Ferrum Technology Services Blog

The modern business requires many different types of tools to be successful and productive throughout the workday, but one of the most notable is the productivity suite. They are incredible solutions that give organizations access to several different applications that perform various functions for companies.

There are numerous reasons to update your business’ technology—particularly if this technology is crucial to your business’ processes. However, many businesses still rely on legacy systems. This makes it a challenging prospect to update them appropriately, unless you know what you’re doing. This week, we’re devoting our tip to helping you do just that.

Cybercrime is a major issue for everyone and especially for businesses. In fact, if you don’t have a solid handle on the actions you take, your IT may be more exposed than you think. This month we thought we would go through a few really simple actions you can take to enhance your security posture.

How much time does your business invest in software and its management? There are some that you can’t really go without, like email solutions and productivity suites, but you might have other specialized software that also requires attention. When you acquire new software, you can either go the traditional route or you can go the Software-as-a-Service route. Which path is the best choice for your business?

Today, collaboration software’s use is widespread, no doubt as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the hands of businesses everywhere to implement them while operations were still remote. However, now that many workers are returning to the office environment, businesses are finding that these collaboration platforms still offer immense value. What features can you look for and expect from your collaboration platforms?

Have you heard of Log4j? If we asked you a week ago, you almost certainly did not. Now it is dominating headlines as one of the largest cybersecurity risks we’ve ever known, and your business needs to act immediately to make sure you aren’t at risk.

If your business could make money based on its process, you’d never need to worry about results. Unfortunately, things don’t work that way. You need to bring a product or service to market and sell it in order to make enough revenue to continue doing business. With the results-based nature of things, it becomes essential for the good of your company that you optimize your team’s ability to get things done. Today, we’ll talk a little bit about how collaboration gets better when your team is organized. 

Nowadays, every company relies on some kind of software. It has immense value as it can be used to make business more efficient and help reduce costs. In order to get the most out of your software, it has to be continuously managed. This is done with three steps: leveraging the assets available, testing your strategies, and understanding what it is you have.

Some businesses struggle to obtain the appropriate software solutions, especially if they are on a budget. Some even choose to take advantage of free, open-source software simply because it helps their bottom line. There are some benefits to using open-source software, but there are also dangers involved.

Businesses and their employees ultimately need a lot of different online accounts, which means there are a lot of passwords that need to be sorted. To assist with this, many have turned to using password managers—applications that store passwords in an encrypted vault. There are a lot of reasons that these password managers are a popular choice. Let’s go over a few of them.

There is a lot to say about having the right IT, but at some point, you have to ask if you are receiving diminishing returns on your investments. Implementing too much technology can be a very real problem, especially in terms of the software you choose to implement. Let’s take a look at some of the warning signs and see what you can do about them.

With the release of Windows 11 on the horizon, it is important that businesses looking to implement it start to consider not only their hardware, but their strategy to upgrade away from their current operating system. But that’s a topic for another day—we’re focused today on the folks who don’t even have Windows 10 yet and are still stuck in the days of Windows 8.1, an OS expiring in 2023. Don’t get caught unawares without a plan to upgrade.

Ransomware is such a major problem for computing-dependent organizations that even government agencies are getting involved, equipping businesses and organizations with tools to help themselves identify whether or not they are at risk of these attacks. The most recent addition to this group, the United States’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have made their Ransomware Readiness Assessment, or RRA, available as part of its Cyber Security Awareness Toolset.

A new ransomware threat has surfaced, this time targeting unpatched and end-of-life products in SonicWall’s line of Secure Mobile Access (SMA) 100 series and Secure Remote Access (SRA) products. The threat is currently being exploited in the wild, so if you utilize these devices in your business, it is your responsibility to take action to mitigate damages caused by these ransomware attacks now.

Dark mode is becoming commonplace in most modern technology solutions, incorporated into both desktop and mobile applications and even some operating systems. Despite being embraced by vendors and users, what does dark mode actually offer in terms of benefits? Let’s find out.

Anyone who uses a computer regularly knows that software can be finicky. Developers continuously update their software to account for changes in security threats and to add new features. For the small business, integrating and developing software can be useful, but it can also be one of the most problematic issues you can face; and, oftentimes it can often go under the radar. Let’s look at a few ways that old software bugs can cause problems for your business.

The workplace can be a stressful place, and studies have been done on this increase, as well as what can be done to mitigate the damage. To combat this increase, Microsoft has filed a patent that suggests new ways to resolve workplace stress might be in development in the near future. But is this technology actually necessary for identifying when you are stressed?

To stay competitive, businesses need to leverage any tools they can to optimize productivity. This includes what is often marketed as productivity software. Unfortunately, shopping for these tools can often lead you down the same rabbit hole, looking at the same products over and over, trying to determine which one is the best bang for your buck. Here are some pointers for finding the best productivity apps for your organization’s needs.

Do you use different passwords on every account you’ve created? Are these passwords sufficiently complex? Chances are at some point you have repeated at least one password. Remembering 35 different logins for 35 different applications is hard enough, so it’s not surprising that the majority of people will use the same password for many applications. Bad password practices are all too common. So, how can you fix this?

Everyone in a business has set responsibilities that they need to fulfill, one major one being proper security maintenance. A failure to uphold this responsibility could have serious consequences, including the very real potential of a security breach.