Looking to hire IT staff?

In a post-pandemic world, Gartner predicts that worldwide IT spending will increase by 9% in 2021, reaching its peak at around $4.2 trillion. This is significant, and it should be indicative that organizations are starting to move away from the old way of doing things in favor of new solutions. While organizations may have struggled throughout the pandemic just to keep operations going, they now seem to be more receptive to spending more on IT and pushing ever onward.

Where does your business lie on this spectrum? Have you worked past the operational challenges of the pandemic? Are you in a place where you feel comfortable enough to start optimizing and innovating? Working with a managed IT provider is a great decision no matter where your business currently lies. Here are some ways that we can help businesses in both categories.

For Those Who Are Struggling to Keep Up

Small businesses often have issues keeping up with their technology infrastructure, and this could be for a number of reasons. Some simply do not have the talent to administer important maintenance as it’s needed. Others don’t have the budget to procure new technology or deploy new solutions. In both cases, working with a managed IT service provider like Digital Seattle can be beneficial. We can function as an in-house IT department would, providing the technical expertise and support needed to keep up with everyday operations.

For Those Eager to Jump Ahead

Let’s say that you have your basic technology needs covered by an in-house IT department. Chances are they have their hands full, especially if your IT department consists of one or two technicians whose sole responsibility is to manage and maintain your tech. This stymies your ability to innovate and deploy new solutions to resolve issues or streamline operations. A managed IT provider like Digital Seattle can be the extra muscle needed to get these big projects off the ground. Alternatively, we can manage day-to-day tasks while your in-house team works to deploy projects.

No Matter What, We Can Help

No matter what your goals are for your organization’s IT, we are confident that managed IT services from Digital Seattle can help you reach them. Whether you are trying to get by during these difficult times or you are focusing on growing your organization, we can help you implement solutions that make your life easier. Give us a call at (206) 709-9556 to learn more.

Phishing

For the small business, phishing makes up a large percentage of problematic cybersecurity situations. Phishing is more of a scam than a hack, but regardless of how you view it, it is the most dangerous problem businesses have to face when considering cybercrime. A phishing attack can come on any communications medium (including social media) and it only has to work one time for it to become problematic for your business. 

It works like this: A member of your staff, working at their regular breakneck pace, accidentally clicks on an attachment in an email that they think of as something to do with their jobs. Turns out, the email was spoofed and the attachment just deployed malware on your network. This can be trojans, viruses, or something as terrible as ransomware. 

Phishing is not only the most prevalent form of cyberscam, it is also extremely hard to combat. The hackers that use it are getting more sophisticated, and if your business isn’t evolving your strategies to keep up, you have a pretty good chance of being a victim. You need to have a comprehensive training system in place to tell your team about the dangers of phishing and how to spot possible phishing attempts. 

Poor Password Hygiene

Like passing that guy at the gym that always smells like B.O., it’s a sour situation when poor password hygiene is the reason for a data breach or a malware infection. Like phishing strategies, today’s hackers have very sophisticated strategies to guess people’s passwords. Not only that, social engineering can expose poorly made or duplicated passwords pretty easily. 

Passwords are used by almost every organization online and it is important that your employees select passwords that aren’t obvious and aren’t duplicates from other accounts. It is also important that your organization understands how to keep their data safe through the use of password best practices, such as not having employees constantly change their passwords, as they have a tendency to make them simple to remember or they don’t change them much from previous passwords.

Holes in Software

Like most other products, software titles have a support staff attached to them. These teams include development professionals whose job is to keep it secure. These patches are rolled out pretty regularly. If you don’t patch your software, you could have major holes that can be exploited. These vulnerabilities are regularly taken advantage of and are effectively open doors for hackers to get into your network.

The best way to keep these vulnerabilities from appearing is to regularly patch your software with the updates as they come out. Doing so will close the proverbial doors to your network and data and keep your digital resources safe. 

If your business would like to talk to one of our IT experts about getting the cybersecurity protection you need, or if you would learn more about which strategies work the best to keep your business’ network and infrastructure free from threats, give Digital Seattle a call today at (206) 709-9556.

Why Utilize Proactive Maintenance?

Let’s say that your organization is one of the former businesses who isn’t proactive with their IT maintenance initiatives and only performs it every so often. You’re plugging along and making great progress on some projects while keeping operations moving forward without incident. All of a sudden, your computer crashes, or worse. Maybe you suffer from hardware failure on the server side of things, or a hacking attack renders your infrastructure vulnerable. In either case, you find yourself taking a reactive stance to the issue at hand.

Now let’s consider the opposite side of things. If you are proactive in your IT maintenance, you could have identified the telltale signs of failure before they happen. In the case of a hacking attack, adequately protecting your organization ahead of time could have prevented the attack in the first place. This is why it is critical to take advantage of proactive IT; you can always respond to issues, but preventing them entirely has a greater value in reduced downtime and costs accrued.

Greater Flexibility

With remote maintenance, you don’t need to have the technician come to your office to perform maintenance. Sure, some tasks might require a physical on-site presence, but the majority of issues that your network or solutions might face can be resolved without an on-site visit. This allows you to get the help when it’s needed rather than waiting around for when it is convenient for the technician to get to your office. Furthermore, patches and security updates can be applied as they are made available, meaning that they can essentially be deployed at any time.

Faster Response Time

That being said, remote maintenance is something that can be performed in that moment if it’s something that is absolutely necessary. If you are experiencing problems with your technology that prevent you from getting value out of it, technicians can remote into your systems and resolve the issue. It’s a great way to cut out downtime, which is one of the many business killers out there that can have lasting ramifications long after it fades.

Fewer Associated Costs

When you require an on-site visit, you are generally paying multiple bills, so to speak. You are paying for the technician’s travel time to and from your office. You are paying for the downtime that the problem is causing for your business. You are paying for your staff to sit around and twiddle their thumbs while you figure out how to sort out the issue. Wouldn’t it be easier to just have the technician resolve the problem without that on-site visit? We think so.

Get Started with Remote Maintenance

When you work with Digital Seattle for your remote technology maintenance needs, you are taking the first step toward securing your organization’s long-term future. We can work with your business to provide sustainable and proactive maintenance that prolongs the health of your IT infrastructure. To learn more, give us a call at (206) 709-9556.