The Thurston, Pierce, Lewis, and Mason Counties IT Experts

Google often targets businesses like this with specialized devices designed to make onboarding easier. Examples of these attempts include specialized versions of the Google Play store, additional security features, and even management dashboards to add a high level of customization for their clients. Due to this high level of customization, though, many businesses are finding that it takes quite a lot of time to configure each and every device that they are going to use for their organization. Thus, the need for zero-touch devices becomes quite apparent.

When we talk about zero-touch, we mean devices that are already pre-configured so that your organization doesn’t necessarily have to do as much work to get them ready for action. However, while this might sound like the best way to approach devices, you might find yourself held back at first. For one, zero-touch is a concept that’s only available through certain carrier opt-ins (like Verizon). Another restriction is that it’s only available on Google Pixel devices in the United States. However, other providers like AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile plan on implementing these services soon.

Additionally, third-party Android device manufacturers are willing to go the distance for these solutions. Samsung, HTC, Huawei, Sony, LG, Blackberry, and Motorola all want to bring zero-touch to devices in the coming months.

Despite all of its restrictions, zero-touch solves one of the most difficult parts of managing mobile devices for your organization: multiple devices with different operating systems. You can be confident that there is a uniform OS being used on all of your devices, mainly because there is only one available at this moment. If nothing else, this is something that you can look forward to, along with the time saved by eliminating the time needed to set up each device.

If your business needs mobile devices or mobile device management, reach out to PC Technologies at 360-491-2227.

With so much that can go wrong on the best of days, can you really afford to go without a little insurance?

After all, the majority of businesses that are unable to recover their lost data are out of business within a year--a statistic only made more alarming when one considers how many small and medium-sized businesses don’t bother backing up their data. These businesses are like the character in every horror movie that says that there’s “nothing to worry about,”

Remember, these characters are usually the next to fall into the monster’s clutches.

However, instead of being dragged to their fate off-camera, unprepared businesses can do something about their prospects of survival. A Backup and Disaster Recovery solution (or BDR) can be a big help where your business’ safety and security is concerned. Your BDR should be cloud-based and needs to be ready to help your business bounce back from whatever threatens it. Here are three different methods that a BDR uses to make that happen.

Cloud Storage
Using the cloud to store a data backup is firmly a best practice in today’s business computing needs. First of all, the cloud allows your BDR device to keep your backups away from your physical location. This keeps your backups safe from being destroyed by the same disaster that eliminated the original copy of your critical data.

Take a Backup Multiple Times a Day
In the past, tape backups were the method of choice for most backup needs. However, these systems had a few drawbacks that have rendered them obsolete. For example, taking a backup used so many resources, they could only be performed after-hours. This meant that you could potentially lose a full day of progress, especially if the backup was never activated at the end of the day. On the other hand, a BDR that utilizes the cloud to take backups can take multiple backups each day, reducing the amount of potential data loss.

Reduced Downtime
Downtime is never a good thing to experience, so minimizing it as much as possible is ideal for any business. A BDR can help to do just that, either by acting as a temporary server while needed, and restore your data instantaneously to a network-attached device, allowing your operations to resume with minimal time wasted.

Whether you break a mirror at the start of your day, or you step on a crack in the walkway, we can help protect your business against data threats of all kinds. Reach out to us at 360-491-2227 for help with your data practices--before it's too late!

Restrict User Permissions
You may notice that every time you try to download an application to your computer, it requests specific permissions from the user. If it were your personal computer, you could just click OK without thinking twice. However, this isn’t your personal computer--it’s your office workstation. If you let your employees download whatever apps they want to their devices, who knows what kind of nonsense you’ll find on them? They could accidentally download malware or install something to give hackers remote access.

This is why you limit what your users can do on their workstations. The only users who should have administrative access to your company’s devices are your network administrator and any IT technicians you employ, as they will be the ones primarily installing new software on your devices.

Minimize Data Access
If you give your entire staff access to every little part of your data infrastructure, they are bound to run into data that’s not meant for their eyes. For example, an employee might gain access to your business’ payroll, which could cause unnecessary friction. They also might find other sensitive information that they aren’t supposed to see, like personal information or financial details.

The best way to keep this from happening is to partition off your infrastructure so that employees can only access information that they need to do their jobs. Just ask your IT provider about your access control options.

Remove Employee Credentials
What happens when an employee leaves your organization, but is still able to access their email, your network, and their workstation? You could run into an employee sabotaging your organization. This isn’t something that you want to deal with, and the easiest way to make sure it doesn’t happen is to begin the process of removing this employee from their accounts before they leave.

Passwords need to be changed so that the employee cannot access your infrastructure any longer. You don’t want to delete the accounts entirely, though. You might want to check through the accounts, particularly because you might find reasons why they have chosen to leave your organization.

Can your business keep itself safe from user error and other threats? PC Technologies can help you keep the negative results of user error to minimum. To learn more, reach out to us at 360-491-2227.