Ugh! 2021 Just Won't End

It’s hard to believe it’s still 2021. It’s been a trying year for many small to medium-sized businesses and it’s not even over yet. We need no reminding of what happened last year with COVID-19 shutdowns and this year with the semiconductor shortages and the implications that have followed. How’s your business been?

We’ve been seeing our IT partnerships strengthened working together with our clients. How has your IT support company or IT department performed over the last year or so? How did they support your shift to remote working? Have they been proactive throughout the year or just sitting around; waiting around for you to call them when something’s broken?

If you want to upgrade your IT support and form a proper partnership where both parties work to help each other grow, now is the time to make the switch.

Click to Call or Email us today to schedule a meeting to discuss your company’s IT needs.

Microsoft Office 365... Wait, what?

Did you realize that earlier last year, Office 365 was rebranded as Microsoft 365? Yeah, they were hard at work in the Microsoft marketing department again, much to everyone’s dismay. Most business owners don’t have time to keep up with their continual product changes. However, you’ll see that it’s not just Microsoft’s marketing team that’s been busy. Here’s a few interesting features that are part of Microsoft 365:

Money in Excel

Do you use spreadsheets to keep track of your finances? Money in Excel offers a convenient way to manage your money without needing to manually input your data. It offers a secure way to connect your bank accounts and credit cards to automatically import your transactions. No more copying and pasting or flicking between apps. Money in Excel is comes bundled with a range of other tools to help you track your spending habits, and work towards your financial goals.

Application guard

If you’ve got a decent IT partner, they’ll have told you about the risks of opening emailed files that can expose your network to malware attacks. With Application Guard for Office, any risky files will automatically open in a secure container that’s completely isolated from the rest of your data. A key difference in this new update is that you’re free to edit, print, and save the files without ever needing to take them out of the secure container. It’s a great first line of defense when dealing with documents sent over from other companies or vendors. One of the best features of working with Cyclone 365 is access to custom-designed, multi-layered security technologies.

Ideas in Excel

Ideas in Excel makes it easy to get insights about your data. You just need to highlight a selection and Excel will get back to you with interesting things it notices. It’ll even come back with pre-built tables, charts, or PivotTables that can easily be added to your document.

You can also go one step further and type a question for Excel about your data.

When you partner with Cyclone 365, you are instantly provided access to your very own Microsoft 365 suite as part of your annual Security or Service contract. We work hard to make sure our clients stay updated about new ways they can get more out of their software.

Click to Call or Email us today to schedule a meeting to discuss your office productivity needs.

Encryption is Your Friend

I’m sure you’ve heard of encryption. You may not know exactly what it’s used for when it comes to security.

Encrypting the hard drive on your company laptops is an extremely important way to protect your data from physical theft. Using full-disk encryption means everything that goes on the hard drive is encrypted automatically. This can be a literal lifesaver if somebody ever gets hold of your laptop and tries to access your email, documents, pictures, and cloud apps.

Encryption is like a deadbolt on a door.

To get access to a fully encrypted hard drive, criminals need to have physical access to the device, and your password. If they don’t have both… your data is safe.

One of the foundational goals of Cyclone 365 is to enhance the physical security of your company devices. This prevents total compromise of your sensitive documents and access to cloud services on the off, but very real, chance that your laptops or tablets are lost or stolen by an opportunist or competitor.

Click to Call or Email us today to schedule a meeting to discuss your physical security needs.

Don't Learn the Hard Way

There’s a lot of cyber threats out there. Few are as terrifying as ransomware.

If ransomware finds its way into your network, there’s a real risk that it will hijack all your computers and make it impossible for your business to operate.

Ransomware is where all the contents of your computers are encrypted and held to ransom, because you must pay to get it back. And it ain’t cheap!

In recent years there's been a shift as ransomware focuses on the servers, workstations, laptops, backups, and cloud apps that power your business. This can be severely destructive.

Hackers use cryptocurrencies for payments. That makes it very difficult to track the payments, not to mention the learning curve that comes with figuring out how to make cryptocurrency payments in the first place if you’re not privy to how all that stuff works. Not only that, but there’s no guarantee they’ll honor the payment agreement and unlock your network once you part with the money.

Having an IT partner who understands cyber security reduces the risk for you.

If you’re unprotected and unprepared, the risk of a ransomware infection and the utter devastation it can cause is greatly increased.

Cyclone 365 proactively monitors your network to spot vulnerabilities and keep it safe. It’s virtually impossible to protect a business 100% without making everything far too restrictive for your team, so we specialize in designing and maintaining IT security systems that offer the highest levels of protection and limiting the damage ransomware and other types of malware can do without introducing unmanageable levels of inconvenience to your daily operations.

Click to Call or Email us today to schedule a meeting to discuss your cyber security needs.

The Only Thing Consistent is Change

Teleconferencing has enabled millions of people to work from home for most of 2020.

Turn the clock back a few years, and none of this would have been possible because the technology for it just wasn’t good enough. Now that business owners like yourself have seen their teams can still be productive from home, what will this mean for businesses in 2021? Here are a couple things I think may happen:

New players will arrive

Just like that, creating technology for people who work from home has become a huge thing. Look at Zoom, for instance. Their stock has risen by leaps and bounds since everything went to hell. I imagine we’ll see the bigger kids, like Microsoft, try to muscle in and battle to claim this market space. Their version of Zoom, Microsoft Teams, for example, isn’t terribly good, but I have the feeling it will quickly become great over time as they seek to emulate Zoom’s success and rip off all their features like we’ve seen them do to everyone else since the 80’s. We’ll also see a lot of innovation and disruption from start-ups who look at new ways to make our lives easier as everyone continues to work from home.

Your employees will begin to expect flexibility by working remotely

I know learning this stuff can be a pain in the butt. However, it's hard to imagine flipping a switch and seeing everything return to the way it was before the pandemic (and all the politics that accompanied it). Remote work is here to stay, at least, in some fashion. Everyone is having meetings and collaborating using video conferencing software and a lot of workers are starting to enjoy it. A lot of business owners are hearing a bell go ‘ding’ in their heads, realizing their business models don’t REALLY need a traditional brick and mortar office, when you get down to it. And that’s a lot of money saved. You know, the funny thing is, we saw all this sort of tech on shows like Star Trek a few decades ago and it seemed so impossible to implement back them. Funny how quickly things change.

How’s your business handling working remotely?

Cyclone 365 specializes in helping companies like yours make the most of opportunities that working from home provides. If you don’t know how to get all this stuff rocking and rolling, or if the solution you currently have is wonky or insecure, click to Call or Email us today to schedule a meeting and discuss your options for working from home or on the road.