Technology Insights

Work Smarter. Not Harder.

Boosting Office Productivity: It’s Not Your Team, It’s Your Tools
Boosting Office Productivity: It’s Not Your Team, It’s Your Tools 1536 804 Vyve Business

Have you worked on a project for so long that you can’t remember when you last hit the save button?  Suddenly, your computer freezes and crashes. If only you had hit the save button just a few moments earlier!  At some point, it is likely that employees have had to redo work that was lost at some point. Computer crashes, filing systems where documents seem to disappear into the ether, not saving work frequently enough – when you think about it, there are many reasons why daily productivity might not be as strong as it could be.

Fortunately, there is a better way: cloud-based productivity tools like Office 365. Here’s how a tool like this can boost your business and take your productivity to the next level.

  1. Upgraded Collaboration

Here are a couple sobering statistics – over 50% of American office workers waste time searching for files in disorganized filing systems. Even when everyone can find the right file, many businesses still waste time sending around documents with updated version numbers every time someone on the team makes a change. With so many remote workers, in addition to the office, it’s not always possible to get everyone in a room to work on the same project together. Bringing people together across distance, time zones, devices and even operating systems is a key element in enhancing productivity and growth. A cloud-based productivity tool like Microsoft’s Office 365 can help.  Cloud-based productivity and collaboration solutions bring employees together wherever they are, whenever, and across multiple devices. It’s an end to sending emails around with updated document attachments. It’s an end to team members complaining they can’t open certain types of files on Windows or Mac devices, or Androids and iPhones. It’s also an end to lost work – thanks to the autosave capabilities of Office 365, for instance, your employees can avoid the frustration of having to redo work they already did.

  1. Improved Data Safety and Security

Cyberattacks also provide an excellent reason to turn to the cloud. If there’s one thing that can stop your team’s productivity in its tracks, it’s a DDoS, ransomware, or any other kind of successful attack.  Between 2020 and 2021, 42% of small businesses experienced a cyberattack. More startling, 60% of small businesses close within half a year of being preyed upon successfully.  By migrating your workload to a cloud platform, you’re immediately putting your business in a better situation by working with a company that has the resources to place extra layers of security around your data. Office 365 protects your data by helping you stay more secure from ransomware attacks, phishing, and other malicious activities.

  1. Seamless Communications

If bringing team members together to collaborate on projects is a priority, ensuring they can also communicate faster and more seamlessly should also go hand-in-glove.  An Office 365 Business subscription not only gets you the workflow and collaboration apps you need like SharePoint and Planner, but also the vital text, audio, and video communication features within Microsoft Teams. Pairing communication with improved collaboration drives overall efficiency, which in turn enables greater productivity and better growth.

In Conclusion:  We believe in giving you game-changing technological solutions that can open new doors for opportunity and growth. Office 365 is a solution that businesses of all sizes are increasingly adopting. Leveraging Office 365 does not require an IT person to install and update software versions on your employees’ devices and all the tools (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, Teams, OneNote, OneDrive, etc.) work together as you need them to.
Contact us today to schedule a free technology consultation – finding out what your business needs is a short step away.

Protect More Than Just Your Files

Why Your Business Needs A Data Protection Solution
Why Your Business Needs A Data Protection Solution 1536 804 Vyve Business

Why is a Data Protection Solution Important for your business? As your business grows, your data becomes more valuable. Businesses are seeing solutions to ensure their teams can store and retrieve all information regarding work activities. You can think of Data Protection as an insurance policy for your organization.  Just as you protect your physical assets with insurance, data protection provides a safety net for your critical data. Hopefully, you will never have to cope with a natural disaster, fire, service outage, or cyberattack, but you need to be prepared. Your business data protection will backup and restore quickly in the event of a failure, and replicate backups remotely.  This blog will discuss Backup, Disaster Recovery, and Business Continuity which is crucial to your business.

 

What is DATA BACKUP? Data Backup involves making copies of your data from primary sources and adding them to a secondary location to protect against data loss. A data backup plan is essential for any business, as data is one of the most vital resources and assets for any organization. Data loss can lead to severe disruption of your daily operations and irreparable damage to your  reputation. There are several ways your business could potentially lose company data including:  Ransomware attackers demanding money to get your data back, a disgruntled employee who erases data, a computer hard drive crash, or a natural disaster.

 

Data Backup STRATEGY: There are numerous elements to consider when deciding on the type of strategy you should use including:  Cloud Services that keep your storage in a separate location, Offsite Backups where they can be accessed manually or through the cloud (The IT industry’s baseline is the 3-2-1 Backup Strategy). Optimize a Backup Schedule, and Backup Testing to restore data quickly.

 

What is DATA RECOVERY? Every business needs to be able to recover quickly from any event that stops day-to-day operations. Disaster recovery relies on having a solid plan to get critical applications and infrastructure up and running after an outage. An effective DR plan addresses different elements for recovery including:

  • Preventative by ensuring your systems are as secure and dependable as possible,
  • Detective measures that focus on detecting or discovering unwanted events as they happen in real time.
  • Corrective measures that ensure backup operations to reduce impact.

 

Data Recovery STRATEGY: The types of disaster recovery will depend on your IT infrastructure, type of backup and recovery you use, and the assets you need to protect. There are 4 Different Types of Data Recovery Services including:  Logical data recovery, Physical data recovery, Instant data recovery, and continuous protection of data.

 

What is DATA CONTINUITY? A continuity plan is in place to respond to threats to data security, including significant data breaches or near misses, and it is evaluated frequently. A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) involves defining any and all risks that can affect the company’s operations. The plan should determine how those risks will affect operations and implement procedures to mitigate the risks.

 

Business Continuity PLAN: There are several steps many companies must follow to develop a solid BCP. There should be testing procedures to ensure standards and procedures work with a review process to make sure that the plan is up to date. There are 5 Phases of a Business Continuity Plan to help maintain the business.

 

In Conclusion:  Data Protection Solutions are crucial for any business when implementing a protection strategy. Vyve Business Services Data Protection Solution is powered by industry leading technology, includes our team-based approach in monitoring and managing, and offers reporting and statistics to provide the peace of mind that all system backups are complete. Contact us today to schedule a free technology consultation – finding out what your business needs is a short step away. Just call 1.844.VYVE.COM.

5 Reasons to Secure Your Business

The Top 5 Reasons Why Cybersecurity is Critical for Your Business
The Top 5 Reasons Why Cybersecurity is Critical for Your Business 1536 804 Vyve Business

When it comes to Cybersecurity, is your business secure against cyber threats? Cybersecurity is an essential aspect of running a business in today’s digital age. As technology advances, cyber threats continue to become more sophisticated and widespread.  Here we will discuss the top 5 reasons why cyber security is critical for your business.

1 – Increased exposure to attacks on organizations

More companies are increasing their usage of IoT devices and internet services which engages more exposure to cyberattacks.  Cybercriminals have more ways to find vulnerabilities within an organization and have the expertise to gain access to more information than ever.  Companies need to take extra measures to ensure the safety of information being shared on multiple systems and mobile devices.  Increased exposure to attacks such as fraudulent emails, financial theft, viruses, and hacking need to be looked after by cybersecurity professionals in the organization that utilize cybersecurity solutions.  There are more than 4,000 ransomware attacks everyday in the United States.  Unfortunately, for many companies, it’s a matter of when, not if, they will be targeted.

2 – Cybercrime can be costly to a business

Cyber-attacks can lead to significant financial loss for a company. Ransomware attacks, for example, can lock down a company’s critical data, making it inaccessible until a ransom is paid. These attacks can also result in the loss of sensitive information, which can negatively impact a company’s financial stability and reputation. Implementing strong cybersecurity measures can prevent financial loss from cyber-attacks and provide peace of mind for the company.  According to recent reports from Forbes, the cost of breaches has been consistently rising each year.  IBM’s most recent report on cyber-attacks found that data breaches in the US cost businesses on average $9.44 million – twice the global average.  It also highlighted that phishing attacks, business e0mail compromise and vulnerability in third party software are the biggest cyber threats.

3 – Consumer perception of a company breach

Would you trust a company after yours or others personal information was exposed?  When a company undergoes a breach, it can be very hard for that company to regain consumer trust.  Customers may lose trust in a company’s ability to protect their sensitive information.  Consumers are on edge with all the news of business after business getting hacked and has them wary about handing over their information to just anyone, even if it is just an email address.  Insider Intelligence shows 21% of consumers stopped using companies that suffered a data breach, and 42% of those requested providers delete their information. By taking responsibility and steps to better protect their systems in the future, companies can save reputational damage and put themselves in a better position if another attach occurs.

4 – Cybersecurity improves operational efficiency for businesses

When a company’s network is breached, it can take days or even weeks to restore normal operations.  The result can be a significant loss of productivity and revenue.  Companies that invest in cybersecurity measures can prevent downtime and keep operations moving smoothly.  Security needs to be constantly enhanced; consistent performance must be ensured so that operational efficiency can be achieved.  Successful readiness and response to a cybersecurity breach requires the right mix of people, processes, and technology. Yet challenges with staffing, technical issues, and budget hamper threat detection and response for too many organizations, creating gaps that threat actors are eager to exploit.  Maximizing operational efficiency in security is easier than you think!  It requires internal resources and a partner with solutions available to defend against the most advanced cyber threats.

5 – The number of computer hackers is increasing

In this day and age, the number of people who know how to breach into databases, social media profiles, and emails is increasing daily.  Their clever tactics and detailed technical knowledge help them access the information you really don’t want them to have.  Hackers are now taking advantage of everything they can based on vulnerabilities.  More than 33 billion records will be stolen by cybercriminals by 2023, an increase of 175% from 2018.  The more hackers grow, the more cybersecurity needs are growing the same time.

Conclusion

Cybersecurity is critical for protecting sensitive information, preventing financial loss, maintaining customer trust, improving operational efficiency, and protecting brand reputation. Vyve Business Services can help you invest in cybersecurity measures and not only protect your business, but also ensure long-term success.  Contact us today to schedule a free technology consultation – finding out what your business needs is a short step away.

Smart Planning Beats Expensive Downtime

Recovery Time and Downtime Cost Calculator
Recovery Time and Downtime Cost Calculator 1536 804 Vyve Business

The cost of a technology outage can cripple a business. Use the Recovery Time & Downtime Cost Calculator to focus on a handful of simple metrics that might come into play during a downtime event, and start a general analysis of what an outage could mean to your business. The results of this calculator are meant to help estimate loss, and does not calculate actual loss.

INPUT YOUR SPECIFIC NEEDS IN THE FIELDS BELOW FOR THE MOST ACCURATE INFORMATION. HOVER OVER THE QUESTION MARKS FOR MORE INFORMATION.

Recovery & Data Storage

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In order to give your clients you a correct calculation we need to get an idea of how much data you have in your clients'your systems across theiryour organization.
How much data do your clientsyou have on critical business systems?

GB

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What is the timeframe between each of your clients' your backups? E.g. every hour, once a day, once a week.
How often do you back up this data?

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From when disaster strikes, how long does it for your end user to notify you, for you to assess the situation, access your backups, and start the recovery process? Think of this a your reponse time.
On average how long does it take your client to notify you of an issue and for you to start trouble shooting the downtime incident? On average how long does it take you to notify your IT Service Provider that there is an issue and for them to start trouble shooting the downtime incident?

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Storing your data locally is designed for fast data transfers, however you are at risk if there is a disaster in the office such as fire, floods or theft. Cloud data is stored off-site, such as in a Datto data center, which brings an extra level of availability albeit at a slower speed for full bare metal restores.
Where is your clients backups currently stored?Where do you currently store your backups?

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Speed of cloud recovery comes down to the amount of data you are trying to recover and your download speed. Devices with slower connections will take longer to recover.
What is the download speed from theiryour cloud backup location?
Unsure? Run a test here

Mbps

Downtime & Recovery Costs

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Nearly every employee will be impacted by an IT outage and will not be able to perform their job obligations to a certain degree. We recommend including the entire staff in this field.
How many employees do theyyou have?

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Even if the business stops due to an outage and employees are not able to perform some, or all, of their duties, employee wages typically are still paid. We are assuming yours will need to be paid, and this must be included in your cost of downtime calculations.
What is their average annual salary per employee?

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All staff come with overhead costs like, gas, electric, rent, etc. Normally, this is about 50% of the average salary.
What is their average annual overhead cost of an employee?

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For most businesses, an outage will halt the ability to product and accrue revenue. We are assuming that your revenue will case during an outage, and so annual revenue helps to calculate the average cost of lost revenue during downtime.
What is your clients' businesses annual revenue?

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Results

Current Solution

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It's critical to regularly test your backups. In the case that a backup isn't working, you could be looking at additional losses of {{perbackupdowntime}} per failed backup.

Time between backups

{{backuphrs}}hrs {{backupmins}}mins
{{backuphrs}}hrs {{backupmins}}mins
No Backup Taken

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This is the time it takes for your data to actually be downloaded back to your original device based on your backup location. Local backups will be quicker, but because a local disaster could take out local backups, but it’s always vital to ensure that you have a cloud backup as well.

Recovery Processing Time

{{localrecoveryDowntime}}
{{cloudrecoveryDowntime}}
{{localrecoveryDowntime}}
{{cloudrecoveryDowntime}}
No Backup Taken

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If you experience a ransomware attack, you may be able to recover quickly. If you're faced with a fire or flood, you could be offsite for days and face higher costs than what you see here. The results below are estimates for a local backup with a data transfer speed of around 500MB/s

Summary

Estimated Recovery Time & Loss:
{{localrecoveryDowntime}} {{cloudrecoveryDowntime}} Local: {{localrecoveryDowntime}} ({{localrecoverycost}})
Cloud: {{cloudrecoveryDowntime}} ({{cloudrecoverycost}}) ({{localrecoverycost}}) ({{cloudrecoverycost}})
Estimated Recovery Time & Loss:
No Backup Taken
Response Time you provided:
{{recoveryhrs}} hrs {{recoverymins}} mins ({{respondscost}})
Estimated Downtime & Loss:
{{displaylocalDowntime }} {{displaycloudDowntime }} Local: {{displaylocalDowntime }} ({{ localdowntimecost}})
Cloud: {{ displaycloudDowntime }} ({{clouddowntimecost}}) ({{localdowntimecost}}) ({{clouddowntimecost }})
Estimated Downtime & Loss:
Possible Business Closure
Warning: Having local only backups could leave you vulnerable to hardware failures, office fires, floods or even theft. It's vital to have an offsite backup to really protect your clients'your business.
Possible Business Closure

SIRIS Solution

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The SIRIS BCDR solutions allow you to backup as frequently as every 5 minutes. They also allow for regular testing and validation of your backups, reducing your risk even further.

Time between backups

{{bcdrbackup}} mins

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In case of a disaster, our solution can enable you to virtualize your backups, hosted in our cloud. On average, it only takes about {{bcdrrecovery}} minutes to access the client portal, find your backup copy, and to virtualize it.

Average Recovery Processing Time

{{bcdrrecovery}} mins* *Time to virtualization will vary depending on numerous factors including, but not limited to, the size of the SIRIS device, the availability and speeds of other local resources, the number of applications you are running, and server load.

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Downtime will always cost your business money. However, you can reduce it with a business continuity/disaster recovery solution. Compared to your current solution, you could reduce your possible downtime losses by around {{ localcostsaving }} {{ cloudcostsaving }}

Summary

Estimated Recovery Time & Loss:
{{bcdrrecovery}} minutes ({{dattorecoverycost}})
Response Time you provided:
{{recoveryhrs}} hrs {{recoverymins}} mins ({{respondscost}})
Estimated Downtime & Loss:
{{displayBCDRDowntime}} ({{ bcdrdowntimecost }})
(-{{ localcostsaving }}) (-{{ cloudcostsaving }})

*all losses are merely an estimation of losses associated with technology, and does not reflect a calculation of actual losses to your business.

How long can your clients'your business survive?

With the information that you've provided, and using certain assumptions made based on how businesses today typically function, we have estimated your clients'your downtime losses to be {{displayhourlyRevenueCost}} per hour Calculation is made by taking Staff Salary, Overheads & Revenue and breaking that down to an hourly cost for a 40 week & 52 weeks of the year business, then multiplied by the number of staff..

With your clients'your current backup & recovery solution you could be looking at a estimated potential loss of around {{ localdowntimecost }}{{ clouddowntimecost }}Hourly Cost ({{displayhourlyRevenueCost}}) * Estimated Downtime ({{ displaylocalDowntime }}{{ displaycloudDowntime }}) due to {{ displaylocalDowntime }}{{ displaycloudDowntime }} of downtime. This is assuming that your clients'your recovery process works exactly as planned, and could be worse if you experience any further glitches. For this reason, it's critical to regularly test your clients'your recovery capabilities. If the recovery process fails, your clientsyou could be looking at additional losses of {{perbackupdowntime}} Estimated Downtime Cost per hour ({{displayhourlyRevenueCost}}) * Time between Backups ({{backuphrs}}hrs {{backupmins}}mins) per recovery attempt.

With the information that you've provided, and using certain assumptions made based on how businesses today typically function, we have estimated your clients'your downtime losses to be {{displayhourlyRevenueCost}} per hour.

With your clients'your current backup & recovery solution you could be looking at a estimated potential loss of around {{ localdowntimecost }}{{ clouddowntimecost }} due to {{ displaylocalDowntime }}{{ displaycloudDowntime }} of downtime. This is assuming that your clients'your recovery process works exactly as planned, and could be worse if you experience any further glitches. For this reason, it's critical to regularly test your clients'your recovery capabilities. If the recovery process fails, your clientsyou could be looking at additional losses of {{perbackupdowntime}} per recovery attempt.

With the information that you've provided, we have identified that your clients'your estimated downtime losses per hour would be {{displayhourlyRevenueCost}}. However, as a result of not taking data backups the impact could be much worse!

Are your backups at risk?

Local backups should be a key part of your data protection strategy for your clients. They allow you to recover data and restore operations quickly in the event of a primary server outage, data deletion, or a ransomware attack. However, local backup alone isn't enough. What happens if the local backup device is destroyed or inaccessible due to a fire, flood, or other disaster? That's why you need a secondary, offsite copy of backups.

Are your backups at risk?

Cloud backup delivers that secondary, geographically isolated copy. You might ask? Why do I need local backups at all? Well, restores from the cloud are slow. That’s why the combination of onsite backups with cloud replication has become so popular among SMBs and MSPs alike. You really need both—local for fast restores and cloud for disaster recovery.

How can you reduce the risk?

In contrast,The first step is to talk to your IT service provider about a back up solution. The SIRIS business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) solutions could reduce your clientsyour downtime to {{displayBCDRDowntime}} and thieryour overall downtime cost would fall to {{ bcdrdowntimecost }}. In the rare case that the first recovery attempt doesn't work, your costs would only increase by {{perdattobackupdowntime}}, as opposed to {{perbackupdowntime}}{{perbackupdowntime}}your businesses closing all together.

Even if you are experiencing an outage at your workplace, work doesn't have to stop. Our Business Continuity solutions can get you back to business in a little as {{bcdrrecovery}} minutes on virtual servers, which can be accessed anywhere you have working internet. Features like Ransomware Detection and Advanced Backup Verification let you rest easy knowing your backups will work in your time of need.

Don't Hand Hackers the Keys

Is Your Company Giving Scammers Just What They Need?
Is Your Company Giving Scammers Just What They Need? 1536 804 Vyve Business

“Social engineering” describes the techniques used by criminals to manipulate people into doing what they want or providing information they shouldn’t. Social engineers look for information they can use to persuade their targets to cooperate, perhaps by gaining their trust or through the use of intimidation. These scammers can often find everything they need to succeed in a company’s website, in its employees’ social media posts, and auto-reply out-of-office voice and email messages.

Is your organization sharing too much?

About your website

Including on your public website the names, job titles, email addresses, and direct phone numbers of your key employees and supervisors is a bad idea. Scammers thrive on this kind of data. This is especially true if your site also includes things like information about other companies you do business with. Scammers will use the names, job titles, and email addresses of your employees to run scams that often victimize your organization and its customers.

The victims’ losses can be significant, as was the case in 2018 when a Texas county government ended up paying $525,000 to a scammer impersonating a representative of a road construction contractor. In that case, the scammer spent a great deal of time building a trust relationship via email with a member of the office of County Treasurer whose name, title, and complete direct contact data were on the department’s public website. Per the perpetrator’s instructions, the treasurer’s office eventually redirected payments meant for the road contractor to a new account that belonged to the scammer. During this process, the scammer also impersonated a county employee, assuring the contractor, via a fake county email account, that the payments were being made, but they just hadn’t hit their bank account yet. By the time the scam was discovered, over a half-million dollars had been lost for good.

Out of office messages

Whether they are auto-reply emails or voicemail messages, your employees should be careful about what they share in their out-of-office messages. In some instances, what is good practice for your company is also good practice for your employees. They should avoid providing information like details about their vacation plans or stating that they will be out of town for a specific period of time. Not only will this tell a scammer how long the window of impersonation opportunity will be open, but it also lets criminals know when the best time frames are for burglarizing your employees’ homes.

There are some good rules to follow when setting up out-of-office messages. Email applications like Outlook offer the capability to send a separate message to those within your organization and send a less-detailed version to anyone outside the organization. Messages to outsiders should include only necessary details. They should indicate that the person is unavailable and will get back to the caller or email sender as soon as possible. In email out-of-office messages, it is a good idea to omit the employee’s work phone number. Omitting the number could prevent scammers from repeatedly calling to determine whether the person has returned. You may wish to create policies that address what is permissible to be shared in an out-of-office message and what is not.

Social media posts

Whether these are social media posts created by the company or those created by individual employees using their personal accounts, it is recommended that you establish policies regarding what is acceptable to post about the organization and what is not. Policy recommendations for social media usage include prohibiting the posting of company passwords, proprietary information, company account numbers, and any information to identify vulnerabilities. Examples could be including information about broken windows or unsecured entry points, details regarding technical security issues, information about employees having personal problems that may indicate they are vulnerable to being targeted, or derogatory comments about the organization.

Without a second thought, people routinely overshare on social media, providing information that can be used against them and others. Finding names, contact numbers, email addresses, and job titles of key organizational employees on companies’ public websites is not unusual. And, without having any way of knowing who will call or email, employees will proudly announce in their out-of-office messages that they are going to the Bahamas for two weeks. Unfortunately, all of these common behaviors and practices create vulnerabilities that are successfully exploited by social engineers. The best defense against these scammers is an educated workforce. This, along with a set of policies that employees are required to follow, can help prevent scams like the one in Texas from being successful.

For more security tips, see our post on Cybersecurity or request a call from one of our Business Solutions Experts.

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