Security is a hot button in today’s world. Now that the number of remote workers has gone up significantly due to the health crisis, the rise of ransomware attacks has followed closely behind. Remote work environments increase the number of targets for hackers. Phishing attempts are up more than 600% in the last 6 months, exploiting new vulnerabilities in the workforce.
Multiple devices in multiple locations create new opportunities for cyberattacks. With a remote workforce, the chance for unexpected risks increases dramatically. One of those reasons being, employees use “work-arounds” and personal devices when accessing or sharing private data and documents.
There are many avenues to take when considering a heightened and more secure environment. Often, the enterprise infrastructure is not top of mind. Many solutions are available to tighten up an enterprise infrastructure to ensure a more secure environment. These projects are just as imperative when it comes to protecting your company as others.
A number of Zunesis clients have shifted focus from other high priority projects to firewall implementations. This is in an attempt to mitigate the increased security risks.
A firewall is a network security system that monitors and controls incoming and outgoing network-traffic. It is based on predetermined security rules. It typically establishes a barrier between a trusted internal network and untrusted external network, such as the Internet.
Depending on the enterprise, a firewall solution can look very different from one company to the next. All entities should be aware of their needs and choose accordingly.
Identifying and deploying a firewall solution specific to the needs of your company is a great place to start. How else can we tighten up an enterprise infrastructure to aid in the security of company information during these cyber wars?
Zunesis has assessments available to aid in the risk mitigation of your organization.
Often times, organizations understand the importance of a firewall, and may have even purchased a firewall solution. But, organizations frequently fail to configure said solution correctly or are not using it to its full capability. Zunesis has created an assessment to help your organization with your network security firewall needs.
The Zunesis Firewall Assessment will discover the overall utilization of an organization’s current firewall and their adherence to industry’s best standards. Components of change management and administrative access to the firewall(s) will be examined. Additional focus is made to examine the strength of the existing firewall access control lists (ACLs). Recommendations will be made on how to streamline the firewall rules or leverage additional features to make them more secure.
There will be an estimated $6 trillion in damages to business by 2021 from ransomware. The advantage of being prepared, is that you can manage problems quickly and more efficiently by already having a solution ready when a problem ensues. The importance of preparation is that it is a time saver – and time is money!
Intelligent Data Protection is a comprehensive approach to data protection and copy data management. It focuses on how an organization protects and uses its data (now and in the future). Is your organization prepared? What is your backup policy? What is your Disaster Recovery plan?
Zunesis has developed an assessment that documents the readiness of an organization to recover data that may have been impacted by a Ransomware attack. Through review and analysis, a Zunesis engineer will provide observations and recommendations to better prepare your organization for future data attacks.
If limited resources within your company’s IT department is problematic, maintenance details are often the first thing to slip through the cracks. It is important to stay on top of firmware updates, device OS updates and other customer advisories.
Through RDCAS, we ensure that the most current software and firmware updates are installed across your environment. We work closely with your organization to determine the frequency of your infrastructure review.
The review is limited to the following HPE infrastructure devices including: blades and rack mount servers, HPE Storage, HPE Fibre Channel Switches, HPE Synergy Frame and HPE SimpliVity Hyper-converged platform.
The future for security in today’s organizations will still remain a high priority. Here are a few predictions from IT experts.
Zunesis’ commitment is to help moderate problems and issues that arise within the industry. Our goal is to make the lives of our clients better. With risks and threats to businesses on the rise, Zunesis is dedicated to helping our clients prepare for the worst, plan for the best, and manage the present.
There are many facets to a thoughtful plan for maintaining highly available access to your business-critical Data and Applications. The consideration starts with the location of your hardware infrastructure components (Compute, Networking, Storage). Does the facility provide security, cooling, reliable and redundant power, etc.? Are your hosts, storage and network equipment designed with redundancy, i.e, Power Supplies, Fans, Drives, etc.? Does your design include Clustering, Replication, perhaps a Disaster Recovery site? All of these are part of a complete plan.
But, even the most highly available hardware infrastructure is not much use without the Data and Applications it is configured to support. For protection of data and applications, we must have a Backup/Recovery process in place. Often, with Backup/Recovery implementations, the biggest effort is with the initial setup. This is where the software is installed, backup targets are configured, and backup jobs are defined. After that, the jobs get monitored periodically. If the job status is green, then nothing more is done until a file or Virtual Machine (VM) needs to be recovered.
While taking time to plan the jobs and maintain consistent monitoring of them is critical, testing the Recovery of the Data and Applications being protected is equally important. All of us would likely agree we need to validate our Backup data. However, this is a step that is often pushed to the side because of competing priorities in every IT environment. For many IT environments, Backup/Recovery becomes a “set it and forget it” activity. The focus is mainly on the Backup process.
So, perhaps the answer to ensuring we validate the recoverability of what we are backing up is to automate the validation process. At Zunesis, we partner with Veeam to help our clients protect their Data and Applications with Veeam Backup and Replication (Veeam B&R). If you aren’t familiar with Veeam, let me provide a brief summary.
Veeam B&R is a Backup/Recovery application for protecting any workload, including virtual machines, physical servers, Oracle, Microsoft SQL, Exchange, Active Directory, Microsoft SharePoint, NAS, and Cloud. These don’t represent everything that Veeam B&R can protect, but this list should make it clear that Veeam will likely be able to protect any workload in your environment. Furthermore, Veeam has built-in Replication, WAN Acceleration, Integration with many storage arrays, Encryption, Deduplication, Compression, and more.
But the one feature I want to highlight here is Veeam SureBackup. Perhaps you use Veeam and have seen the SureBackup option in the management console but never really explored its capabilities. To summarize, SureBackup is the Veeam technology that lets you test VM backups and validate that you can recover data from them. With SureBackup, you can verify any restore point of any VM protected by Veeam B&R. Using SureBackup, Veeam B&R can boot the VM from the Backup in an isolated environment, scan VM’s for malware, run tests against the VM, power the VM off and create a report on the recovery verification results. The report can then be automatically emailed to you for review.
As referenced below, SureBackup is a feature you would see whenever you are viewing the Veeam B&R Management Console. And like most of the Veeam features, you are guided through its setup using a step-by-step process in the Management Console. The screenshot shown below lists the major steps (in order) for setting up the SureBackup environment.
While it is beyond the scope of this post to walk you through the entire setup, I would like to provide you a summary of the setup using the steps outlined in the screenshot above. Through this Summary, I hope to convey the power of the Veeam SureBackup feature.
It is important to remember that the SureBackup feature utilizes VM’s that are protected by scheduled Veeam Backup Jobs.
Once you have the Backup Jobs defined, you can setup the SureBackup environment to validate that what you’re backing up can be restored when the need arises. So, let’s take a look at the major steps required to implement SureBackup.
The first step in building a SureBackup environment is to Create a Virtual Lab. The virtual lab is an isolated virtual environment in which the backed up Virtual Machines are started and tested. You can create multiple Virtual Labs depending on your needs. During the creation of the Virtual Lab, Veeam B&R will deploy a Linux Appliance that will fence off your Production environment from the Virtual Machines being tested.
The Appliance will act as Gateway, provide DHCP, and Routing to the isolated environment while facilitating access from the Production environment if needed. To accomplish this, the Appliance has network access to both the Production environment and to the Virtual Lab. With the Appliance in place, VM’s can be restored to the virtual lab using the same IP Addressing as they have in the Production environment from which they were Backed up. The Appliance will keep any conflicts from arising between the two parallel environments.
With the Appliance in place, it’s time to create the Application Groups. An Application Group includes the VM’s you want to validate along with any VM’s they may be dependent upon. For instance, if you want to test a SQL Database Server, you will probably want to have a Domain Controller and DNS Server available and perhaps the Application Server. So, the Application Group is the place where you define a working environment for the workloads you want to validate.
With the Virtual Lab(s) and Application Group(s) Defined, it’s time to create the actual SureBackup Job that will build the environment on-demand or based on a schedule. In this step you will specify the Virtual Lab you’ll be using and the Application Group you’ll be including in that Virtual Lab. Then, you can select from the Backup jobs you already have running to specify the VM’s you’ll want to validate.
As part of the Job creation you can configure what you want to test/validate for each VM. Examples of validation criteria include testing the disk content for corruption, scanning VM’s for malware, and performing PING tests. During the setup you are able to select predefined test scripts or include custom scripts to use for testing. Once all the components have been defined, you can schedule when you want the jobs to run (Daily, Weekly, Monthly). You will also decide to whom the Job results should be sent.
So, as you can see, the SureBackup environment will take a little time and planning to build and test. The benefits are well worth the effort.
It provides an automated method of validating Backups. Its design allows for the Virtual Lab to be created on-demand. This is an environment where one can test server and software updates, perform security testing, and conduct DevOps and Analytics. This is all done without impacting your Production environment. Veeam calls this capability the On-Demand Sandbox.
If you already use Veeam B&R, but haven’t tried the SureBackup option yet, I hope this post has encouraged you to give it a try. If you do not currently use Veeam, I hope your interest is peaked and you want to learn more. In either case, Zunesis has Solution Architects who can help you. We have Veeam B&R deployed in our lab so you can explore for yourself the SureBackup functionality. You can get a better understanding of this important piece of a thoughtful plan to maintain highly available access to your business-critical Data and Applications.
The world is experiencing hardships across different industries. Two industries that are top of mind for everyone right now are education and healthcare. Both industries have immediate needs. Classes need to be available for children of all ages including higher education. Healthcare institutions need to stay operational.
Beyond the classroom, this also impacts parents. They want the assurance that their children can receive a valid education (from home or in the classroom). They need to have access to the right tools to make this work. For full-time workers, they need to balance work and education for their child(ren).
Quick access to a healthcare provider (telehealth or otherwise) is a desire for all. Healthcare professionals need to keep things running efficiently wherever they are practicing.
Many organizations in education and healthcare are in need of various solutions to help accommodate these unusual times. The biggest issue is that many may not have the budget available.
There is Federal funding available. Many have acted on this and have already received their allotted amount. There’s also the possibility that many (including institutions) aren’t knowledgeable about who and what qualifies for the CARES Act.
On March 27th, the CARES Act was signed into law. The United States Treasury set aside $150 billion. Through the Coronavirus Relief Fund, the CARES Act provides for payments to State, Local, and Tribal governments navigating the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The CARES Act requires that the payments from the Coronavirus Relief Fund only be used to cover expenses that—
This funding can include Technology infrastructure maintenance, laptops for children for in-home education, telehealth and improved bandwidth capacity. There is a significant demand for institutions to keep up with the necessary technology and bandwidth as remote working and schooling continue.
This funding covers K-12, higher education, Telehealth and Healthcare providers at the state and local levels. Many organizations may ask how can this funding be used.
In healthcare, there is the need for never-ending storage for electronic versions of X-rays. These are typically very large files and will take up a significant amount of space in one’s current storage environment. This is one example in healthcare where funding is needed.
Another case is schools who store online educational software, student’s online reports, projects, etc. More and more file space is a need. Data centers will need to expand and costs for storage will increase. These type of funds can help education and healthcare institutions expand their storage to accommodate the forthcoming Terabyte avalanche. There are cases where these funds could pay for the entire storage upgrade.
Providing children with the necessary equipment to learn as much at home as they are in the classroom is expensive. However, like the potential storage costs being covered under the CARES Act, State or local funding, the same could be said for laptops. Below is an example of funding available from a fund titled, “Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER).”
However, much like annual budgets prior to COVID-19, if funds are not used, then the next round results in a smaller financial injection. There are also local and state funds available for educators and healthcare providers. These have their own deadlines for application and expenditures. Below is a timeline of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) ($13.2 billion). This is just an example of what to be aware of when researching and applying for funds. There’s a ‘shot clock’ for obtaining these funds.
Recipients of the CARES Act, State and local funding must all meet the requirements. At Zunesis, we can help identify funds and grants which would be applicable to an education or healthcare institution. We have done this for several of our SLED and Healthcare customers. It can be overwhelming, but we’re very good at identifying these opportunities.
Being an IT Solutions provider, we can identify the optimal infrastructure for your Education or Healthcare organization. And once the funding is available, we will make the applicable hardware order, track it, install it and provide documentation for reference.
We are all in this fight together. Let’s work together to help one another out during these times of need.
A typical Microsoft product life cycle lasts 10 years from the date of the product’s initial release. The end of this life cycle is known as the product’s end of support. This means Microsoft will no longer provide updates or support of any kind.
End of support can result in vulnerabilities that impact your infrastructure and data.
Mainstream support for Exchange Server 2010 ended in January 2015. Per standard practice, Microsoft’s extended support ends five years after mainstream. The original end of support date was in line with the end of support for Windows 7 and Windows 2008 server. This occurred on January 14, 2020. However, to allow businesses time to complete their migrations, it was extended to October 13, 2020.
Mainstream support for Office Suite 2010 is also ending on October 13, 2020. This leaves approximately 3 months to find the right path for your organization and implement the migrations.
If you are on these versions of Microsoft software, they will continue to run. However, there will be some very good reasons to be concerned when staying on these platforms:
From feature enhancements to recent announcements of price hikes for on-prem software, Microsoft continues to push organizations off-premises and into the cloud suite. Support is available for all of Microsoft’s cloud offerings.
Microsoft has also been making a push to Office 365 here as well. There are fewer feature updates and enhancements for Office Suite 2019. A recent 10 percent price hike has occurred. It has a shorter extended support life than prior versions of Office Suite.
Both versions of Office Suite 2019 (Cloud or On-Prem) require Windows 10.
Migrate to Office 365
Remain On-Premises and upgrade to Office Suite 2019
Office Exchange Server 2010 and Office Suite 2010 end of life is an inevitability all users must face. With a little less than 3 months remaining, now is the perfect time to figure out which of Microsoft’s options are best. Then, start the groundwork for migration. Deciding whether Office 365 is right for your organization will depend greatly on your needs. Whatever your requirements, making an informed decision will ensure an ease of transition and applications that are optimal for use.
Contact Zunesis for an assessment on what Microsoft option is best for your organization.
Whether you have practiced the art of savasana or not, you will soon understand how sweet the benefit of laying still can reboot your whole system. I know what you’re thinking, “I can lay still, I can sit and do nothing!” When I started practicing yoga 22 years ago, I thought the same thing. As I practiced all the yoga poses, I felt great stretching my limbs. Sometimes a little uncomfortable because the stretch was challenging, but then there was savasana.
What was my brain doing to me? Who invited these busy monkeys to dance around my head while I was supposed to be finding my zen? Yoga’s acute and intervention effects on cognition are evident once you try to quiet the mind. This brings me to my comparison of an IT Health check.
Does the data center ever get a rest? Do you actively maintain your systems to update, reboot, or dare I say turn off? Would you like to maximize your attention, process information at higher speed, and execute daily functions with precision? What pill do I take? Who doesn’t want to operate at full capacity? Just like you made a New Year’s resolution to work out more, maintaining regimented IT heath can be as tricky as sticking to your promised workout routine.
Savasana is often described as the most challenging pose in yoga because it requires you to simply be still – a challenge in our modern society of constant movement. What we don’t realize is that during Savasana, we are also significantly reducing our stress and anxiety levels in addition to combatting insomnia. Like other kinds of meditation, Savasana increases grey matter in the brain. This is responsible for everything from muscle control, memory, emotions, decision-making, anxiety, stress, and overall mental health.
When you tighten up your IT security and review your environment’s backup and disaster recovery procedures, savasana becomes that much easier. Having systems in place to ensure regular backup, appropriate storage, unlimited access to data, and a robust disaster recovery plan – should the worst happen – are essential failsafe tools for all businesses. Knowing your information is secure can relax those busy monkeys that keep you thinking, “what if!”
Emotions, you’ve got them, I’ve got them, but hackers do not! Hackers, viruses, and online fraud are generally getting smarter, faster, and more ambitious. This makes robust security and regular updates a prerequisite for IT infrastructure which can keep your serotonin and dopamine (happy chemicals in the body) levels up. When we put good practices in place, such as the consistent routine of end-user training and testing, policy reviews, and current user authentications, we begin to see the long-term benefits. Peace of mind will allow you to focus and excel at other inventions or networking issues.
A yoga practice enables us to move in a controlled manner into modifiable physical postures concentrating initially on relaxing the body, breathing rhythmically, and developing awareness of the sensations in our bodies and thoughts. Besides the physical benefits from sequentially completing postures, breathing (pranayama), and meditation (savasana) included in yoga lead to a clear, calm, and focused mind. Which can develop greater self-awareness! Who doesn’t want to make better decisions and improve mental health? Working out with Zunesis as your yogi master will do just that.
We are an IT solution and service provider with assessments in place to help you reach infrastructure nirvana! Our savasana is called RDCAS – Recurring Data Center Advisory Service. By implementing this service into your IT environment, you can reduce unnecessary stress and anxiety from worrying, “what if!”
About the Author
I have made many decisions in my life, some right and some wrong. We really learn from the wrong ones, but this time I learned from the right. I began my yoga journey in a practice known as Ashtanga. Ashtanga Yoga is a dynamic, physically demanding practice that synchronizes breath and movement to produce an internal heat designed to purify the body and mind. This workout came easy as I have always enjoyed being athletic, but the meditation of quieting the mind did not! It has taken many years through discipline and repetition to achieve a quiet mind, a peaceful heart, and a clear path to making the right decisions. Following this path lead me to Zunesis and one of the best decisions I have ever made. This is an incredible company to work for. The integrity of the people and what they practice is best in class.
Are you “staying safe out there”? Adapting to “the new normal” in these “unprecedented times”? Are these recent quarantine-induced clichés getting on your nerves? Well, you are not alone!
I am not mocking anyone who uses, or has used, the above verbiage. If you are reading this and happen to use those, or similar, phrasings in your daily jargon…trust that I mean no disrespect. I will, however, caution you that some of the current post-pandemic nomenclature has been overused to the point of near exhaustion in a very short amount of time.
How do I know this? Well for starters…I am a salesman at our company. I do not hold a title that would suggest I am an upper level decision maker. Looking to change your internet provider? Not, my area. Need a new window-cleaning company? Again, not me. Office snacks? I enjoy eating them but again, not my area. Yet I am still bombarded with dozens of calls and emails, every day, by companies trying to sell me, or Zunesis, something.
I noticed a huge influx in these solicitations the last 3-4 months. I understand that this timeline matches the countrywide shutdown. People were consequently being more tenacious than ever to find opportunities. Their desire was to supplement any business that was disrupted as a result of quarantine.
I can’t even imagine what my inbox would look like if I had “CEO”, or “CIO”, or even “Property Manager” in my title. As a matter of fact, I’ve spoken to customers and colleagues in aforementioned positions. They have confirmed that recent contact attempts, from various salespeople and organizations, have exponentially increased. They also confirmed the over-saturation of “pandemic lingo” . How, ultimately it has grown tired in the last few months.
At the end of the day…I get it. The demand for sales generation is at an all time high. After all, I too am in sales. A significant portion of my job involves getting in front of as many people as possible. I want to get my name out there to contacts and potential customers who have never heard of me, or the company I represent.
The question is: “how?”. The “how?” has always been a recurring question in the world of sales. It takes on a new meaning when the question now is “how do I not become ‘number 27’ in a list of 100+ emails that all propose how to ‘stay the course in these strange times’?”.
Well, I’m not going to pretend to have all the answers. As I said, I’m a salesman too and I believe there’s no “correct” method. What I DO know is what I would like to see if I was the one being targeted. No matter what titles we hold, we are ALL consumers to one extent or another.
So, I implore: if you were being solicited by an individual or organization, what would you like to see? I know for me, personally, I like fun advertising that makes me feel happy, at ease, and like I’m not being “sold to”. I also love nostalgia. When I think of all of the TV and radio ads of the 80’s and 90’s, they were dynamite! Fun video montages, memorable monikers, and most of all, insanely catchy jingles. Say what you will, I promise that you could have ZERO INTEREST in some of those 90’s products and still get their jingles stuck in your head for DAYS! For example, I’ve never eaten “Pac-Man Cereal” in my life but I know that catchy little song, from the commercials, by heart! (“You can open wide, gobble up the ghosts that are hiding inside!”) Now THAT’S powerful advertising!
Since the mandatory quarantine created a lot of down time, I figured I had nothing to lose by creating some type of advertisement that would appeal to ME. So…I reached out to, Chris DeMakes, lead singer and guitarist of 90’s ska-punk giants Less Than Jake. To my great surprise, not only did he get back to me right away…he was totally onboard with helping me create a custom tune for myself and Zunesis. I told him I wanted it to evoke the TV and radio jingles that ran rampant in the 80’s and 90’s. After sharing a few of my ideas with him,he came back with an amazing ska jingle. It was everything, and more, that I could have hoped for.
After putting together a little video to accompany the song, I unleashed my ad onto the world. The response has been overwhelmingly positive.
See what I did there? I just got you to watch my ad. Boom! It may have been a bit contrived….but I got you. Hahahaha. See, it works!
I’m just kidding, but the point remains the same. They say “insanity is doing something over and over and expecting different results”. Well my thoughts are “if you want to get your name out there, amidst the craziness, you got to spice things up!”.
The CARES Act Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEER) guidelines state that funds can be allocated for any costs due to changes to the delivery of instruction due to Covid 19. Amongst other allowances, Institutions may use their funds to purchase equipment of hardware and software in support of their Distance Learning initiative.
Zunesis is stepping in to assist our Higher Education customers. We have found that before expanding (or establishing) VMware Horizon VDI-driven learning portals, we must first shore-up the underlying infrastructure. In many instances, we find legacy hardware that is not compatible with VMWare 6.7 and higher. This is necessary to ensure a secure and robust environment capable of supporting applications such as graphics heavy applications like Adobe Creative Suite or AutoDesk. Without the hardware upgrade (Gen10 technologies, enhanced memory and GPU), the Distance Learning experience risks students dropping off when frustrated with slow rendering speeds.
Zunesis considers two major requirements in creating/expanding VMware Horizon Distance Learning portals:
The ROI for the upgrading infrastructure to support these VDI expansions will be realized in both time and money savings for IT organizations far beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. Having all servers in a central location means easier system maintenance and upgrades. All users get each upgrade in near real-time.
IT can also assign the exact resources each user needs, so none go unused. This is especially important for engineering applications such as AutoCad, where issuing each user a workstation would be costly – and most need the app only occasionally. Virtual environments enable multiple users to share resources, thereby increasing hardware utilization. They also reduce the need to buy and support expensive workstations.
Additionally, the enhanced Distance Learning portal will enable IT departments to save money on application licensing costs. Users who need consistent access to engineering applications may get a personalized virtual desktop with their own account. Others who need only occasional access can use pooled desktops on a time-share basis. License servers here can potentially require fewer licenses while serving up client connections more efficiently.
With ease of management and enhanced security a key concern, we also considered the number of improvements VMWare has made in vSphere 6.7 and HPE has made with their GEN10 Servers.
In conclusion, the success of any Distance Learning initiative can be measured by the number of students that continue to participate. A properly designed infrastructure that can support the intensive requirements of applications will minimize downtime. It will enable thinly staffed IT departments to function efficiently.
Contact Zunesis to find out more about the CARES ACT and the best solutions for higher education needs.
Additional Resources:
Digital Transformation in Higher Education
4 Ways VMware is enabling Business Continuity for Government & Education Customers
Covid. Pandemic. Work from home. Social distancing. It is amazing how these terms have become not only a part of our lexicon, but something that is said and repeated by most of us many times a day. Do you feel tired of talking about it? I sure do.
The last time I wrote something for this space was mid-March of this year. Our current situation was just beginning. I will be honest, I thought 1 month or maybe 2, and this whole thing would be passed. We would be back to normal. Now, almost 4 months later, I am not sure what was normal in February will ever be normal again. In fact, I am not sure what normal even is at this point.
At this point it is hard not to be down. It is hard to even find an article that isn’t doom and gloom. For example, I just read an article that talked about how we are “running out of new TV programming” because Hollywood has been shut down for so long. I am sure there are those out there that may not think this is a bad thing (I can just hear it now, “read a book!”). Nonetheless, this article was decidedly negative in how it communicated the current state of our television watching options. There are days where I purposely avoid all media options (TV, Radio, internet, etc), just because it is better for my mental health.
All this being said, a positive outlook and little creative thinking can go a long ways. It helps to improve my outlook and the day to day mundane that we are all now currently living in. For one, my family and I have discovered the joys of family board games. I remembered playing board games as a kid and now I find there is a whole sub industry of new and improved games I am just now getting the joy of discovering (not just Settlers of Catan, but plenty of others too!).
Also, video calls, plus plenty of time on my hands, have allowed me to connect with so many friends, family, colleagues, and customers that I normally would not have connected with (or as much). Technology in this area has been a true gift. I am so thankful that we can use this in both our personal and our professional lives. And really maybe that is the “new normal”.
Things like flexibility and creativity are what we need to focus on to drive forward our lives in both the personal or professional arenas. I saw the other day where parents rented out a several of those human hamster balls for their kids to play with friends, but avoid contact. Groups of friends meeting in a parking lot to chat while they sit on the hood of their car or lean out of a sunroof are examples of those of us who are truly thinking “outside” the box. In my wife’s world of weddings, micro weddings with super small guest counts in large venue spaces are quickly becoming the norm.
Here at Zunesis, video calls are allowing us to maintain “normal” contact with customers and vendors. We are constantly searching for new avenues of improving the quality and experience for participants in video calls. One of our sales associates even had Grub Hub lunch delivered to set up a lunch meeting with a client.
All examples of finding new ways to do “normal” activities. This creativity is helping as we continually run into roadblocks created in this Covid atmosphere. The fluctuating environment means that we have to find solutions to problems, not just once, but each and every time, as yesterday’s solution may no longer be an option.
One instance of this is the long lead time from many of our vendors on most of their major products. What used to take days or weeks, is now taking several months. Guiding our customers to innovative financing solutions which will allow them to purchase before their budgets are available and pay when the product ships and they can use said budget. Providing services (assessments, staff augmentation, etc) that will mitigate these delays. Finding ways to create implementation plans with their management to accommodate the long lead times.
Our drive to advocate, protect and serve our customers pushes us to stay flexible and creative. Thus avoiding the doom and gloom perspective. What is amazing to me is how easy it is stay positive, content, and working towards a better tomorrow. When the focus is problem solving (instead of dwelling on them) and creativity (instead of apathy). The other benefit to this attitude is it is infectious (the good kind, of course). If you feel that your organization could use a shot of positivity and creativity don’t hesitate to give us a call. We would be happy to try to bring a little sunshine to your cloudy day.
In a world of quarantines and remote work, apps like Microsoft Teams and Slack have become more useful to businesses than ever. Fostering collaboration and communication is so important to keeping employees engaged. These apps have soared in popularity since working from home became the norm rather than the exception.
After months of relying on these products, people are seeing just how useful they can be. They make it so much easier to be responsive. They allow multiple people to work on projects together, even when they are geologically separate. Now Microsoft wants to bring that technology to consumers.
Teams has always been focused on the business side of its use. The advantages it has over traditional communication applications could clearly be useful to anyone.
Back in 2018, a free but restricted version of Teams was released. It never felt like a tool that could be useful among a group of friends or family members. After more than a year of work, Microsoft made the announcement during its big Microsoft 365 reveal that it was ready to unveil a preview version of Teams to consumers. As soon as it goes live, anyone can sign up. Only Microsoft 365 subscribers will be able to take full advantage.
Microsoft does not want to position Teams as an alternative to texting apps. It is supposed to be a tool to help you plan events with friends and families, book clubs, fantasy football leagues, and other gatherings. The personal version will support multiple rooms, direct messages, attachments, video calls, calendars, to-do lists, and much more. Very similar to the business version. Since the app is integrated with Microsoft 365, you can also use it to collaborate on office documents stored in the cloud.
There are also some features specific to the consumer version, like location sharing and Safe. Location sharing being the ability to show others where you are at and when you are on your way home or to a meet up. Safe is Teams protected environment you can use to store confidential and private information like wifi passwords, website login information, or rewards accounts. Its secured with end-to-end encryption and two-factor authentication, so you know your information will be safe.
Recently renamed Microsoft 365, the suite of tools is constantly being expanded for businesses and consumers alike. For consumers, first with the Microsoft 365 family plan, and now with added features and applications. Things like the play my emails feature will enable hands free text to speech so you can listen to your emails anywhere, even on the road. Added applications include the new Microsoft Family Safety which will allow families to manage screen time across devices and make it easy to check the location of family members.
Microsoft’s focus on consumer products for families and friends doesn’t stop at Teams. They launched a new website earlier this year, named Home and Family Resources. It introduces regular people to tools that help them connect, learn, and play at home. The site has everything from blogs to guides to help the normal person get the most out of their time at home.
To use the Teams preview, you can download it from the google play store and sign up with your personal Microsoft account. If you already use Teams for work, you can link your personal account to the app. One can switch between personal and business whenever you need to.
Contact Zunesis to find out more about Teams and other solutions that Microsoft has to offer.
The new normal. How many times have you heard that recently? What is the new normal? Are their changes in IT being implemented as a result of the Covid-19 virus? What is changing in IT as a result of the demonstrations and riots in our society today? These are all questions I have been asked recently by friends, customers and business associates. This seems to be at the top of everyone’s conversations.
Just to be honest, I don’t like the phrase “the new normal”. Nothing about this is normal. A recent article in Forbes discussed how CTO’s are navigating this new normal. Everything going on today is changing the world of IT.
Most of my recent conversations have focused around three areas: Security, remote access and disaster recovery. These three topics have come to the forefront of every conversation I have had lately. This is nothing new, businesses have been talking about or using these for years. But they have taken on a new urgency. People are more serious about getting something in place, now.
I am primarily talking about security as it relates to access security and physical security. Using video analytics, many locations are more serious about tracking people. A school may want to know who is coming and going using facial recognition. Another instance is where a store wants the count of how many people occupy a store at any given time. People are more interested in understanding how video analytics can help their business.
There are many use cases for video analytics. We have had conversations around using technology. Some uses include monitor social distancing and temperature tracking of employees and customers. A recent Harvard study estimates that social distancing restrictions are likely to remain in place long-term. “Researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health have warned that, in the absence of a vaccine or an effective treatment of the coronavirus, social-distancing measures may be required through to 2022,” reported CNBC.
Another tactic is tracking who is in a school or casino or how many people are currently in a store, restaurant or casino. There are so many possibilities and way too many to list here.
Many of our customers are using virtual desktop capability to some extent. What has changed is remote desktop projects are getting funded and taking on a sense of urgency. Whether this is moving to a work from home model, remote learning or something else. Many of our customers have had a project like this on the list. Now it is a top priority. We are going to see many businesses and schools move to a remote access on a permanent basis. This means a complete change in how they do business, how they connect, how they work on projects, everything.
Disaster recovery, including Ransomware recovery, has been on the list of every IT department projects. Some companies are very good at DR and have made it a priority. Others have it on the list of projects that never seem to get done.
Recently, we spent over a month working with a customer that got hit with Ransomware. I have heard of larger customers spending many months, even up to a year trying to fully recover. We spent additional time, working with the customer to put safe guards in place. We did this so if this does happen again, the recovery time is minimal. This type of scenario is happening more often and needs to be addressed now. Before the unthinkable happens.
Contact Zunesis to for an assessment of the state of your infrastructure. Let us help you with this “new normal” and keep your business moving.