Catharsis Managed IT Ltd blog

All business’ technology is important to its operations, but based on its industry, certain priorities are bound to arise. A recent survey cast a light on some of these priorities, giving us a view of what small to medium-sized businesses are concerning themselves with. Let’s review some of the trends this survey revealed to see how well your priorities match up.

A business’ computing network is one of their most important tools. Therefore, it’s extremely important that it is managed and maintained properly. Today, we’ll go over a few tips you should keep in mind to ensure that your IT network is managed and secure. 

With the development of business technology, tools have been introduced that provide greater and greater benefits to organizations that use them. Perhaps the most useful that we have today, the cloud, has enabled businesses of all sizes to take advantage of far better tools than were available to them before. Let’s take a closer look at some of them.

Today’s businesses are more dependent on collaboration than ever before, and that’s without even taking the current social climate into consideration. However, accounting for these considerations, it seemed appropriate that we shared a few tips to help increase your collaborative capabilities while your team is working remotely.

The COVID-19 pandemic has put a lot of stress on people.  Nowhere is this more true than in the small business arena. Small businesses, many of which were forced to suspend or severely alter their operations, are also dealing with cyberattacks. Let’s take a look at the effects COVID-19 has on small businesses regarding cybersecurity. 

With all the threats that stand to create problems for your business, it can be surprising to hear that some of your biggest security risks actually derive from your staff, and their exposure to your technology. Less surprising to hear: security issues interfere with the successful operation of your business. Here, we’ve shared a few tips to help your staff better adhere to security practices.

When reading through Microsoft’s latest Security Intelligence Report you will quickly get the notion that phishing attacks are some of the most prevalent cyberattacks. With businesses forced to use technology to support a remote workforce, this is definitely still relevant information. It, then, becomes extremely important that your business does a quality job of training your employees to spot phishing attempts before they become a problem. Let’s take you through some of the telltale signs that you have received a phishing message.

As stay-at-home orders lapse, more and more businesses aim to reopen. For a fair share of these businesses, remote technology has been a godsend. For the businesses that cannot reopen yet, being able to monitor your IT infrastructure while you are out of the office is extremely important to the sustainability of your remote access solutions. Today, we’ll discuss monitoring your infrastructure.

With COVID-19 still in play, working remotely has become how many employees have continued to fulfill their work responsibilities. Now, as we settle into this new way of doing things, the question has arisen: after all this is over, will business operations return to the way they once were? Let’s discuss.

In normal circumstances, the virtual private network (VPN) is a great tool for people who work out of the office. With the COVID-19 outbreak pushing a lot of workers out of the office, the VPN has now become an essential part of a business’ day-to-day operations. Today, we’ll define the VPN and tell you why you’ll probably need a VPN designed for business use.

Collaboration has always played a critical role in a business’ success, which is one of the biggest benefits that the cloud offers. Since cloud technology has suddenly become even more important for a business--especially in terms of business connectivity as more people are displaced from the office by the COVID-19 pandemic--we felt that it was an appropriate time to address just how many different kinds of communication tools are available through the cloud.

Productivity is a significant challenge for businesses in the best of times, which means that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has only complicated things. Now, many businesses are attempting to preserve their productivity by transferring to remote operations. This strategy, if acted upon appropriately, can prove to be effective if the right approach is taken.

At this point, it’s hard to believe that anyone needs to be told that cybersecurity is important, but some organizations are still doing the bare minimum to protect their network and data. That can’t go on forever. Today, we thought we would discuss how to put together a cybersecurity policy that covers all the bases, and will give you the peace of mind that you are actively combating today’s most present threats to your network, infrastructure, and data. 

It’s not uncommon where a situation arises and you will find yourself working from home. To make this work, it is important that you keep a few additional issues in mind so that you can make the most of it. We have put together a few simple best practices that you should keep in mind as you operate remotely.

There are a lot of security threats directed toward businesses today, with plenty of immoral opportunists seeking to profit at your expense. This makes it critical to secure your network and its data, which sounds like an expensive and time-consuming process. However, it doesn’t have to be, as we’ll show you by highlighting a few ways to protect your business and its assets.

World Backup Day is a time when every business should contemplate whether or not they have proper data backup strategies in place. Granted, there isn’t a single day in the year that could explain what your data means to your business, the importance of data backup, and that your businesses should always do what it can to avoid data loss.

While Windows 10 is inarguably the better choice of OS over Windows 7 (especially now that the latter has officially gone the way of the dodo), the experience is made even better with the right customizations made to the settings. Let’s go through some changes you might want to make as you’re starting off (or even later on).

The agility of a business to adjust to ebbs and flows in the market is extremely important. One way businesses are making this happen is by integrating their operational software with their management software. This tactic allows data to move faster, providing businesses with some very specific benefits. Let’s take a look at how integration works.

While we don’t mean to gross you out, your computer can be a pretty dirty place - and considering that we have our hands all over it (and who knows what else) all day, it seems a little obvious. What is also obvious is the idea that perhaps it should be cleaned once in a while. Here, we’re giving you a few tips to help you to do so safely.

A few years ago, there was a decision made to make a concerted effort by manufacturers to create their products, but to also create those same products with “smart” technology inside. Basically, because of the rampant innovation of Internet-connected systems, devices, appliances, and knick-knacks of all types we have to ask the question: Are we being dumb for using all these smart devices?