, are reporting they have come under an unexplained attack that holds their iPhones and iPads hostage and demands they pay a $100 ransom.

The attacker who used the name Oleg Pliss exploited the “Find My iPhone” feature to launch the attack. It is not clear yet how the attacker got hold of the iCloud accounts used to lock the devices. There are currently four theories being discussed on various support forums.

First is that in a classic phishing attack, people were lured to an Apple
phishing site (of which there are 2,261) and entered their credentials.
Second is the option of a data breach at Apple, (for which they are overdue)
but Apple denies that its iCloud service has been breached.
Third is the possibility of DNS poisoning where people entered the correct
Apple domain name but were subverted to a fake site, and entered their credentials there.
The most scary one is that the hackers are possibly in possession of user
names and passwords from another databreach like eBay or Target, and attacked
users that use the same credentials for their iCloud account.

Seeing the fact that the attack was somewhat geographically contained, this limits the options to possibly the DNS poisoning theory but the jury is still out on that.

One user from Melbourne, said: “I was using my iPad a short while ago when suddenly it locked itself. I went to check my phone and there was a message on the screen (it’s still there) saying that my device(s) had been hacked by Oleg Pliss and they demanded $100 USD/EUR (sent by paypal to lock404(at)hotmail-dot-com) to return them to me.”

David Emm, from security firm Kaspersky Lab, said: “It seems likely that cybercriminals gained access to Apple ID credentials. By using the credentials to access an Apple iCloud account, the attackers can enable the ‘Find My iPhone’ service – this is not only able to locate a lost or stolen device, but also to set a passcode preventing third parties from accessing the personal data stored on the smartphone.

“This is clearly a form of ransomware, previously only seen on PCs and, recently, on Android devices – although in those cases malware was used to trigger this behavior. This campaign is further proof that cybercriminals are adopting criminal business models developed for the PC, applying them to new areas and fine-tuning their methods.”

Source: “Cyberheist News”

To Cloud Or Not To Cloud?

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If you are like many of our clients, you’ve probably heard some of the buzz about “The Cloud” — the IT version, that is — not one of those puffy white objects up in the sky.

So, what exactly is “The Cloud”? And should you go there? Cloud computing is simply a way to “rent” the computing you need — by getting it over the Internet — instead of buying your own hardware and software. A lot of businesses like “The Cloud” because they only pay for what they need and they don’t have to worry that their IT investment ever becoming obsolete.

You Already Use the Cloud

The thing is … cloud computing has already been around for a while. If you keep track of customers on Salesforce; if you bank online; or if you share photos with friends on Facebook, you are already using the cloud. Probably the biggest cloud application of them all is Google.

Some business owners are nervous about moving critical data or applications offsite to an outside vendor. On the other hand, the benefits can be very big and include:

• Disaster protection. What is not stored at your place of business cannot be lost there if disaster were to strike.

• Pay as you go pricing. If you are like most businesses, you have to manage cash carefully, so not having to write big checks to pay for “forklift” equipment or software upgrades can be attractive.

• Scalability. Cloud based services can grow or shrink depending on how much you need. So if demand in your type of business is cyclical or seasonal, you don’t pay for computing you don’t need during slower periods. And if you need more computing power during a busy period, it’s there when you need it.

• Fewer distractions. Putting your services in the cloud means that owners and managers can spend more time focused on their core business. Whether to cloud or not to cloud is also not typically an all-or-nothing decision. For example, you don’t have to store all your data there; you can just use the
cloud for backup. Some applications may make more sense running in the cloud — others maybe not so much.

So, is cloud computing right for you? We can help you find out. To claim your free Cloud Readiness Assessment, simply e-mail us with your name, title, company name, address and phone number at info@virtualitmanagers.com or give us a call at 305-574-2169.

Offer ends June 30, 2014

You can also click here to read more about our Cloud Computing Solutions offerings.

R.I.P. Windows XP (October 25, 2001 – April 8, 2014)

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to say farewell to a dear old friend, Windows XP. Born October 25, 2001, this operating system was a reliable computing friend through the dawn of the Internet revolution. She introduced us to “the blue screen of death,” but overall lived a happy and productive life. XP outlived her troublesome brothers, Windows ME and Windows Vista, and is survived by Windows 7 and 8.

April 8, 2014, officially signifies the end of life for Windows XP. Launched in 2001, predating 9/11, Windows XP instantly became a huge hit, unable to be toppled later by Windows Vista (by most) and even Windows 7 and 8 (by many). The operating system was still being installed on some new computers as recently as 2010.

An Urgent Security Warning For Any Business Still Running Windows XP

If your organization is currently running Windows XP on one or more computers in your office (29% of all PC operating systems were Windows XP as of the beginning of this year), you need to be aware that you are exposing your computer network to a dangerous security threat that must be addressed immediately.

With the retirement of Windows XP as of April 8, no further security updates, patches or system updates will be released to protect you from viruses, malware, spyware, crashes or theft of personal information. That means your computer network could very soon be completely exposed to serious hacker attacks aimed at taking control of your network, stealing data, crashing your system and inflicting a host of other business-crippling problems you do NOT want to deal with. If you have even one XP computer on your network, then you are at risk!

If you still have any Windows XP PCs in your office, we need to replace these computers immediately!
Please call our office at 305-574-2169 or Email us at info@virtualitmanagers to schedule a priority appointment with one of our team members.

Computer Backup Solutions – All Systems Go?

The subject of computer backup solutions has always been a topic of importance when it comes to preserving the data on your computer. These days there are more options available to you in this arena, which can be both a help and a hindrance. On one hand, having more options is helpful because better solutions have been brought to the marketplace from which you can now choose to fit your needs. A hindrance exists in that the multitude of choices might scare off users and cause them to avoid the issue altogether, which can have a disastrous ending.

It does not have to be complicated nor time consuming, so there is no good reason not to tackle backing up your computer.

The Philosophy

We all know that backing up can preserve the information that is stored on your computer, but how far do you take your backup philosophy? It depends on what you can ‘afford’ to lose.

To one computer user, just backing up periodically will suffice. The thought here is that if you lose your data, you can restore it apart from your operating system, and the time that this takes is not a critical consideration. Many home users fall into this category. It makes sense as long as you are not dependent upon your computer for time-sensitive applications and tasks and/or for accessing and retrieving data relative to finances, etc.

To another user this philosophy is not enough. Those who depend on their data and computer for more than just casual personal computing understand that if a hard drive fails, their business is down until they can get it back up and running again. Home users who store irreplaceable photographs and home video on their computers will also fall into this category. A more comprehensive backup plan is recommended to help recover from disasters in a timely fashion.

Computer Backup Solutions Options

There are several ways to tackle backups of your important data:

Built-in operating system options. Microsoft Windows operating systems provide built-in back up capabilities that allows you to back up your documents or files onto external media. Beginning with Windows XP and its Automated System Recovery feature, each successive Microsoft desktop operating system includes the capability to help recover your entire hard drive if necessary. These backup solutions are reliable and provide a built-in way for you to back up your data without having to buy an additional program to do so.

Manual copying onto external devices. You can always resort to the old stand-by method of backing up by manually copying your data onto an external hard drive, USB memory stick or other external device such as a recordable CD, DVD or even a floppy drive if you have one. This is cumbersome, but if you do not have a lot of files, it may be an acceptable solution for you. The pitfalls with this method are that if you have multiple files, you have to make sure you get all of them, and you may need numerous target media to save all of your files to.

Online options for backing up over the Internet. The newest option in computer data backup solutions is provided by online companies that enable backup and restoration of your documents and files over an encrypted high-speed Internet connection to any PC. A small background application backs up and transfers your files to a hosted storage area in a remote datacenter when your computer is idle; however, this is not a comprehensive disaster recovery solution for your entire hard drive. This solution works best when targeted at protecting individual files and documents on a PC or a Mac, and is generally a subscription-based service for which you pay a monthly fee for use.

Making an image of your hard drive. This is a more comprehensive backup and disaster recovery solution generally performed by technically savvy computer users. This option includes using 3^rd-party programs to make an image of your entire hard drive, which can then be “re-imaged” in case of catastrophic failure to a new hard drive, providing a hard drive disaster recovery plan. Using this solution, within a short period of time, you can be back up and running with ALL of your documents, settings, programs and EVERYTHING intact, as if the disaster never occurred.

The way to determine the best solution to fit your needs is to ask yourself how soon you need to be back up and running after encountering a disaster, and how much you are willing to pay. If you can wait several days, then a computer back up program might be right for you. If you need your data files immediately, and you have a second computer that you can copy them to, then an online solution might be the best way to go. Or finally, if your business depends upon your computer and its applications and data, then you must have a more comprehensive solution.

Click here to learn how Virtual IT Managers, Inc. can help you protect your critical business data with our Remote Data Backup and Storage Solutions for your business in Miami, FL and surrounding cities.

Cloud Computing Security: Is the Cloud Ready for Your Confidential Data?

What is Cloud Computing?

You can’t look anywhere these days without reading about “cloud computing.” The term seems to be popping up everywhere. So, what exactly is cloud computing? A simplistic definition is computing on the Internet. It allows users the ability to access everything on the Internet, from software to their stored data, without having to store anything on their actual computer. The user only needs a computer with a web browser in order to access the cloud.

What is So Great About Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing has the potential to allow small businesses or businesses on a budget the ability to have high quality computing at a lower cost. Business owners no longer need to invest in expensive IT equipment or pay an entire IT staff that would normally be required in order to keep a computer system running. Storing data in the cloud would help reduce IT costs while still allowing businesses to grow.

What Cloud Computing Concerns Does Your IT Service Provider Need to Address?

Cloud computing is such a new technology that your IT Service Provider will need to complete a thorough assessment of your business needs and identify all cloud-related security issues. Some of these concerns are:

• If you store your valuable business documents in the cloud and your Internet connection goes down, how do you continue business activity?
• The stability of the Cloud vendors you engage with.
• Where your company located and where your data physically be stored. If your data is stored in another country, is that country required to comply with the same security standards that you would expect from your home country?
• Who is in charge of storing and managing your data?
• How secure is the login? Would hackers be able to easily gain access to your data?
• Is your data encrypted so that others cannot easily view it?
• Is the cloud storage company willing to undergo a certification process and willing to comply with certain security standards?

At this point, working with your IT Service Provider to develop a plan to resolve these issues is required, as cloud computing has so much to offer businesses from flexibility to growth potential to tremendous cost savings.

Click here to learn how Virtual IT Managers, Inc. can help you implement and maintain a secure Cloud Computing strategy for your business in Miami, FL and surrounding cities.

How to Recover Your Lost Computer Files – Inexpensively and Easily

We maintain our computers similarly to how we maintain our own health – rarely do we take the time to learn about preventing health complications, and instead work to repair our health once we’ve become ill! We take care of our computers the same way, in that we rarely think about the safety or well-being of our data until something happens that leads to data loss or corruption. And when that does happen, how do you recover your lost computer files?

Have you ever taken a moment to imagine what would happen if you lost some or all of your computer files? Whether you only use your computer for personal reasons; or for school or work, file or data loss can be devastating! Think of all of those family photographs, music files or class assignments! Think of the report you spent weeks working on. Some files can be replaced with time and effort, while others (particularly your photos or home videos) cannot.

Numerous reports tell us that over a third of computer users don’t back up their files; and of those that actually do perform some data backup – 76% of people don’t do it often enough.

Most people tend to think computer files are lost only due to catastrophic events – like tornadoes and hurricanes. Don’t forget about slightly more common events, including fire, flood or computer viruses. A computer “disaster” does not necessarily have to be one from Mother Nature, either. Suppose you dropped your laptop down the stairs or spilled your coffee on the keyboard?

Losing personal files is devastating because of their sentimental value – while business owners who rely on content and files can consider the loss of data fatal to their business if they don’t have a data backup plan in place.

Create a Plan to Recover Your Lost Computer Files Before Disaster Strikes

Just like many human health issues can be prevented with proper diet and care, having a complete backup plan in place can prevent disaster from occurring to your precious data. Data backup isn’t as complicated or expensive as you might believe. It is far easier to back up your files to be able to restore them after something damages your computer, than it is to recover them after disaster strikes. Consider a data backup plan to be your computer’s insurance policy!

Picking Up The Pieces

If you’ve already experienced the loss of data and you hadn’t backed up your data and files, you’ll need to use data recovery services to recover as much of the lost information as possible. Data recovery makes it possible to save some of the data from damaged, corrupted or failed storage devices, but it’s expensive, and you may never recover 100% of the data you’ve lost.

Data Backup and Recovery Solution

Your best solution is to use a remote data backup system. This will backup and store your data files and information at regularly scheduled intervals to an online data store accessed via the web. Your backed-up information can then be restored to any computer if your computer’s hard disk fails, or if it has been attacked by a virus, or physically damaged. Some people back up their files to CDs or flash drives – and then keep these storage devices in the same location as the computer. If there is a natural disaster, chances are the computer and the backup copies will be ruined.

Remote data backup services exist for both personal computer users and businesses of all sizes. Prices range from very reasonable to very expensive – based on how much storage you require and other factors. Prevention is the best medicine – give yourself peace of mind with a data backup insurance policy for your computer files.

Click here to learn how Virtual IT Managers, Inc. can help you prevent data loss and quickly recover your lost computer files with our Remote Data Storage Services for your business in Miami, FL and surrounding cities.

Small Businesses Benefit From Managed IT Services

From start-ups to multi-billion dollar businesses, everyone is looking for ways to cut costs while turning a profit. In fact, many companies are just trying to keep things in the black, however that does not eliminate the need for practices that will improve and grow these businesses. Since few people have the expertise to manage much of today’s technology, a certain percentage of their budgets should be allocated to IT and software applications maintenance. Here are ways that Managed IT Services benefit small and medium businesses.

Benefits of Managed IT Services for Small Businesses

• Increased productivity- Businesses are established to fill the need for a product or service while providing a livelihood for the business owners and their employees. In order to do this, businesses have to ensure they are working at full capacity at all times. Downtime or work performed at reduced levels is time and money wasted. Managed IT Services can help businesses not only quickly repair problems when they occur but also act as a proactive measure to spot and treat potential problems before they have an impact on productivity.
• Supports in-house IT- Many businesses do not want to relinquish all IT maintenance control to an outside party, and small businesses do not always have the resources to support the type of IT department needed to keep their business running at full speed. A majority of businesses can benefit from adding the expertise, tools and availability of a Managed IT Services Provider to help support in-house IT departments.
• Remote services- Managed IT Services Providers work from a remote location, providing desktop, email and back-up and recovery support services without adding to the actual number of “employees” on site. The services provided are unobtrusive and in the majority of cases, have no impact in the day-to-day activities of current in-house employees.
• Affordable- Generally when you bring on a Managed IT Services Provider, a consultant will perform an onsite assessment of the company, its workflows and processes and the current state of its supporting technology to determine what services are needed to meet organizational goals. Business owners often have a choice between several different levels of service, making it possible for a company with a limited budget to choose a package that best suits their needs.

Security is a big concern for business owners and individuals alike. In the past, business owners have been reluctant to entrust secure or private information to a third party, offsite vendor. As Managed IT Services Providers continue to prove their value, more companies are realizing the benefits and value of their services. Managed IT Services Providers continue to improve technology to provide secure, quality services for businesses of all sizes. As a result, smaller businesses which operate with leaner budgets find themselves in a position to reap the benefits of these services. Business owners often have to make difficult decisions regarding how they will improve their business while sticking to the budget. As the market for Managed IT Services experiences continual growth in the next few years, this method of IT maintenance and service delivery will likely become the “norm” for small to mid size businesses looking to reduce costs and improve uptime and business continuity. Companies that recognize the benefits of Managed IT Services will have a jump on their competition.

Click here to learn how Virtual IT Managers, Inc. can help you save reap these benefits and more with our Managed IT Services program for your business in Miami, FL and surrounding cities.

How to Create a Basic Businesses Disaster Recovery Plan in 4 Steps

Loss of data is a common problem for businesses. Fortunately, it’s a problem that can easily be avoided with the correct preparation. While devastating amounts of data can be lost during catastrophes like hurricanes, terrorist attacks, fires and floods – it doesn’t take such large events to cause a business to lose important data. It can be as simple as dropping a laptop to the floor, or a power surge that results in burning out a storage device. If you don’t have your crucial data backed up, even a small situation can turn into a disaster. That’s when having a business disaster recovery plan can help.

If you still think natural disasters are the leading causes of data loss – and that the chances of it happening to you are pretty slim, take a look at the results from a study by Strategic Research Corporation of the leading causes of business continuity and disaster recovery incidents:

• Hardware Failures (servers, switches, disk drives, etc) – 44%.
• Human Error (mistakes in configurations, wrong commands issued, etc) 32%
• Software Errors (operating systems, driver incompatibility, etc)14%
• Viruses and Security Breach (unprotected systems are always at risk) 7%
• Natural Disasters 3%

Establishing a disaster recovery plan can be done in the following four steps:

1) Take a potential risk inventory. Make a list of every potential cause of data loss and the solutions to each. Your list should include losses that won’t affect the business very much, and those that would shut the business down temporarily or permanently. Information Technology experts can assist you with creating the potential risk inventory – as they will have the knowledge and experience to identify possibilities that you are not likely to think of but need to plan for all the same. These IT experts will also be able discuss preventative solutions to guard against each type of potential data loss.

2) Rate each of your potential data loss situations. How likely is it for each of the items on your risk inventory to occur? Rating them in order of importance and likeliness to occur will help you determine where to focus your disaster recovery plan efforts.

3) Develop your disaster recovery plan. Go through each of your potential risks and their solutions, and determine how long it would take you to recover from the loss of data for each risk. Could your business be offline for 24 hours? A week? Depending on the nature of your business, being offline for even just 24 hours could result in your losing customers to your competition. Look at ways to reduce the length of time it would take you to recover from each type of data loss risk.

4) Put your disaster recovery plan to the test. Once you’ve created your plan of action for recovering lost data, you should test your solutions. A disaster recovery plan is just a plan until it can be tested and proven.

Click here to learn how Virtual IT Managers, Inc. can create a business disaster recovery plan for you with our Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Services for your business in Miami, FL and surrounding cities.

How Managed IT Services and Cloud Computing Improve Your Business

Small business owners who are not already on board the “cloud” may be missing out on a great opportunity to improve their business operations as well as profitability. Cloud computing has changed the landscape of business dramatically in the past few years. In order to reap the most rewards from technological advances, it is important first for business owners to understand what they are dealing with and how new technologies can improve the functionality of their business.

What is Cloud Computing?

To better understand this concept you must only turn to the Internet. How the Internet is used has changed greatly over the years and in terms of business, any programs or services that you use via an Internet connection could loosely be described as a cloud service. Cloud computing allows you to utilize software and services without having to run the servers or software in house. These outside vendors run the software and servers, making it possible for you to pay attention to what is most important, running your business. Examples of cloud computing services that are commonly used by businesses today include; Salesforce.com which offers programs to aid sales staff in tracking customer information and data storage backup services such as those offered from Amazon.com.

Benefits of Cloud Computing

As more and more businesses are relying on cloud computing services you might wonder how they can benefit your business. There are many benefits including long term reduction of software and computer costs, improved data security (secure off site backup and storage) and increased functionality and customer service. As cloud computing continues to evolve and offer additional products and services, many businesses that are currently on the fence will make the decision to venture to “the cloud”.

Managed IT Services Can Make the Transition to Cloud Computing easier

Despite the growing popularity of cloud computing and the increased number of companies utilizing these services, not all business owners nor customers are completely convinced this is the way to go. There is little doubt that this area of technology will continue to develop and likely become main stream within a few years. With that in mind, business owners who question this technology can benefit greatly by consulting with managed service providers to help guide them through any transitions. Managed services providers are up-to-date with all new technology and can offer services that include cloud computing to improve the way your business runs as well as provide much needed assistance in the event of a man-made or natural disaster.

By working with a Managed IT Services Provider your business can immediately reap the rewards of cloud services while still having trained professionals in your corner to ensure your business is adequately protected and invested in this technology. Finding the right managed services provider can make the difference between your small business increasing efficiency and improving functionality versus getting left behind in the virtual dust. Working with a qualified managed services provider will eliminate much of the confusion associated with “new” technology and position your business in a place where you can compete with others in your field while reducing in-house IT costs.

Click here to learn how Virtual IT Managers, Inc. can help you benefit from the Cloud with our Cloud Computing Solutions for your business in Miami, FL and surrounding cities.