Managed service providers (MSP) have been around for quite awhile now, and, for the past 15 years or so, have had a front row seat for what was perhaps the most massive shift in digital information storage capabilities in human history. If you’re ‘of a certain age,’ you’ll remember the floppy disk. This 3-inch compact storage unit, which gained widespread …
MSPs, IoT, and How Consumers Think About Privacy
The digitization of the physical world around us, dubbed the Internet of Things (IoT), is transforming how we do business, and how we live our day-to-day lives. But when it comes to what consumers think about the IoT, there’s not much more important to them than their privacy, and that’s an important consideration for managed service providers (MSPs) as they …
How to Master HIPAA Compliance and Security in the Cloud
In a world of tight healthcare budgets and increasing pressure to implement new technology, many healthcare CIOs are looking to the cloud for solutions. The flexibility and potential cost savings that cloud services can offer are obvious benefits to healthcare executives facing ever-higher costs to collect, collate, and store vast amounts of digital data. But, we’re talking healthcare here. The …
Enterprise IT Reality: Cyberthreats and Security Fears
Today’s enterprise IT teams are largely kept awake at night focused on cyberthreats and security fears. That’s very different, though, than what tech teams have focused on in the past. Consider this: In November 1988, the world was introduced to the first widespread computer bug. The virus caused thousands of machines to crash and resulted in damage that was well …
Four Steps to Protecting Your Utility Management System from Hackers
Every day it seems as though there’s another hacking story in the news, the most recent of which is yet another hacking by the Chinese of the federal government’s databases, this time gaining access to personal information on some four million current and former federal employees. Troubling, to be sure. More troubling if you happen to be an IT pro …
How to Measure the Fundamentals of Cloud Maturity
Cloud technology is no longer the future for business—it’s the here and now, and, as you no doubt know, it’s already weaving its way deep into business culture, playing a vital role for many organizations, both large and small. Whether by way of vendor managed Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or, as we are increasingly seeing with the addition of hardware, processing, data …
Managing the Data Security Risks of Patient Portals
The rapid advances of technology are affecting all areas of our lives, and in the process is throwing up new, and often unexpected challenges to our privacy, especially the security of our personal information. This is notable in the intimate realm of our health, as well as our relationships with our medical practitioners and providers. As the use of electronic …
Keeping Data Safe in the Cloud is Every IT Team’s Goal
Here’s something that I hear all the time and I’m sure you do as well: “The future of business is cloud technology.” A decade ago, the pundits and prognosticators who uttered these words may have had been considered visionaries, but today, cloud is not only the future, it’s very much the present. As those of us in the tech space …
The Big Risks of Big Data Mining
“Every step you take, I’ll be watching you” – when Sting wrote those lyrics back in the ’80’s he most certainly wasn’t thinking about digital data collection. But whether we realize it or not, every digital step we take is indeed being watched—with the resulting data providing a frightening wealth of information about our lives. Those of us who work …
How to Win at Cross-Channel Marketing [Study]
Never before have marketers had so much data available to them about the habits of consumers. Never before though have they struggled so much to make connected and meaningful sense of this treasure trove of information. That’s the headline from a new report that takes a snapshot of today’s cross-channel, multi-screen marketing landscape. The goal? To provide insight into the …