Ferrum Technology Services Blog

2020 is just a week old, and as a technology company, we are proud to promote the use of technology. To celebrate 2020, we thought it would be interesting to take a look at just how far technology has come in the past 50 years. 

The IT help desk may seem like it is a throw-in managed service. After all, most of the maintenance to your organization’s IT will be done remotely. This remote maintenance will present your team with more reliable computers, servers, and networks. This enhanced reliability will allow them to be more productive, but what happens when they come across an issue in the course of work? Using similar technology, our IT help desk can get their issues resolved and get their technology back up and running quickly.

Microsoft is just days away from retiring not just one, but two of its most popular operating systems. The software giant has made a point to run a major campaign warning people who are still using Windows 7 that they are going to lose support after the January 14, 2020 deadline; but, as of this writing, there are still over a quarter of desktop users running the software. With the deadline looming, we thought we’d look at what this means for users and go through some of the options they have.

Happy New Year! As tradition dictates that we all select a resolution to improve ourselves for the coming year, why not do the same for your business and its operations? For our first tip of the year, we’re sharing how to come up with resolutions that could help you start off this year on the right footing.

Memes have become a frequent way that people - and businesses - communicate nowadays. Today, we’ll go into why Internet memes resonate so strongly with so many of us, and we’ll share some that we find particularly funny.

Of all the hardware you utilize in your business, your servers are likely to generate the highest costs - especially when you consider how much they cost to procure, power, and maintain. A considerable part of running a successful business is to know how to use these kinds of resources optimally, getting the most bang for your buck, as the saying goes.

In recognition of the holiday this year, we’ve decided to adapt a famous tale to a more contemporary setting, and create a parody of the holiday classic, A Christmas Story. We hope you enjoy this retelling, as much as we enjoyed writing it!

Cybercriminals aren’t exactly holding back when it comes to attacking businesses, which means that businesses can’t rest on their haunches as the new year rolls in. Let’s take a few moments to look toward the near future, and the issues that cybersecurity professionals are warning us about.

If there is any computing device that has fully entered the mainstream, it’s the smartphone. This means that there is public demand for the best - and manufacturers pay attention, regularly rolling out better and better phones (at least, that’s the plan) all the time. As the new year rolls around, many are using the holidays to get themselves a little something for 2020.

We are classified as a managed service provider, which is only helpful if someone knows what managed services are. That’s why we’re taking a few minutes to review what it is that managed services are, and what a managed service provider does.

Everyone likes cool technology gifts. Your family loves them and as the holiday’s approach, many offices hold Christmas parties and have gift swaps where co-workers are always looking to give and receive useful doodads. Let’s take a look at some of our favorite tech gadgets for 2019.

Properly managing and maintaining a relationship with clients, customers, and contacts is a critical part of any business, especially if the business in question is actively working to grow. This is what makes a customer relationship management system, or CRM, so useful. Let’s review a few of the signs that your business needs a CRM to stay organized.

Depending on the company, the Internet connection is perhaps the most important part of its IT infrastructure, especially if it has remote workers or multiple offices connected by a Wide Area Network (WAN). Other technologies such as VoIP, screen-sharing, and webinars also benefit from optimized bandwidth. Today, we’ll talk about bandwidth, what your company’s needs are, and how to get the Internet service that is right for you. 

While the major holiday shopping days have passed us by, many people are still looking for that perfect gift often using the Internet to find it. While online shopping is certainly more convenient, it can also be dangerous. To help keep you safe this season and beyond, we’re reviewing a few practices to protect your identity while shopping online.

Trend Micro, the developer of the popular antivirus program, has attracted some unwanted attention after a former employee managed to steal customer data and sell it to scammers. These scammers then use this data to call Trend Micro customers. If you use Trend Micro’s antivirus solutions, you’re going to want to pay close attention to any calls you get.

It can be easy to slack off when it comes to good password practices. Many users still use the same password across multiple sites and often don’t use secure passwords. Password managers make this a lot easier, but it’s really two-factor authentication (2FA) that can make all the difference. Strong, unique passwords are still important (not all accounts offer two-factor authentication) but let’s talk about why you should always enable two-factor or multifactor on all of your accounts when possible.

Professional services have a reputation for being the important kind of work that has to be learned through experience. However, that reputation doesn’t usually cover these businesses using very much technology, because for a very long time, professional services didn’t.

Most businesses make technology decisions with an eye on growth. One technology that is being used more than ever is cloud computing. There are many different benefits that an organization can see by using the cloud. Today, we will address these benefits and explain how cloud computing works to facilitate business growth.

You have goals for your business and most of them will require strategic investment to get off the ground. These projects can have a huge effect on your business. If they go right, your company stands to benefit, but if they go wrong, you are putting your business in jeopardy. It is important that you have a careful and capable project manager to help you implement your plans. Today, we’ll give you three variables that you have to look for when hiring a project manager. 

Do you remember the days when wireless connectivity was primarily associated with computers, or laptops? With today's advancing technology, virtually anything is able to connect to the internet. We call everything in this category the Internet of Things, or IoT.