Gareth has worked in the IT and Telecoms industry in a variety of guises since 1993. Initially in the UK military Gareth had to master a variety of technologies from Morse Code to Computer and Network Security. Gareth has spoken at national level at IT conferences and is well known in the industry throughout North America and the UK. He has a passion for customer service and IT security and compliance. 

#1 Microsoft Office 365/MS Teams

Microsoft Office 365 allows you to download apps like Excel, Outlook, Word, and PowerPoint to your computer or mobile device. You can also use this suite of tools completely online where you can manage, share, store, and edit documents in folders, giving access to all of your team.

Aside from the more specific apps, Microsoft Teams also allows you to communicate with your teammates via video calls, email, and through an internal discussion platform where your colleagues can create posts or ask questions.

 #2 Managed IT Security

Now, thanks to the Covid 19 Pandemic of 2020, most of us are all working from home, the need for a thorough look at your IT security is a must. The best way for any business to secure their computers, and more importantly their valuable business data, is to hand this job task over to a professional IT security firm.

The specially trained and tooled security firms use state of the art hard and software to ensure the client’s company is as safe as can be, this is whether the data is all in an office and being accessed from other offices, homes, or even Mars. This is not as expensive as it sounds and should be number 1 on any business owners list of things to do.

#3 Access To Business Data

There are many ways in which your staff can access your business data, keeping your business running, from home safely.

1. Virtual Private Network (VPN) – A VPN allows you to logically lay a network cable from your computer at home directly into the network at the office. The VPN traffic should be encrypted to ensure it is transmitted from your office to home securely.
2. File Sharing Software – DropBox or OneDrive can be used to easily share your data around your staff. Two thoughts on these solutions: 1. Do not use these as a backup, they are not a backup solution; 2. Your staff will now have your business data at home on their PCs, how do you plan to remove this once you are back in the office or a staff member leaves the business?
3. Remote Data Access – This style of access data at the office is newer than the 2 options above and is set to be a disrupter in this area. Using zero trust as a starting point of access to your data from any device, never actually moving the data offsite and yet still providing access to all your data. It is difficult to describe how this works in a short article, so I found this video from FileFlex which explains beautifully. 

#4 Backup For Everyone

With more staff now working from home, whether they are on a work laptop or their home computer, the need for a managed backup is paramount. As data gets slowly moved away from your central office server it would be beneficial if all your home computers backed up to a central point where it can be easily recovered.

And, while I am talking backup, a backup that is not tested is not a backup. You should test recover some of your data at least once per month, nothing sets of a panic like a backup which is thought to have worked, but in fact fails when the day comes that you need to recover. – Thanks Gareth

Burnt Orange IT Solutions Services: